Ess-You-Vee

Heather guessed correctly.  It's an suv.  A Jeep Cherokee, to be specific.  It was born in 1994, is in pristine condition, and runs quite well, especially with its brand new tires.  We don't drive very much -- Alex works from home and my work and Lire's school are both within 2.5 miles of our house.  When the weather is good we use the bikes or the scooter.  

Those are all my excuses, er, reasons for driving a vehicle with not-very-good gas mileage.  That and the fact that the price was so very right.  And my pal, M, mentioned the environmental benefit of buying used, which is true, too.

Ok, that's done.  Pictures soon.  I'll try to drag the boys next to it to take a picture.  You know I'm kidding, right?  They adore the Jeep.  I think they would have liked almost any car/truck we brought home, but this one particularly appeals to their boy-ness.  Big.  Cool color.  Lots of buttons.  

We visited our old Camry in the boneyard of our local repair shop.  It looked rather sad, sitting next to an old white Olds and a very new looking Saab Turbo.  I have no idea why that poor Saab was there.  Another tragic Saab story, I expect.

The boys are in bed now, though I hear mysterious sounds coming from their room.  I also think the house may be haunted, since I've felt and heard lots of strange things in the past around here.  That and the strange effect it seems to have on my in-laws.  Speaking of them, I had been doing pretty well with this subject.  I had managed not to think about it every day for a good two weeks.  But then it resurfaced.  I think it was because I was doing another deep cleaning of our house.  The last time I had done a top-to-bottom like that was right before they came to take care of the boys last month.  I know, I should deep-clean more often.  

Every dust bunny I vacuumed, every fingerprint I wiped, I remembered MIL's disparaging comments about the cleanliness of the space she occupies while visiting.  The repeated disparaging comments.  The ones that continually hurt my feelings, no matter how hard I remind myself that it just doesn't matter.  I wrote a post about cleaning eons ago (sorry, couldn't find it).  About letting go of the clean house thing to preserve my sanity.  And I stand by it.  It helped a lot.  Isn't sanity more important than a clean house?

So it came back.  All the self-righteous indignation, the hurt, the anger, the throwing up of hands.  I have a thank you note the boys "wrote" to them for taking care of them last month.  It also contains a bunch of photos and a fun leaf light-catcher the boys made.  I still haven't sent it.  Sure I've been busy, and the light-catcher still needs a screw-eye with which to hang it.  But I think I should write something, myself.  I don't know what to write.  Should it be a totally objective, act as if nothing happened kind of note?  An apology for including a hand-made gift, since that isn't something they value, (yes, they said that) yet the boys really wanted them to have one?  Nothing?

Ideas?

Comments

[Mayhem]

Oh my... Saab story! Ha!

I don't know about the letter from you, but send the one from the boys, including the lightcatcher. My mom taught me oh so long ago that it's our responsibility to give but it's not our responsibility what happens to the gift. I think she's right... Thinking of someone, making something for them and giving it joyfully is a good thing to practice. It's actually kind of a spiritual act, in my experience.

Even if they toss it, the boys (and you) reached out and did your part.

Does that make sense?

[Stacy]

I'm sorry you're still hurting over the family madness. MILs are flippin' nuts sometimes, and yours sounds mean too. UGH. I wouldn't write the letter, unless I had a very clear plan for what message I was trying to convey. Does DH have any insight? I would definitely send the boys' stuff though, and ask yourself if writing your own letter is going to even mean anything to her, or make you feel better...
But, the car, oh I mean truck, sounds really good! We too hava a 1994 SUV...welcome to the club. Perhaps one day they can meet and talk about their aching bones or worn out brake pads.
Glad the boys like it, and with the flurries we have been getting lately, I have given up hopes for our trail-a-bike in 2008.
"Rainbow Kids" had an interesting piece on Ethiopian Adoption. I will forward it to you.
Feel good and happy driving.