Hello there! I’m so glad to share a cuppa with you! How the heck are you?
Can I offer you some hot tea? I can happily put the kettle on for you if you’d prefer coffee, too, or maybe herbal or iced tea is more your style? We have it all so just let me know 🙂
We’ve gotten a lot of rain the last couple of weeks (broken up by some rather hot spring days and one horrible hail storm) so the farm is bursting to life in every shade of green! Shall we sit on the front porch and watch the hummingbirds flit about at the feeders while we chat?
Last weekend was filled with the high school graduation and celebration of one of my favorite humans on the planet as well of memories of my oldest daughter’s graduation from the same school exactly ten years ago! Sometimes the flying of time simply boggles my mind!
This weekend will, with more rain in the forecast, be likely a combo of farm tending and inside time. A perfect balance will surely be struck!
What’s on tap for your weekend? And what have you been up to since we last met?
Here’s a little peek into what’s been going on in my life:
Writing
While my regular writing practices are still being reestablished, I’ve almost found my groove with a weekly posting schedule… though, this week saw three posts and last week saw none only because I simply got busy and didn’t complete my final edits soon enough.
That being said, in addition to my first Over a Cuppa post and updating my About page, I published five additional posts in the month of May:
The DNA post offered up a wonderful conversation on my bold+queer Instagram page that I found both helpful and insightful!
I am pleased with my progress here and hope to establish a set writing schedule in the coming weeks and months ahead but with Summer officially upon us I’d be crazy to think that this will be an easy task.
How’s your writing groove going? Anything recent you’re super excited to share? Or maybe something still in the hopper you can’t wait to put out into the world?
Giving Away on Social Media
Speaking of my Instagram page, in celebration of the summer months and Pride month, I’m offering up a Giveaway over there for my US followers (sorry International peeps, still working on shipping challenges).
Please pop on over if your interested in throwing your name in the hat for a free t-shirt or mug from my Shop or if you just want to follow this genealogy journey in another way 🙂
I know social media isn’t for everyone, but I still enjoy a couple of platforms from time to time. Mostly Instagram (for staying in touch with people and posting about this site and the farm) and TikTok (just for watching). I dropped Facebook about a year a half ago and have not regretted it at all.
How about you? Do you participate in social media? And if so, which platform is your favorite?
Researching
As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve been deep in research mode as I try to find out more about one of my great-grandmothers, Delia. I’ve heard back from two of the kin I reached out to (two 2nd cousins, so equally her great grand children) and, unfortunately, neither of them know anything at all.
I’ve reached out to four other relatives and still have my fingers crossed that someone heard stories about her (and her hubby) and just maybe someone holds a photo of her.
Reflecting
All my research on Delia has me reflecting on the wildly dynamic lives we all live and how the legacies we will leave behind might be remembered. It all has me thinking about a new-to-me word: sonder
sonder – n.
the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own
In my Googling, I found this gem and so I thought I’d share it with you here.
Yes, yes…deep thoughts, but here we are 😉
Wondering
I was invited, last minute, to the Diana Gabaldon talk at the Santa Fe Literary Festival a couple of weeks ago. Then, the person who invited me was feeling under the weather the day of and, faced with no one to go with (I asked my Dad, but he had plans already), the Introvert in me decided against driving an hour into town and Peopling for a few hours and, instead, enjoyed a quiet afternoon with my family.
However, as a massive fan of the Outlander book series (yes, I’ve read them all and cannot wait for the next one…no, I don’t watch the TV series), the whole thing got me thinking about Jamie and Clare’s combined family tree (direct link here) that Diana pulled together at the front of the latest book, Go Tell The Bees That I Am Gone and how I’d like to pull something similar together for my own tree, one showing the dynamic relationships and honoring the biological and non-biological relationships that make up my family.
There’s much more to this that I need to marinate on, but surely I’ll make a proper post about it soon 😉
In the meantime, I’d love to hear about your adventures in family tree making! Do you have unique relationships you’ve found a way to document in Tree format?
Alrighty then…
That’s it!
For now 😉
Thank you so much for joining me for a cuppa! If you’ve popped over from Natalie’s weekend link share, thank you so much! I’ll make my way through the list in the coming days and am so happy to catch up! If you’ve found this post from another direction, WooHoo!!! I’m just so glad you’re here! The comments are open but recently a little wonky, so please do your best to say HELLO and I’ll do the same!
