So long, 2013

Happy New Year's Eve, everyone! You can see my resolutions for this year - I'm pretty excited about them ... I even made them pretty for you! 2013 was a rough year for my family, but it had some wonderful moments as well: I saw my best friend get married, met a host of new beautiful babies in my life, celebrated my littlest one's first birthday, and had a thousand wonderful memories with my family. I read 12 books this year and enjoyed a new kind of motivation playing Book Bingo with a friend (I lost because I'm a slow reader and read without strategy, but it's a really fun way to keep track of your reading for the year!). Here's my bingo card for 2013 - the black are squares I completed and the grey are squares I was in the process of completing. I'll also give you my 2014 blank bingo card if you want to play too!

Along with my own personal resolutions, I have resolutions for my family and new plans for Law of Bambi! My resolutions for my family are to get outside more with the boys, to read more books together, and to be silly together (and make sure I'm not spending too much time being the mean mama). For the blog, I have a few new projects that I'll be doing this year.

First, I have plans for interviews with some organizations that I think everyone should know about and consider supporting, so Tuesdays will continue to spotlight causes worth supporting. I will be writing about healthy living ideas on Mondays as I have been working to lose weight and live better for a few months now and plan to continue it. Thursdays will have regular confession posts about things like parenting or life in general.

Wednesdays are going to start a new project that will go for the entirety of 2014. I will be trying to live with the fruits of the spirit in mind. There are 9 listed in Galatians 5:22, so I will spend one month focusing on each, and 3 will get a special two month focus. The plan is as follows: January & February will focus on Love, March on Joy, April on Peace, May & June on Patience, July on Kindness, August on Goodness, September on Faithfulness, October & November on Gentleness, and December on Self- Control. I think it lined up perfectly and am really excited to spend a year focusing so intently on living mindfully and considering values we can all agree on.

I hope you all have a wonderful New Year and spend some time thinking today about what kind of year you want 2014 to be! Who do you want to become? What about yourself do you want to improve? What adventure are you going to go on?

R.A.C.K. Wrap Up

So Christmas has passed and I've finished my R.A.C.K. It was definitely a different experience than I'd originally planned, and I hope to be able to stick more closely to my preplanned R.A.C.K. activities in the future, but it was nonetheless meaningful to me. I spent the season caring for others' needs and doing what I could to brighten someone else's day. I gave compliments to strangers, had sweet conversations with passerby, gave gifts to those I could, left notes of gratitude and good tidings around for those serving me as well as people who randomly found them, and several other things just generally hoping to remind everyone that this season is truly about us loving each other, not getting so caught up in commercialized commitments and traditions that we actually forget what we were meant to focus on. It was a wonderful activity and I look forward to doing it every Christmas with my family!

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday! We've spent a great week with my family so far and are still enjoying the great quality time. It truly is a wonderful life. Tomorrow being New Year's Eve I'll be writing a post telling you my resolutions for 2014, where 2013 has brought me, and where the blog will be headed in the new year as well!

Mentality Monday #4

Merry Christmas, all!

I had originally planned on posting this week but I've decided to enjoy the holiday with my family and start posts back next week. I hope you all have a wonderful time with your family and friends!

Thankful Friday

This week I've been thankful for my family as I always am, but today I'm really thankful for the peacefulness and inherit therapy of a long road trip. Starting today my husband, sons, and myself are going to be making the 1300+ mile journey from one family home in Minnesota to another family home in Florida. Over three days we'll travel through eight states, sing hours of songs, stop at silly roadside stops (which I'm a sucker for), and generally enjoy each others' company. We as a family have had an incredibly stressful and emotional time in the last few weeks and I'm so grateful for the time we'll have in the car to decompress and process everything that has happened. 

Some get anxious and annoyed at the prospect of being on the road for a long period of time, but I truly love it. Roadtrips are endlessly fun to me - it's exploration at its finest. Stopping at different restaurants (not the ever-present McDonalds), exploring silly roadside attractions, - you know. Typical nonsense. That's the stuff of dreams for me. Roadtrips have given me some of the best memories I've ever with friends and family. Truthfully, it's one of my favorite things about living far away from my hometown. 

