Overwhelmed? Let's Simplify!

I'm constantly amazed at how some people can take something that is basically a simple task and make it difficult.  Granted there are some things that you really need to do in a certain way, and changing that way could change the outcome of the whole project.  There are exceptions to every rule BUT....  99% of the time things can be simplified for the best. 

Sometimes you have to step back and think about how you want to go about it, but once you get it life suddenly gets much better.

Some ways to simplify your life....

• Plan your meals in advance, write them down on a calendar so there's no last minute dash to the land of frozen blobs called a freezer.  It really does help relieve the "Oh my goodness its 5pm and I've done nothing about dinner" panic that you get when you've been sitting doing genealogy all day.  
• Use your crockpot.  Its not rocket science (if you need recipes contact me, I've got several thousand crockpot recipes I can share), use your imagination, you'd be surprised how much you can research knowing that dinner is almost made with very little effort on your part. 
• Believe it or not, you do not have to be "connected" to the phone every waking, breathing moment of your life.  Put it on vibrate.  Trust me, the FB posts will wait.  You've got voice mail.  You don't have to take every call.  
• Turn off the TV.  Goodness,  ever hear garbage in garbage out?  When was the last time the tv did your dishes or washed your clothes.  Save your tv time for something you REALLY want to watch - like maybe Who Do You Think You Are or something like that.  Do you really care who's view they are talking about on The View?  Seriously?
• Taking time to get up out of your chair is good for you,  it also allows you to get things done.  Seriously.  Toss in a load of laundry. Set a timer.  Go upstairs and work.  Timer goes off. Move clothes to dryer. Set timer.  Go upstairs and research.  Timer goes off.  Fold Clothes & put away.  How is that hard?  Certainly manageable by anyone reading this blog I'm sure.
• I know this one isn't for everyone BUT,  I have to toss it here because it truly simplifies things for me.  I asked for and received from my son, a robot vacuum.  I know that people are skeptics but it works for me.  Lets face it, how many people vacuum under the bed, the couch and other hard to get to places every week?  My vacuum is programmed for every Monday morning and it works.  Maybe savings? Maybe a group gift from all your kids?  Either way it simplifies things for me.  
• Organize all your errands on ONE day a week. I do all my errands on Tuesday's.  Its also MY DAY.  I do no housework other than making our bed.  I do what makes me happy that one day a week.  If there are no errands to run I know I can sit here in my office and do this FOR ME.  Usually I run my errands, go to lunch with friends or family, and then work on my computer (I take my laptop with me) while I wait for my Tuesday night hang out with friends to begin. 

In the long run, we can all find ways to simplify our lives, to make things easier for us.  These are just a few things I've done to simplify my life.  Simplifying makes more time for me to do the things I have to do, but still allows me time to do the things I want to do, whether its genealogy, sewing, reading or working in my flowers. 

How do YOU simplify?

Up Up And Away.... Well Sort Of

One of several newspaper clipping found in photo album of Mr. Brown Eye's grandmother, Dorothy Shanklin Ligon Trott.  Date & paper unknown.  Dorothy was an avid flyer, logging many miles in the air.  She flew with the 99ers, a ladies flying group.  One of her favorite flying times were the races that she participated in.  At this point she was residing in Lake Angelus, Michigan.

Tombstone Tuesday - Julia Otterbacher

 Mrs. Julia Otterbacher

   Mrs. Julia Otterbacher, 58, Valley City, died at Elyria Memorial Hospital yesterday afternoon at 4:10.

  She is survived by three sons, John of Elyria; Oliver of Cleveland and Rupert of Valley City; three brothers, John Wolf of Cleveland, Charles and Henry Wolf of Valley City and a sister, Mrs. Elizabeth Klein also of Valley City.

  The body will be removed to the late home this evening from the Waite Funeral Home in Valley City.  Funeral services will be held at 2:30 Thursday afternoon from the Zion Lutheran Church in Valley City with the Rev. Lamprecht officiating.  Burial will be made in Valley City.


**Chronicle Telegram, Tuesday, 27 Jun 1939, Pg. 2, Col. 5 (Lorain County, Ohio)


 The following death notice appeared in the Medina Gazette, 27 June 1939, Pg. 6, Col. 1~

     OTTERBACHER - At Elyria hospital, Monday June 26, Julia Marie Otterbacher, aged 58 years.  Funeral at Zion's Lutheran Church, Thursday, June 29 at 2:30 pm; burial at Zion's Lutheran Cemetery.

Talk About A Learning Curve!

The change from PC to Mac is hard enough but toss in the switch from Legacy to Reunion and boy do you have a learning curve.

Hence my not having regular posts up this past week.  The move to Reunion has been challenging to say the least.  I'm at least comfortable navigating my way around Reunion now, although there are still some challenges.

The two biggest I am working with right now are all the linked images that WERE linked in Legacy but are now just hanging around in the photo file waiting to be RELINKED.  Problem that made things challenging is that in Legacy I can could link my images to my facts.  HUH? you say...  well its like this -
If I have a will I can could link the scanned images of the will to the WILL FACT.  That was Legacy. In Reunion,  there is no linking to facts, everything is linked to the person.  So all my images for any given person, whether the images are a birth certificate, a will and some land deeds, they all are linked to his one and only image file.  Only ones that can be linked separately are items to do with the marriage.  

I must say I really am not fond of this feature, it bugs me.  But, not only can I not link them back to my facts, but unless the image was a preferred image linked to the PERSON when it was in Legacy, I have to go back in to each and every person and relink all the wills, deeds, newspaper articles etc that were previously all nicely linked.  NO LIKE!  

The other big issue that I am dealing with is the SOURCE list.  Anyone who knows me knows that sourcing is a big deal.  So I have about 1800 source items.  It has them all as "free form".  I am having to go into each one, classify it as a book, periodical or something else.  It then gives me choices of what items to list - call number, author, library etc etc.   Not the most fun I've had in a long time.  Another feature that has me miffed.  NO LIKE!

The programs available to genealogists for the MAC are just so limited so you get to pick the lesser of the evils and make the best of it.  I'm sure that in time, once I get these little "miffs" taken care of my thoughts on how irritating this whole process was will pass.  Until then....  well, lets just say,  the hormones aren't the only thing driving me crazy!

Happy Researching!