Remedies for a Bad Day

When I’m having a bad day:

• I remind myself that I have five fabulous children with loads of goodness, talent, parenting skills, intelligence, and accomplishments.  But this really doesn’t help much because parents never really know if children turn out well in spite of them or because of them.
• I take a hot bath.  I wash my hair and make weird hairdos with the shampoo suds. Then I pretend I’m sporting the weirdest of my shampoo hairdos in the Miss America contest.  I try to imagine the judges’ faces as they see me strut across the stage in an evening gown with my weird hairdo.
• I draw mustaches on the models in my clothing catalogs and black out their teeth.  I have even been known to draw thighs on them that qualify for liposuction.
• I ponder the question:  Would it REALLY be so bad if a 58 year old mother of five adult children decided to start sucking her thumb?
• I remind myself that in 1777 John Adams didn’t think George Washington was much of a general.   Adams was wrong. 
• I remind myself that I’m unique.  I may not be important, wanted, or liked, but no one can argue that I’m not an original.
• I put all the Hershey bars underneath a heavy bucket in the basement, for the sake of my thighs and my digestion.
• I plan a canoe trip down the Green River.
• I write notes on toilet paper to people I'm mad at and  flush them.
• I chant over and over, “This too shall pass.  This too shall pass.”  And I shout “Hurray!” when it does.

A Skeleton in the Closet

My First Cousin Once Removed (FCOR) is really getting into family history.  Since I last had an Ancestry.com account, amazing research tools have become available.  My FCOR brought to my attention to an ancient skeleton in the closet of one of my ancestors.  The skeleton came to light during her research.

This ancestor had a child out of wedlock. She and her father sued for seduction and got child support. In those days wives and children were considered "chattels" or property of the head of household.  So the ancestor sued for "seduction" and her father sued for "trespass for seduction." I didn't realize that men were held accountable for children out of wedlock in the old days as they are now. The interesting thing about the case is that Abraham Lincoln was the attorney for our ancestor plaintiffs.

Here is the link to my pedigree chart on Familysearch, the church website: https://familysearch.org/. It only takes a minute to register for your own account.  Type in your name and me as your Mom and you will be hooked up to all the information I have entered.  Using logic and the information I have given you about the attorney, see if you can figure out which ancestor was represented by Lincoln.

DON'T post the ancestor's name if you comment.  After all, how would any of us like a serious mistake posted on a blog for the whole world to see?  If you figure it out, send me an email.