Day 12 - make something for someone you don't normally get along with

Seriously?!? Holy cow this was hard to even think about. I tend to be a peace maker so I was having trouble thinking of people I don't normally get along with. I tend to have this horrible desire to get along with everyone. :) But my daughter immediately thought of people. She made little alligator gifts for her brother Butterball and put some candy in it for him.

She said she should do something for me to as "I really don't get a long with you." She cracks me up. I had told a friend about this task and she texted me a lecture later about something to do with my kids and then included, "How was that you mad at me now? OK lets make up." It cracked me up!

Day 11 - clean, fix, or do something for someone else

We have been getting very behind because we have been so sick in our house. And just plain exhausted. So on a weekend we caught up with a few. This was hard for my kids and I to think of what to do. So as we were driving somewhere we decided to clear snow off people's vehicles. We were not dressed right for this and so we ended up getting done one. UGH!

But at least we did something. I tried to get them to do more but they were freezing.

My daughter is digging what she called a potty trail (the snow was yellow) so that she could walk over to do the side of the vehicle. What a nut.

Day 10 - Get a gift card to a restaurant and tape to drive through window

I cheated! I know, shame on me! I have a friend that I texted telling her she should follow me through the drive through. Turns out she has two kids with a birthday this month and not a lot of cash so I cheated by buying her a gift card to go out to eat with the kids. Darn....I just thought that I should have taped it to her forehead or something. Hmmmmm....maybe next time.

Day 9 - send a card to a random person in the phone book

My daughter picked out our random person and we made a card and then wrote our message. And yes, I am the dork that made the card, wrote my message, realized the card was too big for the envelope, trim the card, add daughter's message, take a picture, and then mail the card. And then when I post the picture I realize the trim had cut off part of my message. I am a dork.

Day 8 - Tape coupons on the items at the grocery store

What a blast. I rarely use all my Smith's coupons so I plan to do this more.

My daughter is finally clicking into how great this is. She said, "It actually feels good to be giving like this." Hey, better late than never.

I even saw a lady near the meat section buying a ton of meat so I gave her two coupons for her meat that I had.

I had a great time.

Day 7 - Leave change in a place where kids play

This was fun but a bit awkward as there were kids there already. Appleseed put down one penny and wanted the rest. Then he placed them all one by one around the gum machine.

The older kids put their money all over. When we got out to the car a lady came out with a child with a hand full of money saying my kids had dropped their money so I explained to her what we were doing.

Day 6 - Hang post it notes with nice messages on public mirrors

Boy do I need to pull out those papers sometime so I can do the title the correct way. Sweet Butterbean wrote this one for the boys and hung it on our bathroom mirror.

I accidentally wrote this one. I had been working on phonics with my son prior to this. I think I got mine a bit mixed up. I was going to hang this one on my own mirror but when it was all said and done I had put it on a public mirror. Oops. I hope someone got a laugh out of that.

I went to two different stores and used all their bathrooms and slapped mine up.

Butterball wrote two of them and hung one in each of the boy's bathrooms at school. I was surprised that he got into this.

Day 5 - Buy a gift card and give to someone in need

The kids and I discussed who we thought should get the giftcard and came up with a great choice.  So we went to get a giftcard and a little something she needed for her home.  Butterbean was the only that would pose for the picture.  We are loving this task!

Day 4 - Do some spring cleaning and donate to charity

I know I am not typing these titles word for word on my sister's cute papers so I hope she forgives me. I am too lazy to get the paper out to make sure I say it right. Today was not a hard one. YEAH! I had all my kids donate something. My daughter donated a book and 2 shirts. She tried to donate 2 more books, she is always trying to give the books away, but as they are part of a set I wouldn't let her. Butterball donated his "itchy" shirts meaning all his sweat shirts. He has always hated sweat shirts. And he did try to donate a Nerf gun, Dad told him no. Then a horse toy, little brother threw a fit. So he donated a small pretend walkie talkie. Little brother still threw a fit that he didn't have his own "talkie walkie" but it still went in the bag. And I donated a ton of clothes and some Christmas decorations.

I hope my kids willingness to get pictures of these get better. I asked Appleseed to get out and let me take a picture of him at the donation center and he said, "Just take our picture from us in here." So I did.

Day 3 - Hang flyer on a billboard.

Today's task drove me crazy because I had so much anxiety over possibly having to speak to someone about hanging up my sign. Thankfully a friend unknowingly helped me out by asking if I would be going to 7-11 anytime soon.

There was my perfect excuse. So I got her her soda fix and asked the cashier, who I am very familiar with (he he, not because I go there a lot at all) and she said I could hang it up. Whew!!!!

