"Nothing will sustain you more potently than the power to recognize in your humdrum routine, as perhaps it may be thought, the true poetry of life."

- -- Sir William Osler

I saw this quote this morning, and realized it's truth instantly. With the exception of visits from family and very close friends, nothing suits me better than to have a humdrum routine kind of day. There is such calmness when you know exactly how your day is going to go -- what you need to do to have a productive day, what you want to do to enjoy the day -- and time to do it all without interuption and most definitely without emergencies.

So I started to wonder what my "perfect day" would be. Above all, it would consist of having time with my son and his wife, my daughter, my grandson, my very close friends Tricia and Mark as well as Paul and Jean, or my sister-in-law Wendy and her husband Ken. Spending time with those people, with Jeff by my side, is above all else the best way to spend a day. But since that can't happen every day, what is my "perfect day" for a normal, routine day? A day that makes me feel productive, yet content at the end of the day?

I like to get up early. 6am is a good time for me to get up and get going. A leisurely shower, coffee, and clean clothes are necessities to a good day. I like to make the bed before I come downstairs. Once downstairs, I'd make a second pot of coffee to take out on the deck (the perfect day would have perfect crisp, cool morning weather!) and work on my day's To Do List. The list would include minimal housework -- sweep the kitchen, wipe down the counters, clean the sink, vac the family room. The entire house, of course, would be without clutter (you can't clean clutter!) or just take 5 minutes to pick anything up that needs to be put away. By 9am I'd be done with all housework and be happy with the way the house looks.

Then during my perfect day I'd spend 2 hours or so on the computer. Sometimes catching up on email, sometimes updating my blogs, and definitely playing some computer games.

From there, the perfect day would include being inspired to head to my quilt room, and spend two or three hours working on a project that goes along smoothly (!) and as planned.

If the creative mood hits and my back holds out, I'd stay in the quilt room for as long as it felt right. Sometimes this is an hour, sometimes it could be five or six. I'd stay as long as it's the right place for me to be. If the mood (or my back) doesn't warrant this much time in the quilt room, then it's time to bring a good book back out on the deck with a fresh cup of coffee. A good hour or two of reading is always a nice way to spend time!

Jeff would come home from work in a great mood (which he actually normally does) and we'd go out to dinner -- nothing fancy, but good food. There's enough restaurants within a 3 mile radius of our house for this not to be an all-night event.

Since the weather is perfect on my perfect day, we'd come home from dinner and head to the hot tub for a 30 minute soak. Then perhaps a little TV time, during which I'd work on hand applique or other hand quilting work. By 10pm I'd be ready for a long hot bath with more reading time in the tub! 11pm would be off to bed... to get up the next morning and have another perfect day.

Now I read through this and there's always one thing missing. And it's been missing since we moved away from our friends and family in New Hampshire. The honest-to-God perfect day would have to include -- HAVE to include -- Tricia stopping by for a cup of tea or Paul stopping by for lunch, and Jeff home from work for the day. It's just not a perfect day without those people in it!!!!

For anyone reading this that doesn't know me well, you have to understand Jeff's job transferred him to Ohio "for 3 years" -- 20 years ago. We had just purchased our "perfect home" that I can well imagine we'd still be in to this day -- on the lake, on 2 acres of land, and an absolutely stunning home. My friend Tricia and I have known each other for 35 years, and Paul has been my closest friend for 50 years -- FIFTY YEARS, PAUL!!! :) I have missed those two people every day for the past 20 years. Though we don't communicate as often as we should, when we do, it's all good. The best part is that Jeff loves them as much as I do, and when we all get together, it is nothing but the best of times. My life is just not the same without them in it on a daily basis.

OK, enough. That made me homesick. Back to reality. My To Do List today is short, because I need to leave around 12noon to head back out to the car dealerships. Most are closed on Sunday, but the Ford place is open, and I'm going to go test drive both the Fusion and the Focus. Although I wanted a bigger car, I think I may well end up with a 4-door Focus. They've got some great cash-back offers ($2500!), and I can walk off with a Focus with all the bells and whistles for under $18k. I've been forgetting how important gas mileage should be to me when buying a car. Also, this would give me $7k leftover to put against our equity loan, and that's a huge dent.

