December 21, 2019 thought for the day: You never really know your friends from your enemies until the ice breaks. Eskimo Proverb

In our search for the week end tradition of clip art choices the girls wanted today, we had a major accident. I had my usual morning cup of chamomile tea sitting near my key board (my bad...except I do it every morning with no problem). One of the girls was reaching to show me the clip art she wanted and bumped the cup of tea. It went everywhere, under the key board, the monitor stand and all the paper work I have around. Gladly, I had been finished with church papers I was working with so they had been moved. Anyway, we, everyone in the house, got it cleaned up with only minor damages.

The December 20th photo of the day theme was “xmas treat”...I had some chocolate covered cakes that I got at the store the other day. I put them on a Christmas plate with some holly trim. It looked to be a bit much when I got to the “darkroom” so I cropped some of the minutiae out.

After the spill incident was resolved, the girls and I used two silicone molds I have here. We made some jell-O and filled the molds. They called the jell-O shapes gummy bears. After that I got them started making cookies with the refrigerator dough I had bought with them in mind.

I needed to make some adjustments to the bulletin that I had finished earlier so I got that done. I sent them to the minister, lay reader and proofreader to get feed back before I print them either tomorrow after church or early Monday morning.

Now I have to go in search of my photo of the day, “star”, then make the dog’s meat ball treats.

The word is culture. The highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts, Charles Darwin.  Culture is like wealth; it makes us more ourselves, it enables us to express ourselves, Philip Gilbert Hamerton. It is proof of high culture to say the greatest matters in the simplest way, Ralph Waldo Emerson. Culture is to know the best that has been said and thought in the world, Matthew Arnold. Meditation is culture, Benjamin Disraeli. The prosperity of a country depends, not on the abundance of its revenues, nor on the strength of its fortifications, nor on the beauty of its public buildings; but it consists in the number of its cultivated citizens, in its men of education, enlightenment and character, Martin Luther. No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden, Thomas Jefferson. Culture is one thing and varnish is another, Ralph Waldo Emerson. Every man's ability may be strengthened or increased by culture, John Abbott.   




I found my photo of the day on the Charlie Brown tree (Norfolk Island Pine) I have for this yeas’s Christmas tree. I am trying, painfully, to teach myself origami. This star (the theme title) is one of my early attempts. I would really like to get to the more advanced stage of this craft. I love many of the designs I have seen. I added the gold trim using an onboard Photoshop filter called “stroke”.

What a wonderful thing to have happen to mostly underprivileged children in this season. Today’s article is about giving bicycles to a fifth graders class of students as Christmas gifts.  I like the way the author put the opening statement: “At 2:02 p.m. Friday, the gym......was a quiet, peaceful bicycle showroom, with 62 glistening new bikes sitting silently in neat rows.  Then, at 2:03 p.m., the doors swung open....” The kids went wild as kids do with such a wonderful sight and gifts for each one. They each comments on the bike they chose or were given and gave reasons thy it was special to them, the color, or the thought of the ride. Some were riding the bikes around in a circle around the other bikes. Others kids were adjusting seats and testing lights. Some had never ridden before so some of the adults were helping them. This year was the third annual year that the New Salem Baptist Church bought the bikes with money that was donated and a break on price by Walmart. The neighborhood where the school is located is a community of some immigrants and some underprivileged children. This was a happy event. I would like to have been there to witness it for myself.

Yesterday was my other photo club’s pick for a photo of the day. Today’s theme for that was “wide angle”. I don’t have an add on wide angle lens but I felt the scene was a “wide angle” view.

Everyone is on their own for dinner tonight. This is the birthday party for Jesus at church so I will be there for a while at around dinner time.

Joy