Uncategorized - Honeysuckle Farm, LLC

Farewell, 2024

We’re another year down. It was a stressful one for me. I’m hoping for a more peaceful year in 2025. Typically I do a report card post as my last post of the year but I’m not doing that this year. It was a hard year and I’m choosing to be happy with how things went. I got my 12 blog posts in so I was happy about that. I was fortunate in that I got in a lot more research time this year despite all the extra garbage going on. I didn’t finish my books but I made some progress. It’s enough.

In 2025, my goal is peace, organization/structure, and less – less stuff, less stress, less negativity. I’m paring down, streamlining, and organizing. I’m planning my research and writing into my year instead of just hoping it happens. We’ll see how it goes. Researching and writing are how I relax so planning it in (for me) is the same as planning in a spa day or a retreat. I’m looking forward to it.

I hope you reach all your goals in 2025 as well. I’m wishing you peace and happiness.

Until next time, Happy New Year!

Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog

Reconciliation Day

Since 1989, I have suggested that April 2 be set aside to write that letter or make that phone call and mend a broken relationship. Life is too short to hold grudges. To forgive can be enormously life-enhancing.
Ann Landers, Columnist

That’s the post. God says forgive so you can be forgiven. Use the time you have wisely.

Until next time,

Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog

World Beard Day Fun!

In the comments, vote for your favorite beard!

James Thomas Gibson. (It’s hard to see, but it’s there on the bottom!)

Levi and Nancy (White) Hubbard. — Levi Hubbard.

Joseph and Mary (Lane) Larkin — Joseph Larkin.

August and Ernestine (Paff) Schneidenbach family. — August Schneidenbach.

Heinrich "Henry" Wolf. — Heinrich “Henry” Wolf.

Out of these 5 beards, which is your favorite??? Tell me in the comments!

It’s Calendar Adjustment Day!

If you love researching your family history and you research in the U.S. and Britain, you should definitely know what this day is all about!

On this date in 1852…

In 1852, eleven days needed to be dropped in Britain in order for the calendar to sync properly with the other countries in Europe using the calendar. In Britain and the American Colonies, September 2 was followed by September 14. Thus, September 2 is today referred to as Calendar Adjustment Day.
https://www.checkiday.com/

So, if you’re looking for an ancestor that was here (or in Britain) in September of 1852, or you’re calculating a date that covers September of 1852, just remember they lost 11 days. September 3-13, 1852 do not exist!

Enjoy your research adventures, friends!

Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog

It’s Pooh Day!

Today is A. A. Milne’s birthday, otherwise known as Pooh Day. Pooh had a lot of wisdom to impart. Here are a few bits of wisdom Pooh laid down for us:

On Love & Friendship

“If you live to be a hundred, I hope I live to be a hundred minus one day, so that I never have to live a day without you.” ~ Winnie the Pooh

“A hug is always the right size.” ~ Winnie the Pooh

“Any day spent with you is my favorite day. So, today is my new favorite day.” ~ Winnie the Pooh

“If there ever comes a day when we can’t be together, keep me in your heart, I’ll stay there forever.” ~Winnie the Pooh

“The most important thing is, even when we’re apart…I’ll always be with you…” ~ Winnie the Pooh

“I think we dream so we don’t have to be apart for so long. If we’re in each other’s dreams, we can be together all the time.” ~ Winnie the Pooh

“‘We’ll be friends forever, won’t we, Pooh?’ asked Piglet. ‘Even longer,’ Pooh answered.”

“How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.”~ Winnie the Pooh

“I’m never afraid with you.” ~ Winnie the Pooh

On Loving Yourself

“The things that make me different are the things that make me, me.” ~Piglet

“Promise me you’ll always remember: you’re braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” ~ Christopher Robin

On Happiness

“It never hurts to keep looking for sunshine.” ~Eeyore

One for Cousin Camp

“We didn’t realize we were making memories. We just knew we were having fun.”

And One Final Tidbit

“As soon as I saw you, I knew an adventure was going to happen.” ~Winnie the Pooh

Go out today and be adventurous! Love generously, keep looking for sunshine, and remember how lucky you are.

Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog

Amanda Jane Thomas Gooding, First Lady of Idaho, 1905-1909

This week’s theme is “favorite photo” and is a follow-up piece to last week’s post about former Idaho Governor/Idaho Senator/U.S. Senator Frank GOODING and his wife (my 1st cousin 4 times removed) Amanda THOMAS GOODING. As I said last week, my favorite find is whatever discovery I’ve most recently made. Likewise, my favorite photo is likely to be whatever photo I’ve most recently discovered. This past week while trying to make progress on my paternal 4th great grandmother’s line, I discovered that one of her granddaughters was married to former Idaho Governor/Idaho Senator/U.S. Senator Frank R. GOODING. In searching for information about Amanda and Frank I discovered that while photos of him were easily found, there were absolutely NO photos of Amanda online. Not in a Google search, not on FamilySearch, not on Ancestry.com, not on newspapers.com, etc.

