Share Your World – 2016 Week 43

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What are you really glad you did yesterday?

I am glad that I was able to write a new poem yesterday and find an image that went perfectly with it (in my opinion). The poem pretty much wrote itself. The image helped write the last stanza. It was a poem addressing one of my fears. You can read it here: OctPoWriMo Day 23.

Would you prefer a one floor house or multiple levels?

I would love to have a multi-level house like, say, the Biltmore House, but financially and practically, that isn't going to happen. The days of walking up and down stairs repeatedly during the day are gone for us both. We cannot safely maneuver stairs anymore.


Have you done something you truly want to do today?

Yes.  I made it back home safely after having to drive on the road with people who have no clue what a speed limit is for.

What plans did you have as a teenager that didn’t happen? Are you happy it didn’t work out that way?

I had plans to become an architect, until the math scared me off.  I can't say that I am happy or unhappy about how that worked out.  It could have been fun, but I have accepted that it isn't going to happen. It is no longer a burning desire, just a fond memory.

Bonus question:  What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up? 

I am grateful for another stroke-free week.  I am grateful that David's foot is making some positive progress toward healing, finally!  I am grateful that our youngest daughter found her missing rented textbook.  I am thankful that I have been able to keep up with both challenges that I am involved with this month and actually get some book reading done, too.  I am looking forward to getting some future posts ready as well as creating more genealogy posts for PS Annie! as I work to get that blog back to the genealogy focus that I had originally intended for it.


Please be sure to visit David over at Random Thoughts and Observations.

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Share Your World – 2016 Week 42

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If you wanted to de-clutter where you live, what room / space would you start with?  (And why, if you feel like admitting to it.)

I have started a major de-cluttering of this house. I started with the middle bedroom which has been used as a storage room since the kids moved out. I started there because it is the smallest of the rooms that I have to choose from and it isn't currently occupied.

If you want to remember something important, how do you do it (sticky note on the fridge, string around your finger, etc.), and does it work?

A string around my finger wouldn't help me at all. I would end up wondering why there was a string around my finger. I write notes and I ask other people to help me remember.  I ask because it gives me an auditory reminder. I write down because it gives me something to visualize later when I realize that I forgot to bring the paper with me to the grocery store or wherever. The written note also, by its very nature, gives me a tangible visual reminder when I don't forget where I left it.

If you could create a one room retreat just for yourself, what would be the most important sense to emphasize:  sight (bright natural light, dim light, etc.), hearing (silence, music, fountain, etc.), smell (candles, incense, etc), touch (wood, stone, soft fabrics, etc.), or taste (herbal tea, fresh fruit, etc.)?

It would probably be a combination of all that are listed, but most important would be hearing.  I cannot think with a lot of noise and, lately, noise -at least, excess noise and activity - has affected my ability to function. If there is too much going on around me, I shut down to a degree and get very frustrated.

If you could interview one of your great-great-great grandparents, who would it be (if you know their name) and what would you ask?

Oh there are so many people and questions to choose from! But, I think that I would probably start with Thomas C. Frith and Eliza for several reasons. First question would be verification of their last name - is it really Frith or is it Thrift as I was raised to believe?  I was told that it was Thrift, but all records that I have found indicate that it was Frith.  I would also ask Grandpa Frith/Thrift why he did not want his daughter Josephine (my 2nd great-grandmother) to marry Grandpa Black. Was it because he was so much older than she was? When they married in 1869, Grandpa Black was 38.  Grandma Black was only 17.  I can understand her daddy having a problem with that!  I understand that this gave Grandpa Black time to get established in his job and farm and to get a home set up for them, but why not find a wife closer to his age? That can also be explained by the short life span overall and wanting to have babies. A younger wife could withstand rough circumstances better, maybe, than a woman of the then-advanced age of 35. Still, I would ask these questions and probably many more to find out their reasoning because it may be for completely different reasons. I want to know their story, not just what was typical at the time.

Bonus question:  What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up? 

I am thankful for another stroke-free week and not much other drama. I am looking forward to David making it through the week without getting his cast wet or getting infected so that we don't have to go back to the hospital before next Monday.  I am also looking forward to getting some more poetry written for OctPoWriMo and getting more computer files organized.

Have a blessed day, y'all!

Please also visit David over at Random Thoughts and Observations.


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Share Your World - 2016 - Week 34

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What is your favorite comfort snack food?

Shrimp and cheesecake, not necessarily at the same time, but I wouldn't turn either of them down.

Is the paper money in your possession right now organized sequentially according to denomination and with the bills right side up and facing the same way?

I have no money in my possession, but if I did, yes, it would be in order and they would all be right side up and facing the same way.  I don't want to be upside down and backwards, so I figure ol' George and Grandpa Jefferson wouldn't like that either.

If you were a mouse in your house in the evening, what would you see your family doing?

It would see David and me working on blog posts and videos and reading, and comforting our grand-dogger Petra, who recently lost her sister Battly.

Would you rather not be able to read or not be able to speak?

I don't want to not be able to do either one of these things.  Both are very important to me.  If I had to choose, absolutely had to, I would choose not being able to read.  Even illiterate people are able to tell their husband and children that they love them.

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I am grateful that we had both of our daughters home together for a few weeks and that we made it safely back to the island with our youngest daughter.

I am looking forward to finding a blog post writing challenge for September that David and I can do together.  I am also looking forward to looking through old newspapers online to find the stories that made up the lives of our forefathers.  I have found several so far that are very interesting and some that are just downright sad.  I love finding all of it!



