The lice crisis has passed, though I’m going to be on the lookout. I spent the first hour of work Monday on edge, wondering if the school nurse was going to call with bad news. I now possess another area of knowledge which I am glad to have and never want to use again.

I’m ready to cook my first official Thanksgiving dinner, and am thankful to only be cooking for the three of us in case it’s an epic disaster. It’s a good practice run in case I ever host more people one day, which I’d like to do.

On Sunday I realized the fridge needed a good purging and cleaning. I try to do it every Monday but slacked off. An hour after I started, I filled a bag with recyclables and had gotten rid of enough to make room to defrost the turkey. I reconfigured the shelves too. Previously I was keeping milk and juice on top, and even though the shelf felt sturdy I worried a little about it. The bottom shelf was quite short and stuff was always shoved to the back where it lingered while becoming science experiment worthy. Now the narrowest shelf is at eye level where I can see what’s there.

I learned the next day I was a little too enthusiastic in my cleaning. Pizza sauce is the one item I always forget I have, so the jars accumulate. I dumped out four jars on Sunday. One of those jars was fairly new, and I meant to use it Monday for dinner. I’ve deviated a little from my menu this month, focusing on getting rid of frozen leftovers and things from the pantry. Even though I planned November around things I had on hand, I still felt like we had too much food. I had picked up pre-made pizza crusts which had been marked way down because they were near the sell by date. They were in the freezer, and while Emma was at dance I made a salad, but then realized I had no pizza sauce.

Even though it would have been easier to run to the store to buy pizza sauce, I was frustrated and worn out, so we went out. But we haven’t been out in a while.  On Tuesday I got pizza sauce so we had pizza and salad for dinner last night. This experience also made me decide to make my own pizza sauce from now on, so I can more easily freeze the extra, which is what I did yesterday.

I relocated the toaster oven so these things would be closer at hand.

Most of Sunday was devoted to reorganizing the kitchen. I rearranged the counter top to move the things I use the most closer to the stove, and tried to relocate some of the odds and ends which didn’t have a purpose.

I’ve never been an enthusiastic Black Friday shopper because I don’t like crowds, but Emma really wants to shop even though she knows it’ll be busy. She asked me during the lice crisis so it was hard to say no because she was so miserable. I agreed but told her we aren’t going until the afternoon, and no mall. There’s a local department store which shouldn’t be too crazy. She needs black pants and a white shirt for her holiday chorus concert, and a winter hat and scarf so I am hoping to cross those items off my list. Hopefully we’ll be able to get outside tomorrow, but reading about REI’s #optoutside campaign made me decide to go for a long walk or another hike on Friday.

I hope everyone has a lovely Thanksgiving!