Guidance finding and choosing first flashcard sentences?

I've read the book. I've used the Italian Pronunciation Trainer. I've created picture/word cards for my 625 Italian words. I've learned all but a few of them. I want to start making/learning sentences, but, I'm stuck! I'm drowning in a sea of possibilities! I would like sentences that are relevant to my life as a 79 year old retiree. I would like sentences that contain: • new words • new word forms • new word orders but not too many. To start with, I want to avoid idioms. I could make up sentences, but I couldn't be confident that they were proper Italian. I am not yet ready to work with a tutor, so I need trustworthy sentence sources. I would like to proceed in some sort of grammatical order, learning more frequently encountered constructions before more complex ones. I can't be alone in my difficulties with transitioning my flashcards from words to sentences, but I have been struggling for more than a week to no avail. I could just choose any old sentence and start, but I would like to have some direction.

* Originally posted by mfseeker.