Weekly Writer's Workshop: For God So Hugged The World

Here are the prompts for this week’s Writer’s Workshop:

1.  Write a post based on the word hugging. 
2. Write a post in exactly 13 sentences. 
3. How do you cope with days where you’re stuck in the house due to bad weather? 
4. What are your favorite food items to order online? 
5. If evidence of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe were discovered, would it alter your core beliefs or sense of self? 
6. List your five most recent favorite things.

I am combining 2 prompts today, #1 and #5.  It's not exactly one from column A and one from column B, but it gets the job done.

For God So Hugged The World

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (NIV)

My older sister asked me once what  John 3:16 meant.  So, I told her what the verse said, and her reaction was, "That has nothing to do with football"

I saw my sister right after Christmas as I was at the wedding of my oldest niece, her daughter.  There was an hour or so between the end of the wedding and the reception.  So my family being who we are, took a side trip to a local library between gigs.  While we were there my daughter Lucy emerged triumphantly from the lobby to say that she had found a 1984 Thesaurus in the free stuff bin,  She spent the next few days of the trip regaling us with synonyms from the book.  I have asked her to read me the synonyms for hug. Here goes: embrace, hold, clasp, press to the bosom, hold close, clutch, squeeze, cuddle, snuggle, nestle, and (wait for it) cling together.

As I contemplated the meaning of John 3:16, especially what it meant for God to so love the world, I thought of hugs.  I thought of a child who seemingly gave up on physical expressions of love to their parents initiating a hug with me for no particular reason.  I thought of how hugs show one's love for another but also leave room for a reply. 

 I thought of Jesus in that sense as a hug from God.  To put it back in the context of John 3:16,  our sins had separated us from God.  We were on a path to perishing without a chance to have that relationship mended. God reached out to us, extending his Son as a way to eternal life.  We must reach back to God completing that hug by accepting Jesus as the only way to God.  

This brings me rather clumsily to prompt 5: If evidence of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe were discovered, would it alter your core beliefs or sense of self? 

My short answer is no.  My core beliefs and my sense of self,  emanate from my understanding of biblical Christianity.  Larry Norman a pioneer of Jesus Music broached the subject in the bridge of his song U.F.O.

And if there's life on other planets 

Then I'm sure that He must know 

And He's been there once already 

And has died to save their souls.

Those lyrics have always resonated with me. I have never meant much of a subscriber to the notion of life on other planets.  I like the science-fiction element of extraterrestrial life but that's where it ends. However farfetched I might find it, if confronted with proof that there is life on other planets, I would lean in on Norman's thought process.  To extend my previous thoughts on John 3:16, I can imagine the Lord of the Universe loving other intelligent life so much that he would reach out and hug them through the person of his Son as well.  

Just like I don't jettison my faith when difficult times come my way, I plan to always trust in God no matter what other things may come to challenge my world view.  

A Snapshot of the pioneering christian rock musician Larry Norman taken following concert in Defiance, Ohio on October 20, 2001.

By Ekiledal - http://upload.wikimedia.org/, Public Domain, Link

Thanks to John Holton of The Sound of One Hand Typing for this week's prompts.  To participate more in this Week workshop click here.

A to Z 2024:Reflections - The Music

I am doing my A to Z Reflections in 2 parts this year.  The traditional reflection with the index and the pontification will follow.  This year I paid homage to John "1 Hand Typing" Holton  by having a "song of the day" for each letter of the alphabet at the end of my post. I would post a You Tube video of the song in question and then daily add that song to my Spotify A to Z playlist.   

I am adding a bonus song of the day for the reflection called appropriately enough, Reflecting on My Reflection by Allen Levi.

The Leap of Dave A to Z Playlist ia now ready with all 26 songs from the challenge.  

I will be back later this week with my traditional reflection.  Foe more reflections click here.

Z is for the Zenith of the American Revolution

 

For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate. Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day. I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge. At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter. At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in an A to Z keepsake playlist on Spotify. Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together.

April 30th 2024 is the 235th anniversary of George Washington being inaugurated the first President of the United States.

George Washington

By Gilbert Stuart, Public Domain, Link

On April 30th 1789 George Washington was innaugurated the first President of the United States of America in Federal Hall in New York City.  Here is the transcript of his address ...

Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives: 

 Among the vicissitudes incident to life no event could have filled me with greater anxieties than that of which the notification was transmitted by your order, and received on the 14th day of the present month. On the one hand, I was summoned by my Country, whose voice I can never hear but with veneration and love, from a retreat which I had chosen with the fondest predilection, and, in my flattering hopes, with an immutable decision, as the asylum of my declining years--a retreat which was rendered every day more necessary as well as more dear to me by the addition of habit to inclination, and of frequent interruptions in my health to the gradual waste committed on it by time. On the other hand, the magnitude and difficulty of the trust to which the voice of my country called me, being sufficient to awaken in the wisest and most experienced of her citizens a distrust-ful scrutiny into his qualifications, could not but overwhelm with despondence one who (inheriting inferior endowments from nature and unpracticed in the duties of civil administration) ought to be peculiarly conscious of his own deficiencies. In this conflict of emotions all I dare aver is that it has been my faithful study to collect my duty from a just appreciation of every circumstance by which it might be affected. All I dare hope is that if, in executing this task, I have been too much swayed by a grateful remembrance of former instances, or by an affectionate sensibility to this transcendent proof of the confidence of my fellow-citizens, and have thence too little consulted my incapacity as well as disinclination for the weighty and untried cares before me, my error will be palliated by the motives which mislead me, and its consequences be judged by my country with some share of the partiality in which they originated. 

Such being the impressions under which I have, in obedience to the public summons, repaired to the present station, it would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a Government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes, and may enable every instrument employed in its administration to execute with success the functions allotted to his charge. In tendering this homage to the Great Author of every public and private good, I assure myself that it expresses your sentiments not less than my own, nor those of my fellow- citizens at large less than either. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency; and in the important revolution just accomplished in the system of their united government the tranquil deliberations and voluntary consent of so many distinct communities from which the event has resulted can not be compared with the means by which most governments have been established without some return of pious gratitude, along with an humble anticipation of the future blessings which the past seem to presage. These reflections, arising out of the present crisis, have forced themselves too strongly on my mind to be suppressed. You will join with me, I trust, in thinking that there are none under the influence of which the proceedings of a new and free government can more auspiciously commence. 

By the article establishing the executive department it is made the duty of the President "to recommend to your consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient." The circumstances under which I now meet you will acquit me from entering into that subject further than to refer to the great constitutional charter under which you are assembled, and which, in defining your powers, designates the objects to which your attention is to be given. It will be more consistent with those circumstances, and far more congenial with the feelings which actuate me, to substitute, in place of a recommendation of particular measures, the tribute that is due to the talents, the rectitude, and the patriotism which adorn the characters selected to devise and adopt them. In these honorable qualifications I behold the surest pledges that as on one side no local prejudices or attachments, no separate views nor party animosities, will misdirect the comprehensive and equal eye which ought to watch over this great assemblage of communities and interests, so, on another, that the foundation of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality, and the preeminence of free government be exemplified by all the attributes which can win the affections of its citizens and command the respect of the world. I dwell on this prospect with every satisfaction which an ardent love for my country can inspire, since there is no truth more thoroughly established than that there exists in the economy and course of nature an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness; between duty and advantage; between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity; since we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained; and since the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered, perhaps, as deeply, as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people. 

Besides the ordinary objects submitted to your care, it will remain with your judgment to decide how far an exercise of the occasional power delegated by the fifth article of the Constitution is rendered expedient at the present juncture by the nature of objections which have been urged against the system, or by the degree of inquietude which has given birth to them. Instead of undertaking particular recommendations on this subject, in which I could be guided by no lights derived from official opportunities, I shall again give way to my entire confidence in your discernment and pursuit of the public good; for I assure myself that whilst you carefully avoid every alteration which might endanger the benefits of an united and effective government, or which ought to await the future lessons of experience, a reverence for the characteristic rights of freemen and a regard for the public harmony will sufficiently influence your deliberations on the question how far the former can be impregnably fortified or the latter be safely and advantageously promoted. 

To the preceding observations I have one to add, which will be most properly addressed to the House of Representatives. It concerns myself, and will therefore be as brief as possible. When I was first honored with a call into the service of my country, then on the eve of an arduous struggle for its liberties, the light in which I contemplated my duty required that I should renounce every pecuniary compensation. From this resolution I have in no instance departed; and being still under the impressions which produced it, I must decline as inapplicable to myself any share in the personal emoluments which may be indispensably included in a permanent provision for the executive department, and must accordingly pray that the pecuniary estimates for the station in which I am placed may during my continuance in it be limited to such actual expenditures as the public good may be thought to require. 

