I Can, Mommy! (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!

I came home one day last week so see a mom pushing the stroller, walking the dog, and watching the older child ride her bike.  Then the little guy insisted on getting out of the stroller.  In the first picture, you see him asking his mom for a turn walking the dog, and then him doing so.

Once they got way too far for a picture, daughter was ahead, mom was still pushing the stroller, and little guy was walking the very cooperative pup while his mom complimented him on what big help he was being.

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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.  Charlotte/Mother Owl and i are keeping it going while she takes a blog break, we hope temporarily.  Anyone else is welcome to join in the fun, just let us know!

This week the theme is Winner.                      

They loved to shoot at targets

at their local shooters club.

It was time for the competition,

no time for any to flub.

The winner would get a trophy,

a rather ugly thing,

the second place a crate of champagne,

a prize to make you sing!

It was a fierce competition

and everyone's hopes ran high,

and when it came down to it,

they finally had a tie.

In this case, they have a shoot-out,

and they both lined up to see,

of the best in their club that year,

just who would it be?

Instead of taking turns,

they's simultaneously shoot five rounds,

this they did, and when the dust cleared,

suddenly, there were no sounds.

"I'm sorry buddy," said the first,

"you won the ugly trophy after all,

and I'll drink to you, because I put

my shots into the wall."

"Well, I gotta tell you," 

said the second with a smile,

"I put my shots in your target,

I'll drink to you in style!"

Future themes are

1/15 requirement

1/22 teacher

1/29 flight

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Today is:

Bubble Bath Day -- remember how much fun it was as a kid?  enjoy that again today

Clean Off Your Desk Day -- me and what army? (Note:  some sites put this as always on Jan. 9, some the second Monday of January; either way, my question remains)

Day Sacred to Justicia -- Ancient Roman Empire (personification of justice)

Emperor Norton Day -- E. Clampus Vitus Society puts on a party in San Francisco's Chinatown in honor of the passing on this day of Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico

Eugenio Maria de Hostos' Day -- Puerto Rico (birth anniv. obs.)

Feast of Hathor and Sekhmet -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Feast of St. Gudula (Patron of single laywomen; Brussels, Belgium)

Grandmothers/Midwives Day -- Bulgaria (a/k/a Babin Den; celebrating Grandmothers as midwives of their grandchildren, for the role they play in the traditional family.)

Haloa -- Ancient Greek Calendar (fertility festival of Demeter and Dionysos called after the halos, or threshing floor; date approximate)

     Rural Dionysia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (the fertility festival of the countryside)

It All Adds Up Day -- anniversary of Hollerith's tabulating machine patent

Kim Jong-un's Birthday -- North Korea

Male Watcher's Day -- often listed as a day for the females to get even and do a little guy ogling, but no site gives any reason behind why this day was chosen

Midwife's Day / Women's Day -- Greece (women get out and go to a cafe or shopping, and the men must stay home and do the chores and care for the children, and in some areas, men caught shirking will be stripped and drenched in cold water; on the approximate date of an ancient Greek celebration of midwives)

     Gynaecocratia -- Macedonia

Milk Carton Day -- Sheffield Farms began packaging milk in parafin lined paper cartons on this day in 1929

National Eat Something Raw Day 

National English Toffee Day

National Joygerm Day -- a day to infect others with joy; begun by Joygerm Joan, whose motto is "The only thing Joygerms allow to get depressed are their tongues!"

Old Hickory Day -- Andrew "Old Hickory" Jackson leads the victory in the Battle of New Orleans

Plough Monday -- UK (farm work is resumed the Monday following the 12 Days of Christmas, and ploughs are brought to the church to be blessed)

Rock 'n' Roll Day -- on Elvis' birth anniversary, of course

Seijin-no-hi -- Japan (Adult's Day, or Coming of Age Day; celebrating all who have reached age 20, full legal adult age, in the past year)

Show and Tell at Work Day -- another Wellcat Holiday to observe carefully if at all

St. Severinus' Day (Patron of Austria and of San Severo, Italy)

Toka Ebisu Matsuri -- Osaka, Japan (Festival of Ebisu, god of business and prosperity; through the 11th)

Birthdays Today:

Ami Dolenz, 1969

Vladimir Feltsman, 1952

Don Bendell, 1947

David Bowie, 1947

Robbie Krieger, 1946

Kathleen Noone, 1946

Stephen Hawking, 1942

Yvette Mimieux, 1939

Bob Eubanks, 1938

Shirley Bassey, 1937

Elvis Presley, 1935

Charles Osgood, 1933

Soupy Sales, 1926

Ron Moody, 1924

Larry Storch, 1923

Jose Ferrer, 1912

Galina Ulanova, 1910

Wilkie Collins, 1824

James Longstreet, 1821

Nicholas Biddle, 1786

Debuting/Premiering Today:

Symphony No. 15 in A major (Opus 141, Dmitri Shostakovich), 1972

"Almira"(Handel's first opera), 1705

Today in History:

Monaco gains its independence, 1297

Genoa, Italy expels Jews, 1598

The oldest surviving commercial newspaper begins in Haarlem, Netherlands, 1675

The New York Fishing Company is the first American commercial corporation chartered, 1675

Premiere performance of George Frideric Handel's Ariodante at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 1734

US President George Washington delivers the first "State of the Union" address, 1790

Victor, the Wild Boy of Aveyron, emerges voluntarily from the wild in southern France (he had been captured and escaped before), 1800

The Battle of New Orleans, 1815

The first US music school, the Boston Academy of Music, is established, 1833

The US national debt hits $0 for the first and only time, 1835

Alfred Vail demonstrates a telegraph system using dots and dashes (this is the forerunner of Morse code), 1836

French physicist Jean Foucault proves, using his "Foucault's pendulum," that the Earth rotates on its axis, 1851

Crazy Horse and his warriors fight their last battle with the US Cavalry at Wolf Mountain in Montana Territory, 1877

Dr. Herman Hollerith receives the first US patent for a tabulating machine, considered by some to be the earliest computer, 1889

The Blackstone Library is dedicated, marking the beginning of the Chicago Public Library system, 1904

Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is exhibited in the United States for the first time, at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., 1963

Soviet space mission Luna 21 is launched, 1973

The RMS Queen Mary 2, the largest passenger ship ever built, is christened by her namesake's granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II, 2004

Some scientists claim 2012 weather as the hottest year ever recorded, 2013

The previous year, 2017, is declared a record year for cost of natural disasters, coming in at $306 billion, 2018

China loosens travel restrictions and reopens its borders after 3 years, 2023