I know there was a ridiculously long lull in getting back on here to share about my birthday full of RAKs, but ya know, sometimes it's hard to find time to document life because you're too busy living it! I shared pics on facebook and had so many fun conversations with friends who got in on it too, that I feel like I've already shared a lot about it. But for
I kept feeling like the list was not that much stuff to do, but thankfully I looked through it once again the night before. After a mild panic attack over the fact that I'd already announced to the world that I was doing this, I did what I do best. I made a to-do list in an order that seemed to flow. Yes, I made a "to-do" list for my "RAK" list. It was handwritten too- mostly because our printer wasn't working, but also it just felt more normal to me that way. So here are all 33 items, but re-ordered to follow the order of our day.
1. Take items to a recycle center. This was easy and got us off to a positive start because I am familiar with what to do on this. Drew's school actually has large recycling bins where you can bring cardboard and paper, and I think if they get enough it actually helps the school in some way. I save up our cardboard in the basement until it is a frightening sight and then break them all down, shove them in every open spot of the van and unload it all into the bin. So that's what I did this morning, getting rid of an insane amount of boxes we acquired as a result of my "order it all of Amazon" Christmas challenge.
3. Donate your clothes that you don't wear anymore. DDs is just down the road from Salvation Army, so that was our next stop. I spent some time the night before going through my clothes and pulling out many things that needed a new home. I felt like this was a selfish one because I really needed to do this, and it was big help to me (and my closet!) as well. Hopefully someone else will be excited to add these to their own closet!
7. Pick up a mess that isn't yours (or your children's!). There really was clean-up in aisle 7 (or something like that) that wasn't ours and we helped pick it up. Many times it is our mess, so when it's not I am just thankfully that we didn't do it!
8. Let someone go ahead of you in line. We did this at both stores when it was time to check out. I feel like I am always in a rush to get out of stores before the kids lose it, and I don't do this often enough. It was nice to have a different perspective on goals today- I saw a lot of what I miss when I am rushing. AND the kids were still good! :)
9. When someone lets you go in front of them in traffic, wave thank you. We live in such a small town, I wasn't sure this would happen, as there's not a lot of traffic. But it did, and I felt like the bigger recipient on this one. I love nice drivers!
At this point, it was time to go home to nurse Lily and give her a nap. I let Benny watch some toons (seriously, this was not a bad day for the kid!) while I started baking and prepping dinner. I've probably never prepped dinner this early unless we're having company over. Let's be honest, I don't usually know what we're having for dinner at this point in the day. It was nice, I felt very domestic. lol.
10. Send a hand-written card. Actually, I wrote a few cards while cupcakes were baking - some bday thank yous and some little check-in notes- but I didn't send them until the next day. You see, I shared my birthday with the amazing Dr. King, which meant there was no postal service, among other things. This actually gave me a little breathing room with some of these items because I was able get things ready, but couldn't deliver until the next day. But I promise they did make it out!
11. Call your mom. While we were home, I called one of my favorite people and of course came away with encouragement and more excitement to keep going.
12. Tell someone something nice about someone else. I'm not exactly when I did this, but it was definitely by this point. I decided to brag on my husband since I don't do this often enough.
13. Tape a dollar to a vending machine. I had to make my way to our shopping outlets anyways because we lost one of Lily's headbands in Carters and they called to tell me (nice!), so I thought we'd take care of a few things out there as well. We picked up Andrew from school on our way, and about 3/4 of the way there, the snow really started coming down and the roads were pretty bad. I was feeling pretty dumb for carting all three kids out there and was worried we'd get stuck out there (20+ min from home). We took our time while there and got a snack, so by the time we got back on the road, the winding back roads had been cleared (I love PA snow removal crews- they're so good!!). Anyways, while I stopped in the food court to get the kiddos some Auntie Ann's, we found the indoor vending machines and got ready for a RAK. I then realized I left the dollar bill and tape in the car, and since it was f-reeezing out we improvised. The boys called this the quarter train- I think they liked this way better anyways.
16. Offer to help someone. I didn't keep track of this one very well, but I'll put it here because I remember offering to help someone find the store they were looking for when I saw them standing in the cold looking around with a map in their hand. We helped a couple others at the grocery and I guess in overlapping some of the other items on this list. Nothing life-changing, but little helps along the way.
17. Call a friend who's been having a hard time lately and take them out for coffee or happy hour. I put a couple offers out for this, but the one I did that day actually ended up being over the phone with a friend far away. Not as good as in person, but always good to catch up and to know how I can be praying more specifically for a friend.
18. Offer to babysit for someone (for free!) so they can have a night out. I'd been wanting to do this anyways, but time seems to fly, our schedule gets full and my good-intentions often never happen. I'm glad this was part of the list because we put the offer out and just recently did the babysitting, which was so much fun for us and our kids. We have a family who is always offering to do this for us and I'd say it's the most helpful thing anyone could do for our young family.
