Awesome Balance (Awww Monday), Inspiring Quote of the Week, and 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!

While i'd planned to use these a while back, i couldn't find where i had, so if anyone recognizes them, sorry for the repeat.  Ruth(less) is an amazing acrobat, and every time she does this her mama says, "Girl, you're stressing me out!"

Yes, this is at the top of those steep stairs.

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Sparks is the brainchild of Annie of McGuffy's Reader, who wanted us to post something positive and uplifting at the start of the week.  While she no longer blogs, i like to post an Inspiring Quote of the Week in her honor.     

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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 Bats and/or More Herbs, Less Salt (and i had to do both).                         

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They say that everybody

wants to be a cat,

well i am also partial

to the marvelous bat.

The only flying mammal,

some are pollinators, too,

the biggest, flying foxes,

are often found at the zoo.

Insectivore bats will eat

their weight in mosquitoes at night,

if you don't think that's useful,

something with you's not right!

Yes, i like our bat friends,

they do give me a thrill,

so if you see them flying,

don't panic, watch and chill!

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In my family there's a gift

and it's not a happy lift

it's the gift that you get when over fifty.

It comes with bad effect

that you wish you could reject,

'cause getting high blood pressure isn't nifty.

You must keep it in mind,

because if you don't you find

you get lots of bad stuff that will assault,

you sometimes feel quite dizzy,

headaches put you in a tizzy,

you find that sadly sodium's at fault.

Now you have to limit intake

as you cook and stir and bake

and as you concoct you wonder what to do.

You don't want to give up flavor

because that is what you savor

so you realize that herbs can see you through.

Time to pass on the salt shaker

and since you are the maker

of the meals you cook and only you to please,

you have to learn facility

and develop the ability

to use more herbs your taste buds all to tease.

You'll develop new facility

with herb mixing ability,

adobo seasoning to zedoary all exploring.

As you work to fix each dinner

you'll pick losers and pick winners,

and you'll find that your new meals are never boring!

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Today is:

According to Hoyle Day -- death anniversary of Edmond Hoyle

Araw ng mga Bayahi -- Philippines (National Heroes' Day)

August / Summer Bank Holiday -- UK

Be Kind to Humankind Week:  Motorist Consideration Monday 

Birthday of Hathor -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Chop Suey Day

Day of Loose Talk -- Fairy Calendar

Feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist (Patron of baptism, bird dealers, converts, convulsive children, cutters, epileptics, farmers, French Canadians, lambs, monastic life, motorways, printers, tailors; over 70 cities and countries around the world; against convulsions, epilepsy, hail and hailstorms, spasms)

     Head Day -- Iceland (a weather omen day; whatever today's weather, it will stay the same for at least 3 weeks)

Individual Rights Day -- on the birth anniversary of John Locke, the first philosopher to argue that a human being has basic rights based on his status as a sovereign human being, and that people are not slaves of their government, but their human rights should be protected by government

International Day Against Nuclear Testing -- UN

Judgment Day -- according to "The Terminator"

Lemon Juice Day

Liberation Day -- Hong Kong (from Japan in 1945; no longer an official holiday, but still acknowledged by many)

More Herbs, Less Salt Day

National Sarcoidosis Awareness Day -- US (by presidential proclamation in 1991)

Runic Half-Month Rad begins (Motion)

Slovak National Uprising Anniversary -- Slovakia

St. Medericus' Day (also called Saint-Merri or St. Merry, acclaimed as the Patron of the Right Bank of the Seine River in Paris)

Birthdays Today:

Lea Michele, 1986

Rebecca De Mornay, 1962

Mark Morris, 1956

Michael Jackson, 1958

`Richard Gere, 1949

Robin Leach, 1941

William Friedkin, 1939

Elliot Gould, 1938

John McCain, 1936

Richard Attenborough, 1923

Charlie "Bird" Parker, 1920

Isabel Sanford, 1917

Ingrid Bergman, 1915

Preston Sturges, 1898

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., 1809

John Locke, 1632

Today in History

Era of Diocletian (Martyrs), the last major time of persecution for the early Christian churches, begins with Gen. Gaius Aurelius V Diocletianus Jovius becoming emperor of Rome, 284

Japan mints its first copper coins, 708

The last Incan King of Peru, Atahualpa, is executed by order of Francisco Pizarro, 1533

The first Indian "reservation" is formed by the New Jersey Legislature, 1758

Michael Faraday discovers electromagnetic induction, 1831

The United Kingdom legislates the abolition of slavery in its empire, 1833

Treaty of Nanking signing ends the First Opium War, 1842

The first motorcycle is patented in Germany by Gottlieb Daimler, 1885

The chef of a visiting Chinese Ambassador invents "chop suey" in NYC, 1896

The Goodyear tire company is founded, 1898

The Quebec Bridge collapses during construction, killing 75 workers, 1907

Ishi, considered the last Native American to make contact with European Americans, emerges from the wilderness of northeastern California, 1911

The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb, 1949

Speedy Gonzales makes his debut, 1953

The Beatles perform their last concert before paying fans at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, 1966

Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union suspends all activities of the Soviet Communist Party, 1991

Hurricane Katrina devastates much of the U.S. Gulf Coast, 2005

Sumatra's Sinabung volcano erupts for the first time in 400 years, killing one and causing Indonesia to evacuate thousands of people, 2010

London holds the opening ceremonies for the 2012 Summer Paralympics, 2012

Austrian researchers announce they successfully grew 'cerebral organoids' or mini-brains, containing several distinct regions of the brain; the mini-brains will help scientists understand how brains develop, and what causes schizophrenia and autism, 2013

Hurricane Harvey sets a rainfall record of 51.88 inches in Cedar Bayou the most ever from a tropical cyclone in continental US, according to US National Weather Service, 2017

John McCain lies in state in the rotunda of the Arizona State Capitol Building in Phoenix, only the third person ever to do so, 2018

Hurricane Ida makes landfall as a Category 4 storm near Port Fourchon, Louisiana, on the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, 2021