Birthday Service

It's all about the service.

My sister, Julie, had a birthday back in September. Around that same time, her daughter, Brooke, sent her an email about a gal she knew who was celebrating her 38th birthday by doing 38 acts of kindness for others. Brooke had such a good time helping this friend that she told Julie about it and Julie decided to do it for her birthday, too. She invited some of the rest of us to participate, and together we did more than 65 acts of kindness during her birthday week. By the way, my sister is not 65.

My birthday was at the end of December, and after participating in Julie's service week, I wanted to do something similar for mine. Therefore, I invited my family to participate to see if we could get more than 100. Below is a list of the acts of kindness that were done during that week. We ended up with 136!!!

Let me just take one minute to express to you how wonderful this made me feel. During that week, I was much more focused on others, trying to think of their needs more than my own. One act that I did made me feel extra special, and it wasn't even that big of a deal. I was at Target, and after paying for my groceries and such, I took the buggy out to the car. After loading all of my stuff into the car, I started to take my buggy to the little buggy motel that all Target stores have. As I did, I saw a man across from me who was also taking his back. I walked over to him and said, "Please, allow me." He said thank you, but stood and stared at me with mouth agape until I got in my car and drove away. "Merry Christmas," I said with a wave, and he waved back, with a smile.

Service doesn't have to be that big of a deal. It just needs to come from the heart. And that act of service, small though it was, made my heart feel very, very good.

So does this list. My most heartfelt thanks go out to all of those who participated. Some of these lines sound the same as others, but it's because so many people were doing service for others. I love my family and am so grateful for their participation in this. What a great birthday present!!!

