Gratitude Grows

2 November 2022 There is so much in my life that is good. I am grateful for opportunities that help me to grow and learn new things. Our parents were amazing. They always put our family first. As I learn of new discoveries in their lives my gratitude grows. We grew together in a small four bedroom, one bathroom home. As four siblings we learned to share so many things. We learned patience, respect, and concern for each other. Now that we are all in our sixties we continue to share memories that only the four of us know and understand. Thank you to my siblings for all of your love and support over the years, not only to me, but to each other.

Washington County Museum, Hillsboro, Oregon

Tonight my feet are just killing me, but it is worth the cost of researching at a local history center. The Washington County Museum in Hillsboro, Oregon, has a wonderful repository of records. Some of my ancestors donated some nice pictures and two priceless autograph albums. Years ago, likely about twenty, I made a couple of trips there. In doing so I created a three page list of items to look up. Now after almost four years of living closer I finally made arrangements and made the journey to follow up on those records. My good friend Tricia drove and looked up stuff for the Watts family for me. The researcher was fully prepared with having the boxes ready for me to start working. Then we saw another friend and later on another friend came to oversee the fun. After four hours of photographing items of interest, 190 pictures, documents and other materials, I had to quit for the day. There is one more box that I hope to get to in a couple of weeks. Now I need to compare my collection of family pictures and see what they do not have. This is all part of my focus for the present to organize and make useful what we have and then share with others. Now I need to go put up my feet for a few days!

I would like to sincerely thank Debi Knox for preparing records for me to come and take pictures of for our family history. The collection included items from my grandfathers older sister and his older brother. There are two autograph albums, one of which my great grandfather wrote in. It was so nice to arrive with things organized for our four hour work out in taking many pictures. Debi went one step further and pulled information for the Watts family who lived in Scappoose, and Milwaukie. Friends joined in as Tricia and I worked very patiently to capture the images of history held in this collection. What a fantastic place to visit!

A Serendipity Day

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Went out to lunch with my brother and his daughter. We went to one of our mother's and grandmother's favorite restaurants, the Wishing Well, in St. John's, Oregon. Great Chinese food. I had not been there for 15 years. We celebrated my niece's birthday and had a great visit. Then we drove by my Aunt and Uncle's home who I have not spoken to in four years. They were at the beach, but I hope to make contact soon. Sometimes we get promptings to do something and it feels so good when we follow them. Family memories are precious. My niece shared with me that she had been given some of our mother's things. Her family now has the silverware our mother purchased before she got married to our father and a couple of her paintings. What a treasure just knowing she has them. A serendipity day.

Happy Eightieth Birthday Mom!

While you may not be here to help us celebrate, today we honor your dedication and courage in being our mother, grandmother and great grandmother. With four children, twelve grandchildren, and ten great grandchildren you have an impressive group of heirs who inherit so much more than material things. Thank you for all the hours you spent encouraging us in our endeavors and guiding us in our life choices.

Recipe Boxes and the Stories They Tell - Part II

Today is the one year anniversary of our mother's passing. To honor her, this is a continuation of part one which was posted earlier this week. First is the list of her recipes and then four of her favorite recipes.

A Clean House and Many Serendipity Moments

In less than one week from the day we received the keys to our mother's home we have emptied it and it is up for sale. As her personal representative it is satisfying to know that we are fulfilling her desires to have the house sold and begin the process of closing out the probate requirements. All the years of training and education in genealogy research have proven invaluable in navigating a very challenging path.

Blessings Come to Those Who Endure

This week has been very challenging for me and our family, but in the end we received wonderful blessings as we endure to the end. The particular ending for us is my mother's estate probate and especially the removal of her accumulations and collections of almost eighty years. Growing up in the depression and losing almost everything her family had before moving to Oregon, she dearly treasured all her many special items gathered over the years. Her home was not cluttered, but discretely organized so she could enjoy her things.

A Serendipity Gift for Christmas

Our mother knew that she was going to die soon and she started giving items to people or sharing information about her collections that would guide us as we go through her belongings. Like the comments to both my sister and I that we would have to fight over the glass bowl in the cupboard above the refrigerator. We have not had ready access to her belongings, but through the process of creating a list of items of sentimental value to be removed at this time we received some of them.

Celebrating the Lives of our Ancestors

Today would have been my mother's 79th birthday and a few of us gathered to celebrate her life. My niece Stephanie whose birthday is this week as well and my sister in law Teri joined me for lunch, along with my youngest granddaughter who was primarily there for entertainment. So far this week I have been out to eat four times doing the same thing. On Monday for lunch I was with two of my favorite friends both named Cindy, and on Tuesday for lunch I was with Mariruth a cousin of my father and Karen another relative from that side of the family. Tuesday evening I took my husband out to eat. As you can probably guess I like to eat out and I don't cook much anymore. The same was true of my mother.

Thirty Days of Gratitude - Serendipity Moments

On Tuesday I began posting thirty days of gratitude.