Having thus imparted to you my sentiments as they have been awakened by the occasion which brings us together, I shall take my present leave; but not without resorting once more to the benign Parent of the Human Race in humble supplication that, since He has been pleased to favor the American people with opportunities for deliberating in perfect tranquillity, and dispositions for deciding with unparalleled unanimity on a form of government for the security of their union and the advancement of their happiness, so His divine blessing may be equally conspicuous in the enlarged views, the temperate consultations, and the wise measures on which the success of this Government must depend.

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The song of the day is Zion by Aaron Shust

The A to Z Challenge is complete!  The Spotify Leap of Dave A to Z playlist is complete.  They both have been a lot of fun.  I will be back soon with my A to Z reflections.

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To go to the home of the A to Z challenge click here, to see the 2024 master list of participating blogs click here. Enjoy the 2024 A to Z challenge, and Happy Holidays!

A to Z 2024: Y is for watching Viral Videos on Youtube

 

For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate. Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day. I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge. At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter. At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in an A to Z keepsake playlist on Spotify. Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together.

April 29th is Viral Video Day

• The first viral video on You Tube was an unauthorized bootleg of the SNL digital short Lazy Sunday.  It had over 5,000,000 views between December 2005 and February of 2006 when You Tube took it down.  SNL has since put the video up on it's own You Tube Channel.
• Like many subsequent viral videos Lazy Sunday spawned some response videos.  This one being a shot by shot remake
• In 2008 the viral video Charlie bit my finger - Again blew up  on You Tube.  To date it has 886,000,000 views.  My son was 7 when this came out and I must say he was very good at shutting people down before they ever got to teasing him about that.
• By 2013 most everyone knew what a viral video was.  April 29th 2013 was the first known occurrence of Viral Video Day.
• Since then, viral videos have not gone away.  Video's like this one my daughter calls Chewbacca Mom. It had 13,00,000 views in the past 7 years.  

I know there are just two days left in the A to Z challenge.  I say take a moment and watch some You Tube videos.  You may just help one go viral!

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The song of the day is You Make It Easy To Fall In Love by Three Crosses

25 songs are on the Leap of Dave A to Z 2024 playlist.  Just one more letter, one more holiday and one more song!

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To go to the home of the A to Z challenge click here, to see the 2024 master list of participating blogs click here. Enjoy the 2024 A to Z challenge, and Happy Holidays!

A to Z 2024: X marks the spot that pampered dogs have in our heart

  For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate.  Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day.  I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge.  At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter.  At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in an A to Z keepsake playlist on Spotify.  Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together.

April 27th is National Little Pampered Dog Day

That's it.  That's all I've got it's 11:54 on April 27th and I've gotten all my posts this month in on time.  What I lack in content, I make up for in punctuality.

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The song of the day is Xandadu by Olivia Newton John & ELO from the 1980 film, Xanadu.  I saw it when it came out.  I didn't like it then, it was more of a xanadon't.  But this clip makes me consider giving it a second viewing.

X is 10 in Roman Numerals but today X makes 24 songs on the Spotify Playlist

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To go to the home of the A to Z challenge click here, to see the 2024 master list of participating blogs click here. Enjoy the 2024 A to Z challenge, and Happy Holidays!

A to Z 2024: W is for Warmly Embrace Austalians

  For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate.  Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day.  I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge.  At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter.  At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in an A to Z keepsake playlist on Spotify.  Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together.

April 26th is Hug an Australian Day.

Australia is the lone continent that is also one entire country.  Australia Day is celebrated each year on January  26th marking the 1788 landing of the first fleet into Sydney Harbor and the subsequent raising of the Union Flag  of Great Britain.  3 months to the day later you can celebrate Australians all over again by hugging them.  

Originated in 1996 in Melbourne, Hug an Australian day promotes warmth and wellness.

Wallaby,Dhammagiri Forest Hermitage, Buddhist Monastery, Brisbane, Australia www.dhammagiri.org.au 

 Not everyone can visit Australia.  However everyone can promote good will to Australians everywhere by wishing all Auissies you meet well wishes and perhaps even a warm embrace.  Here's a cute video of someone hugging a koala bear.

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Today's Song of the Day is We are Here by Randy Stonehill & Buck Storm

23 songs for the playlist

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To go to the home of the A to Z challenge click here, to see the 2024 master list of participating blogs click here. Enjoy the 2024 A to Z challenge, and Happy Holidays!

