With every new day comes a fresh start, a day to forget the stresses of the previous one and forge ahead, grabbing successes where you find them, large and small, and as for any failings ... let them go. Just enjoy what you do, do what you enjoy, work hard, be happy and be thankful for all the experiences, they all build you in some way. It is what you make of it.
Good morning, my lovelies! Happy Tuesday! Well, it's a wee bit wet out there today, we had some nice deluges overnight, got a couple of inches of much needed rain, for which I am very thankful! My dogs are not too happy today, it's my AVON delivery day so they have to be in more than out, anyway, but also there are intermittent showers, so they are losing some of their morning out to the wet stuff too. I had to postpone my friend coming to clean, for me. Mopping my floors today would be a wasted exercise with 16 pawprints in and out all day. She's going to come tomorrow instead. I am so blessed, and very thankful, to have her! And thankful for my AVON money that pays for her to come. My money is really helping us with extras like this, that, for me, are "necessities" for my peace of mind. I don't think many people even think of the "guilt" that accompanies becoming disabled, the way we feel about no longer being able to do for ourselves the things that we once took for granted. Like the darn housework! I don't think there are many people who REALLY enjoy DOING housework. They may love the results but it's the accomplishment that satisfies, not the actual work involved. Yet, now, I wish I were able to still do mine. For the longest time, my poor hubby was getting in from work and doing it all, the sweeping, the mopping, on top of taking trash out and the laundry, and my only "work" was sitting to wash dishes or to cook. He was so stressed all the while, and me just lying there in my bed, feeling guilty at how hard he struggled to do it all. Some days I just wanted to cry. I felt I had let him down, was somehow shirking on what should have been MY responsibility. I hated seeing him so worn out. Jokingly, I always said, if I won the lottery, the first thing I'd get was a maid. Then my AVON bonus checks started growing nicely into the upper $300s, and even $420, and I told hubby, I was taking some of that to make his life easier. My house cleaning costs me $50 a week and is worth its weight in gold. To some this would seem like a luxury but to me, it's a necessity. It has taken the guilt of "not pulling my weight" off my shoulders, it has taken all the extra housework off hubby although he still does laundry and the trash, and it has removed so much stress. It is a godsend. Have a wonderful Tuesday my friends!
Gosh, another close, muggy morning out there today! There's something wrong when it's still dark outside and it's already in the 70s!
My dog Angel actually wanted out at 4.45am ... but none of the others did. Max and Mystery went out at 5.40am and Boo stayed on the futon , barely opening her eyes to give me a "yeah, that's ok, I'm not moving" look as I settled down to starting to pack up hubby's drinks and snacks for his workday.
Yes, he's doing overtime today. Working hard. Then later, when he gets home, we will be heading out to stock brochures in Ingles in Mauldin, take recyclables to the bin, drop off the library books that I've finished reading (3 Jonathan Kellerman's and one Faye Kellerman) this week, and drop brochures off on 2 AVON customers who didn't place an order last time but want a new brochure to see what they want, this campaign, and to pick up my cholesterol meds at KMart.
Our Publix now has a lovely section of English goodies, so we're going to head in there so that I can cruise around on the motorized cart, and take a look. Hubby had noticed it when he was in there last week, and sent me a pic. We usually have to go up on Woodruff Rd (ALWAYS a nightmare!) to the European Market, for my English stuff, so having a good selection closer to home is awesome to me, LOL.
For now, though, I'm just enjoying the quiet of the morning. The peacefulness. I do love my mornings. It seems quite odd to me, having grown up in the metropolis that is London, that its hustle and bustle seems so suffocating now and I prefer the boonies to even local built up areas. Ah how we evolve, even without realising.
So, it's only been 3 weeks, I would have thought it had definitely been a month or more. I am excited. Amazing what you can do when you set your mind to it. Our 2 year plan is to have our bills paid up and to move down to Waterloo, on Lake Greenwood, with the idea that hubby can just go out on the lake with his fishing rod, and enjoy the peacefulness, in his down time since he has more than a decade to go before he can retire. Last week, I cleared one bill. It is now gone, vamoosed,no more! Feels good. I have less than $100 owing on a medical bill, but unfortunately that is about to rise again since they recalled me for another mammogram and possibly sonogram, next week. I'm not looking forward to it, nor the extra expense ... another bill! I have also budgeted for different aspects of our lives, different things that may crop up, and am putting money towards them each week, even if only $5 or $10 on some.There are so many things to consider. Vehicle repairs, emergencies, medical bills, plus things like "the building" once we find our perfect spot. We have a cabin type building which is already paid off, and will become our bedroom
but I am looking into getting a second one that is slightly larger and different, and having a kitchen and bathroom in there, joined by a simple connecting passageway. Since I am now so disabled, this will enable us to ensure everything suits me needing walker or wheelchair space, and sitting space in my kitchen to be able to cook, wash dishes etc, and to have the upper cupboards installed lower to accommodate my lack of being able to stand upright and reach. The one I am looking into for that purpose is
which is very roomy. Everything on one level, kind of "tiny house" but it's just us now. Just simpler for us, now that we are older.
