Time to relax, or a time to seek out adventure…

Social media vacations – did you take one over the last month or so? I know of some people who made a conscious effort to reduce their social media interactions during the holidays, but for a lot of us our social media vacation may have been a consequence of being busier than usual!

I know I did, I took a few weeks off from writing the blog to clear my head & desk & work on some other things; lots of parties, etc.  If you’re an avid reader then you know I actually went back and back-posted all of the posts that I wanted and/or needed to write for the family. Everyone needs to allow themselves some alone time. Its not being selfish, its just part of our well being; prudent.

I left my Great Aunt Treva’s funeral this afternoon with a renewed sense of life.  She didn’t watch it – she lived it. She was an avid golfer, loved to dance, play basketball & baseball, was a long time member of the DAV, among all sorts of other activities. She way always doing something.  She even bowled a 299 in 1999, which given her advanced age, was a very nice accomplishment.  I don’t bowl myself, but my Aunt Jackie always has so I turned to her at one point & asked if she wanted me to include that in her eulogy & she said yes;  just don’t look for it in mine.

Our elders LIVED life. They didn’t have any of the media that we do now, some couldn’t even imagine it. I need to be more active – that’s what I plan to do this year – LIVE!

You may start to see fewer posts in the upcoming months. I don’t think I’ll take up a new sport at age 50, but I may spend a little more time sitting in the grandstands watching my grand-kids play ball. Sounds like a good time to me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Did you take a Facebook/Twitter/Blogging vacation? How did it work out for you?

There is nothing final about a mistake, except it being taken as final. ~ Phyllis Bottome

 

Holiday Movies

Let’s go to the movies – have you seen any good ones in the theater this holiday season? There are many that have gotten good reviews, & appeal to all members of the family. Have you seen a great (or terrible) one? Is there a movie coming out this week that you’re looking forward to seeing? Or in the hustle & bustle of the season are you holding off on movies until after the new year?

I couldn’t decide if I wanted to hook up the old VHS player and watch the ones that I have on VHS or go head and bite the bullet and buy them on Blu-ray, so I made a list of the Christmas movies that I wanted to watch and TIVOed most of them. As for the others, I have Netflix, that I almost never use, but I’ll try and dial them in on that.

So far this week. I watched, It’s a Wonderful Life (the black & white version – my favorite), 1947 Miracle on 34th Street, Elf, Home Alone, How the Grinch Stole Christmas (animated version only), Christmas in Connecticut, Its Christmas Charlie Brown,  Olive the other Reindeer and a few others. We plan on watching Polar Express, Christmas Eve for the sleep over. I bought a little popcorn maker for the kids to enjoy making and eating during the movie. I can’t wait!

1965: Isn’t there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about? ~ Charlie Brown

 

Monday Vivre

As I sit here reevaluating my life, the way I’ve spent the last few years of it, working every minute of it to maintain a home, that for the most part, is decaying faster than I am. I think I want to make some serious changes.

Now that I’m 50, I think I’d like to move somewhere warmer. Not that I don’t love my house, neighbors, park district, my surrounding and the way I live, but when you wake up every morning hating to put your feet on the floor, because the soles of your feet throb for the first 5 minutes, my back and arms hurt. I know it’s just the natural aging process, its really starting to take its toll. The only thing that makes me rethink it is my family.

Today is the last day of October and Halloween; 61 days left in the year. I didn’t even decorate for the holiday, except of a single vignette in the living room; the kids have already eaten the Halloween orange & black wrapped candy that I had on display. No matter, we don’t get any trick-or-treaters out here anyway. It’s really a shame, I do love giving out candy and seeing all the kids in costume. I usually go to one of the kids houses and help pass out candy there, but this year, I don’t think I have that left in me.

You’ll have to excuse how tired I am, as I’m writing this, my arms hurt, I’m waiting for that second cup of coffee I just drank to kick in. I didn’t eat breakfast, although I did make it for Anthony, just wasn’t in the mood. Yesterday, I was dreaming of a day when the Krispy Kreme truck would drive down my road and sell coffee and doughnuts off the back of his truck, like the ice cream man. It may not happen in my lifetime, but it’s nice to dream. I could use that donut today. I’ll just wait for lunch.

I baked a turkey breast yesterday, didn’t get to eat it until after 7 p.m. with all the running that I had to do. I just made some crescent rolls to go with it; kept it simple. It certainly wasn’t a balanced meal, but we had eaten candy on the way to Cincinnati. I can’t say that I’m watching my weight, but I should be. Maybe next week, I’ll start that badly needed diet, or not.

