So Much Has Happened...

The smaller children and I always took our neighbour Karola out for the day about every other week, as well as needed appointments and so on.  Elf would bring her trash out each week and spend an hour or so speaking German with her in her living room.  She was a war bride whose first home after Germany was Hiroshima!  Eventually they settled in Missouri and built a house here.  She died this April and we miss her very much.  I have scanned some of her photos on this website if you're interested in looking through them.

I also finally got all my paperwork together and have been inducted into the Daughters of the American Revolution.  To join, you'd just have to be a woman over 18 and be able to prove you're descended from a revolutionary patriot.  Not all patriots were soldiers or signers of the Declaration and so on - some were women!   The DAR focuses on education, patriotism and preservation of history.  I've been volunteering at a local thrift store that benefits the homeless about twice a week and logging my hours under "patriotism".  (I don't think I'm educating anyone or preserving history when I hang clothes or sort through shoes and what-not, and it counts for something, right?)  If you can see any detail in the photo, you'll see that my patriot's name is Rudolph Litz and he was from New York.  He is my sixth great-grandfather.

I grew some tomatoes this year which looked pitiful but weren't bad, really.

And of course the children are still skating.  They're pictured here with their coach, Bernie Gilliam.