52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 2

This week's prompt is Favorite Photo.  Now I have a load of photos of ancestors but what I chose was something different.

Have a look.

This is a drawing of the original plat of the city of New Haven, CT.  My 10th great grandfather was William Tuttle, one of the founders of this city.  That he had his name on the plat as one of the founders and got a cool corner lot is rather cool, I think.  I like how the town was built around the square.  I have more information of the Tuttles than I will probably ever get to in my lifetime.  They were a prominent family in the area and not always known for good things. There seems to be a strain of insanity in their blood.  The axe-murdering kind of insanity.  Surely, after 10 dilutions to me most of that should be gone.  Let's just say they were not a boring bunch, those Tuttles.  Anyway, this area is now the commons of Yale University.

And here we have a drawing of a painting of the venerable William Tuttle.

Doesn't he look like the life of the party?  What a dour face.  He did have a herd of kids and a lot of responsibilities and was the first of his family to leave jolly old England.  So there's that.  Also, two of his kids would become axe murderers.

I would bet when you clicked to see this blog post you didn't think you were going to see this, did you?  I wasn't sure which photo I would use right up until I chose.

I hope you are enjoying doing some genealogy and ancestry research on your own tree.

Recommitting to The Compact and to Decluttering

Here I am again!

I am going to post these thing separately for ease of searching them out later.  10 years ago in January of 2007 I heard about The Compact, a group of people in San Francisco who made a commitment to not buying anything new for the calendar year.  I signed up on the yahoo group (there are still about 10,000 people participating in that group) and started and education.  Boy, did I learn a LOT!  There are so many ways to look around and find a used item or make do or borrow or barter or any number of ways to do something other than just buy a new whatever-it-is.

What goes hand in hand with not buying new things is taking really good care of your old things. Also, I found a TON of ways to do the environmental thing rather than the easy things.  Such as:

*Use cloth napkins rather than buying and throwing away paper ones. I guarantee you have cloth napkins, or bandanas, or wash cloths or and old table cloth that has a hole/stain in it that you could cut up and hem and make napkins.  I have not bought a single paper napkin in 10 years.  I haven't bought any new cloth napkins either.  I already had some and I have found some in estate sales and added to the pile.  Just a few extra napkins added to a load of laundry will cost you no more in water, soap or electricity.  Plus they are much nicer.

*Recycle everything that you don't compost.  Buy foods with as little packaging as possible.  When you buy food with no packaging you are automatically buying your food as close to its natural form as you can get it.  That means you aren't buying crap for your body, either!  Yay!  I have been known to dig through the garbage and move things to the recycle bin or to the compost bucket.

Here's a short list of things that I throw in the compost bucket, things that no longer go in my trash:
Toilet paper cores, Paper towel cores, used tissues, shredded paper, dead plants, flowers, coffee grounds, tea bags, egg shells, tamale husks.

Now, picture your trash can and take all those items and compost them.  Then start looking for things to recycle, like oatmeal boxes, glass bottles, plastic bottles.  If you get those things out of the trash, look how small your trash pile is now!  It's awesome.

Anyhoo, I have back-slid quite a ways from my Compacty ways and I am now publicly making a recommitment to get back in to that.  I will post here regularly (not exactly sure how often) and see what I am adding to my list.

In addition to getting Compacty, I found a decluttering challenge called JanuaryCure 2018. Go here to see what is happening with that one.  I signed up for it and today's challenge is to clean out a drawer.  Any drawer.  Freezer drawer, desk drawer, junk drawer, dresser drawer, any drawer. Dump it out, see what you can throw away, recycle, put in its rightful place, clean the drawer inside and then neatly put in the contents that need to live there.  I will be doing that here in just a bit as soon as I select which of my cluttered drawers deserves the honor of being the first one decluttered!

Let me know if you are interested in either getting Compacty in your ways or in decluttering your way through 2018.  I would love to hear from you.

Catching up. Again.

And a great good Saturday to you!  It is the most gorgeous day outside.  I have no idea why I am inside typing on the computer instead of hanging around outdoors.

Oh right, the flipping allergies!  I pay for it each and every time I spend big chunks of time outside.

But, that is not what I want to share with you.  I have things to talk about and pictures to show you.  So, get up now and go pee.  Go get a refill of your favorite beverage and settle in to see what you shall see.  : )


First up, I saw that I was running low on Downy.  Yes, I still use Downy.  No, I do not feel guilty about it.  When I was at the store I had to keep looking at the bottles to see which one is the same as the one I have at home because it was slightly different.  So when I got home I set them next to each other to make sure I had bought the right flavor.  And what else did I spy???

Here is a close up of Bottle A, aka the old one, the one that was already here:  Spend a few minutes perusing the label, won't you?

And here is a close up of the new label.  Go ahead and check it out and notice the differences.

They are both Downy.  They both contain 1.84 liters. They are both lavender scented.

Here's the deal:

THE OLD ONE SAYS IT CONTAINS 78 LOADS worth of softener.

While the new one only does 72 LOADS!!  ???

I took the caps off and looked at them since they are the measuring devices to know how much product they recommend.  And guess what?

EXACTLY THE SAME CAP, EXACTLY THE SAME MEASUREMENT.

Anyone else confused by this?

Those dicks over at the Downy offices have done some very creative math to come up with this.

