Sometimes we have a perfect day. Yesterday was one.
Even the weather gloriously cooperated--sunny, around 70 degrees, breezy with blue skies and the kind of puffy white clouds you remember as a child.
Tom and I drove to local yard sales and with our remarkable weather? People practically sang in the streets.
I told Tom I needed an electric mixer because mine (free with a supermarket promotion eons ago), gagged and died. So what did we spy at the next sale, unopened in its original box? Yes, a mixer, and for just $3. We even played with the owner's adorable rat terrier puppy and laughed as he raced around us in utter glee.
We drove through McDonalds and ordered from their oh-so-healthy menu (heh), then took our breakfast to the river where, oh my! Ten of the sweetest, tiny baby ducks waddled around with their mom along the lawn right in front of our car as we sat and munched and read. And one seagull told all his friends to buzz-off because we belonged to him. He was patient, silent and we tossed English muffin pieces and egg out the windows to his yellow beak.
More sales, then we drove home to place our new toys away upon hutch shelves and Tom even tried-out the reverberating mat which he'd bought for his back. He laid down upon it on the living room carpet while I sat upon the love seat watching the sun and leaf shadows dance across the floor. I stepped out to the front porch to soak up the breeze and sun and then Tom came out, said the pulsating mat had made him feel rejuvenated and so why not go to more yard sales?
Which we did! Oh my. A couple out in the countryside and then some over in the next town. And to end our perfect day, we stopped at the most old-fashioned hamburger stand, ever. Oh, the time travel at this place tucked into a tiny old town on the river, with a yellow bug-lighted covered area and umbrella patio tables stretched over the river. Tom and I sat at the best table on the deck, he ate a hot dog, I shared his fries and drank a strawberry-banana milkshake and we both gazed down at the river and listened to the people around us.
I also stared at a large old white house with awnings and a lawn which sloped down to the river over on the other side and tried to picture the street which must lead to it and we wondered aloud if we'd buy that house even at a giveaway price, given it's proximity to the overpass so near us. We discussed emissions and noise and decided, probably not. But after we left the hamburger stand, out of my own curiosity, we decided to try to find the way over to the house and alas! I was right to wonder how one approached the house--from a regular street you must turn right and drive about half a block down a gravel road--imagine! A gravel road in the city.
Well, to glimpse that type of seclusion, I changed my mind and decided I'd buy that house for a just-take-it price, thruway next-door, even.
And so we drove home, slowly coming out of a 1950's fog and back into 2007, out of a day which felt more like a week's vacation. Back to perfect blue skies and breezes and our wannabe Blondie and Dagwood house--and each other.
******
Do you ever do things and think, "I wish I'd done that sooner!"?
That's how I felt after I painted our hoosier cabinet, white. Before, it looked ok in green, but now it sits as a much-loved member of the kitchen. As though it truly belongs.
There are hundreds of details to making a home and this is my season for paying attention to them all. There's a certain feeling you get after you've replaced the old ratty bath towels you've had since your now-adult daughter was in high school and the bed pillows you've had since ? as well as the pillowcases, bedspreads and sheets.
Strange how we live with all this stuff and only, usually, think to replace it when it develops stains, rust, or shredded, gaping holes. Or how a piece of furniture arrives in one color and it never occurs to us to paint it a new one--or move it to a different corner.
Yes there's contentment, but also? There's using our creativity to fix and better what we have. You know, rather than just complain about wanting something more special.
"I can ask God to help me improve my creativity, you know," I tell myself. "He'll help me use my head, heart and resources if only I'll prefer His ways rather than mine."
But first I must truly believe that.
***
My funky yard sale find of the morning! Most are in rough (chipped, yellowed) shape which makes them perfect for adding to my collection (the bowls, though, look seldom-used). Some will go upstairs in my turquoise Dream Room, as well as on the high open shelves of my kitchen and perhaps a couple I'll keep on the oval table upon our front porch.
***
"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things..." Philippians 4:8
While wandering around our city library, I discovered the perfect book.It's called, My Time: Making The Most Of The Rest of Your Life. Gracious.
The author interviewed many people over 50 about how they felt and what they're doing after their children left home and after facing the facts: they could quite possibly have more than 30 years left to fill! So I'm reading and feeling as though I'm in great company and becoming inspired to make some bold changes in myself.
I highly recommend My Time for those of you who've contacted me (or not) about feeling stuck in your empty house. And well, I can't recommend every word in this book, but long gone are the days when, if a book, preacher or celebrity said something I disagreed with, I'd race away and plug my ears. Those kinds of picky people become one-dimensional and dull.
Me? I can learn from every person on Earth now--what freedom!
On that same library trip I discovered an essayist with a dry sense of humor which I love. She's Bailey White and I devoured two of her books this weekend: Mama Makes Up Her Mind: And Other Dangers of Southern Living, and the other, Sleeping At The Starlight Motel: And Other Adventures On The Way Back Home. I could not put these books down. Wow. Must buy these.
Books like those help me lighten-up--and for someone who's always leaned toward being overly serious, especially while younger when *everything* was a great big hairy deal--that's a Good Thing.
*****
P.S. If you ever read a book or watch a movie because of my recommendation, I hope you'll tell me. Whether you loved it or hated it doesn't matter--I'm always curious to hear other's impressions of what I recommend. Always!
And below, some of my latest finds for my new collection:
