All in all, a good weekend..........

I had a pretty good weekend.  I cleaned my house Saturday morning and made dinner for some family Saturday night.  My Mom and my oldest sister, Dennice, came up and we had Thomas' three sisters over, as well.  Two live here in town but the third was still visiting from Tennessee; she'd been up since their Dad died and she left for home today, so I wanted to have them all over at the same time.  Her husband had already gone back home and the other two husbands weren't able to make it.  So Thomas and Andrew were the only two males here!   We had a nice visit, though; lots of laughter and funny family stories.

I made a venison pot roast with carrots, new potatoes and baby onions (well, that goes without saying, doesn't it? how can you make a pot roast without those three things?!), homemade biscuits and steamed asparagus.  My Mom brought her famous, homemade (from scratch) chocolate layer cake that I hadn't had in years and is just melt-in-your-mouth delicious!!  I served that with vanilla ice cream.  Thomas had made some butternut squash pies earlier in the week (his specialty, and a recipe he learned from his dad, no less), so when I mentioned that we still had some squash pie if anyone would like some, my sister said, "You mean you haven't brought it out yet?!"  Everyone loves his squash pie.   Didn't exactly go with the rest of the menu, but who cared?

I had stayed up way too late on Friday night and had a busy day Saturday, cooking and cleaning, and even though everyone left around 9:00 it was still after 11 before I got to bed.  Then after our meeting this morning we went with some friends to Golden Corral, where I stuffed myself for the second day in a row.  When we got back home I could barely keep my eyes open to find my way to the bed.  Andrew had ridden to Golden Corral with two of his friends, Jamie and Joel, and after lunch he went with them to Jamie's house to play video games and later they went to Louisville to play lazer tag. 

Thomas lay down to nap the same time I did, and after he'd slept about a half hour we got a call inviting Eler Beth to go play with the daughters of some other friends of ours.  So Thomas said he'd take her (I really appreciated the invitation because she'd been moping around trying to decide what she wanted to do--with Andrew gone and it pouring down rain outside, her options seemed limited.)

These friends have a daughter a year younger that Eler Beth and a daughter (from his previous marriage) two years older, and the girls get along great.  They have a lot in common.  I've known them since Thomas and I got married, and he's known them since he was a teenager (and was a groomsman in the husband's first wedding).  So when they left I asked Thomas if he was coming back while Eler Beth played or if he was going to stay and "play" with Tony.  Hah!  That was just a rhetorical question, because when he and Tony get together they could talk fishing, boating or deer hunting for hours.

I slept the whole time they were gone.  They got home at 9:30 and I called Tony's wife and thanked her for letting Thomas and Eler Beth come over to play.  Andrew got home at 10, and now here I sit, wide awake!!  I just did some laundry and got things organized for tomorrow, and I really am just about to go back to bed.  Just thought I'd update real quick. 

Our weather here has been a little cooler than normal and it has rained for two days now.  I think it's going to say cool this week, which is fine with me, as long as it stays dry.  I'd like to be able to do some more planting and get my yard mowed again.

Well, I'm off to bed.  Hopefully I won't have any trouble getting up in the morning and I can get my body back on schedule!  Hope everyone has a nice week.

I Think I'm Kermit The Frog, But I'm Only 40% Weird?

Actually, this is just as I thought:

You Are 40% Weird Normal enough to know that you're weird...
But too damn weird to do anything about

Well, of course!  Why should I want to do anything about it?

Blogthings - How Weird Are You?

No, it's not easy being green............

 

You Are Kermit Hi, ho! Lovable and friendly, you get along well with everyone you know.
You're a big thinker, and sometimes you over think life's problems.
Don't worry - everyone know's it's not easy being green.
Just remember, time's fun when you're having flies!

 

Blogthings - The Muppet Personality Test

A Bit of Friday Fun.............

I'm a "Sunrise"?  And I always thought of myself as a nightowl!

You Are Sunrise You enjoy living a slow, fulfilling life. You enjoy living every moment, no matter how ordinary.
You are a person of reflection and meditation. You start and end every day by looking inward.
Caring and giving, you enjoy making people happy. You're often cooking for friends or buying them gifts.
All in all, you know how to love life for what it is - not for how it should be.

 

Blogthings - What Time Of Day Are You?

