Week in Review 2016: #1

Life

The week was off to a good start. I was feeling refreshed after the weekend, in which I was able to plan an entire weekly menu and to all of the grocery shopping for the most part. All with enough time to prepare a delicious dinner on Saturday and prepare-in-advance our Sunday dinner. Things went smoothly at church. George adjusted well to his first Sunday in a new class and not in the nursery. Bridget also did well (she ended up with the same teachers as last year, and we can't complain---they are awesome!). Liam is still with me until the end of the month. He got cranky toward the end of church because he had not taken a nap. By the time we got home, he was sound asleep. My husband laid him on the floor in the living room and he slept like this for over an hour.

Monday also went great. Of many many personal goals this year, one of them is to record our lives a bit better. So I took part in a homemaking journal link-up and I must say, I enjoyed it! It really motivated me and I enjoyed reading other homemaker's journals. Right now I think I'll keep it on a Monday-only schedule, as with my Friday Week in Review posts, I think most everything we do throughout the week is covered.

On Monday afternoon we got a few snow flurries, which was very exciting for the children. Nothing else came of it, which disappointed them as they had big plans for playing in the snow the following day.

Then came Tuesday. Tuesday came very early in t he morning, when at 4:45 a.m., George came to the side of the bed and told me he is sick. I asked him what he meant by that, and he then told me he threw up. I got up, nudged the hubby to also get up (cleaning vomit + caring for sick child is most effective as a 2-person job). So there it was, off the side of his bed and on the floor. George did let me know that "blankey and teddy bear do not have throw up". Hubby and I cleaned up, then I got George set up on the couch with a bowl. Hubby went back to bed while I stayed on the couch with George. He threw up again at 5:25 a.m, this time only into the bowl. Cleaned that up, brought him a new bowl, and then I curled up on the other end of the couch to try and fall back asleep. That didn't happen, as George never fell back to sleep. He also didn't throw up again and not once ran a fever.

I called my dad after the other children had woken up, and asked if he could come over and occupy Liam and help me keep an eye on George while I did school with Bridget. I love having him so close by. He stayed all morning and left after lunch. After putting Liam down for his nap, I curled up on the couch with the older two with a few books. I had barely opened the cover of the first book when George was already asleep in my lap. Oh how I wished I could fall asleep too, but I had already committed to reading to Bridget. I put down George's book and got out the scriptures and Bridget had me read 4 chapters. I would have read more but my eyelids were falling, so I told her I was done. Dinner did not get made that night, but fortunately we had leftovers to eat.

The rest of the week dragged on and while George was fully recovered from whatever was wrong with him by Tuesday afternoon, I still feel I have not recovered from waking up so early that morning.

I did get started in accomplishing one of my other personal goals for the year, and that is to record my family history! I made my first post yesterday, and I felt as if I learned so much. I love sorting through old family photos and compiling a written history for my children.

Homeschool 

Reading

Bridget wants to read all the time! She is hooked on this Dick and Jane book we borrowed from the library. 

We have borrowed it numerous times and I renew it as many time as they let me before I have to return it to the library and just check it back out a week later. While I do enjoy BOB Books for reading practice, the drawings in Dick and Jane books are impressive. I think that is what has drawn Bridget to this book, and also that what she is reading is more of an actual story as compared to the BOB Books. She is reading most of it all on her own now, and then wants me to read each story once she has read it aloud. 

Writing

Bridget is doing so well with writing. I like to look at her writing pages from August and compare them to today's work. My only complaint is that with some of her letters, she has gotten lazy and writes them a different way. I suppose that is my fault for being confident in letting her do her assignment on her own instead of watching her like a hawk as she writes each letter. I erase the letter in question (I can tell when she writes them incorrectly--such as lowercase "b", she will write the circle first, then the line going up) and I have her write it the correct way. 

Math

Bridget took another math test early this week and only got one problem wrong, which was a silly mistake on her part. She knew the answer when I showed it to her, but I unfortunately still needed to count it as wrong.

Linking up to:

AncestryDNA: Jenny's Ethnicity Estimate

Anyone that really knows me knows how much I love genealogy. I love the family stories. I love finding where my ancestors lived and where they are buried. I love finding royalty and other famous individuals in my family tree. I love submitting names to the temple and seeing them be sealed to their families. I love it all! So I was way excited when a year or so ago, Ancestry.com came out with a new DNA test that was affordable and would be added to as the years went on and technology improved.

 

I ordered the test, got over the grossness of having to see saliva in a tube, and sent the test off to be analyzed.  A few short weeks later, I was notified that my results were in and posted online. I felt like a kid on Christmas morning as I went to the website to view my results. I was impressed, yet also puzzled. My results were:

 

I understood my 9% Southern European (Italy, Spain, and Portugal) ethnicity. My great-grandmother, Lucia “Lucy” Souza was the daughter of Portuguese immigrants. Her father, Manuel Ignacio Souza Sr., came from the Azores Islands and her mother, Maria Caldeira, came from the Madeira Islands. The Azores and Madeira Islands were settled by the Portuguese in the 1400s. It made perfect sense.

