Peace In Our Time

A quiet Monday because of the holiday.  It actually felt like a Sunday, or at least how a Sunday would feel without all the stuff our family normally jams into it: church and soccer and shopping and lunch-packing for Monday and birthday parties and laundry and cleaning etc etc etc.

The boys had soccer from 9-12, one of the clinics their club runs to give active youngsters an opportunity to blow off some steam on long weekends.  My daughter being younger, her clinic was only an hour, from 5-6.  I, not being the parent responsible for soccer in this house (I have basketball detail) stayed home except for a brief trip to the grocery store, which was beyond lovely since I so rarely get to just stay home and chill!  I spent a good chunk of the afternoon on the computer working on my genealogy project, and made some headway.  But I really do want to know: how is it possible that no death records appear to exist for some people who died in the early 20th century in well-established and civilized states???  If we were talking about the Arizona Territory in the 1860s, for example, I could see it.  Or even the Northeastern states in the 1700s and 1800s (although you'd be surprised how much information you can sometimes find.)  But New York and Pennsylvania circa 1910?  Oh well.  I will figure one particular branch of the family out if I have to take myself in person all the way to a particular cemetery in the boonies of upstate New York to do it.  It is now a mission.

Himself finds it amusing to listen to me grumbling at the computer when I can't find records that I'm looking for.  He does have a point, I suppose...given that all three of my hobbies (genealogy, taekwondo and Angry Birds) regularly frustrate the crap out of me, I should probably think about taking up something more soothing instead!  Like knitting or yoga or deep meditative breathing, maybe.  Even my hobbies are type A...

We've recently started having a somewhat more formal Sunday dinner.  Just the five of us, but in the dining room, with the nice plates and a focus on good table manners and real conversation.  Some hits, some misses, but in general the project is going pretty well.  Tonight (last night just didn't work out logistically) was a great success except for one cup of juice that ended up all over the tablecloth!  Some training in deep Zen breathing might have come in handy...grateful that my husband had the sense not to give any of the kids red beverages in the dining room, at least.

Peace out...