December 11, 2023 a thought for the day, Pin not your faith on another's sleeve. English Proverb

One of the uploads for December 10 was “something red”. There are all kinds of red especially at this time of year. The one that catches my eye more often than any right now are the large red bows. This one ins on one of the columns in the sanctuary of my church. 

The second upload for yesterday is “cookies.” These  pizzelle style cookies have become a favorite. There is a gentleman in our church who honors us with his pizzelle cookies often at some of our fellowship hours. My son Bob was all ways happy when I bought him a bag of them from the church.  

Another upload for yesterday was “rotate.” That took some thought on my part.....something that rotates and how to show it in a photo image. I couldn’t think of much except for the mixer paddle. There would also be one of the digital arts (a form of AI, I think) that could generate rotation in any photo image that I have filters for their creation. As noted in one of my photo club profiles, I prefer taking photos for the natural art of the subject matter and captures of moments in time rather than with time consuming “technically practiced techniques” in mind for each shot. I don’t mind using the darkroom (Photoshop) to generate other art from an image. 

Yesterday was one of those days for a shot from my club that has four image a month. This one is

“eyeglasses.” There has to be a little thought given to a still life image such as this. A pair of eyeglasses alone could be a little on the boring side. I simply used a grey portfolio cover on a black background. 

Life today. Monday! With the virtual visits (email, facebook, news headlines...done) it was on to the computer projects. First was a start on the every-other-day letter, next a message to answer a text from a church peer, then on to begin the bulletin. The bulletin....I got the first parts all done, along with typing the insert with the lyrics to the two anthems we will be doing this week (A Star Dances, An Angel Sings and How Far Is It To Bethlehem?)

I took a break from computer tasks to work on setting up props for the photos of the day. That meant hunting for a bag of bows I knew I had spotted several weeks ago but couldn’t remember just where it was I had seen them......found it! (It’s interesting to play hide and seek once in a while!)

The first upload for today is “‘tis the season to....” ....wrap gifts and decorate a tree. There is a lot of material for an image with this title in this season of celebration.

Sue wanted to do some on line shopping but she says she doesn’t have much success doing that on her own. So I took another break to help her with that. I think we both have most of our shopping done at last. Neither of us has the means to do a lot of shopping any more but we don’t want to miss being a part of the season recognizing the reason for the season. Gifts are a symbol of our want to give and recognize Jesus’s birthday. He lives in each of us.

There was a bit of snow on parts of the ground and cars this morning when I opened the blinds to the light. It was gone in a couple of hours. The cold didn’t leave with it though. 

The next upload for today is “gift wrap.” This is another one that is easy for the season except that I am not using wrapping paper, scotch tape and such for my wrappings this year. I am using decorative bags and stickers with a few bows here and there. 

The word for today is mother.  Memory is the mother of all wisdom. Aeschylus. We are born of love; Love is our mother. Rumi. Children are the anchors that hold a mother to life. Sophocles.   The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness. Honore de Balzac. The mother's heart is the child's schoolroom. Henry Ward Beecher.  Nature is our eldest mother; she will do no harm. Emily Dickinson. Art is the child of nature in whom we trace the features of the mothers face, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.  Mothers are the most instinctive philosophers, Harriet Beecher Stowe.  No man is poor who has a Godly mother, Abraham Lincoln.  Her children arise up, and call her blessed. Proverbs31:28.  He that would the daughter win must with the mother first begin, English Proverbs. A mother understands what a child does not say, Yiddish Proverbs.  When God thought of mother, he must have laughed with satisfaction, and framed it quickly - so rich, so divine, so full of soul, power, and beauty was the conception, Henry Ward Beecher.  A mother is the truest friend we have, Washington Irving. 

The last upload for today is "tools" "tools" (from some of my hobbies, calligraphy, tatting, paper marbling, crocheting, knitting, paper quilling and more_ as well as learning their histories) Sudbury Photography Club

This article is a story about a famous man from our state and his early beginnings, Ulysses Grant was his name. According to the article he was very good at school work and loved to read but preferred to work on his father’s farm and raising horses. The building that was his school house still stands in Southwest Ohio. As he grew he joined a debating society and wrote articles tof the local newspaper in Brown County, Ohio. In 1837 he became Mayor of Georgetown. There were no public schools until 1825. The article mentioned that families with children saw that for  “education for their children had to spend their own money to hire a teacher at a subscription school...parents usually paid one or two dollars for a thirteen-week school term.” Some farmer families paid by barter or with crops and farm animals. Schools was attended for six days a week. I learned in the article that “most of Grant’s early educational experiences occurred at two subscription schools.” The first in a brick building that was a “meetinghouse for Methodists” before it was a school in 1827. After four and a half years he attended classes in the Dutch Hill School. At that school there was discipline, he mentioned in a memoir that he had never been punished in his home. The teacher at the school used a “long beech switch.” At that time in education here was no “grade system” and classes were held in a single room with “thirty or forty scholars, male and female.” He never missed school in all the years he attended however, he “found his early education dull and lacking.” The article mentioned that Grant felt the teachers were indifferent and “incapable of teaching much, even if they imparted all they knew.” However it was noted that his “mathematics is remarkable given Grant’s talent for the subject at West Point and his later attempt to become a mathematics professor there after graduating in 1843.” In his teen years he attended the Maysville Academy in Ripley, Ohio before going to West Point. He encouraged his children to stick to their educational studies, pushing for “English, French, German, and mathematics. “There is a “long line of “Grant family members who valued the importance of a good education.” 

It's going to be hamburgers and our choice of fried potatoes or macaroni salad for dinner. 

Joy 

                       a peek at one of the many places of  maintenance