I have a little catching up to do, but it shouldn't take too long.
EVENT - Focus on the Family
The weekend was about the family - single-handed Christmas clean up, getting up early to make breakfast, hosting a family dinner. None of these things on their own was very spectacular, but I did a little extra for someone each time.
On Saturday, I let my lovely, teenage daughter, the only child still living at home, lounge around while I undecked the halls by myself. The undecorating is never as fun as the decorating, is it?
Making breakfast may not seem like it's even worth mentioning, but it is. This is why. I normally get up at 5:00 to start my day, so I really appreciate the fact that our church schedule moved to afternoon meetings for 2010. I have a day to sleep in. My dear husband however, has early meetings related to his volunteer position in the church. No sleeping in on Sunday for him. He is quite the capable type and is used to getting his own breakfast, and I willingly let him while I stay in bed. Last Sunday, I got up at 6:00 so he could be greeted by the smell of fresh cinnamon muffins when he went into the kitchen. I snuck out of bed while he was in the shower, made the muffins, and got back in bed before he was out. He didn't know I was awake until he opened the bedroom door and smelled the muffins.
Later that evening as the whole family was gathered together, I spent some good one on one time with a son I don't get to see as often as I would like.
COST - A couple of dollars for muffin ingredients.
EFFORT - Not monumental, but definitely not convenient.
TIME - Several hours all together
WOULD I DO IT AGAIN? - Yes, but not every weekend. ;-)
EVENT - Write love notes
Monday and Tuesday were note writing days. I wrote a note to my mom and one to my neighbor.
My mom has Alzheimer's and phone conversations are increasingly difficult for her. She lives less than an hour and a half away, but because of my work schedule I don't get to see her anywhere near as often as I would like. I want to be sure she knows often that she is loved and thought of, so I have taken to writing notes to her. It's always nice to get something in the mail besides junk and/or bills and I'm hoping my little effort brightens her day a little when she gets her notes.
Often I think about the difficulties people I know are having and sit wondering what I can do to help. Too often, I can't come up with anything except to pray for them. (Not to diminish the value of that, but if all anyone ever did was pray for people then do nothing to make things happen, not much would ever actually get done, would it?) Anyway, sometimes an encouraging word is the most helpful thing that can be offered, and that I can always give.
Today I took a couple of minutes to write an anonymous note to a neighbor who is going through a challenging time. In it I acknowledged how hard she is working to get through this time of her life and hopefully conveyed my belief that she is strong and capable. I chose to write anonymously because I wanted to convey the sense that many people are pulling for her right now (which I know is true). I thought if I attached my name to the note it may seem more singular, you know, like it would have only one name and face associated with it rather than a whole host of possibilities of who could have written it.
Note writing is one of my favorite nice things to do. There are power in words and I believe far too many nice words are left unexpressed.
COST - Probably less than two dollars - 88 cents for postage and Whatever the note cards cost.
EFFORT - A bit of mental effort to decide exactly what I wanted to write. Not much effort to do the actual writing and mailing of the notes.
TIME - Probably about 20 minutes
WOULD I DO IT AGAIN? - Yes, and again, and again, and again...
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