Joyous Tomorrows

In September, my daughter decided that I could teach an hour class for 4 Mondays by Skype on World War II.  It was so much fun looking at the screen and seeing my 6 grands looking back at me from Idaho. I shared my screen with them and told them of the years leading up to WWII.  They were interested in the happening and choices made by the governments, and the people of the world's reactions from old newspaper clippings.  Their main goal was to hear about their great grandfather's experience which I had researched through old newspapers and his file and wrote about on a genealogy blog, Worldwide Genealogy   We had mediocre discussions, but I ended it with an appeal to them to learn of history and search out information for themselves so they would know what is truth. They were given documentaries, and things to read to remind me of what we had covered. The ages were from 3 to 15, learning abilities autistic, ADHD, dyslexic, and normal. They all lea...

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...

My Halloween Ghost, True Story.  J Once there was a ghost who lived in a house in Edmond, Oklahoma.   The little girl there saw him in her closet. A dark headed man who just hung around her room. At night she was careful to cover her head so just her nose stuck out.  He couldn’t touch her then.  This was because one night, she woke up and something was holding her hand.  Weird.  She knew he meant her no harm so she just kept an eye out for him.                 She knew when he was around because she felt ... someone watching her. When she had grown up and went away to college, her parents found her portrait off the wall, sitting on the floor facing the wall.  She was missed, or he was ticked she had left. The house is gone, a big warehouse sits there now, wonder where the ghost went, if he found peace. The legend was,  he was a man found who had hung himself in the chicken house...

Yesterday I went shopping with my daughter and son-in-law when they were looking for appliances for their new house.  While they were doing the comparisons, I took the two older granddaughter out to the garden center to look at the plants.  (You knew this would happen.) We looked at the different plants. I told  them the names of each as well as why they would or would not do for the new house.  A front apparently rolled in because the wind picked up and the temperature dropped about 10 degrees.  We chose to go back inside and looked at yard art and the seeds.  We found Butterfly Weed seed Why we wanted the Butterfly Weed. ... only one package left so we picked it up, some Johnny Jump ups, and Nasturtiums they could plant in the hanging back which could be brought in on cold days.  Of course I found one or two other things I could buy to spoil them with. The transaction for arranging delivery was taking a while so the parents suggested we ch...

Unusual costumes has been a regular for my TexasBlu girl.  She loved dreaming up something different for me to make for her when she was little. This is her at 8 with her dad and siblings at a County Maintenance Barn Halloween activity. The character is Mrs Bianca from the Rescuers.   About a month and a half ago, one of my grandsons, who has decided he will be a scientist, advised his mom that GrandmomE was going to make him a lab coat.  'Sure,' says I, 'that will be easy enough.' Well, the oldest then decided GrandmomE was going to make him a cowboy outfit.  Still easy enough. The mom then decided how about making the twins a HeMan outfit. (That was a popular cartoon series in the 80's [when TexasBlu was little] and is still on old channels).  Can't deny that part of my insanity was, I have never made anything for the boys it has always been for the girls.  Must do this. As I was working, a poem I cross stitched for TexasBlu when she was about 10...