Tag: Project 52

Last week’s Project 52 entry involved the site Sevenly. This week’s post goes hand in hand with that same site. Instead of purchasing a product and having a portion go towards the cause, I went straight to the source and made a donation to the company.

Enter: International Down Syndrome Coalition

This organization helps bring awareness and support to families of children with down syndrome and to fund financial support for families adopting a child with special needs. Like Eric and Jane, who were part of the featured story for Sevenly’s weekly cause. After having trouble conceiving they ended up adopting five children with special needs. Their family grew over the years, totaling nine children. 6 adopted and 3 biological.

This last week was the time in my pregnancy in which I had the choice to test for down syndrome. It’s a simple blood draw and though it’s not a 100% guarantee, I’ve found nothing is during a pregnancy, it’s helps prepare in some way for your future. All my labs came back normal, but even if they hadn’t, it wouldn’t have mattered. Part of this organization’s cause is to advocate for the woman who are pressured to terminate a pregnancy if they are given positive results from down syndrome testing. I’m not here to judge. I can never put myself in everyone’s shoes and know the extent of the situation. But I personally could never choose to terminate my pregnancy because of the possibility of my baby having special needs. You’ve worked so hard to create this life inside of you. It’s a blessing and a miracle and a beautiful thing I can only hope that all my loved ones get to experience. To all those families who are interested in adopting a child with special needs, my heart, my love and support go out to you. I am so happy there are organizations out there that can help you with support and financial assistance. Adopting any child is such a magical thing. My husband and I have experience with the adoption process, and there were so many FRUSTRATING days and endless amounts of paperwork. I can only imagine what families go through when trying to adopt a child that has no biological ties to them. All children are beautiful and all are deserving of a family and a home.

To make a donation to this organization, go HERE

You can also still purchase products that support this cause.

This week’s random act of kindness was not so random. I had previously bought a $10 coffee card with the intent of obviously doing something with it. I was already grocery shopping at Fred Meyers so Starbucks was right at my finger tips. Easy peasy.

I bounced around ideas on what to do with it all week. It sat in my purse in the meantime, waiting to be used.

Then I decided I would send it to an old friend. It’s so easy to get consumed with our lives and lose contact with people. We move away, or they do. We start our families and have jobs and hobbies that keep us occupied. Days so easily turn into weeks and months and soon you put off calling because you think that a ten minute phone call won’t do justice because you have so much to catch up on. Something that is always appreciated though? A letter. It’s easy. It can be long, short, detailed, or simply to the point. But it shows you care. Your still around. You took the five minutes out of your day to sit down and think about that person you care about. Plus, you can find the cutest little cards just about anywhere.

What I’m about to tell you is so lame, I know this. It’s hung onto me for some reason though. My brother in law and I once had a discussion about communication. Or lack there of, due to social media. We have texting, email, Facebook, Instagram. Even phone calls can sometimes be a thing of the past. But he had a read an article that was an interview with Keanu Reeves. Don’t worry, I’m laughing too. Why I remember something this guy said I’m not sure, he’s sort of a goon. He gets mad props for Point Break though.

Alright, off topic here. He once said in an interview he only communicates via handwritten letters. No phones, no computers. A handwritten letter is personal. It takes real thought and motivation. Actual physical movement, at least to your mailbox anyway.

For some strange reason it always stuck with me. How often do you shorten your sentences when you send an email? Half the time texts don’t even have real words. I swear there is an Emoji for everything. An abbreviation too. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was an abbreviation for “What do you want for dinner? I’m really craving stroganoff.” How often do you pick up the phone to call someone and you have a text to respond to or your dog is making the most outrageous face and you totally need to Instagram that shiz. #mydogishilarious

Don’t get me wrong. I do all those things. Ok, not all of them, but you get the point. As much as I can, I try to send mail. We get so much garbage in the mail, it’s refreshing to get a letter. I don’t get to see my niece all that often but we write back and forth and it’s my FAVORITE! She is such a good writer and her personality shines in her writing. It forces you to really stop and think about what you want to say because you might only have room for a few sentences, so you want to make it count.

