'Tis the season to get holiday catalogs.

When I peruse a catalog I make a mental list of all the stuff I want to buy. But by then end of the catalog, I'm so over stimulated by all the bright colors and useful items I just end up tossing it.

There are tons of handy gadgets I could buy but would probably never use; especially kitchen gadgets. I love kitchen gadgets, but I've made a rule for myself that I have to actually know where I'm going to put an item before I buy it.

Who wouldn't want poach egg baskets for the perfect poached egg every time? Or cow clips to keep my chips from getting stale and my rice from spilling? Or a chicken or pig spoon holder? I mean the possibilities are endless and that was just one page!

So you can see why I get overstimulated. What ends up happening, though, is I go back through the catalog and nothing is as bright and pretty the second time around. I start to notice the price and the size, then it pretty much dulls the idea of the object. That's about the time I feel too overstimulated to make a decision and toss the catalog.

Then I move onto the next catalog. Perusing a second one goes much quicker, because I'm pretty sure by that time I'm not going to buy anything. By the third one, I don't go through it a second time. And by the fourth one I'm just tearing off the labels while tossing them, trying to dig out the kitchen table so we can dinner at it that night.

But I still like them. This time of year I get enough in a day I can afford to toss some without even looking at them. I know I'll have more the next day when I'll be reinvigorated to start the process all over. Plus, I can't keep them, I'd have a room full by the end of the season and then they'd be out of date before I could get to them all.

It's an activity I only take part in when someone else is in the house. It's dangerous activity looking through holiday catalogs. It's best to have someone available in case it all gets to be too much. Or if, heaven forbid, I actually suffer death by too many holiday catalogs.

So much drama, so little result! There is nothing wrong with my tooth, which is good, but after all that pain it's hard to believe.

The dentist said something must've gotten packed in the gum, got stuck, then got infected. When the pain hit it was my body trying to get rid of whatever was stuck. The antibiotics got rid of the infection so the pain went away.

I tell you, it was pain akin to childbirth and kidney stones. I can say that because I've experienced both. Mouths must have a lot of nerve endings to have that kind of pain over some less-than-dramatic problem.

Still, dental issues freak me out. I worked for an architectural firm when I got out of college and one of the partners died because of dental complications. It's really nothing to mess around with.

So I get to keep the tooth. That's always something to smile about.

I called the dentist this morning and the receptionist was waiting for me with an appointment. It's in 3 1/2 hours.

What goes through my head is not so much how it's going to go down when I get to the dentist, but what I can get done in 3 1/2 hours, because if he has to do something traumatic, I'll be wiped out for the rest of the day. 

Here is my list: A second and even third cup of coffee (gotta get my priorities straight); write this blog; three or four loads of laundry; make homemade turkey soup from the turkey carcass; go through the pile of papers on my desk; pay some bills; unload and load the dishwasher; and mop the kitchen floor.

My biggest problem is that it's kind of mystery dental work. I don't know what's wrong with the tooth and neither does the dentist. If the dentist has to do something big, the receptionist said there is time today; if not today, there is time tomorrow.

In the meantime, I have to figure out how to coordinate everyone around this unknown dental distress. My oldest has an appointment after school, which my husband can take her to. But someone has to be available to pick up my youngest, so I have my mom on deck too.

I feel like I'm about to negotiate my last supper or something. "Please, don't take the tooth now, let me coordinate one last day of my family's lives and make them some dinner. I promise I'll turn myself in tomorrow."

With negotiations scheduled to take place in 3 1/2 hours, I better get going on my list.

Occasionally I lament the fact we don't have a large family. I listen to my friends tell me about how they get together with brothers and sisters and plan Thanksgiving together.

We think about inviting people over, but end up cherishing the casual time with just the four of us and my mother, who lives nearby. We eat dinner then go to the movies. It's become a tradition.

This year I again struggled with whether or not to invite others and ended up opting again to just keep it small. How glad I am now! I am dealing with an abscessed tooth this week. Of course the timing is impeccable as these things usually are. I spent much of yesterday trying to track down my MIA dentist. And like usual learned more about it than I really ever wanted to know; like doctors can't do dental x-rays because it's different somehow and wouldn't show what's going on with the teeth.

