February Charity of the Month Wrap Up

February's Charity was Operation HomeFront.  Their mission is to provide emergency financial and other assistance to the families of our service members and wounded warriors. 

Operation HomeFront seeks to help in any way they can.  On their Current Needs page, you can donate to specific requests from service members.  Most of the stories are heartbreaking.  You can also donate to their general fund. 

With the Charity of the Month Program, each month I will donate $1 for the first 25 new followers to my blog AND the first 25 new likes on my Facebook page to the current Charity of the Month.

This month I added 34 followers and 31 Facebook Likes.  That translates to a $50 donation for Operation HomeFront!  Thank you very much for your help and support.

Don't forget to check in tomorrow for the March Charity of the Month. 

Oh HAPPY Day Link Party!

Welcome back to the Oh HAPPY Day Link Party!

Time to celebrate what is giving us JOY and making us HAPPY this week.  It is so easy to get bogged down and lost in the negative.  Let's take a moment and celebrate the positive. 

This week I am happy for the joy that my little bear faces life with. He has been taking swim lessons for a month now.  Every time we walk into the pool he tells any one who will listen that one day he is going to jump off those diving boards.  

Hitting the water!

At class this week the older kids in the more advanced class got to try the diving boards.  My little bear saw what they were doing and politely asked his teachers if he could go with them.  The teachers both laughed but figured WHY NOT!  

There he was impatiently waiting in line with all the big kids to march to the end of the diving board.  With no fear or worries, he proudly jumped.  I could see the smile on his face when he came up from his jump.  If they would have let him, he would have gotten back in line to go again and again and again!  

So today I am happy for his joy and sense of adventure!  May it always serve as a good reminder for both of us.

On a completely different line of thought... I am co-sponsoring a pretty cool giveaway at Eat.Enjoy.Live... hop over and enter!

I'd also like to once again thank all the lovely bloggers who joined up with us here for Oh HAPPY Day last week.  Congrats go out again to Laurie @ Saved by Grace for having the most views last week.

Now onto the party!

The rules are pretty simple: 

Have fun and say HI to as many other party goers as possible.  =) 

If you would like to spread the word, please grab a button and put it on your blog.



<a href="http://notdonegrowing.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuyG_2kPV1gwFIiOpm6tbw993FkxtYl2Xl2Ose9gka8AJWcDsVvkh1PI_BnePqoz8FlCWdN1bc_BQ2NOnqCerfMUY2uCDlQLnUEi9C_3x4bz9X228gQ12DVCVQ5vgY2xxmCgdclV4cXeHd/s512/buttons-004.jpg"/></a>

Thoughts on Forgiveness

I have been thinking a lot lately about forgiveness.  On the surface the act of forgiving seems like it should be a simple thing.  You are wronged, the other party apologizes, and you forgive.  The problem is that in the real world it never seems to work out that way.  There are almost always over loaded emotions and hurt feelings involved.  

The act of forgiving is in fact very complicated.  A lot of the time that apology mentioned never comes… or comes too easily and the other party does not really understand why they are apologizing.  For whatever the reason, hearing “I’m sorry” does not automatically flip the forgiveness switch in our brains or our hearts.

The thing that we must all remember is that by giving the gift of forgiveness to those who have wrong us, we also give the gift of release to ourselves.  Holding on to anger or hurt feelings in the long run is only going to hold us back.  Why waste energy building up resentment and grudges, when you could be using that energy for so many more rewarding acts?  

Please note, that I am not supporting to instantly let go all your hurt feelings; or to push them away and pretend they are not there.  You need to process the feelings, experience them, analyze the true cause, and then deal with them.  If not, the next time someone wrongs you in a similar manner the hurt will be even stronger.  By not dealing with our hurt feelings, the memory stays under the surface festering.  It becomes a permanent sore spot.  
 
The gift in forgiveness is allowing yourself to own your hurt and then being able to let go of it.  Once you make that decision to forgive, the weight and pressure of holding onto your pain is lifted.  By removing the pain; hopefully, with a little bit of good communication, you and your loved one will eventually be able to learn and grow in stead.  


