I guess I should post my New Year’s resolution here

In the past I would often claim it to be things like lose weight, make more money, meet the man of my dreams (yeah keep dreaming). But this year, I am not making goals as such. Yes I have personal goals… I am about to start a new job so the financial thing should be hopefully moving forward, I am working towards trying to buy a house in the next few years (which to me seems an impossibility since it seems like houses all cost $300,000+ and I certainly don’t meet that price range.)

But when it comes to a New Years Resolution……..I want it to be a true honest goal……and something which I can achieve… and about personal growth more than anything….so I thought about it and on another board I posted the following..and I do think these are my goals for the new year………..I don’t think they are different from my goals as a human being, but I do think they are goals that I have become concious of during the past year in this journey. So I believe stating them means a lot, committing to them means a lot.

So my new years resolution for this year is to be someone such that:

• Pause and listen, knowing regardless of what I might think I don’t always know the best.
• Practice random acts of kindness on a regular basis- those done anonymously are the best
• Be able to look in the mirror every morning and be proud of the person I see looking back.
• Keep the optimism and faith in others even when they don’t have that in themselves and they hate it in me.
• Always remember that as much as I beat myself up for not being perfect…..others aren’t either so don’t expect it in them either.
  

Please share yours!

Technorati Tags: new years resolution, giving, helping others, random acts of kindess, changing the world, change

Ok yes I know people have been doubting me over this month. I don’t blame you I have been lacking in my posting. This was a true test of my endurance and I honestly failed because I didn’t post in obviously forever. This whole thing has been an experiment and I obviously failed in the Holiday test.

What I must share with you is that these past few weeks have been a whirlwind. As you know I am a single mom, and being a single mom in the holiday season is a true test of wits. Trying to shop for kids when they aren’t attached to the hip is almost an impossibility. Juggling all of the school concerts, the special events………wow.. I think I aged 30 years in the past 3 weeks!

Also, as I think I had mentioned at a few points in my blogging, I had been looking for a job, and I started looking into a prospective job back in October, and well………about a week ago I was offered the job, so the past few weeks have also involved putting in my notice at work, training others, and making plans for the future job change. Yes a lot has been happening in an already busy time of year.

Honestly did I do somthing every day? Not conciously. Random acts of kindness have through this progress become an intricate part of my life, so that I now do things just because it is a part of who I am, but the more concious act which I have done through this journey where I noted it, no I can’t say I did each day. I honestly have been really swept up by the holidays..but all in a good sense.

I have indeed done some great and wonderful stuff though during this time because the season offers so many opportunities. So again I will summarize, and yes I hope that with the holidays almost over I can again get a bit regular with my postings here.

Some of the things I did………sorry like I said I am not sure of what I did each day so I can’t say I did something each day but here are a few I can recall.

• donated food to church food drive
• dontated to hunger charities at grocery stores by always remembering to add the little tags to my groceries
• slipped some chocolate on an unsuspecting co-worker’s desk
• brought in the snowmen from below to my co-workers for the winter season (not everyone celebrates holidays so snowmen worked well)
• brought in specialty teas to work to put in the coffee station as a treat
• brought in cookies to work
• wrote thank you notes to some deserving agencies
• ok this may seem small……..but gave up a cart at store during shopping time when carts were not available
• in the xmas shopping I received several $5 gift cards through buying presents…some sort of new deal stores offer……well I sent two off to well who knows who and i slipped another into a friend’s purse…….don’t know if she found it yet.
• put post its with notes where certain people could find them to get a smile
• returned library books with $1 tucked in each on some pages………hopefully they don’t slip out so they will be a suprise for someone. The card was attached so hopefully it will work
• dropped off a toy for a toy drive

above all………… I spent a lot of time with my kids, and my family and just was a good friend this month. This is definitely a time for family and friends.

I really am sorry I have slacked and I have no fake promises things will change this next week or the week following since I am switching jobs and we still have new years ahead, however this site means a lot to me, so I do plan on getting right on the ball as soon as I can. I truly believe in this, and I don’t plan on stopping even when I falter in my posting!

Technorati Tags: random acts of kindness, giving, christmas, helping others

Thursday was a speedy day with some running around. (Sure seems like the holidays are filled with such days). But I needed to slow down at one point, so I took some time and found some holiday funnies that I found funny and shared them with some people to provide them with laughter and humor at a time which all too often despite all the joys can be incredibly stressful.

Friday was a day I had to slow down a bit. I ended up staying home with a sick child for the day. My plans of course still got altered with this, but I did have the opportunity later in the day to get some christmas shopping done (still more to do unfortunately for both myself and my wallet!) My son is one who has really caught onto my acts of kindness belief, so he made sure I noticed the person collecting change at the door of a store for the needy.

Saturday was devoted to my kids and providing fun and cheer to them. We went and found our Christmas tree and then had a fun time decorating it. We also selected a toy while out at the store to donate to a toy drive being held.

