Anywho...
In an effort to curb my own ugly bah-hum-bugginess that has been festering all summer and fall, I've tried really hard to bring the Spirit back into our house. With a 90% completed kitchen and no more giant house projects looming over our heads, we have been able to resume normal-ish daily life and my heart bursts with joy over that simple fact.
I've started (a very relaxed effort at) homeschooling Eden, since I know I will be pulling her out of preschool in January because I know my motivation for gathering three children, including an infant, into a car that is surrounded by snow and blustery temperatures will be nonexistent. So we've started doing our own math and reading and handwriting curriculum. She seems to enjoy it. I do most of the time. I'm excited to keep going with it and we'll see how committed I am at the end of the school year.
For Christmas this year, we are doing the Elf on the Shelf thing, BUT I hated how last year it was so focused on Santa and presents. I want my children to understand why we celebrate Christmas and not to hurriedly embrace the materialism and "Santa-centered-ness" that is the social norm. But the elf is fun! So Kevin and I decided to make Dorothy (our elf, named about Elmo's pet fish) a service elf who brings ideas for daily service and reports to God through prayer each night about how well the girls did with their service activity for that day.
In an effort to keep myself accountable to this activity, I was thinking about writing a post every few days about our activities and how they go over, successes or failures that they may turn out to be. Then I wanted to share some of the daily blessings we have received because of our efforts. This won't be daily, but I do want to share because it is very important to Share the Gift during this time of year.
We started on December 2 (hey, I'm nothing if not consistently tardy).
Service activity #1: Buy a CVS gift card and give it to a random person in the store.
This was relatively simple except that I was trying to coupon and buy a bunch of stuff for another service activity later so my hands were kind of full. Eden paid the cashier and Winnie chose the person to give the card to. The lady was holding a dog and had no clue what was happening. But we just said Merry Christmas and left. I included a Christmas card that basically said "Enjoy this random act of kindness and pass it on."
(Girls with the CVS receipt and Dorothy's instructions for the next activity)
Service activity #2: Donate supplies needed by the library.
This was easy. I just gathered the art supplies they were requesting and dropped them off. The girls were too excited to be at the library and play with the books that they had no clue I dropped off the donation.
Service activity #3: Bake goodies for people at Daddy's work.
Well, yesterday our gas was shut off for 12 hours so we had to delay this one until today. But the girls helped make the goodie (pretzel toffee) and then we went to his work and we all walked around delivering the treats to people at their desks. Eden had a blast as the delivery person. I think this activity was the best one so far because the girls were the most involved and understood what they were doing.
(On our way to deliver goodies to Daddy's work)
Service activity #4: Donate old blankets and linens to a pet shelter.
We haven't done this yet because we are a day behind and did the previous activity today. But we will probably double up tomorrow or the next day.
Blessings:
I've found that these have been small but I have noticed their presence more and more.
*I've had three nights of no acid reflux, thus much better sleep, compared to the previous month.
*Mornings have gone more smoothly and the girls have been in good moods.
*I received a sizable refund from a purchase I made back in April from a company I didn't think I'd get the refund from.
*I got to talk with a friend for an hour on the phone that really lifted my spirits and made me feel so much better about life.
*The girls have done their morning and evening routines every single day this week without missing anything.
*Even with the gas off all day yesterday (meaning no heat or cooking anything in the oven or stove), we had a great day. Normally this type of inconvenience would annoy me and put me in a funk.
There have been other small blessings, but these are the ones I remember today. I truly believe blessing others with service brings blessings back into one's own life. So here's to hoping the motivation to keep serving keeps coming and we can keep the true meaning of Christmas in the front of our minds.
