Weekly Roll - Memorial Day

I thought I would show you my Memorial Day Shelfie. I have another Eagle I can't locate. I definitely will keep adding to it. I thought this was a good start and I can keep it all up until 4th of July. 

Above is what is hanging next to the cabinet.  Both my husband and I served so did Pappy and my father, so we have their photos too.  I need to get a picture of my Grandpa L up too.

I am always inspired by Emily at MyWeatheredHome displays. Here is an old one - Patriotic Mantel

I would like to try to make these primitive no sew flags

Inappropriate Thoughts

This just struck me as funny ss we drove through Roswell yesterday.  All the light poles globes have alien eyes in Roswell.

Sitting Bull Falls

 My youngest son wanted to do some exploring as part of his 21st birthday.  We had plans to go to Bottomless Lakes State Park but the day area is being redone. So, we headed to Sitting Bulls Falls. It is about an hour drive from our location.  I think all of us were surprised by the falls. The falls are located in Lincoln National Park. It just doesn't look like falls would be located in this area. This is a recreation day area and there is a $5 cash fee for cars.  

There is a paved path to the viewing platform and some wicked steep steps down to the falls.  The path makes the falls fairly accessible. We enjoyed exploring the stream below the falls. 

My youngest attempted the pool below the falls and slipped on the rocks. It is slippery! We saw this on the same day- Photo Below.  It was like the National Park Service knew my son fell.  Ha Ha

We went on a Friday  and there were just a few people. There are trails that take you to the top of the falls. I can see this being very popular during the weekend. They had some very nice picnic shelters constructed by the civilian conservation corps.

House to Home - Basil Moment

 

I have started and stopped this kitchen china cabinet project so often.  It turned out to be much more complicated than I anticipated.  We took off the doors and filled the gap where the glass doors sat. We stripped first with a chemical stripper and then decided the best way was a heat gun. After I did that the drawers look like they were judging me.  They had a face. We made her real UGLY.

We sanded. We primed. We painted the cabinet Sherwin Williams Basil.  Below is the after and she is looking pretty good.

More Kitchen Love - here and here and here

Weekly Roll -

I was MIA last weekend as I went to Colorado to celebrate Mother's Day with my mom. She is going to kill me that I posted the above photo. It has been a very long time since I have had the opportunity to celebrate Mother's Day with her.  My Mom is a special lady, and she loves to laugh. I appreciate her so much. 

Inappropriate Thoughts

Well we took my husband to a steakhouse for his birthday. You think with steak in the name there would be steak, right. Well the steakhouse was out of steak. GO figure. Put this in the Only in New Mexico file. That file is getting awfully full.  I did bake him a delicious Orange Carrot Cake.  You can't taste the mandarin oranges at all. The cake was really moist.

Deep Thoughts

May 2022

Last year at this time, we began our move to New Mexico. We threw our lives into the blender. Moving is very disorienting.  I don't miss Washington, but I do miss my friends. We moved to an extremely challenging place as far as actually amenities, location, and services. The work here is very rewarding for my husband. We feel safer here.  

When you make a choice people don't want you to complain about it. It is like you made your choice now you have to live with the consequences. I don't like that paradox. I can make a choice and it can be hard and have good reasons. I also can have regrets/challenges and be rewarding. Two contradictory truths can exist. We are here now, and we are trying to make the best of it.

May 2023

Celebrating 21

 

It is hard to believe that my youngest is 21.  Happy Happy Birthday!

52 Ancestors - Bearded

I am participating in Amy Crow Johnson's 52 Ancestors in 52 weeks.  This also part of a project I am working on for the year called Dead People Files. This week's prompt was Bearded.

I chose Samuel Mellor for this week's prompt. Samuel is my 5th Great Grandfather. He is bearded.

I kept finding the picture above on various genealogy sites but not the biographical sketch. I believe the picture is from History of Morgan County, Ohio with Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Some of its Pioneers and Prominent Men. There is a biography in the aforementioned book.

