When Does it All Get Done?

So, I have been trying to figure out how to not have my entire Saturday Taken up with feast preparations.Sometimes I have other things to do. Like this Saturday coming up. My husband gave me a couple of gift cards for Christmas. This is the first "free" weekend we have had since then. I would like to go shopping without a time limit and just enjoy pretending like there is nothing else to do. I have carefully planned my Sabbath feast accordingly. I will make my side dishes Friday. I can do my glaze for the ham on Thursday. Dessert will more than likely be ice cream.(The children love it!!)The children can set the table while I am gone.(With assistance from Dad of course.) This all sounds great, but what about the everyday things that will need to be done on the days I am preparing for Saturday? There are some things I have started to do to help out in this area. I was once expressing concern that I could not handle the very stressful"witching hours". From 4:00 to 6:00 everyone in my home turns evil. My friend suggested that I put dinner together earlier in the day. I try to this as I am either getting lunch together or cleaning up breakfast. The children are not exhausted yet from the day. We are not in a frantic panic because Daddy will be home soon and it looks like a hurricane has been through every room. When it comes time for dinner I can just stick in the oven. While I am doing this early preparation I will usually do something having to do with our feast. I am not sure about you, but with me after an incredibly stressful week I cannot think about putting a huge meal on the table and possibly entertaining. I just want to go somewhere that i cannot hear or see anything that has to do with keeping a home, potty training, or anything that means I have to keep it together and be the wife and mother God has called me to be. Therefore for me it has been helpful to find little ways through out the week to keep things less stressful so I will have the energy to pull the feast off, and it allows the time to do other personal and family activities on Saturday. I'll let you know how it works this week.

Julie