nice mellow day

so nice to have a day off in the middle of the work week like this

Heather Cox Richardson, the history professor, posted something that lets me view Thanksgiving in a whole new way. Lincoln is the one who made Thanksgiving a national holiday and he didn't do it until it finally looked like the Union was going to win the Civil War. The first one was August 6, 1863. He declared a second one that October.


"In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, he wrote, Americans had maintained their laws and their institutions and had kept foreign countries from meddling with their nation. They had paid for the war as they went, refusing to permit the destruction to cripple the economy. Instead, as they funded the war, they had also advanced farming, industry, mining, and shipping. Immigrants had poured into the country to replace men lost on the battlefield, and the economy was booming. And Lincoln had recently promised that the government would end slavery once and for all. The country, he predicted, “with a large increase of freedom,” would survive, stronger and more prosperous than ever."



"The following year, Lincoln proclaimed another day of Thanksgiving, this time congratulating Americans that God had favored them not only with immigration but also with the emancipation of formerly enslaved people."


A neighbor who works for the Cheesecake Factory came by with a cheesecake this morning.


This afternoon other neighbors paused to wish us a good day and let me photograph their son while he showed me ALL of his cars.


This evening we delivered chocolates to yet two other neighbors.


Our county won't have school tomorrow. We don't have enough substitute teachers to cover. Seriously, why is there school (or work) tomorrow anyway?


The weather was warm enough that only a light jacket was needed. The sky was blue. The grass was a deep, deep shade of green. I moved new-fallen leaves off my plants, including every Mitchell Repens I could find.


Thank goodness you all came over. The cheesecake with a pumpkin pie baked in was HUGE. I could never have finished it without you.


(Evie, the crow was Edge, this is Sweet.)