Maybe You Should...

...stop by Creating Curiosity today, and see what we've been learning about lately! :D

Kindness

Some days, I get a little bit overwhelmed 

at the lack of kindness in the world. 

The days that I have gone to the store with a smile, 

and not one person smiles back. 

The days that people get irritated with me for letting Delaney 

play hopscotch in the cereal isle at Wal-mart.

 (Is there anything more fun at the store when you are three?)

The days that I do nice things for people 

and they act as if I am trespassing.

People are far too often impatient, uncaring, and sometimes

 just plain mean for no reason at all. 

I was reading my sister Hannah's blog the other day, and she was talking about helping an organization called Ben's Bells. 

I had never heard of it, so I popped over to their website to take a look.

The header was enough to get me interested. A simple motto of "Be Kind". 

I read further. 

As it turns out, Ben's Bells was the product of a family's heartbreak 

over the loss of their little boy, and a reaction to all of the 

kindness and love that they received while dealing with his passing. 

Read the story. 

I highly recommend that you have a tissue box close at hand.

Long, beautiful story short, 

they and whoever wants to volunteer

make bells out of clay and distribute them around the Tucson community to promote random kindness.

Cullen was watching a movie as I was reading about their project,

and asked me what I was reading.

I tried to hold it together while I was telling him about it,

 but this kind of thing gets me really emotional.

He thought I was a little crazy for crying over it,

 (and I am all choked up as I write this) but seriously...

There is not a lot of random kindness in this world, 

and these people took the worst moment of their lives and made it into 

something beautiful.

So, Hannah, when I finally do make it to Tucson,

you have to take me there.

I want to make bells too.

Happy Valentine's Day! 2012

We usually don't do a whole lot around here for Valentine's day. I decided to make everyone in the house some cheesy Valentine's this year, and it was a lot of fun.

For Hailey...

 The Soph...

 For Delaney, along with some Valentine jokes that I found here, since she is always trying to tell them...

 For Cullen...

 Sorry about the sideways. My computer is doing some weird thing that I don't know how to fix. :p

I left them on Cullen's desk, and at the girls' seats at the table, and served pink milk and waffles for breakfast.

Delaney and I made Valentine crowns for her and Sophie and Hailey. She cut out the hearts, and I assembled. Sophie disassembled. Haha.

Cullen surprised me with the final piece of the Willow Tree collection that I wanted...

Truly, my family makes me feel so loved every single day that I definitely don't need a commercial holiday to feel it. I have three sweet daughters who shower me with love and kisses all the time, and a husband who completes me.

Love you, family. Let me buy you some Pop Rocks, 'cause, Valentine's, you "rock" my world. :)

Cereal Stealer

Sophie has recently discovered Life cereal. She LOVES it. She will search for it under the table, beg at her sisters' chairs while they eat it, and figure out which cabinets are no longer child-proofed in order to satiate her need for it.

While I made dinner the other night, she decided that my dinner plans were less desirable than hers.

She moved the other cereal boxes out of her way...

 Found what she was looking for...

 Totally caught with her arm in the cereal box!

Maybe they will hire her for their next advertising campaign. :)

Shut, Shut, Shut

(Before I even get to the real story of this post, I have to tell you that my right index finger was misplaced a bit to the right on the keyboard as I began typing the title here, and we almost had a VERY different title. Haha.)

Delaney and Sophie have begun to play quite a bit more together lately.

Delaney loves to read Soph books.

 Sophie likes to do just about anything to help or bug her big sister.

  The other day the girls were running from room to room being silly while I was doing dishes in the kitchen. I kept hearing doors shut, and yelling and knocking. I figured out that Delaney was getting Soph to chase her into different rooms, then dashing out the door and closing Sophie in the room until Sophie made enough noise that Delaney deemed it was time to let her out. I told Delaney that she needed to stop, and she answered,

"But we're playing Shut, Shut, Shut, Mom! That's how it works!"

and ran off to lock Sophie in yet another room. 

Haha. I guess that I probably did worse to Dawn when we were little, right?

Cancer Awareness Project

Hailey's Language Arts class at school was talking about cancer a few weeks ago. The students were put into groups and told to come up with a cancer awareness fund raiser. Hailey's group came up with the idea of a talent show. Their plan was to charge a $2 entry fee to participate, and a $1 fee for spectators, sell refreshments for $1 and hold a raffle. Hailey came home and told me that they were really going to do it. I have to admit, I was skeptical. Three 12 year olds organizing a cancer benefit by themselves with just a week's worth of planning?

But they did it!

The group's leader secured a venue (Grace Lutheran Church) and made flyers. The girls passed them out. They rounded up participants. They decorated the room and stage. They did a really great job.

The concert/talent show was this last Saturday. Sadly, I left my camera on the counter at home, so I didn't get any pictures, but there were about 6 participants, and lots of spectators! It was really nice to see how many people from the church came out to support the girls' efforts. They ended up raising $112 for someone they know who was recently diagnosed with cancer, and sparked a lot of interest. A few local bands and artists said that they would be happy to perform if the girls want to have another benefit and plan ahead a little further.

What a great way to teach students to make a difference in the world, not to mention teach them that they are capable of doing whatever they set their minds too.

Another group from the class is putting their cancer awareness project into action as well. There will be a 3 on 3 tournament and "pie the teacher" event tonight from 6-9pm at KAOL Middle School with all of the proceeds going to the Bathauer family. If don't currently have plans, you should stop in, support the students, and help a local family that has been very involved in the lives of many of Kingman's youth!

Scary Soliciting

The other day, a solicitor hung this on my door:

That is some seriously scary advertising.

I especially love the huge flames and smoke billowing from every single window of the house.

Of course, it made my amygdala immediately scream in horror, "Oh my gosh!! I NEVER clean my dryer vent! MY HOUSE IS GOING TO BURN TO THE GROUND WITH ME AND ALL OF MY CHILDREN INSIDE OF IT IF I DON'T CALL THIS NUMBER RIGHT NOW!!"

I threw it at Cullen (who was home for what he hoped would be a calm lunch) in mock seriousness, telling him that we were all going to die if I didn't call this company. :D

Being the grammar enthusiast that I am, I also enjoyed their lack of punctuation and spell check. (There should DEFINITELY be a semi-colon, or at least a comma after "Avoid a fire". And it's an advertisement, not an addition problem.) I know that I make typos, and I start sentences with "and" and "but", which is technically very wrong, but I'm not trying to sell you anything, right?

So, really, dear local company, if you want to frighten me into using your services, you should at least be smarter than my 12 year old. I could send her over to proofread next time, if you like.