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Paula W

@toomuchbrudders.bsky.social

1.3K followers 444 following 2.8K posts

Voracious reader 📚💙, family-tree researcher/storyteller ☘️, under-appreciated punster. TooMuchBrudders.com family blogger. Married to 5th generation farmer. My grandson calls me Goose. 🇺🇸 🇮🇪 🇩🇪 🇨🇦 🇫🇷 🇬🇧

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Paula W @toomuchbrudders.bsky.social · 9h

My husband’s uncle was one of the liberators at Dachau. Here’s his story: toomuchbrudders.com/2026/02/12/d... #FamilyHistory #WW2

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The liberators | Dachau | Too Much Brudders blog

An uncle not only served four years in the Army during World War Two, he was part of the liberators of the Dachau concentration camp.

Paula W @toomuchbrudders.bsky.social · 10h

A decades-old poem from my dear mom. Once again, she educates me (this time about sumac, with some help from Farmer Gary): toomuchbrudders.com/2026/10/06/s... #poetry #writer #nature #autumn #FarmLife #BlogPost #FallColors #Indiana

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'What Red' | Sumac | Too Much Brudders blog

One of the loveliest colors in the autumn months comes from sumac. But watch from afar until you've educated yourself.

Paula W @toomuchbrudders.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Good thing we only have one cat. A second kitty would want to knock him off the edge of that table … 😸

Tuxedo cat sitting on the edge of patio table top

Paula W @toomuchbrudders.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

For Banned Books Week, here’s a list of 20 I’ve read over the past: toomuchbrudders.com/2026/10/05/b... How many of these have you read? #NowReading #BannedBook #BookSky #BookRecommendation

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Banned books starter kit | Too Much Brudders blog

Need a starter kit for challenged and banned books to read? Here's a list of banned book after banned book, in honor of Banned Books Week.

Paula W @toomuchbrudders.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

#NowReading The Plague by Albert Camus 📚💙 #FolioSociety

Cover art for The Plague shows two men digging a grave

Inside art of The Plague shows drawing of seaside town

Paula W @toomuchbrudders.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I do believe every farmer has a Bubba story. Here’s Gary’s: toomuchbrudders.com/2026/10/04/b... 🚛 #FarmLife #FamilyHistory #Indiana #truck

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'Don't make me get Bubba' | Too Much Brudders blog

Farmer Gary is back again, this time with one of his favorite stories, including the line "Don't make me get Bubba."

Paula W @toomuchbrudders.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Wow! This story blew my mind! 😳

Paula W @toomuchbrudders.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Madeleine L’Engle: “You find what you look for. If you look for evil, you will find evil. If you look for Satan, you will find Satan.“ #BannedBooksWeek is upon us … toomuchbrudders.com/2025/10/10/m... 📚💙 #NowReading #BlogPost #ReadBannedBooks

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Love & blessings, Madeleine L'Engle | Too Much Brudders blog

My mom was dear friends with A Wrinkle in Time author Madeleine L'Engle. Here are some of their letters from over the years.

Paula W @toomuchbrudders.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

“Idol of idiot-worshippers!” 🎭 #ShakespeareSunday

Shakespearean Insults coffee mug

Paula W @toomuchbrudders.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I could never be professional genealogist. Too easily distracted by stories - even if they’re from other families: toomuchbrudders.com/2026/10/02/g... 🇨🇦 #FamilyHistory #crime #CousinBait #Canada #TrueCrime #BlogPost

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The Gardner story | Too Much Brudders blog

Here is the story of Canadian Edmond Gardner. Or maybe it's two Edmond Gardners, I can't quite tell. But the newsclip is delicious!

Paula W @toomuchbrudders.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I felt horrible that my great-grandma’s pie-crust recipe from Ireland ☘️ had disappeared. Then what did I find? My mom wrote a poem about those pies in 1942! 🥧 toomuchbrudders.com/2022/11/03/t... #FamilyHistory #Irish #recipe #poetry

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The lost recipe | Too Much Brudders blog

There's one particular family recipe that has disappeared. It came from Ireland, two centuries ago. We'll keep looking.

Paula W @toomuchbrudders.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

A poem my mom wrote in 1950, while a junior in college: toomuchbrudders.com/2026/10/01/s... #poetry #nature #Connecticut #writing

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The first of October | Sunberries | Too Much Brudders blog

From a 1950 poem written by Mom, I learn about sunberries. Even though my first thought was that Sunberry could be a magical horse.

Paula W @toomuchbrudders.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

It’s falling apart, but I’ll always treasure Mom’s cookbook: toomuchbrudders.com/2025/11/17/c... #FamilyHistory #poem #CookBook #BlogPost #poetry #BookSky

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Mom's cookbook | Too Much Brudders blog

Mom's cookbook from her bridal shower offers only slightly out-of-date tips and how-to's, plus the best recipe for Brownies ever created.