Another Year, Another Science Fair

Anyone out there have any interesting ideas for a good science fair experiment/presentation for a fourth-grader?

After about seven years of coming up with stuff for Andrew and four years (including kindergarten) for Eler Beth, we're about out of ideas!!  I sure would love to help her do something different this year.  Anyone have any interesting or unique suggestions?.....  Anyone?.....  Anyone?.....

Giving Up Some of the Control

Being a good, loving mother means being able to give up control and not say anything when...

he folds the towels in simple quarter folds, instead of your compulsively neat and more complicated way

she has mowed uneven, zig zag swaths of lawn

he doesn't do the dishes in the order that you're obsessed with

she polishes the wood furniture against the grain

he vacuums uneven, zig zag swaths across the carpet

she dusts your nic nacs and then lines them up rigidly, instead of achieving that softer layout

he makes his own bed and it looks worse than before he made it

she hangs up her clothes facing the wrong way in the closet

and I could go on.............

We let Eler Beth mow for the first time yesterday.  She did a great job, but I had to bite my tongue at first to keep from giving her precise instructions on how to mow in neat rows or squares.  Instead I praised and watched proudly as she really did a good job.  Most of the strips that she left she went back and got, and I won't mind too much if I have to even some of it up tomorrow.  I learned a long time ago that it's best to let them do it wrong a few times before you gently correct their methods.  I am so anal about most things like washing dishes, mowing, folding towels, etc., and it used to drive me nuts when I would show Andrew how to do something more than once (and all the while thinking, he should know I like it done this way --  he sees me do it this way all the time), and he just couldn't seem to catch on.  I finally, when he was about 11, gave up trying to get him to do the dishes the way I wanted him to do them.  Slowly he worked out most of the kinks in his chores on his own, and I could make one suggestion at a time on ways to be more efficient or show him why I do things a certain way, or simply ask that he humor me and do it the way I prefer.  By the time Eler Beth was old enough to have regular chores of her own I had learned my lesson.

Of course with Eler Beth it was easier because she just naturally notices more details anyway (maybe it's a girl thing).  She was so proud that we had finally let her do some of the mowing.  She is one hard worker, that girl. 

Yes, I've learned to let go of some of the control and to let some things slide.

More of this and that............

  It's beautiful again today.  Yesterday Thomas and I took advantage of the cessation of rain and finally got that weed field we call our back yard cut!!  So now my front and back yards are decent.  Eler Beth and I went shopping and got some pansies and dahlias, and we happily played in the dirt for an hour or so. 

I have a tree in my front yard around which the roots are above the ground, and the grass is sparse in this area.  I have decided to just do something creative and interesting with rocks, ground cover, hostas, fossils and maybe I'll put a bench right in the middle of it.  If it turns out good I'll share pictures.

I have this other journal that I haven't done anything with for a long time.  I started it to talk about my father and mother's families, post old pictures, and hopefully hear from any distant relatives.   My very first entry in the journal asks for anyone related to the Dowells or Robertses from Breckinridge County, KY to contact me.  Well, I finally was contacted.  A comment was left in that first post, from a cousin I've never met.  His mother and I are first cousins, and I never met her either.  She was the daughter of one of my Dad's eldest brothers.  This particular uncle of mine was married twice.  His first wife, with whom he had several children died before I was born.  They lived in Louisville, and I never remember meeting any of those kids.  He remarried and had three children, two older than I and one two years younger than I.  They moved back to Breckinridge County while all three children were still young, so I grew up with them.

Anyway, this cousin, Steve, is the son of one those daughters from the first marriage.  I emailed him, he responded, and I hope this is just the beginning of a regular correspondence.  He has been researching my father's family for the past 25 years and was able to go back two generations further than I had previously been aware of.  He assured me he would share his research with me.  I let him know about the Dowell reunion we're having in July; he isn't sure he and his wife can come.  I hope they can.  

I called my mom and told her about him contacting me, and she said if she had a computer that's what she'd enjoy using it for.  We've been trying to talk her into letting us buy her one, so we could stay in touch by email.  She said she'd have to hunt and peck to type emails, but I said that was fine, at least we could contact her every day.  We may just buy her one whether she likes it or not!

                                  

Tags: Family history, genealogy, Dowell, Roberts