On a completely different line of thought... I am co-sponsoring a pretty cool giveaway at Eat.Enjoy.Live... hop over and enter!

Mediation Monday

Pinterest Source

Today I endeavor to greet the new week with hope and joy, to gladly face challenges and welcome them into my life as a chance for growth and learning. 

I will not bury my head in the sand and hope that the storm passes quickly.  I will stand strong, with my eyes and arms wide open to embrace it all.

52 Weeks of Kindness

Ah Friday, welcome my old friend, welcome!

This week for my random act of kindness I left a Starbucks gift card for our mailman.  The poor man has to come to our porch day after day, and every day he hears my crazy dog on the other side of the door going absolutely insane.  Then she runs out to the back yard and barks at him as he walks by the fence.

I cannot get that dog to not attack the door for any sort of delivery person - mail, UPS, or FedEx.  She hates them all.  I know she is just being protective of her turf, but really?  She will sit up and growl if the UPS truck just drives by the house.  How on earth can she hear the difference between the other trucks?

Maybe next week I should bake him cookies too.  Don't forget to check out the other great acts of kindness @ 52 Weeks today.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Craft Day - Bunny Eggs Silhouette Design

Thursdays have become craft days around here.  It's not that I do a lot of crafting on Thursday, but I seem to be posting a lot of craft projects on these days... I'm going with the flow here!  

Today I have a cute little Spingtime/Easter decoration for your house.  I used my Silhouette Cutting machine for this project, but if you are good and patient the lines are fairly simple.  You should be able to cut the shapes out with an exatco knife.

Here is a close up of the final shape.  

I used plain card stock and picked out pastel colors to go with my Easter decorations.

Once I had all the shapes cut out, I threaded a ribbon through the hole at the top and hung them on the light over my dining room table.  It creates a whimsical mobile for the space!

  

The bonus is that you will also have cute little bunny cut outs to play or decorate with.  I have a great plan for mine, but you will have to wait for the next Craft Day to see what it is!  =)

In the meantime, if you would like to make a set of your own Bunny Eggs, you can down load the JPG file here.  If you already have a Silhouette then you can download the STUDIO file here.  Please note Google Drive will not show a preview of the Studio file, but you can download it.

Oh HAPPY Day Link Party

 Welcome back to the Oh HAPPY Day Link Party!

Time to celebrate what is giving us JOY and making us HAPPY this week.  It is so easy to get bogged down and lost in the negative.  Let's take a moment and celebrate the positive.

Me and the Hubs

My happiness this week is for a wonderful husband.  I was having an awful day on Monday and happened to mention it in a email rant to him in the afternoon.  He decided that rather than work his normal 10 hours, he was calling it quits and going home to help make my day better!  Just hearing his truck pull into the driveway and knowing it was an hour and a half early helped turn my whole week around!

I'd also like to once again thank all the lovely bloggers who joined up with us here for Oh HAPPY Day last week.  We had 24 in total!  Yay!  Congrats go out to Laurie @ Saved by Grace and Becky @ This is Happiness for having the most views last week.

  Now onto the party! 

The rules are pretty simple:  

Have fun and say HI to as many other party goers as possible.  =)  

If you would like to spread the word, please grab a button and put it on your blog. 

<a href="http://notdonegrowing.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuyG_2kPV1gwFIiOpm6tbw993FkxtYl2Xl2Ose9gka8AJWcDsVvkh1PI_BnePqoz8FlCWdN1bc_BQ2NOnqCerfMUY2uCDlQLnUEi9C_3x4bz9X228gQ12DVCVQ5vgY2xxmCgdclV4cXeHd/s512/buttons-004.jpg"/></a>

Sponsor Spotlight - The Big Megowski

I'd like to take a moment here to highlight one of my Lovely Sponsors for the month - Megan @ The Big Megowski!

