Memory Mondays

As I have mentioned before and will mention again, genealogy is very easy for me since my family has been in the United States of America since before it was the United States of America and in the very county where I still live since prior to 1800.  

But not every document is in our county courthouse.  

I have been able to attend a few genealogy conferences in my area and I come home and stay up all night searching using new techniques to quickly find documents before I forget the steps. 

Even better were online zoom conferences during covid where I could set up a second laptop and work with the teacher. 

For today I am showing off a document signed by President Millard Fillmore following the Bounty Land Grant of 1850 awarding my ancestor 160 acres in Iowa (stolen from Native Americans I am sure) for his service in the War of 1796. War of 1796? Yes, more wars against Native Americans, I believe. 

My 3rd great grandfather Simon's grandfather Jacobus was born in Freehold, New Jersey in 1721. His second great grandfather Albert was born in Flatlands, NY in 1675. Albert's dad Dirck arrived in "New Netherlands" from the Netherlands in 1650. 

For Christmas my husband bought access to international records on Ancestry (as in I said do you want to upgrade my subscription for Christmas and he said sure). I need to make sure to schedule time to work on these generations in Europe while I have access to records. 

You know, in my spare time. 

Happier

 After a rough Thursday, I decided I need a brighter post to start the weekend. 

My bonus granddaughter at the lamp lighting ceremony at her nursing school. She is currently working third shift as a nursing assistant in the ER at our local hospital while attending nursing school during the day. She is a hard worker and so very very kind. She will be a wonderful nurse. I think she graduates in May of 2027. 

This has really brightened my day. It seems that a caterer in a nearby town bought a shuttered restaurant about a year ago and turned it into a catering facility with optional hall rental. AND in January she is starting a monthly tea party on the third Sunday. This was my original retirement plan - going to tea parties!

And starting last fall, she opened the hall for a limited lunch on weekdays (one special pictured above). 

Another photo stolen from her facebook page. How I missed this I will never know. I am obviously not getting out enough! 

I have already talked my high school friends into a lunch date there in two weeks.  And I am looking for people who are free on the date of the tea party. I will report back!

Tomorrow I am joining my library retiree friends (I worked at our local library for about 10 years) for lunch. I was the youngest of the group so it is very important for me to attend and visit with my friends. 

Thank you Mary Engelbreit and Dr King.  

And after lunch my local Indivisible has a town hall scheduled. This took a lot of planning and donations and organization to rent a hall, donations of money and time and equipment from people to set up and take down, provide security, provide a sound system, a calm well-spoken moderator and a slate of candidates for state elections who are willing to come to our rural county so we can meet them. Of course members of the ruling party were all invited too but I guess they don't know where we live, how to use a telephone, fax or the internet to respond or decline. 

It is going to conflict with the spontaneous marches and vigils that are now scheduled all over my corner of the state and I hope it is more than the organizers, me and the candidates. 

And this is how my grandson arrived this morning (photo taken at home with their tree). He wasn't ready to get up and these are his portable night-time glasses.

What a day

I'll start this post with some adorable homeschoolers from a Facebook post five years ago when we thought Covid was a bad thing. Now we know it was an appetizer. 

What a day.  It was my day for our church charity office and I had 10 clients in four hours. 

I had families who had rent increases and can't afford them. I had families unable to pay the balances on their utility bills. I had a family who used paychecks to pay for their dad's funeral and can't pay bills.

I had a single dad with an 8 year old whose 20 year old daughter moved in with 2 toddlers. She doesn't work. He changed jobs and had a paycheck gap.

I had a young man whose employer had a 3 week shutdown. They are back to work and switching their payroll software so it will be three more weeks before he gets a check.  His rent is due.

I had a woman whose rental house burnt down due to faulty wiring the day after she paid rent for this month. Her full time job cut her hours this fall so she lost healthcare. She has picked up a 8 hour a month housekeeping job, a 1 hour a week cleaning job at a gym and is a substitute lunch lady on call in addition to her nursing home job. 

I had a woman whose hours at a restaurant were cut to 15 hours per week. 

I had lady who is in her mid-60's, but working 35 hours a week at Walmart. She makes about $100 less a month than her bills on a good day. She is afraid to file for social security because she will be penalized for working and have less spendable income. I am not an expert on that. 

I had a family that needed a past balance electric bill paid to move into an apartment. 

I had an interesting couple in their fifties. He recently quit a job (where my husband worked) of 28 years to start a construction business. It is slower than expected and he needs $1200 to fill his propane tank and $300 to keep his electric on.  Interesting because it was hard to get straight answers, he left a very high paying job where he could have retired at 60 with a good pension, and his wife doesn't work. Looking at the mortgage they have had for 20 years, I am guessing we refinanced at some point. It isn't adding up. 

I saw an automotive plant near us is laying off next month. 

And I accidentally turned on the tv and ICE has shot two people in Portland. 

Another grandchild (the one who was here on Tuesday) has tested positive for Influenza A.

This is not a good day. 

Keeping on Keeping on

My youngest son had a birthday on Monday. He was born at 9 pounds, 5 oz back when doctors didn't tell you what a baby might weigh at birth, thank goodness. At 3 or 4 weeks old he got a special fancy case of croup and spent a week in ICU at our small local hospital. We were having a blizzard and the helicopter to the children's hospital would not fly. Highways were closed and Mr Merry was 2 towns away and couldn't come home.  The hospital cafeteria was being remodeled but my mom and aunt both worked at the hospital and would bring me hot food and sneak me into the shower room in the ER.  Fun times.  When he was released, he weighed just over 7 pounds. 

All grown up now and a master griller. 

My grandson was having senior night (known as senior swim) this week and I spent Saturday and Sunday making this poster. 

For no reason I can figure, one of our school extended the Christmas break by one day so that we had children here on Monday. 

One of the volunteers at our church office went to Florida so I took the Tuesday morning shift. My son called with a sick child but swore he could pick him up before we needed to leave for the 180 mile round trip to the swim meet with the poster. 

My first client was a man who is in his late 60's who lives alone and cannot read or write.  He brought me his bills in unopened envelopes. 

My replacement was 30 minutes late. I came home and my son was 30 minutes late.  We arrived 8 minutes before it started. Whew. 

My middle son, his wife, and my youngest daughter also made the trip along with his parents, other grandparents and his dad's brother and his wife. Quite the cheering section.  

Senior Picture. Mom got the suit at Goodwill. 

We drove home and split a "biggie bag" from Wendy's on the road.  

I'm trying to catch up on blogs but I am still really tired from that stinking flu. I did get a flash of energy this morning so I went to the Amish to get eggs, went down a few more roads to the Amish butcher to get Brat patties which are only 3.95 a pound. I stopped at Aldi when I got back to town for bread and hamburger buns and picked up the ready to bake Apple Streusel that I saw on social media. I baked the streusel while I washed eggs and it looks delicious (breakfast before school tomorrow), put a roast in the crock pot for sandwiches, made a macaroni salad and did a load of laundry. I was then spent for the day. 

Then I witnessed the atrocity in Minneapolis and had to turn off the tv.  I am so scared and sad and angry. 

Tomorrow I am back in the church charity office for the day. Today all our snow melted and if the weather station is to be believed, it is supposed to be 60 degrees on Friday!  And back in the 30's by Sunday.