A to Z 2024: V is for Various Holidays

  For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate.  Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day.  I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge.  At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter.  At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in an A to Z keepsake playlist on Spotify.  Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together.

April 25th: Multiple Holidays Abound

Everyday of the year there are a plethora of holidays,  My job for the challenge was to scour through those holidays and find one that somehow relates to the letter of the day.  Since todays letter is V, I thought I might give you a variety pack of holidays, events, and occurrences to celebrate today.

Holidays

National Hairstylist Appreciation Day Held on the 25th April since 2012.  Prior to that it was celebrated on April 30th, but alas, that wasn't it's "permanent" day.

International  Delegates Day - United Nations The current U.S. Ambassador for the U.N. is  Linda Thomas Greenfield.  The last former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. that I voted for for President of the U.S. was Nikki Haley.

World Penguin Day Statred in 1972, April 25th coincides with he day that Adelie penguins begin their northern migration.  It is a little confusing because I thought it was March of the Penguins, not April.  

3 Adelie PenguinsCC BY-SA 2.0, Link

License Plate Day On April 25th 1901 the state of New York made the first law requiring automobiles to have license plates.  Speaking of license plates click here to see the I holiday Indicted Illinois Governors Day.

Born On April 25th

Al Pacino - American Actor 1940- present

Edward R Murrow - Radio and Television Journalist - 1908-1965

Edward R Murrow Public Domain,

David Strathairn As Murrow in Good Night and Good Luck

Guglielmo Marconi - Inventor and Physicist 1874-1937

Died on April 25th

Ginger Rogers - American Actress and Dancer.  Died in 1995 at the age of 83

Rogers and Fred Astaire

By RKO Radio Pictures Public Domain, Link

John Havlicek - Boston Celtics Basketball Star died at the age of 79 in 2014

Bea Arthur- Actress best know for her roles on t.v. shows Maude, and Golden Girls-  died at the age of 86 in 2009 

Happened on April 25th ...

2021 - Chloe Zhao win's Best Director Oscar for the film Nomadland.  Frances McDormand won the Academy award for Actress in a Leading Role for Nomadland, which also won the Oscar for Best Picture.  

1990- Hubble Space Telescope Sent Into Orbit.This hour video show the Space Shuttle bringing the telecope into space and then releasing it into orbit.  

 

This poster shows many of the great pictures taken with the telescope.

By Unknown author Public Domain, Link

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Song of the Day The View From Here Bob Bennet  

There is an entire house concert from 2019 on this video, if I have set this up correctly, the intro to the song should start as you open the video.  There are 22 songs on the A to Z Spotify playlist now. Just like today it houses a lot of variety.

To go to the home of the A to Z challenge click here, to see the 2024 master list of participating blogs click here. Enjoy the 2024 A to Z challenge, and Happy Holidays!  

A to Z 2024: U is for Undecided, Undeclared & Uncertain Day

  For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate.  Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day.  I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge.  At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter.  At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in an A to Z keepsake playlist on Spotify.  Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together.

A Very Special Installment Today

Dave Out Loud Presents Undecided, Undeclared & Uncertain Day

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Song of the Day: Under The Sun - Michael Card

21 letters 21 songs assembled in a playlist.  5 more remain.  Here is what we have so far.

To go to the home of the A to Z challenge click here, to see the 2024 master list of participating blogs click here. Enjoy the 2024 A to Z challenge, and Happy Holidays!

A to Z 2024: P is for Piñata Day

For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate.  Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day.  I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge.  At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter.  At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in a to z keepsake playlist on Spotify.  Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together.

April 18th is National Pinata Day in Mexico

P is for Piñata.  It is also for Picture.  Here are a number of pictures of piñatas from Wikimedia Commons.

 Football

Piñata Party  in San Salvador, El Salvador

Mexican Traditional Piñata

Piñata in the park

Llama Piñatas

Is it A Plethora or Piñatas? I thinks so.  

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Today's Song of the day is Play Game from Tik Tik Boom

16 songs and what do you get?

An incomplete playlist that's not over yet

I still have to finish from Q to Z

I owe 10 songs for this menagerie.

I just published letter O about 15 hours later than I usually do.  To make up for it I am publishing this now rather than wait until tomorrow.

To go to the home of the A to Z challenge click here, to see the 2024 master list of participating blogs click here. Enjoy the 2024 A to Z challenge, and Happy Holidays!

