I have been going a little outside my comfort zone these past 2 weeks learning more about blogging and how to interest my readers. One of the lessons in WordPress U 201 encouraged us to create a “hub” and find something interesting and/or fun to encourage readers to interact on our site. I’m quite new to the world of blogging so did not feel ready to create a hub myself. I did however agree to participate in one of my classmate’s challenges. You can try it too here.

The word “Funtresting” is perfect for this assignment because it allows us to reflect on our week and ask ourselves, “Did we do anything fun or exciting at all?”. I was stumped at first thinking about how I had spent most of my week committed to my blog and the lessons we learned. I did manage to spend some time outdoors in the beautiful weather and make meals. Most of my days were spent reading and writing, however. I accomplished much….but was it “Funtresting”?

One day stands out far above the rest. My daughter, grandson and I took a short road trip to see my cousins, some of whom I haven’t seen in 40 years. That may shock many of you who see your relatives on a regular basis. My daughter, who is 28 has never met some of my father’s clan which is really quite sad since they live 42 minutes from where I live. We grew up many miles apart as children and although I made yearly trips to stay with my grandmother each summer and spent much of my time with each of them, we grew apart as adults, busy with our own families.

Our genetic similarities are striking. You would think we were only connected to our grandmother and had no other DNA mixed in at all. Only one of the 5 of us bears any resemblance to our grandfather. Where our other parents’ genetic makeup went is a mystery. The 4 of us who carry our grandmother’s genes, unfortunately, have hearing problems. It was luck of the draw that one cousin does not wear hearing aids. Many of our siblings carry the same DNA as the 4 of us. Nerve deafness is so prevelent in our family that we are all donating our ears to science in a study of our family’s history in hopes that our offspring will have other options than wearing hearing aids. 

Here is where the “Funtresting” part comes in. Our conversation was very comical. It consisted of “pardon?”, “who are you talking about?”, “say that again”, “I thought you said…..”, “I didn’t hear you”, and my personal favourite, “Mom! Someone is talking to you”. At one point my cousin called me over from across a small living room to sit beside her so we could have a conversation. We all wear hearing aids but that doesn’t mean we hear well and especially when many conversations are going on at the same time. 

We had lots to talk about and years to catch up on. Considering we hadn’t seen each other in decades it was very easy and comfortable. Cousins are like that. We may not knock each other’s doors down but when we get together we just pick up where we left off. We spent the afternoon chatting and playing with my 4 month old grandson and my cousin’s 18 month old granddaughter. It was a delightful afternoon then we continued our conversation over dinner in a restaurant. We made a promise to do it all again soon. A “Funtresting” time was had by all!