For day one I posted: My days begin with looking at a picture of my four grand children on the computer screen. Can't wait to have them all together again. So very grateful for my husband who put it there.

 

For day two I posted: Today the sun came out and beautiful blue sky shown above. I am so grateful to live in Oregon with all the beautiful scenery, especially from our windows.

Family Vacations and Genealogy Experiences

This past week we took a week off from the normal routines of life to have a short vacation. Now that our children are no longer teenagers, my husband and I are able to get away with much less fuss, we just leave the kids at home. With a little envy, I have enjoyed reading the posts of Randy Seaver about his Legacy cruise with his wife. I am not sure a cruise is my cup of tea, but we might have to try one just to see. For me the best vacation includes a little genealogy research, even though my husband is not really interested he tolerates my interest in this. While at his mother's home this week I shared some of my current projects with her. Over the years I have enjoyed many family vacations, both as a child and later as a parent. We need these times to recharge our systems and they can also incorporate some history, both personal and cultural. Here are some of my favorites.

My Memories of My Mother

My mother is a great blessing in my life and the lives of our family. Her family moved to Oregon in September of 1941 and she has lived here ever since. In that time she lived in Portland, St. John's Woods, St. Johns, Linton, Portland and Clackamas. Overall, for the majority of her life Portland was her home. At the age of twenty she married my father and together they raised two daughters and two sons. My siblings and I all married and settled in the Portland area. We are a close family and that is mostly due to my mother and the way she raised us. She is a great example of what a mother should be and do.

Snow, Snow, Snow

Snow is a funny thing. For people like me, who prefer to watch it fall and change the landscape to a picturesque scene of ice-sicles and fluffy white powder, it is a time to slow down and enjoy the changes. Other people who prefer to interface with the white stuff in sledding, skiing, tobogganing, and other such athletic, bone chilling escapades; they are energized by the mere thought of getting outdoors. During the Olympics they are great to watch on television. Being one-quarter Norwegian and one-eighth Danish, one would think that I might find some interest in such outdoor activities. On the last day of our stay in Oslo, Norway in May, it snowed, providing us the opportunity to see this country in its very common state of being.

Genealogy Serendipity Moments - Dreams and Visions

This morning Hannah was awake again at 7am. When a four year old is awake there is only one thing to do, get up! That is how it is at times when I am resting in bed after a long day and an impression comes to me about something that needs to be done, I have to just get up and write it down or I usually do not remember the thought later. To do lists in genealogy are a must for those of us who have memory issues. When one is researching several families at one time it is even more challenging.

Happy Thanksgiving – A Debt of Gratitude

Within my stored holiday decorations I have tucked some special cards given to me by family over the years. Today I want to share a card from my father. These thoughts are always a pleasant reminder of why we celebrate these events in our lives. Some of our family will be coming to our home for Thanksgiving dinner. As we share the blessings and wonderful memories of our family we will reflect on those who are not with us.

Celebrating Fifty Years of Marriage in 1976

                                   Carl and Zella Olsen November 6, 1926

While I was living out of the country my grandparents Carl and Zella Olsen celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary. Since I wrote about Zella earlier this week I thought I would include notes from a speech given in their behalf at that event. It is especially endearing to me, as I could not be there. Special invitations were ordered, dinner was held at a favorite restaurant and family and friends gathered to honor this special couple. Next week on November 6 they would have been married eighty-five years. They were married at the home of her cousin Annie Hosmer Sherk in Sherwood, Oregon. So, for all those who love to read the details involving our ancestors, I am sharing this story with you.

Genealogy Serendipity Moments - Columbus Day Storm 1962

Friday, October 12, 1962 was an event that will long be remembered by those who were living in Portland, Oregon. Being only eight years old, my perspective of the event is still very clear, but limited. So, I called my mother to ask her a few questions. For her the event was more traumatic, being a young mother of four children ages 8,7,5 and 1. We lived in a small two-story house, with a living room, kitchen, bathroom, two bedrooms and a garage downstairs. Upstairs there were two dormer type rooms, where we children usually slept. We lived in a neighborhood of similar type homes, built as though from the same cookie cutter.

Father's Day Honors - Part 2

When our mother remarried after the death of our father it was a huge adjustment for my siblings and me. We don't really use the term stepfather, which I have never really liked the sound of. While he did step into a role in meeting the needs of our mother, we were not quite ready to have someone fill the role of our father. His twenty-one years of patiently guiding our lives has won him over to all of us, some more than others. For me this is kind of a turning point. I want to call him something more than the husband of my mother. Do you have any suggestions for such a title?

Father's Day Honors

My Father Roger Stanley Olsen

In honor of Father's Day I want to share a letter I wrote to my mother, brothers and sister three years ago (2008) on what would have been our father’s seventy-third birthday. I wrote the original and then sent it to my family asking them to add their thoughts. They added their personal thoughts, and then I resent it out as the collection of our thoughts. It is something that we need to continue.