In any case, I'm off to start the first day of our drive - hope you all enjoy your weekend and festivities you may have planned! I'll be back Monday morning, here's some things to get you to that workday whistle:

For those having a rough time, here is today.

Make your OCD feel better here.

Ever wonder about tea customs?

R.A.C.K. Update #2

Another week of R.A.C.K. has passed, and this week has been again family focused acts for me. We had a loss at the very beginning of this week, so I have spent most of my time trying to keep my sons out of everyone's hair but also trying to provide everyone with what they need. Since I'm southern, a lot of food was involved. A chicken pot pie, a cheesecake, some pasta salad... what can I say, when things get stressful and upsetting, I've been trained to cook. Other than fattening people up, there's been a lot of effort to comfort those around me in whatever way I could. Holding lipsticks, giving bear hugs, and generally being there for my family. It wasn't my original plan for R.A.C.K., however, apparently God had something else planned for me.

Today we leave Minnesota to make a drive down to Florida and spend some time with my family back home so I think my R.A.C.K.'s for the coming week will involve more strangers this week. Hoping all of you who are traveling like us this weekend make it to your destinations safe and sound, enjoy your weekend!

Shopping for Good: Charity

So it's Thursday night - apologies for the slacker late post. Tonight is the last post of the Christmas Shopping for Good series and I'm focusing on gifts through charities. There are a million amazing charities out there that you could support and give your loved one a great card or small gift explaining that their gift was spent to support a charitable cause - tonight I'm focusing on two.

First I want to tell you about Heifer International where you can support several different causes and choose from a lot of various gifts from as little as $10 to $15,000 - that's a lot of variety. With Heifer Int. you are choosing a gift to benefit those in need in different ways. For example, you can buy an Earth Gift Basket for $60 will provide a hive of bees and seedlings of trees to a family. Or you can pay $50 for a Hope Basket which includes a gift of rabbits and a starter flock of chickens. Families also receive training and education in the animals' care to make sure their hope becomes a reality. Giving a Boost of Nutrition for $36 provides fruit and vegetable seeds to start a small farm, chickens to raise and help maintain it, and training in sustainable farming and nutrition. You can even spend just $10 to buy a share of various things such as rabbits, pigs, or tree saplings; they let you know the number of shares it takes to provide the full donation. 

There are really so many amazing options that would allow you to give a much better gift to a family member and know that you have helped a family or village so much with a life sustaining gift! Please, go peruse the site and see what they have - it's truly amazing. 

 Next up, I want to share Athena's Warehouse (AW) with you. This is a great organization run out of Atlanta, Georgia. AW uses enrichment programs, different initiatives, and positive female role models to give tools and resources for at-risk, disadvantaged girls attending Title I schools to reach and celebrate their fullest potential. You can donate in two different ways to help this great organization and support a community of young women in need. First you can donate financially (either online or by mailing a check the old fashioned way), or you can be a part of the The Prom Project and donate prom dresses, bridesmaid dresses, homecoming dresses, cocktail dresses, and formal attire in any size or color. Be sure to check their website for more specific information about what they cannot accept, but as a woman I know I have shuffled through at least 6 or 7 formal dresses at this point - why not donate them to a young girl who might otherwise not be able to experience her prom in a dress that allows her to feel as beautiful as she is?

I want to also let you all know that there's an aspect of AW that makes it truly amazing. The Prop Project with Athena's Warehouse requires participants (meaning the girls who will end up with your graciously donated dresses) to spend time volunteering at a local nonprofit, with the understanding that it promotes self-empowerment through public service. This is particularly great in my opinion due to the fact that I think that public service - generally a life in service - is one of the best things we can do with our lives. I love that AW is working so hard to teach young girls this as well as what a privilege it is to help others. - Go check out their website or follow them on Facebook!

