Be Kind: Day 5

Music is an amazing thing. Powerful and personal. I’m thinking of the many mix tapes I have received over the years. One that stands out in my mind came from my friend Suzi in college. We’d worked in the kitchen at camp together that summer, and therefore had listened to lots of music together. On my birthday that year, she sent me a mix tape (yes, tape). It was the most random assortment of music in the world — everything from Anointed to Indigo Girls to PFR to Blind Melon. I loved it. It was like getting a little bit of Suzi — and memories from camp — in the mail!

SO…today I decided to make a mix CD for a friend. I’m not going to write *who* on here, because I think she might read it, but she is one of my favorite and dearest friends — a busy mom — we don’t get to talk as much as we’d like anymore (we’re just BUSY!) but maybe a little music could life her spirits on those crazyfunbusy days of mommyhood!

Be Kind: Days 3 & 4 (yes, I’m behind in blogging)

So…I have to admit my first fail in the Be Kind challenge. I had every intention of doing something nice on day 3 — but at the last second realized I didn’t have what I needed to do it. Oops. Fail. I will make up for it later.

So…onto day 4.

Baking has power, doesn’t it. I’m thinking of the time two Christmastimes ago when I came to my door at the end of a long day of shopping to see a cellophane-wrapped plate sitting on my door stop. My neighbor Jane had made us an assortment of cookies and dropped them off for us — including two of her fabulous brownies! Jane is a wonderful baker and her thoughtfulness put a smile on my face.

With that in mind, I decided to bake a batch of cookies for my wonderful husband. If I haven’t written about it, I happened to marry the most wonderful, thoughtful, honest, selfless, fun guy around. And he loves cookies. So I made him some. And I saved him some dough (of course I have to admit that – ahem- I MAY have eaten some of the cookies…and dough…myself. So my intentions may not have been completely pure…!).

Be Kind: Day 2

Today I decided to write a note of encouragement to a friend.

On the flip side, today I was the recipient of much kindness — which gave me an idea. For every “Be Kind” activity that I blog about doing, I want to include an example of how someone has been kind to me. After all, these stories are so much sweeter than any deed I blog about doing myself. Truly, there are some wonderful, generous people out there!

Today I am thinking of my mom and sisters who are so readily available to give of their time, love and hugs to care for me and my kids when I/we need it. This morning was a (the?) prime example. They dropped what they were doing to come help me out and it blessed me beyond belief. I am so grateful to have them in my life!!!

I’m diggin’ this Be Kind thing.  It’s a good thing to think about. Thanks, Threaded Basil, for the idea!

Be Kind: Day 1

So my friend over at Threaded Basil has a great idea: something she is calling “the Be Kind Challenge”.

In short, it involves doing one random act of kindness — and blogging about it — for the first 14 days of February, leading up to Valentine’s Day.

I thought it was a great idea, so I eagerly signed up the other day to take part.

Then, this morning I saw her post reporting on her first day of the project, and I noticed that at the end there was a link to my blog (among a few others), encouraging her readers to check out what we did for our first day.

I’d love to say that my first response was “Yay, I am so ready to post about the random act of kindness that I have had in mind the last couple of days and have been just waiting to share!”.

Can I be honest with you though? This morning my response was more like “Oh crud! I completely forgot about this! What the heck am I going to do that’s kind today?!!!?!?”.

So…..yeah. Obviously I am not in the habit of doing kind deeds on a daily basis, and am in need of a project like this! I am hoping it will get me in the habit of thinking outside of myself more intentionally — something I desperately need right now, as I’ve been finding it so easy to ruminate on my own little struggles” and anxieties lately. I’m also hoping it can provide some fun little bonding time for W and I as we work on it together!

ANYWAY…enough blathering. Here is what I did today for Be Kind, Day 1:

Valentines for Velda!

Velda is M’s great-aunt — a sweet lady who lives in a care center down in Iowa. Here’s a picture of us with her last spring:

We thought we’d cheer her up by sending her some Valentine love!

I cracked out my box of paper scraps, stickers, crayons, tape and funky scissors, and we went to work:

Then I decided I wanted to send her *something* beyond just cards, so I decided to make her a little bookmark, using some of the paper scraps I had on hand, along with a piece of ribbon and this little shoe bead that I had in a box:

So that was our day 1! Fun and surprisingly easy! We just used what we had on-hand.

I’m looking forward to taking part in this challenge — and, if you are so inclined, you should try it too! Just head over to this post at Threaded Basil for more info.

