ANSWER TO ASHLEY AND MIKE

In reading the comments to yesterday’s blog, I had to dedicate today’s post to answering my wonderful daughter and her lovable husband. I think I could easily make it a compare/contrast essay if I wanted to remember all the rules of writing I used to teach. But I don’t want to take the trouble, so I’ll just do it without the rules.

First, we have my sweet daughter who understands me perfectly (because she knows me well after all these years). She remembers all the sacrifices I made for her: driving her to all those vacation spots, (actually that was not a sacrifice) washing, ironing (?) cooking, cleaning, nagging her to clean, helping her with her math homework (oops, that was the genius), and turning the dining room into a sewing room so she could go to a college where she had to wear dresses or skirts everyday! So her remark about my non-cooking was so nice, making me feel like I am appreciated.

And then comes the next comment. Can you believe that a son-in-law can be so disrespectful to the grandmother of his children? It’s no wonder that his oldest son feels free to leave comments on the blog questioning my reasoning powers. But this time my honesty and integrity are being doubted. What will readers think?

So I feel obligated to answer. OK, maybe it was wishful thinking that I cook (I use the term loosely) 4-5 nights a week. But when we do eat out, they are places that are not TOO expensive, especially church night. I can’t cook for what we pay those nights. (I exclude weekends in all this; they are made for splurge-type meals.)

And I must admit that Mike is somewhat right about the genius eating a light meal at night. He usually does want another full meal but has gotten pretty good about eating what I make. Some nights it really is a BLT or even a frozen dinner. As to the ice cream, he asked me to quit buying it so he wouldn’t be tempted. Instead, he raids the pantry to see what goodies may be lurking there. The other night he discovered sweet and salty granola bars and finished them off in nothing flat.

In our family the genius is famous for the amounts he eats, and we all know that he would be huge if it weren’t for his exercising. But, for the record, he has gotten more conscientious about his evening meals because he knows that for him it is dangerous to go to bed on a full stomach. He’s had enough choking “spells” to make him very cautious in this area.

So, Mike, I wasn’t just writing fiction about Jim’s eating; I have just been remiss about letting the rest of the family know about it. I can hear you now saying “I’ll have to see it to believe it.”

About my cooking, I COULD have been exaggerating a little. But I do have to keep up appearances about it; otherwise, I might embarrass the sisters.