I asked my son to let me take a picture of him with it but he wouldn't let me. So here is the picture I got of him. Oh, the flyer reads, "Take what you need" The rip off tags on the bottom are "Faith, hope, courage, Love" What a nice reminder.

Things heard in my massage parlor. SCARY!

My bones are barely cool.  I wuv them.

OK, I demand absolute silence from now unless it is to say how much you plan to tip me.

Oh man, you are going to make me choke to death from the laughing, or tooting.  Man it stinks over here now.

Toot!  That toot meant no to your question.

Man your feet are gross.  Really dirty and they stink.  Good thing it is not my hands touching them....but a spoon.


That was a scary massage parlor.  I was pleased with the 10% discount for saying I worked with old people though.

Day 2 - Give out Valentines

I let all the kids pick a family to give out Valentines too. Appleseed was thinking with his hand rubbing his chin. Then I went to take the picture and he stopped and frowned.

We made our Valentines. Sorry sister that I didn't use the stuff you gave us. I didn't know we had stuff in our box until I saw one other sisters. We will use it another time as I hope to do random acts of kindness throught the year.

Here is Appleseed's choice which was not a big surprise. He cries for Grandma when he is in trouble, scared, sick, had a nightmare, doesn't want to eat....pretty much anytime. He loves his Grandma.

This is Butterball's choice. She has always been a very dear friend to him and he adores her and her family. Course we all do. Her Mom is also someone that Appleseed has cried out for when he is upset, and he pretend calls her all the time.

Here is Butterbean's choice. She dearly loves this girl. They are amazing and always giving.

And Applseed or Cricket's choice. Cricket is technically too young so Appleseed got two choices. We love them too. At one time my boys were going to marry these girls. And there is Applseed in true fashion with my boys, wearing two different shoes.

I love our random acts and so do my kids. Thank you again sister!

Random Acts of Christmas Kindness Day 1

For Christmas we received a Christmas countdown package from my sister where we get to do random acts of kindness to help us celebrate Christmas.  Today was Day 1.  We were to round up stray carts in a store parking lot and put them in the stalls.  My kids were so excited and chose Wal-mart as our store.

We parked at the very back so we could bring any carts that were way back there.  I was very nervous that my kids would hit a car.

Even little Cricket helped in his own way.

 

Then my daughter and I had to go back to the store again so we did some more carts.  We tried to take them to where they put them in the store but the door was down.  I hope we didn't make more work for them by having them there.

There was a Sub for Santa table at the entrance.  We picked a paper and then went and got the item.  It was a lot of fun to pick it out.  My daughter needs a little more compassion for others as she was a bit grumpy that it was not for her and said she wants one just like it. 

NiNjAs!

I came home from work to find Ninjas had invaded my home! Or at least almost as this one was told by his sister that she can still tell who he is.

This Ninja said she is sure people will still be able to tell who she is because of her lazy eye. Darn that lazy eye give away. And the freckle on her neck line.

Now we can't tell who this Ninja is, although he said he is having trouble seeing. What fun creative minds they have.

Thanksgiving Hike

My kids are the youngest ones in the group so while the others were riding trail bikes and what not, my kid wanted to go exploring.  I loved it and had a great time with them.  I learned I am not good at climbing through barb wire fences AT ALL. Appleseed told us we were going to hunt Indians and that he had seen some over there and he had a golf ball to throw and hit them.

At one point my daughter said there was a pit bull there that would chew off your face. She told us if it ripped our face off it wasn't her fault

Appleseed was making me laugh so hard. Several times he would fall and get up saying, "I'm OK."

My niece came with us but stopped part of the way because her shoes were too cute too keep going where we were going. But, check out those shoes! I agree they are too cute.

My sister came with us and when Butterball decided to quit and go home she took my daughter and son with her. Thank you.

Butterbean tried to send me a picture saying that she had twisted her ankle and had to use crutches. The jokester was just teasing me though.

Appleseed joined up with me and Butterball on our way home where we found a lot of bones. They were excited to get to take some home. Appleseed thinks they are Indians and Butterball just wants to find a skull now so he can put some of it together.

Looking back

I was looking back over the past few months and decided to add some pictures.  A lot of us were sick with the flu and Appleseed thought Cricket would throw up so he got him a "throw up bowl". 

My cute little Minions. A dear friend made these adorable hats for my kids. I can't believe how little Cricket is. Butterbean is mad that I let someone else hold Cricket.

I loved this outfit on him. He looks like such a big boy in it. Now he has outgrown it.

Cricket has the umbilical hernia. He is the 3rd of my kids to get one.

Appleseed had hurt his lip. He wore this to church. Butterbean used to have bandaids there all the time at this age.