i'm not kidding

Coming up from the basement at 10 o'clock on Sunday night, "Bullet might throw up," huffs Brandon.
"What?  Why?"  asks disbelieving and exhausted Tabitha.
"He just ate half my snuff can."



It's your world, Bullet.  We're just living in it.



We need some help!

Its January and that means its time to put together our 12 months of kindess list for 2011.  We sat down together and talked about what we should do for this year.  That's a lie, I said, "B, what do you think we should do for 12 months of kindness this year?"  And he said, "I liked this year."  End.  Typical husband.  After some reminding of how hard one-car family was and how we cheated almost the whole month of localtarian, we finally started talking about some new ideas. 

After much delibiration, we high fived over 11 new kindness tasks!  Which means we're missing a month and that's where YOU come in!  We need some inspiring ideas of kindness for the month of August 2011.  Keep these things in mind:  the weather is nice in August (something outdoor-sy?), we have a wedding and a few days in Baltimore already scheduled (so can't be dedicated everyday in the month), it's my birthday month:)

In case you're worried about doubling up on kindness (we don't mind doubling up, but if you want to be creative):  we already have kindness in the months pertaining to:
Food kitchens
Volunteer firefighters
Thailand<3
Animal shelters
High School seniors
gardening/Mother Earth
Make-a-Wish foundation
Donors Choose/Teachers
Unicef
Alumni
Retirement home/Adopt a family

We'd prefer ideas that are not overly expensive, but a little finanical responsiblity is to be expected.  A one-time kindness, one that takes a little planning & participants, or takes the whole month are all accepted!!  We'll choose which one we like best/fit our family best/make us smile/gets the biggest bang for the buck/whatever we're feeling/etc.

Please send suggestions to:
my email  OR
a facebook message OR
comment on this post OR
carrier pigeon

Thanks for your help!!

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If 12 months of kindness sounds like something you wish you could do to - don't just wish - DO IT!  It does not have to be highly involved or spend lots of your money.  Just choose a little something to do each month and then hold yourself (&your family) to finishing it up.  Here's two examples of how you can make it work for YOU.

12 months of Kindness:  totally, beautifully, wonderfully, FREE
January:  Commit to taking your own bag while shopping; Refuse plastic bags.
February:  Donate Blood
March:  hold a March Madness tournament for family & friends.  Cost of entering:  canned good, winner gets:  satisfaction of being awesome?  Donate the goods to a food bank
April:  Unplug appliances that aren't being used (toaster, tv, cellphone charger)
May:  Introduce yourself to your neighbors
June:  turn off the tv
July:  send snail mail to a friend or family member you haven't talked to in awhile (okay, this one costs 48 cents)
August:  Resist road rage.  hello, friendliest driver ever...for the whole month (this one will take some determination!)
September:  clean out your closet & donate the clothes  (yea, the jeans you haven't fit in since HS, they go)
October:  trick-or-treat for UNICEF
November:  write honest thank you notes to your parents & siblings
December:  volunteer as a Salvation Army santa (um, awesome)

12 Months of Kindness:  Kid-friendly
January:  start a family talent show night
February:  bake cookies for the local retirement home
March:  write & illustrate a book with someone older than you (your aunt/uncle, your grandparent, neighbor)
April:  learn to say please & thank you in other languages
May:  grow a garden/plant together
June:  start taking an evening family walk
July:  visit a local historic hotspot and learn more about your community
August:  donate some of your old toys to a preschool/day care
September:  make home-made gifts for grandparent's day
October: trick-or-treat for UNICEF
November:  write thank you notes to the local fire department
December:  send holiday cards to a children's hospital

mix it up - do a whole year dedicated to just one cause that you care about most or be a scatterbrain like us and bounce all over the place.  Whatever you decide to do - know that you are changing the world one small act of kindness at time.

NYR: stress

So as mentioned earlier, our new years resolution is to shrink down or in the more modern and increasingly popular way to phrase it:  minimize.  Yes sir, the studers are going minimalist.  But this does not mean that our house is going to be white-walled with one piece of furniture and a vase of long stemmed calla lillies in it.  Um, have you not seen pictures of a my horse of a dog?  But we are taking the ideals behind minimalist living and pushing that throughout all aspects of our life. 

From here on out, this will be called "NYR"  as in, New Years Resolution.  Please don't expect me to type that entire paragraph everytime I talk about our minimalistic efforts.  hah, minimalistic. 

So, first business of order in the NYR is to minimize stress...mainly mine.  I may look like a totally put together human (can you hear my sisters and husband laughing hysterically right now?) but I have been a little maniacal for the past few months.  Let's step back a moment, My name is Tabitha and I'm a give-aholic.  Not like I'm bragging about being generous, I seriously have a  problem here.  I can't tell when enough giving is enough.  I was entirely capable of giving time/energy/love/interest/effort to myself AND my husband not so long ago.  But now that we have added to this family, the myself part has fallen out of the equation at an exponentially growing rate and with my over-giving issue, I just stood on the sidelines and watched myself disappear...So after multiple breakdowns over the past nine months, my hubs and I finally saw the light on how to fix this situation so that I can get a little balance in my life.  Clearly, the only thing that this give-aholic loves more than giving is a list.  Well, a schedule actually.  And we've put it into place this week. 

We've discussed what kind of a magic each of the nights might hold:

For now game night consists of B and I playing scrabble or the wii since Grey is too little to appreciate anything that requires not throwing or biting things.  (This week, we didn't remember about the game night until we were already in bed, so we had a rock, paper, scissors battle royalle...i lost). 

Mum's night off could be mean reading, writing (more to come about that), or meeting up with mom friends for some cocktails (how satc of me!) 

Dad's night off will allow B some uninterrupted tinkering in the garage, espn zombie time, or some wings&brews with our cousins. 

Date night doesn't mean actually going on a date always (who can afford a babysitter every thursday of the year?!) but maybe some wine with dinner but mostly just an attempt to put some romance back into our lives (I think this includes me making an attempt at having washed hair and perfume...that'll be nice for a change). 

And on Friday; having an evening set aside that we both are committed to cleaning up the place - ahhmazing.

And maybe I'm a total loser, but on the first ever Mumma's night off, I had the best time running errands all by myself. You'll hear more about my trip to the bookstore in an upcoming post, but I also made a stop at Target and the grocery store. While I was on my way back to the house, I called B just to say, "I love Tuesdays." Until you have a child, you have no idea that freedom is going to the grocery store alone.