The heart that gives, gathers - Tao Te Ching

Every January I pick the charities I'm going to focus on that year so I can look for volunteer events and set our charity budget. Charitable donations of all kinds are very important to me and MFD. We believe in helping others and that life is not complete unless we're doing that. We believed that when we were young and struggling, hoping we could pay all the bills that month and eating noodles for dinner, and we believe it now. Even when you have no money, you have time, and time is much needed.

While I do give to help others, I also give because giving makes me feel good. There's something intrinsically, instinctively human in seeing a need and doing whatever small thing you can to fill it without wanting anything in return. I'm a reflection of my community and what does it say about me if I ignore situations in front of me that could use my help?

I wanted to share this year's choices with you not to be all look what I do but to spread the word about the charities I've chosen and tell you why I've chosen them. You might find one here that resonates with you, or it might inspire you to think about the impact you want to have in your community this year. The giving spirit can spread like a virus - when I hear of others helping, I want to help too. Let's spread the giving sickness like wildfire.

Project HOME
Their mission is quite simple: none of us are home until all of us are home. Project HOME works to empower adults, children, and families to break the cycle of homelessness and poverty, to alleviate the underlying causes of poverty, and to enable all of us to attain our fullest potential as individuals and as members of the broader society. I like that this organization is close to my office and helps the homeless people I pass on the streets and in the train station every day. Philly friends, the homeless outreach hotline is 215-232-1984. If it's freezing or if you see someone struggling on the streets, give them a call.

Closer to our home and his office in Bucks County, MFD volunteers with Advocates for Homeless and Those in Need, an interfaith nonprofit providing temporary help to the homeless and those in need by offering emergency shelter, food, clothing, and other related services with dignity and compassion. He works on Wheels to Meals year round and Code Blue overnights during the colder months.

Rosa's Fresh Pizza
I first mentioned Rosa's here, and have since shared updates on my FB page as they got facetime from the local Philadelphia media as well as Ellen and People Mag.  I am crazy about this guy's business model. He wants to serve me hot, fresh, delicious pizza for $1 and also give me the opportunity to feed someone else in a dignified manner that day? SOLD. You can also purchase t-shirts and sweatshirts to help the cause. When I can't make it down there, I simply buy Little Rosas online and I can feed one, two, five, 10 people with the click of a button. It reminds me of Mother Teresa. Do what you can. Rosa's gives you the opportunity to help someone with just a dollar.

Bark For Life
This is the first year in I don't even know how long that I will not be at a Relay For Life event. I love Relay because it honors those with all types of cancer, and unfortunately we know many people who have or had all types of cancer. Both Relays local to me are on the same day, a little later in the month than usual, and occur when I'm away on vacation. Since I can't physically be there, I'll be donating to a friend's team and forcing my dogs and two additional lucky handlers to participate in Bark For Life in May. Bark money goes to the American Cancer Society as well and supports their research, patient advocacy, and patient programs.  I'm also looking for a Pancreatic Cancer Walk in the Philadelphia area that my family can do in memory of my Grandmom. Please let me know if you know or hear of any.

Bucks County Housing Group Food Pantry
Aside from not having a home, nothing makes me sadder than thinking of people going hungry or being unable to afford to feed their families. This program is independently operated and funded. MFD passes by one of the food pantries frequently so he can drop off our donations. It's important to remember that they need food donations all year - not just at the holidays.

At Christmas we'll be adopting a family through the workplace of our friend Jack. I always want to do this and forget and end up spending most of my budgeted charity money with Toys for Tots. We'll still do some for that, but the majority will be for this to address specific needs of kids.

We'll also support charitable causes/activities/races of family and friends (usually Charity: Water, Lupus Foundation, Wounded Warrior, Juvenile Diabetes, National Multiple Sclerosis Society) as we typically do throughout the year, but these five above are where my attention will be focused: I want to keep it local this year. MFD has a few of his own to add to the list as well, I'm sure.

What about you? What types of causes speak to you? How do you give back?

Do you guys read Karen at Book Delight? Fellow readers, you should follow her. You'll enjoy her posts. Anyway, I'm over on her blog today talking about my five favorite books. If you know me, you know that was an impossible list to make. Click here to see it. Thanks for the invite Karen!

I have something special for you tomorrow! A super simple, healthy, and quick breakfast recipe from Nicole Marica. See you in the a.m.

 

Linking up with Amanda for Friday Favorites.

TWTW - Relay For Life Edition

This weekend I got five hours of sleep on Friday night and zero on Saturday, so this is a picture dump of Relay For Life because as I type this I'm on 30 hours without sleep and I'm verging on hangry. For why I relay, see this post. For a little bit more of what it's like there, see Lori's (llf1020) comment below.

Thanks so much to all of my Random Acts of Kindness teammates and our framily who stopped by for 15 minutes, an hour, five hours, to show your support and walk some laps with us and buy some raffles and bring us food and coffee. Thanks also to all of you who donated to me online or via mail. You all rock. I've raised $1,730 so far. Sincerely. Thank you.

