Welcome to the Wannaskan Almanac for Saturday, April 21st.Happy Birthday to the Queen Mother!
The royal matron, celebrates the big 9-2 today. She is Britain’s longest-ever ruling monarch, having reigned for 66 years. She has lived through the terms of 21 UK prime ministers and 16 US presidents.
Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary was born on April 21,1926. She was the first child of the Duke and Duchess of York. Technically, becoming queen wasn't on the family radar. But, in 1936, when her uncle, King Edward VIII abdicated the throne in favor of marrying an American socialite, Wallis Simpson, Elizabeth's father, Albert, acceded the throne, becoming King George VI. Young Elizabeth's mother became the first Queen Elizabeth. (Fortunately Edward's nuptials lasted until his natural death, making it all seemingly worth it.)
Elizabeth was a teenager during WWII, giving her first radio broadcast at age 14. At 18, she joined the Women’s Auxiliary Territorial Service, the only female member of the royal family to enter the armed forces. She trained in London as a mechanic and military truck driver.
She married Lt. Philip Mountbatten, aka Duke of Edinburgh on November 20, 1947. They have four children: Charles, Anne, Andrew, and Edward. In 2017, the couple celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary. May God and good health see them to their 71st anniversary, which falls on a Tuesday, giving my Tuesday W.A. peep something to write about on November 20, 2018.
She became queen in 1952 and has reigned ever since. This week, in fact, on the BBC Newshour, I listened to a conversation about Queen Elizabeth's superior capacity to unite and serve the UK and Commonwealth. This was in contrast to speculation on Prince Charles' ability to follow his great mother with equal success, as the Queen has appealed to Commonwealth leaders to appoint her son, Prince Charles, to succeed her as their head.
While today is her real birthday, the queen actually gets to celebrate two birthdays every year. The official royal celebration will be on Saturday, June 9, 2018. You can read more about that fun fact goodness here.
Impressively, her husband, Prince Philip, is also still living and looks forward to a June 10th birthday, following his wife's big bash. He will be 97.
Here is a nice overview (with photographs!) of her life so far, highlighting some significant historical events that she has been a part of or witnessed.
Which brings me back to the general topic of mothering.
This popped up on my Facebook memories the other day:
"It's not your job to yell at your brother, it's my job to yell at your brother."
When I was younger and had only a crew of three toddlers, I remembered another mom talking about having a stash of little sayings to impart her motherly wisdom. Something short and snappy. My Facebook memory was one of mine that I used to deploy. Here are some others.
"It's not your job to yell at your brother, it's my job to yell at your brother."
When I was younger and had only a crew of three toddlers, I remembered another mom talking about having a stash of little sayings to impart her motherly wisdom. Something short and snappy. My Facebook memory was one of mine that I used to deploy. Here are some others.
- “Two wrongs don’t make a right.”
- “When you choose to (insert undesired behavior here), you choose to take a time out."
- "It’s easier to break things than it is to fix them."
- "Stay a kid for as long as you can; you have the rest of your life to be a grown-up."
- "Choose friends who make you feel good about yourself."
- "If I wanted you to yell across the house, I would have done it myself."
I got so good at dispensing my little ammunition of admonitions, I didn't even have to actually say the phrases themselves. All I had to ask was, "What do I always say?" Usually, the kids could fill in the blank with the correct phrase themselves.
Just last night, The Oldest said to me, "You need to start using those sayings you used on us." WOW!
In that very moment the Kindergartner was wrestling with the seat belt, trying to get it to click into place, complaining she CAN'T DO IT. "The more you practice the better you get," the Oldest quipped, as her little sister whined.
I could only agree with my oldest child. The day before seeing the Facebook memory, I, too, had been reminding myself that I needed to pull that bag of tricks back out. Having older kids, I learned, unfortunately does not mean that one is exempt from parenting subsequent little ones.
Honestly, it sort of bummed me out. I had gotten used to well-behaved children who no longer needed timeouts and reminders of good behavior. (What am I talking about!?!) While it's been a long time since someone's needed a timeout, the good behavior reminders never cease.
But something changed. Over time, my indispensable advice got put away, inside a book, tucked back in the filing cabinets of memory. The kids went to school; gained more maturity. Their conflicts centered more around what they were experiencing outside of our home. The advice shifted, the language became different.
In a way, I'm glad for the Facebook trip down memory lane. I'm glad that I remembered on my own - and that my daughter remembered too - the value of the nuggets of advice I used when she was little.
