Wednesday, May 4, 2016

What I Can Focus On

So, it appears that Trump is on his path to becoming the Republican nominee. I think it is a very very bad thing, but I do not find that I am totally terrified or worried about it, which I am grateful for. I can't control where our nation goes, so I'm focusing on what I can control, things that I can do, and places where I can make a difference. And that place is here in my home and in my family. (...Although with Trumps inevitable nomination, I did decide today to finally answer the phone with caller ID "Washington DC" that I've been ignoring for weeks. As assumed, it was someone asking for donations for the election. It was the RNC. I was able to tell them that we will no longer support or contribute to the RNC at all. With Trump at the standard bearer, we are out. I'm disappointed that voters have chosen him, and I do not believe he represent conservative values. We'll look for and support conservative candidate on our own, but will not support the Republican Party. Sorry folks!)

So, since I have been spending less time on social media and reading news the past month, I have been using my time to get reacquainted with family history on FamilySearch.org and Ancestry. I just so happened to major in Family History at BYU 16 years ago, but things have changed a lot since then. Luckily it's changes for the better and easier! And guess what - last night, for the first time ever, I printed up my first card to take to the temple to do temple work for one of my direct ancestors! It's a sealing ordinance to seal one of my 5th great grandmothers to her parents. I'm hoping to take it and do the work on Saturday. :) Yay!
Although I must say that her family is a mess - Ellen is married to Joseph Barlow, and Joseph is also married to a Helen (no last name) but I think Helen and Ellen are the same person, but they are in two families with some of the same and some different children, so gotta go try and sort that all out. But Helen didn't have any parents, so hopefully this work for Ellen/Helen really is something that needs to be done. I'm still getting my feet wet and trying to figure out places to research and stuff. But I like doing family history, it makes me feel good. And even if I spend 3 hours on it, I don't feel like I'm wasting or idling away my time, like I tend to feel like when I read the news or link to different facebook videos or such. That being said, I really love some of the stuff I see on facebook and enjoy sharing them with my children, like this video.

We live in a wonderful world. Lots of wonderful people from wonderful and amazing lands and countries, most of which probably have had their share of corrupt and horrible leaders. So whether the US gets stuck with Hillary or Drumpf, I have hope that life will go on and all can be well with me and my family as we focus on following Christ and serving others.