I do want the world to know that Jeff told me that my budget for a new car could be $35k :) I immediately lowered that to $25k -- and now hope to come in under $20k. I am SUCH a good wife, aren't I? LOL

Car Shopping

I had no idea buying a new car was going to be this difficult. I have just returned from 7 hours of test driving cars. Two of them I definitely liked -- the Mitsubishi Outlander was my first test drive and I loved it. UNfortunately, the seat is not adjustable enough and aggravated my back terribly. Next I re-tested the Jeep Liberty and love it. However, I'd read a negative review about road noise on the highway, so I asked to test drive it on the highway and sure enough, there's an actual "whine" high pitched sound that might be pretty destracting on a long trip. Back-wise it was good. I also test drove a Pontiac Torrent. The seat was comfortable and adjustable, but overall, the car just didn't have enough power and just plain didn't feel "right" for me. Lastly, I test drove the Toyota Camry. Much larger than I expected, and really "frills-free". I drove a 4 cyclinder and definitely wanted a 6 cyclinder, which still would have been in my price range. But huge problem - despite a lot of seat adjustments, including lumbar support, by the time I finished our 20 minute test drive I was almost in tears from pain in my back. Ugh. I had to come home after the Toyota caused such back pain, so I plan on heading out again tomorrow to test drive the Ford Fusion (which I actually drove last January and loved), the Subaru Outback, and the Dodge Avenger. At this point, the Jeep Liberty is winning. I don't take my car on the highway all that often, so I may be able to live with the whine. As the salesman said, "That's what they make radio's for." LOL!

Wednesday - Hot hot hot

I had to include a new picture of Brayden, taken yesterday at breakfast. Whenever he's here (two days a week), he eats breakfast with his Grampy. I was delighted when Mary brought fruit salad (unsweetened) for his breakfast - and he loved it! Well, the blueberries he spit out, but loved the cantelope, grapes and bananas (which I added). You can also see his new Spiderman hat, which he loves and wears constantly. Such a little BOY!

Today was supposed to be car-shopping day but it's put off until Saturday, when the weather will be almost 20 degrees cooler. This has been the hottest summer here in the Cincinnati area! I believe we've had 17 straight days of 90 degrees and over -- and most were WAY over. I still haven't decided on the kind of car I want, but am going to test drive the Ford Fusion, Dodge Avenger, Mercury Milan and Subaru Outback, and anything else that catches my fancy while I'm out there. It will be an all-day event, but I will come back with a new car!

My To Do List today is short, and most of my day will be spent working on the quilt for Jeff's Aunt's 90th birthday (which you can see a picture of in my other blog).

Today's TO LIST

• Make bed - done
• Make guest bed - done
• Dishes into dishwasher - done
• Pack Jeff's lunch - done
• Jeff's breakfast - done (breakfast burrito of scrambled egg, ham, cheese)
• Quick overall pick up in family room and kitchen
• Put trash cans away - done
• Clean up toys on deck and empty "pool"

About 15 more minutes of housework and it's off to the quilt room for the day. Yay!

Tuesday is NOT Slug Day

As usual, I took Monday "off" from doing housework, so today I need to get busy. It's all about cleaning the upstairs today. Here's my To Do List:

• Vac upstairs, all rooms - done
• Dust upstairs - master bedrm, guest rm, hallway - done
• Wash bathroom area rugs - done
• Clean bathrooms thoroughly - done
• Empty all trash - done
• Wash bathroom floors - done
• Cob web check all rooms - done
• Vac heat returns - done
• Straighten linen closet - done
• Get some lavender from garden and put in linen closet
• Vac stairs, wipe down side molding - done
• Polish bannisters - done

That ought to keep me busy.

