RAK Strikes Again!

Today’s RAK (Random Act of Kindness) was really fun.  I decided to hit the Jan Lanterman and her Napa Valley Chorale.  I took them lots of holiday cookies and mini cupcakes along with little bottles of water for them to enjoy during their break or after their rehearsal.

Goodies for the Napa Valley Chorale

The only downside is that I’m pretty sure I misspelled the word “rehearsal” when writing out the RAK card.  What can I say?  I’m a product of spell check!  Anyway, the Chorale is rehearsing for their upcoming concert on the 11th at 3:30pm at First United Methodist Church in Napa.  I believe there is a night concert at 7pm?  I’d have to double-check on that.  But they are a very talent group of musicians and they never disappoint.  So go check them out on Sunday!

Healthy Mom’s and Babies

Today was another fast and easy one.  I had some nursing wraps that I had made with the intention of selling them but never got around to do it, so I decided to donate them to Healthy Mom’s and Babies.  Healthy Mom’s and Babies is a program that helps the lower-income mothers get the prenatal care they need to be healthy and have healthy babies.  You can learn more about this fantastic program here.

This is just an example of what I donated. This actual wrap was a gift for a friend who was expecting a girl.

A nursing wrap is used by breastfeeding mothers to conceal themselves while feeding their babies in public.

I didn’t get any pictures when donating today because I was kind of shy about asking if I could.  I included pictures of a wrap I did last year for a friend so you can see an example of what I donated.

If you would like to perform a Random Act of Kindness of your own, please let me know about because I would love to hear what you did!  Also, here’s a link to some printables if you would like to include a card with your RAK.

Two for One Tuesday

I unfortunately never got around to posting my RAK (Random Act of Kindness) for Monday.  I’ve been running kind of ragged so I had to come up with something fast and uneasy.  I realized that I was out of coffee in the morning so I got my boys and I dressed super fast so I could hit Starbucks on the way to class.  So I decided to pay the tab for the car behind me in the drive-though line.  I paid the barista and handed her a card to give the lady behind me in place of the bill (so to speak).

The card a fellow Starbuck-goer received in place of paying for her goodies

I almost thought today would be a RAK fail.  I’ve been stressing over finals and house work as well as semi-sick kids.  I had a few minutes to stop by Wal-mart to get Mason and AJ’s promised Hot Wheels cars (as told to them from their homemade advent calendar) and decided we could knock out a RAK with a piggy bank and a red tin can.

Donating piggy bank contents

Looking official in the vest

Mason with the Salvation Army bell-ringer

I should point out that we donated the contents of AJ’s piggy bank who wasn’t there to object to it!  But I dare to say, at three years old, he would’ve happily donated his coins for a chance to wear the vest, ring the bell, and drop some coins in a slot.  Also, I’m setting aside money for their therapy later in life due to my parenting, ha!

Rock-a-bye baby

Today’s RAK was super easy and kind of fun to do.  At our church there is a Christmas tree where we are supposed to put baby supplies such as diapers, onesies, clothes, pretty much anything a  newborn would need.  Last Sunday I notice there were only girl outfits under the tree.  What about the boys?!  Needless to say, I went out a bought a super cute boy outfit and some diapers because when you have a newborn you need A LOT of diapers.

Our goodies for a newborn BOY

So there you have it, today’s RAK.  I hope that I’ve inspired someone to do a RAK of their own.  If you do, please share it with me, I’d love to hear about it and possibly feature on here.  Think of all the good we could do if everyone did some kind of RAK, no matter how small!

Whew!

Today’s RAK was a little hurried and inconvenient.  I told the boys we were going to get our Christmas tree today and realized at 5pm this evening that I hadn’t gotten the tree stand yet (this is our first real tree this year).  I was hoping that I could knock out a RAK while at Target.  My plan was to buy the Salvation Army’s bell-ringer a hot chocolate.  And since Starbucks is in Target, it should be super easy to get my RAK done today.  Wrong!  There was no bell-ringer at Target.  I went out on a limb and assumed that since it was the Bel-aire shopping center, the bell ringer must be at one of the stores around that area.  I purchased the hot chocolate, along with hot chocolates for me and one of the boys, and headed out on our mission to find a bell-ringer.  Turns out, there are no bell ringers in the Bel-aire shopping center!  My second try was a Lucky grocery store around the corner and that turned out to be a better choice.