Like I said before - there are a ton of other organizations you can support and I will be sharing more with you in the future through spotlights and interviews, so stay tuned for new great causes you can support all year long! Enjoy your Christmas season and hopefully you've been able to make your Christmas shopping do a little extra work for you and your loved ones!

May you be as happy...

 

...as a baby Kraken finding the perfect size ship!

 Happy middle-day-of-the-week, everyone! Hoping you're having a #blessed and entertaining week! As is becoming tradition, here is your collection of Wednesday time wasters:

 How to have a 'Brain Orgasm' - because..why not?

10 of the Most Amazing Microscope Photos You'll Ever See 

Who was Sadie Hawkins? 

How far is it to Mars? 

12 things you might not know about the '12 Days of Christmas' 

Enjoy your tidbits of information! 

Causes Worth Supporting: Toys for Tots

In 1947, Toys for Tots was founded by Major Bill Hendricks, USMCR to bring toys to less fortunate children in the Los Angeles area. In 1948, the Marine Corps adopted Toys for Tots and expanded the program to become a national effort. Walt Disney designed the famous train logo and it has ever since been a yearly tradition for citizens who are able to help children in need to enjoy and experience the joy of Christmas.

Over the last 66 years, many celebrities have endorsed Toys for Tots: Mickey Mouse, Bob Hope, John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Andy Griffith, Doris Day, Brooke Shields, Nancy Reagan, and Barbara Bush - to name a few.

In 1992, the Toys for Tots Foundation provided over 2.5 million toys to children in Florida and Louisiana who were victims of Hurricane Andrew. In 2001, special events were held for the children who lost a parent in the September 11th terrorist attacks. Forbes has named Toys for Tots as one of the top 10 charities on the Forbes 'Gold Stat' list. Most recently in 2012, the foundation provided more than 7 million children with almost 16.8 million toys!

There are few holiday charities as great as the USMCR Toys for Tots Foundation in my opinion. You can find your local drive information here or you can read on their site about donating funds by selling items on Ebay, donating a car or vehicle, or simply donating a few dollars directly to the foundation.

Hopefully you've been able to contribute a toy or two to your local drive already, but if not - do what you can to try and help! You can also follow the foundation's Facebook page to find out other ways to help! For instance, they posted recently that Walgreens & Duracell have partnered together this season to promise that for every package of Duracell batteries purchased at a participating Walgreens, Duracell will donate two batteries to Toys for Tots!

It's so wonderful to help children feel the joy and wonder of Christmas - find out about how you can help that happen!

How Easily Forgotten..

I'm writing this post after observing, once again, how quickly people make the jump to meanness, cruelty, and anger. Since this blog is named after a well-known call for kindness and respect, I think that this needs to be written about. (If you haven't caught on yet, by the way, the Law of Bambi is from Thumper's family motto, "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all.")

I think it's safe to say at this point that most of us, if not all of us, have seen an instance of discussions or debates in a public forum turning into inappropriate bullying and cruelty. Apparently we as adults have not ever moved past high school social politics. It's everywhere. Blog comments, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter are all breeding grounds of this kind of behavior. For some reason the anonymity of the internet has allowed us all to turn into the worst versions of ourselves. And worse still, we even do it to people we actually know. Disagreements are no longer simple and respectful - they're cause for drawn out arguments which resolve nothing and simply open the floodgates for horrible comments. I regularly see people telling others to kill themselves (sometimes graphically and specifically) or that they aren't worth anything...I could go on and on. Sometimes it's as simple as repeatedly pointing out someone's physical faults and how ugly they are in comparison. All of this done in huge amounts to people of all ages, by people of all ages. It has to stop.

We have to stop acting like this is okay. There's no excuse for this kind of rudeness and cruelty to be happening. We all get defensive and angry when it happens to us or our loved ones, but then in the same day can turn around and do the same thing to someone else! It's not okay at all - it's not defensible in any situation. Making any exceptions for this behavior makes exceptions for all of it!

