Holiday Sunday

Life has been good lately. We spent about 6 days up at the family house in the mountains. The house is large and lovely so we invited my daughter, her husband, her husband’s mother, our two friends and their beloved twins and of course, our wonderful dogs. Everyone came at different times but we all left on the Monday after Mother’s Day, which was a wonderful day itself. When you have just the right people, you can almost guarantee a good time. The weather was perfect, very few people on the lake and a much needed relaxing respite for our guests. I’m a big believer that getting close to nature is the perfect medicine for letting go of the day to day stresses. It sure seemed to work for our friends.

That was probably the most exciting thing that has happened in my life for awhile. This suits me just fine as I’m happiest being around my home. Soon we’ll be invaded for a day as the staircase gets new runners. The stairs are just hardwood now but I prefer the stability I can get from carpeting, especially as I age. It might also encourage our newest dog, Lacy, to go up and down these stairs. She now does fine with the outdoor stairs but not these.

Then soon we’ll be starting a small renovation on this large room we have downstairs. Terry, being the packrat, has pretty much turned it into a junk room. I hate it but to save my sanity and my marriage, I applied the same trick I used when I had teenagers living at home – Close the door and don’t go in there and I pretend it doesn’t exist.

But I’m running out of space in my little studio where I paint so I presented him with the idea of moving the sliding glass doors about 6 feet out. It already has a roof being the floor of the deck above so it’s not a huge endeavor. We’re going to make it glass all the way across and this new space will be all mine with plenty of great natural light coming in for painting. Terry has promised to clean out the room, most of which will go to Goodwill. I’ve already arrange for a couple of hungry young boys to help him and use their truck so I’m hoping I’ll see the start of the clean-out this week. The large room itself needs some other cosmetic work, painting, carpeting but it won’t be a big project. Terry keeps saying he wants a “man’s room” and he can have that as long as I have enough room for painting.

I’m not sure why he needs a man’s room because I thought the garage was already a man’s room. At least it appears that way since there’s no room for anything in there but his “man stuff.”

I need to go to the dentist’s. I don’t want to go but I need to go. I also need to see my endocrinologist for my annual blood work/meds.

We’re having a couple friends over tomorrow for a barbeque. I’m doing some prep work for that now as I write this. I’m happily staying busy because a year ago on this day I had to check into the hospital with that virus in my heart. I was sure I was there to die, feeling the way I did. Cooking for friends is so much more preferable than the hospital.