Hoo boy, it’s going to be a crazy week. Our place is tiny, as I’ve mentioned numerous times. So we have to clear out the dining room and see if we can bring up the bigger dining table from downstairs. And I just realized that I don’t even have a tablecloth to cover the old, scratched surface of the table (it was my parents’ table when they got married, and it has two leaves to expand the table quite nicely).

And I need to clean. And vacuum. And make up a menu. And cook. And hubby may have to work Wednesday and even Thursday. We’re not sure yet.

I’m going to work ahead as much as I can. I’ll cook the sweet potatoes a day ahead and just reheat them. I could probably do the same with the mashed potatoes (but I love them fresh). I’ll be heating the dressing in the crock pot, so that’s not a huge deal. Tonight I have a chicken carcass in the crock pot to make broth, which I’ll use in the dressing and gravy.

Rather than make rolls, we’re just going to get some heat and serve. I need to do that tomorrow. And figure out where we’ll get enough chairs. And get some more milk. We have plenty of butter.

Whew. This is why I’ve never had Thanksgiving meal at my place. Did I mention I need to clean? Looks like the next several nights will be filled with rearranging, deep cleaning the bathroom and kitchen, and trying to see if any of our friends have some chairs we can borrow.

It’s going to be a long, crazy week. But it will be so nice to have the family together. We haven’t done that in a while.

I’ll try not to stress too much. No one expects it to be perfect. They’ve all been over so they know our house is crazy. And crowded. But I think we can do it. Hubby helps, so at least it doesn’t all fall on my head. He’ll be right in there with me.

How’s your week shaping up?

Yet I still see many undone items on my to do list. Does it ever end? I start getting stressed about all that didn’t get done. All that I still need to squeeze in somewhere.

I need to remember to take a stress break. A quick 5 – 10 minutes to get up and stretch, breathe deeply, maybe even do a few quick yoga stretches. It does wonders for my outlook when I just stop and quickly regroup.

Do you forget to take breaks from whatever you’re doing? What do you do to relieve stress?