Food is Love

A few more things we were able to do as a part of our Month of Thankfulness! We are a family that believes in hospitality. We like to open our home to our friends and family and want to be a home where everyone feels welcome and included. This past week seemed to be crazier than normal but we still managed to squeeze in a little love for others to celebrate all that we are thankful for!

First we gave our sitter Ms. Riah a gift card to Sonic to treat herself to a drink. Mariah started babysitting for us last year when we just had Max and Stella. She is a great sitter and we so appreciate her! She is responsible, dependable and even at her young age she manages to watch all 4 of our kiddos without an issue! She is also very giving of herself and her time! When she was just 14 she started a ministry project to provide stockings for the homeless of OKC on Christmas Day, along with a hot meal and respite from the cold. In just 3 years her project has grown immensely and she is often found speaking to local youth groups and working to get more sponsors and donations for Stockings for the Homeless. Check out her project on Facebook HERE!

Another way we chose to show our appreciation and gratefulness for others was to give a little gift of Tastefully Simple! I have been so blessed by my Tastefully Simple business and it allows me to give to others as well! In particular I was feeling led to provide some meal ideas and products to make a holiday meal a little more special for a family in need. I hope it is just a small way to give back in a way that would be important to me. Holiday meals are a special time of conversation, memories and special treats and I want this family to enjoy all of those things without a burden.

Food is Love this week!

Check out all the things we have crossed off our list here!
http://lifewithmadmax.blogspot.com/2011/10/month-of-thankfulness.html

We are Adopting!

Gotcha here right?

Just another small way we can teach our children gratitude this month. At our campus of LifeChurch.tv we have adopted an elementary school where 90% of the students qualify for free lunch programs. Our goal as a church is to be sure every kid is blessed with something this Christmas. I find it affirming that when we picked up our Lifepack we got a card that was for a 3-4 year old boy, just like our own Max. We talked to Max about some parents don't have enough money to buy Christmas presents for their kids. Since we are blessed to have enough we are going to adopt a little boy for Christmas and make sure he is blessed too.

We are buying a book, a toy and school supplies since these teachers spend their own money providing what their students need. Max picked out the following and keeps asking about our boy. What boy? "That boy we are adopting!"

For the record I haven't ruled out adoption someday but for now I am living vicariously though my friend Kari! Check out her blog HERE

We have also been blessed this month to be able to give an offering above our tithe, Thank you Lord for meeting all of our financial needs that we may have more than enough to give unto the kingdom of God and promote the gospel of Jesus Christ!

Always, Jesi

What a week!

Month of Thankfulness
(days 8-9-10)

It has been one of THOSE weeks. You know the ones, where you spend more time trying not to pull your hair out than anything else. My kids have been snotty, sick, screaming little messes this week and its thrown a kink in our plans! But we still managed to knock a few more things off our list!

This week we visited the animal shelter in our town. We donated dog treats and old towels and blankets which cost us nothing but our time. Max and Stella also LOVED seeing all the animals. I forgot just how sad it is to see so many sweet animals without a home. Please, PLEASE spay and neuter your pets. The last thing we need is more homeless animals and backyard breeding going on in our society. Also if you are looking for a forever pet, ADOPT! Do not buy from "pet stores" So many of these animals are bred in puppy mills and are not treated the right way. Go adopt one of the awesome animals that are sitting on death row waiting for a forever home.

Here is our adopted forever pet

Deuce still has the shelter tattoo on his belly that labels him as #8095. When he drives me crazy I remind him of that but in reality we would never give him away.

Go love some animals this week!

Jesi

{Maybe it's because I am tired}

That I think coffee is such a good way to be kind to others!

(day 7 of our month of thankfulness)

I didn't get to include the kiddos in todays activities but they were fun nonetheless. I had found a starbucks gift card with $20 on it and decided to put it to good use. We are having CRAZY weather here in Oklahoma, tornado warnings, hail, heavy rains, high winds and EARTHQUAKES. Yeah, in OKLAHOMA!

So on the way to work I got coffee for my coworker and my boss. I consider myself very blessed to work with awesome, fun, caring people and I just wanted to give them a little Happy :) I also decided at the last minute to buy the coffee for the guy behind me. It ended up taking awhile for my order (probably due to my boss's crazy order :)) so I hope it was a nice surprise to have his drink paid for when he pulled up. I know I get frustrated waiting in a slow drive through line!

Maybe when I get more sleep from the little ones I will get more creative in my kindess! Maybe!

{Donate}

Today we are talking about GIVING to others who are not as fortunate as we are. we have wayyyyyyyy too many toys in a small house so today we are going to go through our toys and fill a tub to give to Goodwill. We remind Max of how many toys he gets for his birthday and Christmas and let him take part in selecting what toys he is ok giving to kids who may not have any.

