RSC 2017 and Genealogy

Good Sunday Morning to all.  We are half way to August and now time will really speed up!  Still dry, but some showers here and there.  Last week I took 3 days to work on the Smith family line.  By Thursday afternoon I was DONE.  A lot of brain cells burned up!  LOL.  It was time to get back to relaxing and sewing the Purple 4 patches for RSC 2016.

The plan was to sew the 28 blocks for the purple and start on the blue for this month.  So far I have 16 blocks sewn and have decided to cut out some blue 4 patches this morning before Melissa comes for a Sunday visit.  This next week will be devoted to RSC 2017 blocks.  I want to catch up with the schedule and then finish the purple and start on February which was teal.  It takes a lot of time to make 28 blocks.  Once the 4 patches are ready it takes about 25 minutes to put a block together – of course that is if one is perfect and makes no mistakes like turning the 4 patch the wrong way!

I have decided to use this as my setting and my blocks are just placed on the design wall as I finish them.  I have 3 different purples in each block.  I try to put the darker ones in the middle and two different colors on each side.    Some of the colors that are given each month will not be used, I may take advantage of that and work on the ones I have not completed yet.

Now for the Genealogy.  My cousins and I have been trying to find our GGGGrandfather Henry Smith – WELL – try to find someone who just did not want to be found, OR he went by another first name.  What a mystery.  I did research my GGGGrandmother Mary Polly Kimmel and was pleasantly surprised to find that I could trace her family all the way back to Germany!!!  I think it was her GGGrandfather Jacob Kimmel that fought in the American Revolutionary War!  This line will qualify me for DAR if I am interested in submitting the paperwork (not sure about wanting to do more paperwork).  I started with a 2 page typed written letter by a family member years ago.  It is like unraveling a mystery.  Names spelled wrong, no birthdate, etc.  But there is enough information to give me some sort of paper trail to start on and I do love research but it can be so time-consuming.  But most of the time when researching one can find one sibling, child, husband, etc and it opens up the entire world.  The DNA from Ancestry is great to find some distant relatives.  I also was surprised to find out that the Smith’s were Mennonites and they all located in Pennsylvania.  The information that I had been given was that Henry Smith was born in France and came here to escape the Napoleonic Wars.  I am not sure that is a fact.  I believe that he was from Germany and that when he came to America he came through France – that is where most of the ships came from.  I will continue on, but only after I have cleaned up my Ancestry trees and loaded Family Tree Maker.  So much information available.  I am 98% European and now I know that the French and Swiss side is from my Father and the German side is from my Mother!  She kept telling me I was Pennsylvania Dutch!!!  I also understand now why I was so at home when I worked in the Washington DC area – that is where my ancestors on my Mother’s side started out in this great country!   I hope you enjoyed this little jaunt through my family history – I need to start a separate Blog for this!  Hum!!!

I have been very successful in getting my walking in at 6:30 AM.  It is so humid even then it ranges from the mid-70’s temp and anywhere from 88 to 94% humidity.  I took the day off today because Melissa is coming and I decided to fix a pot roast in the crock pot.   It is in the crock pot cooking and then I will make a blackberry cobbler and a cherry cobbler for desert.

The recipe I use to make a cobbler is so easy.  Melt a stick of butter in the glass pan while mixing up a cup of flour, sugar, milk, 1 tsp baking powder.  Take the pan out with the melted butter and pour the batter into the melted butter (yummy).  The batter is enveloped by the hot butter.   I use Lucky Leaf pie filling and randomly drop tablespoonfuls  of the pie filling into the mixture.  There is no stirring involved in this recipe.  Cook it at 375 for 45 minutes.  Today I am going to cook it at 350 for 1 hour and see how it comes out.  The crust will be crunchy around the edges from the butter.  Hungry yet?  Maybe I will remember to take a picture of the results and post it and make everyone hungry for sure!

Today I can start working without the brace for my hand – 2 hours on 2 hours off.  I will be glad when I do not have to wear it all day long.  I still will have to be careful for while, do not want a “re-do” on my dominate hand again! I am missing my appliqué so much, but taking the time to just relax in the evenings.

Have a great day!