30 Days of Giving Thanks ~Day 1 2

buDay 1/u/bbr /Apparently my family has mental telepathy! I posted yesterday about this a href=”https://mydebtfreeroad.com/2011/11/november-challenge30-days-of-giving-and.html”great challenge/a for the month of November and my daughter shocks me when I pick her up from Art Club.br /br /I mentioned yesterday that as a mom I give a lot of myself without expectation for anything in return. It can leave me a bit drained at times to where I just have nothing left.br /br /After I posted that, I headed downstairs and greeted my grade schooler from the bus and started dinner. My husband had a conference call at 5PM and my daughter was at Art Club until 5:30PM with a quick change around for softball practice at 6PM. I knew that a family dinner was not happening so I made baked chicken nuggets and green beans and fed my boys.br /br /As 5:30PM got closer, I decided to pack up some dinner for my daughter to eat in the car since she would not have time to sit and eat in between activities. I got into the carpool lane and saw other kids seeking out their vehicles and heading straight towards them. I wondered if my daughter was still cleaning up or finishing whatever activity they had that day. After 15 minutes of a slow carpool line, I finally arrive to an area where I can see the kids. She was standing at the far end of the semi-circle chatting with a friend completely oblivious that I had been sitting in a line of waiting cars for 15 minutes.br /br /I’ll admit I was a little steamed. There I was sitting in a line of cars watching the clock knowing she had to be at her practice in 15 minutes and we still had to get home so she could get her gear. As soon as she got into the car my irritation for her lack ofnbsp;situationalnbsp;awareness was made known. I reminded her how many activities we allow her to do and her lack of appreciation for the time we spend rearranging the family’s schedule tonbsp;accommodatenbsp;her.br /br /After my strikerant/strike gentlenbsp;reprimand she apologized and said, “I made something for you.”br /br /div class=”separator” style=”clear: both; text-align: center;”a href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mGx-giitqAk/TrGIug1w2_I/AAAAAAAAAtY/HWlC7tVsEt0/s1600/sign.jpg” imageanchor=”1″ style=”margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;”img border=”0″ height=”244″ src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mGx-giitqAk/TrGIug1w2_I/AAAAAAAAAtY/HWlC7tVsEt0/s320/sign.jpg” width=”320″ //a/divbr /i**Insert knife in heart**/ibr /ibr //ibr /I had not even told her about the 30 days of giving and thanks and she made a gift for me because she loves me and is thankful for everything I do for her. Did she read my mind? Or my post? Not sure, but she accomplished Day 1 of this challenge by giving me a heartfelt gift.br /br /She and I had a good laugh after she showed me her gift. Kids love it when they can render their parents speechless.br /br /buDay 2/u/bbr /A few years ago a family moved out of our neighborhood leaving behind a lot of items including some beat up bikes. Because they were outside, we stored the bikes for the family in case they returned for them. When they did return, they told us to keep the bikes. We kept them thinking maybe we would fix them up for one of our boys.br /br /In an effort to teach my older son about giving to others, my husband and my son fixed up one of the bikes to donate. Today, my husband dropped it off to a collecting site for thenbsp;a href=”http://beltlinebikeshop.com/”Beltline Bike Shop/a. This non-profit organization invites at-risk kids from the local community to earn a bike of their own through community service. The goal is to build a relationship with the youth as well as help them learn to become contributing members of their community. It’s a great organization! Here is a glimpse of the owners and their heart for this nbsp;ministry:br /br /br /br /centeriframe allowfullscreen=”” frameborder=”0″ height=”225″ src=”http://player.vimeo.com/video/30282028?title=0amp;byline=0amp;portrait=0amp;color=ffffff” webkitallowfullscreen=”” width=”400″/iframea href=”http://vimeo.com/30282028″Tim amp; Becky O’Mara: My Presence Matters/a from a href=”http://vimeo.com/russrs”Russell Shaw/a on a href=”http://vimeo.com/”Vimeo/a.br /br /div style=”text-align: left;”buReminder/u/b/divdiv style=”text-align: left;”Don’t forget to stop by a href=”http://keirajoy07.blogspot.com/2011/11/30-days-of-giving-and-thanks-beginsday.html”Bushel and a Peck/a to sign up on her Linky if you are participating in November’s challenge!!/div/centerbr /a href=”http://www.aghdesigns.com/images/blogs/siggy4.png” target=”_blank”img alt=”Anna” border=”0″ src=”http://www.aghdesigns.com/images/blogs/siggy4.png” //a