It’s been a hard knock life sort of week in the world of
homeschooling, so to spare you an overly exasperated view, I’ll postpone any
homeschooling adventure reporting until next week. (We're talking severely bad attitudes and moods and not homeschooling itself as the problem!)
Instead, I’d like to take you to a happier destination today. Though I’m not a
fan of ushering in Christmas any sooner than at least the week of Thanksgiving,
we’re going to go there today and we’re going to do it in R.A.C.K.'d
style. Not familiar with that
acronym? Hang tight; we’ll get to it and
I think you’ll love it and want to get started organizing one as well.
Most of
you come visit me here through Facebook, so I will venture to guess that many
of you remember my 36th birthday from last year (but maybe not as
well as I do:)). It was a R.A.K. birthday, or in other words, a
Random Act of Kindness birthday. I spent
the day performing 36 acts of kindness, some completely at random and some
organized ahead of time. It was a lot of work.
Much more than I would have anticipated, but it was so rewarding and
fun. Even better was the fact that I
asked YOU, my fellow Facebookers, to join me on my birthday in doing one random act of kindness in
celebration on that day. An astounding
100+ of you did so and did it in style!
The return and reporting back at the end of that day was truly a
highlight in my life. I was so touched
by all of the creative and willing goodness that you shared with others
that day. A girl couldn’t ask for
anything better (unless you throw in unlimited red licorice, horseback riding,
and a day at a warm beach to coincide—but other than that, it was a perfect birthday!). If you want to relive that day, dig through my Facebook page if it's late at night and you're suffering from a good bout of insomnia, and you'll find all of the great things that took place last year. Or, spare yourselves and just take my word for it--it was GREAT!
With that info. in mind, let me introduce to you my latest adventure: a Random Act of Christmas Kindness month of December or as we'll refer to it from here on out: R.A.C.K.'d. Each day, leading up to Christmas Day, our family will be performing one random act of kindness together. This will hopefully accomplish a few things:
1. Help remind my kids, who are already getting glossy-eyed by every advertisement on the planet, that Christmas is NOT about GETTING.
2. Create lasting memories by adding another fun and meaningful tradition to our Christmas celebration.
3. Inspire you to spend the next few weeks thinking about how you want to better set the stage for how Christmastime will be spent in your neck of the woods.
Christmastime these days, courtesy of our retailers, can feel like an explosion of hustle and bustle, blinding sparkly lights, and hours of stalking Black Friday deals in search of the best bargains. Do you ever feel exhausted when it's all said and done? Maybe even glad it's over come the beginning of the new year?
I'm guilty of feeling this way sometimes and I know, through conversations with many of you, that you've been there too. I am confident that a good plan will remedy this problem and instituting this new tradition is one way that we're doing that this year.
Here's the R.A.C.K'd Christmas list that we put together on Monday night during our family night (or FHE, in Mormon lingo):
1. Sing to the elderly at a nursing home (aka the parents will be doing solos while the kids stand idly by mortified by the whole scene. Thus, the need to ask a few other families to join us! Please help us with this. Please!)
2. Volunteer at a soup kitchen.
3. Put quarters into the candy/gumball machines at the mall or grocery store.
4. Pay for someone's order in line behind us at a drive-through.
5. Cover someone's car in sticky notes and nice messages.
6. Take out someone's trash cans.
7. Deliver treats to the local fire department.
8. Pass out one-day bus passes at the bus station. The "other half" rides the bus downtown to work some days. They have become his comrades.
9. Go to the store and hold the door open for other guests coming in. Do this for an awkward- for-my-kids amount of time.
10. Put together more of my oldest daughter's homeless kits and hand them out to those in need. She even started a website for this project. How cool is she? Love her!
11. Deliver a surprise dinner to another person/family on a Sunday afternoon. *Psst...I'll be keeping my ears open, so if you sound like you're in need of a break some Sunday in Dec., I just might pick you as the benefactor. Start practicing now for some convincing Academy Award worthy scenes of desperation, okay?
12. Deliver a homemade table centerpiece to the grumpy neighbor lady. Hey, if you knew her, you'd know that I'm not exaggerating and am determined to make her smile.