My request to all of you out there is this. Take a few minutes out of your day and write to someone. A post card, a letter, a short essay if you feel moved to. Write to your mom, your brother, your friend from college, your elementary school teacher. Whoever. I guarantee you will make their day and chances are, it will make yours too.

Week three had by chance a holiday in it. Valentine’s day. This holiday has never been my favorite. But since having a little one at home it’s definitely become a lot more exciting. I decided we would make some goodies and some Valentines for our loved ones and while I was at it, would do something for Project 52. Hayden and I worked all afternoon making cookies and dabbling in purple glitter.

We made several plates of these and got them set up for delivery on the big day. Hayden had discovered her beach bucket earlier and was set on heading to the beach that day. When I explained that we couldn’t go, she decided to prove to me later when I was in the shower, that she could still find a use for her beach bucket. To demolish our valentines.

We salvaged what we could. A little purple glitter on your cookie never killed anyone. I hope.

I picked up these darling blank Valentines from Target and used a few for Hayden’s friends and opted to use the rest for my project.

My plan was to write a lovely message on them and leave them on an unsuspecting person’s car. Not everyone had a Valentine on Friday. Mine unfortunately was at work himself. Even for those that had a loved one to be with though, an unexpected caring note can brighten your day. Here’s what I came with:

Something simple. It took me not even 10 minutes to write out the cards and have them sealed and ready to go. Now to decide where to go to deliver them. I jogged around a few ideas in my head and decided that Sacred Heart church would be my winner. There was a 9 am mass and I was headed to an early morning class at the gym that day so it would be perfect timing for me to do my drop beforehand. Although I myself am not Catholic, majority of my in laws are, so it was something close to home. I figured someone headed to morning mass was looking for renewal and a fresh start to their day. It seemed like the best place that a kind note from a stranger would be appreciated.

I arrived at their parking lot about 5 minutes before mass started. I pulled behind a group of cars and rushed out in the wind to attempt sliding the cards against their windows. A few got the ‘under the windshield wiper’ trick. I made my delivery and made it to my class with minutes to spare.

Although I’ll never know the outcome of my Valentines Day mission, my hope is that it showed some love to someone who perhaps didn’t have any that day, or help remind someone else to spread kindness around to others.

Hope you all experienced a day filled with happiness, love and many wonderful blessings. Happy Belated Valentines Day.

This week’s act of kindness was another foodie. A close friend of mine, my 28 year old friend to be exact, suffered from a small stroke at Christmas. She was hospitalized for close to 48 hours and thankfully walked away with limited paralysis. There is a whole lot of medical garble that I have no idea what any of it means, but basically she had a current medical condition that had been misdiagnosed for the last couple of years and when she started a new birth control it caused a serge of hormones that flared the condition that had gone undiagnosed. The result of that was a blood clot in her brain. Extremely scary stuff. She’s young, she’s active, she eats healthy, she’s a busy mom to a six year old and a one year. Simply put, she’s just like the rest of us.

She is a fighter though. She’s strong and resilient and looking at her current lifestyle you would never think she has any set backs. They are hidden well. She unfortunately though suffers from severe migraines caused by new medications, extreme fatigue, she is going through speech and physical therapy, and just informed me they are wanting to start her on a medication is basically chemo therapy.

As if she didn’t have enough on her plate, her husband works with mine, and is required at times to be out of town. Being the lone parent can be a struggle enough, without any medical complications. I remembered she had mentioned cooking was hard for her since part of her paralysis affected her dominant hand. Even if cooking isn’t hard for someone, freezer dinners can be SO helpful. It takes a load off for any mom, that dinner is already ready to go and you get to focus on something else for that hour or so you would normally be prepping. So I prepared a couple of my family’s favorite recipes, Creamy Chicken Enchiladas and Lasagna.

