The Sun

A few years ago in a Food Co-op in Vermont, I bought my first copy of The SUN magazine. I stayed up all night and read it cover to cover. My favorite section in the magazine is called, Readers Write. Every month the editors select topics for readers to write in about. Any essay that gets published receives a free 6 month subscription to the magazine. It was my goal to write an essay for it, but I never did until last month.

The topics never resonated with me, until this summer. So while I was on vacation, I wrote an essay about it and I have mailed it in! I feel so good that I accomplished something that I wanted to get done, whether it gets published or not. They receive so many entries and the competition is tight, but it is exciting waiting to hear if I get in or not. The topics are broad based in order to give room for expression and they look more for thoughtfulness and sincerity over writing style.

If I don't get it published in the magazine, I can post it to my blog anyways! Now all I have to do is sit tight until March. LOL

Summer Saturday

So the heat wave around here has not let up. I don't know if there is even any rain in sight. But this has been the first enjoyable hot day I have had all summer. Our pool has been giving us headaches and even though the water isn't crystal clear yet, I had to give in and go in it today. Finally all the algae seems to be disappearing.

Moral of the story: Don't open your pool just before u leave for vacation, extend your vacation, and have no one back home looking after your pool.

Now I am relaxing and drying off on the deck and the heat is bearable enough to sit out for awhile.

We are going to go to the next step for my parents house and will have it appraised. While in our heads we have it all renovated and redecorated, we are still not 100% sure what we will do.

I think Sona asked if it was a house we would buy if we did not have the emotional attachment to it and I would say probably not. But that would still depend on what is out there. I know ranch houses are hard to come by and that is the number one attraction of this house for us. Even though we would probably finish off the attic, the main living area and master bedroom would be downstairs.

There is a huge basement with big windows that would be perfect for my husband's art studio. Great lighting. When I lived home I had so many indoor plants down there and there is plenty of room for me to still do that, plus a workout area. And a pool table would fit fine for when the kids come over.

We can add on the extra bathroom and laundry room that we would need.

The only 2 drawbacks: It is a longer commute to my work. But hopefully I will retire from my present job in a couple of years so I don't want to make that a factor since it is not long term.

The other concern is that it is a very high traffic street. The house if far back enough away from the street so that is good. Unless there are plans to widen the street which we should look into.
It is just hard to get out of the drive way at 5:00 P.M. due to the heavy traffic. Always has been... but we have all managed it all of these years.

Presently we are helping mom sort her things and working on our house to ready it for the market. We want to move either way, so it is good motivation to get things done.

On a side note. I made the mistake of getting involved in FarmVille on Facebook. I am now addicted! I have trouble with working on the computer for a limited time and then shutting it off and walking away. Email, blogs, and Facebook took up so much time. I avoided FarmVille for a long time because I knew I would be sucked in. Bingo. I need to stop and do more useful things with my time, but those gifts keep coming. And I just got my harvester and tractor!

Changes?

I am still getting settled back home after a nice and relaxing vacation. We set out to spend a week on cape cod, and to our surprise the owners of the house we rent offered us 4 extra days for free because their house was not rented for the next week. We could only stay 3 extra due to previous commitments, but those extra 3 days were like icing on the cake. How nice was that?

I also enjoy having the rest of this week home and getting stuff done around here. Although with this intense heat, I am not doing all that much.

My mother decided to move into a senior apartment building to be with some of her relatives. She is too lonely in the house now that dad has passed away and wants to be around people. So we are in the process of helping her clear out the house while she waits for an opening.

My parents built their house after they married and lived there for over 60 years. It is the house we all grew up in and where we continue to have Sunday dinners on a regular basis. I am so sad about letting it go and have been thinking about buying it. My husband and I made out our list of pros and cons and they come out just about even. It wouldn't be my dream house by any means, but I believe we would be happy with it.

So we are working through this issue right now and trying to make a decision soon. I know that part of the reason I want to buy it is that I can't bear to lose it right now. Too soon. I feel my father's presence when I am there and I find a great deal of comfort from that. I am not sure if that in itself is a reason to uproot and start all over in a new town, but it feels right to me. My husband seems to be on board and I didn't know if that would happen. Still many things to figure out after discussions with family members, but we are heading in that direction for today.

Good morning