Dinner tonight is steak fajitas (leftover marinated steak from last night's dinner with lots of onions, green peppers, tomatoes from the garden served on steamed burrito wraps) and corn on the cob. I think next year I'm going to try growing corn in my veg garden. This is "corn country" and there's no reason it shouldn't do well -- and it will certainly taste better than the corn purchased at the grocery store that's probably a week old by the time I buy it!

Although our weather forecast continues in the 90's, this morning is UNbelievably cool and crisp! I have turned off the AC and opened up some windows and the door to take advantage of getting fresh air into the house. Even if I can just get an hour or so of cooler air, it's nice to be able to air things out after a long hot summer of AC!

Helpful Household Hint

Last year we had a new glass slider patio door installed, and the gentleman who installed it gave me this helpful hint. To keep the door sliding smoothly and to keep the frame clean, use spray furniture polish! Just spray the furniture polish in the grooves and wipe off (and use a toothbrush in the corners and grooves where the rag won't clean). It keeps our screen and glass doors sliding smoothly!

There's a raccoon in my garden, no, wait...

Jeff and I decided last night we were going to get up and view the meteor showers at 2am. HA! For some reason we stayed up until almost midnight, but didn't stay up for another two hours for the meteors. Instead, we set the alarm clock for 2am. I had difficulty falling asleep and remember seeing the clock at 1:55am -- and the next thing I knew the alarm was going off! I was not in the mood to get up, so instead gave Jeff a nudge and made him make the decision -- he promptly hit the snooze alarm and we both went right back to sleep. 10 minutes later, the alarm went off again -- and he got up, glanced out the window, didn't see any meteors (LOL!) and announced it was too cloudy to see meteors. Whether or not that's true I'll never know, because that's all it took to get me back to sleep! Up at the usual 6am, so that's four hours sleep. Luckily, it's Monday, which is my OFFICIAL "Slug Day" so I didn't have much on my To Do List today. Mary came over at lunch time and we had a nice talk -- I always enjoy having some alone time with her :) She's got so much of her life on track that she's still my miracle daughter and I'm so proud of her. Today I surprised her by asking her if she wants my SUV. She can either get it repaired for SIL to drive, or she can sell it and keep half the profit. Of course, she jumped at the chance and said yes, she wanted it. Good. Once less thing to worry about -- how to get rid of my old car. And YES YES YES the check for the new car came in today. Jeff will deposit it for me tomorrow, and I'll be off car shopping on Thursday with full intentions of bringing home a new car THAT day. FINALLY! I wish I could go on Wednesday, but I have Brayden that day, and can't imagine trying to juggle a car seat in all the cars I want to test drive, so it will have to wait until Thursday. Hmmm... Maybe I can go Tuesday evening. Hadn't thought of that. I looked out my kitchen window this morning and saw a raccoon acting kind of crazy on the other side of my vegetable garden. At first I thought he was digging in the ground, but then he started turning around in circles and just being really weird. I couldn't see too well as it was all the way across our yard and between our veg garden and the neighbor's. I went out to the side yard to get a better look (without getting too close, since we had one rabid raccoon in our neighborhood and this one was acting strange enough to be a second), and found the neighbor had a cage out and the raccoon was in the cage. The neighbor has a GORGEOUS vegetable garden (puts mine to shame) and I can't blame him for not wanting a raccoon in there. BUT the poor thing was out there in the cage for hours and hours in the 95+ degree heat! I finally went out and turned the sprinkler on in my garden, because I knew the water would hit the area where the cage was and give the poor guy a drink. Seemed to work because he calmed down quite a bit after that. Around 1pm the cage and raccoon were gone, so I assume he's on his way to a nice wooded area far far from here. Jeff has gone off to a work get-together tonight. Spouses were invited but I opted out for this one. I've gone to all the others and very few of the spouses have attended more than one or two, so I decided it wouldn't hurt anything to sit this one out. Besides, even if it's on the river (Ohio River) it's just too darn hot and humid to sit outside all afternoon.