So I did what every other American does, although I'm against it... I Googled my symptoms. I thought it was my TMJ acting up for several days until it settled into my tooth Tuesday night. Oddly enough it is a tooth that has a crown and a root canal, which is why I thought it was TMJ, because it makes my jaw hurt. 

I did finally find my dentist. He took the week off or at least Wednesday, but he prescribed antibiotics, which he would've had to do before he could do anything anyway. He offered pain meds, but I rejected them because I was doing fine on Aleve and Ibuprofen (not together). But last night I almost drove myself to the emergency room at 1:00am.

I pulled myself through my pain and realized if some crazy woman showed up at 2:00am wanting pain meds, I probably wouldn't give them to her. So I took more Aleve, did a acupressure thing my mom suggested, laid down with my head on an ice pack and was finally able to fall asleep.

Now I am really glad we are not expecting a crowd of people. Plus, I decided to really make our meal as simple as possible. I wrote about it this week and here it is for you to enjoy. Happy Thanksgiving!

All I Need for Thanksgiving

This is Milo, he wants me to let him back outside. He just came in. Now he wants out. He assumes I have stopped the rain and it will be a pleasant day for him from here on out.

Milo does not look out the window and see it is still raining. His older  and wiser sister Cally has also gone out and come back in. Now she is sound asleep on the couch. Milo wants out. Milo is a dumb boy.

I will let Milo out. But it will still be raining and Milo will want back in. If I choose to let him back in he will yell at me about the weather on his way in. Then he will get a bite to eat and he will want back out assuming I have fixed the weather and it will be a pleasant day for him.

It will still be raining and Milo will want back in.

You get the picture.

And here is another picture of Milo. He wants back in. Good thing he's cute.

I'm sitting at my desk at 8:20 and although the sun is technically up, I don't think it's going to get any brighter than this today:

Can anyone say Alaska?

Of course I don't live in Alaska, but I have an idea of what they must feel like this time of year. Especially when it's raining so hard like it is today. The sun doesn't even have a chance.

This is a short day for me. I have to be at the high school by 11:00; it's conference week. We decided I'd be there when school was out and get the first conference of the day. Then we'll zoom down the hill and go to the middle school and get the first conference of the day when they get out of school. We've left dad out this year so we don't have to run back and forth to schools; sorry dad!

These days there is no waiting in lines to talk to teachers. The conferences are student-led and presented on the students' laptops. The teachers are nearby if parents have questions.

My kids are good kids and good students, so there is usually nothing to worry about. But if there's a concerning issue to rain on my parade, I always have my kitchen to brighten my day. And cake, there is always cake.

I have been focusing on my kitchen the past couple months. It was not a voluntary focus. Much like my bathroom remodel this summer, it was spurred on by disaster.

Okay, there are many worse disasters in the world, but it still took a lot of energy to resolve. My oven started spontaneously preheating without being on. It first happened in the middle of the night and my husband heard it. It would preheat to the warming temperature which was only 170 degrees, then it would turn off and do it again. It constantly beep, beep, beeped every time it would decide to turn itself on. So we had to turn it off at the circuit breaker.

We lived with it for a couple months by turning off the circuit breaker when we weren't using it. I Googled the problem and felt fortunate it was only to the warming temperature because some people had it spontaneously preheat to the cleaning temperature which is around 900 degrees.

We decided to buy a used range at a thrift shop. Did ya ever have that feeling you made the wrong decision? That's the way I felt when I left the thrift shop, but we didn't have the money to buy a whole new range. The next day I made cornbread muffins and the oven was too hot and totally messed up the first batch and barely made it through the second.

The thrift shop owner was adamant he send his stove guy out and give him the opportunity to fix it. I was really upset about it, but calmed down and agreed to give it another shot. The "guy" was really nice, knew what to do and replaced a part that had not been previously replaced.

