Didn't find much time to blog over the last week. Spent a day home from work sick - enough so that blogging wasn't the first thing that came to mind at that point. Been trying to deal with a bunch of things on "the list". You know that list? The one with all the stuff you should be attending to.
We did find out the report we'd gotten that my wife's biological father had passed away was premature (it is complicated...*sigh*). That was good, but someone should have called us with that news a while ago...
My body has been giving me some warnings that I need to be taking better care of myself. I have heard that message loud and clear - can I have an Amen!? I have started making changes this week. I've had very little soda - one of my weaknesses - and will be cutting it back farther. I am making healthier choices about eating, too, with many more to come. I'm avoiding a lot of desserts I hadn't been. We've gotten careless in our cooking lately, so I am getting back to old habits in that department. Vegetables are getting more plentiful again. I'll be eating a lot of salads - some with greens and some with chopped vegetables (I love Middle Eastern salads!) - and more soups (higher water content foods are a good thing). We did splurge the other night and have some nice steaks from Costco with vegetarian potstickers, broccolini and a dipping sauce I whipped up. That sauce was "money", to quote Guy Fieri.
My mother had proud of her father's Native American heritage, though it wasn't much talked about in her home growing up. Those were different times. The problem is that 1) he passed away over fifty years ago and 2) I haven't been able to find out who, exactly, his family tree was an American Indian. Family "history" said it was Cherokee blood.
Photos of his paternal grandmother, Mary Ann Randolph, show a woman who appears to be of mixed heritage, and her father's line is very hard to track. A document from one of her brothers makes reference to her mother having some Indian blood, too. Again...I haven't been able trace it. Someone I spoke to online from that side of the family said she had heard similar rumors, and had a couple of other family stories to add. Photos of his maternal grandmother, Amanda Jane Lawrence, also show a woman who seems to be of mixed heritage, with a similarly scanty past - at least in part. Everybody seems to have come from areas where a Cherokee ancestor is quite plausible - North Carolina, Georgia, etc. And that is as far as it has gone.
Until last night. I was doing some genealogy on the Randolph branch when I came across the name of Mattie L. Hamm on the Dawes Rolls, the official lists from the early 20th Century that documented many tribal members. Mattie's maiden name is Randolph. She was Mary Ann's niece. She also happened to be 1/32nd Chickasaw. That puts the full-blooded ancestor four generations before Mary Ann. Arrrgh. That name may forever elude me. Not a Cherokee. The Chickasaw are one of the Southeastern Woodland tribes, speaking a Muskogean language, and sharing a common ancestry with the Choctaw. Its cool to have finally found something! It is a place to start.
Some clothes I ordered for Gina came today, along with a copy of The Black Keys album, Brother. Good album! I've been meaning to order it for a long time.
Life is good.
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