Kindness Challenge Day 25/26

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Day 25: Be good to yourself.

I took the day off.

 

Day 26: turn off electronics and really listen to people.

This is one is a little offensive because it assumes I don’t. When I am with my people, I am there, with them. I suspect I do a reasonably good job of this because the number of people who will admit they tell me things they could never tell anyone else is quite high.

But since the calendar demands it, I’m going to turn my computer off now and go walk the dog in the snow. LOL

If you don’t know what I am talking about with the whole Kindness Challenge, you can find the calendar here. All normal posts will resume in January. Enjoy the time off. Enjoy the kindness. Practice a little yourself.

Kindness Challenge Day 24

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Day 24: Give Money to a Good Cause for every present you wrap….

um, all my presents are wrapped. Dude, I’m a planner. A mad planner. Been done for eons.

But I gave plenty of money this month.

Maple Valley Food Bank

Operation Gratitude

Foster Kids

World Wildlife Foundation (kiddo’s pick)

Kiva

An Elves Program (I won’t say which one because it would tell you where to find me and my child, just in case one of you is mentally unbalanced)

And an Equine Therapy Program for Special Needs Kids.

Look, the truth is, I grew up without money. I mean really without money. In fact, some would call it poor. Not anyone in my family, we were lower middle class, really. cough-cough.

I married well. I have a very easy life. I am fully aware of that. I haven’t forgotten how much it sucks not to have though. So I give, cause I can.

If you don’t know what I am talking about with the whole Kindness Challenge, you can find the calendar here. All normal posts will resume in January. Enjoy the time off. Enjoy the kindness. Practice a little yourself.

Kindness Challenge Day 23

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Day 23: Call a relative that is far away and have a chat

This is actually kind of hard for me. I talk to my in laws all the time. So calling them feels like a total cheat. I don’t speak to my mother and several other family members, all surrounding the issue with my mother. My dad expects me to call on Christmas and would be annoyed if I called today as that would mean he would have to talk to me twice this week.

Yeah, I got family issues. LOL. Did you never suss that out?

Friends I consider family it will have to be.

 

If you don’t know what I am talking about with the whole Kindness Challenge, you can find the calendar here. All normal posts will resume in January. Enjoy the time off. Enjoy the kindness. Practice a little yourself.

 

 

Kindness Challenge Day 22

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Day 22: Give someone your place in line in a shop or in traffic.

ROFL. Sometimes I wonder about just who is organizing my life. Today was the day in my scheduled I had planned to do ALL the shopping for the 3 days of events I have this weekend.

Originally I was hoping for two or three stores max but then we went to a terrarium building party on Wednesday and my son wanted some under water animals to live in his terrarium. (Fake ones.)

By the time the lists were made, we needed to go to FIVE stores today. FIVE.

I talked the kiddo into leaving the house by 815 and we were already home, food put away, lunch being consumed as I typed this post at 11AM.

I drove calmly.

I let someone go ahead of me in the first store in line.

I bagged my own groceries in the second store, freeing a bagger to help the elderly couple in the line next to me.

I reminded the clerk who was ringing up people and answering customer phone calls what she needed to write down on the slip when she got distracted from over multi-tasking.

Nothing of note happened in the fourth store. It wasn’t crowded at all. LOL

The fifth stop was Costco. I didn’t hurt anyone. Does that count? LOL. I did tell the cart unloading helper guy that I could manage and to go help someone who needed it. I was getting a little cranky by then. LOL. And then the number of people who just had to speed down the parking lot aisle as I was backing out or who tried to walk behind me as I was backing out was astounding. I think it took more minutes to get out of my parking spot than I spent waiting in line to check out.

I have to say there were many laughs with people who clearly shared my “rushing does not improve the season” attitude. The kiddo was super helpful, for an eight year old. I anticipated the trip would be much worse. Now I can go have a nap to help with this cold I am fighting off. LOL.

If you don’t know what I am talking about with the whole Kindness Challenge, you can find the calendar here. All normal posts will resume in January. Enjoy the time off. Enjoy the kindness. Practice a little yourself.

Kindness Challenge Day 21

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Day 21: Offer to take a friend’s dog out for a nice walk.

This is awkward. Most of my good friends don’t have a dog.

My acquaintances have many dogs. But they live all over the sound, the states, the world. Very awkward to walk one of their dogs this morning.

I’m taking a housebound for months friend out for a mani pedi, can we call that good? LOL

 

If you don’t know what I am talking about with the whole Kindness Challenge, you can find the calendar here. All normal posts will resume in January. Enjoy the time off. Enjoy the kindness. Practice a little yourself.

