Day 3 The Contentment Journal, June 4, 2019

Today’s topic was way easier than day 2.  In reflection over the home you are currently in, what were you most grateful for that day?

We moved into our home August 1987.  We still live here.  I was due with our 3rd daughter in 10 days.  DH had arranged for a few friends to help us move as we were told the house would close on August 7th.  Well of course the funding did not get transferred and our realtor told us we could not get the key, even though all paperwork was done, approved and we were just waiting for the bank……who actually owned the house.  A bank president had lived here before us and they bought it from him when they transferred him and his family.  Well I was hugely pregnant and could have that baby at any moment so I got the phone number and called the person who said we could not move in until the money transferred.  Back in those days transfers did not happen over the weekend like they do now.

Let’s just say he changed his mind after talking to me and we got the key.   Our home……I truly love our home.  It is a modest 1650 square foot home, ranch style, built in 1964 in literally the first development in our small rural town in Northern Coastal California.  When I was a child, the rich people lived here.  Haha…

My older daughters were 6&8 when we moved in.  My cousin and her husband were in our area from the Sacramento Valley.  We were sitting around our dining room table and she said they could help us move the rest of our stuff.  I laughed and said, this is all the stuff we have.  Boy has that changed!

So my feelings were I was actually worried, very worried.  We did not pay rent for almost 9 years living in my childhood home that was honestly a dump, but hey it was free!  It enabled us to save and buy a beautiful 1 acre lot that we sold and bought the house.  We had planned to build a house and the land was almost paid off when I found myself pregnant again! We felt building a house and having a newborn in that little dumpy home was more than we could do. I sat up all night, literally all night going over and over our budget making sure we could afford it.

We could and we did.  I was, though, so so happy to have forced air heating.  That was the biggest thing to me, followed by wall to wall carpeting except in the kitchen and bathrooms.  Of course now, almost 32 years later, we don’t have as much carpet, but I still am so happy here.  KT was born 17 days after we moved in (of course I was late again)! I brought that newborn home, to the only home she lived in while growing up.  Good memories over the past 32 years…..

Okay onward,  commitments to myself! The sun came out yesterday, early, not when we woke up, the cloudiness and fog disappeared and by lunch it was sunny.  I had the marinara sauce going on the stove and I dumped it into the crockpot, turned it on and got ready to spend the rest of the afternoon outside! Of course I took Isabella into the garden area with me and only had to shoo her out of the strawberries once.  I ended up going out of the garden into our chicken area and moved flower pots around.  They were just a big mess of pots and flowers and I spent time arranging, putting 5 small pots up on the ledge of our chimney that is surrounded by our patio.  I lifted a bigger pot into the wheelbarrow and that was a bad idea.  I got it in and that’s as far as it got.  I did push and pull other big pots around on the patio and it is looking better.  Of course I overdid it and could barely walk into the house after weeding and working for a few hours. Why do I do this to myself?

I did my habits I am trying to establish at bedtime.  I did wash a few things that did not fit into the dishwasher instead of letting them sit in the sink overnight. Washed my face, did my teeth…..I did 5 wall pushups all day every time I went into the bathroom.  I am going to add a quick pickup around the house.  I hate it when I get up in the morning and my slippers are not where they belong!

Luckily dinner was made since DH made a big batch of burritos on Sunday morning and had left a few out for us.  I made some coleslaw which involved dumping the bag of coleslaw mix into a bowl and adding 1 tablespoon of Maries dressing and 1 tablespoon of Bolthouse.  I stuck the burritos in the oven to heat and crisp up and viola’ dinner.  That heating pad sure felt good while I ate my dinner in my recliner!

Speaking of food.  I put about a tablespoon of my homemade lemon curd into plain greek yogurt and it was super yummy!  That will be my snack today.  Not much left of the jar of curd after making ice cream on Memorial Day, lemon ice cream adding the lemon curd and crushed strawberries as it froze up.

Okay I need to watch some videos on how to add links because I will link up the recipe.  It’s delicious, refreshing and made with half and half which I always have on hand so it’s easy to decide to make since we keep the ice cream bowl in the freezer so it’s always ready to go!

Busy day ahead of me including a fundraiser tonight for our granddaughter’s theatre group.  Up and at em’!