There's a spot on the moon

That's one of those old sayings that I'm forever repeating and leaving my children behind, often in gales of laughter at the silly thing Mom just said. But if there's not a spot, I have no explanation for the dumb things i've done this weekend. I decided yesterday morning that it was so cloudy and still cool that I'd put the top down on my VW. It went down--but not quite all the way. The little warning light, which usually shows the temperature, kept flashing an outline of the car, meaning the top is not down. But I couldn't get it to go farther, so I thought Okay! I'll put it back up. It wouldn't do that either. This is where my priorities come into play: I decided I'd have to go to the VW place but first I had to go to Central Market to do my shopping. A few blocks from home I had the thought that if this was a computer, I'd turn it off and start again. So I pulled over, turned the car off, restarted it, and voila! the top went down! Actually I'm sure all that mechanism is computer-driven, so it was probably smarter than I realized.

Then, tonight, I was making dinner for Jeannie and Jim, when Jordan called, said Jacob's play date cancelled, and they'd like to come play at my house. So I thought it was time to double the rice recipe. It calls for cream of celery soup, but I only had one so I substituted cream of mushroom for the second. Feeling smug I put it in the oven, baked it, took it out and thought it looked really gray and funny. I'd forgotten to put cheese in it! So I stirred in the cheese and baked it some more, and it was great.

Meantime, Jordan had a bad day, so I went to "play" at their house and took my dinner with me. And play I did--Jacob discovered a great game. He'd roll his ball under a big over-stuffed chair and then come pull me by the hand to get it. I said, "Last time," but the next thing I knew he was standing by me, grabbing my hand, saying "Hand. Mine!" He is actually making small sentences and asking questions that are more than one word.

My cooking is going to change--I've got to lose those love handles. No more rice casseroles, no more sandwiches for lunch--okay, today I had a half an open-face pimiento cheese sandwich, and yesterday I had my lox, cream cheese, onion and tomato without any bread. I can do this. No more snacking late at night. I can do that too. My daughter-in-law Lisa has lost 40 lbs. in the last year and looks terrific--all that weight from two babies close together is gone. If she can do that, so can I on a lesser scale. And she is soooo proud of herself. I'm proud of her too. Here's the new slim Lisa with two of my grandkids, Morgan and Kegan.