 

Kindness Challenge Day 20

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Day 20: Thank people who do things for you but you may take for granted

Huh. I’m pretty thanky. It goes with being huggy. But I’ll get all public display of gratitude, why not. I’m going to stick to thanking people for the things that often go unnoticed, though. We don’t want to me here all day do we? I know I don’t. I have a terrarium building party to get to.

The hubs: geez this could be a whole post in and of itself and I think it has. But I’ll try to be brief. Thank you for going into a crowded city, to a job you don’t much like, because it pays for you enough to keep your family in the manner you accustomed them to. smiles. Thank you for letting me schlep off to writers conferences without our child. Thank you for your unending support in my ridiculous attempts to be a moderately successful published author. LOL

The kiddo: Thank you for the years of amazing lesson you’ve given me.

A: Thank you for being the hard ass on the board, so I don’t have to be.

G: Thank you for never making me feel bad when I need to rant about my child to someone. You never ever imply I could be doing better or that it’s all my fault.

K: Thank you for always joining me on the oddest night’s out and for drinking more than me so I never feel like a lush, even when I am being one. LOL.

S and V: You still hold my hand when I cry about my career.

C: Thank you for making the pain of new photos way more fun than I could have imagined.

 

If you don’t know what I am talking about with the whole Kindness Challenge, you can find the calendar here. All normal posts will resume in January. Enjoy the time off. Enjoy the kindness. Practice a little yourself.

 

Kindness Challenge Day 19

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Day 19: Cook an extra meal and drop it off to someone

I baked like a mad woman last weekend. Then I set aside some of every requested treat for my friend A.

A just had a baby. Her 4th. And then when said baby was 2 weeks old, A had emergency surgery. Then she got a post op infection because who can rest with four kids.

So now she’s on doctor ordered bed rest, with four kids, and a sweet, kind, loving, but slightly clueless hubs. And it’s Christmas.

They got food in the freezer (hello she had three kids to start, she knew to cook months of meals ahead and stock the freezer).

Home made double chocolate cookies, fudge, peppermint bark, snickerdoodles, and apple pie cheesecake bites…that ain’t coming out of the freezer.

Side note: Apple pie cheesecake bites. Heaven! I’ll post the recipe after the holidays.

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If you don’t know what I am talking about with the whole Kindness Challenge, you can find the calendar here. All normal posts will resume in January. Enjoy the time off. Enjoy the kindness. Practice a little yourself.

Kindness Challenge Day 18

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 1 Comment

Day 18: Try out the art of positive gossiping.

This used to be such a thing when I lived in Cali. Reindeer Poop, giggle giggle. I never made it. Maybe because everyone else did, I know, I’m defiant like that. Still haven’t read that Dan Brown book. LOL But Reindeer Poop adds to the holiday season, pass it along. LOL

Reindeer Poop (inspired by a blog post on my friend Rachel’s site- I messed with it of course)

Melt a cup of creamy organic peanut butter with 6 tablespoons of cocoa, 2 tablespoons of butter, and 2 tablespoons of coconut oil over low heat until smooth. Stir constantly, it doesn’t take that long.

Remove from heat. Add 1 teaspoon vanilla, 1/3 cup honey. Stir until smooth.

Add 2 cups gf oats and 1/2 cup dried cranberries.

Stir like mad. Drop by the spoonful onto parchment paper, give it a squeeze against the spoon to make sure it sticks together. Let fully cool.

This will make soft gooey Reindeer Poop. If you like yours more solidified use more coconut oil and less butter. My kiddo hates the coconut so I have to play with the ratios to keep him from tasting it. LOL.

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Kindness Challenge Day 17

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Day 17: Take some supplies to a local animal shelter

Does it count if I dropped stuff off to them a couple of months back? sigh.

Probably not. LOL.

Just give me a fail for this one. LOL

If you don’t know what I am talking about with the whole Kindness Challenge, you can find the calendar here. All normal posts will resume in January. Enjoy the time off. Enjoy the kindness. Practice a little yourself.

Kindness Challenge Day 16

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Day 16: Make a card or decoration for someone special….

 

I made stollen today. It’s this Dutch bread that is traditionally eaten at Easter but that my husband’s mom always made at Christmas. It’s full of raisins and cranberries and a secret surprise – a huge log of almond paste in the middle.

The hubs loves it.

The MIL died a few years back. Just long enough for the bread to be a happy memory, not a sad one.

It’s not a card or decoration but my husband is someone special and five hours of kneading, waiting, kneading, waiting, baking for something I can’t eat…good enough.

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If you don’t know what I am talking about with the whole Kindness Challenge, you can find the calendar here. All normal posts will resume in January. Enjoy the time off. Enjoy the kindness. Practice a little yourself.