The Thing About 2013

The older I get and the bigger the projects I decide to tackle, the more I realize that I'm going to have to be very disciplined in order to get it all done.  (Which brings me to wondering if there's anything I need to let go? )

The biggest thing I want to do this year is this blog project.  Working with my grandma to create a beautiful family history record of many of her family members will mean so much to me and my family in the years to come.  

And, dear family, I want this to be a group project.  If you see a typo, misspelling, improper grammar, or verb tenses that aren't making sense; speak up!  I will also be happy to listen to your take on events and apply what I can where I can, but if your version differs from Grandma's--I'm going with hers.  This is her history from her point of view.

This year I'd also love to lose weight, get organized, get a couple more clients, and hopefully get a new church calling (I've been doing Primary music for 6+ years now).  But all of that pales in comparison to the job of recording this family history.  

I have moved upon by the Spirit of Elijah and I've found a way that I can contribute in a meaningful way.  So this year, my most important goal is to record at least 40 family history posts.

This year as I work on this family history project, I'm not moving in a linear way though time or through the family.  I will be jumping around quite a bit, from person to person and story to story.  Whatever is pressing on my Grandma's mind is what I'll write about.  Please take each story on it's own merit.  I hope you enjoy the ride.  

2013 Project

I'm doing something so exciting that I can hardly contain myself!  My grandmother, Carolyn Kirkwood, (my mother's mother) is helping me record her family history on my blog this next year.  I'm so, so excited!  I've taken my digital recorder over to her house and had a lovely chat.  These stories will be anything but boring.

In my family history there are murders, suicides, train wreaks,  rushed marriages, tragic deaths, divorce, conversion, vacations, and happy family holidays.

2013 will be a year to remember.

Truth is Better Than Fiction

My grandma has been doing genealogy like crazy and recently I got to visit with her about some of her relatives.  But I don't have the whole story.  I'm really close, but I don't know everything.  For example, one man, a cousin of grandma's--I think it was a cousin--was shot to death in his own front yard.  His wife put something--a dresser maybe--up against the front door and sat with her feet against the dresser while the murderer tried to get in to kill her.

Eventually, the murderer gave up and left.  This woman (I don't know her name) sat for an hour with her feet on the dresser, then she left her house at 1:00 AM and walked one mile to the neighbors house to tell them that her husband had just been shot dead.

What are their names?  What are their relationship to me?  These stories need telling!!!  (And not like this. They need, you know, the information.)

On my last blog post, my uncle sweetly contacted me to help me with family updates.  My great-grandmother liked her nickname spelled Grammie not Grammy.  And that trip I originally posted that my dad went on--yeah, that never happened.  A lot of people were on that trip, just Dad wasn't one of them.  (Which would have been weird now that I think about it since Grammie was on my mom's side of the family.)

Apparently, it was quite a trip and at one point, Grammie tried to bite my Aunt Jody.  Frijoles!  How come I've never heard that story before?

So, for my birthday, I asked for--and received (Thanks, honey!)--a digital recorder.  Now I can put that journalism degree to work and try and get the WHOLE story about, well, family.  Because, you know what? Truth is stranger (and better) than fiction.