As most of you that read this, I am passionate about family history. Well at least passionate about mine.. not so excited about John Smith's. I was looking up something in one of my grandparents history book the other week and realized that although the book was less then 10 years old, so much information had changed. People had married, died, given birth, moved etc.
A thought had been niggling at my brain cells for some time now but I kept piling other stuff on top of it pretending like it wasn't existing. But just as I never stop talking in real time, my brain never shuts up either even when I am sleeping so this thought just kept cropping up and getting stronger. I gave myself excuses after excuses most of which began with "I do NOT have any more spare time" but that didn't deter me.
After looking through the book I knew in my heart of hearts what I needed to do. I need to write a new history book of my father's line. I have done so much genealogy on both his parents I am knee deep most days. It isn't that I want to do this book to show others see what I have done... it's because of something my grandmother told me before she died. Her greatest concern was that our family would stop getting together after she was gone. She knew we would all be busy with our lives, jobs, children, and for some of us grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She knew that the only time we would get together if at all would be at funerals and weddings.
My mom told me once when I was whining about why we had to be poor and why people made fun of us when we were growing up, that all you really have in life is your name and your family. She also said to never do anything that would put a tarnish on your name.
I value my heritage. I work hard at keeping traditions that belong to our family. The first thing that attracted me to my church was the focus on families. I was hooked.
Saturday, April 01, 2017
End of Projects
I finally completed 3 projects I had on the go for the last month and a bit and I am so happy. Even though they were projects I REALLY enjoyed doing, it still took a lot of time in preparation (yeah I know that OCD perfectionism thing again). Because I had different ones on the go I never seemed to get one completely done before I started another one as they were all running concurrent. This morning I came into my office to clean up, took one look at all the stuff NOT in their proper place, took some pictures to post on here and I am going to back out of the room very quietly, close the door and go find something chocolate to eat!
Projects
I have been working on some projects here for gifts and for some classes I have been teaching. I don't have a "crafty" bone in my body, that was my sister Adele's talent, but I like doing it even if they do tend to come out a tad lop-sided at times. But what the heck...at least I can say they are one of a kind and unique hehehe. So here are a couple of pictures of my new front door wreath that I made a couple of weeks ago as well as photo albums that you make with card stock and scrapbooking papers. This class I taught on Saturday as well as one on one plus making them for presents. Now if only I could learn how to take pictures!!
Pros and Cons of Children
The Price of Children
Something absolutely positive for a change. I have repeatedly seen the breakdown of the cost of raising a child, but this is the first time I have seen the rewards listed this way. It's nice.
The government recently calculated the cost of raising a child from birth to 18 to be $160,140 for a middle income family. Talk about sticker shock! That doesn't even touch college tuition.
But $160,140 isn't so bad if you break it down. It translates into:
* $8,896.66 a year, or
* $741.38 a month, or
* $171.08 a week.
* That's a mere $24.24 a day!
* Just over a dollar an hour.
Still, you might think the best financial advice is if you want to be 'rich', don't have children. Actually, it is just the opposite.
What do you get for your $160,140?
* Naming rights. First, middle, and last!
* Glimpses of God every day.
* Giggles every night.
* More love than your heart can hold.
* Butterfly kisses and Velcro hugs. * Endless wonder over rocks, ants, clouds, and warm cookies.
* A hand to hold, usually covered with jelly or chocolate.
* A partner for blowing bubbles, flying kites.
* Someone to laugh yourself silly with, no matter what the boss said or how your stocks performed that day.
For $160,140, you never have to grow up.
You get to:
* finger-paint,
* carve pumpkins
* play hide-and-seek,
* catch lightning bugs, and
* never stop believing in Santa Claus.
You have an excuse to:
* keep reading "The Adventures of Piglet and Pooh" ,
* watch Saturday morning cartoons,
* go to Disney movies,
And
* wish upon a star.
You also get to:
* frame rainbows, hearts, and flowers under refrigerator magnets, And collect:
* spray painted noodle wreaths for Christmas,
* hand prints set in clay for Mother's Day, and
* cards with backward letters for Father's Day.
For $160,140, there is no bigger bang for your buck.
You get to be a hero just for:
* retrieving a Frisbee off the garage roof,
* taking the training wheels off a bike,
* removing a splinter,
* filling a wading pool,
* coaxing a wad of gum out of bangs, and
* coaching a baseball team that never wins but always gets treated to ice cream regardless.
You get a front row seat to witness history:
* her first step,
* his first word,
* her first bra,
* his first date, and
* their first time behind the wheel.
You get to be immortal. You get another branch added to your family tree, and if you're lucky, a long list of limbs called grandchildren and great grandchildren in your obituary
You get an education in psychology, nursing, criminal justice, communications, andhuman sexuality that no college can match.
