30 Deeds for 30 Days - Day 22

My deed for this day was another one that just kind of fell into my lap. On our way back home from our hotel Jesse and I stopped in at the Old Navy Outlet store. While we were there I helped a woman in a wheelchair to reach several things that she was trying to get that were laying out on a table.

I had seen her stuggling out of the corner of my eye. I had also seen several other people stand right by her and not offer to help. I think sometimes people don't offer to help someone because they don't want to offend them. I admit that I hesitated at first too because I didn't want this woman to think I was saying "Here, I know you can't do it. Let me and my capable body take care of it for you." She seemed glad I offered though and accepted my help. I think it's ok to offer someone help. I hope.

You know, I'm nearly 6 feet tall and even I had to strain to reach some of the things in the middle of the table. I don't know how they expected everyone else to be able to reach that stuff. Dear Old Navy Outlet store, maybe giant 12x8 tables are not the best place to display your tank tops.

30 Deeds for 30 Days - Day 21

On this day I honestly forgot to do a good deed. Luckily fate reminded me of what I needed to do.

Jesse and I went to see Easter Parade at the Chanhassed Dinner Theater. After the play was over one of the actresses told the audience that they would be collecting money for Broadway Cares campaign to fight AIDS and support those living with it.

It was not my most planned out deed but I did drop some cash into their collection basket so as of yet I have not missed a day!

30 Deeds for 30 Days - Day 20

My birthday! I wanted to do something special for my birthday deed so I made a donation to this group: Minnesota Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. Who knew such a group even existed? I really liked their stance on a lot of things and what really moved me to want to donate was what their website says about their "Peaceful Presence" program. From the site:
"We stand in non-confrontational and pastoral Peaceful Presence outside reproductive health clinics in support of their work, their staff, and their patients to demonstrate in non-violent ways that people of faith support access to safe, legal abortions. Peaceful Presence is a strategy of silent witnessing and non-engagement. Supporters (clergy and lay people) silently hold signs with our message “Pro Family, Pro Faith, Pro Choice.” "

Now that's religious activism that I can get behind!

30 Deeds for 30 Days - Day 19

Ack! I've fallen behind here. Let's see if I can think back and remember what I've done every day.

Ok, the deed for this day was that I wrote a long, suportive email to someone I know through a message board who's going through a really tough time right now. She responded and thanked me for my kind words so I hope that it was somewhat helpful to her. I frequently have a hard time finding the right words when reaching out to someone like that so more often than not I just say nothing at all. This deed was tough because I was afraid I would say the wrong thing and make things worse but I think in the end it went ok.

30 Deeds for 30 Days - Day 18

Yesterday's deed kind of happened just by chance. As Joseph, Elle and I were leaving speech therapy yesterday I noticed an older lady wandering around the parking lot looking lost. The building we were at is large and has several small parking lots and it's pretty easy to go get turned around and go out the wrong door. After I got the kids in the car I called over to the lady and asked if she was looking for her car. She explained that she thought maybe she came out the wrong door. I told her I had done that myself before and asked her if she would like me to drive her around the lot so that she could find her car.

She got in my car and described to me where she thought she had parked. I spend a lot of time at that building and recignized right away where she was desciribing. I drove her over and we found her car right away. She said that probably would have been the last lot she checked because that was the one lot she was pretty sure wasn't where she had parked.

Of course after she was out of the car I had to have a big talk with Joseph about letting people you don't know into your car and how normally we wouldn't do that but that we were doing it to be helpful. He said "I guess that's a good deed for the day!" And he was right.

30 Deeds for 30 Days - Day 17

My good deed for yesterday was to write an email to several members of state and local government asking them to support increased funding for education with an emphisis on early childhood servies and special education.

Special education services are going to be taking a big hit here in Minnesota in the upcoming school year. Joseph's school district alone will have to cut 17 special ed provider positions. We still don't know if Joseph's wonderful IEP case manager will have a job next year. It's really sad that the kids who need the most help are the most likely to suffer when there are budget cutbacks because the services they need are often the most expensive.

This is such an important issue to me, I wish that there was more that I could do.

30 Deeds for 30 Days - Day 16

For yesterday's good deed I made a donation to our local library. The kids get so much out of the library so I don't mind throwing a little their way. Of course, that's in addition to the massive late fees we always end up paying.

30 Deeds for 30 Days - Day 15

For yesterday's deed I picked up some more stuff for the local food shelf. I hadn't planned on doing it again so soon but since we were at the grocery store I went ahead and did it. I was thinking that every time I go to the store for a big shopping trip I could just add $5 worth of stuff into our cart for the food shelf. $5 can go a long way if you use coupons and sales and buy the store brand of stuff. It's just a little thing but it might be a good habit to get into.

30 Deeds for 30 Days - Day 14

For various reasons I don't want to say to much about what yesterday's deed was. I didn't actually do anything, it was more about not doing something. It was tough and, without a doubt the toughest deed I've done so far. I have the satisfaction though of knowing that it was important and impactful. So. Yeah. That's all there is about that.

30 Deeds for 30 Days - Day 13

Yesterday was Firday the 13th so I'm going to mark that up as the cause for me forgetting to post my deed, several of my favorite bloggers packing it up and throwing it in, a large segment of the internet turning getting a case of the raging assholes and my own husband somehow getting infected with the aformentioned malady.

Yesterday I took a bag of groceries over to the local food shelf. And not just stuff like creamed corn and pumpkin pie filling. I'll probably donate more later this month because I think this is a good cause. In the past my family has had to use thefood shelf a couple of times to kind of help us out of a tight spot. Since we're no longer in a position where we need that help it seems only right to try to pay back some of the goodwill.

So even though I don't support the orgaization that runs the place I made the donation to I know that doesn't really matter to the people who will be getting the food.

