I am now a Geneablog, I have the badge!

When I started this particular blog, I thought I'd like to connect with other family history buffs, but didn't really know where to find them. I figured eventually they would find me LOL. And eventually they did! Which is just so exciting!

All you writers out there working so hard on social media, I figure this is a sign that it really does work. Those people who share the same interests will find each other. So welcome to my new followers, and I'll try not to post so much about making donuts, eating too much fast food or my new year's challenges, and stick a bit more to the topic and purpose I meant this blog to be in the first place: writing from life. Writing your story. Or the stories of those you love.

And despite that new badge I put on my sidebar, I really can't call myself a genealogist. I don't walk the walk so I better not talk the talk.  I love to write from life, love to read stories that other people write about themselves and their families. But I don't research names and dates. My husband does a little bit of that, when he has the time. And right now we are involved with some start-up businesses so there isn't much time.

Now I leave you with a Christmas image from the past-- my mother as a child in Nebraska, reminding us once again that Christmas is timeless. And seen through a child's eyes is magical, even when times are hard, the tree is small, and the gifts are simple.

 

Wishing you all a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. 

See you next year!

Genealogy Bloggers

Welcome to new followers! I couldn't figure out what I had done to attract so many new followers in such a short time, surely it wasn't my recent post about my challenges for the new year LOL? So I did some checking on blogger comments and found this comment on my very first post:

Hello there!

You’ve got a great genealogy blog and we’ve added it to the list of over 1,500 genealogy blogs at GeneaBloggers (http://www.geneabloggers.com).

We will announce your blog in our weekly New Genealogy Blogs on Saturday, December 11, 2010. In the meantime, please visit the About (http://www.geneabloggers.com/about/) section at GeneaBloggers to learn how you can display your GeneaBloggers badge on your blog and also how you can participate in activities such as the Daily Blogging Themes.

If you need technical assistance, please check out Bootcamp for GeneaBloggers (http://fbbootcamp.blogspot.com).

Cheers

Isn't that just so cool??? So I'll for sure check out this awesome site, get the badge and have fun with following some new blogs myself. Hooray for family history! Hooray for writing from life!

Challenging Myself for 2011

I was recently freed from a responsibility I've had for the past three years that took up a great deal of my time and energy. So I'm feeling somewhat giddy with the freedom. There are three major things I want to take on for 2011:

MORE WRITING, MORE READING, MORE WALKING

Of course I'll have to work it into my schedule but I think I can do it! For reading, it will be to read one book a week, or let's round down to 50 books for the year.  I'll count them down on my blog and let you know what I'm reading. (Reviews as always will show up on Goodreads.) For writing, it will be to write every day for a minimum one hour. And not journaling or blogging but real, creative, writing. The hard stuff. The stuff that books are made of. I have never done this. It's about time I set this challenge and do it. Walking is easy, since I already have started but I want to keep it up. Walk 30 minutes a day. (I'll let you know if I'm losing any weight!)

So there you go, my challenges for 2011. Not New Year's resolutions, because I never keep those. These are challenges. With no excuses allowed. I'm going to start practicing from now until January 1st, to see how it will all work into my schedule. Maybe clean my closets ahead of time to feel organized, then I'll be ready to go! What new challenges do you want to take on for the new year?

The Latest from Camp Pendleton

In honor of Pearl Harbor Day, which also happens to by my young Marine's birthday, here is the latest from Camp Pendleton, from his recent letter, written on Thanksgiving Day:

"Here is my day so far. Wake up, make racks, get dressed, clean house. These were all part of our every day routine, then we went to chow and ate the usual breakfast of scrambled eggs, potatoes and other foods. Here comes the good part-- we are having church today because we skipped it on Sunday and at church (which is where I am right now) we got Costco pumpkin pie, cinnamon rolls, brownies, M & M's, hot chocolate and apple cider. It was the greatest thing in the world, but I am feeling kinda sick because I haven't had food like this for almost 2 months."

"We have been shooting all week and we had qual day yesterday. I qualified with expert, which is the best possible qual. I can hit a human-sized target from 500 yards with plain iron sights and no scope with my MIGA4 rifle."

"People in boot camp wouldn't be so miserable if they didn't tell themselves that everything they do is horrible; and if they didn't have a bad attitude about everything."

"You know an energy drink is good when it is called Xyience and pronounced 'science.'"

"True love is writing a love note to your girl.... in the porta john."

"Birds don't poop on recruits' heads because we are wearing camoflauge and they can't see us."

Happy 19th birthday, Recruit Gowen.

The Frugal Christmas Tree

Last year we topped off a pair of huge, outrageously growing pine trees in front of our house. They literally block the entire front porch. The plan is to cut them down eventually, as they were meant to be decorative and have gotten completely out of control. What are they feeding on anyway?

Anyway, one of the tops made a pretty awesome Christmas tree. This year we cut down a spreading branch that is the size of a tree with a trunk that fit nicely in our tree stand. (I know this all sounds bizarre, and I really need photos to show you, but maybe later, since I'm unable to put anything new on my computer right now.)

But let it be said, that I love this tree! You can't even tell where it was cut from! It's all set up and decorated in our front hall, smells all piney and fresh, and looks amazing. When I see artificial trees all decorated in the stores selling for hundreds of dollars, I come home and happily gaze upon my frugal Christmas tree.