Not one to give up quite that easily, I decided there had to be a photo of her out there somewhere given her status as a governor/senator’s wife and the number of years Frank was in public service. So I decided to contact the archivist at Idaho State Archives and ask if they had any photos of Amanda. I had the pleasure of speaking with archivist Erin Bostwick and she found 2 photos of Amanda for me. I ordered the photos from the archives and they came last Friday. They are absolutely gorgeous photos and I have the great honor of being the one to put them out into the great wide web-world.

Allow me to introduce my 1st cousin 4 times removed, Amanda Jane THOMAS GOODING.

P1868h. Mrs. Frank Gooding (Amanda, wife of Governor Gooding). Idaho State Archives.

P1961-96-28. Mrs. Frank Gooding (Amanda, wife of Governor Gooding). Idaho State Archives.

If you are a GOODING family member, I’d love to hear from you. In fact, if one of her family members would like to guest write a blog post about Amanda I invite you to contact me to work that out. You can write it yourself or you can tell me about her and I can write it for you. You’ll be credited on the blog either way. I would be interested in knowing more about Amanda.

I hope you all have a great week and I’m wishing you the best of luck in your ancestral searches this week.

Until next time,

Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog

Weekend Special Post: Remember, Remember the 5th of November

This message is for both sides of my family and for everyone related to Bart on his dad’s side.

I’m giving you a heads-up and also asking you to do some homework over the next 2 weeks. I rarely ask you to do this but in 2 weeks, you’ll be so glad you have this background information. I’m asking you to listen to 2 episodes of a podcast. It’s easy to do on your way to and from work, on your lunch break at work, while taking a walk, exercising, cooking, or any number of other tasks you have to do daily. It will help pass the time and, as I said, in 2 weeks you’re going to be so glad you have this information.

Over the next two weeks please listen to these two podcasts in order:

Stuff You Missed in History Class, Gunpowder Plot, Part 1
Stuff You Missed in History Class, Gunpowder Plot, Part 2

Thanks for doing this. I can’t wait to bring you this story! The story will post on January 27th so set your alarms and keep an eye out for it. Also, a special thanks to Ahmed Zayan and Unsplash.com for use of the header photo for this post.

Until next week,

Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog

2021 Report Card

The one thing I said correctly about 2021 was that I needed to keep it “simple and uncrowded”. I had no idea. Last school year was difficult with Covid and constant changes being made at work. Then there was the 2020 presidential election and so many other issues. It was a tiring year but I’d rather focus on the good. My best friend has been back here for a year now and I’ve enjoyed getting to spend time with her. Everyone is in good health and one of the highlights of my year was getting to take a whole-family weekend trip to Branson. We took both sets of our parents, our daughter & her fiancé, my daughter- & son-in-law and all my grandsons. We went to Branson, Missouri, and while there we got some family photos in period costume. So some of my new prized possessions are photos of all my family together and also some wonderful photos of my grandsons all together, the men all together, and the women all together. Making memories is one of my favorite things.

Looking Back

My goals for 2021 were:

Continue unpacking and organizing and preserve pictures and documents.
Commit to writing at least 12 blog posts.
Ancestral focus: Nicholas REITER.

I wrote 31 blog posts some of which were private posts for specific individuals. I was doing well up until the end of April/beginning of May which is typical for me. Because school is ending, April and May become difficult for me to find time to write. Last year it was not only the craziness of the end of the school year but also I was a Junior class co-sponsor which meant assisting with prom as well as supervising concessions at basketball games to raise money for prom. I helped the art teacher by chaperoning a trip to an art museum in May. Then add in the fact that in April and May I geared up for and then opened my own small business…well, writing wasn’t exactly at the top of the list. I spent the first part of June getting ready for our annual Cousin Camp, and then afterwards I was building my business for the rest of the summer and didn’t stop doing events until after this current school year started in August. By September I was exhausted! So, all things considered, I’m happy with 31 posts.

I am not finished with organizing and preserving photos and documents and I made no progress on the REITER family. The REITER family has been very elusive. Things that weren’t on the list that I made progress on include learning how to better utilize my DNA results to further my genealogy; moving forward with writing a book including taking two writing courses to brush up on certain skills; and, reading several instructional books. (I highly recommend Lisa Cron’s Wired for Story. It’s an excellent book for fiction writers and even though I’m writing non-fiction, I still got a lot out of it.) I was also fortunate to take several genealogy research trips to Kansas and Kentucky plus several non-research genealogy road trips to Arkansas, Missouri, and Ohio. One of the highlights of my year was when my cousin, Chris BENNETT, gifted me the old church records from the church we grew up in. I was so excited to receive those and I treasure them. So, overall it was a good year. I made some exciting breakthroughs in December that I’m not ready to talk about but I hope to blog about them soon.

