It’s been 7 weeks since I first planted my maple tree cuttings. Every few days I’ve had to remove a cutting that was failing to root, but I still have 10 trees that are looking good. A 42% success rate is pretty good considering in the past all of my cuttings have failed.
I [...]

This post is for the 54th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy: The Family Language
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Some people call it Pittsburghese, but I think it’s more of a generalized Pennsylvania thing (or maybe just Western PA), but in any case, many of the older people in my family speak a bit different than the rest and/or use [...]

Tonight, before bed, my daughter asked me if she could have some cheese.  I said okay and got out some co-jack (the usual kind she eats).  When she saw it, she got upset and said, “No.  Cookie.”
After a bit of confusion, almost leading to tears, she said “Cookie cheese.”
I then realized that she wanted some [...]

In thinking about this edition of Smile for the Camera, I couldn’t pin down just one photo. I have a few favorites, and decided to show the best of the best with you. All of them are special to me because they either show an ancestor when they were young, or because it [...]

I said something about two weeks ago on twitter about how I always had thought that my husband was the only one with royal ancestors, but that I had recently (actually it was about three years ago now that I think about it) found out that I too am related to royalty through my dad’s [...]

Just a cute photo of my daughter that I thought I’d share:

I just finished this last night and figured I’d share. When I started it, I hadn’t intended to post it, so, I guess you can feel privileged to see it.

It’s my first attempt at a pen and ink drawing. I think it turned out pretty well, considering. There are [...]

The last bloom of the season:

A friend recently said something that made me start thinking about how much we say to each other that is not completely honest or truthful.
In an attempt to avoid hurting someone we hide our true feelings. But in doing so, how can we truly be friends if we aren’t 100% honest and truthful with [...]

My husband and I were recently talking about creativity.
He tried to tell me in the kindest way possible that writing is just not my thing. He didn’t need to be gentle. I agreed with him right away. Whenever I sit down to write a novel I can’t ever seem to get [...]