Sister and Brother (Awww Monday), Inspiring Quote of the Week, and Everyday (Poetry Monday)

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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!

Theo and Cleo are up for adoption together.  Theo is going to be a big boy, he's been almost twice the size of his sister Cleo since he was born.  They are both love bugs.

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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.     

I Corinthians 13:7-8
source

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Poetry Monday was started by Diane at On The Alberta/Montana Border.  Jenny at Procrastinating Donkey is on a blog semi-break and her poetry is sorely missed, we hope she comes back soon.   Charlotte/Mother Owl participates, and now Karen at Baking in a Tornado is jumping in at least once a month, too.  Anyone else is welcome to join in the fun, just let Diane know!

This week the theme is Valentine's Day.                      

What can i say

About Valentine's Day

That hasn't already been said?

Should i come home and bake

A Valentine's cake

Covered with frosting of red?

Or would it be smart

To make treacle tart

As a sign of affection and love?

Buy a heart box

With plenty of chocs,

Perhaps from the company Dove?

To show she's the best,

He's above all the rest,

Can that really be done in one day?

Should we try all the year

To prove they are dear

In each thing we do and we say?

We don't need the pressure

Our loving to measure

By Valentine gifts that we give.

Instead take the time

To make each day sublime

To show love in how daily we live.

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Today is:

Bird Mating Season begins -- according to legend, in honor of St. Valentine

Blessing of the Salmon Nets -- Norham, Northumberland, England & North Shields, Northumbria, England (just before midnight, nets are blessed and right after midnight, the first nets of the season are thrown out; anything caught is presented to the officiating vicar)

Clean Out Your Computer Day -- always the second Monday of February

Day Sacred to Juno Lupa -- Ancient Roman Calendar (Juno of the Wolf)

Feast of Vali -- Asatru/Slavic Pagan (archer god, an Asatru answer to the Valentine celebration, which is really a thinly disguised Lupercalia)

Ferris Wheel Day -- birth anniversary of G.W.G. Ferris, Jr.

Fjortende Februar -- Denmark (Danish lovers send each other snowdrop flowers.)

International Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Day

International Quirkyalone Day -- a day to value your individuality, whether you are partnered or not; for those who prefer to be single and not dating just for the sake of dating 

Just Say No to Powerpoint® Week begins -- please, use something else, like communicating with your audience! begun by Nancy Stern

League of Women Voter's Day -- US

Library Lovers Day -- for those whose favorite companion is a great book

Love a Mensch Week begins -- because mensches are decent and responsible men and women, and we should appreciate how they enhance our lives; info from Robin Gorman Newman 

National Call In Single Day -- what a lot of men who feel pressured to be romantic on this day wish they could do, i'm sure!

National Cream-Filled Chocolates Day

National Have-a-Heart Day -- to create awareness of the impact of our food choices on the environment, world hunger, animal welfare and human health—especially heart health

National Nest Box Week -- UK; US (begun in the UK, this is a week to build or put up a nest box in your yard to encourage our avian friends and give them safe places to raise their young)

National Organ Donor Day -- US, but no matter where you live, consider leaving instructions about this to your loved ones

Oatmeal Monday -- Scotland (traditionally, at universities in Scotland, the day the students were allowed to go home and get more "meal", or oatmeal, and other supplies, as they had to provide their own food and fuel for the fires while in school)

Pet Theft Awareness Day -- if you love them, protect them!

Race Relations Day -- originally on Lincoln's birth anniversary, now on the day promoting love

Rafik Hairi Memorial Day -- Lebanon

Read to Your Child Day -- to start their love of learning early (and do it daily!)

Royal Hobart Regatta Day -- Tasmania, Australia

Sts. Cyril & Methodius' Day (Patrons of ecumenism, unity of Eastern and Western Churches; Bohemia; Bulgaria; Czech Republic; Europe; Moravia; the Slavic peoples)

Trifon Zarezan -- Bulgaria (Viticulturists' Day; since Thracian times, a day to celebrate Dionysus and wine)

Valentine's Day (St. Valentine of Rome, Patron of apiarists/beekeepers, betrothed couples, greeting card manufacturers, greetings, happy marriages, love, lovers, travelers, young people; Bussolengo, Italy; against epilepsy, fainting, plague)

Anniversaries Today:

Jerry Garcia weds Deborah Koons, 1994

US League of Women Voters formed, 1920

Arizona becomes the 48th US state, 1912

Oregon becomes the 33rd US state, 1859

Birthdays Today:

Drew Bledsoe, 1972

Jessica Yu, 1966

Zach Galligan, 1964

Enric Colantoni, 1963

Meg Tilly, 1960

Renee Fleming, 1959

Raymond Joseph Teller, 1948

Gregory Hines, 1946

Carl Bernstein, 1944

Michael Bloomberg, 1942

Andrew Prine, 1936

Florence Henderson, 1934

Vic Morrow, 1932

Hugh Downs, 1921

Mel Allen, 1913

Jimmy Hoffa, 1913

Jack Benny, 1894

George Washington Gale Ferris,Jr., 1859

Winfield Scott Hancock, 1824

Frederick Douglass, 1817

Mary Ann "Aunt Mary" Prout, 1801

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Cloud Nine"(Play), 1978

"The Maltese Falcon"(Publication date), 1930

"Sinbad"(Musical), 1918

"Importance of Being Earnest"(Play), 1895

Today in History:

The annals of the monastery of Quedlinburg make the first known mention of Lithuania, 1009

Approximately 2,000 Jews are burned to death by mobs or forcibly removed from the city of Strasbourg, 1349

Roman Catholic emperor Leopold I chases the Jews out of Vienna, 1670

The United States Flag is formally recognized by a foreign naval vessel for the first time, when French Admiral Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte rendered a nine gun salute to USS Ranger, commanded by John Paul Jones, 1778

James Cook is killed by Native Hawaiians near Kealakekua on the Island of Hawaii, 1779

John Jervis and Horatio Nelson lead the British Royal Navy to victory over a Spanish fleet in action near Gibraltar, 1797

The apple parer is patented by Moses Coats of Downington, Pennsylvania, 1803

US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall declares that any act of the US Congress that conflicts with the Constitution is void, 1803

The original Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is formed in Kirtland, Ohio, 1835

In New York City, James Knox Polk becomes the first serving President of the United States to have his photograph taken, 1849

Esther Hobart Morris is appointed the first female Justice of the Peace in the US, in South Pass City, Wyoming, 1870

A.G. Bell and Elisha Gray both apply for a patent for a telephone; Bell first by only 2 hours, and is ruled the rightful inventor, 1876

The first trainload of California grown fruit, oranges, leaves L.A. for the east,1889

Voting machines are approved by the U.S. Congress for use in federal elections, 1899

The Soviet Union adopts the Gregorian calendar, 1918

The League of Women Voters is founded in Chicago, Illinois, 1920

The Bank of England is nationalized, 1946

ENIAC, the first general-purpose electronic computer, is unveiled, 1946

The Knesset (Israeli parliament) convenes for the first time, 1949

Element 103, Lawrencium, is first synthesized at the University of California, 1961

The first of 24 satellites of the Global Positioning System are placed into orbit, 1989

Space probe Voyager 1 takes photograph of entire solar system , 1990

Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft becomes first vehicle to land on an asteroid (433 Eros), 2001

Love letters written between poets Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning are published online by Wellesley College and Baylor University, 2012

The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, now the world's largest solar energy plant, opens in the Mojave Desert; the $2.2 billion plant, owned by Google, NRG Energy, and BrightSource energy, spans five square miles and can provide power to 140,000 homes, 2014

JP Morgan becomes the first bank to create its own crypo-currency, JPM Coin, 2019