One Idea for Keeping a Journal

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I am not the very best journal keeper, but I do try to document our lives every year or two…or five. I ran across this idea from Gretchen Rubin’s article in the February 2012 issue of Good Housekeeping and thought I’d share it, although when you multiply one sentence times four children and a husband (not to mention 3 pets!), it gets overwhelming and I don’t think one sentence could sum up any one of our crazy days. On the other hand, it might be good to choose one superlative memory from each day. Surely during a year of this solid endeavor, every child would be covered.

Another tip: I like to write down “Top Ten Things” for each of my kids. Sometimes it’s difficult to think of ten different things but I love looking back at the minutiae of their lives: stuffed animals, funny sayings, food preferences or dislikes. It’s the stuff that makes up great memories. I think I may try to cut that down to one thing each day, choosing just the very best memory and see how that goes for awhile! Happy writing!

I Love Family History: The Eymann Family in Nebraska

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While I was at my parent’s home in celebration of their 60th wedding anniversary, we took the time to go through some old photos that are treasures! I will be posting many but wanted to get one of my favorites on here as I know many people have contacted me through this blog when researching the Eymann line (Torsten, are you out there?!). This is my grandmother on my mother’s side as a child, Lillie Della Eymann, standing. Seated child is Robert E. Eymann her brother. My great grandparents are Ernest Gottfried Eymann and Lottie Ollie Thornton. I love family history!!!

The Eymann Family in Nebraska

Above: The Eymann Siblings in Nebraska. This is a picture of my mother’s mother and her siblings. Back row, left to right: Ollie, Daisy, Violet, Robert, Rose, Lillie Della. Front row: Lottie Ollie Thornton Eymann and Ernest Gottfried Eymann. Photo courtesy of Darlene May Jackson Bartlett’s personal collection.

Above: Lillie Della Eymann, photo courtesy of Darlene May Jackson Bartlett’s personal collection.

Genealogy. Family history. Whatever you call it – I just love it. My grandmother was Lillie Della and my mother tells me wonderful stories about her. She was a caretaker, friend, hard working individual. She was a medical wonder – she helped deliver babies and was the person everybody ran to if they had any problems. I hope to put up a Bartlett and Eymann genealogy website soon. I have so much information that I want to share in hopes of finding more! It is addicting. They say the Holy Ghost goes to bed at midnight but the Spirit of Elijah is just getting up about then…that’s why genealogy seems to include all-nighters doing research on the computer.