Starting over in a new country

 I came across this bumpersticker message, a perfect question to answer in this blog post. 

I know it is in the making; it is in progress, slow at times. I am digging up the stories from the past, distilling them from the vast collection of letters, discovering them in old photos, and researching the historical context.
In 2019 I am serious about pursuing this goal, and even willing to announce that I am writing a book,  a daunting task that requires discipline, focus, time!

Snow days help. Cancelled appointments, changes of plan that keep me grounded can become opportunities--extended time to write!

The snow is so beautiful to look at and wonderful to play in--that is for the greats and the grand!

Daddy Matt helped Rebecca build this jolly giant!

This week I worked on chapter 7 which tells what my parents went through to set up housekeeping in a small town in the center of Argentina in 1946.

I learned about the process of having a mattress made. I found a blog post that told the story of the family business of a colchonero (mattress maker) and how it came to an end when synthetic materials replaced raw wool. 

I also found a bit of trivia--why the players from Atlético of Madrid are nicknamed the colchoneros.

My mother wrote about having to cook over one kerosene burner, a calentador, for six weeks while waiting for a kitchen stove they had ordered.

She mentioned her frustration trying to get food on the table in a timely fashion for a little girl who seemed to have hit a growth spurt and cried and protested that she wanted to eat! Perhaps that is why she gave in and let me lick the beaters before dinner.

It appears I also had a distaste for boiled (non-pasteurized) milk and could only get it down with Toddy--the popular chocolate-flavored energy drink powder.

They had only an ice box to preserve food. During the summer an ice delivery man came around, but in the fall as the weather cooled down, his clients were fewer and he could no longer afford to make the rounds. Dad had to find ingenious ways to carry back blocks of ice from the market, such as take me along and balance the ice on the back of the push cart.

He and his missionary colleague seriously contemplated making a refrigerator. I haven't read far enough to know whether that is what they ended up doing. I do know that Dad spent a lot of time in the workshop making pieces of furniture and fixing things.
As they say often happens, "you marry someone like your dad." Michael is the ultimate handyman and a self-taught expert in many areas. He is not happy unless he is designing, making, building.
As lead mentor for Team 1720, the PhyXTGears, he spends much of his time in the Madjax shop in Muncie during build-season. The clock began ticking January 5. They have a very strict deadline, 52 days, to build a robot to play the 2019 game: Destination: Deep Space.

That is yet another factor that allows me alone-time to write, if I do not get distracted. I am striving to make this a priority, like a full-time job would be. There is a high learning curve. Your advice, encouragement and affirmation may help keep me focused on the task.