Survivors

People, plus AUB who stopped in to walk in the morning and Kimmie, who visited in the dark of night.

Scenes from Relay

Winnings of me & MFD, including the coveted DD basket that's all mine

Skies of Relay

HOPE of Relay

We switched it up this year - new to us Relay (Bensalem), Lori and Perry set stuff up like rockstars on Friday. Lori rocked out as my team co-pilot. I didn't walk my first lap until 3 p.m. and I walked all through the night aside from a visit with Sister Secrets and an hour doing time at the information station for our team. I wised up from last year, saved my energy to make it through the night and never wore flip flops and I'm not in as much pain this year. The last members of our team (me, Lori, and Debbie) punched out at 23 hours - a respectable showing but not the full 24. My feet said absolutely not another lap, my body said you stink, and my mouth said I would like to eat something with a fork instead of your hands. We left Relay at 10 a.m. Sunday.

On Mondays I'm doing a picture linkup with Kelli at Just Beachy. If you'd like to participate, here are the prompts through July. This is my photo for the prompt summer.

This weekend was great, and on the less pain, Hallelujah and Amen, beacuse this week? Kim and Steve's wedding in Salem. Time to trade my Relay shoes for maid of honor shoes.

Linking up with Kelli for

Sharing Stories - Why I Relay

I lost my source for this - I think it's Relay Canada's. 

Last Wednesday was the final full meeting before Relay For Life. I've been a team captain many times over, served on a Relay For Life committee for a few years, participated in three different Relays, and hell I even chaired a Relay for a few years. The basics of Relay don't change, even when you change locations. I skip a lot of monthly meetings in lieu of reading the minutes and stalking Relay on Facebook. 

The very last thing I felt like doing was leaving my house to attend a volunteer meeting that would start 15 minutes late and where things I've heard and said myself hundreds of times would be repeated. But I went. I wanted the map of the event and I wanted a Wawa hoagie on the way back. As forecasted, the meeting started 20 minutes late. I was annoyed, hungry, wishing I was at home...then three ladies stepped up to talk about why they Relay. Sharing why you Relay is a big part of Relay For Life.

Via

I sat and listened to a woman who had to stop and collect herself while talking about losing her Dad to cancer. She just wants everyone to be able to spend Father's Day with their dads. Next, a woman who was so full of fire after beating cancer that she could barely get the words out. 

I am a person who tears up at things like this. I always have been and I always will be. I teared up for those people and their stories, but also for my people and their stories. 

With her mention of Father's Day I teared up thinking about Laura's dad not being here on Father's Day for what will always be too many years in a row when we seem too young for that. I thought about how many family members are no longer with MFD and his cousins who are missing parents far too young. 

I thought about my Grandmom, an 80 year old woman certain she was going to beat pancreatic cancer, but also of how vulnerable, tired, and afraid she seemed when she thought you weren't paying attention. An image of my hand in hers flashed in my brain. I thought about looking down while I was holding her hand every day for the week she was unresponsive in hospice. How familiar a sight it was to me, that hand, how I had held it as a child, a teenager, a young adult. How she liked to hold hands and would rub yours with her thumb. How weird it felt to hold it now. How similar our hands were. How I wish she died circle of life style without the terrible pain that came along with the cancer but how that cancer is what made us much closer over her last year than we would've been otherwise. 

I thought about all the people who have lost loved ones to cancer over the years I've been doing this. Far too many people for me to name here, that's for sure. Not to mention those who got it, beat it, are still battling it - my father in law, Mrs. S, my Gwen, Lisa...again, far too many to name. 

I snapped back to the meeting in time to listen to a report from the Hope Lodge and how one of the patients staying there while he got treatment said that the volunteers and the Relayers give HIM hope. Just like that, I was back in the present and I was smiling, clapping, and thinking of the survivors in my life. So many people who have kicked cancer's ass. Their stories are incredible. 

I was reminded that physical attendance gives me something that meeting minutes do not - the ability to identify and empathize with other people. 

You volunteer and raise money against a disease that's painful, sad, heartbreaking, infuriating, hellish, and a million other bad things, but so much good comes from your experiences too. If you think about it, it's weird that anything related to cancer can be rewarding, but it is. It sucks to live a bad outcome. Losing someone you love and watching them suffer in the process hurts. But watching a survivor emerge victorious from this life or death battle is really fucking something too. It makes your heart soar, even if you don't know the person. 

Relays are 24 hours because cancer never sleeps. Last year was my first 24 hour Relay, I had only done 12s before. I loved being on the track at 2 a.m., walking slowly, reading the names on the luminaria bags and thinking how each bag is someone's story. Yes, it's a long day. It's usually hot. It's a lot of walking.You have to set up and break down. Your feet hurt. You likely smell. Some people are annoying. You don't sleep. But those things are nothing compared to battling cancer every day. Really. Nothing. And nothing compared to what you take away from the experience.

