Every year I say “My resolution is to not make any resolutions." But then I can’t help myself. I did a pretty good job this past year on the blog. Counting this post I will have posted 49 out of 52 weeks. I also kept pretty close to my aim of writing about my generation each week. Luckily my family gives me plenty of content to work with!
A new year lies ahead. I have some idea of what may happen - a trip to Salt Lake City to attend RootsTech, working about 20 (or 25, 30, or ???) hours a week, a trip to the National Building Museum in Washington for the opening of the exhibit featuring Petite Princess dollhouse furniture (and the publication of our second edition of the Reference guide for said dollhouse furniture), a bunch of birthday celebrations, laundry...
365 days. Each one a promise of something new, something better, something hopeful. I really don’t want to make any resolutions due to fear of failure. Despite the fact that I teach the importance of setting goals, I struggle with doing so. It’s bugging me that I responded to only 49 blog prompts. I know - let it go - congratulate myself that after attempting the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks blog challenge for the past three years, I completed 94%. That’s an A, right? Plus, I finished a HUGE writing project - the publication of Opulent in Aliases - Who Was Catherine C. FitzAllen?
Why is it that my first emotion, upon achieving something, is to feel a little sad? Here’s my theory: All the effort put forth into the project or the “hunt” for some elusive fact or that special item gives me a little “high.” The thought process involved in planning, the total focus when writing, the anticipation of the acquisition... I can feel the endorphin release already! Once the project is completed or the object is found, it’s like the caffeine crash of 4 p.m. A bit of a letdown. The solution? Throwing myself into another project!
What will that project be? I certainly have plenty of things started: the second edition of the Petite Princess book, a book about my mom and the miniatures hobby we shared, the story of my great-grandfather's quest to get reparations for the loss of his Viennese hat business in 1938, the story of another great-grandfather’s business in Indonesia, several volumes of Who We Are and How We Got This Way (one each for my parents' lines and one for my generation), a new family cookbook, trying to determine why Meghan’s DNA results say she’s 9% Greek, and finally figuring out when and where Catherine C. FitzAllen was born.
Keep in mind, these aren’t resolutions. I don’t make those. I make lists. If I accomplish three things on this list in 2019 I’ll be happy. And, a little sad.
Whoops... I'm writing this post at our daughter's home in Boulder, CO. Perhaps I do have a resolution that needs to be made: Be a more attentive grandparent. There are THREE adults in the house at the moment. In Scott's and my defense, one of them was Abe's dad - who called us into the living room where we saw this:
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| Apparently, Abe knew exactly where the lighter was hidden. |
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| ... and he knows exactly what to do with it!! |
Thank you to Amy Johnson Crow for her 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks blog prompts. I'm looking forward to 2019!!!
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