Chicago, January 11…

It’s 31 degrees outside with a drizzling cold rain.  Snow showers are expected.  Tiger and I are inside where the old-fashioned radiators keep everything warm.  In fact, I have a window raised slightly.  Tiger is asleep, curled into a ball on top of the leather sofa, one of his favorite places here in our Chicago condo.

Doug flew to Texas a few days ago to join a group of men from our church in Iowa on a mission trip.  They are building a church in Mexico in the midst of an extremely poor village.  A couple of the wives went along and prepared a hot dog lunch for about 150 of the villagers yesterday and gave out small gifts for the children.  This is Doug’s first mission trip and, in spite of the hard work, he’s enjoying it.  In the short video clips he has sent, you can hear the wind howling.  They are staying in Southern Texas but cross the border into Mexico each day.

Thankfully, his flight arrives back in Chicago tomorrow night – weather permitting.  I’m praying there are no obstacles to his arriving back to O’Hare safely!  We are supposed to return to our Iowa home on Monday – again weather permitting!  I have my pre-op physical on Wednesday for my ear surgery on the 23rd of January.  I’m ready to get it over with!

I’ve loved my time with our family here these past few weeks.  All of us celebrated Doug’s 73rd birthday before he left for Mexico.  It was soup night.  We made big pots of homemade vegetable beef soup,  homemade chicken noodle soup and a bowl of fresh fruit salad.  Of course, you must have hot cornbread to accompany homemade soup.  I am Southern after all.  My only concession to this Midwest way of life is a little bit of sugar in the cornbread.  When we go home to the South, I get it my way – no sugar!

Last night I enjoyed pizza and a movie with my youngest and his family,  My six and eight year old granddaughters chose the movie Abominable (about a baby Abominable snowman trying to get home to Mt. Everest and his parents!) and it’s adorable.  Amazing how far animation has come!

I had plans to get so much done while Doug was gone but, to tell the truth, I’ve been a bit lazy!  I’ve enjoyed reading, watching a few British mysteries and I’ve kept up with the basic necessities here.  I did get to walk down to the school to get the girls a couple of days and that’s always fun.  I should have also walked down to get a haircut from my favorite Chicago hairdresser yesterday!  Instead, I did the unspeakable and took the scissors to my hair – never a good thing!  I’ll go get it straightened out when we get back to Iowa.  😉