I am excited. Obviously, depending on where we find our "perfect spot" we may also need to have a septic tank put in, well dug, etc and the electrical and plumbing would need to be done originally by a professional. But this is what we are now working towards.
Meanwhile, I am decluttering and taking a lot of stuff to the Salvation Army. We handed in the tag from our Land Rover the other day and during hubby's 4 day weekend next week (which he may make into a 5 day event by taking a vacation day) he'll get it cleaned up so that Goodwill can come and take it. I loved my Land Rover, but now that I cannot walk enough to open and close the gate, we no longer need 2 vehicles, and somebody else may as well have the benefit of my beloved Sebastian, and we'll take the tax break.
I'm also packing and buying for our new place. LOL. What was to be my new AVON room, won't be now, sadly. It will end up stacked with boxes of things to go with us. You may laugh, but this will take me the 2 years to do all this.
Today, I am very emotional. Great Britain had a referendum yesterday and voted to leave the EU. Earlier I was in tears. Silly since I no longer live there, but this is so raw, and it effects my family members who do still live there.
I have always been against the EU, long before it even became the EU. When it was "The Common Market" and even then, as they courted us for entry, they demeaned us and made us kowtow to their whims. It was a portend of how things would be, going forward. A once-great nation, emasculated and brought to it's knees, face in the dirt, both by those it had fought to defend, France, and those it had been victorious over, Germany, in war. Even as a child, gearing up to the inevitable changeover to decimal currency in February 1971, it stuck in my craw. They'd been talking about it, and "getting ready for it" for 4 or 5 years. Oh they had all the excuses about "other countries" and how it'd be easier for trading, but my thoughts then (which still facetiously remain today) was that because the rest of the world could only count in tens and hundreds, and the 240 pennies and 20 shillings that made up the British pound were too complex for them to figure out, that we English had to change our money because of their lack of intelligence. It began our downfall. Prices immediately went up. What industry or shopkeeper is going to round DOWN a price? No they rounded up and the customer got screwed. The History of Decimalization The /Common Market/EU has continually treated Britain badly. I remember the French "butter mountain" and how we had to "support them" but where was the support for British farmers during the "mad cow" outbreak? Remarkably invisible. British farmers bankrupted and suicidal ... and all they got was <<<crickets>>>. Britain can and will regroup and recover from this change. Today the markets are fluctuating and everyone is wondering, "what's next". It will take a few years, I think 5-10, but then I think the Britons will have a stronger country for it. It prompted me to write a poem: So proud to see the people
Researching my family history is one of those passions that steals a lot of my time, and my Ancestry subscription is one of those gifts to myself that has been worth more than it's weight in gold. It's a roller coaster of discoveries and dead ends. For me, wanting more than just names and dates, but also insights into who they were and how they lived, social aspects of their lives in the eras that they lived. I have documents, documents and more documents, notes upon notes, and it seems that sometimes I miss information on them, that suddenly pops out at me again, at a later date. Recently, I have made connections between information that I have had for years. Different marriage certificates, that together with census info and Kelly's Directory, gave me a more complete picture of part of my family residing at one address for over 2 decades. Another was a clearing up of confusions arising from family memories and a sudden realization.
My grandmother had always talked of our being related to Gypsy "Rose" Lee, the Romany queen who had been a favourite or British royalty with her "readings" and whose funeral in the early part of the 20th century had been a major event and brought together Romany families from all over the UK. It had been something of pride for my nan, and I had just grown up assuming that Gypsy Lee was a great-great-grandmother or something like that, but my delving didn't confirm that at all. We were related but it is by marriage. Her granddaughter married my nan's uncle, her mother's brother Daniel, known as Danny, Hunt. This, in itself, was a major event, as normally gypsies marry within their communities, and everyday English people were outsiders, known as "gorjas". For Danny Hunt to have been accepted as a husband for the granddaughter of the queen of the gypsies is an important fact, in itself. In tracing some of his descendants, who were raised as Romany, I have been told that he would have had to accept their way of life and "become" one of them, in order to have been accepted. That my nan held Gypsy Lee in such high esteem, I feel she must have had contact, at some point, with that veritable lady. From my childhood, I remember certain habits she had, which I have since found out are "gypsy customs" to do with cleanliness, and she knew so much about nature, the types of birds, animals, plants and herbs. To me, this points to her being more than an outsider to their ways. I had also been told that my nan's father,my great-grandfather Samuel Poyser
"maintained" his "connection" to the tribe by making the wheel for the "old gypsy caravans" (vardoes) as he was a wheelright. Well, since he was NOT gypsy, and his connection being that only of brother-in-law to Danny, it would seem not a "maintaining" but an acceptance of him as extended family (and hence my nan, as his daughter and Danny's niece).