Please read David's post over at Random Thoughts and Observations. Thanks!

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Share Your World – 2016 Week 33

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Would you travel into outer space?

Not physically, no.  Mentally, I do it all the time!

Which country/city in the world (that you have never been to) would you most like to visit and why?

I would love to visit Ireland.  It is where many of my forefathers and foremothers were from.  My blood was green long before it ran red, white, and blue.

What could you do to breathe more deeply today?

I'm not quite sure how to take this question, so I'll say this: I could breathe more deeply if I didn't have COPD and the build-up that it causes.  I could lessen some of the build up by eradicating dairy completely from my diet.  Staying inside would also help me to breathe more deeply because the neighbors are outside smoking again and that causes build-up for me, too.

Complete this sentence: This creamy peanut butter sandwich could really use some …

All that a peanut butter sandwich *needs* is the bread and peanut butter to be perfect.  But, the following things make it a more interesting adventure (not all at the same time, mind you!):

1. Apple butter
2. Grape jelly
3. Raisins
4. Mrs. Butterworth's syrup

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I am grateful for the time that we had with little Battly and her cuteness.  I am looking forward to making more discoveries about our family on Newspapers.com and Ancestry.com.   I am also looking forward to remembering times past as I look through my photo archives while organizing my external and internal hard drives.


Please be sure to read David's post over at Random Thoughts and Observations.  Thanks!

Please subscribe to David's YouTube Channel. Thanks!

Share Your World - Week 31

To learn more about this challenge, please click here: Share Your World.

With your answers, please remember we are in the SYW world which may not always match our reality.

What is your favorite part of the town/city you live in? And what Country do you live?

The college campus has beautiful landscaping. The local First Presbyterian Church has a wonderful wildflower field. If I want to take pictures of flowers or flowering trees, I don't have to wonder where to go. These two places never disappoint me. 

I live on the Gulf Coast of Texas, United States of America. OORAH!

Would you rather wear clown shoes every day or a clown wig every day?

I don't want anything at all to do with clowns. They are evil! But, if I absolutely had to choose between the two, I would choose the shoes. The wig would drive me mad.

Which way does the toilet paper roll go? Over or under?

OVER! The right way is over. When it goes under, it makes too much racket as one is unrolling it. Besides, if you put it rolling under, you can't do the fancy hotel folds on it and expect them to stay and no one will see them on the backside of the roll.

What do you do to make a living or during the day? If you are retired, what mostly occupies your day? Or if you are a student, what are you studying?

We are retired.  I spend a great deal of time working on the blogs and looking for challenges for us to participate in. I also do a lot of genealogy research as well as research ways to make and/or save money. I also do what I can to take care of David. He is supposed to stay off of his feet due to the diabetic foot ulcer, which is fine because he is a fall risk every time he stands up thanks to the strokes.

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I am grateful for another stroke-free week! I am grateful that our oldest daughter enjoys her volunteer job. I am looking forward to our youngest daughter being home for a couple of weeks before school starts back again for the fall. I am looking forward to writing my posts for the August Happiness Challenge and thinking about happy things.


Please be sure to read David's post over at Random Thoughts and Observations. Thanks!

Please subscribe to David's YouTube Channel. Thanks!

Share Your World - Week 29

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What is the perfect pizza?

To make it perfect for me, it would need to have a thick crust. I love bread and pizza dough is no exception. I would like it to be stuffed with cheese, even though cheese hates me. Toppings: pepperoni, Canadian bacon, *real* bacon, bell peppers, onions, garlic, and spinach. I wouldn't be opposed to a few zillion shrimp hopping on there either.

What is your favorite time of day?

I think that I must be part vampire, because I prefer the middle of the night. I have always been more productive during the night. The world just seems more peaceful at night. Besides, it is a little bit cooler out there at night than it is during the day. Our heat index is 104 degree Fahrenheit right now (3pm).

Show us two of your favorite photographs. The photos can be from anytime in your life span. Explain why they are your favorite.

There's going to be some double up here, because one of these photos is also David's favorite photo.

The first one was taken about a month or two before our wedding. We had gone to Atlanta, Georgia, to the Perimeter Mall with David's parents to get some last minute things for the wedding and for my trousseau. I have no clue what we were laughing about when his mama snapped this photo. Ahh to be that young and carefree again!

David & Suzanne, Atlanta, 1984

This next picture is my favorite because it represents a time in our lives when, for the most part, everything was perfect and we had so much to look forward to. Little did we know that just over a year after that photo was taken, our world would come crashing down with the death of David's daddy. That chapter of our lives closed and a new book opened. Life had never been the same since.

David & Suzanne & Baby on Board, 1986

Complete this sentence: I’m looking forward to….

I am looking forward to our children being home for visits whenever they can. Our oldest daughter is here with us now, and our youngest will be here in a couple of weeks. I don't know when we'll be seeing our military sons again.

I am also looking forward to a time that I can accept what "'life after stroke" means and not be so afraid of it happening again.


Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I am grateful for another week without a stroke in it. I am thankful for the brownies that we had Friday. I am also thankful that we are able to stay in communication with our Marine for now. That will be changing on my birthday and I don't like that idea. I am looking forward to our oldest daughter getting good results from the cardiologist later this week.



Please be sure to visit David over at Random Thoughts and Observations.