More About Others…

December, our month for considering and serving others continues…

Monday, December 6th

Slow Walker, in 2nd grade, gets out at noon on MWF. I know that might sounds crazy to some, but we love it. Jack loves it. The little Future Hoarder of America practically sits at the door waiting for his brother to get home. …On Monday, FHA and I decided to sort through one of his piles of “treasure” and give it to those in need of some perfectly fine toys.  Much to his chagrin (at first) we lightened his load, put them in a box, and loaded them in the car.

We’re fortunate to have a Good Will collections truck in a shopping center parking lot not too far from our house. After Slow Walker got home, I piled the boys in the car on the way to afternoon carpool so they could drop the stuff off. When we got there, I could have easily pulled the box out of the car and carried it to the waiting staff, but I “encouraged” Slow Walker to step up to the plate and do it for FHA.

After moaning and groaning as I kicked him out, he told me “I’ll take the stuff, but WOULD NOT ask for a receipt.”

… The nicest guy met him at the little gate and cheerfully told the kid to wait while he got him a receipt. I had to laugh,

then go across the street to reward myself for all the hard work and effort with a yummy little number from one of my new favorite spots, Fuzzy’s Taco.

Rusty’s still can’t be beat, but if you’re in the neighborhood, Fuzzy’s makes a mean pork taco … with a terrific lettuce, cilantro, feta, tomato number on top. Plus sweet tea with lemon and lime – that citrus is the perfect carpool concoction.

From there we picked everyone up and made our way to errands and homework of the day. In between math and science problems, the girls and I had a chance to get going on one of our home-made gifts to give friends.

When they scoured the block Sunday for the North Texas Food Bank (It’s All About … Others), they took some chocolate bars in the wagon to give people as a “thank-you” for their generosity. The cute little candies came from a kid selling wrapping paper for our local school fundraiser. (I guess the company is capitalizing on a captive audience by expanding its offerings beyond gift wrap.)

After taking the bars our of their box, we were admiring the adorable packaging. So, we did what any “normal” family would do … we got out the our laminator.

Aaaahhh – the laminator. No home with young girls should be without one.

Oh the things you can make … like book marks.

We make book marks from all kinds of trash, our favorite being chip bags and candy wrappers.

And it’s so green!

Basically, you fold/cut your trash to the desired size (sometimes we add a piece of card-stock paper to make the wrapper sturdy), then place it in the sleeve, run it through the heat laminator, and

voila! We add a hole punch plus cute ribbon, pushing both ends through the bookmark and back through the loop to make a knot.

Isn’t that a cute book mark??!!

Such a fun little sussey for someone special.

Tuesday, December 7th

I decided this morning that Driving While Texting is much less dangerous than Multi-Tasking Mothering Driving. As I arrived at Teen-Take-Out’s school (stop number one), I tried to remember our ride over. I really couldn’t picture much since I had been quizzing the kid the entire ride. … I might not be able to remember the police man waving us through one of our many school zones, but I could tell you which countries sport flags with red, black and yellow stripes.

Mom driving can be a dicey endeavor … whether conducting a quick tutoring session, lecturing, handing a Happy Meal to the back seat, lecturing, buckling a wayward child, lecturing, answering multiple questions while enduring a whine session, and did I mention lecturing??!!… Oh, the things we do for our families!

So… after dropping prepared quiz boy off, I reminded the rest of my brood,
“Remember… It’s our December ‘serve others’ month.”
Blank-stare-silence.
“So, today, let’s try to serve someone at school… quietly, without letting anyone know”
Silence
“Okay, if you can’t think of anything to do at least you can throw away someone’s trash for them after lunch.”
Silence.
“Doesn’t that sound good??!!”
Speed Police looks at her sister, then at me from the rear of the car, “I’m not even going to answer that question.”

I have to say I got a hearty laugh out of that one!

I then offered incentive to anyone who could serve at least 5 people today at school … no matter how small the effort.

Later, when the kids got home from school, I asked them each if they did anything for someone else.
Slow Walker: “Uh…. I forgot.”
Speed Police: “No.”
TTO: “Huh?!”
Sister Save-A-Lot (aka Go-To-Girl): “I served 4 people. … I didn’t really want to… but it actually felt great. I think I’m going to try again tomorrow.” …Of course she is.

A Slurpee is coming her way!

Tune in tomorrow for Ron & Denver’s post. Next week Joe White is sharing some terrific stuff on putting others ahead of ourselves, and I’ll keep you up on our service attempts as well as other home-made gifts and service ideas from MOAT moms.

Thanks for walking the road with me.
-Kay