A Very Domestic Summer Solstice

Today is summer solstice, which is the longest day of the year. Todd and I have a tradition of taking the day off, if it occurs on a weekday. Because really, who wants to spend the longest daylight day of the year at work? I also have a tradition of celebrating summer solstice with my girlfriend Meera. Which means today is also the five year anniversary of when I got my belly-button pierced. Our girls day out started out with lunch at Cozymels and ended up with me in a tattoo/piercing parlor in downtown San Diego, getting my belly button pierced. Meera had it done already, so I wanted to do it too. I had a really flat belly back then, so I didn't mind having a little pink bling on it too. It turned out well, never got infected. I still have it and still love it. This year's summer solstice was quite different though. No additional piercings (or tattoos). Instead of being outside to enjoy the sun, we spent the day indoors doing domestic tasks. First off, we each made our favorite breakfast in our new kitchen. I made a fried egg sandwich. And Todd had popcorn. Yes, he actually eats air-popped corn for breakfast on most days. He even has an air-popper at work too. Then we watched our church service on the internet. Yes, our church broadcasts live services on the internet. Then we made good use of our rented carpet steam-cleaner and cleaned all the carpet upstairs and downstairs. We shared the task and it took us over three hours to do the whole house. I took unusual joy in seeing the dirty black water dump out from the machine each time. It meant less remodeling dirt on our carpet! The carpet did look much cleaner after we were done with it. Todd also cleaned and conditioned our leather sofas. They haven't looked this good and shiny since we got them nine years ago! After carpet & sofa cleaning, we took a break for a couple of hours. Then it was time to make the inaugural dinner in the new kitchen. We each decided to make our own favorite dishes. For me, that means cream of mushroom soup. I use a recipe from Cooking Light (link above) and it really is pretty healthy. For Todd, his favorite dish is Pulled Chicken Sandwich. The recipe is two parts. You make a rub for the chicken and grill it. You also make your own sweet spicy BBQ sauce. Ahh... our inaugural cooking in the new kitchen went well today. Happy tummies and happy hearts. Now if we could just get the new oven to work... and get the microwave trim mishap resolved. This week's Digi Dare is Sandra's (Chengie) first time hosting, and it is a great one. Here's mine: Full credits at the Digi Dare site. It was hard. And I cried creating this layout. But life is hard sometimes. It is good to acknowledge that in our scrapping too. I was totally blown-away by the layouts by my teammates this week. I found out so much more about them and am grateful and honored at the things that they chose to share from their lives and hearts. This dare has already generated a great response and many submissions from women who felt the need for some scrap therapy. I hope you will join us this week too.