Air Show

S took W on an impromptu, spur of the moment trip to the Air Show last night. We've been wanting to take him for years but just never made it a priority. We happened to see a commercial on T.V. this week and after looking into it S decided to brave the heat.

Can you tell W was just a leeeetle bit excited?



It was really every boy's dream complete with tractors, monster trucks, helicopters and parachuters. It was clearly planned by men or moms who know what boys like!



Here he is pretending to be a patient in the Apache Medical Transport Helicopter.



Can you find him?


L hasn't quite developed the love for machinery that W has so she and I stayed home and did things that were a little more her speed:

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29 Gifts-Day 29!

My gift today was to leave an encouragement card with some of my favorite teas to the woman I share office space with. Since she uses the office on the days I don't, we really only see each other at our monthly staff meetings. She's had a pretty rough few weeks as of late.

When she asked in our last meeting, "Who counsels the counselors when they are having a hard time?" my gears started turning to come up with some way to be a blessing to her. I hope my gift encourages her to be good to herself as she spends so much time and energy caring for others.

Well, there you have it. 29 gifts in 29 days. Well, except for the one gift that I still can't remember. At this point I've resigned myself to the fact that it is lost forever in the dark recesses of my memory.

I thought I'd take my last post to recap a few of the lessons I have learned through this experiment:

-It's a lot easier than I thought it would be to find small ways to give, especially financially.

-I worry about my life and future much less when my thoughts are focused throughout the day on what opportunity I will have to give that day.

-When I do give, it surprisingly makes me feel like I have more instead of feeling like I'm left with less.

-I truly do have an abundant life with lots of opportunities to share my blessings with other people.

-I'm so sold on this whole idea that I intend to start living my life in increments of 29 day giving cycles!


If you are wondering what I'm talking about with this "29 gifts" read this post here and consider joining me in this movement!

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29 Gifts-Days 26, 27 and 28

My gifts Saturday were fun as well. A longtime friend of mine recently moved into a new house. We stopped by for lunch after my sister and I had run a Freedom Fest 5K together. I had fun putting together a little housewarming basket for them and enjoyed getting to see them happily settled into their gorgeous new home.

Later that night we attended a party for some friends of ours who are moving out of state. I put together a little travel activity bag for their daughter to keep her busy on their long trip to their new home. Sometimes our life feels like a revolving door of friends moving in and out. But we're always thankful for the way these friends bless us even if it's just a short time they are part of our lives.

Yesterday was a busy but fun day. My gift was a spontaneous subtle one at church that morning. Someone had forgotten to prepare snacks for the toddler room so since I was available I helped quickly get some together while the toddlers waited as patiently as toddlers can. It looked like they had about 20 2-3 year olds in their class that morning and having taught the toddler class next door for years I know how very crucial snack time is to the Sunday morning routine.

The rest of the day was spent cleaning and spending some time with family cooking out and waiting for fireworks that night. The 4th is always a long evening since our kids usually go to bed at 8:00. Keeping them occupied and happy until 9 or after can be a bit exhausting. Our fireworks display that night got rained on but not rained out so by the time we got home we were all a great big sopping mess of Off bug spray mixed with rain.

Tonight my gift was a birthday present for my little niece who turned a big 3 yesterday. She had a great little princess party and the cousins had a wonderful time fighting over all the new toys!

Join me tomorrow for my 29th day of 29 giving!


If you are wondering what I'm talking about with this "29 gifts" read this post here and consider joining me in this movement!

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29 Gifts-Days 22, 23, 24 and 25

My gift on Day 22 was to send an email and spend some time praying for a dear friend of mine who is really in the trenches of motherhood right now. This friend has actually taught me so much about giving and generosity because of how abundantly she has given to me over the years.

In fact she just sent my husband and I a gift card to Starbucks for our 10 year anniversary. I don't know many friends who do that kind of thing so she is clearly a thoughtful person. Anyway, she has two young children and is certainly feeling the demands of being a stay-at-home mom.

My gift on Day 23 is actually rather embarrassing really because I can't remember what it was! I have been wracking my brain all evening trying to remember and can't for the life of me. I know I gave something but have no idea what it was.

Rather than drive myself crazy with guilt and frustration over what it was, I am choosing to let it go. I'll probably wake bolt up right in the middle of the night tonight and remember so maybe I'll include it with my next post.

My gift yesterday was to donate my change to the Ronald McDonald House when I bought a smoothie at McDonald's. I bought the smoothie for my friend who was watching my kids while I had a staff meeting. I considered letting that be my "gift" for the day but since I was receiving something in return for that gift I figured it might not "count." Not that any of you are keeping track anyway.

My gift today was to leave my quarter in my cart when I returned it at Aldi. If you've ever shopped at Aldi, you know what I'm talking about. I remember when Aldi first began charging for cart use and what an uproar it was. I didn't really understand why people had a problem with it because you get your quarter back when you return your cart.

Anyway, our small town lone homeless man often sits next to the carts and waits for people to leave their quarters in the carts which he then collects. When he's there I try to remember to leave it and I've seen several other people do the same. I actually think he probably makes a killing doing that.

Although he wasn't there today I thought it still might be fun to make somebody twenty five cents richer. Or maybe they'll pay it forward and leave it again for the next person to enjoy for free.

Seems like kind of a dumb little gift but for some reason I was kind of excited to see who would get my cart. I have to imagine I looked pretty silly driving really slow out of the parking lot and gaping at the Aldi carts with a goofy grin on my face.

I finally decided before ever getting to see who took my cart that I better focus on driving and not get into an accident. Hitting someone else's car would probably put a damper on that gift giving experience.


If you are wondering what I'm talking about with this "29 gifts" read this post here and consider joining me in this movement!
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