Giveaway Winner

So…last weekend ended up being crazy, as all 4 members of our family got hit with that nasty cold-that-just-won’t-go-away bug that’s going around here. We were a sad, sorry, sight, people. Not much was accomplished last weekend aside from laying around, watching movies, snuggling, devouring cough drops, wiping little noses, and watching a sad, sad Vikings game. Now we are on the upswing, thankfully, but we are not fully recovered and I am *definitely* in “catch-up mode” right now. Needless to say, I just didn’t get around to announcing the winner to my little giveaway like I said I would last Sunday night. So I am now.

Thank you to all 3 of you who entered. Thanks to random.org, a random number has been generated to determine the winner (yes, I seriously used a random number generator even though there were only 3 entries…dont’ judge!)…and that number is…(drumroll….)

3!

Congratulations, Jennifer! I don’t think I have your mailing address, so just send it to me (via the “contact me” button the blog) and I will get the book out to you ASAP (which, at this rate, may not be THAT soon… ha ha! ). Hope you enjoy the book as much as I did!

The Girl Who Lived…and a giveaway

As you may have heard, today is National Sanctity of Human Life Day…a day to remember the millions upon millions of lives that our nation has lost and that have been turned upside-down because of abortion.

In honor of this day, I thought I’d post a video of a speech given by Gianna Jessen. Gianna is a 32 year-old survivor of an abortion. That’s right. SURVIVOR.  As in, she was the baby being aborted. You’ll hear her amazing story in the video.

Today her Twitter simply said “I Lived.”

I like that…and I like her. I think you’ll see why. Girl’s got SPUNK!

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One of my all-time favorite books is The Atonement Child by Francine Rivers. It’s a fantastic novel about a young woman faced with a choice about what to do when she finds herself pregnant in the most tragic of circumstances. I first read it in college and couldn’t put it down.

Well, It just so happens that I came upon an extra (slightly used) copy of that book yesterday that I wasn’t sure what to do with…and it just so happens that today is National Sanctity of Life Day…so…how about a blog giveaway?!

If you would like a chance to win my extra copy of the book, simply leave a comment on this post (one comment per person, please) before 11:59 pm this coming Sunday night. I will select a winner by either a random number generator…or just drawing one out of a hat.

What Do YOU Do? : Children’s Bibles, Family Devotions and Such

So…as I’ve mentioned before, I’m not big on resolutions —  I’m not very good at keeping them, that is. However, with the year still new and because I have found fresh inspiration from sites like OrganizingYourWay and SteadyMom, I’ve decided that I really do want to stop and re-evaluate and tweak the way I do a lot of different things — particularly things that have to do with homemaking, parenting, etc. Is that a resolution? I’m not sure.

Annnnyway…I thought I’d start this little “series” on my blog called “What Do You Do?” (WDYD for short ), and I would *LOVE* for you to participate. I’m hoping to not only get ideas (selfishly ), but I am hoping that maybe we could all get ideas from eachother as we share what we do!

Here’s how it works:

1. I’ll throw out a topic along with any thoughts, ideas and/or specific questions I have on the topic.
2. You blog your thoughts on the topic, including a link back to my blog post
3. Leave a comment on my blog including a link to your blog post
4. If you don’t have a blog (or don’t feel like blogging about it), just leave a comment! I still want to hear from you!
5. Be sure to check out all the other bloggers who have participated!

Without further ado, here we go…

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TODAY’S TOPIC: CHILDREN’S BIBLES, FAMILY DEVOTIONS and SUCH

Kind of an unusual topic to start out with, but one that came to mind today!

OK, here’s the deal. W is now 2, so he’s really just starting to gain a better understanding of Bible stories, and we’re working on figuring out more of a regular routine for sharing them with him. However, finding a good Bible storybook has been difficult.

Here are my ponderings on some that we’ve explored (note: I’m not trying to critique them; just weighing the pros & cons):

We’ve been using The Beginner’s Bible for quite awhile. It’s a nice, simple little storybook, but sometimes it’s a little too simple for my taste…

So…after doing a little research, we got The Big Picture Story Bible. At first glance? Awesome. Perfect wording/story-length for preschoolers. At further glance? Um, WHOA. Big Picture, indeed! The idea behind it is that it ties all of the stories together to show how God’s plan for redemption runs through the entire history in the Bible — not just the New Testament. This is cool on many levels — but sometimes I just miss reading to W about Noah & the Ark! The simple stories are gone. They’re all mentioned, but kind of all woven together…hard to explain.Still, it’s a very cool, beautifully illustrated book!