And by the by, I don't follow their recommended quantity per load.  The first thing I do is to pour half the new bottle into the empty old bottle and then refill both with water and mix them well.  This is following the Rule of Half.  Half of any recommended amount of product will do the job just as well.  Try it with your shampoo, conditioner, laundry products, liquid hand soap, etc.  I promise you won't miss the other half and you just saved yourself a bunch of money and time shopping to replace these things.


In other news, the lovely and talented Miss Rachel Pie has been working with small children.  And you know what that means, don't you?

She got sick!  You have to have a really strong immune system to work with the wee ones, as they bring in germs like nobody's business.  Anyhoo, she was S. I. C. K. She went from feeling a bit poorly to running ridiculously high fever, throwing up and sick as a dog overnight.  And thanks to the Affordable Healthcare Act, she is still on our insurance (at least until her next birthday).  Our insurance has this great local business partnered up on it called White Glove Health

Go check out their website and see if they are near you or if you can sign up for them.  Essentially, they are in business to get people well as quickly as possible and back to work.  It keeps up productivitiy and that is why Mr. Big Ed's company has gotten this policy for all the insured employees.

Anyway, Miss Rachel Pie was sick as a dog and there was no way she was going to be able to sit for hours at the med clinic waiting to be seen, so we called the White Glove Health people and they sent a nurse practitioner right over.  She examined Rachel Pie, she looked down her throat, in her ears, listened to her heart, asked tons of questions, you know, the same thing the med clinic doctor would have done.  Then she said Rachel Pie has a sinus infection and a ear infection and prescribed medication, antibiotics, bed rest, liquids, etc.

And did Miss Nurse Practitioner then hand me a bunch of prescriptions to go fill?

No she did NOT!  She reached into her Mary Poppins-style bag and brought out a bottle of antibiotics, 2 bottles of Mucinex, 2 bottles of nose spray, 1 bottle of ear drops which you will see below sitting on a box she also gave Rachel Pie called a Well-Kit.

See the Well-Kit box?  With its cute little carry handle?  What do you suppose is inside?

Let's look, shall we?

I spy with my little eye:  cough drops, 2 packs of tylenol, 2 packs of motrin

1 can of chicken noodle soup, 1 bottle of Gator-ade, 1 pack of jell-o, 1 can of Ginger Ale

1 pack of Kleenex, 1 snack sized apple sauce, and a box of saltines.

We didn't have to go to the store.  We didn't have to go stand in line at the pharmacy.  We didn't have to get Rachel Pie out of bed for 24 hours, actually.

She may call herself a Nurse Practitioner but I think she might have been Florence Nightingale reincarnated.  : )

And FINALLY!!!!  I know, I know, first I don't blog for a month and then I go on and on f o r e v e r . . .

But this is cool, so you will want to stay tuned for this last part.

Have I ever told you about the glass ball collection I have?

Well, my mama travels to Germany a lot.  She used to, anyway.  We have relatives over there so she goes to visit and takes a suitcase full of Mexican food items that they can't get and refills that suitcase with lovely things for all of us.  Anyhoo, she goes to some glass factory and buys these gorgeous blown glass balls.  All different sizes, and colors.

And we string them up with ribbon or fishing line and hang them in the windows like sun catchers.  They are just gorgeous.

Well, we moved to this house in May of 2005 and I have never found a great place to hang them in this house.  So they have been sitting in a cabinet in bubble wrap, just waiting.

And you know how one thing leads to another and then another and then BAM!!!! The light bulb comes on of how to think outside the box?  Well, that is what happened to me.

Why do they have to just be unused sun catchers?  Why can't they be Christmas ornaments?

But what kind of tree would they really be showcased on?


And BAM!!!  I got hit with another picture on Pinterest of a gorgeous wrought iron tree with loads of space between the branches for just such baubles as my glass balls.

So, I ordered it and it arrived!

Yay!

I spent yesterday putting it together and hanging all my little glass balls, some of which are egg shaped and some are heart shaped.  And here is your photo montage of this!

Here is the shipping box as it arrived and I took it to the corner of the dining room where I am going to assemble and display it.

Once I opened the shipping box, here is the box that was inside.

And when I opened the box this is what I found.

Each of the corrugated paper wrapped items had a label on it identifying what piece this is.

Once I unwrapped every piece and lined them all up in alphabetical order, way on the bottom of the box was this instruction sheet.

Here it is all put together and naked.  I think it might need a skirt of some kind. What do you think? Any suggestions?

And here it is with all the beautiful balls, eggs and hearts in place.

And here are some close-ups of the ornaments.  Sadly the glass reflects the light so much that they don't show up as beautiful as they truly are.

What do you think?  I think it was well worth the $$ to buy a new item to showcase these beauties rather than letting them languish in a drawer.  And besides, you all know how I am on a campaign to quit using the shitty quality Made-in-China Christmas lights.

As always, I am happy to get some comments and hear your thoughts.

p.s. Should I write or call the Downy Dicks to see what gives on their bottle information?

I'm Back!!!

I just looked and saw that I have not posted anything in 4 weeks.  It has not been the greatest summer and I have to say that I have been a little on the depressed and morose side.  Nothing that warrants explanation or going on about.  But it seems to have played hell with my creative side.

So, here are a few random pictures from my last downloads to my iphoto.

