September 12, 2021 a thought for today, Even in paradise, living all alone would be hell. Native American Seneca 

There was a bit more activity in the church today than there has been in a long time. They weren’t all there for our church service but it was nice to hear and see all the activity. 

The September 11th photo of the day theme was “how I feel today”. First I made an image of Sweet Pea as she lay curled up on the carpet taking one of her naps...that seemed to be a good fit. Then I had to go out for errands so I went by the park and happened upon this image, captured the moment and came home to see if it would work. 

As usual for Sunday I don’t have a long agenda for today. On the other hand I wanted to get the plants that need separated and transplanted off of the to do list. So when I got home from church I tackled that chore. Now it is out of the way. I put some plants that need new homes out by the curb. In years past I have done that and people took them almost before I got them set up. This year there hasn’t been any interest at all. Bob and I put them out yesterday and again today. I will move them to the back tonight and try one more time next week end. Then I will have to take a different way. I may have to throw some out. I really need to “downsize” on that are of my daily chores. 

I planned on stopping by the neighborhood art gallery on the way home but there wasn’t any parking left when I came by the shop so I passed on it for this week. 

So the rest of the day is on the relaxed and easy going side. 

The word today is experience.  No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man. Heraclitus.  Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards. Soren Kierkegaard.  One thorn of experience is worth a whole wilderness of warning. James Russell Lowell.  Experience is the teacher of all things. Julius Caesar. I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. Patrick Henry.  The head learns new things, but the heart forever practices old experiences. Henry Ward Beecher. By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest. Confucius. Simplicity is the most difficult thing to secure in this world; it is the last limit of experience and the last effort of genius. George Sand. The wise are instructed by reason, average minds by experience, the stupid by necessity and the brute by instinct. Marcus Tullius Cicero. No man's knowledge here can go beyond his experience. John Locke. Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world. John Milton. 

Today’s photo challenge is “this is useful”. I took shots of some of my major cooking utensils like Kitchen Aid mixer, food processor, mandolin and on. I made a flat lay of my laptop, tablet, cell pone/camera, keyboard and channel selectors. Then I spotted this one on my way home from church. 

This article is a bit about the beginning of roads in Ohio. The article started with the statement “long ago when driving along at 65 to 70 mph across Ohio was not possible.” It went on to say that until the “completion of the interstate highway system.....traffic moved considerably slower”. In the beginning of the state the roads were mostly dirt and followed paths of animals and the Native Americans. As the state grew in the 1800s there were “corduroy roads”. Trees were cut, split and laid out to cross muddy places in the paths. In the cities there was a system called “wood block system”. This system was paving the streets with brick-like wooden blocks laid side by side on a gravel bed. These blocks cracked, warped and broke over short periods time and changing weather. Later bricks were used. Brick streets “remain a fixture in German Village.” However, bricks are hard on automobiles. Moving on, streets were built of macadamized asphalt. The National Road, 1811, was made of a durable layer of gravel. Along that highway stone bridges as they crossed waterways. The National Road came to Columbus in 1831. The article went on to point out that the “real change in Ohio” began with bicycles and automobiles which became more available to more people. Automobiles became less expensive and came with improvements like self starters and dependable headlights. All of this brought on better roads. Beginning in the 1900s federal, state and local money was used to build paved highways. I liked this sentence in the article, “In the years after World War II, a road trip was something of an adventure that usually was an adventure.” It was slower than traffic today mostly because they were two lane roads. Traffic became heavier and there were trucks using the roads too. Roadside parks came into existence so that people could stop and rest. There was no air conditioning so the trips in the summer could be uncomfortable and these. Even with all this the article related that travel on the “back roads of Ohio was interesting.....at a speed of 35 mph.” It took longer to get to places but it also allowed for more sight seeing. 

I think it will be taco bell tonight for dinner. 

Joy

 September 10, 2021 a thought for today, The words of God are not like the oak leaf which dies and falls to the earth, but like the pine tree which stays green forever. Native American Plains Indian

I am back from the dentist. The cleaning is done and the imprints for the bridges have been made.

I have to have another tooth pulled when the bridge is ready. Two more weeks and I will be done with the dentist for a while. 

