Thankful for ... Thanksgiving

As my sister-in-law so delicately pointed out last week, I "suck at being thankful."

Yes, my faithful followers (all two of them) noticed that I didn't exactly meet my goal of posting once a day for 30 days.

Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa.

In my defense, though, I am thankful for a life that is too full to allow me to spend time blogging on the daily.

While I did not have a camera to record this with, I had a fantastic Thanksgiving.

Here's why:

• For the first time in what seems like forever, I was not getting together with the in-laws for a wedding, shower, party or quick-turnaround-trip. We actually had three days to spend in each others' company, and had a fantastic time!
• My nephew let me hold him, without crying, for the first time since he was a newborn and sleeping the whole time. He is one cute kid.
• My sister-in-law and I made a bonding experience of going to Whole Foods to buy a loaf of French bread. We ate 7 different kinds of cheese, and tried three flavors of crackers. All in an attempt to escape the chaos of my home!
• After about a month of stressing, my Thanksgiving preparation paid off. Everything was prepped and waiting in the fridge the morning of, leaving me ample time to hold said nephew and chit-chat with the girls.
• My table was awesome. Every dish came out perfectly, or so imperfect it was perfect (mashed potatoes should be lumpy on Thanksgiving!). The rented table held every dish--and guest--delightfully. When I held up my glass of champagne, I was proud.
• Everything on my table was made from scratch: Stuffing, cranberries, pies. No mixes for me this year! Incidentally, I won't ever buy canned cranberries again. It's too easy to make your own.

So, this being the last day of November, it's time to quit being so darn thankful already!

Thanful for ... the PMS post

Today, I am thankful for warm blankets.

Cozy socks.

Sue Sylvester from Glee last week.

Chocolate covered raisins.

Wine.

Malted milk balls.

PINK sweatpants.

Oversized t-shirts.

Bubble bath.

The episode of The Office where Pam has her first art exhibit.

Naps.

Cuddly dogs.

Empty couches.

Rainy days off work.

The end of "The Time Traveler's Wife."

Chores that have already been done.

Kleenex.

Twilight (the book, not the time of day).

Marshmallows.

Cheese.

A new issue of InStyle.

Moping for no reason at all.

Crying for no reason at all.

PMS is only enjoyable when everything else in life is going right and wallowing in discomfort, cravings and moodiness is an indulgence instead of an inconvenience.

Thankful for ... organization.

I need Monday this week. I need it to recover from my weekend, during which I went mad and turned my house over, top to bottom.

It started with me needed to get all the junk out of the guest room so my beloved mother-in-law can have a place to rest her head during Thanksgiving week. I'd planned on just taking my junk out and shifting it to my bedroom, clearing a path and a place for a bed.

But just looking at the room where all the things we don't really need go to be forgotten, I was overwhelmed. So it took it all out of the room and started with a blank slate. That's what they say you need to do on Clean House and DIY network, anyway. (The stuff I dismantled and re-mantled included my two bookcases and the hundreds of novels housed therein.)

Four hours later, it was done. I got rid of a desk, an exercise ball, five shoeboxes, four paper bags full of goodies and two Rubbermade containers that stopped opening without protest sometime in 2005. Now it looks like a real room, one that I wouldn't mind moving into. If I wouldn't miss the hubs so much.

On Saturday, we took a family trip to Costco to pick up necessary items above and beyond our usual Saturday (under $100, thankyouverymuch) trip. Matt got a much-needed ladder, we picked up Christmas lights and enough peanut oil to deep-fry our entire Thanksgiving dinner. After that, I stopped at Bed Bath & Beyond to buy out their kitchen organization section, then did the week's grocery shopping at Safeway (London broil was half off!).

No sooner did I think I was home for the day than the hubs convinced me to head to Target to pick up a fire pit. Finally ... it was 4 p.m. and I was ready to get started on the big kitchen remodel! Everything out of the cupboards, useless packets of Shake and Bake thrown away when husband was outside ("Honey, if I knew we had it, I'd use it!" Yeah, right.) and everything back in with new shelves, steps, dividers and Lazy Susans.

But it was only 8 p.m.! So I surveyed my bedroom, host now to all the keeper junk from the guest room. Only one place left to scour: my closet. Out went everything, and out stayed everything while I grabbed my 8 hours.

Bright and early Sunday morning, I declared war on the items in my wardrobe I can never bring myself to get rid of (bye-bye, semi-flattering-sweater-I-only-wear-once-a-year and Doc-Marten-sandals-circa-1998!), forced myself to sort through the tiny items that are too good to throw away but not good enough to use or keep, and put everything back with room to spare!

By then, however, the dog had gotten a bath, so there was the bathroom to clean. And in cleaning the bathroom, I noticed the sad state of the cleaning closet. Which led me to investigate the linen closet. And on Sunday afternoon, the hubs and I despaired at the state of our home. All this organization had left the house disheveled, with piles of trash and recycling everywhere. To the dump! By dinnertime, we'd gone through and cleaned up after ourselves, and sank into bed exhausted (the hubs didn't even make it under the covers before he was snoring away).

But today, with a clean, organized and purged home awaiting, I feel proud and accomplished.

And not a little tired and sore!