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Stuff in my head
Oct. 8th, 2011 08:34 amWell, it did indeed snow this week, so much that the kids built a snowman on Friday. I was just barely getting my mind wrapped around the concept of fall when BAM! winter showed up. I had to pick all my pumpkins so they wouldn't freeze. I hope a little warmer weather comes back so I can put them on the porch and have them finish ripening.
Right now my older boys are on a scout campout. I hope they are not freezing! It was my 11YO's first campout, and he was really excited. Even though the temperature wasn't *that* cold, (around freezing), it was rainy/snowy/slushy, though, which always makes it feel a lot worse.
Despite the weather, though, I feel like I'm suddenly in the middle of great things. Critiquing good stuff. Fascinated by the Czech genealogy I've been doing (and walking my dad and sister through the records--my sister doesn't speak Czech, but she's had a year of Polish, some Czech lessons, and hey, she studied Japanese kanji, so that should be good preparation for funny old handwriting, right?) I wish I did actually speak Czech, because I would like to know more about this place. The huge estates that nearly everyone worked on--it wasn't like in England, where you had a gradually diminishing series of nobles. There were a few huge estates, usually run by people with German names, and then everyone else as serfs. The thing that just gets me as I'm going through death records, putting the pieces together, is just how many children died in infancy. This one couple, Philipp and Ludmilla Benesch, had nine children. Only three of them survived infancy. The records show only the stark facts, but seeing that over and over--it really hits you. (In this area, though, if you did survive childhood, chances of living to 90 were pretty good. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, I guess.)
I'm getting the love back with writing, too. I've been trying to work on a lot of projects that I'd love to read but I'm not sure if I'm the one to write them. Meanwhile, I set aside a book I loved but couldn't quite get to work. I've been having some new ideas, though, and maybe, just maybe, I can figure it out.
Hope your fall and/or descent into winter is good!
Right now my older boys are on a scout campout. I hope they are not freezing! It was my 11YO's first campout, and he was really excited. Even though the temperature wasn't *that* cold, (around freezing), it was rainy/snowy/slushy, though, which always makes it feel a lot worse.
Despite the weather, though, I feel like I'm suddenly in the middle of great things. Critiquing good stuff. Fascinated by the Czech genealogy I've been doing (and walking my dad and sister through the records--my sister doesn't speak Czech, but she's had a year of Polish, some Czech lessons, and hey, she studied Japanese kanji, so that should be good preparation for funny old handwriting, right?) I wish I did actually speak Czech, because I would like to know more about this place. The huge estates that nearly everyone worked on--it wasn't like in England, where you had a gradually diminishing series of nobles. There were a few huge estates, usually run by people with German names, and then everyone else as serfs. The thing that just gets me as I'm going through death records, putting the pieces together, is just how many children died in infancy. This one couple, Philipp and Ludmilla Benesch, had nine children. Only three of them survived infancy. The records show only the stark facts, but seeing that over and over--it really hits you. (In this area, though, if you did survive childhood, chances of living to 90 were pretty good. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, I guess.)
I'm getting the love back with writing, too. I've been trying to work on a lot of projects that I'd love to read but I'm not sure if I'm the one to write them. Meanwhile, I set aside a book I loved but couldn't quite get to work. I've been having some new ideas, though, and maybe, just maybe, I can figure it out.
Hope your fall and/or descent into winter is good!