Paula W @toomuchbrudders.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Three non-fiction plus my first Thomas Hardy novel. … September's four reads included an excellent book by @shlead.bsky.social! toomuchbrudders.com/2026/09/30/o... #BookSky #Beatles #NowReading #BlogPost #WW2 #FolioSociety #BookRecommendation

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Mincemeat, Management, and Maria | Operation Mincemeat | Too Much Brudders blog

The book that started the Operation Mincemeat craze was the first I read this month, followed by two more non-fiction and a classic.

Paula W @toomuchbrudders.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

My dad remembered - to the penny - how much my birth cost. He saved the receipt: toomuchbrudders.com/2023/03/28/t... #FamilyHistory #boomer #BlogPost

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The cheap date | Receipt | Too Much Brudders blog

Over the decades, Dad tucked away a receipt or two that meant a lot to him. Having grown up in the Depression, he appreciated frugality.

Paula W @toomuchbrudders.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

On #BroadwayMusicalsDay, I think of my very first show: toomuchbrudders.com/2022/02/23/t... #Tevye 🎭 #FiddlerOnTheRoof 🎻 #BlogPost

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The other dairyman | Reb Tevye | Too Much Brudders blog

There have been many a Tevye on stage in "Fiddler on the Roof" over the decades. But my favorite "If I Were A Rich Man" is my dear father.

Paula W @toomuchbrudders.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Interesting pronunciations from over the years: toomuchbrudders.com/2020/06/23/c... #reporter #FamilyHistory #BlogPost

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Chimbleys and peonies | Pronunciations | Too Much Brudders blog

How do you pronounce peonies? Pecans? Specials? Aunt? In this blog post, we list just a few of the variances we'd tried to overcome.

Paula W @toomuchbrudders.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

#NowReading The Great Escape #WWII #BookSky #FolioSociety #BookRecommendation

Book cover of The Great Escape by Paul Brickhill
Cover artwork depicts coal cart going through tunnel in German prisoner of war camp

Paula W @toomuchbrudders.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Family stories (and a poem) about jelly: toomuchbrudders.com/2020/09/20/t... #poetry #FamilyHistory #FarmLife #writing #BlogPost

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'the jelly woman' | Grape, plum | Too Much Brudders blog

It turns out that jelly is a common thread through our families' stories. Whether it's making jelly or eating it, there are strong feelings.

Paula W @toomuchbrudders.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Did you grow up watching Captain Kangaroo? 📺 And did you ever wonder what was upstairs? toomuchbrudders.com/2025/07/04/t... #FamilyHistory #television #BlogPost

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The Kangaroo generation | Captain Kangaroo | Too Much Brudders blog

Foggy memories almost kept my brothers and me from remembering the circumstances around Mom meeting Captain Kangaroo.

Paula W @toomuchbrudders.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

For #AncestorAppreciationDay, here’s one of my favorite discoveries. This ancestor jumped ship. Literally. toomuchbrudders.com/2025/08/08/e... 🇨🇦 #FamilyHistory #BlogPost

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Escape to La Nouvelle France | Legendre | Too Much Brudders blog

The story of Jean-Baptiste Legendre, my six-time great grandfather. Born in France in 1699, he decided to travel to La Nouvelle France.

Paula W @toomuchbrudders.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Reading together, uncle and nephew: toomuchbrudders.com/2020/08/12/t... #BookSky #reading #family #BlogPost

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The uncle | James & Cameron | Too Much Brudders blog

It's James's 21st birthday and Cameron was the first to make his uncle a special birthday card. And a birthday video.

Paula W @toomuchbrudders.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Five books to consider: toomuchbrudders.com/2024/11/30/c... 📚💙 #BookRecommendation #NowReading #BlogPost

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Cam, Charlie, Cruella, Christie | Chapter | Too Much Brudders blog

November went by quickly, with several children's chapter books, a Holocaust survivor's story, and two works of fiction.

Paula W @toomuchbrudders.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

What does the name of my blog - Too Much Brudders - mean? Here’s a quick explanation: toomuchbrudders.com/2019/07/07/t... #FamilyHistory #BoyMom #writer #BlogPost

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Too Much Brudders | Too Much Brudders family blog

An explanation for this blog's name: Too Much Brudders. When you have three brothers, three sons, and one grandson, that's a lot of brudders!

Paula W @toomuchbrudders.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

1946: My father led a revolt at the first Boys Nation: toomuchbrudders.com/2019/08/31/b... #FamilyHistory #BlogPost #HarryTruman #politics

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Best All Around in '46 | Boys State | Too Much Brudders blog

Boys State and the 1st Boys Nation meant shaking hands with President Truman, meeting a Supreme Court Justice, taking part in an uprising.