On September 9, the photo-a-day title was “begins with M”. I saw all kinds of things that begin with M, this one seemed to stand out the most. It also offers a couple of the basics of good and tasteful art. 

Wow, was it chilly when I got up this morning. They are predicting the temps to go up for several days after today so I don’t think I will turn the furnace on just yet. 

I got some light house work done after I got home. Then worked on a church project. I have worked out a process to get some very old photos from one computer to the other. I have my photo shop set up on one of the computers and not on the other. I think I will work on transferring some of the ones I need for two new projects I am starting this afternoon.  

Since the weather is supposed to be warmer tomorrow, I hope to spend a concentrated effort in moving some more of the house plants back inside. 

Today’s photo challenge is “ what I am watching”. As I glanced out my window, I “watched” a couple of my neighbors working in their yards. I saw two or three different folks at different times walking their dogs down the street. I watched a man on a skate board zooming by my house. I saw a couple of different people on bicycles at different time. All of these beside the things I watched off and on on the TV. 

The word for today is excellence.  The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential... these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence. Confucius. We should not judge people by their peak of excellence; but by the distance they have traveled from the point where they started. Henry Ward Beecher. In character, in manner, in style, in all things, the supreme excellence is simplicity. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Life's like a play: it's not the length, but the excellence of the acting that matters. Lucius Annaeus Seneca. Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts. Aristotle. In my judgment, excellence and wealth are direct opposites, since when the one shrinks, the other grows, and when one grows, the other shrinks. Apollonius of Tyana. These virtues are formed in man by his doing the actions ... The good of man is a working of the soul in the way of excellence in a complete life, Aristotle. To enjoy the things we ought and to hate the things we ought has the greatest bearing on excellence of character, Aristotle. The brave are born from the brave and good. In steers and in horses  is to be found the excellence of their sire; nor do savage eagles produce a peaceful dove, Horace.  The most important part of education is right training in the nursery. The soul of the child in his play should be trained to that sort of excellence in which, when he grows to manhood, he will have to be perfected, Plato.  Nothing is more noble, nothing more venerable than fidelity. Faithfulness and truth are the most sacred excellences and endowments of the human mind, Marcus Tullius Cicero.

This is one of the dates that I had a second photo of the day to find and upload. This one was titled “post card of my hometown”. I have several views of the city in my archives but this seemed to be the closest at hand and the most representative. 

The article for today is talking about how the width of the Scioto River was changed here in Columbus over time. In the early 1900s the land west of High Street sloped and created a slum of sorts. There was a plan in 1908 to widen the mall from the Statehouse westward across the river but it didn’t happen mostly because of a major objection from one particular business. In 1913 there was a huge flood. Then there was some new and ongoing development downtown between 1918 and the mid 1960s. Central High School (now COSI) was the first building built during this “new development”. At about this time the city “walled in the river and widened it to three times its natural width”. It seemed to “behave” better as a flood control although there was a major flood in 1959. In 2013 a dam and surrounding sediment were removed, narrowing the river to 300 feet (91 m) and giving the city access to 33 acres of previously submerged shoreline.  In 2015 art, green space, paths and event venues were completed with the Scioto Mile Project.  According to the article “both old and new walls still flank the river and the grassy banks, and concrete paving was designed to flood without damage in times of high water.”

It’s pizza night....

Joy

 September 8, 2021 a thought for today, When wood is chopped, wood chips will fly. Russian Proverb

I am on the tense side of emotions today. I have an appointment with the dentist this afternoon and I am not looking forward to it at all. I am supposed to go back again in Friday. 

The photo challenge for yesterday was titled “mailbox”. I toured the neighborhood looking for unique mailboxes. Well, I didn’t find that many with the description “unique” but I found this one that I think had some interesting artistic qualities beyond the mailbox itself.  

I am trying to get as much done before I leave for the dentist so that I won’t have anything on the agenda after I get home from the dentist. I don’t know how I will feel. 

Thankfully I didn’t have too much listed for today anyway. I got the bulletin done earlier this week and I have the other things ready for printing tomorrow. 

