Driving Lessons

Teaching a teenager to drive is quite an experience. Talk about having to trust! How do you teach someone who doesn't have great hand-eye coordination? My oldest daughter, The Singer, is almost 16 and has her permit. She wanted to drive home from the library today. On a six-lane highway, driving in the right lane, she hugged the left white lane line! "Drive in the middle of the lane," I exclaimed. The lanes are very large, it's not like she didn't have space. She adjusted; a little. Then driving through our neighborhood, I hold my breath as the right side mirror comes agonizingly close to the mailboxes lining the street. "You're too close to the right," I state as the mirror misses the mailbox by mere inches. She gets huffy and says, "Well, you told me I was too close to the left!" I think I just gave up as a driver's ed teacher. It's just too exhausting. Seriously, I really thought she would have made more progress than she has. Driving is definitely not a natural ability for her. Fortunately she's taking Driver's Ed in June and that will hopefully help her.

As I'm a planner and thinker, I rarely do things "on the fly." I also just like to know things. So today, I checked out lots of books about creating an "edible" garden. I don't have lots of land on which to plant so I want to pick well. In the last 2 years, I've started to use more herbs in my cooking and would like to grow primarily herbs and such. As it is really already summer here in Florida, I've missed some of the prime planting season, but maybe I'll start something this year. Maybe a container garden on my back porch. I have to admit, that my interest has been fueled by reading my sister-in-law's blog. She has LOTS of land and grows LOTS of food and I will never be into gardening as much as she is. But I'll enjoy whatever I do, even if it's only planning this year.

Again, referencing Dr. Laura's book, she writes about bad habits (or more accurately non-productive habits). The main point being that behaviors that were appropriate to survive bad situations often become habits that do not help us successfully deal with our current situation. Whether you've had a bad childhood or not, we all probably do that to a degree. Behaviors appropriate to an 18 year old may not be appropriate for a 40-year old, but many 40 year olds cling to their habits from their younger days. It has made me think about my "knee-jerk" reactions to things. Have I developed non-productive, even counter-productive, habits in how I respond to things in my life? If I want to be successful, that is content (which is, by the way, different than happy), I need to review my habits and see if they are serving me well.