However, trying to understand how Danny and Louisa Lee might have met (since customarily they should not have been moving in the same circles, one would expect), I realised that census information of the area kind of gave an idea of that.
In Canning Town, back then, at the end of the Forty Acre Lane was an area of land that was known as Cherry Island, and it was there that the gypsy encampment was, for decades. In the 1881 census, my great-great-great-grandfather, Matthew Poyser, and his family lived at Blenhaim Cottages on Forty Acre Lane. Despite his son Samuel not being born for another 5 years, he already had 4 children at that time, and possibly the children may have played with children from Cherry Island, and some early friendships created that way.
My great-grandfather's wife was Mary Ann (known as Polly), the sister of Danny.
Their father was a "bird shop" owner, at first at 12 Sabberton Street (showing in the 1902 Kelly's Directory), off Hallsville Rd, and later at 1 Rathbone Street. My nan's sister said his shop was kind of a pet shop but also sold rabbits for meat. When Louisa Lee got married,in 1921, her address was 10 Sabberton Street, so it is likely that Louisa and Danny grew up as young children, with each other as neighbours. I'm still pursuing that. They may not be my direct line, but I am fascinated with their story. I know so much yet so little.
They have me well trained and under control. I am obedient to their every whim! My menagerie allows me to "think" I am the boss whilst ensuring that their wishes are adhered to!
When I roll over on my bed to "assume the position" of trying to stand, get something off the shelf, or put something away, I immediately have a 4 legged feline sat about 6" from me, impaling me on her eyes. I am expected to respond within seconds, to find the tub of Temptations treats and give her a small handful of the morsels she craves. To ignore is utter foolishness, prompting such a display of disdain and "I'll teach you!" as 8lbs of tabby can create. Let me add, they are like water. A mere 2oz in a cup looks like nothing until it is spilled on the floor, at which time, it's immensity is duly noted.
Snuggles may be aptly named when it comes to curling up to sleep with hubby or I, but does not like other cats. This, we did not know, when we first took her in. She was my granddaughter's kitten ... and then granddaughter became pregnant with my great-grandson, Daniel, and wasn't allowed to do the litter. She asked for my help in finding a new home. The great-grand-kitten took less than an hour to figure she had found the perfect one for herself, and it was with us.
Not such a good thing for me. My other 3 cats, now into double digits age-wise, had been banished from my bedroom due to my becoming allergic to their hair! I didn't need another moggie! Worse, when we tried to introduce her to the others, they ignored and she growled like a dog guarding a bone. Finally, our oldest had had enough and the next minute it was a furball of comicbook proportions with plenty of claws out, plus hissing and spitting providing a vicious soundtrack. The only place she could be was ... the bedroom. Thankfully, as a kitten, her hair didn't affect me, and although it does now, I just have to keep her away from my face, pillows, and the upper third of the bed. So, when she snuggles with me, it is usually against my tummy.
