30 for 30: Day 20

Sometimes a random act of kindness can be as easy as giving up something you love FOR someone you love even more.

Went to a baby shower tonight.  Someone had brought the most delicious chocolate covered strawberries.  Kenta and I had made a pact that tonight we could break our month-long drought of sweets.  When it was time to leave the shower, someone had placed the very last strawberry on my empty cookie platter.  Ohhhh...it looked so tantalizingly tasty.  And after a month of having to say NO to sweets, I was shoveling anything sweet within arm's reach down my gullet with reckless abandon.

But I saved it.  For Kenta.  Because I love him just that much.

30 for 30: Day 19

We've lived in our house for over two years now.....and we barely know our neighbors.  Shame on us.  Other than the occasional  "hello!" when we see them outside, we've kind of been terrible about reaching out to them to get to know them.

No more!  We invited our next door neighbor over and had a great dinner and a lovely conversation with him.  He's an older, single man who has lived in his house for nearly three decades.  He fled WWII Greece as a young child and ended up seeking political asylum with his family in the northeastern United States.  He had such an interesting life and a truly, unique perspective (I mean, how many of us know WWII refugees?  Not that many any more), so to hear him talk about his childhood and coming to America was completely fascinating.  I want to know more people like him.  I want my children to know more people like him.  And I'm definitely kicking myself quite a bit now that we haven't invited him over sooner.  We'll definitely be making it a point to have him over more often!

30 for 30: Day 18

Have you ever given a stranger a random compliment?  I try and do this as often as possible.  And I've found the best place to do this is the check-out line at the grocery store.

Does the cashier have a really cute pair of glasses?  I make sure and let her know.  Does the bagger have a really cool name on his name tag ?  I tell him so.  Why withhold a compliment?  I know I always feel a little bit better when someone says something nice to me.  Even if it's something as simple as, "hey - cute shoes!".  It always helps me lift my head a little higher and walk a little taller.  In fact, I was just discussing with a friend today how sometimes I will purposely dress nice on a day when I feel crappy because I'm counting on people complimenting me to help me feel better (high five, Jackie - great minds think alike).  Shallow?  Perhaps.  But it works.  Anyway.....

So, when I was at Costco today - with all three kids in tow - I found myself approaching the checkout line, groaning because there were a TON of people checking out at the same time as me.  But before I could get too grumpy about it, I remembered, "Hey!  This is COSTCO!  They get people through the lines quickly.  They are efficient and capable.  I'll be through the checkout line and out to the car in less than five minutes" (of course once I get to the car and get everyone settled in and all the groceries put away, that's like twenty more minutes...but I digress...).

Remembering how skilled the cashiers and "boxers" (no bags at Costco) are, I decided to let them know how thankful I was for how well they do their job.  They seemed a bit surprised by my praise - the cashier even laughed a little and said something like, "Well, it's not rocket science.  It's really easy to scan things..." - to which I replied, "No, no!  I've tried self-check out!  It's not as easy as it looks!"

Then she told me a secret.  Turns out self check-out is even screwy for the most skilled Costco employees.  Who knew?  So, don't think you are stupid if you have trouble working the self check-out.  They are fickle little things.  I felt about 95% better about myself after that conversation.  I always thought I was dumb because I suck at self check-out.

So we both left that little conversation feeling a little better about ourselves.  Win.

30 for 30: Day 17

Today's RAOK actually made me really nervous.  Like, really nervous.  So far, I've been mostly doing RAOK for people that I know, but today I decided to do something completely anonymous.

I wrote one of my infamous notes and left it tucked under a windshield wiper of a car in the gym parking lot.  I forgot to take a picture of the note, but I considered taking a quick pic of it on the car.  Then I realized I really didn't want to get caught, so the best thing to do would be to leave the note quickly and run.

So, no pic for today.

And my hands were seriously shaking.  I have no idea why I was so nervous - there aren't that many people milling around the gym parking lot at 5:45 a.m.  And I was also a little nervous thinking about how the recipient would react and which car/person needed my note the most that morning.  Since I can't even pretend to know of such things, I said a quick prayer, scanned the lot and settled on a minivan a few spaces from me.  I have no idea who drives it and probably never will.  But hopefully they smiled a little when they read my "Go YOU!  Way to get up in the morning and work out!  I hope your day is fabulous!" (that was basically the gist of it) note.

And as nervous as I was, this may be my favorite RAOK yet because, well, it was extremely random.  It ended up being so fun, I might do it again :)

30 for 30: Day 16

Have you ever known someone with a talent or strength that you admire and think, "Wow.  That is SO not something I would ever be good at, but I really appreciate how well they do it"?

That's how I feel about my neighbor and her yard.  It's beautiful.  She spends hours and hours in the spring and summertime in her flowerbeds, making everything look so nice.  My grandma, mom, and sister were blessed with the green thumb gene.  I was not.  If it doesn't scream at me for food or water, I will likely not remember to feed/water it.

I will never have a flowerbed like my neighbors.  I don't even want a flowerbed like hers because the thought of keeping all of those plants alive really stresses me out.

But you know what?

I love and appreciate that she cares so much about the plants in her yard and works so hard to maintain it.

So I let her know it.  Anonymously, of course.

As an aside: do you try and disguise your handwriting when you write an anonymous note?  I do.  Then I take a look at it and realize, "oh.  This is just my normal handwriting.  Only legible".  Hahaha!

