Fun Foods

What kinds of fun foods have you made?

Do you remember making fun foods? Did you make cookies for holidays? I accumulated a lot of cookie cutters so I could make sugar cookie dough and cut out holiday shapes for the different holidays of the year. My mother usually used a glass to cut out round sugar cookies, but I liked making different shapes. Did you make candy from scratch? My mother would make fudge and would recruit me to stir the fudge. If it wasn't stirred enough it would be grainy. She also made divinity from scratch. It took a lot of stirring and testing to make sure it was cooked to just the right stage. My mother made rhubarb pies and custard pies. When my mother baked bread, she would often fry flattened pieces of the dough. We could put honey or jam or cinnamon sugar on them, but they were good with nothing else on them. Sometimes we made popcorn in a pan with a lid. We would have to shake the pan over the burner. If we got tired and set the pan down on the burner for too long, we would have burned popcorn. My grandmother had a plum tree. She made plum-filled cookies and frequently offered them to us. One time she gave us dried corn. It was so sweet that it was almost like candy. A couple of years ago one of my daughters wanted to make chocolates. Again there was a lot of stirring to get it cooked just right. Then we added lots of different toppings. Customizing the chocolates with what we wanted was a lot of fun. I have learned to make treats with stevia or just using fruits for sweetening. I like making a type of fudge with dates, coconut oil, cocoa and shredded coconut. I learned how to make teddy bears out of bread dough. They are fun to give to someone for a special occasion or to say thank you or to welcome a new neighbor. Making a family recipe book could be a memory making project. Recording how you made fun foods can be an important part of your life story.

Recipe for Teddy Bear Bread with Photo Cutting Board
by storykeeper

What roles did your parents have?

Did your mother work at a job outside of the home or did she stay at home and care for you and take care of the household tasks?  Did your father work outside of the home?  Did he help with the household tasks?  Were your parents helpful to each other or were they strictly devoted to doing their own tasks?  What roles your parents took on affects the roles you take on in your home.
In my home when I was growing up both of my parents worked from home.  They had a chicken farm.  Each one had certain roles, but they helped each other when needed.  My mother did most of the cooking and cleaning of the house.  She did the laundry and she sewed clothes for us. She did the bookkeeping for the family business and she paid the bills.  She cleaned, candled, graded and cased the eggs for sale.  My dad took care of the chickens--feeding them, gathering the eggs, growing the grain to feed them with.  He also cared for a couple cows, milking and feeding them and growing hay and other feed for them.  My dad built our home with help from my mother.  He build the coops, corrals and other farm buildings.  He kept the cars, tractors and machinery running.  They would help each other.  My dad helped finish getting the eggs ready to deliver.  Both of my parents did the delivery of the eggs--of course with us kids helping.  My mother would gather eggs and feed chickens if my dad needed help.
A lot of your ideas about your role in life comes from your parents.  Record in your life story the roles of your parents and record how it has affected you.

 

Vintage Farmer Working on the Farm Postcards by YesterdayCafe
View other Vintage Postcards at Zazzle.com

What things have you learned that you want to share with your family?

Are there things you have learned that you want to share with your family.  Include quotes, references to quotes or talks or even complete talks as part of your family history.  Perhaps a talk you listened to or a video you watched had a memorable quote that you would want to share with your family.  You could make an image with the quote that could highlight that quote, and you could place it in your life story.  Maybe the whole talk or video was so uplifting you would like to share the whole of it with your family.  You could include a link if your life story will be read on the computer or you can print out the whole talk and include the printed copy with your printed life story.  

Today I watched The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints General Conference.  I enjoyed the talk by Dieter F. Uchtdorf which can be viewed here.  There was a quote that I want to remember.  I decided to make an image that I can print out and post in my home to remind me of it.  

Image made from designs from "God's Fall Paintbox" by Digi Cyber Scraps from mymemories.com 

What are some of your favorite quotes?

Every so often you come across quotes that make a lot of sense.  I like to have quotes where I can see them and read them again and again.  Recording your favorite quotes can really add to your life story.