I went to my sister's graduation from nursing school and afterwards I spotted this fabulous car in the parking lot!  I took several shots of it being careful not to show their license plate.  Tell me that isn't the cutest thing you ever saw!  I should have put a note on the window with my number in case she wants to ever sell it. You know that car is 99% likely being owned and driven by a girl, right?

Then at the graduation party at my mama's house we took some family photos.  Here is one with me, two sisters, one brother and brother's girlfriend.

One of the other quick little trips I have taken this summer was to a wedding.  The bride was gorgeous, the bridesmaid dresses were also very nice.  But then I spied the shoes.  I wish I could convey to you how much I detest these shoes.  They have been popular for a couple years now, and it is seriously time for them to go.  My friend Elaine and I, when we lived in Chile used to go to the mall just to walk around and look in the windows of the all the shoe stores and choose the ugliest shoes in each window. These plastic-y, uncomfortable shoes below that are in that horrid shade of neutral-doesn't-match-anything-on-the-planet beige have just got to go.

A few years ago my small girl-child Miss Rachel Pie went on a Vision Quest and we made her a quilt to take with her.  And this past year the boy-child Sparky made the same commitment to do this and so I have been busy making him a quilt as well.  Here I am on the night before he leaves making the very last stitches to the binding.  Nothing like getting things done at the last flipping minute.

Here I am holding up one side of the quilt. Please to ignore the obviously white bra showing through my dress.

And here is Sparky holding up the other end.

When we lived in Minneapolis I started going to the Senior Center because that's where the little old ladies would hang out and quilt.  And I was determined to learn how.  They used to get donations of books and books and more books of fabric samples.  These sample books would get taken apart, washed and then randomly sewn into long strips and then sewn together to make the cutest quilt tops that were then donated or raffled or whatever.  Anyhoo, they gave me a couple of those books and that is what I used to make both the kids' quilts.  I didn't do an over-all quilting design.  Instead I just quilted each fabric rectangle with a different pattern.  It turned out really cute and obviously very home-made looking.

One day I will learn to piece together a gorgeous quilt top.


That's it for me today.  I am glad to be back blogging and hope to get some good posts together to share with you.  Enjoy this HOT August!

Obit Reading Part 395847395

There were just a little over 2 pages worth of obituaries this week.  That's good.  Typically we have 3 full pages and sometimes more.  There were several who were over 100 years of age who had led nice long, and full lives.  For example, Ms. Carmen Quintanilla Flores (who let me just interject here that I find it unusual for a woman of her age to use the title Ms.  She must be a progressive thinker!)  Ms. Carmen wrote part of her obituary herownself and called it "Los Caminos de la Vida" the roads of life.

Here's some of what she said:

"Who would have thought that one hundred years is a long time but instead feels like a brief moment. Los Caminos de la Vida started in Parras, Coahuila (a state of Mexico just south of TX) with my parents who worked with the Madero family while at the same time working in my grandparent's vinery. All was well until the Mexico Revolution came and my parents were forced to leave and go to Monterrey, Mexico. My father had family in Monterry and stayed with them for a short period, but then decided to come to the United States with nothing but our clothes in a stage coach - my son Fernando would say in a covered wagon - NO, NO NO, Coach. It was very hard leaving your country and having to start over but the Good Lord helped us to have a new beginning in spite of the hard roads of life. I am thankful for meeting my husband at my mother's boarding house. He came to San Antonio to study from Zapata, TX. His family had received land grants way before Texas belonged to the U.S. A very proud traditional ranching family with deep roots in Texas that is maintained today."

Then she goes on to say "I would not have imagined flying in an airplane to go visit my family or flying to a foreign country to go on vacation in a matter of hours. Riding in a car (Model T) for the first time was an adventure beyond belief and in later years riding in cars with lots of comfort and air conditioning - amazing. Thank You Lord for allowing me to have seen and experienced with all my children, granchildren and great grandchildren Los Caminos de la Vida."

Her family did the "before and after" pictures, as I call them.  One when she was a young fashionplate and on as a grandmother.  She was quite the looker!

Then we come to George Guzman who was a handsome Navy man from back in the day.  Because of his love of the sea he is getting a military burial-at-sea and the family was nice enough to give a brief description of that procedure.  I had no idea about this, so of course, I thought I would share it with you.

"It's because of George's love of the Navy and sea that final disposition will occur with a burial-at-sea in the Pacific Ocean. During the ceremony, performed by a U.S. Navy chaplain, the active-duty ship will come to full stop with its colors at half-mast. The officer passes the word "All hands bury the dead." After the sailors are assembled and called to attention, all stand at "parade rest", read scriptures and prayers, and commit George's remains to seas. The officiate reads a benediction, the firing detail fires three volleys and the bugler plays "Taps".

Can you just picture that?  It doesn't say if the family will get to participate in this or not.  But let me tell you, I have attended several military funerals and it is heart-wrenching when they salute them, fold the flag, hand it to the mama, play taps and fire the guns.  Nothing is as moving as that.

I leave you now with a short but very sweet and heart-warming tribute to a man not much older than myself.

"Kevin Jon Johnson

Beloved brother, loving husband, dedicated father and most loyal friend was called home by his Lord. With valiant effors, Kevin continued to epitomize the man of character he was. Quick to smile, fun to be with and a firerce defender of that which is right. Althogh those left behind will deeply miss him, we were blessed by the time we shared with him. Heaven will enjoy his presence. He now joins his dear friends Mel & Joe to fish off God's pier where the fish always bite, the stories always fun and beer cold."  (spelling and grammar are theirs)

Have I ever mentioned that beside being a birth doula one of my fondest wishes is to take the training to be a hospice volunteer?  Essentially it is really being a "death doula".  You provide pretty much the same care, respect and help for this life transition as you would for the other.  I have thought about this for a really long time, and I am now ready to embark on this new adventure.