Samuel Mellor was born March 3, 1794, in Liverpool, Lancashire, England as the son of George Mellor and Leah Colley. He married Margaret E Young on August 31, 1817, in Washington, Ohio. They were the parents to 4 sons and 1 daughter. Samuel farmed and work at the trade of coopering. Coopering is making barrels and casks. After Margaret passed in 1839. Samuel married Susannah Bacon and they had Henry. He died in 1880 and was 86 years old.

Children

George V Mellor - Teacher, Sailor, Miner - Doubled Cape Horn

Almira Keyser

*John Benjamin Mellor - tinsmith had shop in Malta Ohio

William E Mellor- Doubled Cape Horn with his brother George and Washington McConnel

Samuel W Mellor

Henry L Mellor ( mother Susannah Bacon)

*My 4th grandfather

House to Home - Kitchen Edition

 Hi my name is Heather and I have a stalled kitchen project. I thought about joining the One Room Challenge.  

Background

We bought a house June 2022 in NEW MEXICO!  It is a 1950's house that had been somewhat updated.  We bought it for its huge backyard. The kitchen will need to be completely renovated in the future.  It is tiny and somewhat functional. We were all about making it work.  Below is what it looked like.

There is also a very red built in china hutch with glass doors.

Where we are now. We have painted the paneling a filmy green.  We removed all the decals from the cabinets. We took down the ceiling fan.  We added an additional unfinished cabinet between the stove and refrigerator. We want to wait to do a complete renovation down the line. This room is odd but mostly functional.

What I HOPE to accomplish.  Paint the Red China Cabinet a darker green specifically Basil. Get a real table or DIY a rolling kitchen Island.  Maybe sew a new valance.  Possibly create a dog food bowl station.  Maybe do away with wire shelving unit I am using as a pantry.   That seems like a lot. 

The project that stalled this whole thing was that red china cabinet. I started stripping it and quickly got over my head. 

Below is the very rough layout sketch. There are a lot of doorways in and out of this space.

Wordy Wednesday

 

What I read May

I am linking up with Modern Mrs Darcy's Quick Lit. I am late to this party but thought I would post anyways.

Ah, my reading has picked up a little. I have been on a bit of the struggle bus with my book club book. 

The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt

I would have never in a million years picked this book to read. This book was part of Sharon Says So book club.  I learned a bit about moral psychology. This is the kind of book that sticks with you. I am glad I kept reading. There are a lot of takeaways but the one that I got if how we feel comes first and then we find facts to support our feelings. Secondly there needs to be trust and truth to have a democracy. Our book club also got to have a author talk, and I thought Jonathan Haidt had a lot of good stuff to share especially about the current political climate.  I like the pledge he wants people to take.

I will take less offense.

I will give less offense. 

I will pass along less offense.

I

Living the Quaker Way by Phillip Gulley

I picked this book up because I am doing some ancestry research, and this is the only hard copy book that my library had on Quakers.  I thought it was an easy read but mostly about modern day Quaker theology. It does a decent job of discussing the tenants of Quakerism. 

Dough by Mort Zachter

I picked this up from my library. I thought it was well written and a very interesting story.

Mort Zachter's childhood revolved around a small, struggling shop on Manhattan's Lower East Side that sold bread and pastries. His was a classic story—a close-knit, hard-working family struggling to make it in America.

Only they were rich. Very rich.

At age thirty-six, after struggling to work his way though night school, Zachter discovered that his bachelor uncles, who ran the shop, had amassed millions of dollars in stocks and bonds. As he starts to clean out their apartment, Zachter discovers clues to their hidden lives that raise more questions than they answer. And in the end, he comes to realize that although he may not understand his family—and maybe never will—forgiveness and acceptance are what matter most. - Amazon

Wordy Wednesday

 

I am a big Trail Blazers fan and a great admirer of DAME Lillard.  Wise words from Dame.