It doesn't matter if the topic is a 'sensitive topic' like politics, religion, or social policy - there is no reason to make a discussion an exercise in verbal abuse. No one deserves to be told these things - and we should all be ashamed of ourselves for saying them. If you can't keep a discussion respectful then you should not engage in them.

And we need to stop this practice of assuming that everything needs to be a debate if it's in a public forum. We defend that our Facebook's and social media accounts should be free from judgement by employers and outsiders, but then insist that everyone should only post their opinions on their own accounts only if they're ready for those who disagree to start an argument? Why? Why does everyone have to engage in informing others that they're opinion is somehow wrong? Maybe this is why our Congress is having so much trouble working together - because we as a country can't do it either.

We need to recognize what we're really saying to people. We need to remember how to respectfully disagree, and recognize that we don't need to make everything a crusade to share an opposing opinion just because you can. Keep your opinions on your own accounts, or discuss them in the proper way without making things personal or abusive.

This is not what our parents raised us to do... at least not mine, or most of the parents I've known in my life. And none of us are innocent.

Mentality Monday #3

I received this quote in my email this morning and felt that it was the perfect thing to share for Mentality Monday and had to whip up an image to replace what I'd planned for you all. Here's to starting the week off right and the struggle for a better future. 

Stay tuned today for a special second post!

A Special Update

Saturday posts here are reserved for special occasions - and this is one of those times. Yesterday afternoon, the Martignago family was informed that this Wednesday morning, December 18th, exactly one week before Christmas Day, Luke Roper will legally become a Martignago as well. His adoption will literally be Megan & Adam's best and biggest Christmas present this year. 

This little man who has stolen hearts, kisses, and cuddles will finally legally be a part of a family that is big, loving, and full of an all-encompassing kind of sweetness and compassion. His grandparents, aunts, uncles - and all of us who love him outside of the family tree - will wrap him up in thousands of hugs and miles and miles of love.

While Luke will now be a part of the family officially, Adam & Megan still have a lot left to pay on their adoption loan. So your help is still very appreciated and needed. If you can send a little Christmas gift to this amazing family and help ease the incredible burden of this debt even a tiny amount - they'd be so incredibly grateful. It's hard enough being a young family in today's economy (trust me, this I know), let alone being a one tied down with the baggage of their struggle to become that family.

As always, you can donate to The Martignago Family's GoFundMe site here. Perhaps make a little donation as part of your holiday charities and kindness this season! You are welcome to share this story with your friends and loved ones using the share button at the bottom of this post and remember to stay tuned as I'll continue to post periodic updates about Adam, Megan, & Luke here at Law of Bambi. 

Below are their other websites that you can follow along with as well:

The Operation Eventually Facebook Page
The Martignago Family Blog
The Martignago Family Adoption Fund

Enjoy your weekend, everyone!

Thankful Friday

"Sometimes we need a story more than food to stay alive." - Barry Lopez

I'm sitting in the local library looking over a frozen lake as I work on finishing up a term paper and final to bring a close to this semester of school for me (cue obligatory 'finally'). As I walked in it occurred to me that what I'm thankful for this week has been books. For most of my life they have served as a physical comfort to every situation I've encountered. Anywhere I've lived - it never feels like home until my books are unpacked and living en masse on their shelves. Just looking at the potential escape they offer me makes everything feel a little less stressful or anguished. This week I've noticed not only myself retreating to a book for comfort and retreat, but most of us here have a book or magazine - something to wrap around yourself like a thick cocoon and hide away from what Life really is right now. 

Because Life is not always happy and optimistic. I try to see the silver linings of bad situations - and even continue to do that for this stage of my life - however, that doesn't make it any less sad. Being sad and experiencing hard times is a part of living. Sometimes we even read books that will make us sad to help process a very real loss. It is the fact that there is a book or article to fill every need you could have emotionally is what I'm thankful for. If you need to completely escape into some kind of fantasy or separate kind of fictional experience, or bind yourself up in a nonfiction text so that you can lose yourself in new adventure and facts that are far away from everything else in your life... there is a book waiting to console you in your lamentation. 

