A Family Project: 25 Days of Giving

Every year around this time I feel a twinge in my heart. It's the feeling that I am abundantly blessed combined with the reminder that there are so many people hurting and doing without. Those who are blessed, go out and be a blessing. That is what I would like to do. I have always believed that it is my job as a mother to teach my children to make the world a better place. What better way to do that than using our own 2 hands?

So this holiday season we are going to do our very best to give everyday until Christmas. That leaves us 25 days to give, give. give. I have researched the need in our community and there are plenty of places to put our effort. We have multiple food pantries as well a homeless shelter to give to. There are always nursing homes and hospitals. We can send supplies and letters to our brave soldiers. And then there is the random-act-of-kindness kind of giving. You know, the poinsettia on someones doorstep or flowers for the mail lady. The options really are endless. It can be small or rather large. I hope to try it all these next 25 days. I am posting this adventure here in hopes that it holds me accountable. How often do we have a desire to do something but lack the follow through? I do hope that you will keep me honest and moving forward.

They say that habits form in 21 days. Hopefully this exercises in looking beyond ourselves will become a habit. I'll be filling you in on our progress. And please join in if you feel so inclined. Don't feel overwhelmed by the 25 straight days thing. There are no rules with this, just give from your heart, once or a hundred times. Grab the button and away you go. I am always inspired by reading other's stories of giving so please let me know if you post about your giving adventures. I trust that God will put our effort where it needs to be. Happy 25 days of giving!



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Day 1

We shared the food we have in our pantry with our local food pantry. The kids helped me load up 3 bags of food.

They carried it into the community center...using teamwork I might add:)


And we had a little 1..2...3...GIVE cheer afterward.

Happy Birthday My Princesses

4 years and 4 months ago I was diagnosed with Monoamniotic twins. The perinatologist who confirmed this grim diagnosis patted my arm and told me he was sorry. He informed me that I had a 50% chance of delivering live babies. I laid there on the table weeping. All I could think was it was simply not possible that God would give me daughters, something I had wanted desperately, just to take them back before I got to meet them. I spent the next 3 months trying to take care of my 2 boys, all the while wondering if my daughters would make it. I rented a hospital grade doppler so that I could check for heartbeats. I had to limit myself to checking only morning and night for fear that I would become obsessive. After 5 weeks in the hospital, my girls were born via emergency c-section. Their cords had become so entangled that one nurse described it as an Irish knot.

Grace, hours old.

Ella

Today my girls turn 4. There are no words to express the disbelief that 4 years have gone by since I first heard their cry. There are no words to express the joy these children have brought to my life, the ways that they rounded out and completed our family to perfection. They are happy and healthy and they are my miracles.

Happy fourth birthday Princesses. I know I tell you all the time but you are my treasure and my heart and you are the greatest blessing I could have ever received.

Disney Day 6: A Night Out in Mexico

Day 6 involved another trip to the Magic Kingdom. That really is the best place for kidlets. I have a few more photos to share of the entire fam but this post is adults only. After the kids were settled in for the night with Gram, Ry and Jay and me and Brian headed out for dinner at Epcot. 


We had reservations in China but we really didn't feel like chinese food. On our way to China, we stopped off in Mexico. The restaurant was booked for the night but the tequila bar had tables available.

Oh tequila.....so fun!

We had a couple shots and became quite friendly. This photo is of Ry and Jay with our waitress Nancy. Jay was so smart to ask sweet Nancy if she could get us a table at the restaurant. Let's just say that we were comfortably seated at the fully booked restaurant in 10 minutes. Thanks Nancy!

The 4 of us at dinner. It is really fun when some of your best friends happen to be your family. Makes family vacations the BEST!

Full of tasty Mexican food and perhaps a little tipsy (who us?...never), we rode a couple of slow and easy cultural rides.  Some scandalous behavior happened on the Maelstrom in Norway but what happens in Disney stays in Disney. Disney is a whole different experience after a couple shots of tequila and with no kids in tow.