I think this is 4 a.m.

So that's why I Relay. For the people who've gone head to head with cancer and won. For the people doing intense battle now. For the people I've lost and the people you've lost, and for our ability to share their stories. To have a place and a time to do that surrounded by other people who have been there. To spend a day with framily raising money for a great cause. I find it cathartic. I hope if there's a Relay near you and you've never experienced it, that you go walk a lap, buy a cupcake from a team, tear up at a luminary ceremony, smile at a survivor. Be a part of the community for a minute, or an hour, or however long you'd like to stay. 

Thanks so much again to everyone who donated this year. I'm at $1,325 raised so far and still pushing on. If you'd like to donate, please click here, and if you're local, stop by Bensalem High School on Saturday, June 21, from 11 a.m. all through until Sunday at 11 a.m., walk a lap with me and see what Relay is all about.

Linking up with Kathy for Humpday Confessions.

 Linking up with Shanna for Random Wednesday













Linking up with Liz for Fitness Blondie's Blog Hop:

the weekend that sort of wasn't

Say what? Well what I mean is that I didn't get done what I normally do on a weekend, because I was otherwise engaged most of the time, outside of the house at a 24 hour Relay For Life event.

Relay is really important to me - cancer has negatively impacted my life and the lives of many people close to me, and this is my outlet to give back. This is my way to deal with my anger, frustration, sadness and grief that asshole cancer has caused. Since Relay is 12 or 24 hours with someone walking on the track at all times, you can't do it without a team. My Random Acts of Kindness teammates have been with me for five years. They don't have to come along on this journey with me - the drive is mine - but they do and each year they show up ready to walk and determined to raise what we can. I appreciate them so much. Missed you this year Michelle! My littlest teammate below first came to Relay as a month old baby. We also joined up with another team this year, and had Tara, a new teammate/old friend join our team. Thanks Dyanne's Defenders for a successful joint effort! Thanks also to Martha, Julie and Lauren for introducing me to Relay five years ago.

Relay scenes: a bra decorating fundraiser, two people rocking out their 80s campsite theme, even on Relay night MFD needs to crush that freaking candy, track scenes, Kit Kat D dancing along to the Sign Language Interpretive Songs. Our team raffled off baskets, did a 50/50, sold Debbie Rae Design bracelets, baked goods and some other stuff. We raised over $1,100 at the event, bringing our total team total to about $4,500.

It was hot walking during the day, and I got my typical back of the knee sunburn that I get every blessed year despite major sunblock reapplication. But overall, it was gorgeous and we enjoyed the best Relay weather day we've ever had. We also saw the super moon, which was not actually super until about 5:00 a.m.

The luminaria ceremony is the heart and soul of Relay. If you've never experienced one, you should. We had too many bags lining the track of people we've lost or people we honored who are battling cancer now or have beaten it. These are just a few of ours. My Grandmom died in December of pancreatic cancer. I dedicated my Relay to her this year. I checked her candle at 5:15. Still going. Her candle was one of the only ones still burning at 6:30 in the morning on Sunday - 10 hours after it was lit. So typical of her to persevere. Thanks for the sign Grandmom.

There's nothing like walking part of every hour for 24 hours to come to terms with some things and honor people in your life who've had cancer.

Sunday
I hobbled into my house about 25 hours after I left on Saturday, got one of the top five showers of my life, and enjoyed an awesome lunch a la MFD: a steak, baked potato, and steamed broccoli for lunch. Boom.

Other Sunday things:
-Five hour nap
-Two epsom salt foot soaks
-Lots of ibuprofen
-Blister care
-Foot elevation
-Mexican takeout
-Sweet Home Alabama
-The Killing

Aching feet and body can't compare to what cancer sufferers go through daily.

Weekly food prep happens tonight, as does other normal weekend stuff. Have a great day!

Check back here tomorrow for a Shabby Apple giveaway!

Linking up with Join the Gossip for Monday Morning Gossip
Linking up with Sami's Shenanigans for Weekend Shenanigans
Linking up with Southern Sunflowers & Coffee Beans for Monday Mingle

the weekend that was

Trolling pinterest on Friday, I saw this and loved it, so I wrote it down and hung it up.

Serial killer handwriting and all.

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Party prep with my helpers

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Cinco de Derby Day Party at our house, where Team Random Acts of Kindness raised $335 for
Relay For Life thanks to our supportive family and friends

My losing Derby horses

Photo by the lovely Lilly Scheetz of LMS Photography - visit http://www.lmsphoto.smugmug.com/

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Salted caramel butter bars. These are TO DIE FOR, so click on the link and make them post-haste.

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Using a pepper as a dip bowl cuts down on dishes

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Super tired partied out dogs

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Lots of sleeping on Sunday, which I so desperately needed after more than a week of averaging five hours of sleep or less a night

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p.s. it went too fast