12 Months of Kindness: 2015

2015 will be our seventh year of committing to twelve months of kindness.  We've been planning out an act of kindness for each month since we've been married and now it just feels like it is a part of us; a part of the root that our family grows up from.

Over the past six years, our 12 Months of Kindness project has given our years (and lives) a little something extra.  A little less bit of feeling like we're just steadily marching through time - it has forced us, at least once a month, to look up from our daily busy and see how much we have to be grateful for.  A reminder that because we have been given much, we too must give.  

It strengthens our desire to be those kinds of people.  The kinds of people who resolve to take responsibility for those around them.  The kinds of people that focus on what is possible and not what feels overwhelming.  The kinds of people who extend a hand into the empty space between us and another.  That's the kind of people we want to be and 12 Months of Kindness is a monthly reminder that we can be those kinds of people; as long as we keep trying.

There are a few important pieces to making sure you have a successful year of 12 Months of Kindness and after six years - we've found these to the be main cornerstones:

1. Plan ahead:  it is imperative to make your list of 12 acts of kindness at the start of your year.  Look through the future months and consider the events you already have scheduled (birthdays, vacations, seasons, holidays, etc) and try to think about acts of kindness that will be feasible within each month's constraints (financial, time, physical)
2. Make sure your tasks are measurable:  this is important on all lists you make, but especially for the 12 Months of Kindness List.  Make it an actionable item, instead of saying "Give back to our neighborhood" - this is hard to measure when it comes time to whether or not this month was a success.  Sure, you didn't start any neighborhood fights and you waved to your elderly neighborhood - but maybe not necessarily something you'd officially qualify as "giving back."  Decide instead on a the specific way in which you'll 'give back' - for example, "Pick up trash on our road."  or "Give a monetary donation to our local fire department."  Those are both tasks that you can certifiably check off the list; you know when they've been completed for sure.  
3. Display your list in a high-traffic place:  our list of 12 acts of kindness hangs on our fridge so that we walk past it several times a day.  After the first task is crossed off/highlighted, it serves as even more motivation to continue to make sure we are meeting our goals at monthly kindness.  

So, this past week, Brandon and I sat down after the kids went to bed to compile our 2015 12 Months of Kindness challenge for our family.  We slotted in our yearly events (May, June, July, and December) and then talked about, pin-searched, and recalled from the past acts of kindness that could fill in the rest of our months of the year.  

Lucky for me, some of our months are working double duty as they are also items on my 100 small things list (March and November).  We are trying thing this year we've never done (September) and doing some of our old favorites (August, October).  

12 Months of Kindness

2015

January:  Give someone the 'day off'

February:  Anonymously pay for someone's dinner while out to eat

March:  serve a meal at the Winder Area Community Kitchen

April:  Send a special care package to Raph (our friend through World Vision)

May:  award two CV high school seniors with the Studer Scholarship (7th year)

June: organize the 2nd annual CVAA Superhero 5K and Family Fun Run/Walk

July: 7th Annual Studer's Invitational Beer Olympics!

August:  Donation of goods to the Cambria County Humane Society

September:  Assist at/with the Johnstown Backpack Project

October: Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF

November:  host an Oxfam America Hunger Banquet

December:  participate in Giving Tuesday

Besides our commitment to the 12 Months of Kindness Project (#12mokp on instagram if you join!), we also try to choose kindness everyday in our interactions with one another and others.  Things like refraining from name-calling, saying 'please' & 'thank you' every time, and waving to our neighbors as we drive by.  

I'm also hoping to do a semi-revival of my 12 Months of Kindness Project blog (yea, who forgot that it existed? this chick), mostly with a boost of facebook page posts and sharing other people's stories of kindness and RAOKs.

Are you making a plan to add kindness as a goal to your 2015?  I want to hear about it!!  Comment or link up below!

three under five.

whew.  it has been one heck of a week over here.  a big reminder this week that we currently have three kids under five years old.

three under five.

like everyone (ev.ery.one.) that sees us out says, we "have our hands full."  indeed, my friend.  indeed we do.

the kids are reeling with post-holiday mania.
it's just been so many parties.  so many presents.  so many cookies.  so many late bedtimes.
it seems like this week has just been a full collapse of normalcy.

fighting, mess making, not listening, attitude, talking back.  it's been a hard few days in mummahood.

jumping from the top of the stairs to the landing...in the swimsuits.

I'm also trying to look at the massive amounts of what feels like clutter and too much stuff that happens every year after the holidays.  So much recycling, so many more toys, just so much stuff.  Am I the only one that has this January panic of how much crap it feels like is in their house?

a mess they made in the laundry room with recycling.  why do we even have any toys?