While I may not have reigned over a nation for 66 years and counting, if these little mom tips on life are all I'm remembered for, that's not such a bad legacy to leave.
I got so good at dispensing my little ammunition of admonitions, I didn't even have to actually say the phrases themselves. All I had to ask was, "What do I always say?" Usually, the kids could fill in the blank with the correct phrase themselves.
Just last night, The Oldest said to me, "You need to start using those sayings you used on us." WOW!
In that very moment the Kindergartner was wrestling with the seat belt, trying to get it to click into place, complaining she CAN'T DO IT. "The more you practice the better you get," the Oldest quipped, as her little sister whined.
I could only agree with my oldest child. The day before seeing the Facebook memory, I, too, had been reminding myself that I needed to pull that bag of tricks back out. Having older kids, I learned, unfortunately does not mean that one is exempt from parenting subsequent little ones.
Honestly, it sort of bummed me out. I had gotten used to well-behaved children who no longer needed timeouts and reminders of good behavior. (What am I talking about!?!) While it's been a long time since someone's needed a timeout, the good behavior reminders never cease.
But something changed. Over time, my indispensable advice got put away, inside a book, tucked back in the filing cabinets of memory. The kids went to school; gained more maturity. Their conflicts centered more around what they were experiencing outside of our home. The advice shifted, the language became different.
In a way, I'm glad for the Facebook trip down memory lane. I'm glad that I remembered on my own - and that my daughter remembered too - the value of the nuggets of advice I used when she was little.
While I may not have reigned over a nation for 66 years and counting, if these little mom tips on life are all I'm remembered for, that's not such a bad legacy to leave.
On to our regularly scheduled program...
Kid-provided Fun Facts
- Kronos, the Titan, was castrated and when his body part fell into the water, that's how Aphrodite was born. She came up out of the ocean riding a seashell.Sorry for just the one, folks! I have to find a better system for recording all of the fun facts shared in one week. Why do the kids tell me these fascinating facts while I'm driving or chopping onions?
In lieu of fun facts, how about some fish? Both fish were caught April 14-15 weekend on Lake of the Woods. Kids told me a truck went through the ice this past week, so please be careful if you're heading out for one more ice fishing expedition.
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| 39 1/2 " Northern Pike |
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| 40 1/2" Northern Pike |
On This Day
Historic Highlights (credits)753 BC - Today is the traditional date of the foundation of Rome.
43 BC - Marcus Antonius was defeated by Octavian near Modena, Italy.
1526 - Mongol Emperor Babur annihilated the Indian Army of Ibrahim Lodi.
1649 - The Maryland Toleration Act was passed, allowing all freedom of worship.
1689 - William III and Mary II were crowned joint king and queen of England, Scotland and Ireland.
1789 - John Adams was sworn in as the first U.S. Vice President.
1836 - General Sam Houston defeated Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto. This battle decided the independence of Texas.
1856 - The Mississippi River was crossed by a rail train for the first time (between Davenport, IA, and Rock Island, IL).
1862 - The U.S. Congress established the U.S. Mint in Denver, CO.
1865 - U.S. President Abraham Lincoln's funeral train left Washington.
1892 - The first Buffalo was born in Golden Gate Park.
1895 - Woodville Latham and his sons demonstrated their Panopticon. It was the first movie projector developed in the United States.
1898 - The Spanish-American War began.
1914 - U.S. Marines occupied Vera Cruz, Mexico. The troops stayed for six months.
1916 - Bill Carlisle, the infamous ‘last train robber,’ robbed a train in Hanna, WY.
1918 - German fighter ace Manfred von Richthofen, "The Red Baron," was shot down and killed during World War I.
1940 - "Take It or Leave It" premiered on CBS Radio.
1943 - U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt announced that several Doolittle pilots had been executed by the Japanese.
1953 - In New York, the Sidney Janis Gallery held the Dada exhibition.
1956 - Leonard Ross, age 10, became the youngest prizewinner on the "The Big Surprise". He won $100,000.
1959 - Alf Dean caught a 16-foot, 10-inch white shark that weighed 2,664 pounds. At the time it was the largest catch with a rod and reel.
1960 - Brasilia became the capital of Brazil.
1961 - The French army revolted in Algeria.
1967 - Svetlana Alliluyeva (Svetlana Stalina) defected in New York City. She was the daughter of Joseph Stalin.