I would be getting more done with the house plants but I don’t think that will be part of today’s to-do list. 

The word for today is ethics.  In the New Testament, religion is grace and ethics is gratitude. Thomas Erskine. To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man, William Shakespeare. Between friends there is no need for justice, but people who are just still need the quality of friendship; and indeed friendliness is considered to be justice in the fullest sense, Aristotle.  Education is the art of making man ethical. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.  Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages, Thomas Jefferson.  Never by hatred is hatred appeased, but it is appeased by kindness. This is an eternal truth, Gautama Buddha. Ethics may be defined as the obligations of morality. Lajos Kossuth.  No amount of ability is of the slightest avail without honor, Thomas Carlyle. He that respects himself is safe from others. He wears a coat of mail that none can pierce, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.  Both wit and understanding are trifles without integrity, Oliver Goldsmith.  Honest hearts produce honest actions, Brigham Young.  Every flower of the field, every fiber of a plant, every particle of an insect carries with it the impress of its Maker and can-if duly considered-read us lectures of ethics or divinity, Sir Thomas Blount, 1st Baronet.

The photo a day theme for today is “4 o’clock”. Displaying an image with a plain clock whose hands
are on the 4 and 12 didn’t inspire me. So I added to the thought with something that may suggest what I was doing at that specific time of the day along with a digital display that showed the exact time that I was doing it. 

This article is a combination of three short stories about the Scioto Heritage Trail, some more history about Ohio. Recently there has been a development of the Ohio and Erie Canal Southern Descent Heritage Trail. It goes from Buckeye Lake to Portsmouth. Groveport had an event celebrating the opening of the driving trail. It was called: “Groveport Canal Day: Celebrating Our Heritage Along the Southern Descent Trail.” There was a tour with music and food offered.  The village of Lockbourne also had a “kickoff” event from the Locke Meadow Park with guided hikes along the Magnolia Trail. At this event there was a talk on the history of the Ohio & Erie Canal along with activities, games, a chili cook off and music. The “Heritage Trail is a 114 mile driving trail from Buckeye Lake. In Groveport at the Sharp’s Landing building there is a restored canal era building there with an ice house, smokehouse and bakery. In Portsmouth there are murals where the byway ties into the Ohio River Scenic Byway. From there into the Shawnee State Forest, the largest forest of the twenty in Ohio. On the trip one will pass by the boyhood home of Leonard Slye who became Roy Rogers when he moved to California. Part of this whole experience will take one through an area “rich in Native American history”. One of the three articles mentioned here is a story about the beginning construction of the canal to connect Lake Erie to the Ohio River. Work began in 1825 to construct the 308 mile canal to the Ohio River at Portsmouth. It was completed in 1832.  “The Ohio & Erie Canal Southern Descent Heritage Trail includes fourteen historic canal sites, in seven Ohio counties, along a 100 mile stretch of the Ohio & Erie Canal, from Newark to Portsmouth. This is The Scenic Scioto Heritage Trail”.

I am pulling something from the freezer for dinner. 

Joy

line, shape, form, texture, color, size, and depth

 September 6, 2021 a thought for today, There would be no good fortune had misfortune not helped. Russian Proverb

This has been a pleasant Monday/Labor Day so far. I didn’t set an alarm. I got up leisurely and ran through the morning rituals in an easy-going way. Once all the emails were checked and news titles scanned I worked on the bulletin. The pastor for this week got me all the information I need yesterday, well before the day I begin the template, I appreciate that consideration. I was able to get the whole thing done in about an hour and a half. Then I moved on to some routine daily chores on the computer. 

Yesterday’s photo theme was “free choice” . There is so much to see and capture in a photograph. For me mood and other outside influences have something to do with what I choose to shoot. Today the traffic lights against the clouds filled blue sky caught my attention. 

I took a break to take another baby step toward bringing the plants inside. Then I put some potatoes and eggs on for potato salad. 

I need to start work on my Christmas calendar. I have the lap top set up to find many of my old files so I opened it today to leave open to use when I get a minute here and there. I normally don’t use the lap top except for special events. It is old and very slow but serves a purpose when needed (just like me ☺).

