Daybook

Date:  Wednesday, April 24, 2013. 

Time and Weather:  It's 7:48 AM, 50 degrees and cloudy today.  Once again we are hoping for rain.

Clothes:  Short pajamas and my fleece robe.  I'll put on jeans and a long sleeved red tee shirt in a little while.        

Food:  Nothing yet this morning.  Last night I had some turkey salad w/cranberries on Ritz crackers for a midnight snack.  I plan to make tonkatsu for dinner tonight.  Hope we have some bulldog sauce.   

Sounds:  Fox news is on the TV in my bedroom. 

Comings and Goings:  I went grocery shopping last night, after the girls and Reece went to sleep.  The grocery store was not crowded at all at that time of day (or night).  I got ground beef, stew meat, the pork chops for the tonkatsu, and some chicken thighs to make Asian chicken.  Also some baguettes to make bruschetta, some artichoke spread, a jar of fig jam, cheese, carrots and potatoes for the stew, Greek yogurt, blackberries, tomatoes, avocados, and lots of other goodies.  Josh and Cyrise usually do the grocery shopping, and I had not shopped for us in quite awhile (I shop for Mom, though).  So it was nice to take my time, and consider what I wanted to cook as I went along. 

  

Little Favorites:  My new wingback chair slipcovers.  I like them!  Here is a picture from the Sure Fit website.  They go well with my couch and the rug in the family room.

                    

Music:

Memories:  I learned to drive when I was 16 in my dad's red and white '55 Ford with a manual transmission.  We lived in an area where they had torn down a whole neighborhood of big two-story four-plexes.  The streets were still there, so my dad took me there to teach me to drive.  (I also took driver's ed the summer between my junior and senior years in high school.  Dad was a better teacher than the driver's ed teacher).  

I was a senior in high school when he bought me my first car--a big white '59 Ford.  I was so little I had to sit on a cushion to see out.  I think he got such a big car because he thought it would protect me if I was in a wreck.  

I drove that big monster all through college.  I forgot to put oil in it and transmission parts fell out on the highway one day.  I pulled into a station and called Dad.  He said that he followed the trail of my car parts into the station.  He was so patient with me.  

Dad kept the Ford (after he had it repaired), and I bought a little seafoam green Volkswagen.  I loved that little car.  It was the first car I ever bought and paid for on my own.  I still remember that the car payments were $44.44 a month.

I drove that car until after Jason was born.  Sometimes you had to push it to get it started.  I remember going to the drive-in in it, and letting it roll off the mound to start it when the movie was over.  Ron and I once got stuck on the beach at Padre Island and a bunch of people helped us push it on the sand.  

We brought 2 month old Jason home to Kansas in his little car bed in the back seat.  We were going through the Arbuckle Mountains in Oklahoma.  My little VW bug could hardly make it up the mountains.  The car was packed to the gills, and we had stuff on top as well.  It was cold and windy.  We got behind an 18 wheeler and he blocked the wind so that we could go as fast as he did.

I like to drive.  Sometimes if I'm stressed, I'll just take off by myself and go for a long drive.  I don't even mind long car trips, usually.  I'd like to take Reece to see some of the country this summer.      

Thank you, God: for the precious life you've given me and my family.  Amen