Small Change April/Green Challenge #2

I’d completely forgotten about this month’s Small Change! Aside from donating a few bucks to my co-walkers’ WalkAmerica accounts, I haven’t done much of anything. But I have a lot of stuff in the works, so I’ll have more to ‘report’ later.

It's Spring Cleaning time! Check out Beth’s Small Change Challenge for April. It’s a great (easy) one, because I was doing it anyway! It’s that time of year, you know!

You can also check out the banner on my sidebar for Susie Flynn. She’s 10 years old and running for President in 2008 to bring awareness to kids without health coverage. Check out her website, sign the petition if you’d like. It’s great to see kids getting so involved!

This week’s Green Challenge is to enter your zip code into the Earth 911 box at the bottom of the page. This will show you all the registered recycling centers in your area. You will be surprised to learn how many of things you use every day that are recyclable.

I need to recycle a LOT of used motor oil and a few old filters and this search found me several places near my house.

The Coolest Thing In The World (to me) (right now): It found me a place that recycles those nasty #5 and #7 plastics! I’m going to talk to my step-dad (who saves EVERYTHING) and tell him about it. It’s about a half hour north of us, so I figure we can save up and make trips every once in a while. It sounds ridiculous, but this relieves me of a large burden on my soul. I buy a lot of things that come in containers made from these plastics. I don’t LIKE using Cool-Whip and butter containers as food storage, I don’t like saving them, but I really don’t like throwing them away.

So, there you go…enter your zip, take a look, see if you can’t learn something. There are no pop-ups or cookies attached, promise!

Also, I have to share this:

Last night I was making dinner (*Gasp, choke, WHA??* - I know!) and Sunshine came home from riding her bike with friends. She was talking about ‘So-and-so was doing this’ and the like. Then she says, “Well, you know Taylor is the bitchiest one!”

My jaw DROPPED. “What is Taylor?”

“The bitchiest one.”

“Ummm, that’s not a word you should be using. Who taught you that?”

“Oh, right, I forgot. Taylor did.”

“Well, that’s not appropriate language. I think if Taylor is a mean girl and talks like that, she probably isn’t going to make a good friend for you.”

“Yeah, cuz she’s the … meanest one.”

It’s begun…

Oh, and also...WTF???

Every mile is two in winter.

~George Herbert

"The worst is yet to come," … Says the Star Tribune. The weather is pretty nasty right now. I am not going anywhere tomorrow. I had quite enough of Minnesota Winter driving today, thank you!

I should have known that this was what the snow was waiting for…me to need nice driving weather!! I mean, really, all winter with practically NO snow…I plan something that people have to drive a ways to and BAM … SEVERE WINTER WEATHER IS EXPECTED TO BRING HAZARDOUS TRAVEL.

It turned out great, anyway! My SIL made it out with my nephew. My step-dad’s parents came. My mom always has, like, a regime of preteens there. Actually, if anyone else had shown up, they’d have been hungry. Those kids can eat!!

We ended up with 24 bags. Not bad, right? I kept telling everyone, “There will be 24 kids who are getting birthday presents this year because you cared to help!”

I wish my kids would have gotten more involved, but Ninja Boy was tired from basketball and Sunshine likes to do her own thing - especially when things are a little crazy. They knew why we were there, and I hope they took something from it. My nephew inspected the toys for us. I felt kind of guilty passing on toys that failed, but then again, I think he was a little biased. My SIL filled bags like it was nothing while I tried to meticulously plan them all out (failed, btw). Then we let the younger and older ladies take over the finishing touches.

It really sucked that so many people weren't able to make it, but I wouldn’t have wanted anyone in the ditch on the side of the freeway because they tried to drive out ... or home. We got some rockin’ stickers from Karen at Cheerful Givers. I asked for THIRTY. I used 10. J Guess I’ll be saving the rest for the next Birthday Bag Blitz.

But you know, the absolute worst part about doing stuff like this is that I don’t feel like I accomplish anything when I’m not. You know, like making such a difference with one afternoon of work…then going weeks without doing anything special.

Come on, Powerball. I swear I’m not like the other guys…I really will use the money for good!!!


…Any day now…

Until then, here are some pictures…

Winter is nature's way of saying, "Up yours." ~Robert Byrne

Happy Thursday!!

Whoo-hoo! My favorite day of the week! You know…must see TV night???

I have a few points of interest for you today:

*This month’s Small Change Challenge is to make small sacrifices to free up some donatin’ money. Read more about it here.

*Ready to party? Check out my new button for the Ultimate Blog Party. If you have a blog, go get yo’self a button and join the party March 2nd – 9th. If you don't, I'll be using this as an opportunity to get to know bloggers outside my current 'network' and you can too!

*I also just want to share that I love The Man SOOOO much. He always buys me exactly what I’ve been wanting – and I don’t even have to tell him to buy it for me! I will be sharing many more photos and videos now that they won’t be all yellow and fuzzy (and the videos silent).

Two years ago, he took me to see Sweet Charity for Valentines. That was the last time I wore a fancy dress. Two. Years. Ago. Love you still!

Small Change - Month One Recap

January’s Small Change Challenge was to get involved with Make A Child Smile.

Make A Child Smile’s January featured kids were Nicky, Ashlee and Caroline.

I didn’t make a huge production out of it, I just said “Hey, Sunshine, I’ve got an idea!” I showed her the kids’ pictures and told her (mildly) why each child was spending so much time in the hospital. I got her to empathize with them by asking, “Wouldn’t you be so sad if you had to be in the hospital all the time? Do you know what we can do to cheer them up?”

She really doesn’t need an excuse to get crafty, but she was very excited that I was going to be sending her art to someone and had been assured it would, well, make them smile.

