The Train To Crazy

Organizing our 25 Days

We've started lining up our activities for the 25 Days of Giving. I'd like to encourage you to join us. This doesn't have to be a difficult, expensive endeavor. There are many, many ways you can teach your children about how to show kindness and love to others without spending a dime.

To get your ideas flowing, here are a handful of free (or nearly free) activities for you to consider this year.

• Making cards to give to friends telling them what is special about them. 
• Calling a family member they don't normally talk to on the phone.
• Making artwork or cards and taking them to a nursing home.
• Baking cookies for neighbors.
• Baking cookies for firefighters and delivering them on Christmas.
• Tidying up the neighborhood. Picking up trash.
• Making a list of things they love about each of their family members and share with the family.
• Do something kind for someone secretly. 
• Have a free car wash (warmer climates obviously).
• Make sandwiches to hand out to homeless people.
• Visit an animal shelter and pet the kitties & puppies.
• Visit family and neighbors collecting scarves and hats for homeless people.
• Do a chore for a neighbor or a grandparent.
• Taking some canned food to the food bank.
• Donating some of their outgrown clothes to an organization that gives them to children in need.
• Donate a pair of gently worn shoes to Soles 4 Souls.
• Walk the neighbor's dog.
• Host a party to collect needed items for a local charity.
• Scrape the ice off your neighbor's car as a surprise.
• Volunteer to serve a meal at a local soup kitchen.
• Make a meal together to bring to a family that is sick or has a new baby.
• Purposefully play with someone who your child doesn't normally play with.
• Stay late at school or sunday school to help clean up.
• Write notes of appreciation to coaches and teachers.
• Have a bake sale or a lemonade stand to raise money for your favorite cause.
• Take a day to educate your children about poverty and pray for those suffering.
• Visit a nursing home.

You get the idea!! There are tons of things you and your children can do that don't cost much money! Even if you can't commit to 25 Days of Giving, try committing to 10, or 15!

What are other free or very low cost ways children can bless others?

25 Days of Giving

When I began parenting, I was challenged by some people to have goals for my children. These aren't the kind of goals that have to do with "success" or money or college educations, but goals about their character. I was challenged to think about what kind of people I wanted my children to become. 

We want to raise children that are kind, loving, compassionate, thoughtful, passionate, bold, empathetic, happy, strong, patient, humble, etc. We want them to understand that they were born into privilege and with that comes great responsibility. We want to encourage our children to really be the people they were created to be. 

We started the 25 Days of Giving in 2008 as a way of preparing our girls for Christmas. We want them to understand the true meaning of Christmas. It isn't just about waking up early and seeing what presents showed up under the tree. Christmas is about the birth of Jesus and the gift God gave to the world. Because of that, we celebrate by doing 25 days of activities to bless other people. 

We want to encourage others to join us in our journey. Please consider starting a 25 Days of Giving with your family. In the coming days I will be giving you lots of ideas of ways to participate. If you are worried that this sounds like an expensive project, stop worrying! It doesn't have to be. I have many free and very low cost ideas to get your creative juices flowing!

We'll be kicking our 25 Days of Giving off on December 1st. Would you dare to join us?

Orphan Sunday

Did you know tomorrow is Orphan Sunday? 

Do you think about orphans? Does it seem like a problem a world away? I encourage you to take the day to think about them. Think about what your life would have been like if you were an orphan, alone, hungry, without hope. Take the day to pray for the orphans. Just one day. One day out of your life to think about orphans as people, as children with names and hopes and dreams. Take one day to truly love them. See if that one day changes the rest of your days.

How they get here

Google search is a funny thing. I don't consider this a big blog by any means but it comes up in the top 3 for a whole bunch of searches. Top 10 for a handful more. It pretty much humbles me and makes me think I should be writing something more profound. Granted, not a whole lot of people make these searches that I speak of, but still.

Every now and then someone will post her top 10 searches people make to come to her blog. They are always funny! I always wish I had funny reasons people stop by here. Oh sure, there are a few that are strange and a couple that are almost humorous. You want to know what people are searching for when they stumble on this blog? 

• How to put elastic in skirts/how to make an elastic waist skirt and every combination of that question you can think of. 
• Sensory tub ideas. 
• Help, my crazy preschooler doesn't sleep well (and every variation of preschooler sleep issue question).

Really, that's about it. There are some other random ones but these are the ones I get daily. You know what? I've seen a million better explanations for making skirts out there, I usually only put rice in the sensory tub, and my kids aren't sleeping that well. 

So, in conclusion, if you found my blog hoping to figure out how to get your children to sleep past 6 a.m. I am sorry. I am no help. I can't get mine to sleep past 6 either.

From the nightstand

As I've mentioned before, I read to many books at once. I've been known to read 75% of a lot of books.

Here is what I'm reading now. 

Raising Kids for True Greatness: Redefine Success for You and Your Child So far I'm loving it. Highly recommend.

Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality Oh wow was I loving this until I lost it...

Cold Tangerines: Celebrating the Extraordinary Nature of Everyday Life This is a lovely book about living in today. Beautifully written.

What are you reading?

A day off

After a few days of feeling run down, exhausted and sick I was able to take the day off. Nearly a whole day off. I slept and rested and slept and relaxed and then did a little reading and planning. Ahhh. Then I felt well enough to heat up dinner and clean up the dishes. I'm thinking this day off was just what I needed. Now I'm ready to take on the week!

Do you ever get a day off?

One of those days

I'm having one of those days. And it isn't even 11 a.m. yet. The babe has an ear and eye infection which equals no sleep. Okay, that's a bit overly dramatic. I'm sure you could piece my night together and find about 3 hours of sleep. Did I mention my back hurts? And I drove over my helmet with the car this morning? And the washing machine has been broken since Monday.  The landlord called and he can't fix it until next Wednesday? 10 days is a long time to go between doing laundry. I'm praying nobody wets the bed. I really don't want to go to a laundromat. 

What do you do on days like this? I'm thinking of calling in sick.

On the bright side, my 3 year old is walking around with her pirate clothes on and her hook calling herself a "hooker". Awesome.

My ladybug

Ladybug wings tutorial. She'll be wearing a red tutu and black tights. Assuming I get to the fabric store...

Green smoothies that aren't green

Everyone has their own reaction when they first hear about green smoothies. The truth is, you can pack a lot of nutrients into a smoothie without it being completely green. Because, let's be honest, it's the color you are afraid of, isn't it!

This is the smoothie I make for my girls.

1.5 cups apple juice

4 cups spinach

1 carrot

1 cup frozen strawberries

1 cup frozen blueberries

3/4 cup frozen raspberries

1/4 cup ground flax seed

This smoothie makes enough for my three girls. You can't beat that! One of the great things about this green smoothie is that it isn't actually green. Even though my girls help put the ingredients into the blender, they always act suspicious when the fruit/veggie combo produces a green (or brown) smoothie. So the trick is to use dark fruit. While peaches and pineapple or banana are yummy in a smoothie, they aren't dark enough. At least for my girls. 

The last minute ladybug

My girls were going to be butterflies for Halloween. Until today. They decided against butterflies. Naomi chose a ladybug. Daphne a duckling. 

I whipped up a pair of butterfly wings for Naomi out of items I had around here. An old t-shirt, cereal boxes, and a bit of elastic and stabilizer. 

 

I'll get it on the girl in the daylight and take a better picture tomorrow. I'll also give you a little taste of the duckling costume.