1. Went to the Salvation Army to separate gifts for the angel tree recipients.
2. Went to the Salvation Army to pass out gifts to the families who were receiving them.
3. Stayed after at the Salvation Army to help clean up the gym.
4. Went upstairs to check on Joel.
5. Took Joel some medicine.
6. Made Mom some Gluten Free pumpkin/chocolate chip muffins.
7. Made Mom some gluten Free lemon poppy seed muffins.
8. Made a GF menu so mom wouldn’t have to worry about what she could eat.
9. Helped Alison teach mom Sudoku.
10. Helped mom do some Brain games on the Kindle.
11. Did some laundry for Alison and Joel.
13. Did some laundry for Paul.
14. Made 12 loaves of bread to take to our neighbors.
15. Delivered 12 loaves of bread on Christmas day.
16. Shopped for groceries.
17. Made sure the fridge always had enough milk.
18. Made dinner for 9 people for 6 days.
19. Took mom to look for tatting needles.
20. Made our traditional Christmas breakfast.
21. Made our traditional Christmas hot ham and cheese sandwiches.
22. Made french fries for Joel when we had stroganoff.
23. Made mom 10 kits of GF Millet bread so she can make them when she gets home.
24. Made hot chocolate on a stick to give to my Beehives.
25. Taught mom some things on her computer.
26. Taught mom some things on her phone.
27. Gave Rachel a head rub.
28. Put hairspray on for mom.
29. Helped mom in and out of the van about a hundred times.
30. Made some bran muffins for Brooke.
31. Decided to wait a day to go to Braums so that Joel would be feeling better and could go with us.
32. Got the notebooks out for the girls in Young Women.
33. Got cleared to take mom back to her gate in a wheelchair.
34. Went to visit Wanda and rubbed her legs.
35. Gave Rachel a head rub.
36. Took shopping cart back to cart motel for stranger at Target.
37. Helped make cookies for Home Teaching families.
38. Delivered cookies, along with a Christmas message, to Home Teaching families.
39. Wrote to two missionaries out in the field and wished them a Merry Christmas.
40. Vacuumed the house without being asked.
41. Did every stitch of laundry in the house while wife went to work.
42. Went and got wife's oil changed and tires rotated.
43. Replaced the air filter and wiper blades in wife's car.
44. Allowed a woman to go ahead of me in line at grocery store.
45. Taped coins on a vending machine, along with a note explaining, so that the next person could get something for free.
46. Took a bag of chocolate candies to church and gave it to my Sunday School class.
47. Got a bunch of empty cigar boxes from a local gas station (they make GREAT storage boxes) and gave them to some guys at work and to my Sunday School class.
48. Went to the Salvation Army to pass out gifts to the families who were receiving them.
49. Stayed after at the Salvation Army to help clean up the gym.
50. Gave Joel a blessing for his cold/flu.
51. Upgraded Sheri's Mac OS X to Maverick.
52. Installed new printer drivers on Sheri's Mac (we will need to connect and re-select her printer when she gets home).
53. Installed and configured Teamviewer on Sheri's Mac and ours - tested remote connection.
54. Set up Sheri's Apple ID, etc.
55. Set up Sheri's Mac to automatically login at startup and on waking from sleep, and automatically start Firefox, iMessage, and Teamviewer.
56. Installed Firefox add-in to enable video in Google Chat on Sheri's machine and tested.
57. Got a new hot water heater purchased/installed as Christmas visitors arrived.
58. Adjusted hot water temperature down a couple of times to accommodate everyone at home.
59. Fixed the shower control.
60. Scheduled special tithing settlement times for people who couldn't make normal times.
61. Helped out-of-town family of ward members schedule building time for baptisms, weddings, etc.
62. Found shelving to put in the garage to handle extra food for the holidays.
63. Called the neighbor to tell him he left his trunk open.
64. Emptied and loaded the dishwasher much of the time over the holidays.
65. Hauled wood up to the house and started a fire over the holidays.
66. Put up Christmas lights, decorations, etc.
67. Installed a new towel rack in the laundry room - added extra support so it could be used to hang clothes.
68. Kept the garbage emptied over the holidays.
69. Put the sheets on Mom and Dad's bed because they were stressed and busy with other things
70. Bought a candy bar for the cashier at Hobby Lobby
71. Let Rachel drive when we both had to go somewhere
72. Gave Joel a head rub
73. Helped Rachel make dinner
74. Helped Grandma learn how to use a typing test on her computer so she can learn to type fast again
75. Make myself available whenever my old roommate wants to skype or call
76. Listen to her talk about all of the boys she has a crush on at the moment
77. Let another driver get in front of me at the stop light instead of zooming forward and making them go behind.
78. Got Joel stuff while he was sick without complaining
79. Got out of my car to get two balls the kids had accidentally thrown over the fence at recess
80. Helped make dinner
81. Helped clean up dinner
82. Helped Grandma with Sudoku
83. Printed out a bunch of 4x4 Sudokus for her and found a book of them for her
84. Cleaned up her downloads folder
85. Started organizing Mom and Dad's computer
86. Tried to keep my stuff put away from the living room and took other people's things upstairs when they forgot
87. Did Rachel's hair
88. Helped distribute Christmas presents at Salvation Army
89. Explained how Salvation Army's food distribution worked to a woman who didn't understand how to get her food but didn't speak English
90. Stayed after to clean up at the Salvation Army
91. Helped Grandma with brain games on the Kindle
92. Played a musical number at church when Brooke couldn't (when they were stuck in Las Vegas)
93. Taught Gma how to cast on in knitting
94. Did extra laundry when Jon's allergies were flaring up (to try to get rid of whatever was causing it)
95. Took on an extra tutoring session at the last minute because my student's sister had an in-class essay the next day that she was worried about
96. Went to Vegas to hang out with Kelli when she was stuck in airports!
97. Changed the date of a friend gathering at home so one friend could make it
98. Allow grandma to hold onto my arm while we walked from house to house delivering bread.
99. Took an extra sweatshirt when picking up Jon so he wouldn't be cold.
100. Rubbed dads head.
101. Took out the trash when asked (without complaining!).
102. Let the dog out to do her business about 5000 times.
103. Made salad for Jessica.
104. Helped mom at the grocery store.
105. Let dad and Jacob wrestle without complaining while I was trying to practice.
106. Sent Piper (friend) a copy of the English paper.
107. Patiently explained the dance to Kiersten.
108. Helped Josie with the arms in pom.
109. Helped grandma with her computer
110. Helped grandma with her phone
111. Helped grandma get some source of scriptures that had good print that she could read while she was here
112. Got out of bed to turn the light off for Kelli
113. Helped grandma in and out of the van
114. Helped grandma with her seatbelt quite a bit
115. Gave my friend, Hannah, a ride to the stake New Years Eve dance
116. Went with the family to deliver 12 loaves of bread and sang at each door
117. I texted a couple of my friends to make sure they were happy and having a good day
118. I offered to get things for people that weren't feeling well
119. I went to the Salvation Army to help separate toys for the kids
120. I went back to the Salvation Army to help distribute the bags of toys to the families
121. I helped clean the gym at the Salvation Army after we distributed toys
122. I helped mom make our traditional hot ham and cheese sandwiches
123. I play the piano in Young Women's
124. Gave grandma a hand rub in the airport
125. Took care of Brooke when she was feeling sick
126. Washed the dishes when nobody else wanted to
127. Volunteered to go to the store for groceries
128. Smiled and said hello to someone who was unhappy that day
129. Helped Grandma with her computer
130. Sent Christmas cards to widows in my home ward
131. Wrote a letter to a missionary
132. Stayed up late to talk when I was feeling tired
133. Got up to change the channel for the group when the remote was broken (ha ha)
134. Brought treats to a friend who was having a hard day
135. Sent a nice note to someone to cheer them up
136. Took a loaf of bread to the bishop when he was sick

Brrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!

To say that it was cold this morning would be like saying the Pope is a little bit Catholic. Yea, just slightly.

It was 5 degrees when I stepped into my car (as evidenced by the photo of the thermometer in my car at the left), and by that time the sun was already pushing the horizon. The wind had stopped blowing, too (it's mainly calm now), so the wind chill had risen above the big fat 0. Out of the minus degrees.

It's currently 10 degrees in our fair city, though it's supposed to get up to a balmy 18 degrees by this afternoon. "We're having a heatwave, a tropical heatwave, the temperature's rising, it isn't surprising..." By Saturday they say it will be up near 60. Excuse me? A 55 degree change in less than 4 days? What is this, the last days?

It was so cold this morning the kids stayed home from school. Really. They really did. Schools were closed because it was too cold. Don't want those little rugrats out at the bus stop in 5 degree weather, right?

You know, when I was a Senior in High School (cue wavy lines like in Wayne's World - doodley do, doodley do, doodley do!) we went to school one day in February because it was so cold. Seriously. One day. Man, we were loving it. Of course, back in those days we had Carter for a President and a big energy crisis. They said it cost too much to heat the buildings. Yea, what about today? The price of gas back in 1977 was $1.50 (oooo, say it again!) and we thought we were being ripped off. Yesterday I paid $3.20.

But I digress.

It was so cold this morning my shadow froze to the driveway.

It was so cold this morning I had to open the freezer to heat the house.

It was so cold this morning (how cold was it?) I saw that the Statue of Liberty put the flame inside her dress (bada boom!).

It was so cold I saw a Democrat with his hands in his own pockets. Now THAT'S cold!

As I walked from my warm car to the building at work today, I seriously wished I'd worn my scratchies. Brrr!! The wind was blowing through my jeans and down my neck. The geese out on the pond weren't the only ones with goose pimples this morning.

Now, I realize this is just any other day for people who live in the Great White North, eh, (coo roo coo coo coo coo coo coo) but down here in the lower 48 (ok, I know it gets cold in Utah and Colorado and Montana and all those other Rocky Mountain high States), we're sort of on the sissy side when it comes to cold weather. When it gets down to minus degrees, I'm sorry, but you can call me Mary. When you can count the degrees on one hand, umm,

I'm staying inside with a blanket (or two), a steaming mug, a dog to lie on my lap and a crackling fire (not to mention the tv remote).

Geez! I thought the sun was going to freeze over.

But no. The sun is up there and shining away just like every day. In fact, it's now warming me through my office window, as hot chocolate courses through my veins and hot pizza awaits for lunch.

Let the frigid winds howl.

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