Odds and Ends

I just had to show you a picture of my new flowers. I have never seen this color before and I just bought a few. They have to stay in their pots until I get around to cleaning the flowerbed where I want them. This is a picture of motivation.

Our orange trees are getting ready to bloom. I love orange blossoms and the smell of them blooming is so incredible. The place where my husband used to work was out close to the the orange orchards.This time of year he would come home talking about how wonderful it smelled when they bloomed. Imagine thousands and thousands of orange trees, miles and miles, all the way to the foot of the mountains.

I just had to give you a fun fact of history today. I have thought about it all day. I know I have run across this in the years that I have taught school, but I must have forgot it. We have been making our way through American History this year. Last week it was the War of 1812-1815 My kids think I am odd that I that I keep saying that, but for years I thought the war of 1812 was just a short war of one year. My son's new hero is Andrew Jackson.
The interesting fact I found today, was did you know that on the anniversary of the 50th year of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, That Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died the same day?  Let me quote what my history book says, "Finally, when the Fourth of July came, Thomas Jefferson lay in his bed at Monticello, He asked, " Is it the Fourth?" and soon breathed no more.
In another bed, on that same day, this one in Quincy, Massachusetts, John Adams whispered, "Thomas Jefferson survives," and then he was dead."

Going through history this way this year, year by year and sometimes step by step, it has made me thankful that I am an American, and all of those people who came to this good land did for one thing, that was to be as Thomas Jefferson said, " the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their back, nor a favored few booted and spurred , ready to ride them...These are grounds of hope for others. For ourselves, let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollections of those rights, and and undiminished devotion to them." ( History of Us, The New Nation *1789-1850* Joy Hakim)

Another book that I love, though I don't think any of my kids have ever got this story, I keep hoping one of them will get this message. It is a book called Two Logs Crossings by Walter D. Edmonds. I love all of his books and I have collected all of them for years. He is the writer who wrote the Matchlock Gun I think being the most famous.
In the introduction he had a quote that I loved and I just had to share it.
" There is no trick and easy way to independence, either for a man or a country. To be able to do for oneself in one's own way was the dream which first  brought some men to this land. There are a few people who confuse it with becoming rich, but money is not the American Dream and never has been. Money can be made of anything you choose, but a man's life is made of the courage, independence, decency and self-respect he learns to use...A man who learns to be independent does not mean looking out solely for one's own interest. A man can only be free if his neighbors are also." 

These were some things that I learned today, I just thought I would pass them on. I am sure I will find out some more interesting things.
I hope you have a lovely Tuesday.
As  I always tell my husband, " You can go to sleep now, your history lesson is over for the day. "

~Kim~