merry.Christmas

Christmas Eve has finally come. It's time for families to get together, or prepare to get togther for tomorrow. I hope it's a brisk, cold day for everyeone, just to keep with the wintertime season. And I hope everyone has a blessed Christmas! I'll be praying for everyone. For lives to be changed, for families to be healed, and for negative thoughts and emotions to be broken. May Christ fill your life, and become your joy!

12.days.of.giving.review

o come all ye faithful

joyful and triumphant

Over the past 12 days I have taken time out of my busy schedule to give back to others in all kinds of ways. My giving back has affected some I know, and many I don't know. Today I want to recap on the things I have done to give back. I truely hope that others have been inspired to give back in any way they can. Giving doesn't have to involve money. There are plenty of ways to give to the community and to others, you just have to become creative. But if you're able to give via money, there are plenty of things you can do. And giving doesn't have to happen just during this joyous season, it can, and should occur year round!

Day 1 :: Sent a military care package to Afganistan.
Day 2 :: Gave to Holiday Hope - which sponsors Toys for Tots with the USMC.
Day 3 :: Donated items for winter to the homeless.
Day 4 :: Donated my hair.
Day 5 :: Gave handmade candy canes to my co-workers.
Day 6 :: Donated to a local worship band.
Day 7 :: Gave gift cards to pastors.
Day 8 :: Handed out cookies to everyone in my apartment building.
Day 9 :: Made a large snack basket for a local fire department.
Day 10 :: Bought Toms (one for one) shoes.
Day 11 :: Donated cell phones.
Day 12 :: Had family time with my husband & brother.



Rise up. Be inspired. Give to others. Love everyone. Do something good. Do something special.

And remember :: Jesus loves you, no matter what you do, who you are, or where you've come from.

12th.day.of.giving

on the 12th day of Christmas

:: i gave away these things ::

Today I did something simple & sentimental.  I took my brother and my husband out to eat for a nice lunch.  You may say, "that's nothing special," or "that's not really giving back to others." But it is. I work a full time job as a nurse, doing 12 hour shifts at night, and usually I put in a lot of overtime. And with working at night, I sleep all day. Therefore, I see very, very little of my husband, which isn't easy for newly weds.  It's also not easy on my husband, because right now he doesn't have a job and sometimes feels like he's not fulfilling his role as the head of the household. And for my brother, well, I grew up too quick, and he kinda grew up too slow. There's only a three year difference in our ages, but maturity is a different story. So now we're at the point where we can have a true meaningful sister-brother relationship and understand each other. But now that I'm married, I've been out of my parents house for the past 5 years, and my work schedule, it's hard to find time to spend with him and help him become the person he can be. So I felt like this was a great end to my 12 days of giving; giving back to the ones I love, spending time with them, and letting them know how much I love and care about them!

11th.day.of.giving

on the 11th day of Christmas

:: i gave away these things ::

  

 

  

Just like almost everyone else that has owned a cell phone, I have several old phones tucked away in a drawer, never to be used again. Why go in reverse, as technology improves? (Now I do have some quarrels with certain things that technology is taking over that I don't agree with, but that's a whole other story, and nothing related to what I'm talking about today). I think to myself, "well there may come that day when I'll need a cell phone because you never know what will happen to the one I'm currently using". But the fact of the matter is, I have insurance I pay for on a monthly basis, so whatever happens to my cell phone, for the most part, will be covered under this insurance and the phone company will provide me a new phone. That being fact, I have no reason to keep my old cell phones. I've thought of selling them before, and have taken no steps in pursuing that. So it's time to get rid of them.

I actually was searching for ways to give back last night, because I was short a day, and during my search I came across a website where you can donate old cell phones. Pacebutler is accepting cell phone donations to help raise funds for several organizations. Once you're on their website, you select the organization you would like your donation to help, fill out a form with your information, and they provide you a mailing label, so you can ship your cell phones to them for free. When they receive your cell phone(s), they appraise their value, and send your choosen organization a check for your donation.

Many times, we keep cell phones because we don't know how to dispose of them properly, don't want to take the time to find out how, or we have preconceived notions on what we'll do with those unused cell phones, such as I did, that we will never follow through with. By donating, you're helping save other people's lives. So why would you keep your cell phone tucked away in that drawer any longer? And free shipping?? Go find all the cell phones you can and send them on their way!

handmade.ornaments

So if you saw my post from a few days ago, on my 5th day of giving, you saw that I had created handmade candy cane ornaments. At the end of my post I had mentioned that my daughter & I would be making snowflake ornaments.

And that's what we did this weekend. We made handmade snowflake ornaments and she is going to give every family in our family one each. In addition to the snowflakes, we made all kinds of other ornaments, that we painted. :: Pictures to follow ::