30-Day Giving Challenge Update

Friday was a bit rough for giving. We put our beloved family dog down. Andy came home early Friday which helped me a lot. He also picked up Pebbles from the vet for me, as I could not handle staying with her. Ryan and Andy dug the hole together for some good bonding time. I received quite a bit from my wonderful husband on Friday. Man, he's a great guy! Saturday, I didn't do much giving either. Man - slacking off a little bit! I did send some texts to some great people who appeared on my heart. I sent them words of encouragement - we can all use some encouraging every now and again. I received a glorious day in God's country with beautiful weather and amazingly well-behaved children. Thank You, God!

Today, my husband didn't have to play during service, so I can say I enjoyed being with him during service. We spent the day with family, giving and receiving each other, at my grandparents' home. Then, back to the church for a couple of hours with our amazing teenagers. Tonight was one of the best discussions we've had, and I really felt moved after the lesson. Man, they are a great group of kids!!

Pebbles

We put my baby down on Friday. My yellow lab was almost 14, and suffered from either a tumor or twisted gut, so it was time to make the terrible decision. Man, it was rough. She was also the first pet loss we've suffered with the kids. They were pretty good, but I can tell they are sad. I've cried a bunch, and will hold dear the thousands of memories I have with her. Man's Best Friend!

The 30-Day Giving Challenge Update

So, today is day 5 of the 30-Day Giving Challenge. I haven't blogged much about it so far because we drove down to Nashville to visit our new nephew. So here's a quick re-cap:

Day 1: 2 hours with the youth group Sun evening, a bag of baby shoes to an acquaintance.

Day 2: Took a 27" TV that we no longer need to my mother-in-law. Gave my sister-in-law a bag of baby bibs.

Day 3: Went to my sister-in-law's house and set up her changing table for her. DH set up her crib. I helped her put the bedding in the crib. They just finished painting the room last week, because she thought she still had a couple of weeks. :)

Day 4: "Received" a call from a great friend to bring me some life encouragement. Meant the world to hear her voice.

Day 5: Took 4 mini-loaves of bread I baked to the Church and put in the Congregational Care Freezer. I also took a software program that I can't use to Homeschool Co-Op and set it on the "FREE" table for someone else to use. Went to Deal$ to purchase toys/gifts for the Operation Christmas Child shoe box to take to Church on Sunday. Received another call from a great friend today - just to check on me. I'm truly blessed by my friends.

A note about the Youth Group. Our great youth director talked to the kids about giving and receiving and how great it feels to give. He offered the teens notebooks to take with them. If they would accept the challenge to try and give for 30 days they could take a notebook and keep track of how "much" they give and receive. Quite a few seemed pretty excited about the prospect. I believe this is going to be a great month!! :)

The 30-day Giving Challenge

So, today is November 1st. I was reading some stuff on the Blogosphere a couple of weeks ago, and came upon this post. The idea of recording 30 days of giving and receiving intrigued me. God provides so much, but how often do we sit down and take notice of it? So, for the month of November, I'm going to try my best to take notice! November has 30 days, thus the 30-Day Giving Challenge. I'm hoping our youth group is going to do this, too. I think it would be good for us, as a group, to really see how much we can give.

So, for Day 1: How perfect that our church called us to turn in our Every Member In Ministry commitment cards today. I checked off a couple of different opportunities to serve in each "commitment level". Of course most of my serving at the church involves the Youth, and that's where I'm staying (until they ask me to leave)! Speaking of the youth group, I will be "giving" 90 minutes to them tonight. I'm also taking some baby clothes to one of the women who helps in the Nursery, watching our kiddos. Can't wait for tomorrow!