Ripples...

Last week, as I was doing some research for The Belgian Researchers' Obituaries project, I came across the name of Fernand DuBois, whose daughter, Renee lived in Kokomo, Indiana where he had spent the summer in 1950.
The obituary peaked my curiosity about Renee. And this is how I found this wonderful October 7th, 1946 Kokomo Tribune article, "Belgian War Bride Quick Convert to American Football Enthusiasm".
It explained how she had become a quick football enthusiast and went into detail about her origins and her first weeks in Kokomo.
She had met her then future husband, Captain William Linkhorn, in October 1944 in Liege, while he was visiting the city. Although she had a degree in Pharmacy from the Universite de Liege, she turned to teaching languages and became instrumental in establishing a French program for adults at the Indiana University's Kokomo campus and a conversational program for school aged children (grades 4-7) in 1952, which she taught until she moved away to Mansfield, Ohio, where she continued teaching French.  It looks like she moved away from Ohio again as her husband's obituary places them in Cape Cod in 2007.

What really caught my attention however is the fact that she attended the Lycee Leonie de Waha !
How amazing it is that although we will likely never meet, we have shared experiences that bind us as though we had...  We have walked the same hallways...  We have opened the same doors...  We have followed a similar path that brought us both here...  We both became involved in teaching French...
Our children grew up 100% Americans, with whom we can never really share these hallways, doors, these experiences in the same way...

I wonder where the many young women who graduated from the Lycee over the years are leaving a legacy, where they made their mark on the world, as we all do.  Some are never mentioned anywhere again but their influence is felt for generations all the same!

Random Thoughts: Colored Greys

It' always when I'm driving that I think of things to write down somewhere.
Driving back from Wabash the other day, I was taken back to y first year at the Lycee.  The changing colors fo Fall always remind me of my first Art teacher there, Madame Lemoine. She was as big around as her husband was tall and skinny.  I can't remember what he taught.  I only had her for one year.  She is the one who taught me how to print.  One of our assignments was to capture the 'colored greys' of Fall.  While I can draw, I can not ad color to anything I make without taking away from the drawing, so this was not my favorite assignment for sure...  We had to mix the primary colors to make the colored greys we needed then apply them on the trees we had drawn...  One of my classmates painted one I will never forget it was so beautiful and all she did was take her brush and instead of 'painting' as I understand 'painting', she just put dabs of colors here and there all over her page and her tree truly was beautiful.
Anyway...  All this to say... every Fall, I go back to being 12 years old every time the trees change color... 

2011 Goal Setting

I am not much of one to determine on December 31 how I should change my life on January 1. Not that I think it's a bad idea. I believe we should be ready to do this regularly in our lives. It's important to stop and evaluate where we are and whether we are headed in the direction we aimed to. Besides it is often necessary to redirect our course as we go, not once a year...

When the kids were little I would often tell them that before they made a decision they should choose a destination and make their choices accordingly. I would often simply ask them which direction they should go if they wanted to go to Logansport from our house. Ultimately there was more than one way to do this of course but the shortest route was to turn right on Main Street and keep going West. Of course they could have turned left on Main Street but they would inevitably have to change direction to head West if they ever intended to reach their destination.

Many years ago I learned how to set goals while working with the Young Women of our ward. They used a Personal Progress book that divided goal setting into categories:
Faith, Divine Nature, Individual Worth, Knowledge, Choice and Accountability, Good Works and Integrity
There were short-term goals as well as long-term goals. They had to be realistic so as to make them reachable but they also needed to make me stretch so as to help me really grow.

We don't often think about this but it is a fact that writing down one's goals helps us actually achieve them. Otherwise we can easily lose track of them and thus never reach our destination.

So... what do I want to accomplish in 2011?

Sherri and I have been talking about setting up a booth at craft shows. That means I need to get busy knitting. What I would really like to do is to invest in a knitting machine and take the classes to learn to make the most of it.
Now what does that entail?
Making a phone call to the Knit-Knack Shop north of here - that is a HUGE thing for me because I don't like making calls.
Of course I could just drive up there. Hey I took a step in the right direction... I found their website! If only I could do all this online... ok... got to get out of my shell, I know...

I should really also set a monthly number goal for FamilySearch Indexing this year. The last time I did that I got sick and have not been able to get back to it as productively.
Having 2 logins does not help much either but I have no control over that part as one is my official login and the other for the Belgium Project. My preference is with the latter but I should not look like a slacker as Indexing director since the stats won't be combined, so it looks like I may remain divided for a while.

What else is on my mind...
- learning new recipes. - I am far from being short on recipes, that's for sure!!!
- transcribing Stanley's war letters
- translating Papa's letters into English
- transcribing Bobonne's letters
- transcribing Marraine and BonPapa's letters - with eventual translations
- scanning the old pictures that came from Los Angeles
Big elephants... all of these projects are... One bite at a time...

Of course there is also a wish to renew and strengthen friendships and family ties.
Maybe find a special service project to get involved in too. I really enjoyed making those 2 scarves for the upcoming 2012 Superbowl in Indy, and found that there are many other opportunities out there to help others. I might even knit a couple more.
AND I almost forgot: I would love to participate in recording audiobooks for people to download for free online.
Bottom line... I have a few ideas but need to sit down and write it all down...
Might be good too to take another look at those other categories I made no mention of and help ensure balance in my goals...
And maybe they will become reality by the end of 2011.
For now I had better close... maybe finish this later...