If any of you have done this and have words of wisdom, please feel free to share.

As always, thanks so much for stopping by and please leave me some comments.  I love to hear from you.

Sunday Night Chit Chat

Okay, my blog friend Sluggy says we who want to play along on the Sunday Night Chit Chat should go here and follow directions.

Here's my answers!

Reading... "Lamb" by Christopher Moore.  This was recommended by a friend recently. I have just started and can NOT put it down!!!  I have never laughed so loud when reading in bed.  You will just adore this book.

Watching... AMC is running the whole previous 4 seasons of Breaking Bad late at night leading up to the Season 5 which starts on July 15.  I have been recording them and watching them and oh boy, it is even better watching a bunch back-to-back.  Season 5 is supposed to be the big finale so you want to be up on your stuff because this will be it.

Listening to...  I have the radio on tuned to an 1970s rock station and they are playing Van Halen "Dance the night away", and just segued in to some AC/DC "Dirty Deeds".

Cooking/Baking... nothing today.  But I just got a new recipe on Pinterest for Okra, Grilled Corn and Goat Cheese Fritters.  I will be going to get those ingredients for this week!  Yum.

Happy you accomplished... Holy Moly!  I finished a quilt I was making for my son that had been in the 70-80% done category for about 2 years. Then I got down an afghan I was 90% done with and finished it.  Right now I am working on a cross stitch project I have wanted to start for YEARS!  It feels really good to clear out some old projects.

Looking forward to next week... It is Mr. Big Ed's birthday on Wednesday, so that should be fun.

Thankful for today... got up early and have been accomplishing things.

*bonus question*

What is the WORST movie you've ever seen & couldn't be paid to watch again?  Hmmm, worst movie ever?  Let me think.  There are so many to choose from.  Right off the top of my head I am gonna have to go with a horrible piece of crap that my kids love and just think is *hilarious*.  The horrific "Freddy Got Fingered" with that moron Tom Green.  Have you seen this?  If not, be thankful.  It is so bad.  There are no redeeming qualities, not the filming, the writing, the acting, nothing.  It is pure crap.


Anyone want to play?  Either post your response in the comments or come comment with a link back to your own page.


Have a great Sunday night!

What's going on over here

Okay, so you may have noticed a serious lack of blogging going on over here.  I have noticed it as well.  There is a reason for this.  Actually, there are several reasons for this.  And I initially didn't want to come here and say "Oh poor me, here's this thing happening in my life.  Let's all feel bad for me".  But then the second thing happended.  And then the third.  And it has been like walking around waiting for the other shoe to drop around here.  I have seriously had the thought "wtf??  Why is all this happening at the same fucking time??"

But I have bucked up and chosen to see the good in each issue rather than focusing on the oh poor pitiful me, why does this have to happen to meeeeeeee?

Because truthfully, why NOT me?  Why not?  I am just as random and deserving of a few pieces of bad luck and timing as anyone else.

You know the saying about if you were given the opportunity to put all your troubles in a pile with everyone else's and then choose which ones you were taking, you would most likely take the ones you came with?  Well, that particular bit of wisdom has been running through my head a lot lately.

I don't want to give you the wrong idea about all this.  Nobody in my family has been diagnosed with leprosy, none of us have moved to the Poor Farm, nothing like that.

And yet I just kept thinking that if I came here and talked (typed) about these things they would be more real, more of a pain in the ass to deal with.  So I am just going to share with you a few things that have happened lately.

First up, we had soooo much stuff plannned for the summer, it was unbelievable!  Seriously, one of us (and by that I mostly mean me) had a trip planned at least every other week from April through July.  It was kind of scary to look at the calendar and realize how many trips were on the books.  Then while I was traveling on the 3rd of many trips I noticed one of my teeth felt odd.  Kind of sensitive to pressure.  So I got home and made an appointment with my dentist.  The Readers Digest condensed version of this many part saga is that I have to cancel a bunch of the summer trips and spend lots of quality time and quality money with my dentist this summer.  Nice.

I hate to be a big fat wussie about things, but you know the whole laying back in the chair with your head really lower than your ass thing? I hate it.  It's a very vulnerable position.  And you know the horrible metal pokey pointy things that make the horrible sounds on your teeth?  O.M.G. That is one of the things I hate worse than anything.  Worse than nails on a chalkboard.  Worse than clowns.  And even worse than balloons.

But let me tell you what I did.  I went to my aromatherapy textbooks and looked up essential oils for mouth infections, anxiety and calming.  Then I made a blend of them and applied this mixture of oils to my pulse points, my third eye and temples and went to my first appointment.  And it was not too bad.  I have been using the oils each day since to help with the dull achey feeling in my mouth and jaws.  I will be going back for many visits so I may need to just mix up a quantity of this and bottle it to take with me.