Sunday…….. well Sunday we made more of the snowmen I had mentioned in my last post. I showed them to a girl that came over to our home and she fell in love with the idea and said she was running home to make some of her own. This time… I took some pictures, so I can share the fun we had with craft gifts. (Now mind you the kids really got creative at one point so we have some truly unique snowmen)

The Monster and More “Creative” Snowmen

Technorati Tags: random acts of kindness, giving, sock snowmen, holiday crafts

It seems with the holiday season upon us, my capping of my days will definitely be more of a grouping because the days and times are just ones of keeping extremely busy.

This past Saturday, well most of the weekend, was sort of a crafty weekend. I am not certain if it would be truly fall into the kindness realm or not, but I will put it here anyhow. One thing I have always attempted to instill in my children is that giving presents isn’t just about how expensive or the “what” of the present so much as showing that thought and care was put into the present. So this year we are making presents to give their teachers and other people in their lives. I just feel it is better than getting random inexpensive presents from the store. And face it…kids love making things so they also get to have a great time in creating the gifts.

So this weekend we began making snowmen presents. They are snowmen made out of socks (regular white one for the body, and then toddler socks for the hats). The socks are filled with wild bird seeds, and then the snowmen are adorned with buttons, pom poms, ribbons and such to decorate. Then we attached notes to them saying “Hi I would like to stay in the warmth of your home for the holidays, until afterwards you decide to share me with the birds outside”. The socks are tied with simple bows so it is easy to open them up to pour the birdseed outside to feed the birds. Simple…fun… and I think cute as well. I will have to take a picture of some of the snowmen and put it here to share.

Sunday was gingerbread craft time…what holiday is complete without covering gingerbread houses, mangers or other creations with frosting and candy? Although I must say instead of gingerbread…we used graham crackers For kindness for this day I filled a grocery bag with non-perishables and dropped the bag off at my church for their food collection.

Monday was pretty much a continuation of the food drop off. My work is having its annual food drive putting huge bins around the different floors to collect food for the needy. So I put some more food in the bins.

Tuesday, was not one of the better acts of kindness, or I suppose I should say it was not the type one really prefers. I had to leave work a little early to offer support to a friend who is going through a relationship break up. Break ups are always difficult for those involved, and usually all one can do is offer your shoulder, give some simple support and occasional advice. But just mostly be there for the person.

Yesterday, I assisted the children in participating in a drive their elementary school is having. Their school has a tree which they are decorating with hats and gloves. The children are all encouraged to bring in un-needed mittens, hats, or gloves, or to donate a dollar or two towards purchasing the warmities. So each of my children participated to help cover the tree. All of the mittens, gloves and hats will then go to needy children to help keep them warm in this very chilly holiday season.

Technorati Tags: random acts of kindness, holidays, sock snowmen, crafts, giving, mittens, needy

Wednesday I was having a rather frustrating day. And through this journey I have learned that so long as I am aware of my frustration and grab myself before I get into the poor me mode…one of the greatest frustration reliefs is to reach outside of one’s self. So I visited one of my favorite sites…Make A Child Smile and sent a card to a child. And ya know what? It worked. Sure the things which were frustrating were still there, but my attitude was different, and that is the key.Thursday, I put a little anonymous have a great day note on a co-workers desk. No biggie, but hopefully it made a difference.

Oh… one of my newest frustrations…my job moved to a new building. I am no longer on the harbour walk I was on before to leave my books and also no street side parking to plug meters. One more challenge. But I figure although completely different, there have to be new opportunities for kindness tasks with my new work location.

Today, well today I had a very good friend going into a surgery for her mouth that I know she was extremely nervous about. She was told it could result in her losing the feeling in one side of her face permanantly but it was a risk that needed to be taken. So I sent her a note (email so that I would be certain she would get it when she got home) reminding her that I was thinking of her and that if she needed ANYTHING she could call me.

I also had an unexpected scenario pop up. When on my floor’s elevator area… I spotted a woman from work with some white paper coming out of her shirt/pants. I did a double take and realized I thought it was toilet paper. I actually hesitated which suprised me. I paused thinking… I didn’t want to embarass her. But then I snapped out of it. I couldn’t tell you the number of times I discover I have food in my teeth, something stuck to my behind, or the wrong shoes or some other embarassing situation, and when I finally realize wonder how long it had been that way and why hadn’t anyone told me.

So I figured it would be better if I embarassed her for that one moment with me than when she walked through the doors and to all the cubicles and face that same burning question mentioned above.

So I ran up to her and said “wait wait wait” as she was about to enter the office area. Yes I think she was slightly embarasses as was I, but I believe as we both giggled and pulled it out..that she was also grateful that I didn’t let her walk further.

Technorati Tags: random acts of kindness, toilet paper, embarassment, giving, helping others