Day 1 - Giving Challenge

Today is Day 1 in my 29 Day Giving Challenge. It has been in my thoughts most of the day.

I didn't pick one specific thing to "give" today and then checked it off my "to-do" list. Instead, surprisingly, I was reminded to "give" throughout the day. Some of the things I did are things I might normally do but today my perspective was different. My attitude changed a little. I don't know how or why but doing these things just felt different today.

Here's what I did today in the way of "giving":

On Tuesdays, Ben is allowed to get pizza for lunch at school. Normally, we give him $5. This morning he asked if he could have an extra dollar to get bread sticks. My first reaction would be to tell him no, that $5 is more than enough to get a couple slices of pizza and something to drink. However, I found myself agreeing to give him that extra dollar. You would have thought I promised him a million dollars! He was so excited that I said yes and so happy that he would be able to get bread sticks with his pizza order. His smile and "thank you, Mommy" made my morning brighter. And it was a rainy morning!

After home school this morning, Ali asked if I would play Barbies. The girl loves her Barbies! Me, not so much. I am more of a Go Fish or Tic Tac Toe kind of woman. Not that I don't like Barbies themselves because I do. Jenn and I grew up playing with Barbies and we had THE best Barbie house ever. The house was built by my Dad and it was made of all wood, with paneling, three floors and a garage! It was nearly 5 feet tall. It was completely furnished with cool wicker furniture and it even had carpeting. My Mom still has it but I haven't been able to get her to give it up yet......hey Mom, you always said when we have daughters, we could have it......we have daughters now......how about it?? :) Anyway, back to Ali. So, she asked me to play Barbies. Usually, I try to get out of it by suggesting we play something else. ANYTHING ELSE. But today, I wanted to give to my daughter. So, I gave her my time and played her favorite thing in the whole wide world of the US of A - Barbies. It actually was a lot of fun and you will be happy to know that we had a great time with our Barbies at a wedding, at cheerleading practice, getting a snack at the mall and playing "Dance, Dance Revolution." Boy, those girls know how to party.

Ray had a very hard day at work. His leg was giving him problems and he was in a lot of pain after a long day of climbing ladders and climbing over walls. When he got home he joked that, although my incredibly tasty leftover mostacolli was very tempting to have for dinner, he wouldn't stop me if I wanted to drive to Quizno's and pick him up an extra large cheese steak sandwich. He's thoughtful like that. And even though I was tired and it was raining, I got out of my pajamas (oh, I kid......I kept my pajamas on) and drove to the next town over to get my man a cheese steak sandwich. And it felt good. Tasted pretty good, too.

The last thing I gave today was totally random. I was reading some new blogs and I came across across a blog called The Daily Dakin, written by a Mommy with a little boy who has a rare neuromuscular disease. She has such a bright and optimistic disposition and her little guy Dakin is just adorable. I am inspired by her and look forward to reading her entire blog and getting to know her and Dakin much better. In the meantime, I gave to Dakin and his Mommy by signing a petition to help with research and finding a cure for this rare disease. I don't normally sign things online but because of this challenge, I felt compelled. If you would like to get to know Dakin, you can read all about him at The Daily Dakin.

See you tomorrow.