Looking Forward

With my business still being less than one year old and my book project in full swing, I think following 2021’s mantra of keeping plans “simple and uncrowded” is a good idea. So here is my simple and uncrowded plan for 2022:

Finish organizing and preserving documents and photos. I have to do that with the lines that are going into my book anyway so I think this is a good strategy.
Print records that are online-only so I have a paper backup in case something were to happen to my online access. Of course, these will then have to be organized/preserved but I think having a paper backup is important. The end goal will be to have a dual set of records – one digital and one paper.
Continue writing blog posts and commit to at least 12. That’s only one per month. I hope to do more but with all that’s going on, I think I’ll stick with this number as a minimum.
Have a complete first draft of my book by December, 2022.
Ancestral focus: my SEELY line.

I hoped for fewer than 5 goals but this is what I settled on. We’ll see how it goes. I hope that your 2022 is blessed and that you meet all your goals plus do a few things you never thought you’d get to do.

Happy New Year,

Lisa @ Days of Our Lives

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch- Changes

So many changes are coming! I’m opening up a shop! The new name of the website is now the name of my business – Honeysuckle Farm, LLC. The blog will remain and will keep the name Days of Our Lives. I named it that because my paternal grandmother and great grandmother (Audrey and Bess) were always watching soap operas when I was little and when I talk about my blog I always think of them. What can I say? I’m a sentimental person.

I’m attempting to point my Shopify shop here. I have no idea what I’m doing so bear with me! I’m figuring it out as fast as I can. I’m hoping that connecting the shop will help me centralize everything. We’ll see… I only have a free trial of Shopify so if it doesn’t work out I’ll have to figure out something else so changes may continue for a month or two while I get it together. For now, you can view my shop items on the Collections page. Once you arrive there, you can click on the titles under each picture to go to each collection although I will tell you that the only one with products listed right now is the Family History Collection. There are only a couple of items listed right now due to the amount of time it’s taking me to learn the new software and get the information online.

Thanks for your understanding and for sticking with me through these changes. I’ll get back to blogging soon. I forget how insanely busy the last few weeks of the school year are but we’re almost there – just two more weeks and then I can focus just on my shop and my blog (and Cousin Camp because YAY- 2021 Cousin Camp is coming at the end of June!!!).

While you’re waiting on me to pull myself together, here are a few pics of one of my absolute favorite places and a place I took the boys for their Cousin Camp field trip a couple of years ago. It was one of my favorite field trip days with the boys.

Saline Courthouse – the only original standing Cherokee courthouse in what was Indian Territory. There were 9 in Indian Territory and only this one remains.

June 27, 2019 Us and the boys at Saline Courthouse for Cousin Camp Field Trip day.

June 27, 2019 Bart’s parents and the boys at Saline Courthouse for Cousin Camp Field Trip day.

June 27, 2019 My parents and the boys at Saline Courthouse for Cousin Camp Field Trip day. You can see the courthouse in the background. In 2019 they were still renovating it.

June 27, 2019 The boys being goofy at Saline Courthouse for Cousin Camp Field Trip day.

If you get a chance to visit Saline Courthouse, go! And while you’re in the area, try to find the Cherokee Nation Buffalo ranch and visit the Buffalo. Here’s a website to get you started. https://www.visitcherokeenation.com/attractions/saline-courthouse-museum. You can view inside the courthouse with that link but it doesn’t do justice to the location. Make time to go there!

Until next time,

Lisa @ Days of Our Lives

Mother’s Day Sale!

Days of Our Lives ~ Gift Stories for Mother’s Day

It’s time for a Mother’s Day sale! DO NOT wait until the last minute on this gift option. This is the perfect gift for moms who “have it all”.

OPTION 1:
$35 per story if you can provide me with about 4-5 generations of your ancestors (that’s back to great or great-great grandparents). I don’t have to have every single name but I will need a majority of the names/info. You will get a digital story that is password protected so that only you and those to whom you give the password can read it. (You can choose to make it public if you prefer.) For an additional $2 you can choose to get a print copy of the story which will come printed on beautiful linen, cotton or parchment paper.

OPTION 2:
I can do your pedigree chart for you back to great or great-great grandparents PLUS write the story. The cost is $50 for this option. You will receive a digital copy of your pedigree chart PLUS a digital story that is password protected so that only you and those to whom you give the password can read it. (You can choose to make it public if you prefer.) For an additional $3 you can choose to get a print copy of the story and the pedigree chart which will come printed on beautiful linen, cotton or parchment paper.

Once I receive (or have researched and compiled) your pedigree chart I will look at the backgrounds of a number of your ancestors and choose one with an interesting history to write about. I don’t mind if you tell me who you’d like me to write about, but be aware I may not be able to fulfill your request. I will do my best to fulfill specific requests whenever possible.

I’m looking forward to working with you to create a special gift for someone you love!

Category: Uncategorized

On this date in 1852…

On Love & Friendship

On Loving Yourself

On Happiness

One for Cousin Camp

And One Final Tidbit

Looking Back

Looking Forward