Tag: kindnesscalendar

Kindness Challenge Day 31

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 6 Comments

Day 31: Plan what acts of kindness you will do in 2018.

I think I’ll keep on being me. I do pretty well. Except for the forgiveness thing. I’ll keep working on that. LOL

In the mean time, let’s talk about the blog. Yup. End of the year. Time to review, take stock, see what’s working and what isn’t. I firmed up into three standard posting days this year with occasional offshoots and surprise posts. Fiendish Friday, Sunday Sup, and Book Review Monday are all doing evenly well. Except….

The pure stats:

Views: 4435 (Last Year 7794)
Visitors:  1623 (Last Year 1475)
Likes: 1386 (Last Year 1502)
Comments: 452 (Last Year 761)

Most Viewed Posts:

Allison Maruska’s new book review and interview.

A funny little ditty about what it’s really like to home school

A ridiculously boring post on rebranding my blog

An amusing travelog of our time in Amsterdam

A strange little question about the nature of the Great Oz

Blog posts I thought were funny but got fat ignored:

Um. I got nothing. I spent about 90 minutes going through my lowest views posts looking for some that deserved more attention and I got none from this year. LOL. Maybe my posts weren’t as funny as previous years. Maybe I was more concerned about offending people than necessary. Which leads me to …

I think when all is said my blog has plateaued. I need to figure out how to jump start it’s growth again. I don’t have the foggiest clue how to make that happen.

If you’ve got thoughts, I’d love to hear them. Til next year my friends.

 

Kindness Challenge Day 29

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 2 Comments

Day 29: Do a good deed to bring a smile to someone’s day

 

Today’s challenge is pretty vague so I’ll use this opportunity to tell a story. Winter 2015/2016 I heard both presidents at the coop were resigning. One in March and one would stay on until the end of the year. I watched for several months but no one stepped up. I told the staying until the end of the year president that I would take on the job if no one more qualified stepped forward. Realistically, I didn’t want to. But on the other hand, no board, means the coop doesn’t function and my special needs child, the one who does not adapt to change, he loves it there. He loves it so much he’ll try new classes there because he’s comfortable in the environment. I can’t lose that. She agreed I hadn’t really been at coop long enough (less than a year at that point).

Flash forward a few months. Want to guess what happened?

In April, 2016 A. and I are elected and essentially take over the board. Along the way we divide up the work as much as possible and have a dozen member board over that first summer to keep things as easy for everyone as possible.

Want to guess what happened?

Yeah by Fall the board had dwindled to almost nothing. And I was doing six jobs easily. A. was doing another 6. But we ran that way all last year. Hoping we were improving the culture and community at the coop enough that this year we could get more people to get involved and do what they said they would do.

I unhappily but fully devoted all the time the coop needed to it’s running. When I do something, I give it everything. There is little point in not doing a job right to me. But that also means when you break my “give a f**k” there is no turning back. I am done. I reached that point this fall and gave notice I would be resigning when the president came back from maternity leave.

I started looking for people to take over portions of my job, specifically. Like “you spend all your time here on your laptop, can you take over the website?” That sort of volun-telling. And I eventually got people on board. In fact, almost all of my jobs have been off loaded to other people, just in time for my replacement to come in.

Why the hell am I nicer to others than to myself? ROFL.

Anyway I told the new vp all the things I offloaded. It made her day. Possibly her week. LOL

Kindness Challenge Day 28

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 4 Comments

Day 28: Forgive someone and look for their good points

 

Ever heard the phrase holding a grudge is like swallowing poison and expecting the other person to die?

I try really hard to remember that, so I don’t hold onto that sort of cruddle. It can be struggle, of course. I find venting it really well, usually let’s me let it go. By which I mean complaining in detail to a girlfriend over wine.

But just because I forgive someone doesn’t mean they should get another chance to mess with my life. Protecting oneself is not the same as not forgiving someone.

I would argue that the greatest challenge to forgiveness is when the repercussions are still making waves in your life from something someone else did. I’ll give an example.

A parent at the coop set up relationships with vendors a few years back. And when the board tried to change or cancel those relationships, this parent fought us, and because this parent had set up the relationship, the vendors ignored the board. We refused to sign contracts with vendors and they came anyway on this parent’s say so, without a contract. We had to get legal involved. And then we had to pay for services we hadn’t agreed to, that we hadn’t signed contracts for, to the amount that legal arbitrated with the vendors. Money the coop didn’t have. Money that gave the coop a fat deficit in the budget. Now the coop is being audited.

It’s very hard to forgive this person when their actions are still jacking with my life on a daily basis. I’m working on it. I am. But mostly I think it’s a good thing this parent no longer attends the coop because I think my head might explode if I had to look at them twice a week. 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 27

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 5 Comments

Day 27: Get out into nature and feed the birds today

 

Bwahahahahahha. I always wonder things like this calendar are written. We’ve got 6 inches of snow. There ain’t no birds here. LOL.

It started snowing Christmas Eve and by Christmas morning it was sledding deep. Not to mention a ton of people crashed into ditches or each other or simply abandoned their cars in the middle of the road on Christmas Eve.

Christmas Day we were definitely snowed in. I mean we could have gotten out for an emergency, I think, but….

It was Christmas and the kiddo’s best friends live next door. They spent the whole afternoon outside.

Yesterday was tricky. All those cars still abandoned. We stayed home and played more.

Still got snow today. Neighbor kids are coming over in 15 minutes to play in the snow. LOL

Tomorrow I think we are going to a nature event day at the river watershed. Maybe I’ll find birds there to feed. 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 25/26

~ tahenryauthoress ~ Leave a comment

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

~ tahenryauthoress ~ Leave a comment

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

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 1 Comment

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

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 1 Comment

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

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 3 Comments

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

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 1 Comment

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.