My husband, Mr. Big Ed, has a boss whose son is terribly ill.  He has a cancer that has been extremely aggressive and it has been a year from hell for this poor family.  This precious boy was 9 when diagnosed last July and he has now turned 10 but the prognosis is not good.  So his mama is taking a leave of absence to be with him and Mr. Big Ed is taking some of her work responsibilities.  This is a tragic situation and my heart breaks for their family.  It also means that Mr. Big Ed will be doing some of his own business travel and also making a few trips on her behalf.  So he will not be attending many of the scheduled family things this summer either.  If you are the praying sort, please add little Nicolas to your list.  His family has had more than they should have to bear this past year.

Last week I was on my 4th trip (by myself since Mr. Big Ed has new work commitments) heading to a nephew's wedding.  It was a great trip and I made good time.  (I have this thing where I like to see if I can beat my best time to each destination.  And it's much easier to do when I don't have anyone with me who wants to stop and pee in every fucking Dairy Queen we come to.)  So as I was pulling into town and off the highway, I turned off my cruise control and all the sudden my car wasn't shifting from first gear up to second.  It was scary as hell as I was trying to take off from a stop at a traffic light and nothing was happening.  I kept thinking I was going to be rear-ended.

I limped on over to my aunt's house and called AAA.  (Another long story that need to be Readers Digest condensed here.)  I ended up having my car towed to the Honda dealership and waiting for hours to find out that my transmission was shot.  At 6 p.m. on a Friday.  On a Friday of Memorial Day weekend.  A 3-day holiday weekend.  Which meant nothing was going to happen to fix my car till after TUESDAY!

I was devastated for a few minutes and then decided that if this had to happen at least it was the best way possible it could have happened.  No one was hurt or killed.  Praise the Lord for that!  I am headed back down that way next week for another graduation trip, so I would have been going back there anyway.  Only now I am driving a rental car and taking it back home again and picking up my car (which I love) with a brand new transmission which should last it another 100,000 miles.

None of the issues that have happened around here are tragic, they are inconvenient and expensive.  But that is a small hiccup in the grand scheme of things, now isn't it?

I need to get my camera over here and show you some pictures of some of the fun things I have been able to attend.  And I need to quit whining about the trips I won't be able to make.

I hope all is well with you and yours.  Any great summer plans at your end?

A little of this, A little of that

I have been silent for a while and I need to break that silence, but all the thoughts I have had for blog fodder are all jumbled up so I am liable to be flitting around from topic to topic.  Grab yourself some caffeine and try to keep up!

Have you read about the gay penguin couple?  Here is the latest update on them:




"After six years of lovingly building a nest together each spring, a pair of male Gentoo penguins named Inca and Rayas finally have an egg to keep in it. According to their keepers at Madrid's Faunia Park, the two are inseparable and have taken to parenting like, well, penguins to water. Inca has adopted the female role of incubating the egg, while partner Rayas watches over his buddy and the little one. Their keepers hope that the donated egg -- and the bub that hatches out of it -- will boost the pair's spirits. In past years, they apparently became rather blue during spring when surrounded by all their friends' newborns."

Awwwww.  What a sweet story.

Did you watch the DWTS finale?  I had no hopes that this season would be as good as it was.  It really was great to watch.  The final 4 were all so good that there was no reason to be disappointed no matter who won.

Speaking of finales, all the shows are having their season finales this past month and none more important to watch than Monday night's airing of the SERIES FINALE of House.  The whole series is over.  No more cranky pants House.  No more weird diseases to be discovered and cured.  No more co-workers to kill off.  It was really good and stayed true to the character of the show.  I hate it when they come up with some cutesy ending that fails miserably to resolve anything.

Oh!  I found a new favorite blog!  My absolute favorite blogger in the world is Martha Payne.

Have you heard of Martha?  No?

Well, she is a 9 year old girl who lives in Scotland.  And just the most clever thing around.  I wish I had been that smart at 9.  She was becoming disillusioned about the school lunches and she now writes a blog about it.  She posts a photo of it and rates it on taste, nutrition, how many mouthfuls she actually gets (these photos of her lunches have shocked me by how small they are) and also by whether or not she finds a hair in them.

This is an eye-opening experiment.  She asked for kids around the world to send in pictures of their own school lunches (or made at home and brought to school) to her for comparison.  And yes, her dad is helping her by tweeting about this.  And yes, Jamie Oliver is aware of this and encouraging her. He needs to get his gorgeous Naked Chef self up to Scotland and do something with their school lunches. Those meals have negligable protein, few vegetables, little or no fruit.  Mostly carbs, bread, potatoes, pasta and the like.  So go read Martha and send her some encouragement.

And on a completely different train of thought, in the paper this Sunday, right on the front page was an article titled "Despite changes, more kids are dying"

Seems that our county has taken the lead in Texas for most child deaths involving parents from abuse and/or neglect.  Lovely.  Our county has had 20 child deaths in the last fiscal year.  We also had the most confirmed cases of abused and neglected children in the state, 5,915 which is more than the 5,493 for Houston which has nearly three times as many children as our city.  More deaths with 1/3 the total number of children.  Doesn't that make your stomach turn?

The article goes on for another full page of facts, details, information, etc. And it ends with a half page listing each of the 20 children who were killed and the pertinent facts of each of their cases.  It made this very personal and real to see their little names, ages, cause of death and what criminal case or charges have been filed, that kind of outcome.  I think these little ones deserve to be honored in this way and create some awareness and hopefully get more people to step up and volunteer to help.

