Can't Decide & Who Cares Anyway?

I can't decide if I've just had the best, long hot bath of my life...or my sense of contentment and comfort are from the fact that I've just had a long, hot bath.  I can't decide if the reason I feel so peaceful right now is because I've just had said bath; that I'm back pet-sitting @ the house about 100 steps from the ocean front (with 2 dogs, 5 chickens-the duck is gone and a canary) for 2 weeks right around the corner from the Kitsteiner compound; that I have a full day off and am feeling well; that I can hear those ocean waves, just sitting here on the couch; that I've just had a really great cup of coffee in a good mug; that all I can hear right now is the ocean and roosters cock-a-doodle-doing; that I felt like I was in sanctuary when watching a movie last night propped up in a really comfortable bed in a cabin-like-feel bedroom; that I had a great night sleep, only waking to my natural body clock as opposed to an alarm or other loud noise; or that all I have to do today is write my monthly Organizing column for the Petoskey News Review and possibly make a fire in the fireplace, listening to the evening oceantide.  And, then I think, who cares why I feel such contentment, comfortability and peace - I'm just going to "be" that today.  That and grateful.
I am a professional organizer for a not-so-lofty reason:  I am OCD and neurotically neat.  I realized and accepted this years ago, hence cultivating these seeming negatives into a business!  For instance,  After finishing up a 45+ hour work week last night @ 7P, Wendi had to tell me to absolutely not do the dishes; and when exhausted, after gathering a good overnight bag, I arrived @ the home I am pet-sitting and spent 2 hours getting everything neatly in order and my stuff set up in the bathroom and bedroom, I have had to stop myself several times from doing their laundry and organizing a bathroom cabinet, or walking 3 bags of recycles down to the recycle bins.  Their cleaning lady comes tomorrow and with 4 of them out of the house, she will need the work to do.  It was very hard for me to leave the compound yesterday without doing those dishes, but I simply did not have any where-withall left in me.  It did, however, give me great satisfaction to fold a laundry load, put one in the dryer and run a new one before I left for the night.  As I ran back to grab my coffee for this a.m., up 2 flights of stairs (there are 33 in total - see?  OCD, who counts stairs?!), the thought of Wendi finding a very full, large basket of folded, clean laundry when she got up this morning, made me very happy.

The Kitsteiner family, after a 12 hour delay, finally arrived back on the island the morning of the 30th, from their 3 week trip to the USA.  Sparing all of the details, what ensued over the past 2 weeks since their return was....just, what I've come to call The Terrible Awful.  To summarize:  Wendi has been extremely ill and while still climbing out of it - the rest of us all got the flu in staggered days, some overlapping the others.  By Wednesday, I had 30 hours in, flu and all.  The photo below was Tuesday:

At one point, Wendi and I just looked @ each other incredulously.  She seemed to be trying to form the words, "I'm sorry."and with utmost honestly I said, "Wendi, outside of being w/my 2 boys and Bleu, even in this, there is nowhere or nobody with whom, I'd rather be.  

From Thursday through Saturday, I was able to do 3 full days of Organizing w/3 separate clients, while doing my best to keep on top of laundry and dishes @ The Kitsteiners.  By last night, I was exhausted, and arrived home to a plate of John's gourmet cooking - they saved a beautiful plate for me and I enjoyed it with an excellent imported beer, that almost hurt John to watch me drink, as the 3 of us adults got caught up with each other.  I look forward to another very full week with 4 organize clients and the Kitsteiner clan dishes, laundry, library story hour and playtime with the kids.  And, as I'm busy going to and fro, these are the sights I see, for which I am grateful:

 

And, in running to the Portuguese grocery store, I don't know that I'll ever be able to eat pork again:

And last night, as I checked my Facebook page, I loved seeing this photo from P-Town, wishing I could hug my boys, walk with Bleu along Lake Michigan and catchup by the fire of the wood-burn stove in the den of my old house:

and someday, I'd love to re-create this bookshelf below: