Although just now getting this posted, I began "The Give" on Friday morning. My only plan was to be "open" to what was going on around me and keep a watchful 'ear and eye' as to how/where I could give.
Day One - Friday, the 10th
5:45 a.m. I'm in the bakery getting my morning ritual begun when a women came in and asked the bakery owner if she could get a cup of coffee and a doughnut and come back later and pay her as she didn't have enough. The bakery owner knows me as I'm in there nearly every morning (shamefully - hehehe) and with a shared glance between her and I, I added the women's order to my total. She thanked me and added - now I will not only have breakfast, but I will have dinner as well as the money I have will get me bus fare to the shelter this evening.
1:00pm-ish I'm driving to the bank and the post office doing my work errands (we are based in a rural community so these errands are 15 mins away) and on days I go I usually plan to get food through the drive-thru so I can kill 2 birds with 1 stone, so to speak, and make the most of the time I have. The road I drive is a two lane frontage road that parallels the freeway and is used mainly by local people and farmers. As I'm driving along I happen upon a man walking with back pack, old 2liter bottles filled with water and a sign flapping on his back that read "In need of food". I though "cool..." I'll order food for him while I'm in the drive thru and pull over on my return to work. It was a hot day so I got a sandwich without mayonaise (didn't want it to get yucky) and got soda in a can vs. cup and ice) and sure enough, there he was. I pulled over and rolled down my window and said "How 'bout some lunch?" He crossed the road, took the bag and said "Thank You". All I could think about was gee, I hope he doesn't mind dry bread! :)
Day Two - Saturday, the 11th
I drove up to my girlfriend's house for the weekend to work on our quilts. I had just a little bit more to go on my daughter in law's quilt (her b'day was a few weeks ago)so I went into the fabric store in Chico before going to get my hair cut. There they had the coolest thing..."Charms for scissors" - who'da thunk! I just had to get one for my girlfriend - they had a little sewing machine charm with a purple crystal - I know she'd love it! It was a small token but not cheap by any means - but well worth it. When I got back to her house I gave her the charm which she put on her 'snipping' scissors right away. Later in the evening she said out of the blue "I'm so happy that we can share this together - it's just so much fun". Every time I see my charm, I will think of that day and be reminded of our time(s) together quilting and making memories.
Day Three - Sunday, the 12th
My daughter in law has a full plate. Three kids, a full time job and a busy husband (my son) who is frantically trying to keep up with his every growing business. Like most business owners, you're always "on call" - at least in our business you are. I know how much she likes hydrangeas, so I found 2 plants at the nursery and decided to plant them right by her back door porch (which is the exit she uses every day to take the kids to school and leave for work) so that each day she can start it off by seeing the beauty of the flowers she loves. I work right across the property in another building so I can keep a watchful eye on the plants and help nurture them into nice shrubs for her to enjoy for a long time. She loved them!
Day Four - Monday, the 13th
I have a long time friend who just accepted a new position in none other than Kodiak, Alaska! Brrrrr! She's very excited about it, but it was a HUGE change for her leaving her comfort zone here in California for the island of Kodiak. Most things are VERY expensive and some of the 'comforts' of home just aren't available all the time. I mailed off a *C*A*R*E* package to her today filled with many 'essentials' which will hopefully along with a 'singing' b'day card (it was yesterday). I'm hoping she'll enjoy it. We'll see.
Day Five - Tuesday, the 14th
My new office has been working long and hard to master our daily payroll issues. I appreciate her dedication to be 100% accurate and while I was out running errands for work, I was in the hardware store and there was a very neat Christmas tree display with various ornaments. There on the tree was the CUTEST chihuahua ornament I just had to get it. She has chihuahua's and I thought how perfect and this will give me a chance to say "thanks for all your hard work".
Day Six - Wednesday, the 15th
My best friend's daughter recently moved up here from Southern California to enjoy her first apartment. As a working young adult, she is challenged with making ends meet just like many of us. Through out the month I gather up odds and ends I know will help to make her very stretched paycheck go a little further and try to get together with her for lunch or the like. Tonight I bought dinner for her...and we watched the Presidential debate together.
Day Seven - Thursday, the 16th
My mother and her husband live in Oregon and attend a church up there that has taken 'under their wings' about 15-20 children who live in homes that are "high risk" homes. Being an 'older' church (congregation consists of members probably 40 years plus with an emphasis on the "plus" end of the spectrum) having these children attend has been a good thing in many ways for their congregation. A couple of years ago now, they began a 'closet' so to speak of items specifically for these under priveledged kids. Several times through out the year people donate items for the kids. Example - this time of year items for school, even school clothes for some - then Christmas time, etc. etc. Today I gathered up all the school supply items I have been gathering from specials and boxed them up and mailed them out for the kids.
