Positively Mom Street

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Laozi So I’ve been a bit discouraged the past few weeks.  When I started the Kind Year I had all sorts of visions about the incredible activities and connections that would happen.  Great, big, wonderful, amazing moments of kindness.  However, reality set in. I work full time, have two kiddos in school with extra-curricular activities and my hubs has been traveling for work more and more frequently.  Suddenly I was overwhelmed by everything and my kindness journey hit some major bumps. Don’t get me wrong – being kind is a way of life for me so I kept on keeping on  - just on a much smaller scale.  I am always gratified by helping – that never changes – but I felt my “grand gesture” was missing.  My kindness journey no longer felt young, new and full of promise…it suddenly felt tired, old and boring.  I was discouraged, saddened and feeling a bit like a failure.  Then I decided to step back, take a deep breath a

“Sometimes I think illness sits inside every woman, waiting for the right moment to bloom.” Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects Not that I need to know or anything. I’m totally asking for a friend.  Well, alright – maybe it is for me. I wish I had a really exciting story that involved lots of shots and lampshades, but I am 40 and those days are long behind me. It’s party time…and I’m feeling right…at least for about 45 minutes. Instead it’s a story of not paying attention to my body, seriously over-eating and a drink or two that just weren’t what the doctor ordered. All I know is one moment – there I was – just hanging out and having fun with all my friends.  ’Cause of course all my friends were there.  When you throw up at a house warming party it HAS to be the one with all your besties.  The next thing I know I was laid out and desperately sick.   Thankfully I had ridden over with a friend so I didn’t have to figure out how to get my pukey-butt into my car and drive home – but

“No one has ever become poor by giving.”  ―  Anne Frank ,  diary of Anne Frank I’ve been doing this kindness gig for about 2 months now.  It’s been really fun to play the “random kindness super hero” game but it feels, I don’t know, too random?  Like I want to do something concrete & tangible that I KNOW will make a difference on a regular basis. So, the other day the kids and I went to Panda Express. Don’t judge me.  :-) Yes – I know it’s not “real” Asian food and no – I don’t really care. LOL.  My kids LOVE this place and I find it a great little guilty pleasure when I crave something Asian but don’t want to shell out $40 for the good stuff.  So I’m ringing out and the cashier says “Do you want to round up to $19 and donate your change?” Hmmm….that got me thinking.  First – YES – of course I want to round up!  Odd numbers make me nervous AND make it harder to balance my bank account.  Second – I’m a sucker for a good cause (but ya’ll ready know that) so I agreed and

“Well, I ain’t always right but I’ve never been wrong. Seldom turns out the way it does in a song. Once in a while you get shown the light In the strangest of places if you look at it right.” - Scarlet Begonias, The Grateful Dead We recently returned from a week long trip to the East coast.  Hubs and I both grew up in Syracuse, NY and are the only ones in our entire family that left the area.  We try to get back as much as possible but it ends up being a yearly venture due to time and expense – getting a family of four from Colorado to upstate New York isn’t exactly easy or cheap but it’s incredibly important for our kiddos to know their family so we make sure to visit.   I’ll be honest – I was really dreading the trip this year.  It has been one horror story after another with people behaving badly on planes and I just KNEW, with our luck, we would be stuck dealing with an airplane crazy.  So, I packed our bags, added lots of Dramamine (if the peeps went nutso, at least we’d