30 Deeds for 30 Days - Day 12

Ok, I'm done with my pity party. My good deed for the day was to donate the payment for one of my Pay Per Posts to the Red Cross.

30 Deeds for 30 Days - Day 11

I forgot to post yesterday's deed again. Maybe it's because right now I'm sort of involved in some stupid internet drama crap that's so middle school I can't even believe it. I've been both the hurter and the hurtee in this whole thing and right now it's eating up a lot of my time and energy and goodwill. So I feel stupid talking about some dumb little thing I did to try to improve things when I feel like I'm really just making things worse.

To be honest I'm also more than a little let down by how this whole campaign is going. I know there are a few people out there doing but no one is leaving comments like I had hoped they would. The mom-oriented website that was going to help me promote this seemed to kind of never get around to it. Frankly, this whole thing has just become one giant buzzkill for me. I don't even want to log in and update my blog because it just makes me feel sort of sad.

Am I done with 30/30? I don't know. I guess it probably doesn't matter that much one way or the other. In case I decide not to stop I'll just go ahead and talk about yesterday's deed. While Joseph was having OT yesterday I tracked down all the various therapists that he's worked with and thanked them for all the hard work that they had done with them. I told them how much of a difference that they made with him and how much I appreciated their dedication and compassion and their ability to kick Joseph's butt and make him learn the skills that he needed in order to move forward. And I meant it all too. We've been very lucky in that Joseph has always had great people working with him.

So maybe I'll update later with today's deed. Maybe not. Maybe I'll just throw the computer away and never use the internet again.

30 Deeds for 30 Days - Day 10

I just realized I forgot to post my deed for yesterday. Maybe that's because the only good deed I can think of is that I was especially nice to a cashier at Target that was really rude to me. It's not much but it's the best I can do. It's hard to be nice for 30 days in a row.

30 Deeds for 30 Days - Day 9

An actual conversation I had with Joseph 2 minutes ago:
Joseph: Mommy, can you open this toy for me?
Me: Not right this second. Wait a couple of minutes.
Joseph: Whhhhhhhhh-yyyyyyyyy do I have to waaaaaaa-aaait?
Me: Stop whining Joseph. I have to update my blog with my deed for the day.
Joseph: I know a good deed you can do.
Me: What's that?
Joseph: Open this toy for me and don't make me wait for it all day.

That's my boy. My deed for the day is to make cookies for Jesse to take in to work for a couple of his co-workers. It's part of my extended thank you for them talking Jesse into buying me a KitchenAid mixer. (You don't even want to know what I'll do for the pasta maker attatchment.)

I also want to point out this because it's for a good cause and one that I'm a big supporter of. It's also a way to do a good deed and do something nice for yourself in the process.

30 Deeds for 30 Days - Day 8

My deed for today was pretty similar to what yesterday's was. I made a real effort to get along and have some positive interactions with someone that I have not always gotten along with in the past. I gave her a genuine compliment, I made conversation with her and showed an interest in some stuff that I knew was important to her.

Maybe it sounds kind of self-important to say "I'm so great because I was nice to someone!" but I know that this time when I was done dealing with this person I didn't find myself feeling yucky about the whole interaction. It was nice to find some common ground with someone I feel like I'm so different from.

30 Deeds for 30 Days - Day 7

My good deed for the day was to get along with some people that I had to be with today that I frankly really can't stand. That might not seem like a big deal but trust me, for me to even be in the same room as a couple of these people was a struggle. I just stayed determined to put out good energy and it all turned out to be not as bad as I worried it was going to be.

30 Deeds for 30 Days - Day 6

My deed for the day was pretty simple. I mailed a "just because" present to a friend who's in need of a little pick me up. Easy-peasy.

30 Deeds for 30 Days - Day 5

When I was pregnant with Elle I signed up with every formula company out there for free samples and coupons. Then I sold them all on ebay. I still get stuff once in a while and last week I sold some coupons for $10 off formula. The person who won the auction wrote me and asked if it would be ok if there was a little delay in paying because she was finding herself a little short on money. I told her it was no biggie and to just pay me when she could. So today she paid me for the auction and wrote a nice note thanking me for being so nice.

I'm going to get her stuff ready to mail tonight and I'm going to include another $10 that I got in the mail yesterday. I know what it's like to be in a tight spot and I thought maybe that might help out a little bit. And, since I'm in such a good mood I won't even mention to her that she could be feeding her baby for free! (I know, I know. There might be a good reason she's not nursing. Don't bother to point it out to me.)

What did you do today?

30 Deeds for 30 Days - Day 4

I had something special planned for today but I can't do it because Joseph and I are both sick and running fevers so we can't leave the house. Instead I made a donation to Habitat for Humanity. I have more hands-on type of deeds planned but I'll have to save those for a day when I don't feel like my head has been run over by a bus.

30 Deeds for 30 Days - Day 3

Ok, Day 3. All I know for sure is that I am in a monstrously bad mood today. It might have something to do with the fact that the weather just said we could get up to 6 inches of snow today. Sometimes I hate Minnesota so much!

Joseph's school is taking part in in the American Heart Association's Jump rope for Heart. In Joseph's words "We have to raise money to give to 'hostiples' so they can buy new medicines." Isn't that a good cause? And yes, he still says "hostiples" and frankly I hope he never stops because I think it's so cute.

Anyway, I set up Joseph's on-line donation page (you can find it here) and for today's good deed I'll be donating money to that cause.

On a hilarious/sad note, Joseph told me that his school doesn't have any jump ropes so rather than do that, all the kids are just going to go in the gym and jump together.

I know there are a few people out there doing good deeds because I've seen my banner on a few sites. Leave me a comment about what you're doing, I would love to hear about it. Don't make me beg. More.