July 30, 2026

I went back to some of my earliest Day One journal books and found this entry.

I’m sharing this with you this because it made me laugh when I read it. It reminds me of the mother-in-law tension that sometimes comes with marriage. Many of my mother-in-law memories are heartwarming and loving. But she was kind of an odd duck, as they say, which brings it’s own kind of charm. And makes for some pretty funny memories as well.

This answers one of the questions people ask about journaling: how can I be honest in my writing without worrying someone I’ve written about might see it?

My answer is, well, one day they’ll be gone and you won’t have to worry about it anymore.

Sat. January 10, 1976 10:10 am

Today Wade brought Holly and his brothers, Fred, Todd, and Troy, out here to snowmobile. They, along with Cobie, Jonathon, and Jason, really had a lot of fun. While they were here, Holly mentioned that her mother said that if she stayed home for one month and learned to cook and sew, etc. then she could come and live with us after that. I mentioned that for some reason her mother thinks I don’t know how to cook, and terribly honest Fred piped right up with, “ya, she says you don’t cook your family the right kind of food.” One of the twins said, “She says that if she came out here and tried to teach you, you’d get mad at her.” So Holly admitted, “She says all you know how to fix is pizza and spaghetti.”

I really resent her talking about me like that or even thinking that about me. In the seven years that I’ve been married I can remember two times that she was here at mealtime and that’s hardly enough to base a judgment like that on. Quite truthfully, I fix all the kinds of meals that any family has and the times that I’ve been at her house at mealtime I haven’t noticed that her meals are of any different nature. One time we arrived at her house after they’d just finished eating and she felt bad because she didn’t have anything to offer us. So she asked if she moved the oven out and got the two fish sticks that had fallen behind it, would like to eat them. I told her we weren’t hungry!

previously posted journal entries

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