March 28, 2011

Over the course of three years I have changed the original Daybook so much I don't feel I need to keep posting their link anymore. So here it is, link free!

So, For Today...

Monday, March 28, 2011

Outside my window...The sun is way past high noon and I am getting a late start today. It is a beautiful day, not a trace of the gray sky that has been looming heavily overhead for nearly three weeks. I am happy. I need the sun. Not the hot sun, just the bright beautiful sunlight. I seriously have not had the energy that I have today in weeks. Maybe it is the designer in me but I am greatly affected by my environment. Today is beautiful! The week promised more, right now I just feel like I cannot get enough of it.

I am thankful for...Life itself! The beauty, the love, the challenges, the concerns, the friendships, the poignant moments, the wonderful exciting days, the restless or boring times, the fun, the joy, the unpredictability of it....all of it. I went to a funeral today of a woman with 6 children 44 grandchildren, and 81 great-grandchildren. She lived a good Christian life of 93 years and died a heroine in her family's eyes. What more could life really give her that would mean more?

I am praying for...friends and family that struggle and have huge needs...God bless them all and bless us to be a help and a light somehow.

From the learning room..Seize the Day!

I am reading...A Promise at Sorbibor. In a word...EXCELLENT! A memoir of an 85 year-old survivor of Sorbibor, one of the secret death camps in Poland during WWII. There is so much to be learned from people who have overcome the unimaginable and learned to love and forgive in spite of it.

From the kitchen...Grilled salmon for dinner and a day of cooking coming up on Wednesday. I need to make some dinners for people in need. Must stop by the store this afternoon for a few fresh fruits and veggies.

I am wondering...If I can possibly get through my to do list today. Giving it a good shot and thankful tomorrow is another day.

I am hearing...Big Girl You are Beautiful! By Mika. Ha! So my happy theme song, but not for long!

Today if I could change one thing...that the deer who inhabit our property would be carnivores!

I am quoting..."When you think about it, life is 90% maintenance." J.P. Mattson

I am thinking about...my friend whom I had not talked to in awhile that informed me last night via email, that her beloved husband has had a stroke....age 64. She was my maid of honor and I was hers. We are meeting for our teacher's memorial service on April 10th. I must write her a letter tonight...it takes me awhile to process this kind of information before I can respond. We dearly love this couple and I am praying the damage is not too bad, as he has not fully recovered in the 11 months they have been dealing with it. He is a brilliant lawyer and a wonderful, wonderful man.

I am wearing...The clothes I wore to the funeral, still in my brown skirt, nylons the whole bit. Not for long though, that is for sure. I need my jeans to full out relax.

I am going..to help my friend start a blog soon so she can keep in touch with her extended family when she moves in the summer.

I am missing...My Jen today, she is suffering with a very bad case of strep throat and praying the family doesn't get sick with it. Honestly that town they live is like a hot bed of infection. Missy has been sick for quite awhile too with a respiratory problem and Hazie has another ear infection. I think it is too many people with viruses shut up in the houses and schools and churches, and Walmart with central heat and air circulating the bugs into the buildings, etc. Please God let it get warmer and nicer soon in the Rockies so everyone can go outside and breathe some healthy, fresh air!
One of my guilty pleasures...our movie collection.

Pet Peeves...the way that good habits are so much harder to establish and maintain then bad ones. The way that bad habit stick like glue and good ones are slippery and need to be watched and protected like little kids, pets or your garden. And #2 is this...


One of my favorite things...Tomatoes, cannot wait for them to come back into season.

An enjoyable movie I have watched lately...revisiting Cranford. Also watching Season 2 of Lark Rise to Candleford. Love, love, love British TV.

I am curious about...how life will unfold for us all.

Around the house...lots of little things need doing and lots of the finishing touches from a remodel still remain. I think we are being a bit lazy and putting things off. I hope this isn't regular retirement mode! But it could be. Yikes!

