Joyous Tomorrows

Back home now after thoroughly enjoying my visits with my two daughters and their families.  It has been so much fun getting to know them again, sometimes a month or two can bring big changes in your family's lives.   While visiting with my daughters, I saw that my love of books as they were growing up touched their lives too. There is joy in reading books. I called my granddaughter last night to wish her a happy 8th birthday and asked if she had been helping her mom. (smiles)... Her answer was "No, I was up on my bunk reading a new book. I love it! It is "The Secret Garden"." Later, her mom told me it was one of the old books she had from her growing up. Loved the old cover. As my children grew up and moved out of the house, I let them pick books from the library that I had accumulated while homeschooling them to use for their own families.  Now, let me explain.  A large number of my book were books from the late 1800s to the early 1900s.  When I woul...

We, meaning the dad, the mom (of course) and I arrived at the hospital Tuesday evening at the suggestion of the Doctor who said the mom was at 5 cm and should have the baby soon. She was 4 days over her due date.  At the hospital, they were busy, and a mother not having hard labor, (her contractions were spread apart) was not something they wanted to see, so they sent her to the waiting room to "wait and see".  The room was so full, I had to go to the entrance waiting room to wait for word as to whether they would admit her or not.  Sigh. After an hour, my son-in-law came down and said there was room, would I come up and wait with them.  Sure.  Once there, it was about another 30 minutes before they asked them to come back to the Triage room, only room for the mom and dad.  That's fine.   They waited until about 11 pm. She wasn't making progress so the nurses wanted to send her home.  A call to the doctor changed their mind. He said, keep...

Gosh I can't... well yes I can believe I am this far behind. Going back to December, I missed the December prompt of "Kissing Stories"by Blue Raspberry Sundays... I didn't remember mistletoe being particularly a part of Christmas, so I hesitated writing a post for that.  My number two daughter said, not so, she has pictures to prove it.   Well yes, when she put up mistletoe at her apartment, we smooched under that, but I will tell you my Hero did not like ODA, his acronym for Obvious Displays of Affection, out in public.  Funny guy, it set him up for so much teasing by me.  I was a terrible tease.  I only have one picture that shows me teasing him (a favorite of mine). I would start to give him a peck on the cheek out in public and I would be admonished... "no ODA". Well, confession is good for the soul, so I will tell you, I would wait until we got out of site of people or in an elevator and give him a big kiss.  This was okay until he began worrying ...

I haven't written about the death of my sweet husband.  My heart has been heavy in that area since 9:00 am on December 23, 2008. The 22nd had been a busy time. Children coming in and out of the house to visit with their dad because we all knew that time for him was getting shorter by the day. I had cleansed his wounds, and tucked him in, then I had lain down on the sofa next to him to rest.  I apparently fell fast asleep, because I was awakened by my son and his wife as they prepared breakfast in the kitchen.  I sat up and immediately noticed that Ned wasn't breathing right.  I ran over to the side of the bed, and saw his oxygen had slipped off.  I quickly put it back on, but he wasn't responsive to my touch or to my calling his name.  I could tell he was in a Cheyne-Stokes breathing pattern.  I called to my children and then reached for my phone to call the Hospice team that he was dying.  While I was on the phone, he took his last breath with...

Aine urged us to go through our photos for the last 10 years and create a post using the photos for the past 10 years. I am in a world of hurt.  When my children left home, I sent the bulk of pictures of them with them.  After that along came digital cameras (love them) BUT I had saved all my pictures, organized beautifully, on my external hard drive so I would not lose any... Guess what, computer is fine... external is in the shop, with prayers. Since my picture capacity is low, I (this is with a wink) decided to have a historical reenactment of Christmas's past.  Last year (repeat "last year") I purchased some awesome Christmas fabric with the goal in mind to make pillow cases for all my grandchildren for the following Christmas. Do you think I actually followed through with that?  You are right... I did not.  So on Thursday (3 days ago) I got my fabric out, and began my marathon to finish my pillowcases in time to mail them with in 3 days. I have fin...

Aine at Blue Raspberry Sunday  gave the prompt writing about a talent that you or an ancestor had.  Since I am trying to write my stories for my family about me, it will be a talent I have.  A talent I have been blessed with would be called God given.  I did nothing to develop it, it is just me. I was blessed with the talent of looking outward and caring for others.  Looking back one incident that stands out to me, probably not the first time I had done, but a memorable experience; was when my mother caught the hillside on fire. We live halfway up a sizable hill, not a mountain, but definitely could wind you if you walked up it.  (Side note:  Rocky Mountain states say Oklahoma mountains are hills. J )  In the 1950s, people burned their trash in the country.  My dad, to be safe, had a 50 gallon barrel with a mesh wire top to keep the fire contained.  This day, my mom had lifted the lid to add some paper to what she was already b...

When I first began my genealogy blog Branching Out Through The Years , my purpose was to preserve the memories of my husband known on the blog as "The Hero"for our grandchildren.  He really wanted to know them and wanted them to know him.  His choice was taken from him by cancer. The Hero and I with oldest daughter's first son. After that, I decided to write the stories of my associations with my relatives, aunts, uncles, grandparents for my children and grandchildren because for the most part they never met or really knew any of them.  This grew to posts about ancestors I wanted to know about and sharing findings with those who were also interested. When I started on my mother-in-law's family, it was very exciting for her.  She shared her personal stories.  Many times I sat on the floor at her feet and wrote down as she told me.  My sister-in-law also had her write down her personal history so now we have it in her writing.  There is som...