The Book of Me, Written by You - Week 69 - What is my most treasured possession?

The Book Of Me, Written By You is a 15 month project set up by Julie Goucher at Anglers Rest.

Each week there are prompts which require answering.

My great, great grandmother's wedding jug

Week 69 - What is my most treasured possession?

I have had to think about this a lot, well, what is my most treasured possession? I am not sure whether I have a MOST treasured possession but I certainly have a few possessions which are treasured by me, these are:

• my laptop - all my family history research is stored on here (as well as backed up elsewhere), so I would want all that work to be passed onto someone who would like to continue it or be interested in the work I have already done

• my leather bound bible - this was a 21st birthday present from my grandparents who are no longer with us, there is a beautiful inscription in the front cover which was written by my grandfather and means a lot to me

• my great, great grandmother's wedding jug - the only heirloom I have from my mother's side of the family

• my great grandmother's engagement ring - a beautiful ring which I wear occasionally for special occasions

The Book of Me, Written by You - Week 68 - Memory Tree

The Book Of Me, Written By You is a 15 month project set up by Julie Goucher at Anglers Rest.

Each week there are prompts which require answering.

Week 68 - Memory Tree

Think of those who are no longer with us, who would appear on your memory tree (ie friends, family, pets, colleagues etc)

There are many people who would appear on my memory tree, some I feel I cannot share publicly but here are a few of the ones I wish to share:

• My grandparents, all 4 of them. I was lucky to have a good relationship with all my grandparents in different ways. One of my grandfather's is still living although he has dementia and does not recognise me any longer, so although he is still with us - he also isn't, so I miss who he was. My paternal grandmother inspired me in my family history research, she would talk to me for hours about her cousins and auntie's and uncle's.  My maternal grandfather I would sit and chatter nonsense with him for hours and he would just listen. He was a source of great wisdom and had a deep faith. My maternal grandmother was also always there for me, she would keep me well fed with lovely home-cooked food especially during my student days. 
• Dusky, my pet house rabbit, who lived to a ripe old age of 8 years old - he was such a cheeky rascal of a rabbit in his youthful days. He would jump onto the sofas & run around the living room, chewing wires, rugs, chairs, boots, throws & cushions! We once left him with my parents for 3 months whilst we went travelling and when we returned he would come and sit in my lap, it felt as if he had really missed us and was very endearing.

The Book of Me, Written by You - Week 67 - What are your priorities?

The Book Of Me, Written By You is a 15 month project set up by Julie Goucher at Anglers Rest.

Each week there are prompts which require answering.

Week 67 - What are your priorities?

Quote from American author, Kathleen Winsor:

"Most people are so busy knocking themselves out trying to do everything they think they should do, they never get around to do what they want to do."

So, what are the things I would like to achieve and why? What are the things I want to do?

My biggest priority and passion in life is caring for my family, so I do spend a lot of time cooking, cleaning & washing, but I also try to make sure spending time with my baby comes first. Fortunately cooking is one of my biggest passions in life and eating delicious, nutritious & home cooked food. I would love to be able to teach people how make meals from scratch, to show that it is not hard or challenging and often can taste as nice as, if not nicer than the sugar/salt pumped ready made options available to us in the supermarkets. 

My other 2 major passions in life are:

• my family history research, which does get side-lined due to family commitments and work these days.
• my faith, so being involved with community groups within my locality is important to me as well.

Another priority in life is my job and career as an Optometrist, which has had to be scaled back in recent months to make my family life more of a priority, but it is still there on the back burner waiting for me to have more time to come back to it, in future years.

The quote above so describes me and my life, I often want to have a go at doing everything but have recently come to the conclusion that I cannot do everything properly so have been trying to scale back the things which I am doing so as to spend more time with my family and being able to do fewer things properly. For example I think my blogging will be scaling back this year to prioritise doing more actual physical family history research and also finishing the book about my Davidson family history that I have been writing since 2012.