Day 12 of the 12 Days of Giving - Local People Working!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!! I hope everyone got whatever they asked for! I know I did and I got great gifts too! I’m I love having Christmas at our house! I love seeing my family and loved ones over for the holiday, plus I love cooking. My kids destroyed the house opening presents but that’s okay! I really don’t know why I spend so much time cleaning it – I know what it’s going to look like when everyone arrives! I imagine their house looks similar so hopefully they don’t care! Today is our last day of giving. I’m a little sad as I have really enjoyed all that we’ve been able to do. What I have enjoyed most is the views I’ve received on these posts. Sure I am trying to operate a cooking blog about gluten free (soon to be dairy free, grain free, everything free for a while) in a tiny town in Kansas. My audience isn’t large to begin with but I have had an overwhelming response on my posts. I keep checking the stats and I’m happy to report that my combined views on my days of giving has blown everything else out of the water! This makes me happy! I love it when you all read my recipes but this means that we have at the very least intrigued you. I can’t tell you how many sweet texts or messages I have received about our giving. I love it! Do you know what else we love?? All of the people who are sacrificing time with their families today to keep us safe or comfortable. This includes our military, police officers, doctors, nurses, firefighters, store clerks, anyone who is working today! Thank you! I have the luxury of having a job that is closed today so I get to spend time with my family. Today, we wanted to give to those who are working to help others – in whatever way. My husband’s new hobby is smoking meat. He’s pretty good at it too! My favorite is his ribs. Today, he is smoking ribs that we can take to our local people! We are just going to be at home with family this morning and then going to my in-laws this afternoon so he had plenty of time to do it. So for lunch, some lucky people are going to get to enjoy his ribs! I hope you have enjoyed our 12 days of giving as much as we have! We can’t wait to do it again next year! I hope each of you have a wonderful Christmas and a great New Year! God Bless!!! 

Day 10 of the 12 Days of Giving - Library

Today I am a proud mom. Ok, everyday I’m a proud mom but today my little fella sure tugged at my heart! Today is the reason why I wanted to do this whole 12 days of giving thing. Sure it has been challenging some days – especially since I was sick the majority of the time. However, today makes it all worth it. Today my son is donating his allowance. I told him I would match (or more) whatever he wanted to give away. He is donating his allowance to the local public library. My mom takes him and the other daycare kids to the library quite regularly. Often enough that he knows EXACTLY where his favorite books are and he frequently checks out the same ones over and over. I didn’t go to the library much when I was younger. I liked reading, but didn’t go to the public library. I am SO happy that he enjoys going. He talks about it all the time. That’s another reason why we decided to reward him with books. Every night since this started we have read at least 2 books each night – many times more than that! A few days ago my husband and I were talking about the recent break-ins at the library. There were two different occasions that it was broken into and computers, electronics, etc. were stolen. Our son overheard us talking about it and said “I want to give my allowance money to the library so they can buy new stuff.” I almost fell over. I never dreamed that he would think to do something so generous with something he treasures so much – his allowance. It has been easy for him to watch us donate to other things because it is not his money he’s losing. Tonight, he got his piggy bank and his allowance jar and was ready to give! I know the few dollars isn’t anything compared to what they lost or what it costs to upkeep everything but I sure hope they know how much the library means to him and how caring he is. Many times as a parent, I question that what I’m doing is right or if I’m teaching him the right things. Tonight, he showed me that I’ve done at least something right for him to volunteer his hard earned money!

Day 9 of the 12 Days of Giving - Ice Melt & Santa

I’m not sure what the weather is like where you are but here in the four states it has been nasty. Over the weekend, we have received quite a bit of ice and a little dusting of snow. Luckily, it was a little warmer last week so the roads stayed pretty clear (at least the ones I was on). Unfortunately, the trees and other things got weighed down with the ice. Our cedar tree limbs were touching the ground! We’ve had worse ice storms so I’m thankful that this wasn’t as bad as previous ones but it is still a pain. Anyway, today we decided we’d take some ice melt over to one of our elderly neighbors and make sure her drive and sidewalk were clear for church. My son got all his winter clothes on and grabbed the ice melt. As I mentioned earlier, the sidewalk and roads were not too bad so it wasn’t much use. The thought was nice, just didn’t go very far after that.

