30 Days of Giving Thankfully

It's November, a time when Americans typically embrace the things and people that they're thankful for but I never really see much giving during this time other than a surge of volunteers for one organization or another. 

Don't get me wrong, donating your time to a worthy cause is by all means completely noble and a gracious gift to a person in need. I'm just left wondering if the average person can give without volunteering time to an existing establishment. I'm sure the answer is yes. 

When I look around my house, there is excess. Toys, electronics, craft supplies, clothes...my home if filled with things that I am thankful to have and also cluttered by things that I do not need or love but am too selfish to get rid of even though I know someone else could make use of them. 

So the idea of giving and being thankful for being able to give freely is my challenge for this November. This year I won't spend time thinking of who I'm thankful for because I do that frequently. This year, I want to find the joy in giving, I want to be thankful for being able to give something of my own to someone that will need or love to have it. 

So here it is, the official rules of my:

30 Days of Giving Thankfully

1. Each day in November at least one item must be set aside for donation.

2. Once per week, donations must be taken/sent to a worthy organization or given directly to a person in need or even a person that will actually love the thing that you consider clutter.

That's it just 2 rules and possibly one suggestion. Tell a friend, family member, acquaintance or stranger about the challenge to keep yourself motivated, to motivate others and primarily to see that the giving gets bigger than you thought it could. 

Oh yeah and if you donate your time on top of all of this, you easily gain 10 points to your "awesome-possum" factor. 

Happy Giving!

Having too much is definitely a champagne problem, right? I guess, that exclude hoarders...

The Crud

Although it's nothing I can really take credit for, I pride myself on not suffering from season allergies. I'm sure to some degree all people have reactions to allergens in the air but I really don't ever get the itchy watery eyes, runny nose or sore throat that a lot of people get and that makes me happy. I also only get sick about once or twice every two years and for a person with two small children, that's a feat.

At the end of September I was talking to the receptionist at my chiropractor's office who was suffering from "just allergies" and a few days later, I found myself dealing with the same symptoms she'd had and spiraling into what I like to call a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad cold. I didn't deserve this but alas my fate was sealed because some hussy decided to go to work sick. 

I sanitized, quarantined and did everything in my power to keep from spreading germs to my family but slowly, one by one, each of them got the sniffles, coughed a little and eventually went full force into what our doctor called "The Crud." 

Many hot teas, chicken soups, vitamins and cold remedies later I decided that two and half weeks was long enough and I needed a prescription for antibiotics. Although I've been going to the same doctor's office for 6 years, I have yet to hook up with a doctor that actually practices at that site for more than a year. So each time I get there early and fill out new patient paperwork. I'm okay with this because I've come to realize a few things:

• The administration will not change their procedure even though I think it's stupid.
• If I bring something to read, the wait is actually pleasant. 

Each time I fill out my insurance information, I remind myself that there was a time I found myself uninsured and pregnant and how I would have done nearly anything to not have to worry about how I was going to pay the doctor. So an attitude of gratitude is what I try to bring with me when I see a doctor. 

The wait was relatively short and I got my prescription in just a few taps on the computer. I picked up my meds at the pharmacy drive through on my way home and went home to get some much needed rest (and fluids). 

In that time I realized that all the times I've rolled my eyes or huffed about waiting an hour to be see by a physician, I'm really in a good spot here. Two friends of mine are actually one a ship to Sierra Leon right now on a ship that give medical aid to countries in need. I just had to drive my car to one of many offices that I could have chosen, I can't imagine having to wait for ship to dock to get medical care for myself or my family members. 

Smarty Pants Phones

I Totally Want This Phone JUST for the Cute Charm. Can you really blame me? If you or someone you know has a handbag that is unnecessarily too big for the amount of stuff you really need or carry, you know why having something outside of the handbag to alert you of incoming calls and messages is really neat-o.

As a person that's been using a SmartPhone for about 5 years, I've gone through my Blackberry phase, my iPhone phase and now I'm in an Android phase. I had a brief rendezvous with a Palm in-store but it never panned out for us.

Here's the thing about me, I don't need to have the latest and greatest phone or even the newest ROM but when I saw the commercial for this phone from HTC (love) I thought to myself,
'Tangle free headphones? Check! Adorable plum color from the get go? Check! Effortless docking station to charge the device or use it for desktop things like playing music? Check! Wait, what is that cube thing?!'

I turned to my other half and said, "What's that cube...thingy?"

My other half is a huge tech-nerd and more specifically a huge Smart Phone nerd. He nonchalantly replies,
"oh that? That's a charm, sweetheart. It alerts you when your phone is ringing or if you receive a message in the event that your phone is in your purse or something." (Coming from a woman with a sizable handbag, this is brilliant.)

Yeah, he's acting all cool but I know inwardly he's positively giddy because he's getting to share his nerd knowledge with me, at MY request. So I raise my eyebrows, frown and nod and say "huh, cool."
You may be wondering why I'm not sharing my excitement with him, well it's simple: you just can't feed the beast, once you feed it it'll start coming back spitting out random Smart Phone facts, showing you a new ROM everyday. Oh wait, that really is my life. Oh well, I guess it's just advisable that you not get too excited in front of technology geeks least they think you've developed a serious interest.

Of course you and I know that secretly I was shouting in my brains 'Freakin' Awesome! I need that phone.'

And then came the devastating blow. Only at Verizon Wireless. Seriously? UGH. I guess this is how it felt for all the lay people that didn't have an iPhone while I lived it up on my AT&T contract a few years back. Sure I could always get an unlocked version but why bother? I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars for an unlocked phone when I know the next bigger, badder phone is going to be released as soon as I hand over my cold hard cash. I guess I'll just suck it up and be happy with my HTC Inspire 4G.