Babies Want Out! (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!

The littles were climbing the walls.

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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 Mittens.                         

Mittens are more fun

than a pair of gloves could be

your fingers stay friends

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We don't have ferocious winters here,

in the swamp, we tend toward hot.

It's summer here, then February,

severe cold, there's not a lot.

Then there are the exceptions

when the South does get some snow,

on the rare occasion it happens,

the kids are all aglow.

It does create a dilemma

as we don't keep winter gear,

it doesn't happen often enough

to keep a lot of it here.

One night the snow did fall here,

and in the morning, quite early,

i woke my children and told them,

they jumped and squealed with glee.

We bundled up as best we could

and to protect each little hand,

turned out a nice, big, thick, warm sock

could make a mitten grand!

They played until their noses froze,

then came in to thaw out

and back in it to enjoy it all

they did run and scream and shout.

It made for extra laundry

and lost a sock or two,

but if you need ersatz mittens,

now you know what to do!

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Today is:

AFL-CIO Day (date of merger in 1955)

Bathtub Party Day -- celebrate how much fun it is to take a nice, long, hot bath in these days when showers prevail; sponsored by Wellcat Holidays

Boycott Day -- commemoration of the city bus boycott begun this day in 1959 in Birmingham, AL, US in response to the arrest of Rosa Parks

Constitution Day -- Sudan

Day of the Ninja -- sponsored by Ninja Burger! with its own website     

Dia de la Abolicion del Ejercito -- Costa Rica (Miliary Abolition Day; yes, really, they abolished the military after the 1948 revolution, are one of Central America's oldest democracies, and has only the Police Guard forces)

Dingle-Fritter, Gooseberry Humple, Tiger-Get-By, LoneFolding, and Zimbor-Quattor's (Multiple Squishing of) Celebration -- Fairy Calendar

Discovery Day -- Haiti

International Volunteer Day for Economic and Social Development -- UN

King's Birthday -- Thailand, also National Day and Father's Day (for His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s birth anniversary, the founder and "father" of the nation)

King Tupou I Day -- Tonga

National Sacher Torte Day

Nones of December -- Ancient Roman Calendar; also observed

     Faunalia -- rural festival of Faunus

Repeal Day -- US (celebrating the repeal of Prohibition)

St. Bassus of Nice's Day (Patron of Nice, France)

St. Nicholas' Eve  -- Belgium; Czech Republic; Hungary; Netherlands; Romania; Slovakia; parts of the UK; special observances include

      Avond -- Leewvarden, West Friesland (St. Nicholas visits and, if you are good, promises to return with trinkets and candies, which are left in waiting shoes)

      Bonhomme Noel -- France (Celebration of "Goodman Christmas")

      Klausjagen -- Arth and Kussnacht, Switzerland (with a procession of mitre-wearing figures by the Lake of Four Cantons)

      Krampuslauf -- Austria (St. Nicholas celebration, which begins the evening before the Saint's day, involving chasing and throwing snowballs at the Krampus, the imp who travels with St. Nick to punish the bad children)

      Zwarte Piet -- "Black Peter", the companion of St. Nicholas who keeps track of the good and bad children, arrives in many areas tonight

Swap a Christmas Cookie Recipe Day -- because it's fun to try new ones

World Soil Day -- International Union of Soil Sciences     

Birthdays Today:

Frankie Muniz, 1985

Margaret Cho, 1968

Gary Allan, 1967

John Rzeznik, 1965

Art Monk, 1957

Morgan Brittany, 1950

Jim Messina, 1947

Jose Carreras, 1946

Jeroen Krabbe, 1944

J.J. Cale, 1938

Chad Mitchell, 1936

Calvin Trillin, 1935

Joan Didion, 1934

Little Richard, 1932

Otto Preminger, 1906

Strom Thurmond, 1902

Walt Disney, 1901

Bill Picket, 1870

George Armstrong Custer, 1839

Christina Rossetti, 1830

Martin Van Buren, 1782

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Catskills on Broadway"(Revue), 1991

"I Do! I Do!"(Musical), 1966

"Band on the Run"(Album), 1973 (US release date)

"The Dark at the Top of the Stairs"(Inge play), 1957

"The Abbot and Costello Show"(TV), 1952

"Dragnet"(TV), 1951

"Kejser og Gililaer/Emperor and Galilean"(Ibsen play), 1896

"Symphonie Fantastique"(Berlioz symphony), 1830

Today in History:

Cicero reads the last of his Catiline Orations, BC63

An earthquake in Naples leave about 35,000 dead, 1465

All Jews are expelled from Portugal by order of King Manuel I, 1496

London auctioneers Christie's hold their first sale, 1766

Henry Knox begins the transport of Fort Ticonderoga artillery to Cambridge, Massachusetts, a key to later forcing the British Fleet out of Boston Harbor, 1775

C F Schoenbein obtains patent for cellulose nitrate explosive, 1846

President Polk confirms that gold has been discovered in California, triggering the next year's "Gold Rush", 1848

Daniel Stillson of Massachusetts patents the first practical pipe wrench, 1876

The first automated telephone switching system is patented, 1879

The first electric car makes its debut; it could go 15 miles between charges, 1893

University of Pittsburg makes the first use of numbers on football jerseys, 1908

The American League for Physical Culture is founded in NYC, the first US nudist organization, 1929

The 21st Amendment, which repealed Prohibition, is ratified, 1933

Sister Elizabeth Kenny's new treatment for infantile paralysis receives approval, 1941

A cold fog descends upon London, combining with air pollution and killing at least 12,000 in the weeks and months that follow, 1952

The United Nations General Assembly adopts Pakistan's resolution on security of non-Nuclear States, 1976

Shuttle Atlantis launches world's 1st nuclear-war-fighting satellite. 1988

The Civil Partnership Act comes into effect in the United Kingdom, and the first civil partnership is registered there, 2005

Human remains previously found in 1991 are finally identified by Russian and American scientists as those of Tsar Nicholas II, 2008

Malta becomes the first country in Europe to outlaw conversion therapy, 2015

Russia is banned from the next Winter Olympics in South Korea over state-sponsored doping, 2017

The letter by Albert Einstein from 1954 on the concept of religion sells for $2.9 million at Christie's in New York, 2018

WHO says 142,000 people died of the measles around the world in 2018, nearly 20,000 more than the previous year, 2019

Imani and Hermien, hippos at the Antwerp Zoo, test positive for Covid, the first of their species to do so, 2021