Remember my butter fiasco while I was attempting to make banana bread with my new-to-me mixer? (See "What a Morning!")
Well,
I got brave and decided to make some homemade bread, using the recipe
that came with the mixer. Making bread and not having to knead it was
the one thing I was really anticipating.
I
excitedly got all of my ingredients together and put on the dough
hooks. As I pushed the buttons and turned up the speed, there was an
awful screeeeccchhh that I could barely tolerate.
After
fussing with it a bit, I resorted to hand kneading, as my husband
recognized he had a job to do. The bread turned out very good, but my
husband spent a few hours in the garage taking the whole mixer apart.
Since
the mixer is quite old, he figured it probably needed some oil. When
he got it all oiled and put back together, he brought it in the house
and the offensive screech was gone! He said something still isn't quite
right, but it certainly runs fine now.
I can hardly wait to try it again, but since that recipe resulted in two loaves of bread, it may be awhile.
One
of the things I really appreciate about my husband is his "can-do"
spirit. We are of the generation that at least tries to fix things
before discarding them. While we have some room for improvement, we are
always preaching against wastefulness.
Which
brings me to my point. As we celebrate 42 years of marriage tomorrow, I
was thinking about all of the marriages that don't survive (for various
reasons). It's always a sad thing when the realization comes, too
late, that you have chosen a poor life partner, you have been duped, or
life's circumstances have sent spouses in different directions.
We
need to be very careful today that when a marriage seems broken, that
we do all we can to dismantle it, try to see what is broken, reassemble
it, and do whatever can be done to get it working again.
At
our parish this past weekend, they honored married couples, asking the
usual advice question about how the couples have lasted so long. They
had the usual funny answers (we weren't part of the "survey.")
Later,
though, I asked my husband how he would answer that question. He gave
me the best answer I have ever heard. He said there is no room for
selfishness or ego in a marriage.
He is so right. Guess I'll keep him another 42 years!
Janet Cassidy
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