Season of Giving

I'm trying to teach the kids what the holidays are really about, not just get, get, get, but giving! I really think they are at a good age to get it this year, and not just nod and say, "Yeah, whatever."

So, in the spirit of Christmas, we've found some good places to donate to, and we talked to the kids about each place, what they do, how they help people, etc. I'm so excited that they are learning this lesson early in life, that it's so much better to give than to receive. We always give to our church, and encourage the kids to give also, and right now our church is doing a "Heart for the House" offering, and thankfully we were all able to donate to that (the kids had their very own offering in class).

And in case you were looking for a good place to donate this holiday season, may I suggest the following, these are the causes that we decided to help out this year:

Book of Hope International, this ministry came to our church and I was so blown away by their leader. Maybe it's from my days as a missionary, but his stories were incredible and I loved listening to him share about their work. What they've done is translate the 4 gospels into one book for children, and go around the world giving this book to an entire country's public school system. Go to their website and check it out, you will be impressed. So far, they've given over 532 million books to children around the world.

Soles4Souls is an organization that donates shoes to kids who've never owned a pair of shoes. Their message is simple, to impact as many lives as possible with the gift of shoes. Right now they are trying to raise 50,000 pair of shoes in 50 days. They can do it!

Bikes for Kids is a local charity that raises money to buy bikes for kids that don't have a bike, and probably wouldn't have any present under the tree. The kids really want to go meet the local DJ's who put this on every year, so if we can get up and out early enough on Tuesday, we will get to meet them and hand in our donation live!

Susan G. Komen for the Cure, of course, as a charity that is near and dear to my heart. November 24th was the 9th anniversary of my mom's death from breast cancer. So, any chance I get I try to donate to Komen Austin, for breast cancer research and to help low income women get mammograms.

I'm hoping by sharing these, you will either donate to them, or find your own charity that is important to you and donate, and get your kids involved as well, it's never to early learn the true meaning of Christmas!

New Year Goals

This year, I am setting some goals, not resolutions, and thanks to my friend J, I am listing them here:

Goal #1: To be healthier, exercise more, eat more organic, less processed foods, and take better care of myself, so I can take better care of my family. I decided instead of saying, "I need to lose __ pounds" and instead concentrate of being healthier, the weight will come off.

Goal #2: To work on the house. We've lived here 2 years now and there is a LONG list of things we have wanted to do to the house and never started. I want to paint my kitchen cabinets, paint the kitchen, basically paint the entire house, but also update all the 80's looking cabinets in all the bathrooms, and all the funky shiny brass light fixtures. This place could be awesome if we just did a little bit of updating, and did I mention, I'm getting WOOD FLOORS in February!! If I say it often enough, David will not go into shock when the time comes.

Goal #3: To be more responsible financially. I have to say, I think we do pretty well in this area, we have less than 2K in debt, my truck is almost paid for, and we don't have a ton of credit cards. But, I do feel like we spend more than we should on frivolous things like eating out and buying things for the kids. But I want to get completely out of debt and if we can't pay cash, we don't buy it. I want to save more, and learn to be happy and content with what we have.

Goal #4: To volunteer more. David will see this and groan. He thinks I do plenty at the kids school right now, but I mean more at church, and I have wanted to get back into CASA for a while now, since the kids are in school I have the time to do that. For the past two years at church it's been very nice just going and not being involved, but I think it's time to step up there and start doing something. My entire life raised in church, I've done just about every position there is to do in a church, so I shouldn't have a hard time finding something to do now!

And generally, I think we should all be thankful for what we do have. God has blessed each and every one of us with something, and sometimes it's easy to sit back and complain that we don't have as much as some people, or we don't have what we really want, but overall, we have our health, we have a roof over our head, and David is employed, our kids are healthy and happy, I feel so blessed!!

I hope everyone has a great and prosperous new years, and don't forget to set some goals for yourself, and look back on them next year and see how we've all grown!