1967 - In Athens, Army colonels took over the government and installed Constantine Kollias as premier.
1972 - Apollo 16 astronauts John Young and Charles Duke explored the surface of the moon.
1975 - South Vietnam president, Nguyen Van Thieu, resigned, condemning the United States.
1977 - "Annie" opened on Broadway.
1984 - In France, it was announced that doctors had found virus believed to cause AIDS.
1985 - Manuel Ortega proposed a cease-fire for Nicaragua.
1986 - Geraldo Rivera opened a vault that belonged to Al Capone at the Lexington Hotel in Chicago. Nothing of interest was found inside.
1987 - Special occasion stamps were offered for the first time by the U.S. Postal Service. "Happy Birthday" and "Get Well" were among the first to be offered.
1989 - The Game Boy handheld video game device was released in Japan.
1992 - Robert Alton Harris became the first person executed by the state of California in 25 years. He was put to death for the 1978 murder of two teen-age boys.
1994 - Jackie Parker became the first woman to qualify to fly an F-16 combat plane.
1998 - Astronomers announced in Washington that they had discovered possible signs of a new family of planets orbiting a star 220 light-years away.
2000 - North Carolina researchers announced that the heart of a 66 million-year-old dinosaur was more like a mammal or bird than that of a reptile.
2000 - The 1998 Children's Online Privacy Protection Act went into effect.
2003 - North and South Korea agreed to hold Cabinet-level talks the following week.
2009 - UNESCO launched The World Digital Library. The World Digital Library (WDL) is an international digital library operated by UNESCO and the United States Library of Congress.
Happy Birthday to You!🎶
Some folks who share a birthday with the QueenFriedrich Froebel 1782 - Teacher, author, toy maker, invented kindergarten in 1837
Charlotte Bronte 1816 - Author ("Jane Eyre," "The Professor")
John Muir 1838 - Conservationist, influential in the creation of the U.S. National Parks System and U.S. foreset conservation, the Muir Woods National Monument in California is named after him
Oskar Hertwig 1849 - Zoologist, professor
Joe McCarthy 1887 - Baseball manager
Anthony Quinn 1915 - Actor ("Viva Zapata! [1952]," "The Guns of Navarone")
Don Cornell (Louis Varlaro) 1924 - Singer
Clara Ward 1924 - Singer (Clara Ward Gospel Troupe)
Silvana Mangano 1930 - Actress
Carl Belew 1931 - Country singer
Elaine May 1932 - Actress, comedienne
Charles Grodin 1935 - Actor ("Clifford," "Beethoven I," "Beethoven II")
Reg Fleming 1935 - Hockey player
Iggy Pop (James Newell Osterburg) 1947 - Singer, songwriter (Psychedelic Stooges)
John Weider 1947 - Musician (Family)
Barbara Park 1947 - Author (Junie B. Jones series)
Al Bumbry (Alonza Benjamin Bumbrey) 1947 - Baseball player
Paul Davis 1948 - Singer, songwriter
Patti LuPone 1949 - Actress ("Evita", "Driving Miss Daisy")
Tony Danza 1951 - Actor ("Who’s the Boss," "Taxi," "Angels in the Outfield")
Paul Carrack 1951 - Musician (Mike and the Mechanics, Noise to Go, Ace)
Andie MacDowell (Rosalie Anderson) 1958 - Actress ("Groundhog Day", "St. Elmo’s Fire," "Four Weddings and a Funeral")
Robert Smith 1959 - Musician (The Cure)
Michael Timmins 1959 - Musician (Cowboy Junkies)
John Cameron Mitchell 1963 - Actor, director ("Hedwig and the Angry Inch")
Michael Franti 1968 - Musician (Spearhead)
Nicole Sullivan 1969 - Actress, comedian ("MadTV," "King of Queens")
James McAvoy 1979 - Actor
Tony Romo 1980 - Football player
Cadillac Williams 1982 - Football player
Zack Merrick 1988 - Musician (All Time Low)
Robbie Amell 1988 - Actor (True Jackson, The Tomorrow People)
Jencarlos Canela 1988 - Actor, singer (Boom Boom Pop)
Jacob Perez 1996 - Singer (Mindless Behavior), also known as Princeton
In closing, no snow hit the Wannaskan region as did other areas, so this weekend the brand new Christmas trampoline gets set up!
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| River Watching |
Kim
Dolly Parton admonition: Don't lose your temper; use it.
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