19. Take goodies to the office for your co-workers. Ok, so my intentions on this one, since I'm a stay-at-home mama, was to take goodies to the hubby's office. Then I remembered my bday was a Monday, and he's the only one who works that day. I figured I could make them on Monday and take them in Tuesday morning, but then I remembered his boss and his boss's wife (the church secretary) were out of the country for the week. So... basically I'd be taking treats to my husband, which is fine since he's my "co-worker" at home too. So to expand on that, I thought I'd bring treats to some of the others involved in my "job" of raising my kids as well. We took treats to Drew's teachers and the kids' doctor's office with notes thanking them for their role in keeping our little ones healthy and growing. That leads into the next one as well...
20. Take goodies to a fire station or police station. We took goodies to the police/fire station as well with a note thanking them for keeping us all safe so we could enjoy special days like this together. I made cupcakes for all of these people so everyone could celebrate my birthday properly. ;) Aside from Drew's teachers who know us, I wondered if the treats would just get tossed because they might be a little sketched out by a random person dropping off food. I was even a little nervous to take them, especially with the kids in case they said they couldn't accept them or something. I could tell Andrew who was initially so excited, seemed pretty nervous walking in, but everyone was so nice and thankful. They still may not have eaten any, but I guess them knowing we appreciate them was more of the point.
22. Take dinner to a sick friend or new parents. I'm usually kind of a brat about not wanting to cook on my birthday. However, even though I said I didn't need any special celebration, Brandon had already planned two fun weekend dinners/nights which were absolutely perfect, so I didn't mind cooking on the actual day. Plus, if I was going to take a meal to someone else anyway, may as well make enough for us too! I made a simple hopefully tasty meal, and we all took some over to a man who recently got out of the hospital. It was nice to visit him and see he's on his way to recovery!- We love our church family!
23. Give something from your garden (or canned from it) to your neighbor. We came home to eat our own dinner by this time, but first I took some apple butter from a local apple orchard to our neighbors. Yeah, I cheated on this one. I don't what I was thinking when I included this. The only food I ever grow is peppers and maybe some green beans, and I did none this past summer because we were gone so much and were busy with a babe when we were home. I think I planned to go pick some more apples in the fall and make applesauce... but I didn't do that either. So apple butter from a local garden (?) was the best happening this year!
25. Read to a child. Ahh, at this point it felt like it'd been a long day and it would have been easy to pass off bedtime with the boys to daddy, but reading to them was sweet as always and gave me a last energy burst to finish the list.
27. Share your favorite non-profit's page with your friends on Facebook, and tell them why it's important to you. I had posted some pics throughout the day on facebook, but I hadn't really had a chance to sit down and do anything more than that so now was my chance to do that part of the list. There are tons of cool things going on in so many non-profits that my friends are involved in. I don't really have just one fav, but I think a local non-profit run by a bunch of youth pastors (B might be one of them) is doing great things for the youth in the area. I love that they work together and that their goal is to reach the lost, not have the largest group at their own church. Lawrence County Youth Ministries- Ok, now I shared it on here too!
28. Share a book, online article, etc. with someone that you think will enjoy it. Ok, I needed to do something a little more on the light side. I am not that deep of a person and all of this meaningful stuff was making me uncomfortable. :) hehe. Anyways, when it came to this, the first thing I thought of was a blog post that I read a while back and meant to send to my sis-in-law. I thought it was funny and probably true in a lot of ways, and I was crossing my fingers that she'd think it was funny too. She did. http://www.jonacuff.com/stuffchristianslike/2009/06/550-surviving-church-as-a-single/ Read it. And then read anything by Jonathan Acuff because it's usually pretty funny.
29. Make a donation to a friend's favorite charity in their name. I had a specific friend in mind for this. She's one of sweetest and best I have, and I wanted to include her in the day, even though she already joined in by doing her own RAK- before I had even started my day! She gave me two charities she's been involved with and they are both amazing, so I went with the one I know the most about. http://www.womenscenter.org/
30. Drop off canned goods at a food bank. This is where I start to feel a little like a failure. We picked up some of our favorite canned/boxed foods earlier at Aldis, but I didn't think about needing to drop them off during office hours. I'm still not convinced that someone there wouldn't have just taken them in for me because the food bank also houses men in another part of the building, but I wasn't sure where to go or if they'd let me in at that time and Bran convinced me to send them with him the next day since he was going there anyways. It was very sweet of him to offer and I like to think he was just helping out the way the kids did, as this definitely became a family undertaking even though I never asked any of them ahead of time if they wanted to do it. ;)
31. Help a homeless person. This one overwhelmed me a little because we don't live in a big city where there are just homeless people all over the downtown area that you can help out right as you walk along the road. Especially it this cold, cold weather, I didn't expect to see any. I kept trying to think of ideas and was praying throughout the day for the Lord to lead me to a need. I felt pretty dumb when I realized we know a man who works at the local men's shelter and a woman who works at the women's shelter. For this day, I went and bought several gift cards to Wendys to give to the women. They are on their own for meals, so I thought it might be a nice treat. Long-term though, I want this RAK to stick the most. It made me take time to talk to the people I know and find out ways to get involved more personally in serving with these ministries. It's something I've wanted to do since living here and it's time to get moving.
