Giving Back | Linked

First and foremost, for those of you who are new to my blog: my husband  I have been married 8 years and have 2 wonderful children, a first grader and an almost 3 year old. After working for 15 years, I quit my job in 2012 to put my energy fully into going back to school for my RN- we lost half of our income with this decision, and while it's been challenging and (quite frankly) terrifying, I know we made the best decision for our family and we try to make the best of it as well as we can and count our blessings often.

Another year has come and gone, another set of resolutions unmet. As my regular readers may remember, I was resolved to blogging more in 2013. That resolution gave way to finishing my novel and preparing to enter nursing school.  A few weeks ago I received an email from my Mom and step-sister-in-law, Melissa, about doing linked blogs once a month- I took that as a sign that will help keep me motivated and accountable for actually completing the blogs I want to write.

This month's blog is about giving back.


We are a family of many Christmases, 6 to be exact.  This past weekend my Dad was in town for his Christmas with us. In one of the most thoughtful Christmas gifts we've ever received, he surprised me by taking me to the store where he bought a little over a week's worth of groceries for us. You can only imagine how thrilled I was!

Earlier in the month we were able to spend time visiting my husband's grandmother as she recovered from a hospital stay at a long-term care facility. Not only did Grandma enjoy talking and spending time with my husband and watching our youngest being on the go non-stop, but quite a few of the other residents enjoyed watching the baby travel up and down the halls past the recreation areas and their rooms. More than once I caught sight of faces brightening as we passed and heard comments of "Oh, such a sweet little girl!" and "The baby's all dressed up for Christmas" (we dressed her in her Christmas outfit for Grandma).

And finally... Just after Christmas, a friend brought her kids over for a play-date and as we discussed the two of us being done having kids, she asked if I had any of my maternity stuff I'd be willing to part with for a friend of hers who was paying outlandish amounts of money for maternity clothing where she's currently living over seas. Needless to say, I was thrilled to be able to get the maternity clothes out of my closet! In addition, she took the pack-n-play which opened up some extra space in our house.  There were a few additional maternity items I knew I had and in the massive "sort and organize" that took place that afternoon we were able to put together 5 boxes and a bag of children and infant clothing that we took to Goodwill. I was thrilled that we were getting it out of our house and to a place where thrifty shoppers would be able to get use out of it!


For more inspiration on ways to give back, you can view my Mom's blog and Melissa's blog.