Our RAK hot chocolate

Shortly after this picture was taken, I knocked my own hot chocolate over and now have a giant chocolate stain on my driver’s seat.  Geez, my night was going so smoothly.  Not!

Mason, bearer of the hot chocolate

The man we gave the hot chocolate was so thrilled with our delivery, it really made my night.  He let AJ and Mason ring the bell for a little bit.

AJ: Future bell-ringer?

Ring-a-ling

After getting the boys back to the car, I heard the man talking to someone as I buckled Mason into his car seat:  “Someone just gave me a coffee.  I’m not going to argue with free coffee!”  Although he hadn’t obviously taken his first sip yet (I hope he was still happy with it after he realized it was hot chocolate) it made my frustrating adventure totally worth it to brighten someone’s night. Especially someone who was out in the evening on a saturday, trying to do good for others.  You can’t argue with that!

Day 2 of RAK

Today the boys and I hit the kiddie vending machines.  You know, the ones that have the tiny toys and handfuls of candy.  We taped quarters to our cards and then taped them to the machines.

AJ is eyeing the candy machines

I revamped my cards to explain a little more detail as to way these cards with little goodies were being taped to atm’s and candy machines.  This time they included “We are celebrating the holidays with a RAK countdown”.

New RAK'ed card on vending machine

We did some shopping after taping our cards to the vending machines and when we left, the cards were still there.  Either they didn’t notice the card or didn’t realize that the card contained quarters.  One Father with his son was digging for quarters when we walked up to the machines to tape our cards, so I just handed him our card with the quarters.  He and his son were both very gracious and it melted my heart to see his son excitedly pick out his goodies from the machines.  Has anyone else done a RAK or RACK yet?  Please share it with me if you have!

Mason and AJ donated their quarters for this RAK.

You’ve been RAK’ed

What is RAK’ed you asked?  It means you’ve been hit by a Random Act of Kindness.  I decided the best way to truly get in the holiday spirit was to brighten another person’s day or give back to my community.  So, everyday until Christmas eve, I will be performing my RAK’s all over the Napa Valley.  Originally, I thought I had come up with the idea of doing an act of kindness everyday until Xmas on my own.  I had skimmed through some blogs that had pictures up of their random acts of kindness and thought that I had gotten creative with the idea.  But I recently was browsing through more blogs for free printables when I came across this blog about my exact idea.  And then I realized it was one of the blogs I had come across the other day.  I must have subconsciously stored the idea when I had quickly browsed through her pictures of her random acts of kindness.

Anyway, today I just did something easy for my first day, mainly because I have been overwhelmed with school and life.  Getting all creative is just out of the question for the next couple of days.

You've been RAK'ed, Happy Holidays

I printed out the free printable from the orignal blog had provided (here) and went with one of her ideas, which was taping candy canes to atm machines.  I hit four different atm machines at three different locations in Napa with the help of a friend.

Chase atm on Imola

I decided to go with the acronym RAK instead of RACK as the original blogger did because her term included Christmas (Random Act of Christmas Kindness) and I really didn’t want to assume that everyone who found my cards celebrated Christmas.  The whole point was to spread kindness and cheer, I didn’t want to have someone feel uncomfortable or offend if they didn’t celebrate the season the way I did.

Overall, it was so fun to RAK Napa’s atm’s but I was worried someone might freak when seeing my friend and I tape something on to an atm, take a picture, and quickly leave.  I didn’t want someone thinking we were up to something illegal, hahaha!  A part of me kind of wished I could see the reaction when the next person came along and found this card, but the other part of me love the thrill of the unknown and left my imagination to go wild.

I encourage you to check out the original blog and venture out to perform your own RAK or RACK.  You don’t have to do a whole bunch, just one would be fun to do.  Who knows, maybe the person you performed your random act of kindness on really needed it.  If you do go out and RAK someone, please share it with me, I’d love to hear about it!