It's so hard for me NOT to give...I just love it. So when my grandson came into the office tonight when I was ready to go, he asked if he could come home with me. His parents said ok and on the way home we had to stop off at the grocery store. Shopping with him was hilarious. He began putting things in the cart as fast as I could take them out! He is all into dirt bike riding (8 yrs old) and wanted a dirt bike magazine. So with the promise of "once your homework is done" - I told him he could have the magazine. He spent the rest of the evening reading that and went right to bed without issue. Hmmm... :)
Day Eight - Friday, the 17th
For some reason, today seemed like a 'struggle' - As I stated prior, my only plan for "giving" was to be 'open' to what might come my way either as a spiritual prompting, a twinkling of conscience or by means of 'in your face here's a need' kind of thing. I got to work and began my day and I really was struggling with what to do. My husband had been in the office yesterday and made a comment about how quiet it was in there and that "us girls needed some sort of back ground music going or something" - we joked about not being able to get any good stations to come in and that was that. Today was another slow and quiet morning so I snagged the radio out of my boss's office and stuck it on the spare desk in hopes of getting something to come in on the radio. After running up and down the dial, I finally came across a station that was playing a song and it was coming in really well - I looked over at my office assistant and said "well? what'da think?" she say, "yeah, that sounds pretty good". So, the music was going and we were working and the day is going on and on. I still was perplexed with what I was suppose to do "giving wise" today. I mentioned this to my co-worker even and said, "Hmmm, maybe I'm just trying to hard". The whole day we'd been listening to this station - rather the music was playing, I guess but I hadn't been "REALLY" listening until making one more comment about not knowing what I was going to do and then it dawned on me - this radio station has been running a marathon fund raiser all day! Helllllllooooooooo??? Hahaha! Although I couldn't commit to a monthly pledge, I did call the station to make a one time pledge. Some times answers are RIGHT there in front of you...just need to pay attention!
Day Nine - Saturday, the 18th
Wow, a day at home for once. I've been gone several weekends in a row and my days during the week are always packed - like many people's I'm sure. I began today early, doing house chores, laundry and cleaning. I sat down to rifle through a pile of "less important" mail and to go through the piles of of mail items I've rec'd through the last couple of weeks. As I sat down to begin to go through the pile, I thought to myself, "hmmm, how am I going to give today?" and then continued through the stack of mail. Who thought that going through piles of what some would consider "junk mail" would be so much fun? First item - a postal card from Victoria Secret...inside - a little coupon/card for a FREE pair of undies. *DING* that will go to my petite and sexy little daughter in law - she's a hard working mom who puts family first and she will enjoy this little freebie. Next, coupons from Marlboro. *DING* another "give" - this will go to Anjie. Next item to be opened was labels from the Veterans Administration (love to get these by the way - I use them ALL the time) These were Christmas ones and of course *DING* I can give $5.00 to them. *DING* my FREE Movie Tickets from a GDA through Office Depot - Hmmm...another give for my middle son and daughter in law - they work hard, have little 'extra' and will LOVE going out together. We're headed down there tonight for a few days and we can play "babysitter" to our grandson while they enjoy the night out. Lastly, *DING* a couple of FREEbie coupons for CAT Food and a CatFood sample which will be going to my local SPCA.
So, next I decided to head to my computer to check on some websites I saw in my quilting magazines and low and behold was an add for a FREE pattern download. After I downloaded I thought - "Hmmm, I wonder if I can find more free downloadable patterns?" so the search was on...sure enough - so I downloaded and loaded to two different Flash Drives (which I had stored up from a couple of recent GDAs) - one to give to my best friend who quilts and one to send to her mom who is 80, on a fixed income and has recently caught the "quilting bug" as well. She will love these! Ok, guess I'd better get back to the tasks at hand.
2:00p.m. - I free-cycled my daughter's old electric wheel chair to a gentleman that needed something to use until his replacement chair was received.
Day Ten - Sunday, the 19th
After 8 hours of driving we're here in Southern California. So far my "GIVE" for today was to buy everyone Mickie Dee's for lunch. My son and daughter in law seldom eat out at all and my daugher in law's sister was also here and we bought her lunch also. The day isn't over yet...so we'll see what else comes up.
No comments:
Post a Comment