8: weight in kilos of the turkey sitting in my fridge, awaiting its destiny. (I am very fond of y'all but I'm not counting down from 17. Or maybe I'm not counting down from 17 because I'm very fond of y'all.)
7: number of people who will be at my dinner table tomorrow night, hurray! Joe's home now; Alex arrives tomorrow.
6: quarts of chicken stock in need of fridge space. Whoops! Turns out that filling your mega-Instant Pot to the brim will supply your chicken stock needs for the foreseeable future.
5: number of additional guests we'll be feeding on Thursday. I have not made much headway on food prep, but I have finished the Penitential Cranberry Sauce. And the chicken stock. Consommé is an elegant thing that they will be happy to eat if I don't feel like cooking, right? With a little dollop of Penitential Cranberry Sauce on top?
4: number of Advent candles I declined to purchase from the local religious bookstore selling toddler-sized "smALL LIVES MATTER" T-shirts. I should probably write them a letter that says, "Hey, in some circles this might seem like an attempt at a pro-life statement, but outside that bubble it reads as a racist dog-whistle striving to erase the immense and unjust suffering of a marginalized community. Please don't." (I'm just not very optimistic about the outcome of such a letter. Did I ever tell you the story of my last earnest letter to a bookstore owner?)
3: months ahead of schedule that my most recently published study appeared online. I wasn't expecting to see it until February but they sent me the link tonight.
2: oh, dernit, I had a 2 in mind and then I got distracted. 2 is the number between 3 and 1, just like la is a note to follow sol.
1: my position in the roommate fitness challenge as of yesterday. Although today I was too sore to work out so it's possible, just possible, that my crown has been temporarily awarded to someone else. I will reclaim it just as soon as I can walk comfortably again. In my quest for GLORY I briefly forgot to play the long game.
0: number of remaining CSA pickups. Tonight's installment was the last one. The kids will be relieved to return to plain broccoli followed by plain cauliflower followed by plain green beans.
I don't know what penitential cranberry sauce is, but it sounds like it involves zesting.
Posted by: Becca | November 22, 2017 at 09:45 AM
I’m going to put this here instead of where it belongs because I found myself weeping in the grocery store parking lot tonight because once, my kids went with me to do the holiday shopping (and I hated it) and now they are already taking college admissions tests (some of them) and I don’t HATE that but also I was weeping.
So what I would like, if you run out of ideas before November finishes, is any insight into getting through the college selection/application process (I have theee kids with radically different approaches at this point and we live in a hyper-focused college town and I am stressed already, less about the outcome than how to help the kids not go insane or hurt each other or be mean about their likely chances at different dream colleges).
And also an update on how it’s going, having children at boarding school and college and Problematic Parochial High. (I know: it’s hard to blog this stuff because of teen privacy. Alas.)
Posted by: Jody | November 22, 2017 at 09:30 PM
I forgot to explain why I posted here and not on the ideas-requested post: because I made my cranberry sauce and ordered my advent candles from Amazon (Lutherans mostly do all blue now and the local craft store only sells the pink-purple combo pack). Thank you for the reminders and thank you for the blog.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Posted by: Jody | November 22, 2017 at 09:33 PM
I love #4 and I vote that you should send that letter. It may not have an immediate effect, but it's eloquent and true and over time may make the bookstore owner think about it...?
Posted by: Nicole | November 24, 2017 at 03:44 PM
OOOOH, what I treat to hear from Jody! I wish I weren't so shy about just trying to talk to my former blog friends in facebook messenger perhaps, or email. I guess I'd be embarrassed. I don't even see Jody posting much on facebook anyway. I feel like asking so many questions of each and every one of the folks whose blogs I read, but I feel like I can't. Sigh... I'd love to hear more about the things she asked about. My older son is only one year younger then her three kids. I know I'll go to NC someday and I really really wish I could meet her in person (and you too of course) as well as Aliki who also lives there... sigh... Sorry for the jumbled comment. I just got too excited.
Posted by: L - Mama(e) in Translation | November 27, 2017 at 11:02 PM