Ordinary Arts

Mia, over at Aspiring Homemaker , had this nice little quote on her blog the other day. 
"The ordinary arts we practice every day at home are of more importance to the soul than their simplicity might suggest." ~ Thomas Moore.
I've encouraged my daughters to think along these lines with regard to housework and cooking.  They can both seem a drudgery from time to time, but when we look at it as a way to minister to another soul, to make someone else feel good, then it's not as hard a thing to do.  Plus, it takes the emphasis off ourselves, which is when we really get to feeling bad, or unappreciated, or any of those other feelings that lead to discontent. 
With that in mind we'll get started on our week of cleaning and cooking.  Our big family Thanksgiving dinner (the one for my Mom's side of the family) will happen this weekend.  For a couple of different reasons, we never have that dinner on Thanksgiving Day (and for a couple of other reasons, we do all the cooking).  We put out the fall decorations this past weekend, and we'll work on the cleaning through Thurs.  I'll probably finish up my shopping on Wed. or Thurs., and then we'll start cooking on Friday.  We'll cook all the desserts, and do as much of the prep work as possible Friday.  At some point this week I'll work up my time schedual for Saturday.  There are so many dishes to cook, that I have to schedual everything out so that it's all done (or will still be hot) at the same time.  It should be slightly easier this year since, in addition to the roaster oven we've had for a few years, hubby bought me a three element hot plate with three 4qt. stainless steel pots.  Between the 3 new pots, the 4 burners on the stove, and our 2 crock pots, I shouldn't have any trouble at all keeping all the veggies hot (without having to jockey things around on the stove all the time).  Our menu will be:
Turkey                                                     Desserts:
Ham                                                           Chocolate Pistachio Cake
Pot Roast                                                  Red Velvet Cake
Turkey Gravy                                          Chocolate Pie
Stuffing (2 kinds)                                     Apple Pie
Mashed Potatoes                                     Sweet Potato Pie
Velveeta Shells and Cheese (my           Lemon Merangue Pie 
one give in to 'yucky' food)                    Pumpkin Cheese Pie
Baked Sweet Potatoes                           Buttermilk Pie
Pinto Beans                                               Brownies
Green Beans                                             Brown Sugar Brownies            
Corn                                                           (some call these Blondies)
Lima Beans                                               Lemon Poundcake
Raw Baby Carrots                                  Pumpkin Roll                                    
Cranberry Sauce                                     Banana Pudding
Deviled Eggs
Olive/Pickle plate
Biscuts
Cornbread
Can you tell we like desserts?  Well, some of them may be bumped off the list if we run out of time, or space in the refrigerator.  I hope it will be cold enough this year to use the garage as a refrigerator like we did last year (just for some of the pies), but it's not looking promising so far.
For now...Hi-ho, Hi-ho, It's off to work we go!

Becky