A Perfect Day.

That's what today is -- a perfect day in my little world. It's raining outside and cloudy, just like I like it. Seriously, I love days like that, and yes, I think I could be happy living in Oregon. Not that I'm moving, but just that I could be happy there, despite the weather. I've been doing dishes and laundry and dishes and laundry all morning and into the afternoon (the only two household chores I enjoy), broken up by periods of thumbing through old magazines (Country Living and Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion, my two all-time favorites) and a little basement cleaning. I'm wearing a super comfortable skirt and t-shirt (read: not necessarily the most attractive outfit, but perfect for a homebound day). And the house is quiet, to make things even more cozy. My husband took the boy to soccer this morning, to the mall (yes, he actually enjoys going to the mall) and now they are taking a nap with the five pooches, all seven of them on our king-size bed. So I have the rest of the house to myself. And I might pop in the "Pollyanna" DVD we picked up at the library yesterday. Yep, Pollyanna would be the icing on the cake to a perfect day at home.

Besides my perfect day, I also enjoyed a perfect lunch (leftovers, usually not my idea of perfection, but this time it was). Last night I got extra motivated and cooked a really fine dinner, inviting my mom and her boyfriend over to join us as well. There were salads (copycat of Cosi's "Signature Salad" -- baby greens, pistachios, dried cranberries, grape halves, gorgonzola cheese, and homemade sherry vinaigrette), baby back ribs (a first attempt for me), whole green beans with butter, garlic mashed potatoes and asiago cheese bread (my mom's contributions), and the creme-de-la-creme, dessert -- warm peach crisp with cold maple cream sauce. Dessert was to die for. Any fruit crisp is usually delicious, but throw on some cold maple cream sauce (thanks, Pioneer Woman) and you have yourself some slap-yer-grandma, finger-lickin', lick-the-bowl-yourself-instead-of-letting-the-dogs, manna-from-heaven dessert. (Can you tell we all loved it?)

The ironic part of today being such a perfect day was the fact that today was supposed to be our first day of vacation, with us jetsetting off to the extreme northeastern US and eastern Canada, all 11 days of it. Last week, however, I simply realized I was too burnt out to fully enjoy such a vacation, not to mention the fact that my husband had been traveling a lot, my boy was back to his potty-training extremes (ah, yes, more accidents), and we really just needed some good old-fashioned time together, whether that time be spent far away or at home. Anyone that knows me knows how much I love planning trips, packing them full, and making them happen. So it kind of felt like I was failing myself at first when I asked my husband what he thought about staying home instead, but I wised up in knowing that I might truly be making a right choice for myself and my family. The bright side is that we will not only have an awesome week this week together as a family, but we will now be taking two or three shorter (4-6 day) trips throughout the rest of the year to different locations. For now, I am very excited about our "staycation" (was that even a word before this year?). We have a lot of fun little things planned for this week, not to mention a few house projects that we hope to at least make some more progress on. And I am just going to tuck away all the planning for the trip we were supposed to go on and save it possibly for next summer.

So, sorry for my little blogging break of a few days. I will try to post more this week, show pictures of progress being made on various projects, and tell funny stories of the latest stunts my son has pulled. And come back later today for a post on the Spring Fling Round Robin quilt I received -- cute!