July - August 2022 Project Life

 I'm a little late posting, but here are my July - August photo a day pages.

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July - August 2022 Recap

 It's been a little while since I've checked in.  I've been quite busy with work and other things in my life.

So...here are  how things are going

1) Daily Bible Reading/Prayer - I'm a little behind.  I went to the beach for a week and took a break from EVERYTHING...I mean EVERYTHING.  All I did was sit on the beach all day, literally from sun-up to sun-down and chatted with one of my besties!! We had a great week.  Hope to get caught up on my Bible reading by the end of this week.

2) Weight Loss/Eat Healthier/Exercise - Pretty good, but could be better. I did get a little exercise in at the beach but not as much as I would have liked...it is really challenging living with Lymphedema and your legs feel like they each weigh about 30 pounds...my eating habits are just ok, but my meals certainly should include more fresh fruits and veggies.  However, I am making a commitment starting October 1st and I have a plan in place.  I am setting myself a 1 year goal and I feel pretty confident about it.

3) Watercolor - boo hoo!! Still no painting time

4) Crochet/Knit - Due to work and the hot weather and my beach trip...no crochet or knitting recently.

5)  Personal Journaling - Pretty good - still not doing this daily but generally a couple of times a week.

6) House Projects - Got one big project accomplished...tree trimming...that has needed doing for about 2  years...got lots of limbs that were closed to the house cut down in addition to some recent dead limbs that were hanging onto the tree after recent summer storms. 

7) Scrapbooking/Project Life - A+ - I am still current with my Project Life pages.  I pretty much keep up with it daily.  I even recently completed several recipe pages (which has been something I wanted to do for a long time) and placed an order.  The Project Life app is about to be updated with some  new templates, but also new pricing for the prints so I thought I would go ahead and order my the completed recipe pages before the price goes up.  I should be receiving the prints this week. 

8) Genealogy - pretty good - as you saw from an earlier post, I knew I had Mayflower ancestors but I never laid it all out before so it is easily tracked.  I've done that now. 

Overall, feeling pretty good...I still would like to do some water color painting...maybe this weekend - who knows?!  I'm getting my house pressure washed as I type this so that is one house project that will be done.  I have a dental and doctor appointment this week so that goes along with my healthier life style plan.  I do plan to talk to my doctor about my energy level...which right now...is practically zip.  

I'll post the Project Life/Scrapbook pages tomorrow for July and August.

Product Review - Trader Joe's Gnocchi

 In general, I love Gnocci...it can be difficult to find good Gnocchi and the best is always at a good Italian resturant.  But I have had good luck with Trader Joe products and an employee there mentioned that this was her favorite thing they sold so I decided to give it a try.

Trader Joe's Gnocchi al Gorgonzola.

This is Gnocchi with a creamy Gorgonzola cheese sauce.  

It is SUPER easy to cook..you just put it in a microwave safe bowl and cook for 4 minutes (I stirred about half way through and again when done).

Each bag has 3 servings but I managed to get 4 out of it because it is a pretty generous sized bag. Not bad for $2.99.

My thoughts...it was good.  The sauce was very good.  The Gnocchi was a little bit dense and chewy to me though.  It also seemed to be missing something so I added a bit of Italian seasoning to it, which helped but still seemed like something was missing.

 Later, I found that someone took it and doctored it up a bit by adding some spinach and nuts.

Would I buy again...hmmm...I'm a little on the fence.  While it had a pretty good taste, the gnocchi texture wasn't quite right - just a bit too chewy for me.  I might give it another try by adding some different ingredients to it to boost it up a little but I won't be in a rush to purchase it again.

Mayflower Heritage - Thomas Rogers

 I was watching "Who Do You Think You Are?" and it highlighted Allison Janney's ancestors, one in particular was Stephen Hopkins, who had a rather interesting story, but ultimately arrived on the Mayflower.  I, too, am a Mayflower decedent.  I have done quite a bit of research once I found a connection just to be sure I truly was a decedent.  

My ancestor on the Mayflower was Thomas Rogers (my 11th great-grandfather), who also was joined on the Mayflower by his eldest son, Joseph Rogers.  I am not descended from Joseph, but rather another of Thomas' son, John Rogers.  John Rogers, arrived in Plymouth in 1628, which is 8 years after the Mayflower [Source Colonial Families of the USA 1607-1775].

