March 13, 2020 thought for the day:  Never ask of him who has, but of him you know wishes you well. Spanish Proverb

We had the twins for a little while last night but things came up that forced us to let them go home without spending the night this time.

On March 12 the FMS photo-a-day challenge theme was “trees”. Right now there are lots and lots of bare tree limbs climbing to the sky. I love them when these same limbs are full of leaves and we can’t see through them. But this season is also a miraculous display of tree shapes, forms and patterns that give rise to contemplation of nature and their Maker.

I don’t have an agenda list today so I am working on projects as they come to my attention. These projects have been mostly research on things that have interested me but that I have not had the time to investigate, some of these searches are/ were with my photography, some with crocheting and some with health issues.

I got some plant watering done and some dishes tended to. So it has been one of those ho hum days, I think this kind of day is needed every now and then.

I have become more concerned about this health situation that the world is facing today and just how I can protect myself and my family as I imagine the rest of the world is also concerned with that. We are living in one of the memorable times in history. That in itself, besides being frightening, is enlightening.

I found out in my searches today that the photo book layout program I am using will not let me send my finished book to Amazon for selling so, if I want to try my hand at this, I am going to have to start over with a different site.

The word today is energy. Thoughts create a new heaven, a new firmament, a new source of energy, from which new arts flow, Paracelsus. Energy and persistence conquer all things, Benjamin Franklin  The energy of the mind is the essence of life, Aristotle.   Our energy is in proportion to the resistance it meets, William Hazlitt. The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled, Plutarch. Love is an undulating energy that moves through you, within you, and radiates out of you, and changes everything, Bartholomaus.  The energy of the universe is constant, Rudolf Clausius. Happiness gives us the energy which is the basis of health, Henri Frederic Amiel. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm, Ralph Waldo Emerson. For purposes of action nothing is more useful than narrowness of thought combined with energy of will, Henri Frederic Amiel. A person of intellect without energy added to it, is a failure, Nicolas Chamfort. Every individual who is not creative has a negative, narrow, exclusive taste and succeeds in depriving creative being of its energy and life, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

The photo challenge today is “need”. This is one of those kinds that give me much cause for thought. For me, it is more an emotion, hard to solidify into an image, than an object. It took me a while to go about this photo shoot. I finally settled on an empty bag that needs filled with something....food, gifts, surprises or just something.

Most of the news today is about the Coronovirus but I elected to pick something different. This article is about what one teacher in the Hilliard schools is using as lessons for his students, third graders. It involves a game using the Iditarod race. The game raceway is built with rolls of paper decorated with snow and bitter cold scenes of mountains and lakes around a trail. The children have placed stickers on the drawing to represent directions, maneuvers and so on. After the scenery is ready, they use a robot Ozobot to move along the path. The teacher has used this game to teach the kids about math, history, geography, language and more.  According to the article this teacher and game caught the attention of the Iditarod Education Department. The teacher is one of three finalists for a national contest and could win a nine-day trip to Alaska among other goodies. The teacher was a long-term substitute in the Hamilton school district before coming to Hilliard. He said he likes dogs and competition and feels they are natural things kids are interested in. The article goes on to relate that “the hall outside his classroom is decked out with maps and colorful flags resembling a finish line. Listed on each are facts on a musher whom a student has researched and will track for the entire upcoming real Iditarod race”. Along with the game the kids have written essays about the sled dogs and some history of the actual races.

PIZZA!

Joy