A to Z 2024: One More Time and You Get a Parade Day

 For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate.  Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day.  I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge.  At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter.  At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in a to z keepsake playlist on Spotify.  Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together. 

The third Wednesday of April is One More Time and you Get a Parade Day.  

As today's letter is a vowel, it is another opportunity for me to make up a new holiday.  Many holidays come with traditions, games, or events that go along with them.  Easter egg hunts, for example are believed to have originated in Germany in the 16th century.  The first Turkey Trot (a race taking place the morning of Thanksgiving) took place in Buffalo New York in the late 19th century.  One More Time and you Get a Parade Day may be the first holiday that was started to celebrate a tradition rather than the other way around .

My wife and I have been playing a game I invented around the time we got engaged called "What A Thing to Say". It started as a game to play when we were in a social setting that required a lot of mingling.  I believe the original occurrence was at my Grandfather's wake.  I gave my fiancé  a thing to say, I believe it may have been The Almighty Dollar.  Over the course of the event she had to work in the phrase into ordinary conversation 3 different times with 3 different groups of people.  

Some of the original "what a things to say" besides the almighty dollar were, The Stevenson Expressway (A Chicago road), People don't floss like they used, to, and one of my favorites, I don't like blank (whatever person , place or thing just mentioned) they supported the war movement.  

It's a totally random game that when played well is oblivious to all but the player, and when played poorly is a staple of group conversation for a very long time.  

"What does this have to do with parades?" you might ask. A few weeks ago I was subbing in one of my favorite classes.  It was the class in fact, that I had been a long term sub in for the 1st semester of the 2022/2023 school year.  I have a great deal of familiarity with these students and they have a great deal of familiarity with me.  The class is comprised of 6th graders and 7th graders  and one of the 6th graders tends to sneeze 5 or 6 times in a row on a frequent basis. On this particular day, after the 3rd or 4th sneeze I responded with the quip, one more time and you get a parade.

I'm not sure how that phrase came to me.  True, I just made it up,  but, I was definitely thinking something along the line of when you do something multiple times you get a prize.  I don't think I was remembering the below  scene from A Few Good men, it is in my collective unconscious . 

 

One way to  celebrate One More Time and You get a parade day is by playing a version of What a Thing to say with your friends, family, classmates or co-workers.  This could be done virtually or in person.  Each person writes one phrase down and then they are distributed.  Then each person has to use that phrase in a conversatToday'ion throughout the day.  Another way is to try to make up your own expression and use it in the course of the day.  

April is a month that starts with foolishness, but One More Time and You get a Parade say insures that foolishness doesn't end on the first.

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Today's Song is Off Again On Again Love By Allen Levi

I generally put a video on of the song, but as far as I know there are no videos of this song, so here is a link to it on Spotify.    

With this song, my playlist is now up to 15 songs.

It is already 9:15 P.M. in Chicago and this is the latest that I've posted in the challenge so far this year.  I now must go, and work on tomorrow's.  When I finish this one, I might not get a parade, but I will be caught up. That is certainly something to turn a phrase about.

To go to the home of the A to Z challenge click here, to see the 2024 master list of participating blogs click here. Enjoy the 2024 A to Z challenge, and Happy Holidays!

A to Z 2024: M is for Microvolunteering

For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate.  Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day.  I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge.  At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter.  At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in a to z keepsake playlist on Spotify.  Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together. 

April 15th is International Micro-volunteering day 

I think the best way to talk about this day is to use FAQ format.  I used to do this quite a bit in the early days of my blog.  The last time I did so was  here back in 2012 when I was blogging about the A t0 Z challenge. .

The FAQS of Life: Micro-volunteering  in Frequently Asked Question Format

Q: Do you know what today is?

A: Yes. 

Q: Are you going to tell me?

A. Perhaps if you asked me, rather than  asked me if I knew.

Q: What is today?

A: It's International Micro-volunteering Day.

Q: Is Micro-volunteering a thing?

A:It must be, if it wasn't, it wouldn't have a holiday.  

Q: When did it become a thing?

A: it's been a thing for almost 20 years.  The term  was first used in the U.K. In 2006 and had migrated to Spain by 2008.

Q: What is Micro-volunteering?

A:This answer is from ot's Days of The Year Page, The idea of micro-volunteering is simple: individuals take convenient, bite-sized actions in support of a good cause and often perform their activities or service from home. 

Q:  How did the day start?

