Hidden Hearts

Perhaps if you are a Disneyland fan, like I am, you have heard of the hobby of looking for hidden Mickeys at the Disney resorts as demonstrated below.



 I have tried my hand at it, but I am not very successful.

I do however have a similar hobby, that I am quite good at.  I find hidden hearts



and when I find them I count them as a sign from my Heavenly Father of His love for me.

There are actually a lot of heart shapes found in nature. Thus supporting, in my mind, the idea that they are symbols of the Creators' love for His children.

This picture of hidden hearts is one of my favorite.



I like to share my hobby with Shad and he is good at helping me find hidden hearts.



Love notes from God, that I save and ponder on.



I especially enjoy finding hidden hearts in the less obvious places.  In a random stick stuck in the Spanish moss used to decorate a crafty service project I am working on,

 in a pile of dirt left behind by a mischievous puppy,



in the abandoned orange peel on my morning walk,

and even in the poopiest moments of life.

God's love is ALWAYS there, and I will see it (and feel it), if I am willing to look for it.

Today I am thankful for

tangible reminders of God's love for all of His children, me included.
good friends.
a husband who was willing to sit at the repair shop for 2 hours, waiting to get my car (that apparently wasn't really broken) fixed, so I didn't have to.

And I Helped!

I love to do family search indexing. It is one thing I can feel good about doing when I don't feel like doing anything else productive. The big indexing project right now is the 1940 United States Census.



Today I received an e-mail saying the project is halfway completed and that my help was appreciated. I have mostly been doing arbitration. This is where I review what 2 individuals have indexed from a census page and when there is a discrepancy I decide which one is correct, or if neither one looks right I fix it. Usually arbitration goes pretty quickly and so I am able to do a lot of records in a short amount of time. The e-mail provided a link to a page with badges for every state I have assisted with. It was fun to see all the different states represented. There were a lot more than I thought there would be.



If you would like to join the fun go here to get started. This would be a good activity for your older children who are looking for something interesting to do this summer.

Proof Positive

I've always heard it said, probably by my mother, that "housework won't kill you" but I've always been a little skeptical of this idea. I mean, why even bring it up if it isn't a possibility? I don't like to take my chances and that is why I sometimes (OK, often) neglect cleaning. Well, yesterday I was indexing some death records and ...

there it was! This woman died of Asthmatic Bronchitis but written under contributory is the dreaded word - HOUSEWORK. Click on the picture if you aren't sure that's what it really says.

See, I knew it could happen. With this nasty cough I've got right now it really wouldn't be in my best interest to attempt anything remotely related to housework. Oh, and just ignore the fact that this lovely lady was 82 years old when she finally succumbed to the effects of all that housekeeping. It could happen and that's all the proof I need.

A Part of Something Big

I do online indexing for Family Search.
It is somewhat addictive to me,
but something that I can feel good about doing
when I don't feel like doing anything else.


Usually I just index whatever pops up when I push download
but as I have mentioned before
I really enjoy(?) reading death records
so recently I have been choosing Massachusetts Death records
over the 1916 Canadian Census
which is what automatically comes up.
I'll do a Canadian Census page every once in a while
and then reward myself with a few pages of Death records.
I know I sound warped, but I'm not.
At least I don't think I am.
The Canadian Census is hand-written,
sometimes hard to read,


and the Massachusetts Death records are often typed.

Which would you choose?

Anyway, on with my topic.
The day before Thanksgiving I got an e-mail from FSIndexing
that said that their goal was
to have the Canadian 1916 Census
completed by December 3
and that it was only 43% done.
They were asking all indexers
to please fit in at least one page
during the holiday weekend (about 30 minutes).
Suddenly I was overcome with guilt
for not just hitting download
and indexing what came up.
I felt like this shortfall
was somewhat my fault.
I started thinking about all those Canadian families
that possibly weren't being united because of me.
Well, rather than feel guilty
I started indexing the Canadian 1916 Census
and have actually enjoyed it a lot.
I did a couple of pages from Alberta
that were all Mormon settlers
which was fun and easy
because the families were so large
there weren't that many surnames on one page.
I did a couple of pages from
Indian Territory in Manitoba.
The Indians were the only ones on this census
that could list their ethnicity as Canadian,
everyone else had to be what their ancestors were
even if they were generations removed from that country.

Yesterday there was a message from Family Search
that said this project is now 87% complete.
It is pretty amazing to me
to think of all the people through out the church
and maybe not just through out the Church
but through out the country
and maybe not just through out the country
but through out the world
who have been working with me
to accomplish this one united goal.
It feels great to be a part of something big!
What a difference we can make
when we all work together!

If you aren't already a part of
the wonderful world of indexing
it's easy to join.
Just go hereand click on get started.
I think you'll be glad you did.

Today I am thankful for

my van.
medicine that clears out my nose so I can breath every now and then.
Kleenex.

The Sudoku sickness has spread

A couple of years ago my eldest and I discovered Sudoku and I became a little addicted for a while. I got a calendar for Christmas 2006 with a Sudoku a day and I pretty much did one a day for most of 2007. My kids keep me in puzzles now and I go in phases where I Sudoku a lot and then not so much. My habit, at the moment, is to do the puzzle in the paper every morning in pen, which as I have mentioned before is a challenge for me. My oldest son caught the sickness sometime in 2007 and usually has to do one a day. He likes to Sudoku in bed and his brother likes to complain about it. My husband has never been that interested, but on a plane trip to Seattle last December he actually tried to steal my Sudoku book from me. My daughter bought him his own easy Sudoku book for his birthday in April (at his request) and a monster was born.
Now it is hard to find him at home without his Sudoku book in hand. He even took notes for a funeral talk in it because it was the closest paper he could find. If he makes a mistake he says "Oh, I ran into a road block." I try to tell him there are no road blocks thrown into Sudoku puzzles, but the easiest way to start a fight in our home at the moment is for me to comment on his Sudoku ability. He received a few more books for Father's Day along with some special race car pencils to Sudoku with and he was a happy dad. Last night I went into our bedroom and actually caught him doing online Sudoku on the computer. Who would have thought?? Even I haven't got the sickness that bad. Well, today he comes home from work and begins to share his lunch time near catastrophe with me. Guess what it was? He got his lunch, pulled his Sudoku book out of the bag, opened to the page he was on and ... here it is... HIS PENCIL WAS MISSING! I am happy to report it was only a near catastrophe because he managed to finish the half done puzzle in pen without making a mistake. I bet someone would have lent him a pencil if he would have asked, but it probably wouldn't have had race cars on it. Actually, I'm glad he has something to do while I write on my blog. However, this online stuff has got to stop before it interferes with MY computer time. What's next? Is he going to want a blog of his own sometime soon too?