SHEs Organized

Triple Dog Dare!

Pick 3 things
Do them
Post your TaDas!

»»—-Cheers! WTG! Ygg!—-««

Don't think about it. Just do it!
~~ I Triple Dog Dare ya! ~~
Good Morning!
»»————　✼　————««

St. Lucia’s Day, festival of lights celebrated in Sweden, Norway, and the Swedish-speaking areas of Finland on December 13 in honor of St. Lucia (St. Lucy). One of the earliest Christian martyrs, St. Lucia was killed by the Romans in 304 AD because of her religious beliefs.

In Scandinavian countries each town elects its own St. Lucia. The festival begins with a procession led by the St. Lucia designee, who is followed by young girls dressed in white and wearing lighted wreaths on their heads and boys dressed in white pajama-like costume singing traditional songs.

The festival marks the beginning of the Christmas season in Scandinavia, and it is meant to bring hope and light during the darkest time of the year. Schools generally close around noon on the day of the festival so that families can prepare for the holiday.

Families observe St. Lucia’s Day in their homes by having one of their daughters (traditionally the eldest) dress in white and serve coffee and baked goods, such as saffron bread (lussekatter) and ginger biscuits, to the other members of the family. These traditional foods are also given to visitors during the day.

Happy Sunday, everyone!

I never made it back here yesterday, but on the Christmas front, I did get DH's birthday presents wrapped, the chocolates bagged up for the vet and my hairdresser and the accompanying cards written.

I wme for my walk, but it was curtailed when it started raining. However , I did notice one of the street lights by the recycling banks in the small carpark in the valley park has somehow lost its lantern, ( How?!!!) so I filled in the form online requesting someone come and fix.it, especially as it's dark by 4.30 pm these days.

Trissie will be happy to hear I made gingerbread men yesterday , and on a more mundane mote I also washed the filters om all the hoovers, so a reasonably productive day .

Today I have to drag a feeling- below- par DH to church, as it's Advent Sunday and he is needed in the choir. He knew about this before he went out with DBIL yesterday, so I am not entirely sympathetic!

To do:
Cuddles and snack for Matilda, Jude and Freddie
Bible reading and meditation
Update latest Waitrose order
Cup of tea
Get up!
Scrub out litter trays (DH)
Change sheets on bed
Shower/wash hair/moisturiser and sunblock/ clean and floss teeth
S/S bathroom
Physio exercises
Get dressed in casual clothes
Give everyone fresh water
Cat breakfast and meds /supplements
Breakfast and meds /vitamins for me
Quick kitchen clean up
Hang up towels that washed overnight
Load DW
Quick PUPA downstairs
Quick dust and Hoover downstairs
Change into smarter outfit
OTD to church
Coffee with DF E
Back home again, change back into casual clothes
Meat in oven
Hang up sheets to dry
Coffee with DH
Put potatoes and veg to roast
Put up my vitamins and supplements for the week
Weigh out Jude's and Matilda's dry food for the week
Quick PUPA upstairs
15 minutes in tiny front garden
15 minutes in back garden
Dish up lunch
Walk Freddie
Lap time with Freddie
Lap time with Jude
Cuddles with Matilda
Head rubs with Freddie, Jude and Matilda
Play with Freddie, Jude, Matilda
Fold laundry and PA
Run DW when full
Unload DW
Post list with my plans for the week
Clothes laid out for tomorrow

Extras:

Hi, Kittykatt. Thank you for starting us off, and for St. Lucia. It sounds like your DH would benefit from one of those gingerbread men that you made. Hopefully, it will settle his stomach.

I thought that I was done for the night, but then realized that when I went to the car to bring up the second load, I forgot the dog food. I didn't want to leave it overnight to freeze, so I've just been down to bring it up.

I might poke around a bit, but I think that I'm finished with my useful contributions until I have slept.

Have a good time at church!

Doggedly wrote: Sun Nov 30, 2025 2:04 am It sounds like your DH would benefit from one of those gingerbread men that you made. Hopefully, it will settle his stomach.

That's a very good idea, Dogged!

Sleep well!

◕‿◕ * * * Good Morning! * * * ◕‿◕

Thanks for the start kittykatt. Happy first Sunday of Advent ! Is it possible that the light stopped working because someone cut the wiring to sell the copper ? It seems to happen often in France, even in small towns.