Little Guy, Big Heart

Two weeks ago, while waiting in the drive through line at McDonald’s, Mason asked me a question.  “Momma, can we go to that store and look at the Halloween costumes?” he said, pointing to Party Time.  “No, Mason because Halloween is over and all the costumes are put away” I replied.  “Is it going to be Thanksgiving?” he asked.  “Yes it is” I again relied.  “Can we get books for other kids for thanksgiving, Momma?”  I was taken by surprise.  “Do you want to go to the bookstore and get books and give them to other kids that don’t have much?”   I asked as I started to tear up.  “Uh-huh” he answered.  A few days later I called the COPE center here in Napa and asked if they could point me in the right direction as to where I could donate new books for less fortunate children.  They told me that we could donate the books to them and they would make sure they got to the children of the families they worked with.  A few days after that with $10 donated from a lady at church, my wallet and myself, my mom and HER wallet, and the boys in tow, we went to Copperfields bookstore here in Napa and picked out a good stack of books in both English and Spanish.  Of course, the boys got to pick out one book for themselves.

Mason and AJ are ready to donate their books

Bag full of books ready to go to COPE

This afternoon, we made it to COPE and dropped off the books to a very friendly receptionist there.  The boys had fun and something tells me that Mason will be getting a note in the mail from them (since they wanted me to give me our address so they could send him a thank you note).  I think everyone should try to find some way to help out those in need this holiday season.  You don’t need to have much money, you could always donate your time or those items that have been collecting dust in your home and aren’t being used.  I believe the holidays should be used as a time to reflect on what truly matters.  It’s not material things but having compassion and love for others.  What are ways you can help and put a smile on someone’s face this holiday season?

Happy boys after handing over the books

Dying tradition?

Last night my boys and I set off to go trick or treating for the first time in this neighborhood since moving in at the beginning of the year.  We started at my brother’s place which is in the same building as where we live.  While we were there, I dropped off my goodies for the trick or treaters so my brother could hand them out while we were out.  The next place we went to was our favorite neighbor’s house.  No one answered.  The next couple of places had no lights on or decorations out.  We saw our other favorite neighbor as she was heading to her car.  She gave the boys their treats and told me that she was going to her parents house to hand out candy with them.  As I looked around our little neighborhood, it looked rather deserted.  Families with kids were either leaving in cars to somewhere else or headed to out to the main street in our area and trick or treating at the older, traditional houses (we live in a town home).  I was a little hesitant to go out in the older neighborhoods because this part of our town is slightly sketchy and not every block has a sidewalk.  We headed out that way despite my feelings since our town home neighborhood seemed a little cold in response to Halloween.  While we did encounter more homes participating in the tradition of handing out candy to little trick or treaters, there were still a lot of homes completely dark and closed up.  We went back to our neighborhood right before calling it quits and found just a few handing out candy.  Two places that were lit up had individuals answer and sheepishly admit they forgot.  One of them gave the boys some coins and the other promised that next year she would have a big bag of candy to hand out.  When we returned home, we stopped back at my brother’s house to grab my goodies and head up to our place.  My brother informed me that he had only one trick or treater.  When the kids and I went back up stairs, we had two more trick or treaters that had come together and then all was silent.

When did Halloween make such a drastic change?  My parents had been saying for the past several years the have had few trick or treaters come by at Halloween.  When I was a child, Halloween was HUGE.  Droves of children flooded the streets.  As a child, I remember only one house being closed off to the trick or treaters while the rest of the neighborhood happily handed out candy, gushing over adorable costumes and playfully impressed at the scary ones.  Now days, it seems as if this holiday is dying out.

Maybe it’s because we have many families that have grown up in other countries, and have not celebrated Halloween.  Germany celebrates fasching in November.  In Mexico, it’s Dia de los Muertos (day of the dead).  Maybe it’s because of the DAY.  Halloween fell on a monday.  Many have to be at work or school in the morning.  Maybe it’s because of the area we live in.  While Napa is relatively safe, the part of Napa I live in had a reputation for being a little sketchy.  Maybe that has deterred the families in this area from participating (although I did see a lot of trick or treaters on the main road in our area).  What do you think?  Those of you with children, did you notice the lack of enthusiasm for this holiday?  Those without kids, did you hand out candy?  Why or why not?  Was there any celebrating done?  What did you see in your neighborhood for Halloween?

Best. Day. Ever.

This past Saturday I got the opportunity to go skydiving with my boyfriend’s sister.  The experience was amazing.  On my list of top experiences in my life; first comes having children, and then comes skydiving.  As with holding your own child in your arms for the first time in nine months of anticipation, skydiving also does not have the words to describe it.  The feeling you get when free-falling from 13,000 ft to floating down to earth attached to a parachute are indescribable.  Anyone who has ever thought of going sky diving, even in the slightest, simply MUST get out there and experience it!