COG - New Year's Resolution[s]

Carnival of Genealogy – New Year’s Resolutions




As the New Year rapidly approaches, we pause and take the time to reflect on our past New Year’s resolution, and ask ourselves how close we came to fulfilling it. And then we begin to formulate our new New Year’s resolution.

Last year I’d such high hopes of getting so much personal research done on my own family tree! And I’d planned to perform an equal amount of research on my brother-in-law’s tree and gift him with the results.

Unfortunately, all of that fell by the wayside as I was inundated this year with client requests for their research on family trees. Not that I am totally complaining, mind you! But it did inhibit my ability, and time, to work on those previous goals.

Now, at my age, I am getting to the point that money isn’t the everything I used to believe it to be, so I propose to limit the amount of clients I take into hand this coming year.

I propose to allot myself at least 10-hours per week for personal research, while maintaining at least 30 hours of research time for my clients weekly.

How do I propose to stick to that plan?

Simple. A time sheet. Yep, a plain old simple time sheet. I already use one in keeping the hours of my client’s research. So, my plan is to also keep one for overall hours in each day.

My plan is to limit my business research to 6 hours a day, unless of course extensive travel has been involved in order to reach a repository, and in which case, I must utilize every second while there to be able to keep costs at a minimum. Now, should that be the case, I will offset with other days of the week, in which I will then increase my personal hours of research.

I set my goal for a 40-hour week of research. In reality, I usually perform 60 or more. [My dh is a long-haul truck driver, and so I spend most of my time alone and can work as late as I want to each evening… and yes… this means I AM addicted to genealogy! I am just waiting for a local support group to form! I can see it now… me standing before the group… “Hello, my name is Cyndi… and I’m a geneaholic.” Wonder how the 12-Step program works with that? Hmmmm] However, this New Year, I am planning to stick to that 40-hour work week, to allow me time for some of my other passions.

Reading! Right now I am relinquishing those moments before falling to sleep with a book. It sometimes takes me a month to read a book now! I’d like to allow myself a full hour each day to read.

Crocheting! I LOVE to crochet. And I probably have 6 or 7 projects started and lying about in various workbaskets. All of which need to be completed!

Writing! “A Mountain Gentleman” has been lying dormant on my computer for nearly 2 years now. I’d really like to get it completed, for my Dad’s sake, as well as my own. [Dad is 72 years young, and the book is about his great-grandfather. He asks me about it every now and then. However, I’ve noticed that it’s been quite a while since the last time he questioned how the book was going!]

Correspondence! And I mean the old fashioned kind, where you sit down with a fountain pen, and luxurious vellum and write in your own distinctive script, from the heart. Oh, it seems it’s been ages since I’ve done that!

And, of course, there’s the desire to continue the journey which I began 13-weeks ago, on my wellness program. [Yep, the old girl has lost an amazing 66 pounds in 13-weeks. But I still have a ways to go!]

So, my goals are definite. My desire is sincere.

Will I be voicing regrets this time next year?

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Why break a streak that’s nearly a half century old now???

Follow Friday - December 18, 2009

Today I'd like to introduce to one of my favorite blogs. AnceStories: The Stories of My Ancestors written by genealogist Miriam Robbins Midkiff

This wonderfully educating, and enjoyable to read, site, always leaves you wanting to know more! Miriam has a way of putting you right there with either herself or her ancestors. Her writing style is both enjoyable and entertaining.

Miriam writes, or co-authors, the following blogs:

The Eastern Washington Graveyard Rabbit

&Etc

AnceStories: The Stories of My Ancestors

Eastern Washington Genealogical Society Blog - Co-Authors

AnceStories 2: Stories of Me for My Descendants

Online Historical Directories

Bootcamp for Genea-Bloggers - Co-Authors

The Atlas Project

Miriam lists her bio on this site as:
"I speak and write about genealogy from Spokane, Washington, USA, as well as teach both beginning and intermediate courses in Online Genealogy through my local community college district. My regular career is working with special needs students at the junior high level in my local school district. I consider three locations my "home" and blog frequently about them: Alaska (where I was born and grew up); Michigan (where most of my genealogical research takes place); and Eastern Washington (my residence since 1979). My family includes my husband, two teens, and a playful tabby named Tessa."

AnceStories is one of my all-time favorite reads, and I never miss a post. If you aren't yet receiving Miriam's blog in your reader, I urge you to subscribe to her blog. It's a read you will certainly enjoy!

Advent Calendar - December 18 - Christmas Stockings

Did you have one? Where did you hang it? What did you get in it? Do you have any Christmas stockings used by your ancestors?

I had a very lovely Christmas stocking when I was growing, with my name [then spelled “Cindy” – I was grown when I changed the spelling of it] embroidered on it. It was an off-white stocking with a red cuff, and the printed decorations on the front of the stocking were all done in the same shade of red. There was a small village scene, as if seen from a distance down near the toe. Smoke was arising from one of the house’s chimney’s, and flying through the smoke and up into the clouds [climbing the upper part of the stocking] was Santa in his sleigh, being pulled by those eight magical reindeer. I loved that stocking!

Sad to say, but during my first year of marriage to my first husband, we moved several times. And on one of those moves, the box with all of my Christmas decorations, including that stocking, was left behind by accident.