Paula W @toomuchbrudders.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

📚 When you love a new (to you) author so much, you just have to stop and write a poem: toomuchbrudders.com/2024/01/21/l... #PaulHorgan #BlueSky #BookRecommendation #poetry #writing

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'Latecoming' | Paul Horgan | Too Much Brudders blog

In 1971, Mom was so delighted with the new (to her) author, Paul Horgan, she just had to pause her reading and write a tribute to him.

Paula W @toomuchbrudders.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

When someone you love shares a birthday with someone you loved: toomuchbrudders.com/2019/09/01/d... ☔️ #grandchildren

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Grinning in the rain | Debbie Reynolds | Too Much Brudders blog

Sometimes a photo needs a blog post written around it! And so it is with umbrella-twirling Cameron and a Debbie Reynolds interview from 2014.

Paula W @toomuchbrudders.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

On Punctuation Day, here’s the story of my final class in college. The professor was a former editor of MAD Magazine: toomuchbrudders.com/2020/09/24/t... #writing #IndianaUniversity #BookSky #PunctuationDay

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The MAD professor | MAD Magazine | Too Much Brudders blog

One last class before college graduation, I took a writing class from a former editor of MAD Magazine. Fred Brewer was a beast!

Paula W @toomuchbrudders.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

#NowReading My first Thomas Hardy … Under the Greenwood Tree #BookSky #ClassicLiterature #FolioSociety

Title page for Thomas Hardy’s Under the Greenwood Tree

Paula W @toomuchbrudders.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

When a visitor recognizes your lamp as being from a 1960s sitcom: toomuchbrudders.com/2020/05/21/t... #FamilyHistory #DickVanDyke #television

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The lamp | Dick Van Dyke Show | Too Much Brudders blog

What's our chess lamp doing on the Dick Van Dyke Show? We never noticed, but a visiting friend called "checkmate" right away.

Paula W @toomuchbrudders.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

It’s #DearDiaryDay … here are some excerpts from my 1970 diary: toomuchbrudders.com/2024/06/22/m... #journal #writing #FamilyHistory 💙📚

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My diary from 1970 | Too Much Brudders blog

I was gifted a little red diary when I was 12 years old. It was the summer we moved from Mass. to Conn. and I catured every grouchy moment.

Paula W @toomuchbrudders.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

A poem - Autumn’s Call - my mom wrote in 1943, when she was 13: toomuchbrudders.com/2020/09/28/s... #writing #FamilyHistory #equinox #poetry

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September 1943 | Autumn's Call | Too Much Brudders blog

In the fall of her 13th year, Mom wrote a poem and sent it to Sister Amabilis, her aunt. It was September 1943 and autumn was on her mind.

Paula W @toomuchbrudders.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Today is the anniversary of the Great New England Hurricane of 1938. Here are my dad’s memories: toomuchbrudders.com/2020/02/28/t... #FamilyHistory #weather #OTD

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The great wind | New England Hurricane | Too Much Brudders blog

The New England Hurricane took the northeast by surprise on September 21, 1938. Both of my parents experienced the terrifying ordeal.

Paula W @toomuchbrudders.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

🥺 Oh, boy … this story just kept getting sadder and sadder: toomuchbrudders.com/2025/09/08/i... #FamilyHistory #Iowa #FarmLife

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The Iowa kin | Too Much Brudders blog

His name was Peter A. Werne. A farmer in Iowa. Here is his story, with hints taken from Census reports and death records.

Paula W @toomuchbrudders.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Tuberculosis is largely treatable now, but a century ago, it was often a death sentence. toomuchbrudders.com/2023/03/09/t... #FamilyHistory #Indiana #TB

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The tuberculosis house | Too Much Brudders blog

As we go back in time, we learn that tuberculosis played an important part in whether George Werne would take a bride.

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Paula W @toomuchbrudders.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Some #BookRecommendations from a feverish reader (shingles, covid, and flu shots this morning): toomuchbrudders.com/2026/01/31/h... #BookSky #NowReading

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A fever, the plague, and some terrible advice | Hamnet | Too Much Brudders blog

The new year began with Hamnet, A Fever in the Heartland, and a pair of Nancy Mitford novels set in post-war England.

Paula W @toomuchbrudders.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Born in 1893, Rosa Wigger chose to live a religious life: toomuchbrudders.com/2026/09/19/s... #FamilyHistory #Indiana #Benedictine

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The housekeeper | Sister Reinilda | Too Much Brudders blog

Gary's great-aunt Rosa Wigger entered religious life in the 1920s and served as an embroiderer and housekeeper as Sister Reinilda.

