Category: Weekly Wrap-Up

Posted in 2019, Summer at Sonnystone, Weekly Wrap-Up

Monday’s News

Posted on by Jo Mayne Casey

The Rain was unrelenting this morning, and I woke up to a Sonnystone Acres shrouded with drab drab.

But there’s a Bright Spot on my calendar, bright enough to dispel the Any gloom:  The New York City Girls and their Mother will be Arriving on August 4!!  Melissa will be staying until the 7th; Emma and Eliza will stay until I take them back to NYC on the 14th.

Because Olivia has to start school on the 7th, we’ll do an abbreviated Camp Sonnystone from 8/4-8/6.  We still haven’t decided on a Theme, but we’ll brainstorm once we’re all together. I haven’t seen Emma and Eliza since March at Disney, so I am Ready to give them some hugs and have them hang out with me.

I should probably insert the brag here that the Girls are Rocking the Irish Dance World.  Just last week Emma got her first 1st in champion level and Eliza got three 3rds in her new prelim level.

I am weaning myself off of Ancestry in prep for the Visit.  I am to a place of blogging the ancestors where I need to start a new line of research on several grandmothers’ families which will take weeks.  It’s hard to stop, though!  Check out my latest post great-great-grandparents Leander and Emma Mayne ,

Livvy, Sam, and I went back to the Zoo to visit the Budgies last week… I really love those Parakeets, but you have to be patient.  I have the Jr girls for a day this week and I wouldn’t be surprised if we went Again…and of course we’ll take the New Yorkers. when they are here.

I’ve got to open up the upstairs and get the rooms ready, but not much else.  I can hardly wait! I’m horrible at doing countdowns — does today count — but I think it’s about 12 more days..!

Peace

Posted in 2019, Summer at Sonnystone, Weekly Wrap-Up

If it’s Monday, I must be musing…

Posted on by Jo Mayne Casey

I’m especially bored with The News right now…as there is so little news, even during this 4th-of-July-Week…  The NYC kids are in Vancouver, B.C. for the Irish Dance National Championships and I’m sending Strong Peace+Love vibes their way.  The Jrs kids are spending the week with their maternal cousins, in from Ohio or thereabouts, and I won’t be seeing them for a bit.

While I’m obsessed (still) with my ancestry research, I’m neglecting to write much other than timelines. Oh, I’m still going about my usual chores and duties to the house and gardens, spending plenty of time in the pool, reading and listening to music, and even playing the piano (12th Street Rag), but The News just isn’t happening…

So I’ve set some serious blogging goals here…

 1. Stop the genealogy research right where it is Now and write it up for All My Ancestors. That’s easier said than done, mind you, because one little question leads to hours of study.  For example, the blog I’ve been trying to write for weeks about Grandpa and the Button Factory has taken me in new directions regarding my German immigrant relatives.   I am thrilled and excited to share what I’ve learned, but I’ll have to accept that this work is never quite finished and go ahead and write it anyway.

2. Start a series of Proust questionnaire interviews here at The News. There, I said it.  I published a series of interviews back in 2006 or so and it was fun.  At that time I emailed friends and family members who were kind enough to fill in the blanks.  Many of those folks no longer speak to me, but I’ve made New Friends and maybe I can get some cool responses.  Are you familiar with the Questionnaire?  The questions were part of a Victorian parlor game called “confessions”.  The French writer, Marcel Proust, answered the questions first when he was 14 and gets a lot of credit for “inventing” them, but he really didn’t.  The questions have been changed by others throughout the years, so no one gets exactly the same questions.  Here’s an example:

HERE ARE DAVID BOWIE’S ANSWERS:

What is your idea of perfect happiness? Reading.

What is your most marked characteristic? Getting a word in edgewise.

What do you consider your greatest achievement? Discovering morning.

What is your greatest fear? Converting kilometers to miles.

Which historical figure do you most identify with? Santa Claus.

Which living person do you most admire? Elvis.

Who are your heroes in real life? The consumer.

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? While in New York, tolerance. Outside of New York, intolerance.

What is the trait you most deplore in others? Talent.

What is your favorite journey? The road of artistic excess.

What do you consider the most overrated virtue? Sympathy and originality.

Which words or phrases do you most overuse? Chthonic, miasma.