She got to work and carefully chose items to paste onto the cardstock.


As soon as the neighbor kid left, Ninja Boy became highly interested in what we were doing. He started asking questions about the kids – which Sunshine promptly answered. She carefully explained to him that these kids were all very sick – even gave him general descriptions of their ailments. She said, “And I’m making them cards that say I hope they feel better.” I was a little surprised when he wanted to help. He’s not a super-crafty guy and also has a really hard time empathizing with people. But he got in there and made Nicky two cards (a guy thing, I guess).


We decided as a family that we would do this every month. We spent about an hour making them – the hardest part of it all was getting them to the post office (note to self to buy bigger envelopes this month!).


I’m getting very excited about my upcoming party for Cheerful Givers. Next week, I will be hosting a Birthday Bag Blitz at my mom’s house (it’s so much bigger!).

My mom and I have been buying out every good deal we can find. I’ve known that I was going to do this for a while now, so when Target clearanced out their excess of Christmas toys, I hopped on it! (Seriously, “guys” for a DOLLAR!) I’m also going to a surplus store at lunch tomorrow to see if I can pick up a few more things.

It really wasn’t hard to plan the party. I used evite to send out my crafty invitation and also posted it a couple places around my office. We’re planning a small lunch that day, so I’ll have to get to the grocery store, too. I’ve been stocking up on toys, bags, tissue paper, etc. The plan is to meet at my mom’s house, sort the toys by age/gender, then form an assembly line of sorts. I’m going to print some cute little tags today to write the contents on. That’s not a requirement, but I think it will help the parents and organizations get the kids something they’ll really like, given there is enough to choose from.

The kids were initially confused about what was going on. They found the bag of toys and thought they’d hit the jackpot. After they were over the shock that they weren’t for them, they started to get excited. Sunshine has been trying to get me to buy just about everything for it. Hats, candy...even a pinata! However, I’m not big on cone-shaped hats. Especially ones that require an elastic string around my face. And with all the kids that are going to be there, I think candy would just fuel the fire.

The hardest part was getting people to RSVP. Seriously, even with evite, where all you have to do is click a button…it still looks like this:

I even updated it and re-sent it, asking people to please respond. This just doesn’t settle well with me. I can handle a “No” just fine…I can NOT handle not knowing how many people are just going to show up that day. I mean, what if all 22 unresponsive people just SHOW UP?? That’s a far cry from the ten adults (and X amount of kids) I’m expecting. I’ve been planning for a few extra with the seven “I don’t knows”. What if there’s not enough food? What if I don’t have enough bags? OMG, what if I DON’T HAVE ENOUGH BAGS???

Okay…I’m alright. I guess I’ll just buy extra. Really, who can’t use more gift bags?? Right? Okay, NOT FRANTIC AT ALL.

I’m definitely looking for more ideas on how to get people to respond to invitations if ya got ‘em. (I have this problem with all kinds of invitations, even birthday invitations that have “Please respond by XX-XX-XX” written right by the phone number).

Sooo….anyway….

You’re going to have to check back tomorrow for the new challenge, as Beth has been very busy lately. That’s okay, though, because it’s Valentine’s Day and I have some egreetings to send.

Small Change

I am often talking about all the selfless, philanthropic deeds I do…because I’m such a wonderful person and I want YOU ALL TO KNOW IT!!

No, actually, I’m pretty humble and even a little shy. I tell you all about it because I want to inspire you. If my rambling on and on every year about ringing a bell or walking will inspire ONE person to do the same, then what a difference WE will have made.

Well, this chicky BLEW ME AWAY.

She wrote about her resolution to be a better role model for her daughter. She wanted to start doing something small every month for disadvantaged children. She suggested maybe a group of people get together once a month and do the SAME activity benefiting children (who are not our own). She says, ‘Leave me a comment if you want to join’.

At last count, there were 99 people.

NINETY-NINE PEOPLE, people! 99 People who are all going to do ONE SMALL THING every month to make someone else’s life brighter. Can you imagine what a HUGE difference it will make when these 99 people all do something “small”??

It should be spectacular.


If you will please turn your attention to the right sidebar, you will notice the new button bestowed upon me (and anyone else who wants to copy it off her blog). Also new is a list of children’s charities. A lot of these charities I have first-hand experience with: Locks of Love, Cheerful Givers, March of Dimes, (I feel like I’m name-dropping). Some of them I’ve yet to work with. If you have any you’d like to see represented, let me know and I’ll add it.

From now on, the second Wednesday of each month will be Small Change Day. We will post updates on how we did with our last challenge, as well as unveil the new one. If you would like to participate, email me your stories, pictures, etc. and I will post them on Small Change Day. Note that you don’t HAVE to do the challenge. If the challenge is donating money and you’re broke, don’t feel obligated to dip into savings to be part of the pack. Do something else that makes you happy, like making a card for a sick kid. Which is, coincidentally, this month’s challenge.

Visit Make A Child Smile’s website to see this month’s featured kids. Read their stories and pick one (or all!) to send a card to. It doesn’t have to be fancy, though it can be if you so desire. You can make a card, buy a card, you can even buy a gift if you can afford it. There aren’t a whole lot of standards or regulations. Just use your imagination and your heart.

I am planning on doing this with my kids tonight. Wednesdays are No Homework days, so it’s perfect. I’m going to tell them about each child’s story and let them pick which they would like to mail a card to (forced charity is hardly ever feel-good charity). They are going to hand-make the cards and I will mail them in the morning.

Don’t forget to snap some pics if you do this…if not to show off your artistic abilities, then to at least give others some ideas!

I feel like a total rump-kisser constantly telling Beth how glad I am to be a part of this. But do you know what I see? I see a wonderful organization in the works.

Apparently, so do 98 other people.