Our Week of Giving

Are you ever inspired to give to others? Just because? For no other reason that for the pure joy of helping another fellow human, animal or the planet?

For me, there is not much more in this world that gives me that amount of satisfaction! A genuine act of giving of yourself, your time, resources or even a simple smile or hug can not only shift and change someones day but their life. Did you ever consider that doing just one small act of kindness could leave an impression on someone for the rest of their life? If not, think again! Some of the most beautiful, heartwarming stories start by someone simply caring and loving from the heart.

The ripple effect of how we choose to live our lives everyday contains enough power to change to world. So, I ask you, what ripples are you sending out today? tomorrow? I am often inspired to be a giver. And to give or give back can come in all sorts of ways.

For some reason, starting around mid November throughout December I am very inspired to give. In November of 2013 I was overwhelmed with feelings of wanting to give. And life got busy as it does this time of year. The days came and went and the inspiration that floated my way got set aside. Again around the same time of year this year all of those same feelings surfaced. And this year, I made a promise to myself that I would let it out!

So, I spent a little bit of time with these thoughts and decided to bring my family in on this. What better thing to pass onto your children than to assist them in being able to connect with their own feelings of joy that is connected with giving! We discussed as a family what I had in mind and I invited them to share any ideas on how giving would be fun for them. We discussed how fun it feels to give to a complete stranger. Just because. And remaining anonymous.

Giving is not always about receiving praise from the receiver. Its about the feeling within from the act of giving. And we also agreed that we wanted to be able to give back in a way that was personal. Life brings us all kinds of trials and through those trials we have the opportunity to become grateful beings. So, we will also be giving back in ways that the world has given to us!

So, in saying all of this, I invite you to join in on our journey of our WEEK OF GIVING! Follow along, be inspired and love…Just love…share love in any way that feels good to you. That’s what we are here for!

WEEK OF GIVING! DAY 1!

My family had an experience with our dog with a nervous system shutdown and everyone at Southwest Vet Services was of great help and support to us. Although Callie went on for treatment at UW Vetrinary Clinic in Madison, the loving and caring staff were of great comfort to us! With great love and gratitude, it was an honor to deliver a Christmas pointsettia and hand written card to these great people today! 

 

 

WEEK OF GIVING! DAY 2!

One of the BEST feelings about giving is to be able to give without expecting ANYTHING in return! And not even a thank you! When you give randomly and leave yourself unidentified that’s what happens! Its super fun! I know whomever received this was surprised and very thankful! Therefore their loving and thankful heart just sent out gratitude to the Universe for ALL to receive, not just for me!

 

 

WEEK OF GIVING!!! DAY 3!!!

One of my best friends in the whole wide world, Ericka Stubbs, owns the most perfect little health food store. Driftless Edibles. Good quality food is very important to me so when I think of giving, good food is a perfect gift. Today I purchased a $25 gift card from Driftless Edibles and asked Ericka to gift it to her 5th paying customer at the register today. My intention was for the Universe to align this gift to a loving grateful heart that could use this! And the perfect person received this! Miss Molly Shaw! If you know her, she is super kind, loving, generous and has a heart of gold. This act of giving brought me so much joy! And a huge thank you to Ericka for playing this game with me and for your hard work and dedication with providing our community with healthy, fresh love filled foods to nourish our bodies! Im bursting with love and gratitude!

 

And the winner….

 

 

WEEK OF GIVING!!! DAY 4!!

Today, Gavin and I are remembering the energy and love of a beautiful soul that we met in October of 2013! Her name is Pearl! She is a beautiful, loving pit bull that we connected with on a volunteer trip to Kanab, Utah. Its the home place of Americas largest no kill animal santuary. Best Friends Animal Society. We took Pearl on an overnight stay with us to our hotel. That sweet girl would def be ours if she was not limited to a single dog home. She has babesia, a tick born blood disease that is incurable. Therefore since its possible to transfer from dog to dog, Best Friends intends to home her with no other dogs for safety and health purposes. 

She is still in need of a loving forever home but we have not forgotten about her. She crosses our mind often. We are sending love to her from a distance AND sending her a special Christmas package from us! We got her treats, toys and a blanket! Draven was sweet enough to give up one of his blankets for Pearl! So, we are mailing this to her! Thinking of her and loving her in all ways that are possible right now!

 

 

DAY 5!! WEEK OF GIVING!!!

PART 1

My family teamed up and made two blankets to be donated! As we made these we spoke our intention into the blankets. We were connecting with love, health, well being, peace and joy for the recipients of these blankets. Also, we were our usual silly selves while making these so there were also LOADS of deep belly laughter connected to these blankets. These will be given in a way that deeply connects to a personal experience for my family. Stay tuned for our delivery of these love filled blankets!

 

 

PART 2!!

We donated the blankets that we made to the UW American Family Children’s Hospital in Madison. As we stood in line waiting to check in we gifted one of the blankets to the lady that was standing in line ahead of us. She was there visiting a child that had just had a surgery. That’s all we know at this point. And that’s good enough!  The other blanket was left with hospital staff to give to any family/child they felt drawn to gift it to! This hospital was all to familiar to my family. Draven spent a week in intensive care here in kidney failure. And the blessing in this event led to the discovery of a heart defect, which brought us back once again for another stay here. This hospital and and staff will not soon be forgotten by my family. We have been at our weakest, our strongest and most loving under this roof. This holiday season we are sending LOADS of love and health to all under this roof from staff to patients and visitors!

 

 

DAY 6!! WEEK OF GIVING!!!

We purchased two large boxes of items from the “wish list” for the Ronald McDonald house of Madison and delivered it as a family. The last time we stepped foot in that building, we were there for the purpose of needing the help that this wonderful place offers. In February of 2012 Draven underwent heart surgery for an aortic coarctation. This place was a bright spot for us. The night before surgery we spent the evening here with lots of other families and children that were struggling to survive much more than what we were going through. Our time spent there def left a mark on Dan and I. Hearing the stories of what everyone was going through was beyond words. But the feelings of love in that house….and the feelings of gratitude coming from everyone there was incredible. I will never forget after dinner that evening, we watched Draven playing cards with a little amish boy whom was receiving cancer treatments. I remember looking out the window, watching all of the cars rushing by on that cold winter night and realizing in that moment that the house I was in had to be the brightest most love filled place in the whole city of Madison. Everyone under that roof was struggling in huge ways but we ALL were thankful for life, to be alive and breathing and loving the ones that mean the most to us. No one in that place felt sorry for themselves. Everyone was strong and positive. We all drew strength from one another. It made any problem that I ever felt like I might have feel totally nonexistant. Dan and I will forever be grateful for our experience at the house. What a blessing it is!

 

Day 7!! WEEK OF GIVING!!!

Part 1!

And last but surely NOT least, FOOD! On our final day of giving we teamed up to cook a delicious and love filled whole foods meal for a family. The family we decided to cook a meal for is a family that we have only met one time. A few winters back they found our dog, Callie, that had gotten lost and were taking good care of her and loving her until they discovered that she was ours! This meal was a nice way to pay them back for the love they showed for Callie! Draven made gluten free chocolate chunk cookies. Dan put together a large salad of organic spring green, tomatoes and raw cheese and Gavin and I made a scrumptious gluten free lasagne with all organic ingredients! In our house, good quality, healthy, nourishing whole foods are extremely important so us being able to pass on good food to others is a really big way to give GREATNESS!!!

PART 2!

This was a picture of my family delivering a home cooked organic meal for a wonderful family. They were kind and loving and took care of our lost dog a couple years back for us! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

 

 

We had a fantastic and fulfilling week. Merry Christmas, everyone!