So this week I am thankful for the books. I am thankful for the comfort that an incredibly beautifully written sentence can move you into a different mindset, offering some small measure of contentment or serenity. May you all find the book you're in need of this week. Having finished my book last night, I'll be on the hunt for my next dose of tranquility.

What are you grateful for this week?

R.A.C.K. Update

Well, the first 12 days have passed and while I have had to change my original plans for the days' assignments, I've still done what I could to do a Random Act of (Christmas) Kindness each day. Due to a lot of things going on here in the personal life, my R.A.C.K.'s have been more family centered instead of stranger centered. I've cleaned the house we're staying in, shoveled walks, decorated for Christmas, baked cookies to raise spirits, brought groceries to family, cooked meals, done laundry, written a letter telling someone how much they have meant to my life and a few other things. I still plan on some of the bigger assignments I'd originally chosen, however due to personal constraints right now, the days are just being shuffled from the original schedule.

Hoping you're all having a wonderful and mindful December so far - enjoy your weekend! Here are a couple fun links for you, Happy Friday, all!

Kid President Shares Your 'Things We Should Say More Often'

A Basic Wine Guide

World War II Today

Shopping for Good: Online

Today is the second post for Shopping for Good this month, with a focus on items available for purchase online. First, I'm going to share with all of you an incredibly good thing you could spend a little on this season. Every year Wreaths Across America donates wreaths to be placed at the graves of veterans in Arlington National Cemetery however over the last few years there haven't been enough wreaths to be placed for every veteran. This year, an entire section might not have wreaths: Section 60, where fallen soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan are laid to rest.

You can purchase wreaths to be placed this coming weekend here at Wreaths Across America's website. One wreath costs only $15 - the new Superman movie costs more. For the wreaths to be used this weekend they need to be purchased no later than today (December 12th) so please go over and make your purchase now!

Eleven pipers piping...

This week I'm spending my time cleaning, cooking, and basically doing whatever I can to support everyone here as we work through a rough family time (although I just burned my quiche, so that particular cooking experience didn't go as planned). Hoping you all are having a wonderful week so far and enjoying the weather in your area. Here it's cold and snowy - but I love it. So spend the rest of today and the week embracing the winter! Drink some hot cider and cuddle up in a warm blanket watching a fire (or the yule log somewhere). Here are a couple fun things to entertain you and make the rest of your week a little more fun:

Possibly the best husband ever.

11 Wonderful Winter Weather Terms

Why Root Beer is Called That

Causes Worth Supporting: Your Local Foodbank

 

Supporting your local foodbank is a HUGE deal. My family tries to help our local Cleveland Foodbank as much as we can because we know how huge a problem hunger and poverty is in our area. As of 2010, 22% of children in America live below the poverty line (just over $22,000/year for a family of four!). There are estimated to be 16 million kids that live without access to sufficient and nutritious food on a regular basis - 49 million people in total. Hunger is a massive problem in our country. To give you some perspective on that kind of a number, the population of New York City is 8.337 million people. That means twice the population of NYC entirely in children go hungry here in one of the most affluent countries on the planet. The populations of New York City, Dallas, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Orlando, Seattle, and ALL of Hawaii still only add up to just over 20 million people - still less than half of all the people fighting hunger in the United States. 

You can help your community with this fight by looking up your local foodbank and then deciding to donate a generous gift of however much you can afford, or simply donate some groceries to their headquarters! Volunteers are always appreciated at these organizations and in many cases gravely needed. Call today and find out how you can best help and serve your community. Living your life without helping those in need, you don't even realize how much your missing out on. Volunteering and becoming involved with your area is an incredibly rewarding experience which will give you memories that you'll treasure for the rest of your life.