Megan is a sweetheart of person with a great sense of her own style and a very open, honest style of writing.  Her posts are always real and always from the heart.  Gotta love a sponsor like that!  =)  

Here are a few of her awesome posts to check out:

Fashion Friday

Bow Ties are COOL

  

Book Wishlist

This is only a small sample of the goodness over at The Big Megowski!  Stop by and check it out when you have a chance.

Meditation Monday

Welcome to a new week and a happy Monday!

This week I have a few lines from the Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi to mediate on.  Even if you are not religious, the message is still one of hope and comfort.

 

52 Weeks

Happy Friday!  We made it to another weekend, which means it is time again for the 52 Weeks Link up.

This week has been all about sharing the love.  My acts of kindness included doing random shout outs on Facebook for cool blogs I read, posting free printables here, and being kind to the poor customer service rep who answerred the phone after her shipping department had totally messed up my order.  

My mind did not want to be kind on that last one, but my heart knew better!

I'd love to hear what kinds of kindness you have been up to this week.  =)

Love is...

Happy Valentine's Day!   

We do not do too much around our house for Valentines.  I'd like to think we are all about showing love all the time, not just on a specific day.  Although having a reminder never hurts, so we will have sweets and little gifts to share today to celebrate the many different loves we have in this house.  

To me Valentine's Day is not just about romantic love.  It's just as important that the little bear knows and sees the love we share as a family as well.  Even the crazy mutt gets a special treat and extra loving today.  Which got my thinking about this word "Love" and all the different ways it can be explained.  

If you asked 10 random people what they think love is, odds are you will get 10 completely different answers.  Honestly, if you asked the same person the same question at 10 different times in their life, you'd still get 10 unique answers.  

That's the cool thing about love.  It is completely personal, and our views on it are ever evolving.  I hope that this Valentine's Day (and every day) you will always have the love and joy that you need.  Also, remember that even if it is not the type of love that you were hoping for; it is still a wonderful gift to be cherished!




 

Oh HAPPY Day Link Party

Welcome back to the Oh HAPPY Day Link Party!

Time to celebrate what is giving us JOY and making us HAPPY this week.  It is so easy to get bogged down and lost in the negative.  Let's take a moment and celebrate the positive.

Pinterest Source

Today I am happy that my old broken oven has been replaced with a brand new fully functioning one!  It is times like this when being a renter and letting the landlord pay for new appliances is a good thing.  

I am also happy for all the great blogs who joined up last week.  Thank you for making the first week of Oh HAPPY Day a good one!

Speaking of last week, the top two blogs with the most views were Evelyn @ My Turn(for us) and Becky @ This is Happiness!  Way to go ladies! 

 Now on to the Party!

The rules are pretty simple:  

Have fun and say HI to as many other party goers as possible.  =)  

If you would like to spread the word, please grab a button and put it on your blog. 

 

<a href="http://notdonegrowing.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuyG_2kPV1gwFIiOpm6tbw993FkxtYl2Xl2Ose9gka8AJWcDsVvkh1PI_BnePqoz8FlCWdN1bc_BQ2NOnqCerfMUY2uCDlQLnUEi9C_3x4bz9X228gQ12DVCVQ5vgY2xxmCgdclV4cXeHd/s512/buttons-004.jpg"/></a>

Love is in the air...

With Valentine's Day this week, I thought I would take a break from my paczki eating today and whip up a card for the hubs.  I'm sure he will laugh at me for making the card, but at this point why not give him a giggle.  He married silly and he knows it!  =)

I made the love word art using My Memories Suite.  Then just printed it out, cut out a couple of hearts and used chipboard letters I had laying around.  Easy peasy... are you all noticing a craft theme here?  

Any who, in the spirit of sharing the love this week; I am also giving you an early valentines with some free printables.  So you can make up some quick cards if needed!

I am using this one as the background on my desktop this week:
 

download HERE

 Here is the pink version that I used for my card:

download HERE

Finally, a simple white version:

download HERE

  
For those of you wondering what on earth a paczki is, you can read all about my history with the Fat Tuesday traditions here!