So, I've been wanting to write a post for about 2 weeks now, but my phone would. not. sync. to my computer and it's taken me this long just to retrieve my photos!
But, oh, November- you've been crazy. Crazy in lots of good ways. We've had everything from bright, low-angled sunshine to our first snow and a wind storm that knocked our power out for a day. Two weeks ago it was 24 degrees and today it was 65!
I've been enjoying all the fall decorating this year- preserved leaves tucked here and there . . . mini pumpkins and dried hydrangea bunches . . . and the joy of getting out my small collection of brown and white transfereware. Everywhere there are pinecones, some strawflowers, and maybe a stuffed scarecrow sitting in a wee chair.
I can't tell you how many candles we've already gone through this month- they flicker away the cold and dark and make the house smell just right. There's been lots of kitty cuddles and kitty photo bombs . . . and even a craft fit in there- Loving my sweater pillow cover- idea found over here.
Our garage is full of wood and we let the fireplace blaze on Sunday afternoons. We play board games on Sunday evenings and sometimes there are hot baked scones to accompany us.
This month I was even able to convince my 12 year old to let me read to him from one of my favorite Autumn books, Mousekin's Golden House.
We are feeling blessed and full of Thanksgiving this month. Thank Full. As we finish up with our last minute Holiday preparations and plans, I just want to leave you with President Lincoln's Proclamation of Thanksgiving as a reminder to us all that it benefits us to give thanks to God in both good times and hard times . . .
Happy Thanksgiving!
Washington, D.C.
October 3, 1863
October 3, 1863
By the President of the United States of America.
A Proclamation.
The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.
From http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org
