Friday.
For many people, this symbolizes the end of the work week. A time to spend relaxing over the weekend.
For me, it symbolizes the end of my large spaces of quiet time. The weekend is often a time spent cheering from the sidelines of Miss Sunshine’s soccer games. A time spent driving to said soccer games. Finding those moments to make sure that I am connecting with my sons while they are out filling their weekends socializing with their friends. Taking time to sit and talk with the hubby without a timeline.
Soccer.
Last Friday, Miss Sunshine and I went to Richmond for a soccer tournament. That night we met a friend and went to Dave and Buster’s (kind of like Chuck E. Cheese for the older crowd…better food…and beverages). It was a lot of fun. I even remembered to ask for “no straw” for my water and when the waitress brought out my Strawberry and Watermelon Margarita, she brought it sans straw. Score!
GPS.
Richmond has a zillion ways to get to an end location. I thought I had specified the way that I wanted the GPS to go…
I hadn’t.
It decided the shortest way was a toll road that I’d never been on so the other mom was putting the address into her GPS as well just so we could make sure that we weren’t heading to some random place. It was fine. We got back to the hotel. I was proud of my merging skills…and relieved that at 10:00 at night, the roads were surprisingly empty. I do love these days of map apps talking me through my turns!
Meditation.
Saturday’s games were actually in the afternoon, so we had a relaxing morning. Miss Sunshine even joined me in a 10-minute meditation session. They won both of their games for that day. We had a team dinner that evening, rounded out by Miss Sunshine’s favorite…
Chocolate Ice Cream.
Tournament.
Her final game was at 10:00 am on Sunday. Quite often, the set up of games depends on how many teams are playing. Miss Sunshine is a U15 and there were six U15 teams at this tournament. Three teams are separated into Bracket A and three into Bracket B. Saturday’s games determine when you will play on Sunday. Unlike many of the tournaments that she plays in, this tournament did not do a semi-final (where #1 of Bracket A plays #2 of Bracket B, and reverse) and then have a championship game. This tournament, the #1 of each bracket immediately played each other. This meant that we knew the girls would medal.
The question was…1st place or 2nd.
Champions.
And they won the Championship!
Meditation Challenge.
After our long drive home, I relaxed and did my meditation. I decided to sign up for the meditation challenge that I mentioned in last week’s post. That started on Monday. I’ve been very pleased with it so far. It’s also crazy to me that I have meditated for 13 days straight.
Rest of the Week.
The hubby had Monday off, so we had a semi-lazy day and went to lunch at our favorite Chinese restaurant. Tuesday I had a doctor’s appointment, so my week was still out of sync at that point. Ahh…Wednesday, I finally made it to Pilates! And Thursday, I finally it back to the treadmill for my run. I was worried that the time off might have been detrimental, but I ran 3.13 of the 3.2 miles without stopping. That’s the farthest I’ve run without needing to walk for a minute in between spaces of distance. Keep your fingers crossed that I can do it again on my next run!
Novel Thoughts.
I have had some ideas for a novel rolling around in my mind for the longest time. Fear that my words won’t be good enough always makes me just not pursue. After reading Big Magic, I’ve finally committed to at least trying to put my words to paper. Each day I sit down with that black journal and sometimes the words spill from my mind and through my fingertips onto the paper and other times I sit down and they roll round and round in my head but refuse to be coaxed onto the paper. I have come to a space of peace with that process. If it wants to be written, then eventually it will.
Solving a mystery.
I’ve also had some luck on a semi-mystery for which I was once seeking answers. In watching the DVD’s of my grandmother, it made me interested in once again trying to look up a person that she mentions.
Reva Boan.
My grandmother, Reva (technically Violet Reva, but she always went by Reva), was named after the midwife at her birth, Reva Boan. I also knew that the midwife was a Native American.
Ancestry.com.
When I first joined Ancestry.com, I tried looking up her name. I’m pretty sure I spelled it Bowen…and had no luck.
This time I tried a search where I estimated how old she may have been and looked in Superior, Arizona (which is where my grandmother was born).
This time it brought up a 1930 census of a Reva Boan married to a Butler Boan. Making it even more likely that I had found the correct person was the fact that Butler was listed as a machinist at a copper mine.
My great-grandfather, William Everett Van Hoose, was also a machinist at a copper mine at that time.
A little more digging and I found the Dawes Census Card for Anna Reva Tyler, born October 11, 1905. She was 1/2 Choctaw. She died in 1975, having remarried and become Reva Silverman.
I could discover no children.
More Digging.
Then, yesterday, I was thinking about how I hadn’t told my mom that I had found her and my phone rings and it’s my mother. During the conversation, she needed to run inside an office and call me back. When she went to call me back, her screen was on the number to call my grandmother (if you’re new to the blog, my grandmother passed away in November of 2013). I decided perhaps I should dig a little deeper.
It turns out that Reva Boan became an artist.
One snippet indicated she may have once had a painting hanging in the Smithsonian. I do not know if that was factual. From what little I can find, she was perhaps well known in the Phoenix area from the 1940’s through at least the 1960’s.
In this age of the internet, you’d think I could find at least one of her paintings to be able to see it. So far I haven’t had any luck. I know that she was very active in the Arizona Artist’s Guild, so I may reach out to them. As a side note, if you’ve ever heard of the artist, Reva Boan aka Reva Boan Silverman aka Reva Silverman, let me know.
(update: I have found some of her paintings online and have had some of her family members reach out to me as well as another person who purchased one of her paintings at an estate sale. The internet is so amazing! Reva Boan did not have any children. I like to think that she’d be happy to know that my grandmother passed on her name to one of her daughters and that it was then passed on to my cousin).
Music.
The music I’ve been listening to while I run is a 90’s music channel…. so I’m throwing it back this week.
So that was my week…
How was yours?
Let your light shine!
Amy
Excellent research! I love looking back at history, and piecing things together. There is a TV show over here called “Who do you think you are?”, where they trace various celebrities back. I think one of the most memorable was Sarah Jessica Parker, who it turned out was related directly back to the first European settlers in America, and to the Salem Witch Trials. Worth looking up.
Thanks! I think I’ve heard of that show or one similar. I wrote a post last year, https://bedlamanddaisies.com/2016/10/25/time-travel-tuesday-a-little-witchy/ , about how my children are related to the Salem Witch Trials. Since then, I’ve traced some of my line that lived in Andover as having been accused of witchcraft. Craziness!