January 8, 2025 a thought for today, Good deeds are done by good people. Hebrew Proverb

One of the uploads for the 7th day of 2025 was “cuddly toy”. She like to keep one of the two Angry Birds that she owns close to her even when napping. 

The second upload for yesterday was “details and patterns”.  There are all kinds of “details and patterns” in our lives. I needed to pick one quickly today so I chose this one. It is a cover for a pouf stool that I made some time ago. It started out to be a crochet cover but the pattern I used turned out to be too small for the memory foam form that I had selected. 

The last photo challenge upload was “5 minutes ago”. That one was hard to determine what to use as a sample image for that statement. I chose an image of my lunch five minutes before the Spam was fried for a BLT (with Spam as the B).

Life today. It hasn’t gone away! The driveway is clear. We have not seen pavement on our residential street with packed down layers of snow as its cover for two plus days. I wouldn’t want to make a quick stop or even a slow turn. Nonetheless I do like Ohio weather changes. I haven’t attempted to go out of the house except to bring in the mail and to put ice melt on the porch and steps. Oh, I take that back, I cleared a short path for Sweet Pea the first day, today I dug out the trash can to be taken to the curb later. 

The first upload for today is “chaos” . This is cleaning day at the Rector house. Things are pulled out while dusting and sweeping take place then put back in place. In the mean time getting around it is a maze.  

It has been nice to not have any rush obligations during this time. I have completed some computer projects in an easy and relaxed manner. One of the draw backs for me is not being able to get out to look for photo opportunities. And, to confess a long time habit.....soap operas. So the snow confinement has given me an “out” on watching them with full undivided interest.(smile)

I plan on going to the church tomorrow to get the bulletin printed and put out for Sunday service. Hopefully it will be an unobstructed trip. 

The second upload was “hot beverage”. Hot chocolate with miniature marshmallows was perfect for today and for the image. 

The word today is require. Big results require big ambitions. Heraclitus.  I am persuaded, you will permit me to observe, that the path of true piety is so plain as to require but little political direction. George Washington.  There are not a few among the disciples of charity who require, in their vocation, scarcely less excitement than the votaries of pleasure in theirs. Charles Dickens.  That we must love one God only is a thing so evident that it does not require miracles to prove it. Blaise Pascal.  We shall see but a little way if we require to understand what we see. Henry David Thoreau.  I have made as much out of myself as could be made of the stuff, and no man should require more. Jean Paul. Confidence in nonsense is a requirement for the creative process. Epictetus. If a superior man abandon virtue, how can he fulfil the requirements of that name? Confucius.  Just as we would have no need of the farmer's labor and toil if we were living amid the delights of paradise, so also we would not require the medical art for relief if we were immune to disease, as was the case, by God's gift, at the time of Creation before the Fall. Saint Basil.  Money is not required to buy one necessity of the soul. Henry David Thoreau.  Every step of life shows much caution is required. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. While I am busy with little things, I am not required to do greater things. Saint Francis de Sales.  We can easily manage if we will only take, each day, the burden appointed to it. But the load will be too heavy for us if we carry yesterday's burden over again today, and then add the burden of the morrow before we are required to bear it. John Newton.  The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run. Henry David Thoreau. 

The last upload for today is “sweet”. This is a container of cookies and fudge that was a Christmas gift from a neighbor. 

Article: The information in the article was written in regard to the question having been asked by a student in the  Malala Yousafzai class, at 5th grade level, Globe Primary School, London, UK. I was interested in viewing this explanation and thoughts on the subject. The title: Why were there separate jobs for men and women in Victorian times?  It was written by a professor of history. It started out by sharing that “many Victorians thought that women and men had very different bodies and skills, meaning they were suited to different types of work”. It seemed that they felt that men had strong muscles and “could think more rationally than women”.  Because of the “strong muscles” and ability to “think more rationally” men were more suited to “hard physical labour (such as coal mining) or to professional work needing lots of learning (being a doctor, for example)”. Along with the thinking about “women in Victorian times” they did give them, females, the notion that “they were good at emotional things such as showing sympathy and kindness”. So they were given “simpler” jobs to assist men or in positions of taking care of others. The article goes on to relate how now we know that men and women both or either can be weak or clever or kind or cruel and not judged, as in earlier times, differently in those standards. Men were expected to be the bread winner, women the homemaker/house keeper. Both positions that could be boring or stressful depending on circumstances. The article pointed out that women showed that “they could be just as clever, strong or rational as men”. One woman some where in the journey of time one woman helped design computer programs but few were aware of that. In time some women were paid to work at home ending up working long hours up to 12 hours a day at little pay all while looking after their own children at the same time. The range of jobs became more open to men and women “throughout the 20th century”. In this age men and women can be found in some jobs that were open to the other. Now there are men as nurses and women as soldiers.

I am thinking air fryed fish and mashed potato soup for dinner. 

Joy

                                  one way toward communication