What is your greatest regret? That I never wore bell-bottoms.

What is your current state of mind? Pregnant.

If you could change one thing about your family, what would it be? My fear of them (wife and son excluded).

What is your most treasured possession? A photograph held together by cellophane tape of Little Richard that I bought in 1958, and a pressed and dried chrysanthemum picked on my honeymoon in Kyoto.

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? Living in fear.

Where would you like to live? Northeast Bali or south Java.

What is your favorite occupation? Squishing paint about a senseless canvas.

What is the quality you most like in a man? The ability to return books.

What is the quality you most like in a woman? The ability to burp on command.

What are your favorite names? Sears & Roebuck.

What is your motto? “What” is my motto.

Would you be interested in taking the questionnaire?  My readers are (nearly) as clever as Bowie, so I know it will be entertaining.  Lest you think I’m making You do all the work, remember that I will write a short bio and add a photo…I’ll be contacting as many of you as I can throughout the coming months.  Think about it, dear friends.  Maybe we could even meet up, face-to-face, which would be incredibly cool since I haven’t actually laid eyes on most of my FB friends in 20+ years…

We have no plans for Independence Day…perhaps I can get #1 goal marked off the list this week… then I’ll be in touch, pals.

Peace

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in 2019, Spring at Sonnystone, Weekly Wrap-Up

Weekly Wrap-up and Happy Fathers Day

Posted on by Jo Mayne Casey

Big Shout-Out to all the Daddies who are being celebrated today.  I know some good ones:  the two Michael Caseys- Casey and Jr. — come to mind.  I hope you are enjoying the attention.  You are Loved…

My face is back to pink now, but the shape is oddly different.  Nothing you would notice, probably maybe, but I do.  The whole episode has made me stop and think about how I worry about the physical toll of aging, not just the sag of my jowls, but the drooping Everywhere else.  It’s part of the process of living, I know, but as soon as I can quit applying medicine I am taking a complete break from Mirrors.

I took Olivia and Samantha over to Henderson, Ky for a picnic and a walkabout.  It was a perfect day!  We are usually sweaty and hot this time of year, so the clouds and cool breeze were a treat.

getting something out of her shoe…

This coming week is Midnight Madness, A Genealogical Event at Willard Library.  I’m interested in several of the topics, so I’ll spend a couple of days there.  The end of the week ushers in the Shrine Fest, another festivity that is usually unbearably muggy.  Maybe some more cool-ish weather could stick around?

Oh, I have to show you what we found at a rummage sale last Friday:  a Red glider that puts a Pop of Colour in my south porch.

Peace

 

Posted in 2019, Spring at Sonnystone, updates, Weekly Wrap-Up

Weekly Wrap-up

Posted on by Jo Mayne Casey

Monday morning Olivia and Samantha came to stay for three nights!  It was like a mini-Camp Sonnystone:  we painted birdhouses and signs, went to the zoo, played games, swam, and had ice cream every night before bed!

I had the best time with the girls.  I hope they can stay with us every time their mom has to go out of town for work.

The rains have been quite rainy, so we waited until today to head up to New Harmony for their annual antiques fest. A lot of the outside vendors had not even set up due to rain and the usual crowds were non-existent, but we were there.

I’m still getting caught up with the info that my distant Mayne cousin mailed me.  It is intriguing.  My goal is to get some blogging done over at All My Ancestors this week…  But I have some musings to share with my fellow Sonnystoners, too, so expect a tick-up in posts as we creep on toward summer…  Hope you’re having fun!

Peace

Posted in 2019, Spring at Sonnystone, Weekly Wrap-Up

I just don’t feel like blogging…

Posted on by Jo Mayne Casey

I’ve been thinking again…always dangerous, if you know me… I’m unable to find words to explain…I can’t make myself sit down at the keyboard and try…

That summer feeling of freedom is creeping up on me…if it weren’t for the chiggers I’d lie down in the grass and watch the clouds change shapes…but there are definitely chiggers, currently living on me in places where the sun doesn’t shine, so instead, I sit outside on one porch or another, swinging away the time.  Sorry to say, but I just don’t feel like blogging.