This holiday season, and throughout the year, remember as you sit down to enjoy your dinner or your deliciously warm breakfast how many go without what you are so easily enjoying. Make a promise to yourself to help others this year. You'll be happy you did - and so will the people you help.

If you're in the Cleveland area, you can learn more about our Foodbank and how to support them here. If you live elsewhere, scoot on over to Google and discover how you can get involved!

Have a blessed and warm Tuesday, everyone!

Mentality Monday #2

So yesterday was Monday, I realize. I have trouble with keeping my days straight lately. That being said, here's you're Mentality Monday quote! Have a wonderful and heartfelt week, everyone!

Enjoy your weekend

Before I write my regular post that I'd planned for today, I want to write a short something in honor of Nelson Mandela, the human rights activist who left us yesterday afternoon. I had originally considered waiting a week or two to write something about him, but I don't think that waiting will make any difference. I simply want to write that we should all take a moment to appreciate the massive contributions that he made in all aspects of human rights. The sacrifices he made, the neverending amount of grace and compassion that he showed to every person including those responsible for keeping him imprisoned for almost 30 years. His was an example we should all aspire to. Mandela proved that we can make a difference, if we choose to ignore all those who say it won't matter.

Shopping for Good

Happy Thursday, all! Today and each of Thursdays until Christmas (three in total), I'll post a selection of ways that you can make your Christmas shopping list do some good. Today I'm focusing on local business ideas, and since I have two homes there will be businesses mentioned for both locales: Gainesville, Florida & Cleveland, Ohio!

Something to get you over the hump.

Look! It's a happy panda!

Good news! You've made it through two whole days of the week and after today, you only have two left! To help you get through the rest of the week, here's a few things to entertain, inform, and generally brighten your day.

13 Facts That Will Make Your Day Better

The Difference Between Green & Black Olives

How to Be Happy

10 Fake Twitter Feeds to Be Thankful For

11 Things You Might Not Know About Reindeer

Oops...

Causes Worth Supporting: St. Baldrick's Foundation

Earlier this year, I found out about St. Baldrick's Foundation and immediately knew that it was something I needed to support in any way I could. St. Baldrick's collects funds to be used towards children's cancer research to find a cure for all children's cancers. They spend 82% of the money brought in directly on research with only 2% on management and general costs & 16% on fundraising, you can read directly about their financials here. St. Baldrick's raise their funds through volunteer run fundraisers where people such as I volunteer to be Shavees and promise to shave their heads in support and solidarity with all of the children going through cancer treatments.

Mentality Monday

Today starts a new practice. No silly Man Crush Monday here, it's Mentality Monday. Each week I'll post a quote to share with you and help put you all in the right mentality for the week. Live presently, everyone. If you want to contribute and be a part of the idea, use #mentalitymonday to share your own thoughts of inspiration, compassion, and gratitude on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!

December 1st means R.A.C.K.!

Last year I read a few different blog posts via Pinterest about a great concept used to celebrate the Christmas season and Advent called R.A.C.K. - Random Acts of Christmas Kindness. It's really a simple concept with huge payoffs for everyone involved. Each day a random act of kindness is assigned and then you perform the tasks throughout the month up to and including Christmas day! Today I started mine and I'm excited to go through the month bringing smiles to peoples faces. 

I got a few packages of simple paper treat bags and numbered them (when we get home from our Thanksgiving trip next week I'll hang them as a kind of advent calendar). Each day I'll pull the task out of the bag and go forward getting it done! I think that this will be a great tradition for us to do every year to keep Christmas as a holiday of compassion and love instead of "wants" and commercialism. Throughout the month I'll post and share with you how my R.A.C.K. is going and I'll post pictures to share various activities as well. The first picture above is going with candy canes to be taped to ATM's around town, and below I've been working on Christmas cards to hand out to a local nursing home with some gifts and crafts we'll be making this week. 

Happy Monday, everyone. Enjoy your first week of December wherever you are!