I was making the invitations to my cookie exchange party, only after I had them all the way finished; I realized that I had forgotten two very important details on the invitations. So they’re still on my desk. I will either have to reprint them all or come up with a second card to go in with the first. Maybe a recipe card with it on the back or print it on the back of the envelopes. Oh well, nobody’s perfect.

I’ve let so many little things go over the last month trying to get the house ready for the holidays, and all the parties back that were back this month, I’m not sure what all I’m going to get done for all the parties coming up in November.  We’re going to combine a few birthday’s and have a huge football party; Cowboy’s vs Vikings. I’ve been working on Party Central aka our front garage for a solid month, trying to finish it up. The floor was epoxied and cleared. I way… over flecked. I love it. It hung a layer of paintable wallpaper (that stuff covers a lot of ugly) over half and hopefully, today will complete a coat of paint over that half. We’re only doing half of it at a time, so that we could work out there without having to rent a Pod or some kind of storage unit.

I want to get the front door (green) and foyer painted (3 colors), the big closet in the foyer papered and painted, with shelves hung, and all the carpets cleaned by the end of the week. Wish me luck!

I’ve done most of my Christmas shopping, but I want to buy a little Christmas tree for the garage and decorate it like the tree that Roger has at the Village Flower Shop with the sunflowers and teddy bears, to match all of my Autumn/Thanksgiving decorations. I think it will be a nice backdrop for Ms. Kelly. And “No,” I don’t collect teddy bears; I have 100’s due to saying that I liked the Boyd Bears, one year. Now, I have to keep tying them into the vignettes to use them all. I also bought my two splurge items for this month, new pumpkin placard holders and 3 wire baskets, for my Thanksgiving tables, cheap from The Christmas Tree Shoppe. True, they weren’t needs, but that’s why I call them splurge items. Got along without them before I had them, but I wanted them. Everyone should indulge every now and then. No guilt!

Here is the list that I didn’t get done over the course of the month of October, while doing the garage…

A2   Scrub grout

A3   Clean both bathrooms and the utility room.

A   Anthony’s haircut

A   Update Calendar Birthday’s & Anniversaries for the month.

B   Ro-Lin Farms – Mulch 855-4128 $85.00 ( $35.00 per scoop – 2 scoop minimum) $10.00 delivery fee

B   Replace toilet bowl deodorizers

B   Vacuum

B   Organize shoes & handbags in my closet

B   Change Furnace Filters… 16″x20″x1″

B   Mop bathroom floors and clean the woodwork

B   Dust furniture & wipe the windowsills.

B   Menu Planning/Grocery shopping.

B   Have the kitchen, family room, & hall carpet steam cleaned.

B   Wash all candle holders/votive cups & replace candles in my bedroom.

B   Change the oil in the Expedition.

B   Apply Flea & Tick Control to the Cats.

B   Vacuum & Rotate the Mattress(s)

B   Wash bathroom rugs

B   Throw out all the clothes I haven’t worn in 2 years. Rotate the clothes in the closets.

B   Check fire alarms

B   Replace dryer vent hoses

B   Clean all overhead light fixtures.

B   Unclog slow-running drains

B   Prepare Birthday and Anniversary cards for following month.

B   Safetly Kleen

B   Wipe switch plates

B   Wipe interior and exterior doors and trim.

B   Vacuum window treatments, moldings, and windowsills.

B   Dust portable and ceiling fans.

B   Wipe telephones.

B   Vacuum & wipe fireplace screen.

B   Wash ventilation hood filters.

B   Launder duvet covers, pillow protectors, mattress pads, and shams.

B   Wipe tub and shower surrounds.

B   Clean the Gutters

B   Wipe insides and outsides of trash and recycling bins.

B   Clean hanging pot rack and polish copper.

B   Remove contents of cabinets and clean interiors.

B   Wipe kitchen ceiling.

B   Sweep out fireplace.

B   Wipe baseboards and moldings.

B   Scrub porch ceilings and walls.

B   Disinfect Flowerpots

B   Inspect Trees

B   Organize the Shed

B   Prepare the flowerbeds for winter.

B   Turn Off Faucets and Roll Hoses; Store for the Season.

B   Add Dishwasher Magic to the dishwasher.

