What do these four things have in common?
Sleepovers
HIV
Pride in Ownership
Sugaring Up the Troops
They all represent my last four days of giving. If you recall from my last post, I am taking part in a challenge to “give” one thing away each day for the month of November. Do a good deed. Make a difference. Brighten someone’s day. It has been almost a week, and I can honestly say it has been a tremendous amount of fun. Doing anonymous little things that could potentially have a big impact makes my heart happy.
Here is my update. I hope it makes you want to dig deep into your heart, soul, and humanity. I hope it makes you want to either join me on this challenge, or start your own.
Saturday:
My good deed for Saturday involved helping out a friend in need. I had a lazy night of no bra, sweatpants, my couch, a couple beers, and the Bruins game on tap. But, friends of ours were going to a 40th birthday party, desperately needed a sitter, and asked if their daughter could spend the night. I said yes. Good deed done. Helped a friend in need, and aside from having to keep my bra on longer than I had planned, it didn’t pain me in the least. 🙂
Sunday:
Sunday was a hectic day and I sort of forgot about the challenge as I went about my day [gasp]. But, as I was standing at the register at Whole Foods at 6 p.m., I noticed that I had the opportunity to add $3.50 to my order, and that money would feed a meal to a person in Boston who is living with HIV. Why not? At that time of night, I really didn’t have many other options. My $3.50 was helping a stranger. But, not only a stranger – a stranger living with a terrible disease. Good deed for the day: Check.
Monday:
I had a plan for Monday the second I woke up. I knew it was going to be nice out. I knew I wanted to build in time for a walk into my day. And, I knew exactly what my “gift” was going to be. There is a house on a main road in Franklin. I drive by it multiple times a week, often multiple times a day. This was one of my favorite houses — a historic house, complete with cute little plaque on the front. This house had character and charm, and, were it not on a main road, I would totally consider buying it. For a long time, the house was unoccupied. The paint began to chip. The shrubbery became extremely overgrown. To the point where many of the windows were covered. To the point where the cute little historical “circa” plaque was hidden. The grass was unloved and the weeds, ever opportunistic, moved right in and took over. The mailbox was broken. A couple windows were cracked. Historic turned to eye-sore. Then, something awesome started to happen! People moved in. Bushes were trimmed. Grass was fertilized. The mailbox was righted. And, the neglected, chipping paint was replaced with a gorgeous coat of yellow.
Whoever bought this house was obviously taking tremendous strides to restore its charm. They were spending time and money to up their curb appeal and they deserved to hear what a great job they were doing.
So, I woke up, pulled out a blank card, and wrote a little note with the intent of leaving it in the newly righted mailbox while I was walking. I have no idea who found the note, or what they thought, but it felt great to give someone a compliment.
**Then, I got a bonus opportunity handed to me on a silver platter, so I took it. One of my long-time Nu Skin customers had $100 in free product points that she had to use by the end of the month. She emailed me and told me that she wanted to give the points to me as a thank you for all my help. I could have bought myself $100 in products, but instead, I bought 2 bundles of soap and 30 meals of Vitameal and I am going to bring them to the Franklin Food Pantry when they arrive next week. One good deed deserves another. Monday was a great day!
Tuesday:
Today was the day I have affectionately dubbed “get all that Halloween candy the hell out of our house” day. We decided that the girls could each keep ten pieces of candy, and the rest was going to be donated to the troops — just like we did last year. Shay initially had an outburst, yelling that this was “UNFAIR” and a “TOTAL RIPOFF!!” But, she warmed up to the idea once we explained how we worked all summer to get healthy and the troops, who couldn’t be here to trick or treat with their families, would really love receiving a package of candy from home. I personally love the idea of giving to the troops, but this year was about more than giving; it was about the desperate need to rid our house of any temptations. We have all come so far with our health and weight loss over the past few months that keeping candy in the house is just an act of sabotage.
We boxed up the candy — two boxes total — and brought them to the post office. Two separate days of trick-or-treating netted us quite the haul this year, and the boxes were H-E-A-V-Y! This act of kindness cost me a whopping $21 in shipping charges, so you can bet yer bippy that the next week to ten days of giving are going to be creatively free ones.
Thanks for checking in on my journey! Talk to you soon. XOXO