A: Well the day started a minute after 11:59 p.m.   Some people were fast asleep, some were well on their way, others were working 3rd shift jobs, still others, ...

Q: When did International Micro-volunteering Day start.

A:  10 years ago it began when the day was created and promoted by the Help from Home Foundation.

Q: Como se dice International Micro Volunteering Day en Espanol?

A: Día Internacional del Microvoluntariado.

Q: Do you have any suggestions for micro-volunteering?

A: Yes

Q: Are we back to that joke again?

A: Yes

Q: What suggestions do you have for micro-volunteering?

A: I thought you'd never ask. One suggestion is to volunteer doing task that you already know how to do, so there is little to no training involved.  Another is to keep your activities to things that can be done in thirty minute to 2 hour chunks. One examples are to volunteer to read at a school, or day care center, or nursing home.  When my daughter was homeschooled, she would volunteer on a weekly basis for about an hour and a half a week, working at the P.B.I.S (Personal Behavior Incentive System) store at my wife's school.  Children would earn a kind of currency for following the code of the school and then would be able to trade that currency in for prizes.  As a full time substitute teacher, I would imagine there are boundless opportunities for micro-volunteering?

Q: What are some suggestions that could be done from home?

A: My daughters both crochet.  One is in a crochet club.  Some members of her club crochet hats at home  for premature  babies or people having chemo.  People can have baking parties on the holidays and find organizations to donate their creations to.  

 

Q: Do you know why IMVD (International Micro-Volunteering Day) is on April 15th.

A: No, but it is the same day as Tax day here in the U.S. and if I were choosing the day, I would choose April 15th because micro-volunteering is not meant to be taxing.

Q: Did you think of that yourself?

A: Yes, Yes I did. And before you ask yes, that is a Phineas and Ferb referemce.

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I didn't plan this, of course,  but today's song of the day is a frequently asked question of sorts.  The Song is Man or Muppet from The Muppets (2011)

 

M is the 13th letter of the alphabet so my spotify playlist is now half full

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Today was a lot of fun, no question about it.  Micro-volunteering can be fun as well.  In the comments tell me some things that you already know how to do, that might be great as a micro-volunteering opportunity. 

To go to the home of the A to Z challenge click here, to see the 2024 master list of participating blogs click here. Enjoy the 2024 A to Z challenge, and Happy Holidays!

A tp Z: 2024 L is for Last Weekend of Cherry Blossom Festival

For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate.  Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day.  I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge.  At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter.  At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in a to z keepsake playlist on Spotify.  Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together. 

Lucy, Amy & Kermit
Smithsonian Museum 2010

April 13th 2024 is the last Saturday of the Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington D.C.

The past few days at school  there has been growing excitement for the 8th grade field trip to Washington D.C. which is coming up soon.  My Nephew was over yesterday and he is also is super excited about his 8th grade field trip to Washington D.C. So, when trying to decide between all the April 13th holidays and events I chose an event and a birthday related to D.C. 




The Nationals Cherry Blossom Festival  commemorates the gift of Japanese Cherry Trees in 1912 from the Mayor of Tokyo City to the city of Washington D.C.

Washington Monument with Cherry blossoms in the foreground.

Thomas Jefferson was born April 13,1743

The Jefferson Memorial 2010

Charlie and C3P0 at the Smithsonian

L is also for Lincoln

 

These pictures were take on our family trip to Washington D.C. 2010

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Song of the day: Let's Get Married by The Proclaimers 

2 weeks into the challenge and we are up to 12 songs on the playlist

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To go to the home of the A to Z challenge click here, to see the 2024 master list of participating blogs click here. Enjoy the 2024 A to Z challenge, and Happy Holidays!

A To Z 2024: J is for Just Married (26 Years Ago)

For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate.  Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day.  I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge.  At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter.  At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in a to z keepsake playlist on Spotify.  Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together. 

April 11th is Dave and Amy Roller's wedding anniversary.

I was trying to justify not pulling a random holiday from the April 11th list and just writing about my wedding anniversary when I realized there is no justification needed.  The 3rd sentence in the above paragraph says it all, " Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day." My anniversary is an event taking place today and my titling the post Just Married (26 years ago), I have, in the words of Paul Hollywood, ticked all the boxes.

Yesterday morning my daughter was getting ready for her writing class at the same time I was getting ready for school.  She went towards the door and then came back saying, she had forgotten her glasses. Before I could stop myself I blurted out the line, "He can't see without his glasses". 