SNOW and Service

A few days before Thanksgiving we got SNOW. Lots and lots of it. Then more, and more and more. Now there's probably 2 feet, and another 3 or 4 feet drifted. And it is COLD!! I'm spending way too much time on the computer simply because I like the warmth on my lap.

Yesterday morning my husband went out to shovel. We live on a corner lot which means a lot of sidewalk, not to mention driveway. You get the picture. So here's the poor guy out there with his bad knees, all hunched over doing his manly duty for our home and property, when two little neighbor boys from across the street came over with their snow shovels. They are two brothers, one 12, the other 7.

They pitched right in and worked with my husband until the job was done. When they finished, he thanked them, gave them some cookies and they ran home. This morning their mom called to thank me for the cookies, and to thank me for giving her sons the opportunity to learn service. (I know, this is the kind of neighborhood we live in. It's a little bit of heaven on earth & we love it.)

Her older son had said, "Mom, I'm so glad we went over to help Mr. Gowen. He never could have shoveled all that snow by himself. He needed our help, and I have such a good feeling about what we did." She said he had a smile on his face all day, lingering from the joy of serving someone who really needed it.

Homemade Maple Bars and Happy Thanksgiving

Last night was a birthday celebration-- a pizza building party. And for dessert the birthday boy's favorite food of all time-- maple bars. But not just any maple bars, these were made from scratch, dough rising, cut in shapes, then fried, iced while hot, made in my own kitchen by my daughter and me maple bars. She wanted to double the recipe so I was frying for an hour and a half, and we ended up with about 4 cookie sheets of maple bars. And this after eating pizza? omigosh, no wonder my husband and me are so danged fat.

Well, it turned out that he and I didn't get the opportunity to overeat, because all the six foot boys in our family (as well as the future son in law birthday boy) pretty well demolished all of it. Two huge pizzas with pepperoni, sausage and 4 lbs. of cheese, and nearly 4 trays of maple bars. Alright, we aren't quite such pigs, to be truthful, a lot of it was divided up and taken to various homes. And there were fifteen people for dinner.

That was our pre Thanksgiving hog fest.Eating turkey tomorrow will feel like a diet. But seeing all that food disappear got me to thinking. What is it about this upcoming holiday season that makes us feel like overindulging and consuming more than our share? It seems to begin at Halloween and then by Jan 2, we are all stuffed, broke, in debt and planning our New Year's resolutions to remedy the situation. It's not just food and overeating, it's all the spending and the shopping and the conspicuous consumption. We've all done it, and most of us don't like it, but we get sucked in just the same. I could blame the media, but they don't force us into the stores to open our wallets.

This year, I would love to have a simpler holiday, with less indulgence, more heart and less cash, with service instead of selfishness. Do you think that's even possible in this cultural environment?  And in case you're interested, here's the recipe for the maple bars:

MAPLE BARS
----------
  1 1/2 c. milk
  1/2 c. shortening
  4 tbsp. sugar
  2 tsp. salt
  2 yeast cakes
  4 tbsp. warm water
  4 3/4 c. flour
  3 eggs, beaten well
  Frosting (recipe follows)

Bring milk to boiling point and pour over shortening, sugar
and salt in a large bowl. Cool to lukewarm. Dissolve yeast
in warm water and add to lukewarm mixture in bowl along
with flour and eggs; mix well.
Grease bowl and add dough, turning to grease top. Cover and
let rise in a warm place until doubled. Turn out onto a
well floured board and roll 1/2" thick. Cut into 2"x4"
pieces. Let rise again in warm place until double.
Deep fry in oil heated to 375 degrees in deep skillet or
fryer until golden on all sides. Remove to paper towels to
drain. Make Frosting and frost bars while still warm.

FROSTING:
  2 c. confectioners' sugar
  3 tbsp. butter, softened
  1/4 c. milk
  1/4 c. maple syrup
  1/2 tsp. maple flavoring

Blend butter into sugar, add milk a tablespoon at a time until right consistency. Should be smooth and spreadable. Add more powdered sugar if mixture is too runny, and more milk and/or syrup if it's too stiff.
Enjoy!

Tucking in the Garden

When I moved out West from Illinois 30 years ago, I remember being surprised to hear people with lawns bashing trees. "I don't like trees on my property. They kill the grass, plus there's all those leaves to rake in the fall."

Huh? Grass is nice and all but nothing that special. Once settled into our home, my husband and I set about to plant trees everywhere we could, first at one home then the next one, where we live now. It had about 6 or 8 trees on the property; we planted another 10 or 12.

As for having to rake the leaves, well, yes that's part of it. In fact, we spent two hours today doing just that. It was nice. Raking the leaves is the last loving act one performs for their yard. Then we gathered them up and lay them over the garden like a warm blanket, to cover it all winter. After months of rain and snow, the leaves will break down into the soil, enriching it for spring planting.

I noticed that the trees, now barren of their leaves, had many dried pears, apples or edible berries still hanging on the branches like Christmas ornaments. These will feed the birds that winter over. How can anyone not love a tree? Now the trees, the garden, the yard and the birds are all ready for winter. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.