30 for 30: Day 15

I seem to be making a lot of cookies lately.....it's become my other "go-to" RAOK, along with the thank you notes.

Giving out cookies has resulted in a lot of people requesting my cookie recipe.  And guess what?  I'm posting it here:

The recipient of the latest batch of cookies that we made was for a custodian at our gym.  She is SUCH a nice lady and my kids love her.  She seemed a little down when I talked to her last, so the kids and I devised a plan to make her some cards and cookies and deliver them to her to bring a little cheer.  Thomas almost foiled our plans for a random act of kindness when he picked the plate of cookies up and tipped all the cookies out in the bottom storage compartment of our stroller, but a sub-10 second cookie pick up got all the cookies back on the plate, practically germ-free (it's okay....she totally saw all the cookie spillage happen and laughed as we frantically scooped them back up.  Then she ate one and thought it was delicious, so no harm done - haha!).

And all this talk of cookies reminds me that I need to post the recipe.  Without further ado:

Chocolate Chip Cookies (courtesy of Mrs. Fields)

1 lb. butter (do NOT use margarine), softened to room temperature (NOT completely melted!)

2 c. brown sugar

1 1/2 c. sugar

3 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 tsp. soda

1 1/2 tsp. salt

6 c. flour

2-3 c. chocolate chips (I use one bag - I think it's something like 12 oz. - and that is PLENTY)

Cream butter and sugars.  Add eggs and vanilla and beat.  Mix in the dry ingredients.  Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes.*  Let cool on the cookie sheet. Makes a lot of cookies (like, close to 5 dozen or so), so feel free to freeze the dough or bake all the cookies at once and freeze the ones that survive after the first day.  They taste just as tasty and fresh when you pull them out of the freezer.  The hardest part is waiting for them to thaw out so you can eat them :). 

That's the basic recipe....here are some tips I've learned:

* I like my cookies done a little on the "raw side" - if they are undercooked, they will continue to cook as they sit on the cookie sheet.  And when they are completely cool, they will be soft and chewy.  They are extremely messy to eat warm when you undercook them, so keep that in mind.  The undercooking method is best for cookies that will be eaten when they are completely cool and a few hours old.  Each oven is a bit different, so you might have to tweak your cooking time.  The cookies shouldn't have any brown on them (maybe a *slight* browning on the bottom) BUT - they shouldn't be shiny in the middle, either (that's a little too undercooked).  Like I said, it might take a bit of experimenting.  After making them a few times, you'll figure out what they should look like.  

A few other notes....after I mix the dough, I roll all of it into balls and stick them all on one cookie sheet in the freezer to set.  After about ten minutes or so, they are hard enough that you can "pop" them off the cookie sheet.  You can go ahead and cook them all at this point, or just some of them and freeze the rest, or stick them all in a freezer bag to cook later.  If you do pull them out of the freezer to cook, let them sit out for about 20 minutes or so.  The dough should be cold and firm when you put them in the oven, but not rock solid like you just pulled them out of the freezer.  The cool dough helps the cookies keep a thicker shape when you cook them.

Also - you might find that your cookies are a bit flat.  I've gone back and forth on whether or not the egg size makes a difference.  I used to just use the XL eggs that I get at costco, but it seemed like they make the dough too soft and "wet".  So I buy large eggs just for cookies - ha!  And I add just a bit extra flour to make the dough a little less wet and a little more firm - but you don't want it TOO dry and crumbly.  Like I said, it will take some experimenting, but once you've got it down to an art, you can tell what the dough should look like just by eyeballing it, using the 6 c. of flour as a general guideline.

Whew!  I think that's the basic recipe, plus all the tips I've learned from years and years of making them. 

Don't worry if all the extra tips overwhelm you.  Even if you follow the basic recipe and don't do all the little tricks that I do, you will have some very tasty cookies.

30 for 30: Day 14

I was panicking today when I realized I didn't know what I was going to do.  I usually try and plan something out beforehand, but all I had planned for the day was a nice run in the morning and non-stop busy-ness at home for the rest of the day.  It was just a busy, busy day.  The kind where you hardly see your spouse all day.  And I was alone at home with the kids.  And the one RAOK I had sort of planned out didn't happen because - who knew? - the public library is CLOSED the Saturday before Memorial Day.

Anyway, since I knew I was going to be out on a run and that would essentially be the only time away from home, I took advantage of that time to seek out people to be kind to.  I have a philosophy about early morning exercisers - we are all cut from the same cloth.  Maybe we are morning people by nature or forced into it out of necessity (i.e. working out taking priority over sleeping in).  Whatever the case may be, early morning exercisers are MY PEOPLE.  It takes a certain kind of person to want to get up early on a Saturday morning and lace up their running shoes.  Especially a Saturday that was drizzly and cool (though I thought it was *perfect* running conditions).  Since I feel a special kinship with these people, I went out of my way to give a hearty "HELLO!" and "GOOD MORNING!" to every passer-by that braved this unseasonably drizzly and cool Saturday morning.

Not gonna lie - some Saturdays I look at my alarm clock and think, "Why....?".  And then I'm reminded of this:

Yeah.  So true.  No matter how crappy the run, I never regret having gone out to do it.  I only regret not going to bed earlier the night before.