After scorching my first batch of homemade spaghetti sauce (it still turned out, thank you very much), my mom decided I needed a lesson. So, she decided that my dad and I would make a small birthday dinner for some family this weekend. I love our secret family recipe for spaghetti sauce, not only because it tastes great, but also because I love hearing my dad tell stories about his parents, who I did not get the pleasure of knowing. He paints pictures of their cafe and what it was like growing up there, and that's truly the best part of the making
He started off by teaching me the correct way to hold a knife and peel and smash garlic, how to follow the recipe but also follow my tastebuds, and the best order to follow the recipe in. And in the end, we ended up with some delicious sauce.
While we were cooking together, I started thinking about all of the things he's taught me over the years, even though when he asked me what I was thinking about, I told him I was thinking about when we needed to stir next. And here's what I came up with.
For starters, there's work ethic and determination, the value of hard work, strength and patience, protecting your family and standing up for what you believe in. He taught me how to make friends, telling me to just go up to people and say, "Hi, my name's Whitney, what's yours?" and this was especially useful for someone so shy.
After I'd memorized my prayers, he taught me Hail Mary, leftover from his Catholic teachings, and I find it is my favorite prayer, one that I repeat over and over to myself on nights I can't find sleep; perhaps because I'm not Catholic, I find it beautiful and comforting all at the same time, and it is always the cure for my insomnia (which he also gave me).
Of course, there's car maintenance: I can check the air in my tires and fill them when they get low, and I like to think I could change the brake pads on my car if only I could get the car jack thing (isn't that the name?) to work. He helped teach me to drive, even though I was less than successful on the "big roads." I feel like I know how to pack a car efficiently, though he's the best, and to always be prepared, especially during cold Nebraska winters.
There's also a love for the ocean and the Nebraska plains, the basics of skiing and sledding and swimming and snorkeling; riding a bike, cheering for the Huskers, caring for family pets, looking words up in the dictionary, even if you don't know how to spell them. The best way to find open houses, how to buy a house, inspect a house, fix a house, and how to see potential in everything. How to put everything in piles while cleaning, which I still do, even if I don't pick up the piles.
He instilled in me a passion for adventure, and taught me that life is adventure, family is an adventure, love is an adventure, and to try and live each day as an adventure, which is perhaps the best lesson of all.
He started off by teaching me the correct way to hold a knife and peel and smash garlic, how to follow the recipe but also follow my tastebuds, and the best order to follow the recipe in. And in the end, we ended up with some delicious sauce.
While we were cooking together, I started thinking about all of the things he's taught me over the years, even though when he asked me what I was thinking about, I told him I was thinking about when we needed to stir next. And here's what I came up with.
For starters, there's work ethic and determination, the value of hard work, strength and patience, protecting your family and standing up for what you believe in. He taught me how to make friends, telling me to just go up to people and say, "Hi, my name's Whitney, what's yours?" and this was especially useful for someone so shy.
After I'd memorized my prayers, he taught me Hail Mary, leftover from his Catholic teachings, and I find it is my favorite prayer, one that I repeat over and over to myself on nights I can't find sleep; perhaps because I'm not Catholic, I find it beautiful and comforting all at the same time, and it is always the cure for my insomnia (which he also gave me).
Of course, there's car maintenance: I can check the air in my tires and fill them when they get low, and I like to think I could change the brake pads on my car if only I could get the car jack thing (isn't that the name?) to work. He helped teach me to drive, even though I was less than successful on the "big roads." I feel like I know how to pack a car efficiently, though he's the best, and to always be prepared, especially during cold Nebraska winters.
There's also a love for the ocean and the Nebraska plains, the basics of skiing and sledding and swimming and snorkeling; riding a bike, cheering for the Huskers, caring for family pets, looking words up in the dictionary, even if you don't know how to spell them. The best way to find open houses, how to buy a house, inspect a house, fix a house, and how to see potential in everything. How to put everything in piles while cleaning, which I still do, even if I don't pick up the piles.
He instilled in me a passion for adventure, and taught me that life is adventure, family is an adventure, love is an adventure, and to try and live each day as an adventure, which is perhaps the best lesson of all.
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