Papa's Girl

Today we lost all of our menfolk (except Baby Boy) to the pursuit of the wild morel mushroom, so we needed an adventure for just us girls, which included Grandma.  Mookie has been dying to take some flowers to her great-grandpa's grave, so we took advantage of the beautiful day and headed out.  After a few side trips, and Mookie questioning whether or not we'd actually get there, we arrived to Cummings Cemetery.  Cummings is just a spot in the road nowadays, but it's the town where three generations of my family lived and are buried.  Mookie took the ultimate care to make sure the flowers were laid carefully for the Papa she loved so much:) 
  I wasn't as close to Papa at her age as I was in my grown up years, but I sure enjoyed the time spent visiting and just being together later on.  I tried to make sure we got in to visit him as often as we could because he absolutely adored his great-grandkids, and they him.  In fact, they got away with so much more than I ever could when I was their age.  The glass figurines in the front window my sister & I couldn't touch, Papa would set out for my kiddos to play with on the floor.  They loved to lay down on the floor as he grabbed their feet securely and said "now what are you going to do?", which would be followed by laughter and wiggles to get free. 
  Some of the pictures that are most dear to me are some we found when we were breaking up my grandparents' house after they had both passed away.  They were ones my Papa took one Halloween and epitomize the love that the kiddos and he shared.  He must have seen us coming and quickly grabbed his camera and opened the door and snapped pics as they were yelling "trick or treat!".  I keep these in their original photo develop packet in a drawer, every time I pull them out I tear up as I flip through the series that starts with us exiting the car to pics outside by the bush before we left.  I sure do miss going to his house, the door swinging open and a hug with a "how you doing girl?".  We miss you Papa, and hope to see you again one day!

ding dong!

"trick or treat!"

The kids with the glass figurines in the front window.

Operation Surprise Birthday

  Nine years ago we were blessed with the arrival of our first baby.  Bubby loves celebrations, but since the arrival of our Baby Boy I thought I would lay low on organizing festivities this year.  The only problem is how do you argue with this sweet boy who comes up to you a mere 2 weeks prior to his birthday and says "Mom, I wouldn't mind if you threw me a surprise party for my birthday".  Drat!  It took me a while to figure something out, but he's been dying to go to the Combat Air Museum in the Capitol, so I organized an impromptu field trip for our homeschooling buddies which included touring the museum & then eating a sack lunch on the State Historical Society grounds followed by cake & walking the trails.  Simple, but it would do the trick.  One of Bubby's best buds came with us to the museum and we met some of our other buddies and Ducky and Grandma there. Bubby didn't know our destination until we arrived - he was so excited!

overlooking the museum

The kids loved the planes, and even though we didn't spend much time at each display, they enjoyed every minute.

sitting in one of the helicopters

In fact, most our time looked like this...

we adults just tried to keep up.  In fact, in the second hangar there were so many planes the kids tried to keep away from the parents and all we could hear was the sound of their flip flops:)
  One of the highlights of the museum this time was a really nice display of Daniel Forbes who is from our hometown (you can read about our adventure with him here).
   Our buddies who joined us at the museum had to leave, but some other buddies were able to join us at the Historical Society instead so the fun continued!  At first we were worried about our plans for eating outdoors...

burning the prairie grass at the Historical Society

but the wind was blowing away from us and it was finished rather quickly so it didn't change our plans one bit!  We played on their wonderful playground, ate, opened presents, and ate cake and then went on a walk to two of the highlights of the trails out there on the grounds - the bridges!  One is a historical bridge that has been transplanted there, the other is a suspension bridge.  It was under the suspension bridge that the kids explored the creek and built little "wells", caught nightcrawlers and threw rocks into the deeper water.  Fun stuff!

We were so blessed to spend such a wonderful day with our good buddies!  Bubby dubbed it the best birthday ever!

The Prince of Preachers

   

  As a homeschooling momma with a history background I am always looking for new resources to give my kiddos a desire to learn more about history.  So, when recently I was given an opportunity to review a historical fiction on Charles H. Spurgeon I jumped at the chance! 

  The book is Charles Spurgeon: The Prince of Preachers by Christian Timothy George in the Trailblazers series.  When our family went to Texas last year we took the Trailblazers book on George Mueller & did it as a read aloud & the kids couldn’t get enough of it, so I was ready to try another! 

  I have long enjoyed reading Spurgeon quotes and used them frequently on my Facebook page, but never found the time to read about the man himself.  While this was a historical fiction for youth, it was inspiring to read about a man who was so gifted in the way he proclaimed God to the masses.  The writer showed a man who was able to personalize the Gospel for the everyday man & rattle the old school & “traditional” Anglican church. Spurgeon’s love for telling people about Jesus was even illustrated with having him leave his bride waiting at the altar while he evangelized :).  The book did not focus on all the sunshiny parts of Spurgeon’s life though, it also included his bouts with depression,  & his troubles with gout.

