Usually we host Thanksgiving dinner at our house.  Since we bought this house we have hosted every year with the exception of the year Matthew died.

This year the plan was the same.  We would host as we normally did.  Then things started to get complicated.  We struggled to work out all the details and nothing felt right.

And honestly, I was exhausted.  Mentally exhausted.

As an introvert, there are times when I just feel a strong sense of mental fatigue.  All I want to do is cave myself in a dark hole somewhere and rest.  Burrow into my blankets and snuggle up with my thoughts.  And the calm.

I'll be honest.  I was pretty skeptical.  My husband has been known to come up with some crazy plans.  And I really didn't want to jump on some fad weight loss program that wasn't actually healthy.

Welcome to Day 23 of 31 Days of De-Hoarding!


Confession time.  I totally cheated when I planned for today.

The Peanut and Princess used to share a room and all their toys were in the same room.  Then when the Peanut moved to his own room we moved the toys he actually plays with into his room.

(All on the floor instead of his shelf where they belong but I will leave that for him to rectify.)

And all the toys that need to be de-hoarded are still in the Princess's room.

So, I basically gave myself two days to do one big task.

And you are remembering that big pile I had left to do.  Aren't you?


Told you I would come back to it.

Theme Thursday is back!  And not a moment too soon.

I have to really hand it to myself this year.  I finally have this whole Advent thing down.

Most years I am still trying to clean up the mess after Thanksgiving.  I have all these grand ideas of all the Advent traditions we should take part in.  It just never works out the way it appears in my head.

Last year I finally got somewhat prepared.  I finally printed out all those Jesse tree ornaments and cut them out AND laminated them.

I went out to the bookstores after Christmas and scored a couple of Advent books on clearance.
The Advent Storybook has a story to read each day leading up to Christmas.  Haven't started reading it yet but we will catch up on that.

The Story of Christmas book has little minibook ornaments that tell the Christmas story.

This year.  This is my year.

Check it out.

We have not just one, but TWO Advent wreaths.
An Advent calendar (thank you Target dollar spot.)
The Nativity scene is set up awaiting the arrival of the baby Jesus.  (The Jesus has actually been missing for years but I always put in a little bundle of cloth on Christmas and no one has noticed yet.  I really should get a new Nativity set!)
And in the whole spirit of Advent's theme of waiting.

The Christmas Tree is being slowly set up.
This progress has taken three days already.  We could probably drag it out until Christmas if I try hard enough.  A branch a day or something.

Once we get it up we can start putting the little book ornaments on it each day...
For now we just hang them on the lower branches.

Yup.  As you can see, I have it all together.

Oh, you wanted a picture of the Jesse tree?  Um, well it's still in a closet somewhere.  I'll get to that.

Waiting remember?

And my crowning achievement?!

The best St. Nicholas feast day celebration yet!

I know it might be a bit of a cop out, making my glorious return (you know you missed me) to blogging by participating in a link up.

But I just can't resist Cari's linkups!

Back in April or May or sometime around there, I stopped blogging because my computer hard drive failed.  Then my husband came to my rescue and gave me an iPad for my birthday.  Sadly I didn't get right back in the swing of things so my brother stepped in and replaced my computer hard drive.

That's right, no more excuses.  I have been away far too long.

Is that enough self shaming for you?

How about a little finger pointing?
Yup, went to all the trouble of getting creative like with the frame and everything but didn't bother to make her change out of her pajamas.  What?  You didn't realize those were pajamas?  Nevermind...

Oh, and speaking of shaming...

Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling the sidewalk before it stops snowing. - Phyllis Diller

Linking up with Cari at Clan Donaldson for Theme Thursday - Grow.

Don't forget that the No Housework Party link up is still open.  Link up!!  Old posts, new posts, pictures of your messy house, pictures of your clean house, all are welcome!


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The kids had been asking if they could take flowers to Matthew so we stopped at a Kroger on the way and let them pick out their flowers.

The Princess picked purple flowers.  No surprise.  Purple is her favorite color.

The Peanut picked "Crazy Daisies."

I have a confession to make.  I know they are unnatural and flowers are already beautiful just the way they are and I am probably making you all cringe but... I really love crazy daisies.  They are just so bright and happy.

I am now going to give you the story as told by the Peanut.  He saw me writing and he wanted to tell the story.  I loved his version so much I wanted to include it here.  He also chose the pictures.

My organized coupon filing system.  Why the puzzle?  No idea.

My bookshelves even have piles.

It was trying to be a stack.  Really it was.  I don't do stacks well.  They always turn into piles.

But if there were one pile in my house that would outdo every other pile it would be the outgrown clothes pile.  See it started as a bag.  A system of bags.  In the beginning I would sort through the clothes before bagging them up.  Get rid of any worn out clothes.  Clothes they had never worn.  Anything I did not want to absolutely save for when/if we have more children.  Outgrown clothes were sorted into large ziplocks with the size and gender marked on each.  Then the bags found a home in a bin.  One bin for girl clothes and one bin for boy clothes.

*This post may contain affiliate ads.  Read my full disclosure here.

The linkup closes in 14 hours so I figured I would start writing my What I Wore Sunday post.  On Tuesday. Also I missed last Sunday.  Wrote half a post but didn't finish in time.  So technically I am a week and two days late...

I blame my husband for being on vacation last week.  I was way too busy not being busy with him to blog.

Right.  Clothing.

Well it don't stop
No, it's never gonna stop
Why do I have to wear
so many things on my head?
HATS!
Amy Grant - Hats

My sister was in town for a few days this week.  She got in on Wednesday evening and on Thursday morning she got up early and left for an appointment.

When I woke up I realized it was a bit late and wondered why the kids were sleeping in so long since they hadn't woken me up.

It was quiet in the house and I was surprised to find the Peanut sitting at the bottom of the stairs casually flipping through a comic book.  I asked him what he was doing.

"Waiting for Aunt Treesa to come down."

I told him she had left for a meeting and he looked at me like I was deluded.

"No, she can't have left.  Her shoes are still here."

Sure enough, her sneakers were there by the door.

"Buddy, she wore a different pair."

He gave me a confused look and asked to go check her room.  He would not believe me until he had confirmed her absence for himself.

Later, the Princess woke up.

She picked out her clothes for the day.

A dress paired with a skirt.
Her argument was that they went together because the skirt was twirly and the dress has a pretty pink ribbon.
Can't argue with that logic.

So I made her tuck the dress into the skirt.

We went on about our day and around noon I told them to get shoes on because we were going to be leaving in a minute.

Is that an outfit or what?

My husband was coming home on lunch and we were going to do our taxes.

She was ready to go and said to me, "As soon as Aunt Tweesa comes down we going to leave?"

Again, I found myself explaining that Aunt Theresa wasn't upstairs.

Again I was faced with a quizzical expression.