Freshly cut front yard.
I love watching the kids play outside.
Rugby ball, playground and hubbys old string ball set.
Half of the back yard.
There’s always a bike dumped somewhere outside
instead of put in the shed where they belong lol.
Some lovely friends of our just showed up and spent all afternoon cutting our lawns. We have a massive yard and it was resembling a jungle so this was a HUGE job. The back part of the yard hadn’t been touched since before winter… and throughout winter it took a thrashing. Thankfully my husband was home to give them a hand. He was home looking after me, I felt like crap today.
I am so amazed by their efforts and the time they took to help us. We have a lot going on as a young family and between work, children, new babies and bad weather there really hasn’t been a time for us to get out and attack the jungle. Anything we’ve done has been restricted to indoors. Today has been the most beautiful day, a great way to welcome the first official day of summer.
So right now a big thank you to the small group of friends who have welcomed us as their adopted-family. We love your visits and the fact you take time out to offer to help us where we need it the most.
Hopefully the garden starts blooming soon so it will feel like our summery home again. Then we can get the basketball hoop up and have a bbq to really welcome the season.
It’s here, it’s here! The biggest giveaway yet. More unique prizes, just for you. You want to be part of this because not only do you feel like a better person for taking part, you’ll be rewarded for your kindness and efforts. This is my gift to you, my way of saying thank you.
Feel those warm fuzzies? Good. They’re telling you this is good and you should join in. Don’t just read this and think “Oh wow, that’s a good idea.” Take part. It doesn’t have to be much but I urge you to consciously make the decision to be on the lookout for an opportunity to create happiness for others around you.
This year I take my example from The NieNie Dialogues. I choose Nie because I find her an inspiration. If you don’t know who NieNie is here’s a brief explainaion.
NieNie is short for Stephanie Nielson, she is a young Mother of four originally from Utah who was in an unfortunate accident with the love of her life last year. The small plane they were on crashed. During the crash her husband got out and realised she wasn’t with him. He was calling her name outside, she was calling his inside. The plane was on fire. Mr Nielson ran back into the flames to retrieve his wife. He rescued her. Mr Nielson suffered a broken back and burns while Stephanie received burns to over 80% of her body. Stephanie flat lined twice. After a long year and many, many surgeries as well as unimagineable pain both physically and emotionally they are beginning to get back to as regular a life as they can. What I love about this couple is that you can see their love. You can see how strong it is before, during and after the recent events. Before the accident they lived their best lives going out of their way to perform their own Random Acts of Kindness like the one below. Now, after the accident, they’re still at it. Living life to the fullest and sharing everything that is good and kind with everyone they meet.
So without further ado, here is an example of a Random Act of Kindness via Stephanie.
Friday I went with the children and my Mesa-sister Lindsay (aka Ms. Jones) and her daughters downtown to hide happy fortunes.
We hoped some Mesa citizens (and snowbirds, aka: senior cits from Minnesota) would find them, read them and feel good.
Simple as that.
We wrote the happy fortunes on slips of paper attaching
“read me” stickies on them.
Popular fortunes include:
“you are special”
“someone loves you”
“God loves you”
“you are beautiful”
“you are perfect”
“you are like a rainbow”
“you are pretty like a unicorn”
and so on and so forth.
This was the happiest moment of the day.
A passerby picks up a happy fortune, reads it, smiles and walks away.
It felt good.
I think it read:
“God loves you”.
Maybe he has never heard that before or maybe he needed to hear it today-whatever it did, it worked, because he smiled and slipped the small paper with Claire’s picture of a unicorn on it into his shirt pocket and walked away.
And that, my friends, is how it’s done. You think of a way to make the world a better place to live and then you do it. It’s as simple as that.
Here are the details:
The Prizes
Title: Opposites Attract
Medium: Mixed Media
Size: 62cm x 31cm
Title: Rua Koru
Medium:Mixed Media with a Resin finish
Title: I Keep your Kisses Close
Medium: Acrylic with Resin Finish
Starting date is TODAY, NOVEMBER 29th 2009. This will run until the new year finishing at midnight on January 5th 2010.
Once you have performed this act of kindness,
- Post your random act of kindness on your blog or in a note on Facebook.
- Link back to this post in your post. If you need help doing this, just ask, I can walk you through it.
- Leave me a comment either on this post or on my Facebook post so I can view your story.
- Once confirmed that you have indeed spread some love this holiday season, I will add your name to my lucky dip basket and on January 6th 2010 I will draw and announce the winners of the prizes above.
*Entry conditions are open to change at administrators discretion
Repost this post on your blog or Share this on facebook (or both) and you will get 10 extra entries for each.
Retweet this post and you will also be awarded 10 extra entries.
Each participant will receive of 2 of my paintings as wallpaper images for their desktop. Just be sure you include your email address in your comment for me to send them to.
Entry is open to everyone, worldwide.
You can also enter more than once. However one RAK per entry is required.
Definition of a random act of kindness:
A random act of kindness is a purportedly selfless act performed by a person or persons wishing to either assist or cheer up an individual or in some cases even an animal. There will generally be no reason other than to make people smile, or be happier. Either spontaneous or planned in advance, random acts of kindness are encouraged by various communities.
I am an artist at living.
My work of art is my life.
-Suzuki-
Ok, I’ve managed to get my act togeher just before the year draws to an end and to the lovely ladies that entered my giveaway here, here is a sneak peek of the type of gift you’ll be getting. It may suit you or your daughter. I believe you all have daughters? Either way, whether it’s for you or your daughter, I hope you’ll enjoy them. I’ve done more but my camera batteries died and need recharging.
Please ignore my bad hair and breakout. I’m booked in for a new style next week and I hardly ever wear make up but maybe I should start if I plan on taking close ups. Yikes.
P.S. The Random Act of Kindness Challenege Giveaway launches this weekend. Stay tuned for the details!
So here are some wise words to live by.
The question is not whether we will die, but how we will live.
-Joan Borysenko-
Try as much as possible to be wholly alive, with all your might and when you laugh, laugh like hell and when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough.
-William Saroyan-
