Family (Awww Monday), Inspiring Quote of the Week and Poetry Monday, Don't Be Afraid

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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!

It's always a joy to sit behind this family at church.  The girls never quit hugging and clinging to their parents, taking turns going from one to the other.

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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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Our dear friend Diane is taking a break

accommodations we must make

we miss her poetry and wit

so carry on as Poetry Monday's a hit!

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 Don't Be Afraid.                  

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Swordfish has no fear 

since there is no such thing as 

penfish anywhere

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Telling my Sweetie, "Don't be afraid

to get on the elevator,"

is a very futile thing,

just save your breath for later.

No matter what he's worried,

he's been stuck and fit to be tied,

his claustrophobia's gotten worse,

he takes steps to avoid such a ride!

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Arachnophobia's fear of spiders

acrophobia, fear of heights.

Bibliophobia's fear of books,

dacnophobia, fear of bites.

Chrometophobia's fear of money

of spending your pounds and pence,

and the fear of chainsaws?

That's just common sense!

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Future themes are:

August 18 Don't Be Afraid (Today!)

August 25 Wonderful

September 1 Under the Sea

September 8 Big City

September 15 Tea Fusing

(All themes are from the 365 Days of Drawing Prompts and Other Arts Facebook group.)

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Today is:

Bad Poetry Day -- Wellcat Holidays suggests you get back at your high school English teacher for making you read all that "good" poetry; get together with friends, write some truly awful stuff, and mail it to him/her!

Long Tan Day a/k/a Vietnam Veterans Day -- Australia

Mail Order Catalog Day -- the first one was published by Montgomery Ward this day in 1872, and was only one page (Do yourself a favor and opt out of the doggone things, save a few trees: www.catalogchoice.org)

National Ice Cream Pie Day

National Science Day -- Thailand

National Soft Ice Cream Day

Serendipity Day -- and it's here serendipitously! begun by writer Madeleine Kay, it's the day to step out of routine, do something you've always wanted to do, and see what happens

Stay at Home With Your Kids Day -- begun by Work at Home Moms ezine in 1999, to encourage and support parents who work from home

St. Agapitus' Day (Patron of Palestrina, Italy; against colic)

St. Helena's Day (Mother of Constantine the Great; Patron of archaeologists, converts, difficult marriages, divorced people, dyers, empresses, nail smiths, needle makers; Birkirkara, Malta; Helena, MT, US; against fire and thunder)

Yukon Discovery Day -- YT, Canada

Birthdays Today:

Andy Samberg, 1978

Malcolm-Jamal Warner, 1970

Christian Slater, 1969

Edward Norton, 1969

Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, 1962

Madeleine Stowe, 1958

Patrick Swayze, 1952

Elayne Boosler, 1952

Martin Mull, 1943

Robert Redford, 1936

Roberto Clemente Walker, 1934

Roman Polanski, 1933

Luc Montagnier, 1932

Rosalynn Carter, 1927

Shelley Winters, 1920

Greta Garbo, 1905

Max Factor, 1904

Meriwether Lewis, 1774

Virginia Dare, 1587 (first English child born in the Americas)

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Private Lives"(Play), 1930

"Iphigénie"(Racine's dramatic tragedy), 1674

Today in History:

Founding of the oldest known Roman temple to Venus, BC293

Rome is occupied and plundered by Visigoths under King Alarik I, 410

Death of Genghis Khan (fell from his horse), 1227

A Portuguese ship drifts ashore in the Japanese province of Higo, 1541

The Boston, Massachusetts Evening Post begins publishing, 1735

Eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, 1834

Pierre Janssan discovers helium, 1868

German engineer Karl Jatho allegedly flies his self-made, motored gliding airplane four months before the first flight of the Wright Brothers, 1903.

Mayor of Tokyo Yukio Ozaki presents Washington, D.C. with 2,000 cherry trees, which President Taft decides to plant near the Potomac River, 1909

A Great Fire in Thessaloniki, Greece destroys 32% of the city leaving 70,000 individuals homeless, 1917

19th US Amendment ratified (gives women the vote), 1920

Premier of The Wizard of Oz, 1939

The first commercially produced oral contraceptives are marketed, 1960

James Meredith becomes the first black person to graduate from the University of Mississippi, 1963

Steve Biko is arrested at a police roadblock under the Terrorism Act No 83 of 1967 in King William's Town, South Africa. He would later die of the injuries sustained during this arrest bringing attention to South Africa's apartheid policies, 1977

Massive power blackout hits the Indonesian island of Java, affecting almost 100 million people, 2005

Columbia's Chiribiquete National Park expands to 3 million hectares from 1.2 million hectares, becoming one of the Amazon's largest protected zones, 2013

Civilian researchers led by Paul Allen re-discover the USS Indianapolis 18,000 feet below the Pacific surface, 72 years after it was sunk by Japanese torpedoes, 2017

Food matter found in the 3,200-year-old tomb of Ptahmes, an official of Memphis, Egypt, is confirmed to be cheese, the oldest evidence yet of cheesemaking, 2018

Archaeologists announce the discovery of a megalithic complex of more than 500 standing stones at La Torre-La Janera, Huelva, southern Spain, 2022

The Canadian province of British Columbia declares a state of emergency as two major wildfires combine near Adams Lake, 2023