Monday was awful, just so much fighting, and difficulty resting, and crazy happening all day long with my three under five.  And then we had a tragic situation between one of our dogs and our sweet Jinxy cat that night. Jinxy is no longer with us which has us all heartbroken and now we are currently in the process of finding possible solutions for Bullet's behavior including seeing a professional dog behavior specialist on Monday and visiting the vet on Tuesday to see if his aggression is pain related.  We are operating with heavy hearts right now.

Greyson tried to make me feel better by telling me, "At least one happy thing Mom.  Jinxy is in heaven now having fun with cat Jesus."

cat Jesus.
gah, out of the mouths of babes, honestly.

we celebrated the last bit of our holiday season with Orthodox Christmas and we completed one of my 100 small things tasks - sleeping out under the Christmas tree.

it is always so refreshing to get the holiday decor down though - honestly, even though it was such a hassle to get the tree and decorations down myself on Wednesday, if I didn't get it down that day I felt like I was becoming unhinged.

We muscled through the week though - attending the kids' classes, Daddy's basketball game, and regular household chores.

B and I finally went grocery shopping (we were nearly bare cupboards) and stayed up until 1p putting groceries away, cleaning out the fridge and building a fire in the wood stove downstairs because of the super freezing temps this week.

Speaking of staying up late, that was another weird thing about this week - Gem kept passing out around 5p everyday and then waking up at like 7:30p - so then none of us went to bed until almost 11pm every night!?  Last night the four of us fell asleep downstairs on the couches watching Full House at midnight.  so weird.

TGIF today though, somehow we all seem to have a little more grace and patience with each other.  We had an exciting and fun day with home preschool and even had an ice cream snack for our Letter I week.  I'm hoping to get my new planner for 2015 today (HAH, 9 days into the year already, goodness) and I'm oddly excited about trying a new dinner tonight.  I'm hopeful that we are getting back into the groove of things after a very long, albeit joyous and blessed, holiday season.

so, yes, we have our hands full.
but as someone very sweet once reminded me.
"you think my hands are full?
you should see my heart."

100 small things: 2015

Happy almost new year!  Gah, what an exciting time of year; the freshness and clean slate feeling that the new year brings makes me so happy that I'm practically giddy over here.


Vincent Van Gogh said,

"Great things are done by a series of small things brought together."

Over the past two-ish years, I have become more and more passionate about leading an intentional life.  I want the things happening in my life, the experiences, and relationships to bring happiness, beauty, and joy into my life. Yes, there are frustrations and challenges, but I want to spend my energy intentionally building a daily life that is fulfilling and inspiring to me.

So, with intention as my inspiration - and taking a cue from Ashley from The Big White Farmhouse I've decided to shake up my 'new year's resolution' for 2015.   (thank you Ashley, you are always inspiring me with your intentional life!)

I'd like to present my list of 100 small things to complete for 2015.

My list of 100 things was compiled using lots of different bits of inspiration.  Things that have been weighing down my mental to do list, plans I wanted to accomplish this year anyway, I looked to Ashley's list, my pinterest projects board, and my own lists I have tucked into notebooks and the back of my planner.

Throughout the year, I'll come back to this page (or re-post with updates) about the things that I complete on the list.  There are a few items that are quite lofty, but I'm going to try to go for them anyway.  I hope my list will inspire you to create one of your own for a more intentional year in 2015!

1. move photos to external hard drive/shutterfly

2. take each kid on an individual date

3. dress-up/out date with Brandon 4 times this year (2/4)

4. "Get to 'The End" of the first draft of one novel

5. Run/walk at least 30 miles one month

6. Read 12 books that I've never read before:  (Two of which are 'classics')  (1. Delirium by Lauren Oliver, 2. A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson 3. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larson 4. The Ten Thousand Things by Maria Dermoutx 5.The Husband's Secret by Lianne Moriarty 6. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston  7. Make it Happen by Lara Casey 8. Paper Towns by John Greene 9. Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng  10.This Much I Know is True by Wally Lamb 11. The Winter of our Disconnect by Susan Maushart, 12. Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline 13. All the Light we Cannot See by Anthony Doerr 14. One More Thing, Stories and More Stories by B.J. Novak 15. Those Who Save Us by Jenna Plum)

7. make jam

8. organize the upstairs office space

9. take kids and grandmas to a city

10. throw out 50 things & re-read Throw Out Fifty Things: Clear the Clutter, Find Your Life (31/50)

