Best Life

  According to Madeleine Kay, creator of Serendipity Day and author, in her book  Living Serendipitously , serendipity is "the willingness to live your life as if everything is a miracle...with the belief that at any moment something wonderful is about to happen."  So many miracles - mini, medium and big.   A simply gorgeous night last night despite the storm.  A huge drop in the temperature and humidity along with a nice breeze - sleeping was wonderful.  Curling under a light blanket - priceless.  All the animals were alive this morning and wicked happy to see us.  The cat - the loudest.  Followed by the horses and then the rooster.  All "singing" us a good morning tune.  The cat acts spastic when released and proceeded to entertain with her jumping and climbing and hunting. A great haircut by a great stylist.  Kayla has finally found happiness in her personal life.  So happy for her. Enjoying lunch with friends catc...

 A great start to the day with Father Charlie talking about love, dignity, respect and understanding.  Good thoughts to contemplate as we enter the final week before Kevin and Isis' wedding.  How can it be here already?  So exciting! After a few quick indoor tasks I headed out to cut the grass.  When did it get so humid?  Thankfully it didn't take long and I had the pool to cool off afterwards.  Meanwhile Paul worked on the chainsaw and a few little projects around the house.  We had a second guy evaluate the garage site in Rangeley.  Hopefully he will be more responsive than the first guy who has never submitted an estimate despite follow up phone calls.  If he cannot be bothered to respond now - I do not want to hire him.   And then intermittent rain in the late afternoon.  So far it has not helped the humidity.   The geese were hanging out in Kevin's driveway. Early evening errands - Home Depot for a new shade...

 I spent the day puttering here at Megan's.  A little cleaning and a little laundry mixed between reading, napping and swimming.  (Swimming without a cling on child- very different.)  And of course feeding the horses, chickens, cat and dog.  Mucking.   Oh and watering the garden.  That's where I failed.  I left the hose running causing the well to run dry.  No overnight laundry and no shower.  Ugh. Paul was able to reprime the pump and we now wait for the well to fill again.  Thankfully I had a pan of soapy water in the sink for hand washing. He was very productive today.  After helping Joe with a plumbing issue, he tackled reupholstering the driver's seat in the truck.                                                            Tallulah kept an eye on...

 National Relaxation Day.  Created in 1985 and reportedly began after a 9 year made a comment to his grandfather.  Being our third day with Brianna (7 year old) the last thought in her head is about us (grandparents) relaxing.  Go, go, go.   A yard sale (hoarders with smelly dogs), a very quick trip to Walmart, and a trip to Kevin's to pack clothes and food for our stay at Megan's we started our "chores".  Laundry and washing the car and truck.   Paul changed the oil in the car with a bit of "help". Then we could "relax" and swim.  This requires me throwing her in the air, watching her perform various dives and acrobats and racing her across the pool.   Finally a little quiet time before dinner.  A movie and dog cuddling. Yes she is under several blankets under the fan.   And now we are relaxing.  Scott and Rebecca have headed to New Hampshire to visit family.  Megan, TJ and Bri have headed to Maine....

 Today Paul, Brianna and myself headed to Narragansett.  Despite the weather prediction of cloudy, humid and likely rain, we went anyway.  Visiting with mom and walking on the beach can be done in any kind of weather.  It turned out absolutely beautiful after the early morning fog burned off. And even though I told Bri repeatedly that 68 degrees was too cold of a water temp for me to swim - I wound up in the water!  How many more opportunities would I get this year to swim in the ocean with a child mermaid?  She had me laughing that crabs were biting her legs and we needed to swim out to the ocean to get away from them and the seaweed.   Then the games began after lunch.  I had her pack games of her choice.  Summit or Plummet.  Similar to Candyland but on a mountain with pickaxes and teamwork required. Charades.  Always funny.  How does she know what a bank machine is?   Uno.  Tiny Uno with tiny cards. ...

 Today we fulfilled Brianna's Christmas gift.  We had given her a ticket to Magic Wings in South Deerfield, Mass.  A bit of a ride but well worth it.   There's so much more than butterflies.  The front room has dozens of habitats for frogs, lizards and beetles.                                                                           Goliath Beetle                                                                      Hercules Beetle                           ...

 National Middle Child Day.  If you are looking for super funny (and fairly accurate) middle child behavior - TJ Therrian on Facebook.  Just saying.  Check out "packing for vacation" and "loading the dishwasher"!!  Whenever I need a light moment - this is my go to.  Love you to pieces Kevin! Today was weird.  A mammogram early - get it out of the way and not think about it anymore.  Visiting Women and Infants as a patient is always weird.  I still know enough people that I was in and out quickly but I prefer not to be recognized.  My career as a supervisor there lasted almost 5 years.  Tough job.  Every time the technician comes out and says you're good, I feel blessed.  I cannot imagine not getting a different kind of report.   Then my watch.  I have had the same watch for a few years.  I wore it scuba diving to 60 feet - no problem.  Then I broke the band.  Paul ordered me a new watch and it...