Old Soul, Young Heart

My second cousin, Barb, stopped by from out of town today and dropped off a copy for me of what she has of our family tree. This would be my dad's mother's side (my grandma, Susan Grey Scheffert). I was lucky enough to hear some stories from my grandma about her family members and other ancestors. One story that always stuck with me was about a woman who befriended and took care of a sick Native American, who then came and saved the woman and her family from an ambush on the town by other Native Americans. This story was retold in the family tree documents! There were other things like letters from family members during the 1920s who were trying to learn more about their ancestors and lists of people, who they married, where they lived (most in central Illinois, even two hundred years ago!), how many children they had, and when they died. It was so fascinating. I had to laugh at one letter in 1929 that ended by saying that everyone in the family has served and loved thi...

Sometimes I wonder if I'm setting myself up for a very lonely life. At Thanksgiving, my aunt said that my cousin Adam was concerned about what the holidays are going to be like once my dad and my aunt and uncle are gone. She brought it up in a way that made it seem as though, since I'm the only girl in our family, that I should be the one to continue our traditions and get-togethers. I've wondered the same thing myself, though. Really it will only be the three of us--my brother, my cousin, and I and whatever family we've made for ourselves by then. My feeling is that, if we're still close, that we'll still get together at the holidays. You make time and room in your life for the people you're close to. Beyond that, if I'm not planning on getting married or having kids, what will I have besides my family? And when my family is gone or when I no longer have much in common with them, who will I have then? In this way, I feel like I've slightly damne...

I am disappointed in myself that I let myself procrastinate this much. I mean, all of the assessments aren't that much work, but I should've started doing them sooner. I'll get them done--I'm almost half done now--but it's just so overwhelming at first to see what you have in front of you. I took the day off today so that I could work on them. I'm glad I did because I'm sure all day at work I would've been thinking about how I should be doing homework. Really I have all day tomorrow and Sunday to work on them too because Philip is working. But it's nice to have the whole day to just write today. Last night I got to reading my Grandma Scheffert's journal from 1969 and she talked about the moon landing. How weird is that?! I feel like I'm stepping back in time reading her journals and I love it. I think during my two weeks off between classes I'll try to read them all (and re-read the rest of Twilight, and re-read New Moon, and read Eclip...

I just love that my Grandma Scheffert wrote journal entries for years. When I first moved up here I had intentions of reading them. At first I was a little reserved about doing it, because I was afraid it would be too personal and I felt as though I might be invading her privacy. But then I realized that if she didn't want someone to read them that she probably wouldn't have written them in the first place, so I decided that she'd probably be okay with it. Some of what I've read already is so fascinating. I've learned a lot about her through her entries. Sometimes I've found myself laughing out loud at some of the things she's written. So tonight I decided to bust out her journal from 1984 because tomorrow we're having my birthday celebration at work and there are three questions we get asked on our birthday. Well, four, I guess: 1) How old are you turning? 2) What's the story of your birth? 3) What was the best thing that happened in the past ye...