13. Let someone go ahead of you in line.
14. Donate food to a local shelter.
15. Leave a treat in the mailbox for the grumpy mailman. If you knew him too, you'd also know that I'm not exaggerating and am determined to make him smile as well. It didn't work on my RAK birthday, so he made it on the list AGAIN. I'm determined. It's a weakness as much as a strength:)
16. Smile at everyone you meet that day. And I mean everyone. A true social psychology experiment in the making!
17. Make neighbor treats.
18. Deliver neighbor treats.
19. Make cards and coloring pages for kids at the children's hospital in town.
20. Decorate a local tree in a park or other public setting with candy canes.
21. Visit a shut-in from our church congregation.
22. RACK'd wild card! Look for an unplanned and super random way to help someone "on the fly."
23. Put books away that are left out at the library and thank a local librarian. Thanks to homeschooling, it's our second home these days. No complaints.
24. Deliver treats to a chemo patient treatment facility. I just recently delved into the world of chemo courtesy of a dear friend who is kicking cancer's butt in a room just like the one we'll visit. While there, I noticed that the patients would often comment on the treats brought in for the day. They seemed very appreciate that someone would go out of their way to bring homemade goods and make them available to all those receiving treatments that day. Definitely a worthy cause.
And there you have it. I did not reinvent the wheel here; there are people all over blog land that have given this their own flavor and interpretation. My adventure in sacrifice (of my time) this Christmas season is in planning ahead to ensure a more meaningful and thoughtful experience. How 'bout you?
~Arianna
 |
| Can you feel the anxiety setting in? |
I'm guilty of feeling this way sometimes and I know, through conversations with many of you, that you've been there too. I am confident that a good plan will remedy this problem and instituting this new tradition is one way that we're doing that this year.
Here's the R.A.C.K'd Christmas list that we put together on Monday night during our family night (or FHE, in Mormon lingo):
1. Sing to the elderly at a nursing home (aka the parents will be doing solos while the kids stand idly by mortified by the whole scene. Thus, the need to ask a few other families to join us! Please help us with this. Please!)
2. Volunteer at a soup kitchen.
3. Put quarters into the candy/gumball machines at the mall or grocery store.
4. Pay for someone's order in line behind us at a drive-through.
5. Cover someone's car in sticky notes and nice messages.
6. Take out someone's trash cans.
7. Deliver treats to the local fire department.
8. Pass out one-day bus passes at the bus station. The "other half" rides the bus downtown to work some days. They have become his comrades.
9. Go to the store and hold the door open for other guests coming in. Do this for an awkward- for-my-kids amount of time.
10. Put together more of my oldest daughter's homeless kits and hand them out to those in need. She even started a website for this project. How cool is she? Love her!
11. Deliver a surprise dinner to another person/family on a Sunday afternoon. *Psst...I'll be keeping my ears open, so if you sound like you're in need of a break some Sunday in Dec., I just might pick you as the benefactor. Start practicing now for some convincing Academy Award worthy scenes of desperation, okay?
12. Deliver a homemade table centerpiece to the grumpy neighbor lady. Hey, if you knew her, you'd know that I'm not exaggerating and am determined to make her smile.
13. Let someone go ahead of you in line.
14. Donate food to a local shelter.
15. Leave a treat in the mailbox for the grumpy mailman. If you knew him too, you'd also know that I'm not exaggerating and am determined to make him smile as well. It didn't work on my RAK birthday, so he made it on the list AGAIN. I'm determined. It's a weakness as much as a strength:)
16. Smile at everyone you meet that day. And I mean everyone. A true social psychology experiment in the making!
17. Make neighbor treats.
18. Deliver neighbor treats.
19. Make cards and coloring pages for kids at the children's hospital in town.
20. Decorate a local tree in a park or other public setting with candy canes.
21. Visit a shut-in from our church congregation.
22. RACK'd wild card! Look for an unplanned and super random way to help someone "on the fly."
23. Put books away that are left out at the library and thank a local librarian. Thanks to homeschooling, it's our second home these days. No complaints.
24. Deliver treats to a chemo patient treatment facility. I just recently delved into the world of chemo courtesy of a dear friend who is kicking cancer's butt in a room just like the one we'll visit. While there, I noticed that the patients would often comment on the treats brought in for the day. They seemed very appreciate that someone would go out of their way to bring homemade goods and make them available to all those receiving treatments that day. Definitely a worthy cause.
And there you have it. I did not reinvent the wheel here; there are people all over blog land that have given this their own flavor and interpretation. My adventure in sacrifice (of my time) this Christmas season is in planning ahead to ensure a more meaningful and thoughtful experience. How 'bout you?
 | |||
| Mt. Hood's winter wonderland. Can I get a cumbaya from anyone? This is how Christmastime should feel! |
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