Very interesting talk about love/hate relationship with Christmas ! I so enjoyed it as a kid and wand my kids to enjoy a magical time... but we always make it low-key nonetheless, I think it helps making it enjoyable, avoiding the madness of too much decoration and too many social events. We have a few traditions now, like reading Christmas-related stories at bedtime all December long, and watching Christmas movies every Satruday of December and on Christmas eve. Also the St-Barbara sowing of wheat (blé de Noel) or other seeds. But not too many decorations. The hardest part for me is finding ideas (or sorting through the kids' many wishes) and buying in time for delivery and wrapping. So many Christmas nights spent wrapping toys in a dark, cold garage !
helia you were totally right to make your limits known to your guests, even if it may have displeased them.

trissie I find it unfair that the school puts demands on the families about baking cookies. We don't have those here. There are a few social events where families are nicely asked if they can bake something to sell at the event (like the local music school where DS9 has guitar lessons), when some clubs need money. Families who can't bake will usually make up for it by buying cookies or pieces of cake during the event.
Kids love the Beethoven movies. (I'm taking a note to watch the one with Santa's toy bag being stolen, during December)

Doggedly, would the dog food really freeze in your car overnight ? (so glad we don't have your November weather, here) Sleep well and I hope to see you later.

We have sun today. Right now a ray of sun is shining directly in my face, it's probably good for my health (like a lightbox, right?). DS9 invited a friend over in the afternoon. MrNG said he would cook lunch, and dinner, and do some mowing - the grass is all wet but he seems to think it's a good idea. Kids are suppoed to do their homework and put away stuff in their rooms so I can vacuum there around noon. DS7's bedroom was a disaster yesterday, maybe I can share the picture here, I will see. But he can be efficient when it comes to putting things away, so there is hope.
I need to update / upgrade my Christmas and December lists. MrNG added chocolate boxes for the teachers, in the weekly grocery order - at my suggestions - so that's something done. I ordered two presents for him during Bacl Friday, one for bday, one for Christmas (not sure which will be which). As for the rest, we have lists of wishes but not everything is decided. Also to-do lists.

TADAs
up after short night, DS9 decided to sleep on the LR couch and it woke me up
bfast for all
cleaned the pellet stove, an unpleasant and dirty task
one lol of dirty-damp-sport clothes in

TODO
regular lol in
some cleaning here and there
... while overseeing kids cleaning their bedrooms and doing homework
help with homework ?
give a hand to MrNG's lunch prep
later
eat, cleanup, relax
have DS9's friend over
enjoy some time in the sun, move a little
things form the week's to-do list
weekly to-do list for next week
some cooking ahead ?
update holiday spreadsheet with MrNG
reading before bed

Good... well not morning anymore, but I just got started without posting, did you know that can be done too?

Us Czechs, we have a weird relationship with Christmas baking. It's an actual cultural phenomena, I kid you not, being a topic of scientific research. It got amplified during the communist era because suddenly there was enough of flour, butter and cocoa to make something as extravagant as cookies (which the survivors of WW2 really treasured), and also with the constant oversight of the secret police in everyday life, cookie baking became a safe outlet for women and also something that they could "show off". And then after 2000, the internet and social media turned that up to eleven. Of course, there's people who buy cookies (and trust me, it's EXPENSIVE! A reputable bakery will charge you anywhere between 60 and 80 dollars per kilogram and designer bakeries will cost above 100 dollars per kilo), but this is usually just singles or couples who "want to have something for Christmas day". Everybody else bakes. It's cheating if you do less than 3 kinds, 7 is "bare minimum", 9 is standard and above 15 is considered overdoing it. But it's such a pretty sight and everybody has memories, sometimes good, sometimes bad, about Christmas baking from childhood. And everybody has their favourites, and with multiple members of a family, there's also multiple favourites



Frenchie, I actually came upon the Beethoven movies while searching for family Christmas movies and thought it would be better to watch the original first
sleep tight, Dogged!
do you actually decorate the gingerbreadmen, kittykatt?

I haven't decided yet if I want to go to the school function or not. I kinda want to and kinda not want to at the same time, DH already said he would drive the girls (they partake in a carolling session), so we shall see...

TaDas
- showered to shoes
- breakfast and coffee
- internet time
- load of newly bought jackets washing
- morning routine
- crisis cleaning: 10 in kitchen, living room, master bathroom