  The book was all tied up neatly with the story beginning and ending with Queen Victoria disguising herself to go out and see this great preacher.  Now while that is surely part of the fiction of the book, I found it a wonderful way to show what a draw this man had on all walks of life, from the elite to the poorest orphan who charged a bench tax, to the maid desperate to learn. 

   One of the things I enjoy about the Trailblazer books is that they all end with a brief historical summary of the subject of the book & a timeline of their life, and discussion questions.  So these books are perfect for incorporating into your homeschool curriculum!  I was very blessed to have the opportunity to review this book & learn more about this great man in the process and look forward to finding out more about him!

 Thank you Christian Focus Publications for giving me the chance to review this by giving me a free Kindle copy to use!  This is my first time participating in the blog tour & I’m excited!

Hometown Hero

Last week we went on a field trip with our homeschool buds to the National Guard Museum at Forbes Field in Topeka.  They had artifacts from the Civil War to present, everything from bayonets to a recreated M.A.S.H. unit.  Our guide even let the kids try on some uniforms at the end, which of course inspired some pretend play of world war III after lunch:)

One super cool thing we learned is that Forbes Field is named for Daniel Forbes who is buried in our hometown of Overbrook!  Major Forbes is known for being one of the pioneers of strategic photo-reconnaissance flying combat missions & died in 1948 while piloting a "Flying Wing".  Of course, when Bubby found out that he was buried in our town's cemetery, we had to pay a visit to Maj. Forbes!

Happy Accidents

Today I had planned to do other people's research.  In an attempt to do a little "cemetery stomping" (as my mom and I like to call it), my mom & I took Mookie & Baby to the Burlingame cemetery to take some pictures that were requested on www.findagrave.com - one of my favorite sites.  I picked Burlingame for 3 reasons: 1) it had the highest # of unanswered photo requests from that site 2) I wanted to scout out the Civil War veterans there and check on the possibilities for going there for an adventure I'm planning with our homeschool coop this summer (more on that later) & 3) a bunch of my husband's family was there and even if the photo requests didn't pan out, I could take digital pics of the family stones and post those on Find A Grave.
  It was way too cold to walk the cemetery with the little ones, so we mostly did a drive by and found a few of the requests, and looked at a few Civil War vets along the way.  We ended by taking the family pics.  As I surveyed the familiar stones, I noticed something I had forgotten, that grandpa John Wagner was a G.A.R. (Grand Army of the Republic) vet.  That family has perplexed me for years.  I started with sketchy info on them, and since they moved around from NY, to Canada, to PA, finally settling in KS I didn't know where to start to find their state of origin so I gave up on extending further into the past for a while.  However, this summer I am planning on leading a bunch of our homeschoolers to help in something the Kansas State Historical Society is calling it's Sleeping Heroes project, where they document where Civil War veterans throughout the state are buried.  I have picked out a few cemeteries I would like to work on and selected a veteran from each that I will have researched to give some fun background to the kids so they can see what history can lie beneath the Company, Regiment & State and dates we'll be gathering.  I have already had success with finding that one marched with Sherman through Georgia, and another fought at the Battle of Wilson's Creek (the 1st major battle west of the Mississippi). So, when I saw grandpa Wagner, I knew I needed to revisit my efforts and make him my man for that cemetery!  I had no idea where that would lead me!
  When I attacked Ancestry.com at home, I found a pension record for him, narrowed down by the fact that he filed in Kansas, was from Pennsylvania, and applied for it himself, since he died not too long before his wife.

Ok, I had a starting place.  Then I Googled the 84th Pennsylvania Infantry and found a John Wagoner listed.  Now, the 84th Co. F was from Lycoming County but I was still in the dark as to being for sure that was him.  I was missing Grandpa John in the 1860 census so I looked him up there in that year and BINGO!  There he was with Grandma Susan and their 3 kids, so this was the correct John Wagoner!  The cool thing was that the info the Google search came up with was that he was captured at the battle of Chancellorsville on May 3, 1863 - so much more yet to learn!!
  But wait!  There's more!  After he returned from his own expedition with Grandpa Duck & Daddy, I was sharing with Bubby what we had found.  He was anxious to find more (I love that my almost 9 year old loves this stuff!).  So, I did another Ancestry search and found the marriage record for Grandpa John and Grandma Susan!  But apparently Lycoming County, Pennsylvania records during this period are wonderfully detailed because it listed both of their parents!

  So a day of not planning to work on any genealogy of my own, turned into the biggest breakthrough I've had in a long time.  Wow!