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Awww Monday is hosted by Sandee at Comedy Plus.
Join us every Monday for Awww...Mondays. Post a picture that makes you say Awww... and that's it.
Make sure you get the code from Sandee's site, linked above, and leave a link to your post so we can visit you. What better way to start the week than with a smile!
How about a flashback of bottle babies. After all, right at the New Year, we're supposed to do a bit of looking back.
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Sparks, the brainchild of Annie of McGuffy's Reader, is on hiatus, so here's an Inspiring Quote of the Week in her honor.
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| EverydayPower |
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Poetry Monday was started by Diane at On The Alberta/Montana Border. Jenny at Procrastinating Donkey is taking a blog break due to her husband's health. Charlotte/Mother Owl always participates, too, and SpikesBestMate will leave a contribution in the comments on one of our blogs. This week the theme is Resolutions.
I don’t make resolutions ‘cause
Those buggers i don’t keep,
You may think i am silly
But the reasons they run deep.
There are four kinds of people
When it comes to expectations
And depending on your tendency,
That’s your resolutions' foundations.
If you are an Upholder,
What you expect of you, you do,
And you are motivated also
To do what others expect of you.
When you are a Questioner,
Then others must convince,
You only do what you expect of you,
Unless you get evidence.
The Rebel says, “You can’t make me!
And I can’t make me, either!”
What you expect, and what he expects,
Well, he will just do neither.
Then there are Obligers like me,
What others expect of us,
Well, we tend to do it,
But if we ask it of ourselves, we fuss.
So Upholders keep resolutions,
And Questioners if it makes sense,
But Obligers don’t keep our word to ourselves,
And Rebels put up every defense.
If you have any questions
About these four tendencies,
Gretchen Rubin wrote a book,
Look it up, if you please!
(Yes, there is a book, The Four Tendencies, by Gretchen Rubin, and it is worth getting and reading.)
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Today is:
Bairns Day -- Scotland (Begins the runic half-month of Eoh, the yew tree, which signifies the dead, and is now associated with the Slaughter of the Innocents of Christian tradition, so today is considered by some the unluckiest day of the year, and no work should be undertaken today.)
Call a Friend Day -- just to catch up a bit
Card Playing Day -- internet generated, enjoy a fun game with friends and family; "Go fish!"
Childermas a/k/a Holy Innocents Day -- (Patrons of babies, children's choirs, foundlings)
various Christian traditions celebrate under many names and in various ways
Els Enfarinats -- Ibn, Valencia, Spain (flour fight, and if it's anything like the tomato throwing in other towns of Spain, it's probably lots of fun)
French Childermas tradition interpreted what the Norse saw as evidence of the Wild Hunt of Odin as the spirits of the Holy Innocents running from King Herod
Inocentes -- Mexico, and sometimes celebrated as Mexican December Fool's Day (Herod fooled himself into thinking he had gotten rid of his rival king born in Bethlehem.)
Dyzemas Day -- Northhamptonshire, UK (an unlucky day to begin any new undertaking, "what is begun on Dysemas Day will never be finished")
origin unknown, but often translated as Tithe Day, being very close to the Portugese word for tithe
Eat A Vegetarian Day -- an internet generated joke; yes, the vegetarian in question can be a cow
Endangered Species Act Day -- US (act passed 1973; a day to mourn species already extinct)
Fairy Academy of Window-Frosting Winter Exhibition -- Fairy Calendar
Fourth Day of Christmas
King Taksin Memorial Day -- Thailand
Kwanzaa, Day 3, Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility)
National Chocolate Candy Day
Proclamation Day -- South Australia (trad.)
Return a Gift for the Cold Hard Cash Day -- and good luck, these days
Runic Half-month Eoh (yew) commences
Take a Drive and Enjoy the Christmas Lights Day -- before they are gone for another year
Unluckiest Day of the Year -- various traditions state no work should be started today, for whatever is started today will never be finished! In Olde England, nothing of importance was ever undertaken on Childermas, because it would prove unlucky
Anniversaries Today:
Billy Ray Cyrus weds Leticia Finley, 1994
The US Pledge of Allegiance is formally adopted, 1945
Iowa becomes the 29th US State, 1846
Birthdays Today:
David Archuleta, 1990
Sienna Miller, 1981
John Legend, 1978
Joe Mangianello, 1976
Todd Richards, 1969
Malcolm Gets, 1964
Denzel Washington, 1954
Edgar Winter, 1946
Don Francisco, 1940
Maggie Smith, 1934
Nichelle Nichols, 1933
Martin Milner, 1931
Johnny Otis, 1921
Sam Levenson, 1911
Lew Ayres, 1908
Cliff Arquette, 1905
Earl "Fatha" Hines, 1905
Hendrik Meijer, 1883
Woodrow Wilson, 1856
John Molson, 1763
Debuting/Premiering Today:
"The Gulag Archipelago"(Publication date), 1973
"Last of the Red Hot Lovers"(Play), 1969
"Night of the Iguana"(Play), 1961
"On the Town"(Musical), 1944
"Tip-Toes"(Musical), 1925
"St. Joan"(Play), 1923
"Cyrano de Bergerac"(Play), 1897
Today in History:
The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, a/k/a Westminster Abbey, is consecrated, 1065
The reign of Emperor Hanazono of Japan begins, 1308
Galileo Galilei becomes the first astronomer to observe the planet Neptune, although he mistakenly catalogued it as a fixed star, 1612
King Taksin is crowned as king of Thailand and establishes Thonburi as a capital, 1768
Construction of Yonge Street, formerly recognized as the longest street in the world, begins in York, Upper Canada (present-day Toronto, Ontario), 1795
A magnitude 6.8 earthquake strikes Echigo, Japan, killing 30,000+, 1828
John Calhoun becomes the first US Vice President to resign (over differences with President Andrew Jackson), 1832
Spain recognizes independence of Mexico, 1836
South Australia and Adelaide are founded, 1836
Rangoon Burma, destroyed by fire, 1841
The United States claims Midway Island, the first territory annexed outside Continental limits, 1867
The Lumière brothers perform for their first paying audience at the Grand Cafe in Boulevard des Capucines, marking the debut of the cinema, 1895
The first municipally owned streetcars take to the streets in San Francisco, California, 1912
The Peak District becomes the United Kingdom's first National Park, 1950
Alexander Solzhenitsyn publishes "Gulag Archipelago", 1973
Winnie Mandela is banished from South Africa, 1976
The first American "test-tube baby", Elizabeth Jordan Carr, is born in Norfolk, Virginia, 1981
U.S. retail giant Montgomery Ward announces it is going out of business after 128 years, 2000
At 115 years old and 266 days, Jiroemon Kimura of Japan becomes the world's oldest living person, 2012
Iranian woman Vida Mohaved is arrested for protesting against the policy of the compulsory hijab, sparking other protests, 2017