Sadly, Thomas. who was about 48, died soon after arrival (as did many settlers) in January or February of 1621.  Therefore, his portion of the promised land was granted to his surviving Mayflower son, Joseph, who was about 17 at the time.  

On 6 April 1640, “Joseph Rogers and John Rogers, his brother,” were granted fifty acres of upland each at the North River. [Source:The Pilgrim Migration: Immigrants to Plymouth Colony 1620-1633].

Although born Northhamptonshire, England, Thomas was living in Leiden, Holland at the time he immigrated.  He was a Lieden separatist (Protestant Christian who separated from the Church of England).  His wife, Alice Cosford never made the journey to the new land and she died in 1622 at the age of 49 in Leiden, Holland.

Thomas was a signatory to the Mayflower Compact.  Even though Joseph was on board as well, at 17, he was too young to sign the Mayflower Compact. 

I have much more information on Thomas Rogers that I will share in a separate post (since this one is more about my connection)

Below is a chart that show all of my ancestors that followed.  The names in yellow are the Mayflower Descendants.  

When you think of all those generations and all they survived (traveling on ships, Revolutionary War, Civil War, and other things) - it is kind of a miracle that I was even born.  Isn't that the case for all of us...imagine all that our ancestors went through and because of them...we are here!  

Funny Friday - Sign of the Times

 I didn't learn shorthand and was never in a Steno Pool but I do remember those.  When I was young and watched "The Beverly Hillbillies", I remember that Miss Jane and the other secretaries in the Steno Pool would use shorthand.

I did, however, use an IBM Selectric.  In fact, it is what I use to learn to type.  It was so cool to me to use an electric typewriter with that cool round ball instead of a manual typewriter.  I loved it!

Typing class was a class I looked forward to everyday.  It was fun.  I am sure they no longer teach typing or keyboarding in high school.  Today's kids get to miss out on that fun class since they now grow up typing.  

THE QUICK BROWN FOX JUMPED OVER THE LAZY DOG 
(If you know, you know) 😄

June 2022

June and July are busy months for me, especially July.  Hopefully, this time next year, I will be retired and I can actually have a real summer!

 Because I've been busy, my blog has been neglected a bit.  Not that I have a ton of readers sitting on the edge of their seats or anything just dying to know how my goals are progressing - ha ha!

So how are the goals going?

1) Daily Bible Reading/Prayer - Fantastic....as of yesterday, I have read 200 straight days!! I'm not Catholic but I have chosen to read the 7 books that are in the Catholic Bible that are not in the Protestant Bible.  Side note:  Martin Luther decided to follow the newer Palestinian canon, which includes only books originally composed in Hebrew or for which a Hebrew text was available in the late first century A.D. Therefore, 7 books were removed. The King James version follows Luther on this matter.

2) Weight Loss/Eat Healthier/Exercise - Just okay. I am maintaining my weight but not losing but I haven't been really doing what I need to lose weight.  I know it sounds like an excuse and part of it is...but it has been too freaking hot to exercise! Plus, I have been so busy with work!  I know I could exercise in the early hours of the morning, which is what I was doing before I started slacking.  This is really something I will focus on in the upcoming weeks.

3) Watercolor - again, no time to paint recently.  I have ideas swirling around in my head though.

4) Crochet/Knit - Not much crochet/knit time in June...still have a prayer shawl and afghan that I am working on.

5)  Personal Journaling - Pretty good - I'm not writing daily but I am about every 2-3 days so that is an improvement.

6) House Projects - Nothing new in June...again, several ideas swirling around in my head but need more time and money to accomplish them.

7) Scrapbooking/Project Life - very good.  I am up to date with my weekly layouts.  I do want to catch up my "cat" book for the year - maybe this weekend I will be able to do that.

8) Genealogy - Good but again, just very busy.  I haven't had a lot of time to work on it.

So how do I feel? OK - I am most excited that I have kept up with my Bible reading because normally I have stopped by mid-March/early April. But I need to work on thing like better health and house projects.

Here are my Project Life/Scrapbook pages for June - click on photos to enlarge.

 

 

May 2022 Project Life

 Here are my Project Life pages for May 2022

I noticed I used very similar pictures in weeks 20, 21 & 22.  They were all taken different days, guess it shows that my kitty cats are creatures of  habit and apparently I am too, since I keep taking pictures of them - ha ha!

Click on the photos to enlarge