August 13, 2021 a thought for today, Whoever looks for easy work goes to bed very tired. Yiddish Proverb

I got my “pick-me-up” video call from Lexie and Drew last night as I was crocheting. They were telling me a lot about their exciting day and plans for tomorrow. 

My “month of gratitude” photo a day for yesterday was a fan (and collection of other necessary items) in the office. 

After a busy week today seems like a “let down”, maybe good, maybe boooring! Good could be a time for moving in a slow and restful manner, or it could be a day for catch up on things that have been put on the back burner. I’ll just “follow my nose” and go where “the spirit moves” me. 

For the past couple of days we have had some pretty strong storms. They haven’t lasted long but came with lots of thunder. That has made Sweet Pea very nervous. It has required a lot of petting and soothing talk to try to calm her nerves and let her know her world wasn’t falling down around her. 

The word for today is dear.  All theory, dear friend, is gray, but the golden tree of life springs ever green. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. All men are by nature equal, made all of the same earth by one Workman; and however we deceive ourselves, as dear unto God is the poor peasant as the mighty prince. Plato. Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other. Benjamin Franklin. Life every man holds dear; but the dear man holds honor far more precious dear than life. William Shakespeare. Plato is dear to me, but dearer still is truth. Aristotle. A sympathetic friend can be quite as dear as a brother. Homer. Knowledge is never too dear. Francis Walsingham.  What wild imaginations one forms where dear self is concerned! How sure to be mistaken! Jane Austen. Watch and pray, dear, never get tired of trying, and never think it is impossible to conquer your fault, Louisa May Alcott. Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. We are but older children, dear, Who fret to find our bedtime near, Lewis Carroll. 

Today’s photo of the day in the “month of gratitude” is a fire hydrant. I am grateful that they are all throughout our cities ‘stationed’ at required distances from structures and other areas for the safety of our communities.  

I didn’t know there was a museum set up in our area for Johnny Appleseed. COVID-19 led to the “death” of the Franklin University branch on the former campus of Urbana University. When this branch closed it affected the area where the collection of Johnny Appleseed memoribilia was stored. It had been stored in the 1880s mansion, Browne Hall. The president of the Johnny Appleseed Foundation said they had no place to move their collection in the middle of a pandemic. The Foundation was given the chance to buy the property at a discount. A pledge of an anonymous donor “covered the bulk of the $250,00 to purchase the mansion” along with other items left in the building. Appleseed was born John Chapman and has roots in Champaign County. He had sown apple seeds in that area in the 1800s. That land was donated to the group creating the Urbana University campus. Since the museum now owns the mansion they are revitalizing the main floor and reinstalling the exhibits. Along with those changes it is filing the historic documents and making them available for researchers. Plans are for the museum to reopen for school children on Chapman’s birthday, September 26. The anonymous benefactor of the $250,00 to buy the mansion has offered another $50,000 to help in the new setup. The foundation says they have changed the role of fundraisers to stewards. 

No meal planning tonight....pizza. 

Joy

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