Do any of you remember last July when I posted this??  This little angel boy was the last one listed on this page of 20.  I had periodically checked the news online to see if anything had ever come of the father of this child admitting to hurting and ultimately killing this baby and never could find anything. So I read the little bit they had listed Sunday on this baby. And I am going to go ahead and type what is there since it is the newspaper I can assume there is no expectation of privacy.  Here's what is said:

Kaleb Alexander Janosik

Age: 22 days

Date of death: July 24, 2011

Died of head injuries.

Father admitting to striking and biting the child.

Mother and father were found "reason to believe" for physical abuse.

Justin Janosik (father) pleaded guilty to murder, received a life sentence.

My heart just breaks for all 20 of these shameful deaths.  One thing I looked at is that 11 of the 20 had previously been investigated by CPS so someone already knew there was a problem in the home.  I don't know the answer to this horrific problem but I do know that I try my hardest to make sure my work with each of my clients helps them to fall in love with their children and to know there are resources for when they are overwhelmed and feel helpless.

If you feel so moved to help with abused and neglected children, consider becoming a CASA  advocate. Or check with your CPS office and see what it takes to become a foster family for children in need.  Some of our local high schools have nurseries for the babies while moms attend school and they need volunteers there to work with the babies.  You can teach parenting classes. There are many ways you can get involved and make a difference in a child's life.  Please make the effort.  Don't just sit back and read about the tragedies being perpetrated on these young lives and do nothing. It really does take a village.

Priorities?

I was online looking at the headlines for local news.
And if you are like me you might think (and even assume) that these story headlines would be given in order of importance.  Much like being above the fold or below, or being on the front page versus inside in the second section.

Here is what I saw:

• FORECAST: Cold front approaching, storm threat tonight
• POLL: Do you approve of gift registries for high school graduation?
• Girl shot in face

*********************************************

Really?  Girl shot in face doesn't rate as high as gift registry poll?

We need some standards, people!

Playing Along with my S-i-l

1. What song always makes you happy when you hear it? Sadly, it is Wake Me Up Before you Go, Go! 
2. What, if anything, would you change about your blog? More posts with better pictures.  I have got to learn how to take better photos.
3. If you could only keep one thing in your wardrobe, what would it be? My Tevas. Best, most versatile sandals ever!
4. Warm sunny beaches or snow covered mountains? I could go either way. 60% beach if it's for a vacation, 60% for the mountains if it's for a new home. 
5. What's your favorite book? Tough one!  So many favorites to choose from.  Can I pick one from each genre?  One from each author?  I bet hourly I could come up with a new favorite.  Right now I would have to say "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe".
6. What 3 words best describe your personality? Nurturing, loving, passionate. 
7. What's the first thing you'd splurge on if you won the lottery? Retirement property!
8. Do you have an embarrassing song that you rock out to on your I-pod? So I guess the most embarrassing thing about this question is that I don't have an i-Pod. I may be the last person in the free world who is without mp3 music at my fingertips.
9. Do you have a hidden talent? I think I am a great kisser.  Everyone knows I am the best hugger, but very few know about my kissing.
10. If you could take a one month trip anywhere and money was not a consideration, where would you go? Well, right off the bat I would say I want to do the trip I planned a few years ago and for one reason or another it never came to fruition, and head to Tahiti.  But lately, I have been doing so much ancestry research that I feel a month trip to Scotland and Ireland would better serve my needs.
11. What's your favorite sport and why? NBA Spurs Basketball!!!  or World Cup Soccer watching Team Argentina.

Anyone else want to do this?  Comment here with a link to your responses!

Book Review

I am reviewing a book I only started last night!!!


I am barely into this and am imagining the possiblilities for my own self.

Believe it or don't, this book has it's own trailer on youtube.  Am I the last person on earth to know that this happens?

Now that you have watched it and have an inkling of what this book is about, let me move on with my own thoughts about what I am reading.

Jen Hatmaker makes the choice to do this project and document what she finds in order to remove clutter from her mind and her life in order to make room for God and his message.  I think this is awesome. She is on the path to discovering that things, possessions, filling your life and your mind with all this crap only slows you down and impedes you finding your purpose.  Finding why you were born.  You and your own set of talents and gifts were born to do something, to be the best you there is.  To possibly teach or be a lesson for someone else.

But living our lives the way we do with so much STUFF doesn't help us achieve our purpose.  All it does is cloud things over and distract us.

I love how she lays out how each month will work and has her group of women she calls her Council to help her find what the boundaries of each should be.  They also hold her accountable and go on the journey with her each in their own way.

I love how she allows herself the freedom to complain and bend the rules or break them when necessary. And then spend some time reflecting over each decision and find the lesson.

The first month is food.  She did not force her kids to do the first couple of months but then the rest were all done as a whole family.  For the food she worked out a nutritious gang of 7 foods and stuck to it and tried to find recipes to incorporate as many as possible.  The only seasonings, condiments allowed were salt and pepper.  And so Jen opted to make those 7 foods as healthy as possible and bought local, organic and high quality foods.  Her findings over this month were really inspiring.

The second month was clothes.  Holy moly!  I am sure a lot of people are like me and have a huge closet full of things and yet only wear a tiny fraction of what is there.  Jen went through all the closets in her home and guesstimated the amount of items and multiplied that by $20 for each and got a staggering figure of how much money is just hanging there in the closet, unloved, and unneeded.  That's a sobering idea, isn't it?

