Wonderful, Wonderful Day

   In the movie Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Milly, the female lead character is a cook in a rooming house. Adam, the male lead, is in town buying supplies and has decided that he is going to find a wife before he heads home. He lives on a farm with his six unkept brothers. His reason for marrying is, "The place is like a pigsty and the food tastes worse". He sees Milly at the boarding house serving a meal to the men there and goes in to sample it. After the meal he finds her milking a cow and proposes to her. She accepts on the condition that she finish her chores first. Over the objection of the local preacher who doesn't like a marriage arranged on such short notice, they marry.

   On the way to Adams farm in the mountains, Milly talks about how she is looking forward to solitude and taking care of one man after cooking for the men at the rooming house. The pause to water the horses and Milly picks sorrel (" makes real nourishing soup"). While she's picking she sings a song called "Wonderful, Wonderful Day" about traveling to her new home and how nice the day is. 

   That's the way I feel today. It's a wonderful day. Even though there are no "big clouds floatin' lazy like a daisy in the sky" and no bluebirds are singing songs to me, it's still a nice day.

  It started with Toastmasters. We met in person for the first time this morning. We all had masks and were all spread out as far as we could get, but it was nice to see everyone and we even had a guest. 

   Since it was going to be a rainy day we decided that it was an inside work day. We had a fine breakfast of grits and eggs. We had some cheese powder that I put on my grits. It was good. It gave the grits a nice cheesy flavour. Then I collected all the dirty laundry. I sorted it into piles and put the first load in the washing machine.

  The night before I took out some butter and four bananas from the freezer. I wanted to make some banana bread. I mixed it up and put half the batter into one pan. I added some mini chocolate chips to the rest of the batter and put it in the other pan. Chrys, one of my techs had requested the chips in her loaf. This would make a good treat for Saturday when I work. While the bread was baking I entered my schedule into my calendar program. I noticed that I am now averaging three day a week. This is perfect for me. Then I started to wash the dishes.

  After the dishes were washed, I cut up some carrots and steamed them in the rice cooker. I had a recipe for carrot cake baked oatmeal I wanted to try. I had to steam the carrots and mash them. When the carrots were done I mashed them as best I could. Clearly they needed to be steamed longer, but it was too late. I went with what I had. Once the banana bread was done I baked the oatmeal.

  While the oatmeal baked, I swept the kitchen floor twice. By the time I was done the oatmeal was done. I paused to sample a bit of it. It wasn't like carrot cake, but it was tasty. I got a bucket of water, added some vinegar to it and mopped the floor. When I was done I took the bucket and mop downstairs. I swept and mopped the downstairs bathroom.

  While I did these things I was washing and drying clothes. I had two baskets of clothes to be folded and put away. I brought one basket upstairs and began to fold the contents. Then I put then freshly washed clothes away. I finished the second basket. By this time the floor was dry. I moved the garbage can and the chairs back to their places.

   All day I felt happy. We have a nice house. I have clothes to wash and food to cook. I'm working enough hours to meet our expenses and at a job that I like. I can surprise my coworker with a treat. Tomorrow I'm going to make another two loaves for two other people. I have an oven and everything I need. I was having a good time doing all the domestic chores that needed to get done.

  It is a wonderful, wonderful day.