The weather is perfect for this gorgeous September day. I really should be outside enjoying it more. Hopefully we have a lot more of these before the winter weather gets here. 

Since I got the bulletin done today, I may run some errands tomorrow.

I had a second photo of the day for yesterday, that title was “made me smile”. A new dish washer was delivered to their house that day and the box was a happy attraction for Gideon. That made me smile and remember what fun it was to hide out and enjoy the solitude of a box bigger than me was.  

The word today is enjoy.  It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness. Charles Spurgeon. Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no laziness, no procrastination: never put off till tomorrow what you can do today. Philip Stanhope. 4th Earl of Chesterfield. True enjoyment comes from activity of the mind and exercise of the body; the two are ever united. Wilhelm von Humboldt.  True happiness arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one's self, and in the next, from the friendship and conversation of a few select companions. Joseph Addison. Freedom is not procured by a full enjoyment of what is desired, but by controlling the desire. Epictetus. Learning is pleasurable but doing is the height of enjoyment. Novalis. The habit of reading is the only enjoyment in which there is no alloy; it lasts when all other pleasures fade. Anthony Trollope. Life is a progress from want to want, not from enjoyment to enjoyment. Samuel Johnson.  Education alone can conduct us to that enjoyment which is, at once, best in quality and infinite in quantity. Horace Mann. The greatest sweetener of human life is Friendship. To raise this to the highest pitch of enjoyment, is a secret which but few discover. Joseph Addison. He who enjoys doing and enjoys what he has done is happy, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.  It is not knowledge, but the act of learning, not possession but the act of getting there, which grants the greatest enjoyment, Carl Friedrich Gauss. A thing seriously pursued affords true enjoyment, Seneca the Younger. 

My photo of the day for today is "best part of my day''. I have several times of the day that are my "favorite". I have a "place" for everything to my way of thinking. and seem to need to have things done at certain times. Over time each of those "things" are important to me and claim that part of my day. But the beginning of the day is a favorite, a whole new day to be lived. Evenings are also good, a time to reflect on the day and rest. I shot this one as through the window so the lines of the screen give it a textured appearance.  

Here’s a little more history about Ohio, always a good thing. This one is about snakes and a relationship with Ohio. We don’t see to many snakes in the city, maybe a garter snake in a garden. However they still do live in Ohio as the article said there are several varieties of American rattlesnakes. The article talks about Lucas Sullivant when he came to Ohio in 1795. He grew up in poverty in western Virginia. He was a surveyor. As a note of interest, he lived a family named Treacle. There was a time that he named a creek in central Oho for them. He was able to do this because he was the member of a team who mapped the area from the Scioto River to the Miami Rivers (Virginia Military District). In 1795 on a surveying expedition he was interrupted when he was taking a nap. As the story goes a camp that he and his crew made awakened a panther and was killed when it prepared to strike. The commotion scattered embers from a fire that had been built. The next morning when Mr. Sullivant woke up he found that a large rattlesnake was coiled up in his blanket. Years later his youngest son, Joseph, wrote a story about the history of central Ohio and some of those stories were about snakes. He told about another occasion when his father encountered snakes. When Lucas was at a camp near the Marble Cliff quarries there was a “sickening odor”. It was discovered that the odor came from a “prodigious” number of snakes, mostly rattlesnakes. It is noted in the article that there are fissures and holes in the rocks along the river where the snakes came in the fall to set up “winter quarters”. The early settlers of Franklin Township had several “snake hunts”. It is stated that one of  the most famous snake dens was at the Marble Cliffs. At one point large quantities of dry wood and brush were placed in a cave where snakes were found and set on fire in the spring. It is said that hogs and bald eagles killed many of the snakes too. The article said that in exploring the area now you wouldn’t be able to find evidence of where the snakes once lived due to the dams that were built later along the Scioto. 

Hamburgers and potato salad for dinner, a sort of picnic for Labor Day. 