In the eyes of a child, you rank right up there under God.
You have the power to:
* heal a boo-boo,
* scare away the monsters under the bed,
* patch a broken heart,
* police a slumber party,
* ground them forever, and
* love them without limits...
So that one day they, like you, will love without counting the cost.
That is quite a deal for the price!
Love & enjoy your children & grandchildren!
Something absolutely positive for a change. I have repeatedly seen the breakdown of the cost of raising a child, but this is the first time I have seen the rewards listed this way. It's nice.
The government recently calculated the cost of raising a child from birth to 18 to be $160,140 for a middle income family. Talk about sticker shock! That doesn't even touch college tuition.
But $160,140 isn't so bad if you break it down. It translates into:
* $8,896.66 a year, or
* $741.38 a month, or
* $171.08 a week.
* That's a mere $24.24 a day!
* Just over a dollar an hour.
Still, you might think the best financial advice is if you want to be 'rich', don't have children. Actually, it is just the opposite.
What do you get for your $160,140?
* Naming rights. First, middle, and last!
* Glimpses of God every day.
* Giggles every night.
* More love than your heart can hold.
* Butterfly kisses and Velcro hugs. * Endless wonder over rocks, ants, clouds, and warm cookies.
* A hand to hold, usually covered with jelly or chocolate.
* A partner for blowing bubbles, flying kites.
* Someone to laugh yourself silly with, no matter what the boss said or how your stocks performed that day.
For $160,140, you never have to grow up.
You get to:
* finger-paint,
* carve pumpkins
* play hide-and-seek,
* catch lightning bugs, and
* never stop believing in Santa Claus.
You have an excuse to:
* keep reading "The Adventures of Piglet and Pooh" ,
* watch Saturday morning cartoons,
* go to Disney movies,
And
* wish upon a star.
You also get to:
* frame rainbows, hearts, and flowers under refrigerator magnets, And collect:
* spray painted noodle wreaths for Christmas,
* hand prints set in clay for Mother's Day, and
* cards with backward letters for Father's Day.
For $160,140, there is no bigger bang for your buck.
You get to be a hero just for:
* retrieving a Frisbee off the garage roof,
* taking the training wheels off a bike,
* removing a splinter,
* filling a wading pool,
* coaxing a wad of gum out of bangs, and
* coaching a baseball team that never wins but always gets treated to ice cream regardless.
You get a front row seat to witness history:
* her first step,
* his first word,
* her first bra,
* his first date, and
* their first time behind the wheel.
You get to be immortal. You get another branch added to your family tree, and if you're lucky, a long list of limbs called grandchildren and great grandchildren in your obituary
You get an education in psychology, nursing, criminal justice, communications, andhuman sexuality that no college can match.
In the eyes of a child, you rank right up there under God.
You have the power to:
* heal a boo-boo,
* scare away the monsters under the bed,
* patch a broken heart,
* police a slumber party,
* ground them forever, and
* love them without limits...
So that one day they, like you, will love without counting the cost.
That is quite a deal for the price!
Love & enjoy your children & grandchildren!
Back Up To Speed
Well hello everyone,
Have you all missed me? It has been a very very long past 3 \weeks., There were several times I didn't want to make it as the pain was astromonical I have had to deal it ongoing pain with my FM and De generative Disc Disease so I am used to it but this blows all that out of the water/ Nothing compares to things kind of pain/ But I am working through it all and trying to keep a stiff upper lip.
Have you all missed me? It has been a very very long past 3 \weeks., There were several times I didn't want to make it as the pain was astromonical I have had to deal it ongoing pain with my FM and De generative Disc Disease so I am used to it but this blows all that out of the water/ Nothing compares to things kind of pain/ But I am working through it all and trying to keep a stiff upper lip.
My Saving Grace
About a year and a half ago I started getting "feelings" about one of our granddaughters. Feeling that I needed to be watching her and not her day care. I couldn't understand why I was feeling like this. This went on for a couple of months and so I talked to Keith as the feelings were getting stronger and stronger. He told me to go with my gut instinct as that has always led me down the right path. So I nonchalantly asked the kids if they had been having problems with their day care but they said no she loved going there etc.
But it still weighed on me that I needed to get her out of day care and here with me so we talked to the kids and told them I would be able to watch her now and they were quite happy and last September I started watching her. Nothing ordinary happened. Then 3 months after she came into our house I was diagnosed with the cancer and then had subsequent surgeries. She has gone with me on these surgeon visits, she has been here when the public health nurse came to change the draining bags etc. She was fascinated about everything they were doing.