I somewhat understood my 9% Eastern European ethnicity (this included the countries of Greece, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Ukraine, etc.) I knew that my great-grandfather, Carl Otholt, was the son of German immigrants. While Germany was not part of the Eastern European group, I figured hundreds of years ago, when people moved all over the European continent, it was very possible that my German ancestors were really from a little bit further east. This made sense too.

But then the 82% Scandinavian really threw me off! Nowhere in my family tree (that I have been able to trace), has anyone come from Norway, Sweden, or Denmark. Needless to say, I was confused! I knew that I had ancestors that came from England. These were all documented. I also knew that my great-great-great-grandfather, Michael Crosson, came from Ireland. I also knew that my great-great-grandmother, Jennie Agnes Welsh, came from Ireland. This was also well documented. It was also rumored in my family that the Crosson’s were Irish with black hair, not red hair. Red hair was a sure sign of Scandinavian influence, while the black hair signified a truer Irish lineage. My grandfather was very proud of his Irish heritage… his own father was ¾ Irish (and ¼ Native American). So then I thought… maybe we were wrong? Maybe hundreds of years ago our Irish ancestors really did come from Scandinavia. And perhaps my English ancestors did too. I’ve had a year to digest this information, and today I received a notification that I have been chosen to preview the NEW AncestryDNA Ethnicity Estimate 2.0. And as it turned out, it was a preview of my own DNA sample, and not just a random one for everyone to see. YES!!!!!

I quickly looked over my “new” results:

96% European… okay… I knew that. I’m as white as they come. Translucent even. Out of that 96%? 67% Great Britain! 16% Ireland! 6% Europe West (Germany, France, etc.)! It’s finally making sense again!

7% "Trace Regions"??? Huh? Time to investigate:

4% Europe East… okay, we had this one last time. 2% Italy/Greece… hmm... okay. <1% Scandinavia... well, that’s a bit more accurate and in sync with my family tree. <1% Iberian Peninsula (Spain/Portugal)… BOOO!!! Where’d my Portuguese ethnicity go? *sigh* I guess I do look more English than I do Portuguese. Although I still wish I could have that darker skin back in my DNA to give me some sort of hope for a tan.

<1% Africa? Wait… this could get interesting. North Africa? Hey! I know where this might have come from! Not too long ago I discovered on my dad’s side that my 10 X great-grandmother was the daughter of a Moroccan sultan. She married a pirate from the Netherlands that had converted to Islam and their son (Anthony Janszoon Van Salee) went on to be possibly the first Muslim in America and owned a large portion of Long Island/New York City in the 1600s.

As for the other <1% ethnicities, I have no clear explanation, but only additional theories going on in my mind.

My official thoughts on this new AncestryDNA Ethnicity Estimate 2.0? I like it. There’s always room for improvement and I think that it will only get better. I’m even more motivated to trace my family tree as far back as it can go (accurately, of course). Happy researching!

Meeting the Greats X 5

Over the weekend, the weather was nice enough to go out for a drive to finally find the graves of Sugar Plum and Charmer's great-great-great-great-great-grandparents. We had gone a few weeks ago but were unable to find it, due to some changes the new owners of the farm had made. But thanks to our cousin for his research and instructions, and Granny and Papa for coming along, we were able to finally “meet” them.

 

Now, just a side note about myself… I LOVE cemeteries. I love finding my direct ancestors graves. I love finding the graves of cousins and families connected to my family through marriages, etc. I photograph every grave I can and transcribe and upload photos to FindAGrave.com. I’m kind of an addict. It’s just that I find this to be very important because so many young folks have no idea where their ancestors are buried, much less who their ancestors even were. Also, many of these old cemeteries are being lost to the forests or being destroyed by farmers to make more land to farm, or even destroyed (or moved) by towns to make room for buildings. Whatever the reasons, we’re forgetting about them and as someone who loves history (especially family history), I try to do what I can to help preserve it. Now, on with the story of our day.

Isn't she the cutest?!?:

We found the graves! To me, the most precious graves were of these fine people:

 

Ichabod Moore was born on April 10, 1793 in Pitt County, NC to William and Millicent (Jones) Moore. He died on May 1, 1857 in Pitt County, NC and is buried on the land he farmed during his lifetime. The land also had belonged to his father, William Moore. Ichabod was married to Elizabeth Jane Jones, daughter of James and Martha Jones of Greene County, NC. They had about 9 children, 2 of which also have markers in this cemetery (a granddaughter is also buried in the cemetery).

It was really neat to see these headstones, as I think they may be the some of the oldest I have found for my family here in North Carolina (the Stancill graves are also quite old).

Here is Sugar Plum reading each letter to Ichabod Moore’s name on his headstone:

She's only 3, but I'm trying to get her interested about her family history at a young age.

 

The babies with their ggggg-grandfather:

 

The babies with their ggggg-grandparents (Elizabeth on the left, Ichabod on the right):

 

There are supposedly some slaves that were also buried on the outskirts of the cemetery and had wooden markers, but those have recently been destroyed and the area cleared out. I was able to find and photograph just 7 graves in the cemetery. For more on these graves, click here for the full cemetery. There are probably more graves that have been lost to time and neglect.

After leaving this cemetery, we visited 5 more cemeteries that we happened to spot as we were driving by. Of course I couldn’t leave these behind, so out came the camera.