Yes.. you need ski goggles in KS to throw ice melt...

Since the ice melt didn’t work, we decided to make some Christmas goodies. And by we, I mean me. My husband and son went to work on my husband’s smoker. I got out all of our Christmas dishes, utensils, etc since we are having breakfast here Christmas morning. Earlier in the week, we made Santa’s cookie plate and milk mug. I put it out with the rest of the stuff. When my son got home, he was so excited to see Santa’s stuff. Then he said, “Mom, we need to give Santa something.” I replied with “What? Are you sure?” He, of course, said “Yes. I want to do something for Santa.” Well…. what do you say to that?? You say, “Ok son. How about we color him a Christmas picture?” That worked for him so we all laid on the floor and colored pictures to give to Santa, along with his milk and cookies. While we were coloring he said “Do you know what my favorite thing is? Coloring with my family. I like it better than work.” I’m so happy it meant so much to him. Of course, now Santa needs a real gift. Not sure what we are going to do about that one… 

Day 8 of the 12 Days of Giving - Blankets to Homeless Shelter

Today we decided to help the homeless again. I saw a news report on the need for items in the local homeless shelters. They advertised for Soul’s Harbor and said they were experiencing a lot of people in need. We decided that blankets would be a good item to donate. We went to Wal-Mart, grabbed a few blankets and some gloves. It’s definitely not much, but it is cold out and I know we like snuggling with blankets! We also decided to throw in a package of apple cider mix. I can’t imagine not having a warm place to come home to or a nice cup of cider/tea/whatever. There are so many little things that we take advantage of everyday. We are so blessed to have a warm home, plenty of food, clothes, toys, etc. We’ve been trying to be extra thankful for everything we have and take for granted. Every evening we pray and say what we are thankful for. My son is always thankful for his toys, which is fine, but I’m hoping after all of this he is thankful for more than just material items and toys. It’s going well so far! Be prepared for what he has in store for the rest of the days of giving – I’m very impressed!

Day 6 of the 12 Days of Giving - Daycare & Free Store

There are times that I realize my children are very spoiled. Sure I like to blame it on the grandparents (who do a great job of spoiling) but we are also to blame. When my son was a baby, I must have bought every outfit I saw for him to wear. We didn’t have much money then so I’m not sure how we afforded it all but it was ridiculous. We had a garage sale, I’ve given clothes away to friends, donated them and I STILL have so many boy clothes! You’d think my daughter would have too much but her amount is fairly reasonable. The problem is not just clothes, but toys too. My son has every tiny little cheap toy you can think of and my daughter just refuses to play with hers. She prefers toilets or trashcans and the pantry items. She’s out of control. Anyway, we’ve started storing the older toys that don’t get played with as much and they haven’t missed one toy. So instead of just hoarding these barely used toys and clothes, we decided to donate them to the local free store. There’s really no sense in these boxes just taking up space – especially when I know they will be get MORE toys and clothes next week. My mom has a daycare so we are also going to be taking some toys there so she can rotate them out every once in a while too. I really thought my son would be more upset about this but he wasn’t. Obviously, he didn’t care about the clothes are working on being too small anyway but he wasn’t upset about the toys either. Some toys he said were “silly baby toys” anyway. I admit, I’m part of the problem. I keep everything…. I mean everything. My son had these toys that I thought “oh my gosh, we have to keep that. He smiled for the first time playing with that.” or “Remember this one?? He did this… or that…” Whatever the case was, I apparently thought it was a momentous occasion in our lives and we HAD to keep that toy. I’ve gotten over that – somewhat. It was tough, but those bags and bags of baby clothes and toys are finally going. Of course, I kept some of his favorite things and outfits (too many I’m sure) but the rest I’m ready to part with… I think. 

