***********************************
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!
Ms. Curious and Mr. Curiouser are adopted now, but they spent all their time at the shelter being curious about everyone who stopped to spend a moment.
***********************************
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.
***********************************
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 Random Acts of Kindness.
He sat and made a phone call,
he did it every year,
he wanted it to bring much fun
and cause them lots of cheer.
He'd call the local "MallMart" Store
when December rolled around,
to spread a little happiness
and chase away some frowns.
Way back when he was younger
and times were always tough,
they oft had almost nothing
and holidays were sometimes rough.
His wife was glad they did it,
her family was country poor,
had what they grew and what Papa earned
but very little more.
When he had been much younger,
he and his brother-in-law,
dressed like Santa and a helper
made home visits and saw
First hand what it was like
for some down-and-out family;
they'd deliver toys and food
and leave behind much glee.
Now he is much older,
with money and the will,
but without the strength to go himself
he finds ways to help still.
So each year he makes a phone call
with lay-away he has a chat,
he tells them he's a secret Santa,
and then he tells them that
He wants them to pick five families
with toys on lay-away,
he pays the rest of the money
and makes everybody's day!
He has them include a gift card
so they can buy groceries, too,
he wants no one to go hungry,
he remembers those times, it's true.
Back when i was younger,
Grandma and Grandpa would
bring us kids to help them shop
for children of another neighborhood.
Now he makes that phone call,
such giving brings them joy,
their giving goes beyond holidays
and giving away some toys.
I grew up with a living example
of what kindness should be,
they are still a shining light
and deeply inspiring to me.
While these kindnesses were plotted
and planned with much great care,
if we look around we'll see it,
needs crop up everywhere.
The need to move over in traffic
and let another move in,
grab extra food while shopping,
drop it in the Food Bank bin.
There are more random acts
we can do than we could count,
it's about the kindness,
not so much the cost amount.
This weary world sure needs
the effort we can make,
do a kind act today and see
what a difference it will make!
***********************************
Today is:
Break-Up Day -- if you are over him/her, don't go through tomorrow pledging love falsely, get out today
Clean Out Your Computer Day -- always the second Monday of February
Dream of Your Sweetheart Day -- a reminder that if you aren't ready for Valentine's Day tomorrow, you'd better get cracking
Employee Legal Awareness Day -- Australia
Get a Different Name Day -- for those who hate their name; sponsored by Wellcat Holidays
Ides of February -- Ancient Roman Calendar; also
Parentalia begins -- through the 21st (honoring divi parentes -- the deified ancestors)
Lupercalia begins -- through the 15th (to rid the city of evil spirits)
Orgiastic festival of Juno Februa begins -- through tomorrow
I Value Your Friendship Day -- because you don't want to neglect your friends while we are remembering love this week
Just Say No to Powerpoint® Week begins -- please, use something else, like communicating with your audience! begun by Nancy Stern
Love a Mensch Week begins -- because mensches are decent and responsible men and women, and we should appreciate how they enhance our lives; begun by Robin Gorman Newman
Madly in Love With Me Day -- because you have to love "me" before you can love "we"
National Tortellini Day
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)
Royal Hobart Regatta Day -- Tasmania, Australia
St. Catherine dei Ricci's Day (Patron of the ill)
Ta-asobi -- Akatsuka Suwa Shrine, Itabashi-ku, Japan (ceremony to pray for a good harvest)
Trndez or Tearnandarach -- Armenian Christian Church (fire celebration, begins in the evening and goes through tomorrow; originally a pagan sun worship celebration, it is now a Candlemas celebration by the OS Calendar)
Birthdays Today:
Mena Suvari, 1979
Robbie Williams, 1974
Kelly Hu, 1968
David Naughton, 1951
Peter Gabriel, 1950
Stockard Channing, 1944
Jerry Springer, 1944
Carol Lynley, 1942
Peter Tork, 1942
Bo Svenson, 1941
George Segal, 1934
Kim Novak, 1933
Chuck Yeager, 1923
Eileen Farrell, 1920
Tennessee Ernie Ford, 1919
Eddie Robinson, 1919
Grant Wood, 1892
Alvin York, 1887
Elizabeth "Bess" Virginia Wallace Truman, 1885
Randolph Henry Spencer Churchill, 1849
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, 1754
Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, 1682
Debuting/Premiering Today:
"Merlin"(Musical), 1983
"Prince Valiant"(Comic strip), 1937
Today in History:
Baghdad falls to the Mongols, and the Abbasid Caliphate is destroyed, 1258
Jews are expelled from Burgsordf, Switzerland, 1349
The Disfida di Barletta (Challenge of Barletta); Frenchman Charles de la Motte accused Italians of cowardice, and thirteen Italians proceeded to rout 13 Frenchmen in a chivalrous horseback tourney, 1503
St. Augustine, Florida, is founded, becoming the oldest continuously occupied European established city, and the oldest port, in the continental United States, 1566
Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei arrives in Rome for trial before the Inquisition for professing belief that the Earth revolves around the sun, 1633
Treaty of Lisbon: Spain recognizes Portugal, 1668
The Massacre of Glencoe: 78 members of the clan Macdonald are murdered for not promptly pledging allegiance to the new king, William of Orange (William III), 1692
Cholera appears in London, 1832
Work begins on the covering of the Zenne, burying Brussels's primary river and creating the modern central boulevards, 1867
The feminist newspaper La Citoyenne is first published in Paris by the activist Hubertine Auclert, 1881
Painter Thomas Eakins resigns from Philadelphia Academy of Art after controversial over use of male nudes in a coed art class, 1886
Auguste and Louis Lumière patent the Cinematographe, a combination movie camera and projector, 1894
English suffragettes storm British Parliament and 60 women are arrested, 1907
The Negro National League is formed, 1920
A jury in Flemington, New Jersey finds Bruno Hauptmann guilty of the 1932 kidnapping and murder of the Lindbergh baby, 1935
France tests its first atomic bomb, 1960
Black Sabbath, arguably the very first heavy metal album, is released, 1970
A series of sewer explosions destroys more than two miles of streets in Louisville, Kentucky, 1981
An agreement is reached on a two-stage plan to reunite Germany, 1990
The last original "Peanuts" comic strip appears in newspapers one day after Charles M. Schulz dies, 2000
The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics announces the discovery of the universe's largest known diamond, white dwarf star BPM 37093. Astronomers named this star "Lucy" after The Beatles' song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", 2004
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd makes a historic apology to the Indigenous Australians and the Stolen Generations, 2008
At 23:31:30 UTC the Unix system time (time_t) number reaches 1234567890 seconds, 2009
For the first time in more than 100 years the Umatilla, an American Indian tribe, were able to hunt and harvest a bison just outside Yellowstone National Park, restoring a centuries-old tradition guaranteed by a treaty signed in 1855, 2011
NASA confirms Mars Opportunity rover's mission, originally set to be 90 days, has ended after 15 years due to a sandstorm damaging communications, 2019
A study published in the journal Science of Arrokoth 2014 MU69 in the Kuiper Belt shows scientists are rethinking how planets are formed, not by violent collisions but by a more gentle clumping, 2020
Archaeologists announce the discovery of oldest known beer factory in Abydos, Egypt, from early Dynastic period 3150 B.C.- 2613 B.C, 2021