Finally, it seems that everyone and their brother has recommended the Jesus Storybook Bible. This happens to be a title I scored for free during my days in Christian retail (yes, I stockpiled a few things to share with my future kids!). The idea is similar to the Big Picture Story Bible — it’s supposed to weave all the stories together to show Christ as the common thread, which is SO cool. However…has anyone else here read this? Am I the only one to be put off by the flowery language in the introduction alone? I feel kind of bad, because it is an awesome concept, but it’s hard for me to get past. What do you think? Should we give it another go?

OK, so those are the 3 kid’s Bibles we’ve explored. Does anyone have any thoughts on these titles? What Bible storybooks do/did you use with your kids? What is your routine for reading them to your kids? Do you have a “family devotions” time in your house? If so, what does that look like?

WHAT DO YOU DO?

Yeah…I’ve left you with lots of questions. Now….ANSWER!

Real People

Update: Here’s more info on Compassion’s Disaster Relief Fund .

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This past November, as I read through blog posts like this one and this one about/by bloggers who visited Compassion’s center in El Salvador, a little something happened in my heart: I realized that sponsored kids are real people.

Duh, right? But really, how easy is it to slap that two dimensional photo on your fridge, send that check each month and simply trust that it will somehow make it’s way through a cosmic funnel to somebody who could use it? Far too easy for me.

Ever since that simple revelation, I’ve tried to be more intentional about writing more faithfully…sending pictures…having W color pictures to send…praying over our sponsored kids pictures with him over lunch. Simple, simple actions I’m ashamed to say I didn’t take much time to do before.

So when I heard the news about the earthquake that has devastated Haiti, it hit me maybe a little harder than it would have before. We have a little Compassion-sponsored boy over there. His name is Quepson. M picked up his picture at a concert we went to while we were dating and he’s been in our lives ever since. We call him “Queppy”.

Today I don’t know if Queppy or his family are OK. Last I heard there has been no word from the Compassion center in Haiti. But this I know for sure:

Quepson is a real person, in a real country with a lot of real people that are really hurting right now.

If you’re able and willing to give, you could get info on Compassion’s disaster relief fund or on Feed My Starving Children and how they are responding to the disaster….there are lots of other great organizations out there, too. Also, this site has a compiled list of several organizations and ministries that are mobilizing to aid in the cause.

Whatever we do, though, let’s all remember that they — the people of Haiti — are real. Let’s let it break our hearts, let’s act, and let’s pray with that in mind.

If one part suffers, every part suffers with it

— 1 Corinthians 12:26 (New International Version)

Random Thought of the Day: Remember Complaining About High School?

Like…

“I can’t believe I have to just SIT here and LEARN all day. Ugh. I mean, I have to go to this place all day with all of these other friends my age and do nothing but learn, learn, learn about things like history and art and science and literature and music and all that boring stuff. Oh, and then they MAKE me READ, too! Can you believe it?! Sometimes I even have to read ridiculously confusing things like poetry by great American writers or Shakespeare or even occasionally a Jane Austen novel. How dull! I mean, when am I ever gonna use this stuff in my life, EVER?!”.

Sound absurd to anyone else?

Totally makes me realize that I need to appreciate my days of screaming babies and messy diapers and sleepless nights. I’ve got a feeling that 15 years down the road,complaints about such things will seem equally as absurd!

(*please note that I did not include complaints about math-related classes in my “absurd complaints” paragraph. There is no such thing as an absurd complaint about math; all math is equally worth complaining about. HA! )

Huh? … part II

You all saw my creepy baby ornament from Marshall’s.

Now I have something else to share with you.

Brace yourselves…this is easily the weirdest thing I have posted on my blog. I can’t even believe I’m posting it — but how could I resist?

You, see, ladies & gentleman, it is my deepest pleasure to introduce you to…

TOILET BOY!

Here’s a close-up of his expression. He doesn’t look too…um…comfortable:

The Dollar Store sure comes in handy when one is looking for white elephant gifts!

The kicker is that this lovely little piece of decor was not on the regular shelves in the store. No, no, no. It was hanging behind the check-out counter, along with a plethora of similar plaques. I actually had to ask the cashier to get it down off the wall for me so I could purchase it!

Wow, wow, wow. Wow.