Our Christmas stockings used to hang upon the wall, as we didn’t have a fireplace mantel to hang them on. That is until Mama purchased this adorable cardboard contraption one year, [it lasted for more than 10 years!]. It was a very cute cardboard fireplace. Brick print to the bottom, with an opening for the fire, and the top [mantel] was solid black. In the fire box was a cardboard flame, and behind that flickered an electric bulb that made it resemble a true fire. I know, sounds terribly cheap and corny now, but when I was little, we absolutely loved it! Mama told us how Santa was magical, and he could just as easily appear from the cardboard fireplace as from a real one! And so, for many year, our stockings were hung from that cardboard mantel. And once Santa filled them on Christmas Eve, he would leave them sitting on the floor leaning against the fireplace for us to find on Christmas morning!
We got everything imaginable in our stockings! But there were some things that we always got: oranges, apples, a peppermint candy cane [and I mean those GIANT ones that you still see at Christmas!], usually some Christmas chocolates, too. I remember getting brightly colored Christmas pencils and pens, one year I got a set of jacks [yes, that’s a game for you young folks!], I know that one of us got a set of tiddly-winks one year in our stocking [can’t remember if it was me or my sister – and yes, that’s another game invented long before Nintendo, or Wii, etc.] I received a Skipper one year [Barbie’s little sister]. Bracelets, necklaces, one year I got a diary, and as we got older we received makeup and cologne as well.

I don’t have any stockings that belonged to my ancestors. Although, over at my sisters house are a couple of little tiny stockings that belonged to our mother when she was a little girl [I’ve written about these before]. These are tiny little stockings that might actually fit an infant. But they are precious to me! And I am content to occasionally catch a glimpse of them decorating my sister’s tree or wall decoration she has made. Just knowing they are there means the world to me!

Today my mantel is decorated with 4 stockings. Plain ones for my dh and I. But then there are two that are decorated a bit, compared to ours. You’d think they were for children or grandchildren, right? You would be wrong! They hang there for Chica [our rather temperamental Chihuahua], and Fred [our very feminine, and finicky feline]. And yes, Santa visits the two of them every year! [See my post for yesterday!]

Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without seeing the stockings hung in a row on the mantel!

Grandpa Was a Son of a Gun

'Twas the night before Christmas & out on the ranch
The pond was froze over & so was the branch.
The snow was piled up belly-deep to a mule.
The kids were all home on vacation from school,
And happier young folks you never did see-
Just all sprawled around a-watchin' TV.
Then suddenly, some time around 8 o'clock,
There came a surprise that gave them a shock!
The power went off, the TV went dead!
When Grandpa came in from out in the shed
With an armload of wood, the house was all dark.
"Just what I expected," they heard him remark.
"Them power line wires must be down from the snow.
Seems sorta like times on the ranch long ago."
"I'll hunt up some candles," said Mom. "With their light,
And the fireplace, I reckon we'll make out all right."
The teen-agers all seemed enveloped in gloom.
Then Grandpa came back from a trip to his room,
Uncased his old fiddle & started to play
That old Christmas song about bells on a sleigh.
Mom started to sing, & 1st thing they knew
Both Pop & the kids were all singing it, too.
They sang Christmas carols, they sang "Holy Night,"
Their eyes all a-shine in the ruddy firelight.
They played some charades Mom recalled from her youth,
And Pop read a passage from God's Book of Truth.
They stayed up till midnight-and, would you believe,
The youngsters agreed 'twas a fine Christmas Eve.
Grandpa rose early, some time before dawn;
And when the kids wakened, the power was on.
"The power company sure got the line repaired quick,"
Said Grandpa - & no one suspected his trick.
Last night, for the sake of some old-fashioned fun,
He had pulled the main switch - the old Son-of-a-Gun!
-anonymous

Terry Bradshaw in Afghanistan

I warn you... if you want to be politically correct... then ignore this post. If you aren't ashamed of God and the United States of America, and you want to see what our troops think of GOD and COUNTRY then watch this short clip!

Be prepared to feel pride in our men and women serving our country!

Have a hanky ready!!!

Advent Calendar - December 17 - Our Pets At Christmas

My Mama was really sentimental when it came to our pets as I was growing up. They celebrated birthday’s and Christmas, just like we did!

For Christmas, our doggies would have stockings hung next to ours. And in their stockings would be a doggie toy, a rawhide chewy, and maybe a box of Milk Bones.

Santa didn’t leave them out!

That’s one “tradition” I still continue!

My dog, Chica, and my cat, Fred, each have their own stocking for Christmas. Inside they receive a package of their favorite goodies, a new toy, and a new chewy.

This year I decided to try to make Chica [our Chihuahua] and Fred [our cat - and yes, Fred is a female cat] become my Christmas card. I dressed them each up in a Santa jacket, and attempted to take their picture together. Unfortunately, neither was very cooperative. I managed to get some decent ones of them by themselves, but as you can see above, they were NOT going to pose together! This was the closest I could get them! [You can just see the enthusiasm on their faces! Tee hee]

So for Chica, Merry Bow-Wow! And to Fred, Merry Meow!

[Also, for all of you who are wondering, my pets ARE my Treausre Chest Thursday post! Pretty fantastic, huh?]

Genea Caroling - Stille Nacht

The Footnote Maven has asked that we join in Genea-Caroling this year.

My favorite Christmas carol is one my Grandpa Dreher used to sing to me, in his family's native tongue, German.

Please join in this sing-along from You Tube!