Paula W @toomuchbrudders.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Any #ancestry buffs recognize the pins the men in the front row are wearing? It's 1918 and John Wigger (front left) is about to go off to war. #FamilyHistory #WWI

1918 black-and-while photo of family of nine sitting on front porch. Three young women in white dresses, everyone else dressed in black

Paula W @toomuchbrudders.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

#Caturday greetings! Here’s a poem about Picasso’s Cat: toomuchbrudders.com/2025/12/30/h... #poetry #art #yarn #writer

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'Picasso's Cat' | Hemingway | Too Much Brudders blog

From Picasso to Hemingway to Joanna, we have well-dressed and artful kitties inside and out this Christmas season.

Paula W @toomuchbrudders.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

My mom was a gentle soul. Even the “dragon lady” in her life was represented through a softening filter in this poem, one of her favorites, that was published in Yankee: toomuchbrudders.com/2020/05/14/d... #poetry #writer #FamilyHistory #YankeeMagazine

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'dragons dying' | Favorite Poem | Too Much Brudders blog

In this audio interview from 1991, Mom reveals which of her many poems she likes the best - and the story behind the "dragons dying" theme.

Paula W @toomuchbrudders.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

#NowReading Maria von Trapp’s Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow #BookSky

Book cover: Yesterday, Today & Forever by Maria von Trapp
Cover art is a painting of the mountain scene from the beginning of the movie The Sound of Music

Paula W @toomuchbrudders.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

On National POW/MIA Recognition Day, please remember Captain David Leet. Here’s his story: toomuchbrudders.com/2019/11/07/r... #RIP #FamilyHistory #Vietnam

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Remembering David Leet | POW/MIA Bracelet | Too Much Brudders

A POW/MIA Bracelet from 1973 provided more questions than answers at the end of the Vietnam War. Years later, we remember Capt. David Leet.

Paula W @toomuchbrudders.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

A wedding photo from a century ago brings up a singular question: toomuchbrudders.com/2026/09/17/l... #FamilyHistory #Paducah #ancestry

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Who might that couple be? | Leo & Hazelle Haag | Too Much Brudders blog

Here's what we've discovered about Leo & Hazelle Haag, the attendants at grandparents Harold & Lucie Vayo's 1926 wedding.

Paula W @toomuchbrudders.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

🦊 International Fox Day, you say? Here’s a video and a poem in celebration: toomuchbrudders.com/2025/05/07/t... #poetry #FoxDay #nature #Indiana

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The woman in red | Too Much Brudders blog

Who is this woman in red in Mom's poem? Perhaps a creature in nature. Maybe even the red fox couple in our yard last night.

Paula W @toomuchbrudders.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I hear ya, @jenpsaki.bsky.social! 🤦‍♀️ In 1987, our mostly-female magazine staff cringed our way through this 🍕Pizza Today 🍕 “swimsuit edition,” thanks to our wouldn’t-listen-to-reason publisher: toomuchbrudders.com/2023/02/08/t...

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The swimsuit edition | Too Much Brudders blog

Whoever heard of a food magazine publishing a swimsuit edition? Back in 1987, that's exactly what we did, although our staff nearly quit!

Paula W @toomuchbrudders.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

For #PawpawDay, here’s a story, plus a poem about radishes: toomuchbrudders.com/2024/03/30/w... #poetry #writing #nature #gardening

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'Wishing for Radishes' | Too Much Brudders

Our family's gardens this year will include radishes, paw paws, and deer. Aubrie and Gary amuse us when talking about digging in the dirt.

Paula W @toomuchbrudders.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

In 1976, I was in a college choral group involved in a whole other controversy at The Kennedy Center: toomuchbrudders.com/2020/08/08/t... #Indiana #KennedyCenter #IndianaUniversity #IDS

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The watergate | Politics, politics | Too Much Brudders blog

Oh, for the days of youth when we didn't pay attention to politics! Once the watergate opens, it's truly hard to turn back.

Paula W @toomuchbrudders.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Poetry and artistry from my Grandpa Vayo: toomuchbrudders.com/2024/06/28/m... #writing #poet #painter #Maine #weather

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'Moods of the Storm' | Too Much Brudders blog

Here's a poem my paternal grandfather wrote 100 years ago, Moods of the Storm. It was published in the local newspaper in Lewiston, Maine.

Paula W @toomuchbrudders.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Just outside our sunroom window … #nature #FarmLife

Paula W @toomuchbrudders.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Happy birthday to my dear Farmer Gary, who could quit this book addiction any time he felt like it: toomuchbrudders.com/2022/08/07/m... #BookSky #books

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Mr. Wense | Book Clubs | Too Much Brudders blog

When the amount of mail (not to mention books) we received more than doubled suddenly, it was time to pay attention. Who was this Mr. Wense?