It's Been A Few Days

Since our national holiday was yesterday, The Husband had Friday off work.  We puttered around some in the morning, lunched at Cubby's, and he spent the afternoon working/playing on his computer, an opportunity he rarely enjoys.

Yesterday morning we cleaned out the front gutter.  Our gutters aren't super easy to reach (translation: tall ladders required).  Since the two ginormous cottonwood trees in the backyard (they were already on the lot when we built) are pretty happy, the gutters require an annual de-clogging after the cotton flies. We had forgotten about the gutter that runs across the front porch, most of the front roof drains down it.  I barely missed getting a picture of the muck that had blocked the downspout.  It really was spectacular.  (And isn't that sky above the house pretty?  It was a lovely morning.

I was so excited to see this blossom on the african violets!  I took a chance and re-potted my plants. An experiment for me.  The two other babies look content enough but so far no sign of their pretty flowers.  At least I know I haven't killed them yet.  (The mother african violet was probably 10 or more years old, still in the original pot, and amazingly enough still blooming.)

I thoroughly enjoyed Natalie Gochnour's column the other day, it has stuck with me.  Particularly this little excerpt:  "It's also a characteristic found in people who have a sense of propriety and consideration for others.  Kindness and compassion are twin cousins to this type of grace.  When you combine grace with patriotism - love of county - something remarkable happens."

Which leads me to my next thought:  we got to sing a couple of my favorite songs in church today (yep, I chose them).  These lyrics are among my most favored of all song lyrics.  I think Katherine Bates was a grace-bestowed patriot.

America the Beautiful

By Katharine Lee Bates (1859-1929)
Music by Samuel Augustus Howe (1847-1903)

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern impassioned stress
A thoroughfare of freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!
O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife.
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness
And every gain divine!
O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

I'm so grateful today to be a citizen of this wonderful country.  Yes, it has its flaws, the people who inhabit it are as imperfect as any people across the world.  I still love it.