A Thankful Heart

Okay, it has been a REALLY LONG time, I know! I know! Since the time has passed, we have had a visit to Illinois, I have started using Plexus and selling it, Reid has turned 1 whole year old, Allen and I celebrated 10 years of marriage, and we have been preparing for Christmas. I know I missed ALL of November.

We have been soo busy, that the blog was the one that suffered. I've been looking and pinning soo much on Pinterest lately to make Christmas really great this year. I have crafts upon crafts for the kids to do, random acts of kindness in progress, and purchased our first Elf on a Shelf- plush edition one.

The kids and I have already been watching Christmas movies, baking cookies, and cleaning. Allen will soon be home in the morning, and it's like Christmas for me! We have really missed him, especially Thanksgiving. I have the Macy's parade recorded for him to watch with us- our tradition. This was the very first Thanksgiving we have ever spent apart. Last year Reid was just born, so we were able to be together since he was already home for Reid. Next year I believe if he is working, we will be bringing Thanksgiving to him. I thought of this of course the morning of Thanksgiving, otherwise we could have packed up and headed up to him.

We have our 3 Christmas trees up now, and the house is soo festive! This year I have been more at peace with things, and the Christmas spirit has really been strong for me. I'm getting excited over our random acts of kindness we will be doing. I have an infant coat with a couple of shirts on the Mom Swap page for our town, looking for someone in need right now. We donated to Salvation Army bell ringer at Walmart last night at Walmart when we went to leave. Of course Hayleigh and I had a talk with Reid- he's still young for this. Hayleigh and I talked about how other mommies and daddies of kids are having hard times right now, and don't have much food, warm clothes, and toys, and how donating the change we usually put in the piggy bank could help out, and help give Christmas to other kids and families. Makes me cry about it now as well as it did then. She was very concerned about other kids not having Christmas, and being cold and not having much food. Makes me soo proud of her for caring about others. I gave each of them the money we had saved, and we went straight up to the bell ringer. I first held Hayleigh up, and she put the money into the red pot, telling the bell ringer "There you go!" and he told her Thank you, to which my polite little gal gave him a hug and told him You're Welcome. I picked Reid up out of the cart, and helped him. He was very amused with what was going on, and both were happy to receive candy in return for their good deeds. Hayleigh the whole way back to the car was telling me about the mommies and daddies getting food, clothes, and toys. She was gabbing about Christmas for kids, and let me tell you I wanted to bawl right then. She has such a big heart! Reid was content with his new sucker and kept holding it up to me to show me it.

I swear, the older I get the more I cry happy and sad tears. I think I cry every day. I am soo proud of our kids, and how they treat others. It really breaks my heart to know that other kids out there the same age as ours are going without. Some are going without because they have a single parent that is working all that they can but cannot afford much. Some are obviously on drugs and neglecting their kids. All the same, it really makes me really sad. We saw a guy standing on the corner of a stop light, holding a sign in the cold rain close to dark. Hayleigh asked me what he was doing. I told her he was begging for money- that he was in need. Of course I couldn't stop and give to him with just me and the kids in the car. I feel sorry for these people, but I am not risking our family's safety. Maybe when Allen gets home we can order a couple dollar menu sandwiches and give those out with him with us.

I am very Thankful for everything we have, the warm nice home to stay in, warm clothes to wear, and the food in our pantry. I am glad our kids are growing up being thankful and giving as well.