Gina Left Us Alone

Gina has left me alone for two weeks with Abe, Peter and Hanni.  It is for a good cause.  She flew to Mississippi to help Ellie have a baby.  Ellie's water broke a six days ago and Gina left three days ago.  Still no baby.

So far here are some new things I've done:

• Made the bed for the first time in probably 20 years
• Put on country music on the car radio.  Gina hates country music.
• Made pesto pasta with chicken
• Made beans and rice
• Rode a bike to the store and library with Peter and Hanni
• Rode a bike to the post office
• Did clothes laundry (usually I only do rags and towels)
• Made spaghetti with marinara sauce

This is just the beginning.  The list may seem pedestrian but there all new for me.

But most importantly, Abe and I started the bathroom remodel.  I may be 16 years late getting started but now is the perfect time with Gina gone for a couple weeks.

I'll be posting updates as the project progresses.

Black and White - Photographs Sometimes Lie

Someone sent me this photo a couples weeks ago. 

Probably taken in the late 1960's, I'm guessing 1968.  I'm sitting on my Dad's lap.  My younger sister on my Mom's lap, while my older sister is in the back. This is a rare photo of my family.  I don't remember it being taken and it is only one I have of us together.

My parents divorced in the early 1970's (1972?).

The picture depicts a typical family sitting down with smiles. We really weren't that kind of family as I would find out a few years later.

When I see the pictures on Instagram and Facebook everyone is documenting snatches of time to show their friends.  I've read that people can become discontent with their own lives while looking at those sites - everyone else seems to be so happy and nobody has any problems.

Pictures sometimes lie.

Wedding Photo - 1985

Just added this to our about page.  Our wedding photo - June 15, 1985.

We married in our home church - Grace Church - San Luis Obispo, California.

Gina hasn't changed much other than longer hair.  I on the other hand am heavier with thinning gray hair.

Our life is good.

Very Last First Time - Book Review - SAB*

Someone asked for book recommendations for stories describing a different culture.  This book - Very Last First Time - immediately came to mind.  This definently makes the Snider Approved Book list.

A simple story, wonderfully unique pictures, and a setting no child from my family would even think exists.  Eva Padlyat, a young Inuit girl, has helped her mother collect mussels.  But this time is different it is the very last first time she is allowed to go alone under the ice.  She climbs under the ice and walks along the seabed with only a candle as light.  Of course the candle goes outand she is alone in the darkness.  

The story is fascinating and not scary.  All my kids enjoyed this book but my daughter were particulary fascinted by the young girls adventure.

*Snider Approved Book - Read This for how a book earns the coveted SAB

Two Things - Beauty and Long Suffering

Two practical things Gina does to strengthen our marriage and make our home a better place.

Brings beautiful things to our home

These daisies are an example of something I never think about.  I tend towards the pragmatic and practical, forgetting about the small and simple things that make life better by bringing beauty into it.

Daisies for Scott

Gina knows the Daisy is my favorite flower so she planted them were I see them everyday they are in bloom. I can't explain it but daises make me smile and stop to enjoy creation.  I would always be to busy to plant flowers but my life is better because they are in view.

Long suffering with delayed projects

16 Years and Counting to get this done

Our master bathroom is in bad shape.  Nobody would ever guess the state of our bathroom.  We never let people back here.  I started working on this over 16 years ago.  Some other project or priority or lack of money keeps me from finishing this one.  I'm telling myself with only 3 kids at home this fall it will get done before 2014.  It takes a patient wife to put up with this one.  Every time I walk into that bathroom I am reminded of that fact.