A Book By Mother Teresa - an inspiring read

I came by this book while riffling through the books on the shelf at the library.  Of course since working on my masters doesn't provide me enough to do (clearly this is said sarcastically), I needed more to read and so I picked up yet one more for my spare time.

This was a wonderful and worthwhile read that will remind you about the wonder in the world.  We may think of Mother Teresa as a saint, but the biography at the back of the book reminds us that she was just a girl who wanted to make a difference.  She was a woman that listened to the yearning in her heart placed by God and had the conviction to follow no matter where it led.

This book does not have to be read from front to back and can get set down and picked up as you are inspired. or have time to devote to it.  I hope that you might pick it up yourself and see how her story might fertilize the yearnings of your heart.

Sarah Palin the next Ronald Reagan?

So after my post about Sarah Palin's TLC show yesterday, I sat down with my son to watch a movie.   My father had given me a history movie to watch with the kids.  I thought for some reason that it was about WWII, but it turned out to be about Ronald Reagan.  The topic still fit my need for a little Social Studies so we watched anyway. 

The film was actually Ronald Reagan: Rendezvous with Destiny hosted by Newt and Callista Gingrich.  I cannot even tell you what a great retrospective it was on his life, his character, and all he accomplished.  There were a few points I actually found myself crying.  But as I was watching it, I found myself thinking of my post about Palin.  Her renegade and rough and tumble attitude seemed mightily reflected in Reagan.  I even learned that between Reagan's first run for presidency (He lost the primary to Barry Goldwater) and his second, Reagan hosted a radio show, which the commentators noted may have led to his win in the second election because the electorate was so familiar with Reagan and his ideals.  See I wasn't wrong in my comment yesterday "genius or insane",  maybe I should have just left it at genius.

Certainly there are a fair share of differences too, but Reagan and Palin come from a similar ideology and both have a bit of a take it or leave it attitude.  Wouldn't it be great to have another great president?  One that we could really be proud of and admire?

One of the most interesting comments about Reagan was that many people thought of him being from the far right, but that he actually governed from center right.  And he was not afraid to cross the isle to get things accomplished, but knew when to stand his ground.  I think in Sarah's background we can surely see that this is her way.

Could Sarah be our Reagan again?  I figure it won't be too long before the race begins again and we'll see.

Creating a Genealogical Record for Your Family

I have always been fascinated by genealogy. I love the search, finding first hand documents, hearing old stories, traveling across time and space as our ancestors emigrated to this country. All the facts and details are fascinating. Fortunately, this interest runs in the family so I am luck to have other genealogy fans to work with.

In typical fashion my family kind of jumps in and out of it and looks down all different lineages to see what interesting tid-bits we can find. My aunt, however, is much more methodical and has created a wonderful book on my mother's side which she gave to all the descendants for Christmas a few years ago. Now I'm sure, in many households this book is a dust collector, but in ours it is a great reference book. What a better way to make history come alive than have a direct connection to a historical event. This week, the kids got the book out and were doing a comparative table of jobs that have been held in our family. DD found out that we had farmers, silk workers, bankers, entrepreneurs, gas company employees, inn keeper, blacksmith, and a whole boat load of teachers. DS was especially interested when he found that part of the Shaw family owned a grocery store. He immediately wanted to know if we were heir to the Shaw's supermarkets. He is no fool. Genealogy suddenly became very important.

Most interestingly though was that this common interest brought the siblings together to work, which is not always that easy. They worked cooperatively at this for several hours. They would scour through the histories of individuals that my aunt had compiled and glean out the occupations, which DD put in a spreadsheet on the computer.

If you have a genealogy, you may want to dig it out to work with as you work on graphs, geography, language, culture, etc. And if you don't have one, this might be a great time to start one.


We frequently use:

http://www.rootsweb.com/

http://www.ancestry.com/ - this is a web page that you need to pay for, but there is an initial 14 free trial.

Burial ground records are sometimes online and can be a great help.

My aunt gave DD a great book called Climbing Your Family Tree: Online and Off-Line Genealogy for Kids by Ira Wolfman.

and easiest and most importantly, talk to the relatives that are still alive to get down their history before it is lost. Perhaps a great gift this Christmas would be

How to plan a reunion

In our class, there is one simple step to planning a reunion - put Bob on the job. When planning a reunion, he is like a dog after a bone. He hunts down our classmates with a fervor rarely seen. He makes sure that everyone has an opportunity to attend. This year we were slightly off cycle as this was actually our 21st high school reunion, but as Bob was in a very bad motorcycle accident and spent last year recovering, I think we can forgive him.

The best thing about this reunion is that it was more casual than those in the past and they worked to really keep the cost down. Bob and his friend Dave found a great location that suited the number of people we had and had delicious food. It was interesting to note the classmates that came, many of them hadn't come to any of the previous reunions so it was really good to see them. Most of them were inspired by their interactions of Facebook, as many of us had reconnected there. For me though, it was kind of the opposite. I felt like I already had talked to everyone. Had it not been that Bob is such a good friend, I probably would not have gone myself. But I will admit, I had a good time reconnecting with some old friends. By in large, I will tell you that the women have aged much better than the men (I am the exception to this rule, but we won't go there). If I'm really brave later today, perhaps I'll post my high school picture with a side by side and you can judge.

So if you have been ignoring your high school reunion, RSVP now or commit to going to your next reunion.

It's A Wonderful Life

What a wonderful day. DH decided that we should go for a hike. We haven’t gone in so long due to DH’s back and then DS’s arm, but today we went out for a beautiful hike.

I’ve been eyeing an area nearby (the Rock House Reservation) and finally we got the chance. The hike was easy, no aggressive terrain and although it took some serious convincing of DD to go, once she was hiking, she was enjoying it. Afterward, we even went to see the birthplace of Lucy Stone and therefore fulfilled part of our homework from the Pen & Parchment to visit the site of an important historical woman. Plus, this visit helped to put our curiosity to bed. Every time we pass through West Brookfield signs would proclaim, “The birthplace of Lucy Stone”, which unfortunately meant nothing to us.

Now I know that Lucy Stone was an abolitionist, a leader in the suffragist movement. She was the first woman to graduate from college in Massachusetts and amazingly that was without the help of payment by her father. Lucy Stone was an amazingly strong, independent woman. They even credit her speaking with bringing Susan B. Anthony to the suffragist movement. She also was the first woman to keep her name after marriage.

After a wonderful picnic at her homestead, we went for a delicious ice cream and then a visit to an incredibly interesting old book store. It was filled to the rafters with books of every shape, size, subject, and age. To a homeschooling mother’s delight, we were there because the libraries were closed and DD wanted to finish reading Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. She had started reading it the evening before at the Opening night of her play The House of Seven Gables (Nathaniel Hawthorne) and desperately wanted to finish reading it. She had made it to chapter 18 and didn’t want to give it back to the girl she borrowed it from. All and all it is a wonderful day and there are still hours left to enjoy.