A few plans for the rest of the week...Oh I don't even want to go there after the busy week I had last week. But here goes...WW meeting in two hours, stopping by the grocery store and making dinner before Jim gets home at 6:30, organizing all my many notes and instructions and computer hints for the Family History before we go in tomorrow afternoon, Wednesday cooking for two families, and visiting teaching at night. Thursday..a fun sunny day trip some place warm and beautiful, Friday thinking about getting ready for a visit from Jen and the girls over Spring break if things work out, and also catching up with the dust bunnies that will invade us this week. Saturday and Sunday, General Conference via Satellite from Church Headquarters. Relaxation and inspiration=a perfect weekend!

Here are some photos and some thoughts I am sharing with you...

We decided we could not longer wait for nicer weather to get out on our day trips and we needed to track down some family history stuff. Never mind that we randomly picked the worst weather day that we could ever remember for rain and wind...we trudged on. We knew that Jim's Great Grandparents immigrated to the US from Italy in 1908.

We also knew that they had a baby boy that died in 1809 and was buried here. Oral legend had it that he died because he was such a large baby and the fat around his heart and lungs prevented him from breathing normally. They said he was 24 pounds at birth. Are they sure it wasn't the mom that died? (Just kidding??)

Our quest was to find the grave. We have also acquired info this past week at the library in a city directory from the time period, that his family moved to 1500 Mason Street when they arrived. So we went to find the house first. We assume he was probably born in this house and died there a few days later.

This is the place. Jim was pretty thrilled to find this.

We went to the Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma
and also checked with
the Italian Cemetery but had
no luck in finding the grave.
How mysterious!

We stopped into the National Cemetery, we had no idea of its existence. It was very impressive, white markers for as far as the eye could see in every direction. It was sobering. We were grateful. Note the jet roaring overhead in the sky! It is very near SFO.

The Catholic Cemetery...
No baby Francesco Franchini though...:-(

We did get the name and number of a woman who works in the mortuary that would have serviced this San Francisco neighborhood in those days. A lady named Paulie is looking through the paper archives for us. We are closing in on his whereabouts. I have every bit of faith that we will find the little grave, it is just a matter of time now.

If little Francesco had lived Jim would have known him as his great -Uncle Frank probably. Jim's Grandma would not have grown up an only child either. How sad! Interesting times. We also went to our favorite Pizza restaurant and had a late lunch. It was a great, albeit wet, day in the City.

The Blog Post e-mail I enjoyed the most this Week... I received this forward from our grandson Connor who had received it from our granddaughter Piper.

"This is a poem written by a child in a Nazi Concentration Camp, called Terezin. Recently my class did a play about these children who wrote poems and did drawings about their experiences.

The Butterfly

The last, The very last,

So richly, brightly dazzling yellow.

Perhaps if the sun's tears would sing

Against a white stone.....

Such, such a yellow

Is carried lightly way up high.

It went away, I'm sure because it wished to

kiss the world goodbye.

For seven weeks I've lived in here

Penned up inside this ghetto

But I have found my people here.

The dandelions call to me

And the white chestnut candles in the court.

Only, I never saw another butterfly.

That butterfly was the last one.

Butterflies don't live here,

In the ghetto.

Here are a few more...

"He doesn't know the world at all.

He stays in his nest

And doesn't go out.

He doesn't know

What birds know best,

Nor what I want to sing about.

That the world is full of lovelyness."

"In Terezin

In the so called park

A queer old granddad sits

Somewhere in the so called park.

He wares a beard down to his lap

And on his head a little cap

Hard crust he crumbles in his gums

He's only got one single tooth.

Instead of soft rolls, lentil soup.

Poor old grey beard."

Please forward this to anyone you know and share what really happened. Of the worst, but also the best, of which the human heart is capable.

From, Piper

I absolutely love that our grandchildren are learning about man's inhumanity to man and developing their compassion, a sympathetic heart and caring for their fellowman. They are learning the insidious effects of racism and genocide and the notion of a superior race. I appreciate a thoughtful teacher that has taught them about the Holocaust through a poignant play called, "I Never Saw Another Butterfly. I appreciate even more the Gospel of Jesus Christ that teaches them we are all brothers and sisters and children of one eternal Father.