I prepped and wrapped them so they would be freezer ready with instructions on top. It took me an hour tops to prep them. It was simple and easy for me, yet will be helpful for someone that I care about. Whether it’s a stranger that’s receiving your kindness, or someone you know, it’s a good reminder that most of the time, it’s the little things that count.

I intended on posting this last night so it was at least in the same week, but that obviously didn’t happen. So pretend you read this last night and you won’t be reading 52:1 and 52:2 in the same week.

I completed my random act of kindness on Friday. My husband’s schedule requires him to work out of town from time to time. Come the day before he is flying home, I’m scrambling to get everything done that I procrastinated about and didn’t finish in the time I had while he was gone. This last Thursday was no different. I had 5 loads of laundry to finish. Two bathrooms to clean. Sheets to wash and put back on the bed. Vacuuming and sweeping. The jeep was in desperate need of a clean up. Book club was on Saturday and I was co hosting, yet we had made previous plans, so I wasn’t attending. I was still in charge of the goodie bags, so of course, those needed to be finished as well to be delivered Friday morning. All of this and more needed to be done, all before gym class at 6 pm.

When I got up though and thought of everything I needed to get done, I got an idea for my first act of kindness. My post office. We live in a newer sub division and don’t have individual mailboxes yet. In fact, since most of Alaska is so spread out, most areas in town have cluster boxes anyway. That option isn’t available to us yet, so we had to get a PO Box. Luckily, our post office is less than a mile from our house and is a smaller version of the madness that is the main post office downtown.

The staff is fantastic. There are 3 regulars that work there, and few here and there that assist. They are always friendly and ask about your day. They remember my name. For a while, I CONSTANTLY lost my box key, yet they never complained when I had to ask for the 158th time that week for them to grab my mail because I didn’t have my key. They stay open until six, an hour later than the main branch, and on numerous occasions have stayed late to give people their packages, including yours truly.

I wanted to do something nice and let them know they are appreciated. You know what says that all at once? Cookies! Delicious, chocolatey, squishy, best ever cookies!

For most of us, whipping up a batch of cookies isn’t hard. I was able to do this, all while getting my chores done, and throwing together a cute little box. I even got to use my sweet new alphabet stamp kit. Something I totally needed, duh.

I threw together this little gift box, and even got all my list of things done. I had to leave to pick up Andy from the airport Friday morning, so I planned my delivery for then. I luckily had a slip in my box for a package, so I had an excuse to stand in line other than being the cookie lady. I handed the worker my slip, and handed him his cookies. His face lit up and he gave me a very genuine thank you. I explained that we always appreciate getting our mail on time, and the little things they do to provide great service. He thanked me again, and said he really appreciated the gift.

Mission accomplished.

As I left the post office, I thought, whether he eats them all, shares with the others, or even dumps them in the trash (food from strangers can be iffy, I’ll admit), it felt really good to know that even for just a few minutes I had made someone else’s day a little better.

For those of you that want to share in that joy of the best cookie ever, here you go:

2 1/4 cup flour

1 1/2 tsp cornstarch (the secret to the BEST part)

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup butter, melted

1/2 cup white sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 egg + 1 egg yolk

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup chocolate chips ( I like to use Ghiradelli brand milk and white choc)

Mix all your ingredients like your supposed to. You know, liquids together, dry together, then mix the two, yada yada yada.

Here’s the kicker. Chill your dough for at LEAST two hours, up to 3 days. When ready, preheat your oven to 325 degrees and pull your dough to sit at room temperature for about 10 mins. Drop rounded spoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet. I’ve found what works best is to form balls and squish flat a little before placing on sheet. Bake for 11-12 mins. NO MORE! I do mine at exactly 11 minutes and do my best to get them off the sheet asap, without destroying them in the process. They will look undercooked, which is what you want. They will be the perfect amount of a crispy bottom and a squishy inside.