11. Host 12 family dinners at our house
12. Host an 'art gallery opening' with the kids artwork with family/friends
13. create books with kids from their own stories and drawings
14. try Zumba
15. take down and wash, kitchen and living room curtains -
16. buy plastic cups
17. buy new plates -
18. create individual memory boxes for each family member
19. finish 2014 family yearbook
20. finish 2010 family yearbook
21. order personalized keepsake Christmas stockings for each family member (Brandon, Tabitha, Greyson, Gemma, Violet, Bully/Trixie, Lola)
22. make dogprint frame for our hallway
23. blog 3 times a week consistently
24. submit 4 articles/posts for publish to other blogs/sites
25. camp out with the kids
26. visit an indoor water park
27. kid playdate with Katie & Karpy -(twice!) January in Fredricksburg, VA and October in Altoona, PA
28. Dominican Republic family vacation - May
29. update my blog pages
30. create and manage The Hunting Daddies Youtube channel
31. serve a meal at the Winder Area Community Kitchen 
32. keep a daily gratitude journal
33. officially complete our wills
34. pour patio on the side and front of the house
35. plant a "garden"
36. participate in Screen Free Week 2015 -
37. fix the curtains in the kids' rooms
38. get new carpeting upstairs
39. go roller skating
40. hand-build a hope chest with my Dad
41. make enchiladas with my Mom
42. Learn to drive stick from Rudy
43. make homemade pierogies with Marianne
44. sew matching nightgowns for the girls with Grammar
45. make pysanky eggs with Pap
46. watch 5 documentaries (1. The Dark Matter of Love 2. On the Way to School 3. Alive Inside! 4.Hoop Dreams 5. Twinsters)
47. SCF weekend
48. create a family time capsule
49. create 5 gallon emergency bucket kit for the house
50. make handwriting page for school years for Greyson
51. build laundry pedestals
52. 12 month long deep cleaning schedule
53. Host a book exchange party
54. watch 15 TED talks (1. How not to be ignorant about the world 2. Connected, but alone  3. How to overcome biases? 4. How to Live a Life of Purpose  5. Creative Confidence  6. Got a wicked problem, first tell me how you make toast.  7. Why a Good book is a secret door  8. The math behind basketball's wildest moves  9. Practicing Intentional Empathy 10. How to let altruism be your guide 11. A radical exercise in empathy 12. Why are these 32 symbols found in ancient caves? 13. The art of asking 14.The surprising science of happiness 15.How to start a movement 16. Why city flags may be the worst designed thing you never noticed)
55. make Spend/Share/Save piggy banks for the kids
56. make a Hawaiian vacation trip book with our photos for the kids
57. make a Costa Rica trip book with my photos for the kids
58. visit Flight 93 memorial
59. get the dogs trained
60. organize/clear out junk from holiday decorations
61. take a photo of Gemma in my wedding dress
62. paint the breaks in the kitchen stone backsplash
63, scrub kitchen table & chairs
64. organize fridge documents (calendar, photos, etc)
65. 'finish' basement bathroom
66. take kids to a Curve baseball game
67. bike ride at Ohiopyle
68. go coal tubing
69. get everyone new bikes
70. convince Brandon to get rid of some clothes -
71. hang a clothesline
72. have a sleepover at Aunt Kitty's house
73. run in a 5K- May; Path of the Flood 5K
74. go one whole month with NO dining out at all- 
75. blog every single day for one whole month- October (26/30 days)
76. plant a tree on Earth day
77. subscribe to the Sunday local newspaper
78. read my writer's manual from front to back
79. take an online writing course
80. re-read my favorite book:  A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
81. get a couple's massage
82. get my hair done (highlights/cut) 
83. host an oxfam america hunger banquet
84. make homemade bread
85. eat one meal a week at the dinner table with candles/flower centerpiece
86. put in new french doors in the dining room
87. summer outdoor brunch/meals
88. campout under the tree before Orthodox Christmas
89. remove all blinds in the house
90. re-paint the living room
91. start to wear aprons while cooking dinner
92. order another Brian Andreas print
93. go eye-bombing with the kids
94. order a lovely print from a artist friend (!) that makes me happy
95. comment to other blogs and be better at replying to comments on my blog
96. remove TV from our morning routine -
97. start a 'first day of school eve' tradition
98. add Violet's birthstone to my Mother's ring
99. design my 3/4 sleeve tattoo
100.  make a 2016 list!

So here's to a new year!  To a year of doing small things to help accomplish the BIG life I imagine for myself and my family.  Here's to living intentionally in this one great life!