30 for 30: Day 8

I really wanted leftovers for dinner tonight.  Like, I made sure I had plenty of dinner fixed last night so it would carry us through tonight as well.  If anyone asks me what my favorite thing is for dinner, I always tell them "Leftovers!".  Because leftovers = I don't have to cook anything.

But someone really wanted baked ziti tonight.  Really wanted it.  And I might have mentioned that I had the ingredients for it and was planning on making it at some point this week.

So baked ziti it was.

The things I do for love.  Random act of kindness?  Check.

30 for 30: Day 7

Ha!  So Kenta told me that nobody reads this blog anymore.  Yeah - that's fine.  I quit doing it for awhile because I was getting frustrated with how long it was taking to write up a post, so now I'm trying to take a different approach.  I suck at journaling, but I actually enjoy blogging.  If I'm the only person that ends up reading this stuff, that's good enough for me.  I just need to do a better job of documenting stuff in our life.

Day 7 of 30 for 30 was a really busy day.  We had some friends moving across town and I offered to have their kids over to play while the rest of their stuff was being moved to their new house.  Their 3 yr. old plays great with Thomas and Abby, so it was a no-brainer.  Of course they were going to come here!  And I was a little worried about what the 9 yr. old would do, but as it turns out, 9 yr. old girls loooooove to hold babies.  So it was a win-win situation.

It's hard to believe that these two buddies used to butt heads quite a bit in the church nursery.  In fact, I'm sorry to say, but this particular little friend was Thomas's #1 target when he was going through his "vampire" phase.  Wow.  So glad that's over.  But now they get along smashingly.

And Abby just throws herself right into the mix.  Most of the time, things are great....but you know that saying, "three's a crowd"?  Yes.  Definitely some truth to that.

As I recall, somebody was shoved off right after this picture was taken.

30 for 30: Day 6

Today I packed up the kids and headed over to the local high school to watch a middle school track meet to watch one of my young women run her event.  We've been to a few, but have never stayed to the end.  We got there just in time to watch her run the mile...but her coach pulled her from the mile....and the 800....the only event she ended up running was the 4x400 relay.  The very.last.event.of.the.day.  We ended up staying there for three hours.  I didn't take a single picture of the kids because

1) I forgot

2) I was trying to keep Caroline happy

3) I was busy wiping Abby's nose every twelve seconds

Thankfully, the kids LOVE to run around at track meets.  It was a gorgeous day.  I had packed plenty of snacks knowing that we were going to be there for awhile, but as the afternoon wore on, it was evident I was going to have to hit up the concession stand for some popcorn.  Two bags of buttery popcorn kept the kids occupied for the last hour while we waited to cheer for our runner.  She did great and her team qualified for the state championship.  I'm so glad the kids held it together for that long.  When we got home?  Different story.  They completely fell apart.  I had just enough energy left to get them to bed.  Then I treated myself to a bowl of cereal for dinner.

30 for 30: Day 5

Had a little trouble seeking out opportunities to perform a RAOK today, so I hit up the ol' RAOK blog for some ideas.  One suggestion was to return a shopping cart to its proper place (the stall or back inside the store).  This is like one of my #1 pet peeves at the store - ESPECIALLY when someone abandons their cart one parking space away from the stall.  It irks me to no end.  The only time I even consider not returning the cart is if it's pouring down rain and I'm parked in the nethermost regions of the Costco parking lot with screaming children in the car.  I fail at most everything in life, but one thing I really excel at is returning shopping carts.

Anyway, I had a kidless evening to run some errands, so I decided to take my quest for a RAOK to the Costco parking lot.  I got there about 15 minutes before they closed and knew I could be in and out in less than 10 minutes (the beauty of kid-free shopping - I can get my entire errand done in the time it takes me to get everyone out of their carseat and inside the store).  With a couple of minutes to spare, I went back to the car, returned my cart and grabbed all the carts that were scattered about the section of the parking lot I was parked in.  I saw the Costco employee that was collecting the carts come out to the parking lot as I was finishing up.  There were still tons of carts everywhere that still needed to be collected, but I had another errand to run and didn't have time.  I doubt he even realized that I had cleared a section of the parking lot from abandoned carts, but that's okay.  It felt good to help out, even in such a small way.

Also - this might fall under the category of "wiping kids' butts" (a.k.a. things that shouldn't be counted as random acts of kindness), but I pushed Abby on the swing for 45 minutes at the park today.  And I really don't like pushing swings.  But how could I say no to a face like this?

30 for 30: Day 4

I've spent most of my "free" time (a.k.a. nap time) holed up in my room frantically trying to finish up a book for literature group tonight, and I realized that I haven't done any random act of kindness yet today. Oops. Better get on that. I was, however, the recipient of a RAOK when, after about fifteen failed attempts to back the minivan up and get my left wheel into that little thingamajig that scoots your car along, a kind soul in line behind me got out of his car and walked into the car wash to help me get my van lined up straight. I guess I hadn't realized how long it's been since I've tried to take a car to the car wash. In fact, that may have been the first time in the History of Ever that I have attempted the car wash on my own.

 And I fear I didn't represent my home state well. I'm sure the kind stranger was looking at the OU decals on the back of the van thinking, "Has this idiot never seen a car wash in Oklahoma?". I guess that's what happens when you grow up washing your car in the driveway with a huge sponge and a bucket of soapy Palmolive water (probably not the best soap for a car, but we weren't too concerned about keeping our VW vans in tip top shape). So, thank you, kind sir for the RAOK. My dignity suffered quite a bit, but your helpfulness snapped me out of further subjecting my kids to a stream of Mormon cuss words.

 Oh. And I'm just remembering that I have done a RAOK today. A thank you note is on its way to a 17 yr. old girl that probably didn't even realize what a good deed she had done, but I witnessed it and was thankful for it. And I thought she should know about it :)

A year of Caroline

A year ago today (the day after Mother's Day!) we found out this little nugget was headed our way.  It took me the entire first trimester to finally convince myself that we were really going to have another baby. 

She's 3.5 months old now and I still can't believe it.  We just love having this sweet girl in our family.

30 for 30: Day 3

Three days in and I already hit my first Random Act of Kindess that Failed.  It was a valiant attempt at a RAOK, but in the end, I just didn't end up being very helpful.

I called up a friend to wish her a happy birthday and thought, "What could I do to help this friend today?  A-ha!  I could watch her daughter at the park so she can have some time to herself to get stuff done".  I was totally patting myself on the back for arranging the perfect service opportunity.

HA!  I guess I forgot to think about possibilities such as, "What if this child doesn't like me and screams for twenty minutes straight after her mom leaves the park?".  Oops, definitely didn't see that one coming.  Try as I might, she wanted NOTHING to do with me.  Thankfully, an awesome mom friend of mine was at the park, too, and she scooped up the little girl and saved the day.  So, fail on my part, but the service was accomplished and the mom was thankful (and the little girl did eventually settle down and enjoy some downtime on the swings).

Another opportunity to watch a friend's child presented itself that day, so on the way home from the park, we picked up Thomas's little friend from her house and brought her over to our house to play.

Judging from the mess in the playroom, I think it's safe to say that the kids had fun together.  Since I'm usually homebound in the afternoon during nap time, it was nice to still be able to help someone out.