And let me tell you, I have waaaaay more hanging in my closet than she did!

Right now I am most of the way through her Month 3 of no media, meaning no t.v., no facebook, no texting, no Wii, no screentime except for work and school.  So the family are forced to deal with each other face to face.  They go find things to do, like bike riding, playing ball outside, really good intereactions with each other rather than mindlessly staring at a screen.

I am wondering as I think about the first 3 chapters how this is going to manifest itself in my life.  Am I willing to be this drastic in any area of my life, much less 7 different ones?

I don't know.  I will continue mulling it over and let you know as things unfold.

You are going to thank me for this

Yes indeedy, you will thank me for this link

I just got a little heads up on this blog from Kelly Pie, and I didn't ask her permission to link to her blog, but if she says yes, then I will do that as well.

But, go check out Margaret and Helen at the above link.  So flipping cute, smart, clever and adorable I can hardly stand it!!!

Happy Birthday!!! and Get Well Soon.

Happy Birthday! to:

George Washington.

My Grandpa.

My aunt Kary.

My cousin Tammie.

My niece Katie.

That's a lot of people in my family being born on Washington's birthday, I think.

In other news, my younger brother (of course he's younger, I am the oldest.  All my siblings are younger!) is in the hospital.  Seems he woke up Monday feeling a bit under the weather and also in some pain.  It went away.  He went to work.

The pain returned.  But subsided, after it had his full attention.

When it returned hard and heavy for the 3rd time, HE DROVE HIMSELF TO THE HOSPITAL.

PSA - Please don't drive yourself to the hospital.  You could be having a heart attack (he was) and end up killing yourself and taking innocent people with you (luckily he didn't).

So my 40-something year old brother goes to the hospital and they said he was "having a heart attack".  I guess while they were watching and testing?  They went in through the femoral artery and put a stint in and things straightened right up.  Then he was moved to ICU and spent 24 hours or more there.

After that he was being moved to an intermediate care room and hopefully released today or tomorrow.

I gotta tell y'all that this is scary.  He is young, he is thin, he has a nice fast metabolism and seemed to be in good shape.  What business does a young, fit 40-something have going through this?  It scared the crap out of me.

Hopefully, they will give him some answers and he will make the necessary lifestyle changes.

In completely unrelated news, it is Ash Wednesday.  I have been thinking and thinking of what I am doing for Lent.  For the past few years I have been taking a small amount of our food budget and spending it on things for the homeless.  I make up little brown bags with a piece of fruit, a handi-wipe, some crackers or granola, different little items and usually a little note with something positive written on it.  I take 4 or 5 a day with me when I go run errands or go to meetings or whatever and pass them out.

Our city council in all its wisdom has decided to fine people who panhandle and also people who give to the panhandlers.  What dicks.  I am so pissed about this I can't stand it.

Needless to say, there are a lot of behind the scenes local politics at play in this and I am going to find myself down there raising all kinds of hell about this.

But back to the issue of Lenten giving.  I prefer to make my Lent observance something about giving to others from what I have rather than "giving up coffee, cheetos, wine, chocolate".  That's not very meaningful to me.  Of course I can go 40 days without whichever of those items, but what will I learn from that?  What will I take away from my Lenten experience?  I want to make it a little more impactful for me.

And in another turn of conversation!  Try not to get whiplash keeping up!  : )

My Rachel Pie may be the only person who finds my choice of cake pictures to be hilarious.  But honestly, what could be funnier than a My Little Pony birthday cake from Las Vegas?

Updated Ancestry Report

Way back last May I told you about what my findings on Ancestry.com, you can go here if you want to read that post.

Here I am going to give you an update on what else I have found!

1. I now have 1465 people on the extended branches of my tree.  That's a lot of branches, twigs and nuts!

2. Still, pretty much nothing but German, Scot, English or Irish farmers, blacksmiths or coopers.

3. 7 generations back in my tree is my 5th great grandmother who is first cousin to Francis Scott Key.  He is still the only person on my tree who seems to have been a creative artistic type.  Everyone else was busy trying to keep food on the table and had no time for such foolish extravagances.

4. There are going to be lots and lots of new records available this year as the 1940 federal census will become available.  So I guess I am going to pay to stay in at least one more year!

5. Sadly and regrettably, I have found a few people who had one or two slaves.  They must have been really poor farmers to only have one.  But it does something to you when you read about this in your own family.  I don't really know what to even say about it.  It's a heartbreaking reality.

6. I still think the ancestry work dovetails nicely with my obituary reading.  Which I have to get back to!  I haven't posted about obits in quite a while.

Do you do ancestry work?  Are you interested in your family tree?  Or are you more the looking forward rather than backward kind of person?

Happy New Year

I made a conscious decision to NOT do a retrospective on this blog.  I don't have 5 gazillion posts to go through, and it's really just not something I would do.  I have tried and tried to make a list of goals in Jan. and follow up with them monthly and then at the end of the year, grade myself on how much I accomplished.

Let's face it, I am not good at this.  This is why I am not enrolled in an online school.  Self-starter?  Not so much.

So if you were looking for that kind of a post today, I will have to direct you to my friend sluggy's blog where she did a fabulous job of recapping and grading herself.

However!  I am here with some lovely and entertaining photos for you!  Yay!!

Without further ado, here come the pics.