Disney Day 5

Hollywood Studios! We didn't last too long at Hollywood Studios. There aren't a ton of kid-oriented rides but we saw some pretty amazing shows.

Here is the back of Ella's fluffy head watching Playhouse Disney. It was neat for the kids to see their cartoon friends on stage for real. Mickey, Minnie, Daisy, Donald, the Little Einsteins, Handy Manny and Pooh, all singing familiar songs. So fun!

Then we headed straight for the dark side. We had hoped to get the kids on stage for the show but it required a 3+ hour wait in line...I don't think so. We did get up close and personal with Darth. The boys were mesmerized.
We watched the Indiana Jones stunt show which was very cool. Indiana Jones was Harrison Ford's real stunt double. Awesome!

That was the extent of Hollywood Studios for the kiddos. The big people rode Rockin' Roll roller-coaster and Tower of Terror. Both very fun and exciting! We then went home for naps.

Evenings at Disney were some of my favorite times. That night we headed back to the Magic Kingdom for the Wishes fireworks display. We arrived about an hour early so we decided to ride a few rides.

This is the fam on Buzz Lightyear's ride. It became the kids' all time favorite. You actually ride through a video game and shoot stuff. What could be better than that?

The Wishes fireworks were incredible. Jiminy Cricket and the Blue Fairy narrated the story and Tinkerbell flew from Cinderella's castle over our heads. The kids were speechless. Dreams really do come true!

Disney Day 4

Magic Kingdom!!

The girls and I at the Dumbo ride.

It's truly is a small world after all!

Winnie the Pooh...so very cute.
Can't skip the lollipops bigger than you!

20 years ago we put Ry and Linds in the stocks in Frontier Land. We had to do an updated shot.

A little Gracie snuggle in line at Big Thunder Railroad, a family fave.
Ella Belle and Daddy.

That afternoon Gram and the daddies took the kidlets home for a snooze while the mamas, Jack and Aunt Boo went out for some big person fun.  (In line for Tower of Terror...loved it!)


The Magic Kingdom is truly magical. The kids were in heaven and the adults just soaked up the joy. The next 3 days were a bit less chock full. We started to lose some steam but there are some incredible memories. See you soon!

Disney Day 3

Day 3...Epcot here we come. Please see kooky carload.

As our Pooba so wisely suggested, we got there at opening and headed straight for Soarin'. It is one of the more popular Epcot rides. It was wonderful....well the parts I could enjoy while tending to a screaming, cowering Sam. Soarin' was not scary, it was just residual terror from the day before. But I digress. We then hit a silly ride that was not very entertaining. Can't even remember the exact name . I do remember that it included a little dragon named Figment who shot skunk smell at us. Not amusing.

After that, we fortuitously stumbled upon the jumping fountains. That offered quite a bit of entertainment for the kiddos.. That is until poor little Finny took a shot of water to the face...nice going Uncle Big Ry. We did try to get some cute pics though.

Our family minus Jacky-Boy. He was in that building behind us with Gram and Aunt Boo watching a stupid movie, Honey I Shrunk the Audience. That was their description, I never went and saw it.

Uncle Big Ry's Fam. Almost got the water overhead. Probably wouldn't have been able to see it if I had. Oh well, it seemed like a good shot.
We did a few more rides. None to really write home about EXCEPT for one. Don't, and I mean DON'T take your children to see the Bugs Life 3D movie, It's Tough Being a Bug. You get smacked, sprayed, scared and stung. NOT good for already traumatized children. Sam ended up on the floor in the fetal position screaming his lungs out. No one in the place could hear him over the symphony of other howling children. What was Walt thinking??

This was the last ride of the day, Test Track. I was long over making Sam ride anything at this point. I had decided that if not-even-2-year-old Finny was going on the ride then Sam had to go. Other than that, I didn't mind a bit if he sat out. The girls hopped on this one and loved it. This is them standing in line about to get into our cars. Fun!

