Archive for the ‘celebrate it’ Category

Several years ago my mom spent a week in Pennsylvania visiting an Amish family.  They had no art or decorations on their walls save one thing: A family tree.

Photograph from Martha Stewart

Decorating your home with your family history is an amazing way to connect your family with the past.  I love the idea of connecting my children to their roots.

Like all families, we have a few skeletons in the closet… and we have some wonderful ancestors, who live admirable lives.

I have a few pictures of our ancestors in our home:

This photograph is of my great grandmother and her family.  She is the older girl in the picture.  I look at the pictures and can see family resemblances.

These photographs are of my ancestors, Louisa Kent Booth and her daughter Hannah Booth Morgan.  Louisa was born in Calcutta, India in 1836.  Her father was a British officer and her mother was Bengali.  I loved to hear stories about her when I was young.  She was quite an amazing woman.  She immigrated to the United States and left behind a life of servants and luxury for a life of hard work on the Utah frontier.

I want to have a framed family tree for our home, and have been looking for the right one.  I found a free template at Martha Stewart.com which could be printed and then copied onto a large sheet of paper.

I also found a wonderful website which sells family trees called Grill Your Granny.

I love the Celtic Rose tree, but they have many wonderful options ranging from 3 to 8 generations.

Surrounding my family with pieces of our history is a great way to remind us all that the lives we live now really do matter.

“ I am still determined to be cheerful and happy, in whatever situation I may be; for I have also learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances.”
– Martha Washington

It’s President’s Day here in the United States of America.  And behind every great president was often an even greater lady.  I loved that quote from Martha Washington when I ran across it.  My other favorite quotable first lady was, of course, Eleanor Roosevelt.  It seemed she never opened her mouth but to say something wise or brilliant.

Here are just a few of my favorite quotes from Eleanor:

“A woman is like a tea bag- you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

“It’s better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

“A little simplification would be the first step toward rational living, I think.” – Eleanor Roosevelt