I decided to take a picture of the new vintage 1960's aluminum tree with each of the colors of the color wheel shining on it.   In my head, you would be able to see how beautifully each of the colors looked and how distinctive.  We each selected a color we liked the best.  I thought I would like the blue, because blue and silver is such a perfect combo, but no!  I actually liked the amber/gold on the silver best. It was a really nice glow.  Take a look at these and see if you see any difference.  I am sorry to tell you that for me the color variations didn't show up at all.

And no, I did NOT just put the same damn picture up there 8 times.   Anyhoo, isn't it a beautiful silver aluminum tree?  And it was easy peasy to put together.  It came inside a new box that is housing the original 1960 box and all of the original little waxed paper sleeves for EACH of the 152 branches are there.  So, now we have to take it apart very carefully and put each of those 152 branches back into their own original little waxed paper sleeves.  (I can't tell you how much this appeals to my weird OCD self!)

Next year, this will be my main tree.  Yay!!!

And next to the tree, we have my buffet in the dining room that this time of year houses my gorgeous pewter angel and Christmas tree collection.  I love them.  Underneath them is this beautiful red and gold embroidered cut out table scarf thing my mama brought me from either Spain or Portugal.  I need to ask and find out for sure.  It is exactly the measurements for that buffet.  Just like it was made for it.

Sadly, I started taking photos of my Christmas stuff in the midst of moving things around and getting them ready to box up.  But next is the huge crystal bowl full of shiny iridescent ornaments that sits in the middle of the dining room table.  I am thinking that a bunch of those ornaments would be just perfect on the new vintage aluminum tree.  What do you think?

Next is a picture of my current main tree in the living room.  The reason I took this picture was to show the variation in the clear lights.  This is one of those damn pre-lit trees from 2 years ago.  The 2 year old original lights on it don't work except for a bunch on the very top of the tree.  So I strung a bunch more new lights on it and you can NOT believe the difference in color!  You know, old incandescent light bulbs have warm white and cool white and boy can you ever tell the difference if you happen to mix them?  Same thing here.  They all say "Clear White", but that is not the case.  Definitely got the warm vs. cool thing going on.  Grrrr.  Still hating the way quality has nose-dived on Christmas lights.

Next up is one of my largest nativities.  I love this one because of the bright vivid colors, the touches of metallic paint where it should be shiny, and especially how the angel just hovers above the stable.  She is beautiful.

And what Christmas decor would be complete without a Leg Lamp??  "It's a Major Award!  It must be I-talian, it says FRA-GEEE-LAY!"

This is one of my prized nativities.  I bought this when we lived in Mexico City.  It is a corn husk doll nativity.  The most amazing detail on each of them.  You can tell at a glance who each doll is.  I bought a herd of extra angels to stand around the holy family.

Here's a close-up of the 3 kings.  Notice how in Mexico they always have one dark-skinned king, and each of the kings has different garb and carries different gifts.  Awesome!

Next, I took some pictures of some of my ornaments.  Not necessarily my favorites, but some fun ones.

First up is one of the commemorative ones from the Texas State Capitol.

In this one you can see one of my many Christopher Radko walruses.  On the left is one of the little toothpick God's Eyes that the kids and I made in 1991.  When we moved to Guadalajara in August of 1991, our shipment of belongings didn't arrive and we had no ornaments.  So we sat down and made little God's Eyes out of toothpicks and embroidery floss and larger ones of 4 - 6 inch skewers and yarn. It was a really pretty tree.  And every year since we put the God's Eyes on to remember the year we had no ornaments.

Oh, and on the right of the walrus is a pewter ornament of The Alamo.  I have a lot of pewter ornaments.

In 2002 we moved to Minneapolis, and I went in a Hallmark store and they were doing different Santas from many countries.  So I found the 2 Santas that represent my heritage.  First is the Irish one.  He has the most gorgeous Celtic knot design on his coat.  Just beautiful.

And then the German one is more rough-hewn, made to look handmade.  This reminds me of the German relatives who make absolutely everything by hand.  He is a very nice Santa.

Another painted glass walrus, not Christopher Radko, but very nice and plump.

In this shot you can see that I found the pickle ornament and down below the pickle who do you find?  My favorite cartoon character!  Foghorn Leghorn!!  He has a teeny little Henry Chickenhawk next to him.

Another pewter ornament.

This ornament is very special to me.  When I started being a doula I went to the San Antonio Birth Doulas Christmas party where we traditionally do an ornament exchange and this was the ornament I got.  It was made by a wonderful young doula named Erin who had gone to school at RISD.  She made it of silver and the 3 teeny Christmas balls on it are little gemstones.  It is very sweet and means a lot to me.

This last picture is one of my newest ornaments.  This came from my very best friend Beth (mom of the Georgia Peach).   There is an organization in town that works with mentally handicapped people and they have started making these crosses.  They are made of nails, 2 long ones going up and down and 2 shorter ones for the arms of the cross.  Then the whole thing is wrapped in beaded wire and hung on a pretty piece of ribbon.  I left the tag on mine that says it was made by "Lil Will".  Isn't that the most precious thing?

Thanks for sitting through this little pictorial of some of my Christmas stuff.  Thanks for coming here to my little blog and sharing in my life.  It means a lot to me.

My wish for the coming year for each of you is a little time to relax, enjoy yourselves and find the love and peace surrounding you each day.

Happy New Year!