Oh, and we ran into country girl Belle. Later we meet the Princess Belle. I frankly like her like this better:)
The day ended with Mickey suckers. They were bought purely to bribe Sam and Gracie to stop crying. We had a collision that resulted in skinned knees, a very bloody nose and a whole lot of tears. Hey, Mom is on vacation too...anything goes.

We headed home at about 3:30 pm. All 12 of us went to bed for a couple of hours. This Disney stuff is exhausting! We woke up, wiped the sleep from our eyes and headed back to Epcot for an evening of fun.

Pooba, that's my brother for those who forgot, had made a dinner reservation in Germany. We were excited for this meal but then we read the menu. Schnitzel, spaetzle, sauerkraut and wienerschnitzle all served buffet style...what had we gotten ourselves into?? Since it was late we decided to go with it. Here are the cutest kids in the world waiting patiently for a little schnitzel.


When we visited Disney over 20 years ago, we ate in Germany but we weren't nearly old enough to swig bier from the mugs as big as our heads. We had to go back and rectify that. If you look closely at the following photo you will see beers the size of your head...FABULOUS. In the background are some crazy German guys on stage.

The food ended up being quite good all things considered. I think Gracie really liked the all you can eat dessert buffet. I said it before and I'll say it again, we're on vacation.


We ate (and drank) our fill, danced a little polka jig and headed outside for the Illuminations fireworks. I went to the store that day and got Sam earplugs. Aunt Jaysi remembered to bring the glow sticks so we were ready. The display was incredible. We were all in awe, including Sam who, until that night, had never been able to watch fireworks because of his ears. I looked over at one point and saw his eyes as big as saucers and his mouth saying "WOW". I looked the other direction and saw tears running down my Mama's face. She had her entire family with her in this magical place. It was moving to say the least.

When the show was over we wandered home arm in arm. All 12 of us grateful to be on this great adventure and even more grateful to be doing in together.


See you tomorrow at the Magic Kingdom!

Disney Day 2: Animal Kingdom

Every morning we were up and out by 8:30 am. My wonderful brother, our Grand Pooba of ceremonies, did plenty of research and had our week mapped out to a T. Here is B's and my car load of celebrants on our first day of Disney park excitement. Off to the Animal Kingdom.

We went directly to Expedition Everest and hopped right on. These four yahoos and the one behind the camera, yours truly, rode first. It was awesome! Broken tracks, flying backward in the pitch black and a giant yeti with glowing red eyes, what more could we ask for?

In our exhilaration, we insisted that Jack ride Everest next. He really didn't want to but here he is after. He needed a little help standing up as his knees wouldn't stop shaking.

I have a terribly embarrassing confession to make. Total lapse in parental judgement. We put Sam, our 5 year old, on Expedition Everest. It was his first Disney ride. I won't go into detail except to say that it took a good 2+ days before he was able to get on a ride, even the likes of Small World, without screaming and cowering in my lap. Horrible! Please don't call family services on me...though I considered calling them on myself.

We encountered our first character, Mr. Baloo. The girls are still commenting on how soft and squishy he was. We got a great family photo, all 12 of us, but not on my camera. You may have to pop over to my lovely sister in law's site to catch that one. 

Yes, I put all of my 4 kiddos on Kali River Rapids. Sam screamed the whole time but he and I stayed relatively dry, thank goodness. Grace and Daddy, on the other hand, were not so lucky. A tidal wave of water completely soaked my baby but after a second of horror, she thought it was pretty cool. Grace ended up getting the all time trooper award this trip. She is tough as nails!

The entertainment at Disney was mind blowing. The fact that we could walk into the Lion King show and see incredible talent on a whim was amazing. The only snafu here was that poor Sammy has extremely sensitive ears. The show was painfully loud for him. I had to hold him and plug his ears just so he could sit through the show. We got smart a couple days later and invested in ear plugs. Life changing for my poor guy, but that's a story for another day. 

We headed home for naps around 2 pm. The kids were totally exhausted. After a good nap followed by a swim, here is where we ended up, snuggled up under a cozy blanket. Not too bad for day 1!