February 6, 2021 thought for today: If you can't hold children in your arms, please hold them in your heart. African Proverb

It has been a great day, cold outside, but very comfortable inside. I finished the free meal message/hymn lyrics and took it to the church. 

This is another of those days that I had two photo challenges. The first was titled “my happy place”. I have several happy places-time, date in history and my life, and mood dictate my “happy” places. There is one the suits the purpose many times and that is Westgate Park. This is the setting for my photo today, showing the trees, the paths (sort of, buried in snow) and, if you look closely one of the many benches set here and there for resting and contemplations.  

I had a couple of phone calls concerning church matters. The other productive task today was working on four posters for our free meal event. I got those done and sent them to a friend to check to see if they were good to print. She contacted me and said with a couple of adjustments they are good to go. 

My grand-daughter-in-law has been keeping me updated on my great grand children’s growing up adventures. You can’t imagine how much that means especially when they are not located near enough for a visit on occasion. Anyway, she let me know earlier today that my great granddaughter had a sporting event this morning. The score was tied but it was the best game they have had so far. Yesterday, I received an envelope with a gift from Lexie and Drew, her brother. They had made me a big, big hug in the form of two hands on the ends of along piece of yarn with a note in between the hands. I hung them on the mantel over the fireplace and sent a picture to them. Lexie reminded me that that’s not a good idea to hang them near a fire place. I felt so good that she is concerned for my safety. (Just a note, I neglected to pass along....the fireplace was decommissioned a long time ago so it is really a non working fire place at this point).

The second photo of the day that comes from one of my photo groups “101photos” and uploaded to my flickr.com site is titled “starts with H”. On my way home from the grocery store I passed this familiar home. I decided there were at least three “H’s” there that would fit the assignment. They are home, house, and hill (of snow). 

The word today is school.  Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and diligence, Abigail Adams.  He who opens a school door, closes a prison, Victor Hugo. Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other, Benjamin Franklin. The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next, Abraham Lincoln.  Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army, Edward Everett. Education makes a people easy to lead but difficult to drive easy to govern, but impossible to enslave, Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux. What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the human soul, Joseph Addison. Experience is a good school. But the fees are high, Heinrich Heine. If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away, Henry David Thoreau. Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in, Leonardo da Vinci. I learned most, not from those who taught me but from those who talked with me, Saint Augustine. Nobody sees a flower really, it is so small. We haven't time, and to see takes time- like to have a friend takes time. One of the greatest problems of our time is that many are schooled, but few are educated, Thomas More.  

Today’s photo theme is “ something borrowed”.  The only thing that I could think of right off that I have borrowed in the house was a deviled egg tray of my daughter-in-law’s. I didn’t know how to make that exciting so I chose a kind of off the wall idea. I chose one of my house plants and thought of it as something borrowed from nature.  

I like to learn things about our city that I didn’t know before. This article is about one of the statues in the city that I knew was there but knew very little about. It is named the Umbrella Girl and is found in Schiller Park. She is barefoot and wears a “dirndl”, a traditional German dress carrying a pair of shoes.  In the other hand she carries an umbrella. The model for this statue died in January this year. Her mother is sculpted her in 1996. The Friends of Schiller Park put a wreath around the statue’s neck and neighbors and residents of the neighborhood left flowers and candles. I was surprised to learn that this statue was not the first Umbrella Girl. This statue replaced the original statue that was created in 1872. The original statue was a “rendering of Hebe, the Greek goddess of youth.” The original was mounted with a hose that poured water over her, hence the umbrella. The statue didn’t get its name until the 1920's. It became a place photographers came to take photos. The statue disappeared between World War II and the 1950s. No one ever found her, the original. In the 1990s replacing her became a project. People wanted history particularly of German roots restored.   

We are trying something new for dinner...Spicy Peanut Chicken and Noodles. 

Joy