5 Bucks' Worth of Chain

Have you ever had one of those days where you accomplished sooo much?? Today was such a type of day for me ... oh, and add in that it was fantastic!! I sooo needed a day like today to wash away any remaining stress, to recharge my batteries, to center myself, to catch up, to 'stabilize'. It's been a long time since I had a day like today and I made the very most of it.

First up - this little gem!! "What is it?" you might ask? A new clothesline! Um, yep...things like this can float my boat. I spent the morning outside reading the current book for my sweet book club and oh my...is it an awesome read! (The Book Thief by Markus Zusak) The weather is absolutely gorgeous and I sipped my coffee and read while the hummingbirds played chase and the sounds of a wonderful Saturday morning drifted by. On the top of the laundry list were my quilt and two sets of sheets. The clothes line quickly filled up and I wasn't done! After pondering the situation for a minute, a quick trip to Lowe's was in store...so off I went and soon I returned with $5.10 worth of new galvanized chain. That's right...chain. I use a chain for my clothes line and love it! A hammer and nails were all I needed to add a second length and voila'! In no time, my new line was full of summer sheets drying in the lazy morning sun.... perfect! Best five bucks I've spent all week! It became one of those days of projects popping up - mixed in with a little 'break time' for more reading. A day for:

...watching a neighbor attempt to trim his mesquite tree with a power saw on the end of an extension pole...man, I covet that tool! Do you know what I could do with that?!?

...drying bed linens and a quilt out in the summer breeze and dappled sunlight

...flipping and turning the mattress so that it wears evenly - truth be told, it's probably been 1 1/2 years since I last did this! When did you last do yours??

...sinking into the story of a young girl in World War !! Nazi Germany - a genre soooo not my type...and yet, running over to my patio table to steal a few more pages between my odd jobs of the day

...cleaning the tarp that covers the bar-b-que grill and hanging it on my new clothes line to dry while I cleaned the grill, too

...getting the grill's propane tank refilled and then wrestling that bad puppy back in place good and tight - it gave quite a fight, but I won!

...dusting and deep-cleaning my bedroom - sort of my own 'extreme make-over'. My goal was a clean bedroom with 'sweet pea' air freshener (a la Bath and Body works), summer-dried sheets and a freshly-made bed - goal met!

...cleaning my bathroom - okay...let me just spare you the graphic details which involved poses unnatural to humankind, cleansers all over myself and paper towels and rags all over the place!! I deep-cleaned it all, and it's sure purty tonight!

...making my bed up, spraying the sheets with 'creamy fig' body mist and fluffing up pillows - YUM-E!

...catching my breath as I cleaned out behind the bed while flipping my mattress. There...there they were...OH MY GOSH! My pearl earrings! I lost them almost 10 months ago. I thought I had checked there thoroughly. Since I couldn't find them, I sadly assumed that they had fallen into the little waste basket by accident and I'd never see them again. They were a gift from my ex-husband and ones that I treasured. I was so very sad to have lost them...he always treated me to sweet little gifts of jewelry and those were probably my most favorite. As I reached for things behind the bed, reminding myself how I had lost them, and had never found them, I saw two little dusty white things along the baseboard. Would you believe I looked at them twice and DIDN'T CHECK THEM OUT BECAUSE I DIDN'T THINK IT WAS POSSIBLE THAT THEY COULD BE MY EARRINGS??!!?? ...and on the third time of glancing at them, I reached down and found out that they WERE MY MISSING PEARLS! All odd jobs came to a halt as I gave thanks for finding them...and took a few minutes to remember...

...folding clean clothes and sprucing up the kitchen

...letting it be 'theirs' ... and not making it mine

...trimming that mulberry tree - which STILL taunts me!! (see older post)

...watching planes on their final approach...and those up high streak across the blue sky

...cutting up and starting to throw half of a watermelon from a week ago into the compost bin, then realizing that the birds might like to have a summer snack, so putting it out in the middle of the yard and watching the grackles, doves, sparrows and mockingbirds bicker and maneuver for position all day long - man, they LOVE watermelon!! Thankfully, Ross has shown no interest in it...yet. There's still the cover of darkness tonight!

...sipping pomegranate green tea and sneaking a few more passages from my book

...fixing rosemary chicken, grilled asiago cheese bread with garlic and sliced garden tomatoes for dinner...along with a glass of pinot noir (hmmm... someday I'll have to post about what I think 'pinot noir' stands for...

...being charmed...again...by the Gamby! It's so nice to be back on steady feet again! : )