Beneath the Wraps

            There is a family history fair coming up in May.   Someone had made reference to the importance of it during our conference meeting.   Yes.   It is important.   Good hygeine is important - yearly checkups with the doctor and semi-annually for the dentist.  That doesn't mean we love doing it.            I have been rereading the autobiography of my former neighbor's mother.   She was 81 when her words were published and lived another 25 years.   She is the oldest living person that I have personally known. It has been interesting reading about the history she has lived. She enjoyed family history.               I prefer the picture taking and journal entrees over research and accumulated documents that may or may not be a distant relation. Currently, I have at least three ...

Jenna has so many interests.   She enjoys dancing, singing, telling stories, arts & crafts, drawing pictures, coloring . . . Butterfly on a sunflower my Mothers’ Day gift this year          When I was younger, my mom had me enrolled in dance lessons, piano lessons, swim lessons . . . I wanted that for Jenna.   But we could never seem to afford much.          I did find an inexpensive dance class and tumbling class through the school district.   She saw it as an opportunity to socialize and didn’t take her dance seriously but did enjoy the tumbling part.            I had her in an inferior swim class.   She learned more about swimming when she was only a year old and the two of us took a class together.   I had also enrolled her in a theatre class as I figured there was dancing and si...

          Recently I was googling Individual Worth in search for a proper definition to use in one of my posts.  As I went searching I pulled up a few blog sites with inspiring stories which I would like to share and reference.           I came across an object lesson given by Stephanie Waite in which she laid out various belongings on a table and asked her class what each object was worth and what made them valuable.  Some of the objects were perhaps expensive things and some objects may have been more valuable to one than to another.  But the particular object that may have seemed worthless to most individuals was probably the most valuable thing on the table in the eyes of its initial owner.           It actually reminded me of an object that is close to Jenna – a stuffed dog she’s had since she was 6 months old – though the...

That’s how she described her passion for family history: “like a fly to cowpie”.  She had been raised on a dairy farm – it was a natural analogy – though I could think of better ones: “a duck to water” “a monkey on a cupcake” or Roland’s favorite: “like Godzilla on Tokyo”         I don’t even have a passion for genealogy or family research ( from an earlierpost )  but wouldn’t have compared it to manure.   Family History is a good thing and works for a lot of people.   And there are many aspects of family history that I do enjoy – but research is a far cry from being one of them.           It’s not just family history that gets her fired up.  I believe that it is everything that comes her way.  She greets it with her heart which shines in her smile.  I think she may have an even bigger love for life than my sister-in-law, Sunny, whom I truly admire.  Sunny teach...

We all have gifts and talents that are perhaps unique to other people, perhaps the same, perhaps what sets us apart. Some talents just seem to come naturally while others are mastered or simply given up on.  Unfortunately some talents go unrecognized or are lost due to lack of sharing.           Jenna is really great with math.  I pushed her into believing that it is awesome so that she might understand it on her own.  She starts third grade next year and I’m thinking it may become too complex for my brain.           Math is something I didn’t figure I would ever ask her brothers to assistance for. Math is just NOT their forte.  Actually I am more confident in my own math skills than I would ever be in Biff’s.  His talent lies within animal charmer and puzzle awareness.           Lately Jenna’s math homework has cons...

Today I was looking through some old albums and boxes of photographs.  I remember getting on my mom’s case for having so many pictures in a box and not in an album.  I have come to learn that the box is actually better – or was rather. Remember the magnetic albums that came out in the 70’s?  All that was required was lifting the plastic and setting the photo on page and presto – it was there for life.  Who knew that just twenty years later we would be scolded for ever having considered ruining our photographs by placing them on pages chalk full of acid.  We might as well have put our photos through a shredder. I would say that at least 70% of the pictures could be thrown away.  If not ruined by acid, they just really had no business making it to the album in the first place.  But mom could never bring herself to throw such items away, no matter how blurred or butchered the picture itself turned out.  And by butchered, I mean like the ...

          This post is dedicated to my sister, Kayla and our sister-in-law, Sunny.           Kayla has always been the strong silent type – both physically and spiritually.   She has always had tremendous faith.   She is a survivor.           When she was younger she could detect the slightest movement of a wrapper being pulled away from a food item (usually something unhealthy like ding dongs or cupcakes or m&ms) She wouldn’t even be in the house, but in the neighborhood.   Unwrap that piece of candy, and she would appear through the door.   But it had to be real.   We could never get her to come simply by crinkling cellophane or foil           She would say to my mom, “Can I have a piece of gum?” (or whatever)        ...

          When I was twelve I took a family history class – only it wasn’t actually called Family History.   At that time it was referred to a genealogy. (Boring name; must be why they changed it) I was the only youth in the class.   The instructor was early 40s – possibly late 30s.   The rest of the class members were all over the age of 50. Things were done on legal size paper.   There were Xerox machines (photocopiers) and pens.   No PAF, Ancestry.com, Google, etc.   I would imagine doing family research is so much easier now than back then. My instructor had been raised in a foster care system and had always had a strong sense of getting to know and understand her family.   It was a very long process. I understand why family history is so important to her.   To have a connection.   And when she did find connections, the discoveries were great.   As an adult she learned that she h...