House to Home - Porch/Lounge Evolution

 Well we have this little enclosed back porch. I had an outdoor/ oasis at my previous house. I knew I wanted part of this space as a place to hang out/hide.  I used my back patio at my old house. At this new house, I spend about an hour each day keeping office hours as I call them. This is when I read my book club book, blog, and pay bills.  It is usually from 8am to 9 am.  This is my hour to get my day started. I started this spring to do my office hour out on our back enclosed porch.  It was a mess. This had turned into a landing place for lots of misc stuff. We have a small closet we are using for tool storage. We also have our upright freezer here as well. I am trying to keep all that stuff on one side of the space. Here below is a picture of how it looked.

This is what you could see from the rocking chair I have on one side. It was a disaster.

I worked on it a bit and at least you could sit more easily here. Still a boat load of junk everywhere and not that great if working conditions. 

I decided to put the coffee table that my dad made during high school in the oasis. I also got a 9.99 palm from Sam's club. Getting a great tropical desert oasis vibe.

My Husband gave me an early Mother's Day gift of a bookcase.  He built it to fit just right.

Above is the oasis in the current state. It is looking pretty good. I hope to add a rug and I will call it good enough.

Weekly Roll

 Pecan Banana Coffee Cake - I made this week and it was delicious.

Shrimp Sheet Pan Recipe - This teriyaki sheet pan shrimp was a winner at my house. This is from Brunch with Babs

Inappropriate Thoughts

My son called me out on a project I have been dragging my feet on. The project is a china cabinet in my kitchen. It has turned into a much bigger project than expected. The drawers are silently judging me.

Deep Thoughts

Dead People Files Project Update

 We have reached the 6 months check in for my project. Details about my project are below.

Goals

Research 15 ancestors and present that information on the blog. I will be using some of the 52 ancestors in 52-week writing prompts. Below is the start of the ancestors that I will for sure be researching. (5/15) I have written 8 biographies out of 15.  

    Lulu Pearl Howard Liston (Hoyt/Liston Tree) Complete- link

    John Lendman (Lendman)

    Eliza Greene Perkins Doane (Hoyt/Liston ) Complete- link

    John Christian Brenneman (Hoyt/Liston)

    Ida Shadwell Lendman (Lendman) Complete-link

    Charles Bourck Liston - link

    Hannah Hopkins - link

    Mary Carver Knight - link

    Abel Sutliff Jr -link

    Great Grandma's - link

Do a DNA test on myself - I am interested in learning more about this

Improve my genealogy research - I plan on reading some genealogy books that are from the required reading list from the BYU and Boston University Genealogy programs. I think a good goal would be at least 3 books. I am actively searching for books on Quakers and the book below is one my library had. I have a bunch of Quakers in my tree. I hope that helps in my understanding of Quakers.

Do one genealogy field trip? I think this might be open to interpretation.

Kinda of completed. I attended two library meeting on Family Search and Genealogy. However, I would like to do a for real field trip of some kind. I also attended Roots Tech 2023 virtually.

find a better way to share or present my genealogy research. work in progress

write better genealogy stories. work in progress

scan more photos and become more proficient in this.  

DIY Bookcase

 I asked my husband to build a bookcase for Heather's Oasis in the Desert. It only took him a couple hours to make it. I think it turned out wonderfully. I picked a blue stain for the bookcase. We had a good time staining it together.

We stained it at the end of a hot day and the stain dried almost immediately. It was the first project we made a top of our slab for the workshop.

North Sea is the stain color.  I can't wait to show you the mostly completed oasis.

Wordy Wednesday

 ....loneliness

tells us we need

social connection- 

something as critical 

to our well-being

as food and water

unchecked loneliness

fuels continued 

loneliness by keeping

us afraid to reach out

I found this post it note as I was cleaning my desk yesterday. If you know me, I collect quotes and I will write it on a back of an envelope etc.  This one just felt really profound today. I literally found it at the bottom of a pile of papers so I don't know when I was prompted to copy this quote. I don't know the origin but that is some truth.