It's Mother's Day!

Well, technically, Mother's Day falls in May, not August, so let me explain.  This year for Mother's Day, Wonderful Husband was away visiting my Beautiful Daughters, and came home Mother's Day afternoon.  For weeks the children had been telling me that Dad and the kiddos had a great gift planned and they were SO excited.  So when Wonderful Husband's plane arrived on Mother's Day afternoon, he took me to dinner and presented me with a card, inside which was my gift - the password for my very own 1 year membership to Ancestry.com..

 That evening, I signed on - and I was hooked.  I have been looking for my Great Grandfather Wheeler since 1975.  My Grandfather died when I was 5, and my Grandmother really couldn't remember very much about his father.  She told me what she knew, but it never got me very far.  Later, my dad told me that he had lived with his Grandfather, Martin Luther Wheeler, in Cody, WY when he was young.  In fact, he said, he was called "Garth" because having two "Martins" in the house was just too confusing.  I had tried an ancestry 2 week trial membership, and had a few successes, but GGF Wheeler was not to be found.

So, Mother's Day afternoon, I signed on to Ancestry.com, typed in "Martin Luther Wheeler" and THERE HE WAS!  Apparently my Great Grandmother Wheeler died when my Grandfather was about 2, and GGF Wheeler remarried - to a woman with 3 children!  One of them was kind enough to include him in their family.  But wait - there's more. 

Not only was he there, with all his vital statistics, but there was a photo of him with his second wife, Sarah.  You know, he looks a little like my dad.

Anyway, for about the next 6 weeks, I spent every available minute at the computer.  It was ridiculous!  Before Mother's Day, I had about 475 names, painstakingly gathered from microfilm, microfiche (whatever that was) and family records.  Over the next 6 weeks I gathered about 4500 ancestors.  Easy peasy!  Those little leaf thingys are so cool!  You can sign up for your 2 week trial membership here.

I finally realized that most good things are better in moderation (really, I knew that, but we all have to be reminded now and again).  Somehow, my comfortable chair wasn't so comfortable any more.  Maybe it was time to return to some of my other hobbies.

Which brings me to Mother's Day gift #2.  When Manda put Daddy on the plane, she sent him home with a second gift for me.  A charm square pack that I had told her that I liked.  Every day or two, while I have been sitting in that comfortable chair I mentioned, I would take it out and play with it.  I ruffled through the beautiful fabrics and imagined what I was going to do with it.  Yummy.  There is something so comforting about fabric and colors and ideas and imagining...

Last night, I was wandering around the net and traveled to Moda Bake Shop (not for the first time), where I found a beautiful recipe for a quilt, made out of the jelly roll of this very fabric.  I loved it.  Would it work with charm squares?  Yes, I think so.  So now, instead of charm squares, I have a pile of quilt squares. Soon to be a quilt, I hope.

So thank you family, for a wonderful Mother's Day - the kind that lasts awhile.  Very cool.