On the road again!

Kara's preparations for the trip with the babies brought back memories of trips I made with children.

I was very much influenced by my Aunt Naomi. She used to come home to Grandma's house for long visits when Uncle Ed was out on a ship. She drove all the way from California once with little ones. She said two truck drivers approached her at a gas station early in the trip. They noticed she had been following the same route they were taking and was alone with the children. They asked her where she was going. When she told them, they said drive between us and we will take you there! They drove with her all the way to Missouri! I just thought if Aunt Naomi could do it, I could too!

From Shreveport there were the trips to Missouri. I went once with only Nancy Christ (she was about 8) and Matt (3). That was when Grandma had breast cancer surgery. On the trip home I stopped at a McDonalds in Jacksonville, AR. I ate a burger with onions and was oh so sick by the time I got back home. It was a very long trip. That was just the beginning. I was sick for about 8 more months--every day. No wonder Kara is not a fan of 7 UP or graham crackers!

I made trips home to Missouri from Tulsa, Dallas, and San Angelo also. I developed some rules for travel with small children. We drank water not cokes! Stops for gas were made when the children were awake! I did not drive until I was low on gas and then look for a station. I got gas around nap times! Snacks and lunches were scheduled. We sang songs. We could get a lot of mileage out of Kara Lee has a mother ( father, brother, friend, cousin etc.) and Delores is her name-o set to the famous "Bingo is His Nameo" song. We memorized scripture, names of presidents, and did all sorts of things to entertain. Wow! No DVD players in the car so we had to make our own entertainment.

It was a long, long way from San Angelo! I learned to drive 3 hours 4 times or more! I would think of it as from San Angelo to Dallas--Dallas to Texarkana--Texarakana to Little Rock--Little Rock to home!

I really have more good memories of trips than unpleasant ones. Guess that speaks well for my children. Besides all those trips with just mom, there were family vacation trips and trips to visit relatives. All that together time in the car made for some memories!

Saved by disaster!

This afternoon I made a peach cobbler to take to a get-together for the above 55 crowd at church. It looked great! It was 1 cup of self-rising flour, 1 cup of sugar, 1 cup of milk, mixed together and poured over one can of peaches (in heavy syrup). Then you cut 1 stick of butter into thin pats and spread over the mixture. Oven 350 for about 40 minutes.

On the way home I decided I wanted one for myself. So I stopped at Harris Foodland and bought a can of peaches. At home I eagerly prepared another and waited for my lovely dessert. Ugh! Old habits die hard. When I reached for the flour--I just grabbed my usual canister rather than the small sack of self-rising flour. Instead of rising--this all-purpose flour just sank to the bottom. I had wonderfully sweet peaches floating in a sea of butter on top of some flour goo at the bottom of the pan. I must admit the peaches tasted great--but I just couldn't go the flour goop!

Kerbe and I certainly did not need a peach cobbler to eat all by ourselves! So bad worked out for the best!

A language of love..

As our family became acquainted with the concepts in Gary Samlley's book about the five love languages, each member readily identified Nanny (June Lee) as being one whose language of love was gift giving.

Nanny would spend days shopping for just the right gift for each person. I had a jewelry box with an iris on it. She knew I liked iris. She bought me a beautiful blouse and sweater that were perfect fits and wonderful colors on me. She always bought clothes that fit the kids right then at Christmas and had the toy selection age appropriate. The Christmas ornaments she bought them still adorn our trees. Matt has his precious black goose she bought for the two year old boy who picked it out from all the choices at the store.

Then she would literally stay up all day and night for several days wrapping each gift to perfection. It also took quite some time to put on all the tape she applied to each box! Her beautifully wrapped gifts were always easy to spot under the tree. There was always much amusement as the gifts were unwrapped, and all the tape discovered, and then the oohs and aahs over how right the gift was.

Even when the health of PopPop and then later her own health prevented her from spending time shopping and wrapping, she was extremely generous with monetary gifts.

Smalley says that the way people show love is usually how they want to be loved. I don't think I ever fully returned to Nanny, the love she showed in process of choosing and giving gifts. Hopefully now that I am aware of these concepts, I can learn to love others in the way they value.

Lesson from receiving...

Soup's on!

Soup's on and smells good. This time it's my put together recipe for mixed vegetable soup. I ate earlier but am making this for lunch and supper tomorrow. Soup and chilli with cornbread are the greatest in this cold damp weather.

I tried a new recipe that Janet gave me last week. It was great--but had stuff in it that Kerbe wouldn't eat. I had to eat all of it. Sometimes life is rough! I want to make some french onion soup and some broccoli and cheese soup this winter. I've always saved those for eating out times. Krista introduced me to Panera Bread's soup and sandwich or salad menu. That has become one of my favorite eating out spots.

Grandma and I used to go to Coco's in Phoenix and get the broccoli and cheese soup and corn bread.

If you have a good soup recipe you would like to share--send it my way!

What's my latest tag?

Through the years I've had lots of "tags" Family tags were daughter, sister, wife, mother, and grandmother. I've been teacher and counselor. At JCS the younger elementary students referred to me as "the dolphin lady" because I often brought DUSO the dolphin to class. Recently at CA one the 2nd grade boys looked at me and said, "I know you, you're that emotions lady!"

Years ago Grandma was in a hospital bed in San Angelo, Texas. I sat by her bedside reading a book. It was titled Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy by David Burns. Later in my graduate study, I learned it was based on rational emotive therapy. I have found it most helpful in my personal life and in working at school with students.

Burns presents ten cognitive distortions and shows how to identify them and how to “untwist” your thinking. The first is the “all-or-nothing” thinking.

I’m trying to stay off wheat products, but I eat a roll. I’ve blown my diet for a day so I might as well eat another roll, the pasta, and the cake for dessert. That is a perfect example of “all-or-nothing” thinking in my life. In all-or-nothing thinking if I fall short of perfection, then I have failed.

It never ceases to amaze me that .300 is considered an excellent batting average by those who play ball. Yet in most aspects of my life I think success 3 out of 10 times would be horrendous. But this “excellent” batting average comes from putting things in perspective. Burns suggests thinking in shades of gray. Think of experiences as partial success. Evaluate things on a scale of 0-100 and see what success there has been and what has been learned from the situation.

If my self-esteem is based on my being perfect, I’m in trouble. Burns says “Genuine self-esteem is based on humility and an acceptance of your shortcomings. This makes is possible to assume responsibility for your actions, to feel remorse, to apologize and make amends, and to get on with productive and joyous living.”

Sounds like a biblical principle to me!