Thursday Thoughts! Plus #LightTheWorld for Today

 Today has been another very hectic day filled with so many different types of activities, all of which added up to a real desire to crawl between the sheets as soon as the sun went down.  Sadly, the day was not over when the sun dipped behind the trees.  Dear One went out to see if he could glimpse the International Space Station passing overhead.  We were able to watch it for a few moments several times when we were still in Vermont.  It gave me a sweet feeling of awe to know there were people up there circling the earth.  Of course, I was VERY happy it was not me!  I like my feet firmly on the ground... (And he did not see it this evening...)

So as the days have become more and more busy, I have realized that daily life is a full time job.  And then some.  I was thinking I might mention some of those activities but then thought it might sound like complaining and I hate to hear complaining and I would truly abhor being a complainer myself.  Just let me say that there is no more time in my days for fritzing around or kicking back and letting the world go by.  Those days are gone.  Probably just as well because I was getting pretty comfy in the life we were living...everything mostly predictable and fine.

One thing I will say is that today one of the variety of projects was that I went to see a chiropractor/functional medicine doctor for the first time here in our city.  He is such a nice Christian man and his assistant and his office people are great.  After he did all his tests and sent me on my way for a few days I was thinking that he brought up more concerns than I had gone in with!  I just wanted him to  quickly cure the vertigo and send me on my way.  He was not into that!  He wants to find out why I have the vertigo and then fix that.  He did say that based on several 'findings' that the night when I tripped over the stool and feel crashing down flat on my back and clunked my head, that it probably was a concussion.  Isn't that a funny thing?  Not funny ha-ha, either.  Oh well.  If he says so, I will believe him until something sounds wrong.

Today on #LightTheWorld we are to tell a story about an ancestor (and share it on social media, I think).  So I will do that.

The oldest relative that I personally knew was Julia Emily Burbank McIntosh.  She was my great-grandmother and was married to Lisle Dwight McIntosh.  She was born in 1864.  That always tickled me as a child because she was born during the Civil War.  Very exciting to learn when I was in elementary school and just learning a little bit of history.  She was a tiny lady who sat in a beautiful wingback chair. I think that is where I gained my love of wingback chairs.  Sadly, there are no wingback chairs in our current home.  Oh well. Into every life a little rain must fall.  There is actually no room for one...well, I say that. Of course there is room for one, but we have gotten fairly comfortable with less stuff filling up the spaces.  Empty spaces mean less likelihood of tripping and once again falling. I am REALLy into not falling again.  One time I won't be as lucky as I have been the last few falls.

Anyway, Nannie McIntosh was a prodigious worker.  I think I have already written about her here but it has been a while.  She made literally tons of mincemeat in her summer kitchen and peddled it throughout New England, driving it herself until her very latest years.  She was still making mincemeat well into her 80's.  Her mincemeat recipe was a highly secured secret.  A secret that may have gone with her to the grave because family members who might have had it cannot seem to locate it.  You might not think mincemeat was a treat, but it really was.  I remember those mincemeat pies.  Delicious.  (I was going to say "Heaven", but that would be an exaggeration!)

Here you can see her gravestone.  You can also see that she was very elderly when she died.  I remember talking with one of my cousins about her when I was eight or nine years old.  My cousin and I were both born in 1950.  We had been learning to count by five's.  Nannie was 95 years old at the time so my math above may not be correct...and my cousin insisted that on her next birthday Nannie would bee 100 years old.  Not knowing any better, I went along with that idea.  You never know what is in a kid's head!!!

If you look at the picture of Nannie again, you will see where I got my cowlicks!