How to Make Your Mother-in-Law Happy

While we usually blog about cool hikes and neat places to kayak, we are going to use this blog like a "how-to guide." Mark is the master, so today he is giving advice on "how to make your Mother-in-law happy."

First step is noticing when things need to be done around her house--and doing them. We first raked all her leaves and bagged them up. Then Mark tackled all the yard-work, including some bushes and trees that haven't been trimmed for their entire lives.

Mark spent the rest of the day making his Mother-in-law happy as he trimmed and pulled and hauled away debris that his 90-year-old mother-in-law, Betty, couldn't.

Betty is pretty excited about her new transportation. When a good friend left to enter assisted living, she gave her rusty old three-wheeled-bike to Betty.

It was a great gift, but all the chrome was covered in rust.

Because he wanted to make his Mother-in-law happy, Mark read on the internet how to remove that rust. One source suggested using a wet piece of aluminum foil to scrub away the rust. When he tried this trick for the first time, he saw what a difference a little foil and a lot of elbow grease can do to shine up part of a rusty bike fender.

Mark and his Mother-in-law scrubbed on that bike to bring the shine back to her new ride.

Mark worked many hours on the tough spokes to turn them from rusty . . .

to shiny! That really made his Mother-in-law happy! Then he greased the chain, adjusted the seat and the chain, and now it looks and rides like a new bike.

Another way to make your Mother-in-law happy is to recognize and then fix problems that she can't even see. The hurricane that hit this section of Texas last summer blew off car ports and porches, and blew down trees in this park. Betty was lucky in that she only lost a few shingles. Mark made many trips to the roof assessing damage, and then buying the supplies needed to make the repairs. She didn't like watching him go up and down her shaky ladder, but having the damage fixed did make his Mother-in-law happy.

While Betty still drives her car, Mark took over driving duties to make his Mother-in-law happy. He drove her wherever she wanted to go. He drove her to the pharmacy, the post office, the bank, and to favorite restaurants to pick up food. We did all the grocery shopping and Walmart runs for Betty. We took her and our friend Barbara to Padre Island for a road trip.

We also took them on smaller road trips, like a drive through Mission, Texas. We were looking for the 40 different butterfly statues scattered around this town that also hosts the World Butterfly Center.

This statue at the Mission City Hall also included a monarch caterpillar and chrysalis. 

Barbara enjoys going on our little road trips, and she has been spoiling us with special treats. One day she made a sour orange meringue pie, another day it was banana bread, then coconut cake, apple pie, flan, cinnamon fried apples, then we had taco soup and chicken pot pie soup. It's fun to hang out with someone that loves to cook and try new recipes!

We had to fit in that beautiful meringue pie picture, but now we must get back to Mark's how-to-guide. Besides giving her more mobility by driving to new destinations, Mark also recommends helping with other forms of transportation to make your Mother-in-law happy. He pushed her in an all-terrain wheel chair all over the trails of a nearby state park.

One of the most important drives we took was to Edinburg for Mother and Barbara to get their first Covid vaccination shots. It made his Mother-in-law very happy that Mark filled out the on-line shot scheduling and dropped her off at the door for this important vaccine. Denisa went inside with them to help fill out forms and make sure that our 90-year-olds understood the process. They both felt like they won the lottery when they got their invitation for the vaccine through the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley medical campus.

With all those things accomplished, Mark knows that probably the most important way to make his Mother-in-law happy is to spend time with her. We've been over to her house to share meals and play games every day during this month of our visit. While there, he rewires light switches, repairs sagging bathroom cabinets, gets her new I-phone set up, deciphers confusing mail, washes dishes, and takes out her trash. Yes, he's the master of making his Mother-in-law happy. But then again, he's also the master of keeping his mother-in-law's daughter happy as well. 

P.S. After Mark proof-read this blog, he insisted that we add that Denisa also helped with those projects and trips. So we'll add that note, because Denisa wants to keep Betty's son-in-law happy too.