This is a line from the 1991 movie "My Girl".  My son recites this line quite a bit. A, because he like's to make fun of it and B, because it annoys his sisters.  If you've ever been  a brother or a sister you don't need me to say, not necessarily in that order.

As I was driving to work, while ruminating on that film, a memory popped in my head from almost 33 years ago when that film was in theatres.  At the time I was in a long distance relationship, and because it was the winter Holidays we were both in the Chicago area where our families both lived .  

We went to the Woodfield Mall to see the aforementioned film.  After the film I remember telling her on an escalator talking about the film and in that context  said something about wanting to grow old with her, (my girlfriend).  I don't know which direction we were on in the escalator, but things started going downhill after that. Because, shortly after I made that comment to her we were broken up, and I'm not sure but I don't think I even saw her again after that.

I remember going back to my parents house and calling up my best friend and spilling  all the  sordid details.  You ever have a friend you could tell anything, do anything with, share your secrets and keep theirs?  That's what I had with my best friend back in January of 1992.  26 years ago today I married her.

Lots has changed since I saw My Girl with someone who out turned out not to be my girl at all.  Woodfield Mall no longer has movie theatres, My parents no longer live at my boyhood home, I no longer need to use a landline to call my best friend, cause quite often we are together and when were not I just tell my phone to call her.  

But Amy and I are growing old together.  As Rowlf the Dog sang so eloquently in 1979, "The urge was righteous but the face was wrong."  But in my case something better didn't come along, she had been there all along.  

Amy and I love movies.  We watch them, re watch them, quote them, and watch them again.  One movie we enjoy is The Wedding Singer, a movie about friends who fell in love, like us.  In the final scene he confesses his love in a song he wrote called "Grow Old With You."

Songs also play a part of our friendship.  When I was living in Russia, I once wrote her a song about our friendship which is really a love song, we just didn't know it yet.  I wrote her another song and sang it for her as I proposed.  I wrote another song and a choir from our church sang it as we walked down the aisle after we had just been declared man and wife.  

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Our marriage is not perfect.  A few years ago we read a book together, called "When Sinner's say I do". The basic premise imperfect people cannot have a perfect relationship.  I certainly am not perfect.  She tells me she's not perfect, so I believe her.  She is certainly the person I want to spend the rest of my life with.  This August we will celebrate 34 years of friendship.  Each day I grow older with my dear friend Amy is worthy of a celebration. Not just a celebration, but each day with Amy is a Holiday in itself.  

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Today's song of the day is Jack and Jill Part II by the Gray Havens

I chose the songs for the A to Z playlist this February and March, and just decided today that I was going to write about Amy and Myself for J.  So I didn't really plan a connection between the holiday and the song of the day.  It turns out there is one, but it's very slight.  After Amy and I were married for a couple years, we moved into our first house and preceded to have our 2nd and third child.  During that time we were attending a church that met at Crystal Lake South High School.  I don't know if you've ever attended a church at a  school before.  I have on several occasions.  One thing that happens is all the accoutrements of the school for the most part stay right where they are even on Sunday.  So over the years we saw many homecoming posters and other things on the wall of our "church building".  One such poster was celebrating the fact that one of their seniors had just made it into the top 20 of Season 5 of American Idol.

This young man, David Radford, would later become part of the folk duo, The Gray Havens along with his wife  Licia.  Like I said it's a slight connection.  The Spotify playlist is big enough now to have a top 10.  

Yes as far as Holidays are concerned, the anniversary of the day I married my best friend is a pretty big one.  Feel free to comment and tell me about your love story if you care to.  

To go to the home of the A to Z challenge click here, to see the 2024 master list of participating blogs click here. Enjoy the 2024 A to Z challenge, and Happy Holidays!

A To Z 2924:I is for Indicted Illinois Governors Day

For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate.  Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day.  I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge.  At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter.  At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in a to z keepsake playlist on Spotify.  Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together. 

April 10th is Indicted Illinois Governors Day

In U.S. history there have been 25 state governors  who have been convicted of federal crimes.  4 of these have come from the state of Illinois.  .  That's righr 4 of the last 10 Illinois governors have served in federal prisons.  

As a non public official of the state of Illinois with all the power invested in me by this great state, I proclaim April 10th as Indicted Illinois Governors Day.  

There have actually been 5 Illinois governors to be indicted. 