Joy

weeds and other distractions

 September 4, 2021 a thought for today, The word is silver, the silence is gold. Russian Proverb

The weather is turning cooler. This is a sign for me that I have to start the process of moving the house plants from their “vacation” home to back inside the house. It isn’t quite as simple as it sounds. Some will need pruned, some will mostly likely need transplanted and/or split, all will need cleaned of dead leaves and all will need sprayed with my homemade pesticide. All of this is going to require tending to one or two a day. I have some larger plants, like the rubber tree and Norfolk Island pine that are getting too large and difficult for me to take care of so I will be putting them out by the street for anyone interested to take. The philodendron and pothos are overgrown. I have taken cuttings on them and will give the parent plants away. The hanging spider plant and the two Boston ferns are way overgrown. They will be split leading to half kept and half given away. I guess I am “down sizing”. 

On September 3 the photo of the day theme was “I use this every day”. This is my corner of the house. I do use it every day. I would be lost without my computer. The only thing that I use every day and would be lost without is my camera/cell phone camera. 

I got the corner where the houseplants, my indoor garden, resides for the winter, prepared for their return. I have a splash proof mat placed under where the larger “floor” plants reside. There is a table for the smaller portion of the garden and a floor lamp with grow lights. I got that part done this morning. 

Another thing that is going to have to be done soon concerning my “garden”. My hibiscus bush became a much larger “bush’ than I expected. It is completely eclipsing my lilac bush. I didn’t give planting the two so close together the thought I should have before the fact. I am going to have to have one or the other moved this fall. 

Yet another thing I was able to get finished this morning was binding the coloring books I have been making for the kids at our free Saturday meal at church. We have had some of the adults interested in the coloring pages as they wait for the message and meal so I added an advanced coloring page, they are more detailed than those for the youngsters. 

The word for today is endure.  The art of life is to know how to enjoy a little and to endure very much. William Hazlitt. Endure and persist; this pain will turn to good by and by. Ovid. Love cannot endure indifference. It needs to be wanted. Like a lamp, it needs to be fed out of the oil of another's heart, or its flame burns low. Henry Ward Beecher. The spirit is the true self. The spirit, the will to win, and the will to excel are the things that endure. Marcus Tullius Cicero. What is without periods of rest will not endure. Ovid. Enjoy when you can, and endure when you must, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. To endure is the first thing that a child ought to learn, and that which he will have the most need to know, Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Endurance is patience concentrated. Thomas Carlyle. The men who learn endurance, are they who call the whole world, brother. Charles Dickens. Nothing is dead: men feign themselves dead, and endure mock funerals and mournful obituaries, and there they stand looking out of the window, sound and well, in some new and strange disguise, Ralph Waldo Emerson. Be praised, my Lord, through those who forgive for love of you; through those who endure sickness and trial, Francis of Assisi. Men are born for each other's sake, so either teach people or endure them, Marcus Aurelius.

The photo challenge for today is “fave jewelry”. I don’t wear jewelry often. When I was a nurse, I used a watch day and night but not now. About the only thing I use is the cross on a fancy hair pin every now and then. 

I thought this article was interesting. I like stories about how animals round out family life, large and small. A “sociologist and research assistant professor”, recently did published a report on some study he did about pets becoming a part of a family. The pandemic brought a lot of this kind of happening more to the forefront. There was a surge of abortions for emotional support during this time. But her study also draws on “the demographic trends in households from previous years”.  One way that she describes the phenomenon is how people develop their identities having to do with different cultural habits and roles within society. People “negotiate” with each other on how their roles will conform. In this assistant professor’s study she found that in families where there are no children companion animals fill the role of a child.  Emotional and psychological characteristics are formed in the care of the pet. The article went on to share that older adults with grown children take on a “care taking” roll for their pets. Some take on the roll of “grandparent” to their grown children’s pets. In families with both children and companion pets the kids “tend to see the dog as their confidant”.  The article stated that the information was carefully researched and is  “supporting” evidence for “her claims”. The article went on to say that this study isn’t of  importance to some people as an essential part of family living. Another point of view that was mentioned is that “ researchers acknowledge that this definition doesn’t necessarily account for every configuration of what people consider meaningful familial relationships.......We have broadened our scope of how we define families”. The person sharing that opinion also said these kinds of studies also referenced other family configurations involving couples who live together and multi-generational families.  This same person agreed that “pets are a meaningful part of people’s families”. 

