For the last year I haven't pursued my hobby of genealogy. It was partly because Marian and I had "finished" our family history book and partly because none of my children really seemed at all interested in it. But I've decided that it doesn't matter whether anyone other than myself ever cares about it. It is my hobby, not theirs. It is my ( Read more... )

For about eight years I've been researching my family history. It started many years ago when one of my children needed help making a family tree. The idea then was to trace his lineage back to when his ancestors came to the United States. I knew very little about anyone beyond my grandparents, but fortunately, all his grandparents were still ( Read more... )

(This post is a remembrance from childhood. I just wanted to write about something that meant a lot to me when I was growing up ( Read more... )

If anyone had told me two years ago that J and I would be spending an afternoon and evening at our church rectory, playing Poker, eating snacks, and drinking wine, with our pastor and friends from our scripture study group, I would have told them they were totally insane. However, we did and had one of the most enjoyable experiences ever. I ( Read more... )

Just a quick note on a book I just finished, "The Madonnas of Leningrad" by Debra Dean. This is a first book that has many levels. It is about a woman who survived WWII living in the Hermitage, a large Russian museum, in Leningrad. As an old woman, she is losing her memory to Alzheimer's. Although the subject matter at both times is very bleak ( Read more... )

It is rare that I like a book so much that I want to tell everyone about it. I read a lot and though I enjoy many types of books, I read them and go on to another. This time, though, I'm reading "The Freedom Writers' Diary" and it is probably one of the best books I've read in a very long time. It was written by a number of high school students ( Read more... )

Today I spent most of the morning and part of the afternoon researching our house here in St. Louis. I've wanted to do this for years, but never knew how to go about it. Recently, I learned that one of our patrons at the library works at city hall and is familiar with the process. When I asked her about it, she was very helpful, giving me ( Read more... )

This month is Big Read month in Missouri. The premise is getting people to read a good book that leads to discussions and deeper appreciation of books in general. The first book chosen was Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Although this book was written in 1953, the subject matter is very current, in fact it is probably more pertenent in today's ( Read more... )

Monday was our 41st anniversary. Yesterday we celebrated. You might think that after that many years being married that we wouldn't care about celebrating anymore, but actually, I think we appreciate and love each other more now than we did so many years ago. Our love has changed, of course. We've had 5 children, weathered illnesses, problems, ( Read more... )

It is strange, my relationship with LJ. I enjoy reading entries, check out what my favorite authors have been writing, wish that some people I know would write more often, etc. But, I rarely write. Somehow what I have to write about seems so mundane. Even when there's something unusual going on in my life it rarely inspires me to sit down at ( Read more... )