I had a super surprise this week when I was contacted by a distant Mayne cousin.  He shared some good stories of our Iowa Maynes during the Civil War.  He clued me in to the Gold Mine story.  I enjoyed the conversation so much and he’s going to send me some info, to boot.  Before he called, I was researching a completely unrelated family member and studying up on button factories, but now I’ve put that aside as I delve back into the Maynes… I love doing the research and learn something every day.  I want to share it with you…and I will!..but right now I just don’t feel like blogging…

Umm…That’s all I got…

We’ll have Olivia and Samantha staying with us Mon-Thurs while their mom works up north.  We will have a blast for sure…and I hope I’ll feel like blogging…

Peace

Posted in 2019, Spring at Sonnystone, Weekly Wrap-Up

The Late Wrap-up

Posted on by Jo Mayne Casey

It was a full week last week…  My #2 grandie, Olivia Mayne Casey, was promoted from elementary school last Wednesday.  She was the picture of poise as she gave an excellent speech.  She received several Awards for her participation in extracurriculars, and was chose to have her picture hang on the “Wall of Fame” for her performance in Language Arts.  She looked beautiful…..

Between pounding rains, we brought up the trailer and set it up just outside our back door, ready to be used as a kind of summer house.  Inspired, I pulled out the cushions of the banquette and went crazy buying throw cushions (BOGO 1/2 off at Big Lots) and voila!

By Friday we were able to put up the pool, though the windy rains continued to intermittently pass by…

Saturday was the Shannon’s School of Dance Recital.  This was Olivia’s 7th performance and she did a perfect job…it may be her last, as well, and she went out in style.  She has chosen to d/c the dance during the 6th grade year while she gets the hang of Middle School and their extracurricular offerings.  She says she may go back, and I agreed — the first dance was performed by “old” students at Shannon’s (where were you, Melissa?) who tapped to 42nd Street and it made me want to buckle up my tap shoes and join the fun. (sorry about the quality of the pictures, but the lights…)

The dance recital is always a looong one, so we took Samantha home with us during the intermission and she slept over with us.  She and I sleep together in my bed, putting Grandpa off to the couch…  We picked up Olivia the next morning and the three of us hit up IGA for some fried chicken and other picnic fixins.  Michael and Jessica arrived for lunch and the Indy 500 was on the TV all day.  There was a cloudburst, so no swimming, but we played games and sang songs…

I have been feeling extremely emotional and anxious about nothing, compounded by thinking too much about the past…which has passed…and I know better…but it was 22 years ago last week that Dad died, my grandkids are growing up waay too fast, to say nothing of my children being middle-aged so what does that make me…

This getting old shit is getting old…

So I felt all the feels, but walked them away at the cemetery after I put a fresh arrangement on Mom & Dad’s mausoleum.  Memorial Day is a party at the graveyard and a little bit of sunshine and smiling did me a world of good.

It’s going to be a wonderful summer vacay with the Jr. girls,,,I’m planning weekly adventures and the sky’s the limit on the fun we can muster up.   I’m not sure when the Jose’ girls will visit, but they will!

In the meantime, there’s plenty of work to do around the Acres…right after I sit a spell on the front porch swing…

Peace

 

Posted in 2019, Spring at Sonnystone, Weekly Wrap-Up

Weekly Wrap-up

Posted on by Jo Mayne Casey

Thursday was Samantha’s last day of 4-year-old Preschool—whoa, time, slow down…   The program was darling and she was, of course, right on it with the songs and choreography…

I haven’t written about the Derby because it was such a disappointment…  Even though it’s not a Real Triple Crown this year, I dutifully bet the Preakness, picked that 25-1 longshot that placed, and made a cool $21.60  The Real Winner was Bodexpress, who ran the race without a jockey….I bet on him, too…

…On to the Belmont, she says half-heartedly.

Next week is Olivia’s week…She will be leaving elementary school (K-5) and moving on to middle school (6-8).  They call it a promotion and will have a program on Wednesday morning… Friday evening she will have her Dance Recital…

If the weatherman is correct, we should be getting summer-like temperatures just in time to get the pool up and filled for Memorial Day.

My Family History research continues to fill my rainy days…and  I do want to get over to decorate graves in Southern Illinois and prowl around the counties that I’ve been studying.  The great-grands seem so real to me now…

Wait!  I see the sun!!

Peace