Another thing we choose to donate is kids clothes. We have been so blessed by the generosity of hand me downs so instead of consigning our kids clothes we simply give them to others. I have 2 baskets and 2 trash bags full! We are going to sort and seperate them today for some friends who appreciate hand me downs as much as we do! We also plan to give to my friend Gabby who works at a family center where they house mothers and kids.

I feel like we have this many kids clothes!

Todays RAOK is DONATE!

{Pray for a Friend}

Day 3 of our Month of Thankfulness *andgratefulnessandkindness*

Today we have 2 RAOK that we are planning! First we are going to spend time this morning praying for a friend. This ties into something I am very thankful for which is my job. I am very blessed that I get to work part time at a job that I love doing, with wonderful people! My boss is pretty dang cool and we are praying for his family today. A few years ago he had to have a hip replacement surgery which the doctor pretty much botched. This resulted in a 2nd surgery, more time recovering, missing playtime with his kids, missing work and medical costs. Not to mention the physical ramifications of having 2 major surgeries on the HIP! Have I mentioned that we work in performing arts? Not only is this hip an instrument of his work but it is an instrument of praise! He and his wife both have to appear in legal appointments today and tomorrow regarding the first surgery. We are praying that they are fairly compensated for the doctors mistakes! Join me in praying for the T family today!

Our second RAOK is for the director of our MDO program, Miss Bree. We are going to bring her one of these...

just to say Thank you for everything she does! We really love our experience there and want to bless her day and warm her up from a very cold coldfront that moved in last night. We were even able to sneak it onto her desk with just her name written on the lid so it was anonymous.

Prayers and Starbucks, pretty awesome ways to show kindness we think!

Always,
Jesi

Tip Someone!

What a great first and second day of our month of Thankfulness!

Yesterday was our first day and we started by Turkey'ing *yes I made that word up* our neighbors! It was a fun way to show a little neighborly appreciation and Max really liked it. He has started saying we are celebrating Nicegiving this month.

At the end of the night, after a long day we HAD to go grocery shopping. I don't know about anyone else but we get paid 2x per month. October was a longgggggggggg month with the second half having 3 weekends! We are also attempting to honor God more with our finances so we are paying a lot extra towards our few debts and that leaves very little "extra" to go around. It's a Dave Ramsey way of thinking but it gets a little panicky when you have $3 left at the end of the month (after saving, tithing and budgeting everything else). But God IS faithful and our finances are already lightened for November which we are thankful for!

Rob stayed home with Stella, Jackson and Presley while Max and I went shopping. We loaded our cart up and spent a good chunk on groceries. We had a FULL cart and a HUGE bag of dogfood so when the young teenage boy offered to help us out (which ONLY happens at Crest, never at Target or Walmart) we accepted. His friend came up in the parking lot and helped as well. I saw the perfect opportunity to do another ROAK for our month of Thankfulness. I whispered to Max and asked if he would like to bless these young men for helping us. Of course he was excited to do so! We got out a little cash that I had in my wallet and Max tipped each of them. You could tell that they were surprised and they shut all my doors and told me to have a GREAT night (with a maam thrown in there too, sigh :))

Max was also BEGGING for a spiderman toothbrush and toothpaste so I let him pick it out IF he picked something out for Stella. We decided on a Hello Kitty toothbrush and Disney Princess toothpaste. She was in bed when we got home but he got to give it to her this morning. She LOVED it and he kept talking about how it was nice to take care of your little sister when you are a big brother. Melt my heart.

Today I am thankful for SIBLINGS and my sweet kids who are learning how to be kind to others and each other. Growing up an only child I never got that super close sibling bond until later. I am greatly blessed by all of my stepbrothers and half brother, my brother in law and sister in law and especially brothers sweet wives. It's nice to have siblings.

photo from Sarah Billheimer Photography

Always,
Jesi

You've been Turkey'd!

Our first item to check off our list! I love the idea that I have seen floating around to BOO your neighbors for Halloween. BUT October is just a crazy month, we have a birthday in there and we never got around to it. So as part of our Month of Thankfulness I wanted us to do something for our neighbors. We aren't really close with our neighbors but we do have some good ones who keep their yards and houses looking nice and always wave hello so we wanted to say Thank You to them! I made up this poem and we are going to attach it to a small bag of treats (popcorn, fruit snacks, some of our Halloween candy, granola bars=all free in our pantry) and a big colorful turkey made by the kiddos. I hope it catches on and they do the same to other neighbors! It would be fun to see turkeys in windows and know we spread some kindness in the neighborhood!

It's time for fall
and time for turkey
Time for thanks
those skies are murky
We just wanted to say thank you
for all you do and being you!
Neighbors come and neighbors go
but you always manage to say hello
Pumpkins, treats and cold winds too
This is our special treat just for you.
Enjoy this Thanksgiving Treat and funny Turkey
and remember that you are Lucky!

Pass on the kindness and don't spoil the fun! Choose two more neighbors and give them their own Turkey and Treats, be sure to hang your Lucky Turkey in your window so we know you are part of the party!