Onward,
Melis
My grandfather was real big in researching our family genealogy and traced his ancestry back to the Mayflower– he wrote up and/or made copies of most of what he found along the way and bound it into a book making multiple copies for us all (sadly, I can’t make heads or tails of most of it!) and wished I had thought to ask him more about his process when he was alive and well.
Oh goodness! While I’m so glad he did the work and wrote it all down, I’m sorry to hear it’s hard to understand! I sure hope you can turn it around in your head in a way that will makes sense to you and anyone else who can benefit from it! Technology might be able to help with the new tree programs and documents that are available online now! Good luck!!!
I love that word, Sonder. I’ve never heard of it but what a magnificent thought to have. #WeekendCoffeeShare
It’s a good word, for sure <3
Thank you for your weekend coffee share. Well done with your writing and researching. I write one blog per week and have no time for social media at all 🙂
The juggle of it all is *real! I’m so glad you are able to write weekly and always enjoy your posts 🙂 Hope you have a great weekend, Natalie!
Establishing a new routine of any sort is difficult, so good for you on your new writing routine. As for social media, I do use FB groups for my interests, but not so much the regular feed. I keep trying to establish a happy relationship with Instagram as so many enjoy it, but it just hasn’t happened yet. How intriguing about the word sonder. I am not familiar. So many need to familiarize with the concept!
Michelle
Hi Michelle! Thank you for your kind words! Routine is important to me so I’m happy with how my new flow is unfolding 🙂 Instagram has always been my favorite but I could do without their TikTok/Reels competitive function as of late. I’m there for the photos and community, not the rest. I will say, I do sometimes miss the knowledge and brainstorming in the FB groups…just not enough to re-join 😉 Hope you’re enjoying a lovely weekend!
Hi Melissa – I’d love to sit on the front porch and watch the hummingbirds flit about at the feeders because I’ve never seen one and they’re top of my list if I ever get to the USA (along with fireflies). I’m a big Diana Gabaldon fan too – the books more than the TV series – it’s easier for me to read graphic stuff than to watch it (sex scenes as well). I’m also looking forward to her next book. As far as social media goes, my self-esteem takes a hit with IG and I feel too old for most of TikTok, so the only platforms I have are Facebook (minimally) and Pinterest (if that counts).
Hi Leanna, thanks for popping over! I completely understand about being able to read graphic books vs watching it all on a screen and there are a few things in the books that I just don’t want to imagine seeing. I also understand about Social Media…each platform is *so different and appeals to different people. I have very carefully curated my Instagram feeds (I actually have three, which is wild, I know… my farm page, my personal page, and the b+q page for this site) so I only see what is inspiring and joyful for me. And yes, Pinterest totally counts, especially if you enjoy it!
We were under a thunderstorm warning last night that included hail, but we had two cracks of thunder, a dark sky, and nothing more—not even rain! I need to set my summer writing schedule. I haven’t been very productive the last couple of months. I have a short story that I need to finish and a novel to write (the last one in The Ember Files series).
I love Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander Series. I haven’t read "Go Tell the Bees I’m Gone" yet. I’m waiting for it to hit mass market size so it fits with the rest of the series on my bookshelf. But that family tree is lovely to look at.
Thanks for the virtual coffee. Hope you have a great week.
I’ve gotten more and more interested in family history in recent years,. I just wish I would have been more curious when grandparents, and others were still around. 🙁 Sounds like you have some great things going on!!
I completely understand, Kirstin. There are so many questions I have now that I never thought to ask when my relatives were still around. The best we can do is start where we are and go from there! Especially with the help of technology now there are so many resources out there to help us piece our family history together! I hope you’ll give it a shot, it’s never too late!
This reminded me that I should get information about my mother’s family, soon. She was the youngest & the only one still living. When I was in high school, some almost 40 years ago, there was an assignment to do a family tree. I have no idea where or what I did with it. Karen
Hi Karen! Oh, I’m so glad to have acted as a reminder on this subject! Yes, please begin the process with her, I’m sure there is so much she can share! Good luck!