B   Clean the bird cage

B   Mail out invitations to the Cookie Party

B   Make cards to mail out for the Cookie Party

B   Plan the invitations & address envelopes for the Cookie Party

B   Wipe down the tables and chairs

B   Wipe the small appliances.

B   Wipe Out the Microwave.

B   Go thru the Junk Drawers.

B   Wipe out the kitchen sink.

B   Windex the windows.

B   My haircut.

C   Inspect appliance hoses and ventilation according to owner’s manuals.

This all has to be done this week along with the additional work, just to stay on track. I was never sure how people could possibly think that house work isn’t a full time job? Let it go and see what happens. I always say, “It can’t all be my job,” but somehow it is. Thank God for Outlook or I’d never keep it all together. I see now, why Martha Stewart has 14 assistants, they make it look so easy. When in reality, it takes an entire family working together, to get it all done. This is the main reason, I’d like to move to a small apartment somewhere WARM and let all this mundane housework belong to someone else for a change. Yes, it’s true, I’ll still have most, if not all, of these same chores to do, no matter where I live, but it would really help, if I didn’t mind getting out of the bed in the morning.

If you see me run an ad for an auction, you’ll know that I got Anthony to come around to my way of thinking. Look out Tennessee or Georgia here I come!

Except the challenges, so that you may feel the exhilaration of victory. ~ George S. Patton

 

Learn about RSS feeds

You don’t have to understand how RSS feeds work to reap their benefits. However, if you want to know, here are articles from Wikipedia and What is RSS? Basically, without utilizing RSS feeds, you would need to visit web sites and blogs individually to see if they have been updated. If you subscribe to RSS feeds using a feed reader, the latest updates come to you. Two of the bigger names in feed readers are Bloglines and Google Reader. You do not have to sign up for either of these, the task is just to read about them and know they exist. If you are familiar with RSS feeds, then this is an easy challenge. Genealogy bloggers are encouraged to share their experiences. If you use a particular feed reader, discuss it and you organize your feeds.

It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity. ~ Albert Einstein

 

Bing vs. Google for genealogists!

Source: http://blog.dearmyrtle.com/2009/06/bing-vs-google.html

Dear READERS,There has been much ado about the new Microsoft search engine “Bing” attempting to give “Google” a run for its money. I don’t think Microsoft can stand that anyone else is #1. Somewhere I read that Bing was focusing search algorithms efforts to work specifically on news, entertainment, sports and local search improvements. (Cannot find the link for that info, sorry.) But apparently the $80-100 million spent by Microsoft for advertising Bing may work, since Garrett Rogers of ZDnet thinks “Bing passes Yahoo, steals share from Google?”

THINKING OUT LOUD
In Ol’ Myrt’s opinion Bing isn’t as good with results yet when compared to Google, and of COURSE Bing doesn’t include GoogleBook results in the search. Those Google Book results are important in my personal family history research and probably are in yours if you have US ancestral research.

When a thought is too weak to be expressed simply, it is a proof that it should be rejected. ~ Luc de Clapier de Vauvanargues

 

Facebook | The Adkins Group

The Adkins Group is a group on Facebook started by someone named “Jake Adkins” from Clemson.

Ya, I have no idea either; who he is or where he’s from but I like his group and joined it. I looked a many other Adkins Groups on fb but just I seemed to really like this guys although, The Adkins Clan was a close second so I joined it as well.  You’re probably wondering why I didn’t just start one of my own. The answer is  TIME.  I only have so much of it. I can’t run any more sites or blogs and continue to do what I love which we all know is “A life well lived!”

I have encouraged all my Adkins peeps to join The Adkins Group on Facebook.  I’m trying to get the new “living” Adkins from all around the world to communicate with each other.  I feel this is a new way to find out more about our past by linking the new/living Adkins to the family tree.

Results: Many of my cousins have joined and I’ve asked a dozen or more random questions to get them to start talking but, it hasn’t happened yet. The group now has 257 members as of this morning and I do hope it will grow in ever increasing numbers with as many Adkins as we can find.

So I ask you, if your a living Adkins to please join his group and start talking. If you don’t like my random questions, feel free to post something of your own.

PS:  Metcalf Family Peeps… sorry I could not find a group on there that I liked or felt like it would be a good place to set up shop, so feel free to start one and send me an invite at  http://www.facebook.com/sheila.metcalf

Perseverance is a great element of success; if you only knock long enough and loud enough at the gate you are sure to wake up somebody. ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow