Hearts Full of Joy

Indexing

I have started indexing on familysearch.org.

Indexing is converting written documents like birth certificates, censuses, military records, marriage certificates, death certificates, etc into digital format so that they can be found on the internet by geneologists and people searching for their ancestors.

I have wanted to do this for a while, and am so grateful that I finally have the time right now.

I started 3 days ago, and after spending a little time learning how to do it, and trying a few practice batches, I have indexed 5 batches of birth certificates from Manila, Philippines in the 1940s and 50s. Each batch has 15 records.

It is fascinating, and I love feeling like I am participating in a little bit of history.

If you are interested, you can go to familysearch.org and try some sample indexing.

All you need is a computer, access to the internet, and a little time.

technology free

we enjoyed the most delightful day yesterday. skies were blue, birds were singing, the temperature was perfect. but these were not the reasons we enjoyed our perfect day, they were just icing on the cake. what made the day wonderful is that our cable provider's system crashed, leaving us without phone, internet, or tv. i wish this would happen more often. it was blissful. we were relaxed, and leisurely caught up on so many things that had been put off. i made banana blueberry bread and granola and strawberry rhubarb jam (rhubarb from our garden!). i cleaned. i enjoyed gracie.

i wouldn't want this to happen too regularly, because i had to ignore the customers of our internet shops. i really enjoy our shops and our customers, and want to provide the best service possible. but there is always more to be done with the shops, ALWAYS. and not being able to access the shops, or anything/one else by phone or internet was so refreshing. maybe i should schedule one day like this a week. i believe it would bless my life. but do i have the self-control to stay off the internet and phone if they are accessible? i fear i don't. and that's a painful admission.

flickr

my new flickr account:   http://www.flickr.com/photos/19373030@N04/

it began as a place to post my customers' creations, and i have found it a delightful way to organize my photos.

the column of photos on the right of this blog, under my etsy shop photos, are from flickriver, and show randomly changing photos from "my projects" file on flickr.

face up to it

if you love or hate facebook, or if you are yet un-initiated into this incredibly fast growing sensation, (you, yes you! should have been included in one those three groups). you must read this witty blog post by our friend jeff. so well written. so true. yes, we are thrilled that jeff and evie have taken the plunge into facebook.

and here are my own thoughts when i first discovered facebook.

geneology

here is a fun website to spend some time on, also introduced to me by my friend kim:

nauvoopageantcousins.org

through it i have discovered  that i have common ancestors with joseph smith, brigham young, wilford woodruff, parley p pratt, heber c kimball, eliza r snow, and many others. brock also has common ancestors, different from mine, with all of the above plus emma hale smith, mary fielding smith, elijah fordam, and others.

plus, i have found more than one family connection to most of the above, because although they didn't know it at the time, they were all related to each other. so our children are related to most of the above in more than one way.

so far all of my connections have come through my great grandfather roland woodruff fish, and all of brock's have come through his great grandfather david fisk stout.

type in your name and your parents' names, and it will show you early saints that you are related to, and just how you are connected, from the common ancestor on down to you. i thought that i knew quite a bit about my ancestry, but this is all new to me.

i have felt my ancestors with me here in nauvoo, something i hadn't anticipated, and i am grateful.

let's face it

it's so easy to waste time on the internet. and i hate that. i am almost phobic of wasting any time on my computer. i check my email as quickly as possible, i try to avoid looking at anything that will get me too interested, and suck me in. lexi, brock, & tashi love facebook, and highly recommend it. i have held out, not wanting to join it for the same reason that i didn't want to blog....i didn't see how i could justify the time. last week that changed. lexi created a facebook account for me. and i was right. i couldn't justify the time. i have spent FAR too much time on it the past week. but just like blogging, i LOVE it! SO FUN! the best part is connecting with friends that i have been out of touch with for a while. i highly recommend it to all my friends. i want to be your friends on facebook ~ especially if you have time to waste, but even if you don't :)