Tonight just before Mommy got here to pick her up I was watching her play in the back yard collecting caterpillars and putting them in her collection box and listening to her rattling about crustal us stage and cocoons and butterflies and I listened Io her babbling away in her lone little world and it hit me like a tom of bricks. I was having those feelings for real but they weren't about me saving her it was about her saving me.
The Lord knew what was coming up and he knew that I would need motivation to get out from under my quilt every morning. He knew I would need a reason to get dressed and get outside ever day. he knew that every morning come rain or shine there was a little 4 year old girl at my door.
I get it now. She has saved me on days when all I wanted to do these past 6 months is climb in bed and hide from the world; she was there when I knew she had to get out to get some fresh air and so I got dressed and went for my walks for exercise. I believed her sole purpose in life was to save me. Save me from myself and save me from my pity party.
I wrote her a letter tonight and it is tucked safe in my cedar chest for one day when she is older and will understand who she really was in my eye and how she became my saving grace.
This is Rosaleen. If I didn't know better I wouldn't think that those ties behind her were actual wings. Making her a very beautiful angel sent from my Father in Heaven to help me get back on my feet and off my butt. thanks Sweetheart Nana loves you with all her heart!
But it still weighed on me that I needed to get her out of day care and here with me so we talked to the kids and told them I would be able to watch her now and they were quite happy and last September I started watching her. Nothing ordinary happened. Then 3 months after she came into our house I was diagnosed with the cancer and then had subsequent surgeries. She has gone with me on these surgeon visits, she has been here when the public health nurse came to change the draining bags etc. She was fascinated about everything they were doing.
Tonight just before Mommy got here to pick her up I was watching her play in the back yard collecting caterpillars and putting them in her collection box and listening to her rattling about crustal us stage and cocoons and butterflies and I listened Io her babbling away in her lone little world and it hit me like a tom of bricks. I was having those feelings for real but they weren't about me saving her it was about her saving me.
The Lord knew what was coming up and he knew that I would need motivation to get out from under my quilt every morning. He knew I would need a reason to get dressed and get outside ever day. he knew that every morning come rain or shine there was a little 4 year old girl at my door.
I get it now. She has saved me on days when all I wanted to do these past 6 months is climb in bed and hide from the world; she was there when I knew she had to get out to get some fresh air and so I got dressed and went for my walks for exercise. I believed her sole purpose in life was to save me. Save me from myself and save me from my pity party.
I wrote her a letter tonight and it is tucked safe in my cedar chest for one day when she is older and will understand who she really was in my eye and how she became my saving grace.
This is Rosaleen. If I didn't know better I wouldn't think that those ties behind her were actual wings. Making her a very beautiful angel sent from my Father in Heaven to help me get back on my feet and off my butt. thanks Sweetheart Nana loves you with all her heart!
My week
How is YOUR day going?
Sounds like the days I have been having lately
First you had trouble getting out of bed
You had a stiff neck.
You washed your hair and couldn't do a thing with it.
You felt like you had a hangover and you weren't even drinking last night.
Your new diet really doesn't seem to be working out.
You pulled a muscle when you tried to exercise.?
Your new hat looked better on you at the store.
You keep losing things.
The boss chewed you out at work.
You got caught in the rain at lunchtime.
Then the lunch you had didn't seem to agree with you.
You feel trapped.
Uninvited guests showed up at dinnertime.
On top of that you think you're coming down with the flu.
And finally, you're alone in the house at night when you think you hear a noise in the basement.
MAYBE TOMORROW WILL BE BETTER?
Thought for the Day
Handle every stressful situation like a dog.
If you can't eat it or play with it, Just pee on it and walk away.
Sounds like the days I have been having lately
First you had trouble getting out of bed
You had a stiff neck.
You washed your hair and couldn't do a thing with it.
You felt like you had a hangover and you weren't even drinking last night.
Your new diet really doesn't seem to be working out.
You pulled a muscle when you tried to exercise.?
Your new hat looked better on you at the store.
You keep losing things.
The boss chewed you out at work.
You got caught in the rain at lunchtime.
Then the lunch you had didn't seem to agree with you.
You feel trapped.
Uninvited guests showed up at dinnertime.
On top of that you think you're coming down with the flu.
And finally, you're alone in the house at night when you think you hear a noise in the basement.
MAYBE TOMORROW WILL BE BETTER?
Thought for the Day
Handle every stressful situation like a dog.
If you can't eat it or play with it, Just pee on it and walk away.
Testament
one day after our brand new temple has been dedicated, I have never been so thankful for the sacrifices of the Prophet Joseph Smith and all the pioneers,,,,,for what they have done so that we may worship without fear of persecution ...My heart, mind and soul is overflowed with emotion and love for all those who gave up their lives so that we, today, are able to give of ourselves freely...... My prayer is that we never take our membership for granted, that we always remember
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