I am leaning toward coneys for dinner. 

Joy

I just like the red against the gray

September 2, 2021 a thought for today, Time lost cannot be won again. Romanian Proverb 

The copier did it again.....still on the fritz....still a problem....when I booted up and hit the key to print I got a message back amounting to the copier wasn’t recognizing by the computer. So after a half hour trying to “fix” it with two separate technicians on the phone and a promise that they would be out “momentarily”,  I left for Kinko to get a single copy made so that I could come back and print from the top of the copier rather than from the computer. I made the single copy, back to the church, printed, folded and placed the bulletins and some coloring pages. Still no copier technician (glad I didn’t wait to do the copies until he got there). I didn’t plan to spend the rest of the day waiting for a “maybe they would show up”. Anyway, I was going to help with a funeral luncheon this afternoon but something came up on the home agenda to change that so there wasn’t time for some other item on my agenda for the day either.

My September 1 photo of the day “what I’m reading” is the ebook I am currently reading. I borrow my books from the library in electronic format now. It is much easier to carry around and I can read them from my cell phone when I am in the waiting room of a doctor’s office. For a long period of time I was “reading” audio books because I could read them when I was driving to and from near by cities for my job. 

I took care of the other added problem and then started the laundry. Now to finish the laundry, prepare dinner, clear up the kitchen and get ready for another meeting tonight.   

The word for today is duty.  Justice is the sum of all moral duty. William Godwin. It is the duty of a good shepherd to shear his sheep, not to skin them. Tiberius. Love is the crowning grace of humanity, the holiest right of the soul, the golden link which binds us to duty and truth, the redeeming principle that chiefly reconciles the heart to life, and is prophetic of eternal good. Petrarch.  In doing what we ought we deserve no praise, because it is our duty. Saint Augustine. I slept and dreamt that life was beauty; I woke and found that life was duty, Lord Byron. Happiness is the natural flower of duty, Phillips Brooks. There is no moment without some duty, Marcus Tullius Cicero. Man cannot choose his duties, George Eliot. Do your duty and leave the rest to heaven. Pierre Corneille.  I hold that while man exists, it is his duty to improve not only his own condition, but to assist in ameliorating mankind. Abraham Lincoln. The little people must be sacred to the big ones, and it is from the rights of the weak that the duty of the strong is comprised. Victor Hugo. He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God's providence to lead him aright. Blaise Pascal.  

Today’s photo of the day is called “tasty”. It is a portion of the cake we had left from the party we had over the week end. As you can see we have done a good job munching on it and it is just about down to the last drop. 

The object of art and icon of freedom in today’s article along with being created by an honored retired military man is so near by and worth going to see. There is a farm in Galloway that raises llamas. Many times people driving by slow down as they are driving on Rt. 40 to catch a glimpse of the llams. Now there is another item on the farm that causes them to slow down and look. A silo on the farm has been painted and not like any other. The silo measures 44-feet tall, and 77-foot circumference. It is now completely covered in a patriotic mural including an eagle and the American flag. The is the second such silo painted by the artist Raine Clotfelter, known as ‘America’s Muralist’. He retired from the US Navy. The article said it took him 34 days to complete the silo mural. After the silo project was finished several businesses in Galloway and nearby West Jefferson said they would be commissioning him for future projects. Some will include history of the town as well as the focus of patriotism. 

I am making creamed chicken on biscuits for dinner along with some left overs. 

Joy

Once full and tasty, now..... 

 August 31, 2021 a thought for today, A good vineyard provides bread, wine, and firewood. Sicilian Proverb    

There is a week in the month for me that is cram packed with things to get done and are somewhat timed (have a dead line). Then there are days that are so blank of things on the agenda that it gets boring....this is one of those days. Of course there is always a list of house hold chores that need to be attended to, those don’t count (just kidding). I have a long list of those. I will attend to them in the by and by. They aren’t as time ordinated as they were when there were kids and numerous pets in the house to deposit dirt and clutter but they are still alive and kickin’ nonetheless. 