32. Be on time for something you would usually be late for. Ah.. If my life depended on this, I would be in big trouble. Since I didn't have a strict schedule to follow and since I'm usually late for eeeverything, we could just say getting up and going on these things early in the morning is not usual for me. I did get to Carters when I told the woman I'd be there and we brought dinner to the man from church roughly at the time we said we would. That's going to have to be good enough on this one.
33. Donate blood. Ok, this is where I feel more than a little like a failure. Brandon donates blood all the time, so first off I didn't think about the fact that our small town has certain days when you can do this. Lucky for me, they were having a blood drive on the 23rd, only 2 days later, so I could sign up and it wouldn't be a long wait to fulfill this task. When I called though, they said all the time slots were completely full. Who knew you had to sign up to give blood so far in advance?! We actually went over the day of anyways to see if they could squeeze us in and there was no blood drive going on. Super weird. Either way, there was an open drive at the beginning of February, so I thought, well we'll just have to wait a little longer. Except there was no advance sign up, so I only remembered the day after. Ah! Next one is coming up and I've got an alarm to remind myself. I will not leave this list at like 97%! Again... Ah!!
So this was my day - my birthday day - and it was both tiring and energizing at the same time. Like, I said, so neat to do with my littles joining along, and a definite perspective reminder on how I let my kids see me do life. I think it's just as much the attitude when doing things as much what you choose to do, and we had fun this day. Andrew had many sweet and funny comments about this whole thing, one of which was when he asked me if I do this every year. When I said no, he asked why not. My honest answer was I'd never thought of it before, and then I prayed he didn't ask if I will do it every year now that I have thought of it. I'm getting old, people, and pretty soon there won't be enough hours in the day. :) I do think we will do some form of this, but just as a family rather than posting it for the world to read about. I'd also like to start doing something like this on the kids' bdays as well, incorporating it into the way we celebrate.
We don't just save these act of kindness for special days or announce to the world every time we recycle cardboard boxes, but I did feel like it was an awareness wake-up call to the amount of time each day that I spend in my own little world versus doing things to help/connect with others, which is good every so often. My main concern with doing this was that it would come off as bragg-y or like I was doing it for people's praise. More than anything it made me aware of how much better I can use my time. As a stay-at-home mom I often feel like I can't accomplish anything big and meaningful in the world when I am either filling a cup of milk, changing a diaper, replacing toy batteries, or breaking up a sibling spat every 2.5 minutes, so I don't even try. I live by "to-do" lists because I can cross them off one at a time during those magical moments of down time. I can do them in whatever order works that day, and I can carry them over to the next day if this day just "ain't happening", I can make it fit into our life rather than stopping all other parts of life to complete it. I don't want to make helping others or being kind into a "to-do" list, but the idea is that doing little things during our normal daily life (with kids tagging along and all!) can be meaningful too. - and a lot of fun!
So this was my day - my birthday day - and it was both tiring and energizing at the same time. Like, I said, so neat to do with my littles joining along, and a definite perspective reminder on how I let my kids see me do life. I think it's just as much the attitude when doing things as much what you choose to do, and we had fun this day. Andrew had many sweet and funny comments about this whole thing, one of which was when he asked me if I do this every year. When I said no, he asked why not. My honest answer was I'd never thought of it before, and then I prayed he didn't ask if I will do it every year now that I have thought of it. I'm getting old, people, and pretty soon there won't be enough hours in the day. :) I do think we will do some form of this, but just as a family rather than posting it for the world to read about. I'd also like to start doing something like this on the kids' bdays as well, incorporating it into the way we celebrate.
We don't just save these act of kindness for special days or announce to the world every time we recycle cardboard boxes, but I did feel like it was an awareness wake-up call to the amount of time each day that I spend in my own little world versus doing things to help/connect with others, which is good every so often. My main concern with doing this was that it would come off as bragg-y or like I was doing it for people's praise. More than anything it made me aware of how much better I can use my time. As a stay-at-home mom I often feel like I can't accomplish anything big and meaningful in the world when I am either filling a cup of milk, changing a diaper, replacing toy batteries, or breaking up a sibling spat every 2.5 minutes, so I don't even try. I live by "to-do" lists because I can cross them off one at a time during those magical moments of down time. I can do them in whatever order works that day, and I can carry them over to the next day if this day just "ain't happening", I can make it fit into our life rather than stopping all other parts of life to complete it. I don't want to make helping others or being kind into a "to-do" list, but the idea is that doing little things during our normal daily life (with kids tagging along and all!) can be meaningful too. - and a lot of fun!
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