ToDos
- start lunch
- 15 on Christmas decorating
- strip and remake DBD's bed

Braindump
routines
- midday routine
- afternoon routine
- evening routine
food
- lunch
- dinner
- bake something sweet
- make doughs for cookies
- bake gingerbread cookies
- bake vanilla rolls
- bake Linz cookies?
organization
- homework and backpacks
- Black Friday online shopping
- email to school
- call seller re: do they have power of attorney yet?
- house insurance status?
- rework contract with DS14's therapist
- review meds and order
- book order
- DBD's speech therapy
- 15 on filing
cleaning
- strip and remake all beds
- spiff up twins' room
- spiff up DBD's room
- spiff up DS13's room
- spiff up master bedroom
- spiff up master bathroom
- spiff up kitchen
- spiff up living room
- spiff up office
- spiff up downstairs bathroom and hallways
laundry
- load of cleaning rags
- load of darks
- load of towels
- load of linens (maybe tomorrow? depending on available clothesline space)
- ironing
- folding
- mending
- laundry put away
me time
- 15 of exercise
- Bible study
- reading
House&Holidays - I kinda really should do something about it
- week 1 deep cleaning - office
- week 3 deep cleaning - DBD's room
- week 5 deep cleaning - DS14's room
- week 6 deep cleaning - twins' room
- week 7 deep cleaning - master bathroom
- week 9 deep cleaning - living bathroom
- week 10 deep cleaning - kitchen
- week 11 deep cleaning - pantry
- week 13 deep cleaning - storage spaces
- week 14 deep cleaning - communal spaces
- week 2 Christmas tasks
- week 3 Christmas tasks
- week 4 Christmas tasks
- week 5 Christmas tasks
- week 6 Christmas tasks
- week 7 Christmas tasks
- week 8 Christmas tasks
- week 9 Christmas tasks
- week 10 Christmas tasks
- week 11 Christmas tasks
- week 12 Christmas tasks
- week 13 Christmas tasks
- week 14 Christmas tasks

TaDas
- start lunch
- 15 on Christmas decorating
- strip and remake DBD's bed

ToDos
- midday routine
- declutter and polish piano top
- 10 in DBD's room

Braindump
routines
- afternoon routine
- evening routine
food
- dinner
- bake something sweet
- make doughs for cookies
- bake gingerbread cookies
- bake vanilla rolls
- bake Linz cookies?
organization
- homework and backpacks
- Black Friday online shopping
- email to school
- call seller re: do they have power of attorney yet?
- house insurance status?
- rework contract with DS14's therapist
- review meds and order
- book order
- DBD's speech therapy
- 15 on filing
cleaning
- strip and remake all beds
- spiff up twins' room
- spiff up DBD's room
- spiff up DS13's room
- spiff up master bedroom
- spiff up master bathroom
- spiff up kitchen
- spiff up living room
- spiff up office
- spiff up downstairs bathroom and hallways
laundry
- load of cleaning rags
- load of darks
- load of towels
- load of linens (maybe tomorrow? depending on available clothesline space)
- ironing
- folding
- mending
- laundry put away
me time
- 15 of exercise
- Bible study
- reading
House&Holidays - I kinda really should do something about it
- week 1 deep cleaning - office
- week 3 deep cleaning - DBD's room
- week 5 deep cleaning - DS14's room
- week 6 deep cleaning - twins' room
- week 7 deep cleaning - master bathroom
- week 9 deep cleaning - living bathroom
- week 10 deep cleaning - kitchen
- week 11 deep cleaning - pantry
- week 13 deep cleaning - storage spaces
- week 14 deep cleaning - communal spaces
- week 2 Christmas tasks
- week 3 Christmas tasks
- week 4 Christmas tasks
- week 5 Christmas tasks
- week 6 Christmas tasks
- week 7 Christmas tasks
- week 8 Christmas tasks
- week 9 Christmas tasks
- week 10 Christmas tasks
- week 11 Christmas tasks
- week 12 Christmas tasks
- week 13 Christmas tasks
- week 14 Christmas tasks

The cookies look delicious, Trissie. We have really scaled back our decorations, FFB. I would scale back more if DD32 didn’t live at home. She loves Christmas. Hope you are sleeping Dogged. Hope you had a good church service, kittykatt.


1-diet site
2-dress and pick up bedroom
3-windex

4-read if time
5-walk with friend

Menus
Sunday-
Monday-
Tuesday-
Wednesday-DD32 out/leftovers me
Thursday-chorizo enchiladas
Friday-chipotle honey salmon with veggies
Saturday-sheet pan Mexican shrimp tacos

Events
Sunday-walk w/ friend
Monday-Little Bit 7:40-5, Little Bit to school 9:15-3
Tuesday-breakfast with friends@8:30, Little Bit 7:40-5, Little Bit to school 9:15-3
Wednesday-DD32 3-8, Little Bit 7:40-5, Little Bit to school 9:15-3
Thursday-8:30 appointment with radiologist, Little Bit 7:40-5, Little Bit to school 9:15-3
Friday-2:00 appointment with financial advisor, Little Bit 7:40-5, Little Bit to school 9:15-3


Weekly House Blessing-mop dining room, kitchen, bathroom, dust, windex
Detail cleaning of dining room-scrub floor
Extra stuff-waiting for paper for lawyer


Accomplishments
-stretching and knee exercises
-breakfast for me
-reboot laundry
-clean off top of dry sink