Day 5 of the 12 Days of Giving - Food Pantry

Ok – I have to be honest today. Today was supposed to be caroling with our church kids. I teach 2^nd grade and Lane is in the Pre-K class. We were so looking forward to it. I don’t think I've been caroling. I really love seeing all the kids together and having fun. I’m so thankful they let me help out. My body had different ideas which don’t involve being outdoors or around children. I've had a nasty cold since before Thanksgiving. One round of meds didn't work so a trip to Urgent Care was my afternoon. Two meds later, I’m at home with a fever.  Wash your hands people, there is nasty crud going around! 

Anyway – I had to move up a plan for today’s day of giving. Today has turned into food pantry day. My son had a hard time understanding this. We always have food and it seems like we are always grocery shopping. We eat mostly raw, real food so we don’t have too many pantry items – only fresh fruits, veggies, etc. They don’t last long and are very perishable so we had to do some grocery shopping for the food pantry. Lane’s first choice should come as no surprise to those that know him – mac & cheese. Then he got some Kool-Aid, fruit snacks, hot cocoa, cereal, stuffing mix, some soups, canned veggies and fruit. I mean really - I think he hit the essentials :) We got a large amount of stuff and I think my son understands a little better that he should be thankful for what we have. He may hate asparagus and give me the stink eye when I make him eat it, but at least he has fresh foods to eat! I must say it was odd buying all of those things that we don’t eat anymore. I forgot how easy and convenient it is to buy a can of soup or a package of macaroni and cheese. Either way – I hope it helps someone! 

Day 2 of the 12 Days of Giving - Angel Tree Gifts

So today proved to be very trying….but very rewarding! My husband and I explained to the kids (mainly the 5 yr old, little miss doesn’t speak English yet ha!) that today we would be buying gifts for the less fortunate. Our town has an “Angel Tree” that helps provide Christmas gifts for needy children (anonymously). Last week I went to pick our angels and surprisingly there were several left. I chose 4 special angels that were close in age to our kids. We had a 6 year old girl, a 6 year old boy, a 7 year old boy and a 1 year old girl. When I looked at the tags later I noticed most only asked for clothing or shoes. I was very surprised and very humbled at the same time. My husband and I decided that we’d get both; clothes and toys. My son actually did very well with buying the gifts. He was very excited and wanted to get them EVERYTHING. Food, shoes, socks, toys, soap, books… you name it, he tried to put it in the cart. He only asked a couple times if he was getting something but didn’t throw fits when I told him “no”. Anyway, I was very proud of him. We spent a lot more money than we planned. Our plan was to spend about $30 per kid. However, we quickly realized that wasn’t going to happen. By the time you get a small toy and gloves you are practically there.  Our Christmas bonuses may be gone BUT I’m happy to say that each child got gloves, a hat, shoes, socks, PJs, an outfit, books, 2 small toys and some candy (plus the baby got a coat!). The worst part of the whole trip was the crowd at Wal-Mart. Oh my gosh. We tried to get there early but it was closer to mid-morning. By the time we left at 11, it was crazy!!! Our daughter was tired and cranky. She threw her shoes, spilled her milk, screamed at the top of her lungs, lost her ponytail (which gave her a hideous, messy, Mohawk thing – don’t worry you’ll see her on “people of Wal-Mart” later), etc. My son wanted to put everything in the cart, wandered off, ran his face into a shopping cart (only a small black eye), etc. Once we got home and unloaded all the bags of stuff and laid all the gifts out, I realized it was all worth it and I’d do it again in a heartbeat. I knew this would be our big “day of giving” but I’m so happy that it went as well as it did. Through all the madness I saw our purpose and that’s all that matters. I sincerely hope that each child we were able to help has a wonderful Christmas and I hope that their parents or caregivers have one less stress to worry about this holiday season. Here’s some pics of our rewarding day!

Had to tie shoes. And yes my daughter is chewing on a dog toy (don't judge, it was a long day!)

The lost ponytail holder - mohawk-crazy hair look I mentioned earlier....

Sorted out by child!

All wrapped and ready to go!

Opening their book - Spiderman wanted to help :)