Positively Mom Street

“If you can live with less of what you have. You can be more of who you are.” – Celso Cukierkorn As many of you know, this year I’m running an Adopt A Family program – sponsored through my side business – and dedicated to my Kind Year journey. So far so good – we got people excited, raised the $200 goal – and I got to go out and shop! I am bound and determined to stretch this budget to it’s limit – I REALLY want to do a lot with the money. I started shopping – ticking items off the kids wish list (a little boy and girl) – and watching the stash grow. Then I hit a wall. I know these kids don’t have a lot – but do they really NEED a bunch of “stuff” to make it Christmas?  I spent roughly $80 of our goal money and received some very kind donations – and the kiddos gift pile was growing quite large. Lots of love and caring went into the collection of these gifts! Very proud of my peeps and all their generous donations! I’m taking a step back. Yes – I want the...

“You may be pretty, and you may be talented, but no one will remember that if you’re mean.” - Katie Holmes In a different time and place I was a mean girl.  I certainly wasn’t the meanest of mean girls – but I was mean nonetheless.   I wasn’t particularly popular but I hung out with the same few girls and we were a bit cliquey.  One of our group traits was to exclude a girl a year.  I wish I could remember how we decided whose turn it was to be “on the out” – but I have a feeling it wasn’t really planned.  Suddenly, that girl just wasn’t cool anymore. We no longer invited her to events, asked her to sit with us at lunch and generally ignored her and talked bad about her behind her back.  At the time I didn’t think much about it or how the “outed” girl felt.  I was super tight with the ringleader and never really worried much about my stance. That is, until I wasn’t. One day – my friends no longer wanted to talk with me.  They switched...

“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 ...

“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 ...

“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 ...

“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 we...

“Be good to yourself when, nobody else will Oh be good to yourself You’re walkin’ a high wire, caught in a cross fire Oh be good to yourself When you can’t give no more They want it all but you gotta say no” - Journey So, I’m feeling just a wee bit stressed out.  Summer is officially over and I’m cranky. This has been the wettest, coldest, grayest summer EVER and I am so over it.  Just call me  bitter (and unseasonably COLD) party of one. Then – school started.  Yep – my kiddos went back on August 18th and there is nothing weird about ringing in the school year in the middle of August.   Not at all.   My oldest entered his final year of elementary school (5th grade!!!) while my  youngest started her first year (Kindergarten) and while I was thrilled to discard my $700 a month daycare bill (whoopee) I was a bit saddened to realize she is officially a school-ager. Can you just FEEL the excitement? Hayden is totally blase and Harlyn is ready...

“Love is not patronizing and charity isn’t about pity, it is about love. Charity and love are the same — with charity you give love, so don’t just give money but reach out your hand instead.” ―  Mother Teresa Someone stands in front of a camera, says a few words, and then has a bucket of icy cold water dumped on their head. I’ll be honest.  I hate videos and I resisted watching these for quite a while.  Mostly because I couldn’t figure out WHY everyone was suddenly taking an “ice water shower” and posting it on Facebook.  When I could no longer resist the temptation (those videos were showing up in my feed at an alarming rate) I watched one – and ended up pretty confused.  WHY was everyone dumping water on their head? I’m all for supporting a worthy cause.  My problem? Not a single video I saw mentioned anything about the actual cause – the reason behind the cold water wash.  After watching a few videos I turned to Google to figure out what ill...

“A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe. Our task must be to widen our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” Albert Einstein So, we have one standing rule in our house: Do Not Kill.   Pretty simple, right? This applies to everything from ants on the sidewalk, spiders in the house all the way up the food chain.  I firmly believe every living thing has the right to continue existing without our interference. Now, that said – I did grow up on a farm and am no stranger to death.  We had cows, pigs, chickens and for a short time a sad, lonely, single goat. Our animals (with the exception of the goat) eventually became our dinner.  I’m ok with that.  While I don’t like to kill – I do like to eat – and I love me some hamburger – so I get the whole cycle of life thing.  I believe it’s one thing to kill for sustenance – it’s another to kill for fun.   When we see insects on the side...

“Don’t be yourself — be someone a little nicer.” Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic’s Notebook I really want this blog to be an uplifting, empowering place where we can all speak freely about living and sharing kindness.   But more then anything else – I want it to be a place of truth.  However, truth is not always pretty and Pollyanna.  Truth can be hard, raw and even a bit painful – but I believe that in truth there is beauty. So far, my journey has been focused on doing kind acts for others – mostly random strangers.  There is something really gratifying about helping a stranger.  In one sense it’s an ego boost (look at how kind I am!) and in another sense it’s a heart warmer (they really needed me – I did good today!) but overall it’s about making an immediate, tangible impact. However, I’ve come to realize that I don’t put anywhere near the effort into being kind to my loved ones that I put into being kind to strangers.   It’s n...

It started out as a normal Tuesday morning with the usual madness - getting kiddos dressed, fed and out the door to buses, schools and daycare.  Everything moved along according to plan - except the bus - it was late. And not 5 minutes late but a good 10 - and I was getting frustrated.  I needed to get the littlest to daycare and my work day into full swing - but we were stuck waiting for the bus.  Finally - a small white car drove up; someone spoke quickly to the parents on the corner, and everyone starting moving towards the other end of the street.  One of the Dad's came up to me and said there was a crime scene at the park (just a block or so away from our house) and the buses couldn't get through. "Suicide" he said, shaking his head and walking away. Suicide.  What a weighted word.  I was sad and a bit curious.  Where was the body?  When did it happen?  I quickly backed out of the driveway and headed off for daycare - taking our nor...