Joel Aldrich Matteson, the 10th governor of Illinois (1853-1857) was charged in 1859  in the Canal Scrip Fraud Scandal.  Matteson redeemed Scrip for the Canal for himself.  He was indicted but then acquitted and returned the majority of the funds to the state.  

Otto Kerner Jr,  was governor of Illinois from 1961-1968.  In 1972 He was a Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals when he was indicted on multiple charges including mail fraud, & income tax evasions.  Charges he was eventually convicted og.  Kerner served six months on a three year sentence.  His crimes went back to 1962 when as a governor he colluded with race track owners. 

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Dan Walker was governor of Illinois from 1973-1977.  Unlike Kerner, Walkers convictions came from crimes committed after his time as governor. As CEO of a savings and loan siphoned bank money for his own use,  Walker was indicted, convicted and served 17 months of a seven year sentence.

George Ryan was governor of Illinois from 1999-2003 and was the Il Secretary of State prior to that,  As Secretary of State he presided  over a huge bribes for licenses scheme.  This scheme was exposed after a truck killed 6 children in the same family  and it was revealed that the trucker had paid bribes for his license.  Ryan  was sentenced to 6 1/2 years of prison and was released in 2013.

Rod Blagojevich was governor of Illinois form 2002 - 2009 when he was impeached by the Illinois General Assembly.  When Blagojevich (Blago) rand in 2002 his mantra was no more business as usual.  This was in the wake of the Ryan scandals.  The problem is Blago missed his own memo, and went back to business as usual, and business was booming.  Blago was caught on tape trying to sell the senate seat of President Elect Obama, and was charged with conspiracy to commit fraud and solicitation of bribery.  He was convicted and sentenced to 14 years and was in prison from 2012 to 2020 when hw was pardoned by Donald Trump.

While it's true that our last 3 governors have not gone to jail.  We could use the growth mindset, and say they have not gone to jail yet.  Why do so many of the governors of my state go to jail.  It may just be a matter of linguistical expectations.  What do governors and convicts have in common.  They both serve terms.  So in a way their first career sets up their second.  

While I made up this holiday, I unfortunately did not make up the history.  

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Song of the day: I Believe In You - Bob Dylan

The playlist is really taking shape now.   

That's it for me .  Feel free to add a comment before moving on with your day.

To go to the home of the A to Z challenge click here, to see the 2024 master list of participating blogs click here. Enjoy the 2024 A to Z challenge, and Happy Holidays!

E is For Engaged Couples Friday

For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate.  Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day.  I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge.  At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter.  At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in a to z keepsake playlist on Spotify.  Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together. 

The Fist Friday in April - Wedding Planning Black Friday

Since today's letter of the day is a vowel it's time once again to create a new holiday.  

Wedding Planners Black Friday is held annually on the first Friday of April.  It was created by Dave Roller for his 2024 A to Z challenge and was first celebrated on April 5th 2024.  The date was chosen for 3 reasons.  First because the first Friday in April takes place 4  to 10 days before April 11th, the day Dave married his friend Amy. Second, because April is already National Couples Month. Finally, because the first week of April is 2 -3 months before June weddings take place.

Wedding Planner's Black Friday is the perfect day for engaged couples  to call off work and spend some couple time before the big event.  It is also a great time for the wedding professionals (dee jays, florists, ministers, venues, travel agencies, photographers, etc.) to have seasonal specials ala Black Friday.

Wedding Planner's Black Friday  could also be a great day to hold either an engagement party or a wedding shower.  It is the first week of April, so there might be a shower anyway.

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April 5th is also National Deep Dish Pizza Day and the first Friday of April is National Walk to Work Day

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Today's song of the day is Emma by , Jonathan Edwards

Emma is a song from the 1971 self titled debut album by Jonathan Edwards.  This album featured the hit Sunshine.  Jonathan Edwards music is often recommended to me on Spotify. I originally listened to this song because my oldest daughters name is Emma.  The video below is from a concert almost 10 years ago.  Edwards, 84 released his most recent album in 2021 and was performing as recently as March 2023

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My Leap of Dave 2024  A to Z Blogging Playlist now looks (and sounds) like this

Engaged, Married, or whatever degree of single you find yourself.  I am glad you stopped by today.  Please leave a comment.  Perhaps you can answer this question: What is the best Wedding Present you have ever given or received?

To go to the home of the A to Z challenge click here, to see the 2024 master list of participating blogs click here. Enjoy the 2024 A to Z challenge, and Happy Holidays!