Day 2: My Clean Car

I originally titled my series 30 Days and 30 Reasons Why I Love Being a Farmer's Wife.  After I started writing, the academic side of brain started nagging.  Should I assume all farmers are like mine? Probably not. So I changed it to 30 Days and 30 Reasons Why I Love Being my Farmer's Wife.  Hopefully that will save any unsuspecting farmers from living up to high expectations based on what I am about to write.

My farmer is obsessed with clean vehicles - trucks, cars, tractors.  If it has wheels, he wants it to have clean windows, dust-free dash boards, and spotless carpets.  We'll have to ask my mother-in-law, but I think it's how they kept him busy as a child.  Child labor?  No.  Character building?  Absolutely.  Dirty vehicles drive him crazy, so he cleans them.

This is not how I grew up.  For example, one night after driving our babysitter home, my dad fell asleep at the wheel and drove into our neighbor's pond.  He woke up, swam to the surface, the walked home to meet my very confused mom at the door.  The next morning, divers came out, hooked the car, and brought it up.  There were minnows swimming on the floor boards alongside floating french fries.

There may not be french fries hiding in my car, but  on any given day, you could probably find more than one piece of granola.

Weekdays, I spend at least an hour and half in my car.  In the mornings, I drink my coffee and eat my breakfast (granola) on my way to work.  If I have to run kids to practice, which is two or three days a week, it's two and half hours and we sometimes eat dinner on the way home.  I spend way more time in the driver's seat than on the living room couch. 

My farmer may not always be happy about cleaning my car or about what he finds, but he always does it.  I appreciate not having one more thing to clean.

A couple years ago, my friend Jen came out to take family pictures.  He denies it, but I know I told him I wanted a picture with a tractor.  He chose our four-wheel drive.  At the last minute, he had the spray bottle out and was cleaning the huge tractor. 

Can you tell where Jen used Photoshop to remove it?  She worked her magic on the digital image.  The one that hangs in our office, it prominently displays the glass cleaner.  He cringes.  I laugh.  It says a lot about the personalities in our family.

My clean car - One of the 30 reasons why I love being my farmer's wife.

Stay tuned for the 28 other things I love about my life on the farm and 28 more things that converted this Sycamore girl into a small town girl:).

And, check out my friend Holly's blog and the list of the other 30 day bloggers at 30 Days on a Prairie Farm.

Day One: Grandma Millie