I think it's working properly now and I've gotten used to it after cooking on it last week. The biggest test will be Thanksgiving dinner this week, so the jury is still out until after this week. If it works, it stays. I'm not in love with it, but it will be fine for a couple years until we have the money to buy a new one.

To further appease myself, I decided to do some organizing in the kitchen. I'd been looking at magnetic spice holders for a long time and finally found them on sale. So I reorganized my spices and my spice cupboard and hung the spices on my fridge next to the stove.

I also found magnetic hooks to hang all the spoons I use while cooking above the spices. I used to hang the spoons on a holder that was all one piece, but it was plastic and the adhesive was separating. I've learned from the past that when the whole thing came crashing down because it got bumped or felt the spoon was too heavy, it scattered everything sitting on the counter. Can you imagine what that would do to the spices hanging below them?

Then I happened upon some mugs at Costco for only $15. I collect coffee and tea ceramic ware, so was really excited when I found six for only $15. I decided to hang them up above my sink to get the maximum enjoyment out of them.

These three simple changes have served to brighten my days this dark and dreary winter. I loved being in my kitchen anyway, but it's just a little extra frosting on my cake.

That's what I need. Cake!

I've been working to get all my columns from the last five months onto my website. I've put them all in, so check them all out on WWED.

I already don't trust the cats. I feel bad for them when it's raining and storming, so I let them in during the day. I think they are trying to find a warm, dry place. But they eat then want to go back out. Usually the older one barfs somewhere and if I'm lucky I spot it before I step in it. When they really want to get me worked up, they run rampant through the rest of the house in an attempt to get me to chase them before they make it through the front door. They are just gathering evidence to justify taking over the world. 

I'm not so sure I can trust the dogs anymore either. I have been observing their habits now that they are coming in earlier at night. It's dark early and colder, so I feel sorry for them too. Also the big one is afraid of the dark. It irritates me because on top of timing the little one's breakfast in the morning so I can throw her out before she poops in the computer room, I now have to time her evening and make her go outside before I go to bed or she does her evening duty sometime in the night. That is livable, I only have about four or five months before she can be out long enough in the evening to take care of business. The problem is they get bored being in so early and start to snuff and root around.

The only thing they usually find is cat barf. But after watching their determined rooting around for nothing I am convinced that if we were dying they would eat us. I don't even think they would wait for the bodies to get cold. In fact, I think even a deep sleep might convince them it was okay to take a bite.

I'm just glad I have all the animals locked in one end of the house while we slumber in the other. Although the bird is in the bedroom end of the house and has been known to open her cage door on her own. She's probably the only one with enough brains to stage a coup. The other animals do give her a wide berth. She also has been perfecting her hypnotizing skills by rocking back and forth in front of people. I think she could pull it off.

NO ONE SURVIVES! NOT EVEN THE CHILDREN!

I probably won't sleep the rest of the winter.

Late arrival day today. Added to the last two Friday with no school, I have a hard time keeping it straight. Then I have to do the math in my head to make sure I get the kids on the bus in time.

What's worse is when I sit down here to work and time slips away and I end up driving one of them all the way to school. For some reason, my kids don't clock-watch and they let the time slip by without telling me. Or they ask me after the fact, "Shouldn't we have left by now?" I think they hope I'll forget they have to go to school at all.

I would like someone to keep track of my time for me. What is it like to not be constantly watching a clock and keeping time? Even at school and my husband's work, they have bells for that. Maybe I should set up a bell system at home to go off when it's time to leave for the bus, when it's time to pick up the kids, when it's time to make dinner.

My bell system would be ringing all day long. I'd have to have one with a voice message telling me why it was going off. It would also have to have lots of room for variables. Tuesday and Friday my oldest has after school clubs, Wednesday my youngest has an after school club. Wednesday night my youngest has youth group. One Friday month I have bunco and on and on.

Well, I guess it's called a calendar and if I wanted to put it all in my phone calendar I suppose I could. But who wants to be reminded of everything all the time. I'm sure my family really just wants me to handle it, as long as I don't call them late for dinner.