My youngest daughter posted the following on Facebook a few days ago.  This is a quote that I want to remember.    

"The biggest thing I learned in life. You otherwise let everything that's bad hold you down, or you get up on your feet and start moving forward. YOU'RE THE AUTHOR OF YOUR STORY. So if you don't like it right now then change the main characters (YOU) thoughts for the better."  Donelle Larsen

Words can truly bless our lives.  They change the way we think and can change the way we do things.  Record you favorite quotes in your life story.

Red Yellow Variegated Rose and Thorn Quote Spiral Notebook by Quotekeeper
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Smokey Skies

News headlines can be interesting to read, but sometimes they are about things that really affect you.  Part of your life story may be affected by what is in the news.  Right now there is a major fire in Yosemite National Park.  There are national headlines about this fire because it is one of the biggest fires ever and because it is burning in a national park.  When the wind is blowing in the direction of our town, we get a lot of smoke.  Yesterday the air was filled with smoke.  We couldn't see the mountains.  There was a fine layer of ash on doorknobs and cars and anything outdoors.  This afternoon there was hope for the smoke clearing out as we could see blue sky and a few clouds, and we could start to see the outline of the mountains again.  Unfortunately about an hour before sunset the smoke started to move in again.  The sun was red.  We couldn't see the mountains again.  I tried taking my dog for a walk.  I gave up after only walking about ten minutes because the smoke irritated my eyes and my throat.
An important part of your life story may be how current events and news headlines have affected you.  Record those events and what they have done to you and those around you.

I took this photo a little while before the sun set tonight.  The sun looked red.  The sky was gray and you could not see the mountains behind the trees.  I hope tomorrow the smoke will clear out again.  I hope and pray the fire in Yosemite will soon start to be controlled.  Sometimes I don't like being affected by the news headlines.  Sometimes news headlines can be very exciting and sometimes they can be very frightening. 
 

Learning about ancestors really makes your family's story come alive. The first step is learning their names.  Sometimes names were misspelled.  Sometimes names were changed.  Sometimes people would only go by a nickname.  Once you know names you can start to look for dates like birth dates, marriage dates, death dates and dates of other important events.  Then you can look for places lived.
There are several sites where you can pay to research your family history, but there are also ways to research without cost.  Family Search is one place that you can search for your family members without cost.  My late husband didn't have a whole of family information when he died, but I put in the information that he had and have found two or three generations back on some of his family lines because other people have been researched his lines.
Using the information you find you can create family history charts.
The more you learn about your family they more you learn about yourself.  Take time to do a little research on your family tree and learn a lot more about your family's story.

Military Service

What was your family's attitude towards military service?

Today is Memorial Day.  In our town there is a big celebration for Armed Forces Day on the third Saturday of May.  The decorations of red, white and blue are kept up until Memorial Day.  Many people in our town have served in the military and many others have worked at the Ammunition Depot close to our town.  Honoring those who serve our country is a big deal in our town.  We have had young men die while serving in the military and also loose their limbs or be severely injured while serving.   Some families have a proud tradition of serving in the military.  Others are totally opposed to anything to do with war.  What were your family's attitude about military service?  Did anyone in your family serve in the military?  Did that service make the family more patriotic or less patriotic?  Did someone die while serving in the military?  Did a friend of the family die while serving in the military?

I have ancestors who fought in the Revolutionary War, who were involved in the Bear Flag Revolt in California, and who served in the Mormon Battalion.  My dad received a draft notice during World War II, but during his physical his arm became paralyzed.  He was rejected for service.  Fortunately the paralysis was only temporary though I'm not sure how long it lasted.  My dad lost his best friend in World War II.  My father-in-law fought in World War II and received a Purple Heart.  He didn't want to talk about what happened during the war.  Military service does affect a family.  Record how it has affected your family in your story.

The above image was made from a photo of the big flag in our town and embellishments are from a kit called "Election Day" designed by Digi Cyber Scraps at .  A free download of  Gift Card Envelopes is available also for a limited time.