My poor hubby had to work today, and at 5.30m this morning, it was sooo muggy outside. My usual daily doggie musical chairs began, and throughout the day as one wants in, one that's in will want out. Now that I have the walker, it IS easier, but the bad thing is that I am wearing away the bone in my knees more quickly, and that causes more pain. Sometimes, it seems, I just can't win for losing. With my health that is. When hubby gets home we have some running around to do. I have 2 AVON deliveries, we have trash and recycles to take to the dump, meds to pick up at KMart, and a stop by the Post Office to mail my DNA sample back to Ancestry.com. I didn't want to do it and put it out in the mailbox because of the heat we've been having, I didn't know if it might mess it up, so needed to wait until we could go by the main Post Office, to drop it off in their nice air-conditioned inside mailbox. I'm excited to see what it tells me; I've wanted to do it for a couple of years and find out where all the bits of my genetic make up come from. I'd love to find something exotic in there. I've been doing some more researching this morning, it's amazing how many facts you MISS the first time around, or you see but your brain doesn't hold, because it's digesting other parts of what you've found. Today I noticed something from the 1911 census, that I had missed on all the other occasions that I'd worked on it. Well, in the beginning, I was obsessed with the address and finding out if it still existed, or if there were photographs of it, plus noticing which of the siblings of my grandfather were born by then, things like that. 2 years later, by the time my maternal grandfather was born, they had moved and were in the Columbia Buildings, which had spawned its own revelations. Today, in browsing the census document again, I realised that my great-grandmother worked ... with 4 children in the home. This led to more delving, and the discovery that this would have been home work, she was a box-maker. In many of these industries that were done at home, older children helped with the tasks. That 2 of my great aunts were then 7 and 9, leads me to believe that they probably "helped" in their mother's tasks. Something else I noticed was another tidbit, that showed the career progression of my great-grandfather. He is listed as a porter in the furnishing trade, yet in 1901 he had been listed as a piano fitter, and at his wedding in 1898 he was a carpenter. Another thing that jumped out on me, on a document I have had for a couple of years now, was that he married my great-grandmother on 21st May 1898 ... and my great-granddaughter was born on 21st May 1996, 98 years later. Just one of those "oh neat" moments that I love finding. An annoyance to me is that, as a child, my nan and I walked the streets close by the addresses that my grandfather's family had lived in, before and after he was born, yet didn't know, so I could have been exploring the places "for real" rather than by the computer and google. Added to which so many have now been demolished, although some of the surrounding areas have surviving buildings from the era, so I can get a feel for the neighbourhoods, as they were. As with my maternal nan's side of my family, I can see where the work ethic that myself and my children have, and my grandchildren have, came from. Yes, I'm addicted to this, LOL. Have a fun Saturday, my friends and thanks for stopping by!
You know how it goes - time seems to fly when you are having fun. Well, today has been one of those days. My Ancestry DNA kit came in the mail the other day, because I want to get my DNA checked and see what a mongrel heritage I have. I know I'm English but from the original native tribes there have been countless infusions of new blood via conquerors of the Gallic, Nordic and Roman races along with others. It'll be neat to see where all of my genetic make-up falls. Well, then, today Ancestry.co.uk made me an offer I couldn't refuse - and so I now have a year long subscription to the worldwide records. I swear ... I did not intend to be on there all day ... but I was. I added info to relatives of my own family and ancestors, added more to my granddaughter's, Angelica's and Nicolette's, trees and reworked my hubby's one. I did a WHOLE LOT of work today, and connected with my cousin's stepdaughter, which was awesome! However, my brain is definitely about fried. It is very difficult keeping straight who is who when you have fathers, sons, uncles and cousins with the same names, and mothers, daughters, nieces and cousins are as bad ... or Mary Ann's who were somehow called Polly. Today has given me a slew of confusion to sift through and cross check. I LOVE doing this though. It's exciting, and getting into some of these people's lives and finding their quirks, is amazing.
Last weekend, hubby and I took a magical mystery tour down to a place called Waterloo, here in SC. We used to take jaunts out, and just drive around, years ago when we lived in an apartment. We just got one of those "wild hair" days and said "let's go" and we did. On my treks to Laurens, over the years, with my AVON business, I've always taken "the back way" through Hickory Tavern. I'd seen the sign for Waterloo, 19 miles ahead of where I usually turn off Fairview Rd to go left into Laurens, but we had never been that way before. Seemed like a nice way to spend an afternoon ... and it was. Call me ignorant but I had never realised Waterloo was called that because it was semi-surrounded by water on like 3 sides! THAT was a huge surprise. Funnily enough, despite having sailed transatlantic 3 times, I am semi-afraid of "big water" and yet seems I feel in love down there, because my brain started working overtime. Wouldn't it be nice for hubby to just go out on the lake and fish on a weekend for a few hours, and let the world pass on by? Relax him from the stresses of his workweek? Since then I've been browsing "for sale" places down there, land packages of about an acre or so. Been looking at the "hobbit style houses" that you build from slot together composite material, and then cover with earth and either grass or you can even grow veggies in like window box type ledges down the side, too. Since it's just hubby and me, we don't need anything huge any more. http://inhabitat.com/a-green-roofed-hobbit-home-anyone-can-build-in-just-3-days/green-magic-homes-1-2/ He came home a couple of days ago and said "ok, how about a 2 year plan". So that's the plan ... As for me, I need to sell more AVON, LOL