My gratitude photo for August 30 was my great granddaughter, almost a teen, cute and playful and loves animals. 

I got the bulletin template up to date yesterday so that didn’t need to be added to the agenda for today unless and until I got the information from the pastor that will complete it for printing. That didn’t happen.....yet. 

I got the dishes out of the sink and straightened the kitchen to make it presentable and neat.

I will add the weekly shut-in envelopes and coloring pages to today’s list or push them, gently, to tomorrow’s blossoming agenda.

My photo for today, the last day of this month of gratitude
theme is my newest great grand child. He is a doll baby. I am beyond grateful for all of my great grandchildren, grandchildren and my three children. 

The word for today is dust.  Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. Berthold Auerbach. Adversity is the diamond dust Heaven polishes its jewels with. Thomas Carlyle. Men think highly of those who rise rapidly in the world; whereas nothing rises quicker than dust, straw, and feathers. Lord Byron. Write injuries in dust, benefits in marble. Benjamin Franklin.  Life is constantly weighing us in very sensitive scales, and telling every one of us precisely what his real weight is to the last grain of dust, James Russell Lowell. If a man offend a harmless, pure, and innocent person, the evil falls back upon that fool, like light dust thrown up against the wind, Gautama Buddha.  When someone beats a rug, the blows are not against the rug, but against the dust in it. Rumi.  The soul, which is spirit, can not dwell in dust; it is carried along to dwell in the blood. Saint Augustine. What is excellent, As God lives, is permanent; Hearts are dust, hearts' loves remain, Heart's love will meet thee again, Ralph Waldo Emerson.  All the windy ways of men Are but dust that rises up, And is lightly laid again, Alfred Lord Tennyson. If any dust of imperfection cling to your heart, be not troubled, but consume it immediately in the fire of divine love, and, sorrowfully asking forgiveness, continue to live in peace, Paul of the Cross.  Know thy birth! For dost thou art, and shalt to dust return, John Milton. For hundreds of thousands of years I have been dust-grains floating and flying in the will of the air, often forgetting ever being in that state, but in sleep I migrate back, Rumi.  God scorns and mocks the devil, in setting under his very nose a poor, weak, human creature, mere dust and ashes, yet endowed with the first fruits of the Spirit, against whom the devil can do nothing, Martin Luther.

Since this is the last day of the month, I am also sharing my composite photos a day for the month of August 2021. 

I have visited the state house to take pictures in the past. It is gorgeous and has an interesting history. This article describes it in wonderful detail along with “secrets of the Ohio Statehouse”. The structure is in a Greek Revival design, according to the article “representing the ancient origins of democracy in Athens”. The building process was begun on July 4, 1839. Five architects “haggled over the design”. Work on the construction was stopped during the cholera epidemic as it affected the prisoners from the Ohio Penitentiary who were completing the “hard-labor”. Work on the building was suspended from 1840 to 1848 due to the epidemic and funding problems. Finally in 1861 it was opened as the second largest public building in the country, the US Capitol was the largest. The building housed the governor’s office and offices of the state treasurer and auditor as well as public rooms. There are objects showing Ohio’s history for the more than 60,000 tourists a year. The author of the article said that the Statehouse is a ‘time capsule’ dating from the mid-1800's moving forward. There are 4,957 hand-cut marble tiles that form a circular center including the rotunda floor which is a focal point. It is mentioned in the article that the tiled spaces were designed without calculators or computers. Abraham Lincoln was one of the visitors in 1861 and four years later laid in state here. There is a stained glass seal from 1924 designed to  represent the entry into statehood. A restored skylight in the center of the rotunda show the sear used for many years, part of it is canal boat as a symbol of Ohio’s commercial success. In 1857 a painting of “Perry’s Victory” against the British on Lake Erie during the War of 1812 was commissioned. It took seven yeas to complete the 18 by 14 feet painting.  Another thing to see at the Statehouse is the statue of William McKinley in the West Plaza. This statesman lived across the street during his term as the 39th governor. It is stated that he use to wave to his wife as he left the Neil House hotel where they lived as he walked to work. 

I am thinking along the lines of chili for dinner tonight. 

Joy

one of life’s habits and art