Pay It Forward Friday #5

 

 

Technorati Tags: Pay it Forward

 

It’s that time again!  Time to ponder the good we tried to pass on over the past week.

 

For me, I paid for the person in line after me at the McDonald’s drive-thru and then sped off as fast as I could so the person didn’t think they owed me anything.  In this process, I almost crashed into two people and an SUV so I wouldn’t suggest to anyone to try and drive away like a maniac.  If they want to say “Thank You”, then let them. We don’t want anyone hurt or injured, right?  Lesson well received…

 

The kids were in the car with me. After all I am trying to teach them the valuable lesson of giving without expecting anything in response.  But all I think they learned was how to give the finger to a crazy person speeding away after almost hitting them.

 

My friend Amy posted this article and I am sharing it with you.  Here are some great acts of kindness to inspire and restore your faith in humanity.  You can find it here.

 

Enjoy these, I did.  They brought tears to my eyes.

 

Post about what you did and how you did it safely.

 

Peace,

 

K

 

Pay It Forward Friday #4

Technorati Tags: Pay it Forward,garage sale,etsy,estate sales

It’s Monday and I’m late again…

 

I’m posting on Monday for my Pay It Forward Friday because I’m a mixed up gal who can’t make a self-made deadline.

 

The truth is, I had to work all weekend and that puts me in a tailspin.

 

Ok…the real truth is that I was helping out and trying to sell some items in my sweet friend Noreen’s garage sale.

 

 

 

Can I get some Garage Sale Love?

 

 

 

My friend Noreen is a vintage lover like myself and she has an incredible Etsy store where she sells her mother’s collection of vintage glassware.  You can check it out here.

We also hunt estate sales, garage sales, and the like for our treasures…she goes straight for the glassware and I head for the linens and old furniture.  We make a good team, I think.  Though our husbands might cringe when we team up, (think, “they’re bringing home more stuff”), we have a fabulous time digging.

 

Nothing like a garage sale, though putting on one yourself is a lot of hard work.

 

Lots of great baby and kid’s clothes displayed so nicely by Noreen’s mom…

 

 

Glassware and pottery…

 

I even “tried” to sell some of my stuff…It didn’t go.

Those pillows were made by me from some vintage napkins Noreen had found and I wasn’t about to just give them away to some garage saler offering $5.00 for BOTH!  Kind of an insult, if you ask me.

 

Anywhooooo, last week for my Pay It Forward good deed, it has to do with the garage sale.

 

An elderly woman stopped in and was looking for toys for her grandchildren who she takes care of.  The little boy REALLY liked some toys my sons had priced to sell.  She looked like she could use a break, so I gave her the toys for free.  The look on her face was priceless and her and her grandchildren left me with a “God Bless You.”

 

Confession and Question

…why was it so easy for me to give away my kids’ toys and my ego wouldn’t let me give away my handmade pillows?

I don’t know if I did such a great job Paying It Forward last week, but I do know that a little boy was very happy taking home his new toys. 

Peace,

K 

 

 

 

 

A Recipe I’ll Share…

Technorati Tags: Summer Recipes,Gazpacho

Summertime is in full bloom and I thought I would share one of my favorite recipes that is both healthy and extremely easy to prepare.

 

Gazpacho a la Kathy

 

This is a combination of several gazpacho recipes that I have tried over the years and I love to have it on hand on hot, summer evenings.  It’s cool, refreshing and full of summer vegetables.  I would imagine it’s low in calories and pretty good for you, too.

 

INGREDIENTS

• Extra Virgin (no simple virgins here) Olive Oil
• Garlic Croutons
• 1 Cucumber
• 1 Green Pepper
• 2-4 Cloves of Garlic (Depending on how garlicky you like your food).
• 1 lime
• 3-4 Ripe Tomatoes
• 1 Onion
• Cilantro
• Worcestershire Sauce
• Vegetable Juice
• 1 semi-ripe Avocado 

 

 

 

 

In a food processor, add about 1 to 1 1/2 cups of your croutons.

Slowly drizzle in your olive oil till it makes the croutons a pasty consistency.  I didn’t specify exact measurements because the amount of olive oil added depends on the amount of croutons, but here’s a picture to give you an idea of what it should look like…

 

 

Your next step is to enlist the help of little hands to shred the cucumber like this…

 

Chop up your green pepper into leetle pieces…

 

…and throw the crouton paste, shredded cucumber and green pepper in a big bowl.

 

Next, cut your onion and tomatoes into quarters and place them into the bowl of your food processor along with the amount of garlic you want and pulse a few times until they are chopped up real nice.

At this point, add the juice of one lime, 3-4 tablespoons of Worcestershire Sauce, a handful of the cilantro and pulse until it looks like this…

 

 

 

Place that mixture in the bowl with the croutons, green pepper and cucumbers and mix it up real good.

 

The consistency at this point reminds me too much of salsa, so add the vegetable juice until it resembles a nice, chunky soup.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Cut up the avocado and add to the soup.

 

Refrigerate for a couple hours or overnight to let the flavors mix.  I usually end up adding more vegetable juice after a couple hours because it tends to thicken up again.

Serve instead of a salad, and crunchy French bread on the side goes well.

 

Let me know if your tried it and what you think!

 

                     Enjoy!

 

Peace,

K

Pay It Forward Friday #3

 

Technorati Tags: Chicago Blackhawks,parade

 

I apologize for skipping last week’s “Pay It Forward”.

 

I was busy waving to Patrick Kane!!!!!!!

 

 

And I was trying to get the attention of Corey Crawford!

Along with MILLIONS of others, I suppose…

 

 

It was a great morning of anticipation and waiting for the Stanley Cup and the 2012-2013 Chicago Blackhawks to parade by.

There was a prominent police presence including bomb sniffing dogs…(makes me sad to think about the kind of world we live in and the precautions we now have to take.)

 

 

 

And people in Chicago are so friendly!

 

This nice homeless man let us hockey moms use his sign.

 

 

We waited and waited, had a great spot in the shade and then the Cup zoomed on by.

 

As my boys said, “That was the best two minutes of our summer, so far!”

Yeah, the parade was thatfast!

 

So back to reality…

 

This week, my youngest son found a debit card in the grass at a carnival.

 

We took a special trip to the bank from where the card was issued and he waited in line for the next teller all by himself.

At his turn, he ever so shyly went up to the teller and said, “Umm, excuse me?  I found this in the grass by my house.”

The teller was so sweet and thankful to him.  She offered him the bowl of suckers (Dum-Dums of course, we were at the bank and that’s what all banks give out), and told him he could have as many as he wanted.  He took some and gave a couple to his big brother.

 

I hope the person who lost his card knows it was in safe keeping.  Losing a credit card is nerve-wracking enough, don’t ask me how I know.

 

Please chime in and boast about your good deed for the week.  I love to read about them!

 

Peace,

K

Murphy’s Law and how it applies to me…

 

Chicago Blackhawks win the Stanley Cup and I missed it!

 

Sorta…

 

Murphy’s Law says, "Murphy's law or the fourth law of thermodynamics" (actually there were only three last I heard) which states: "If anything can go wrong, it will."^[

 

^{I am a die-hard hockey mom of two boys.  Hockey can rule our household as any hockey mom (or dad) knows.  Practices, extra skates, travel games, expenses to say the least. You hockey people know what I am talking about all too well.}

^{Last November I wrote a little post about how emotional it can be.  You can see it here.}

 

^{So of course we have been following the awesome Chicago Blackhawks this season in their quest for the Cup.  I watched every game (well almost) and the playoffs were incredible!}

 

^{Fast forward to Monday night, June 24th, 2013…hot, humid, still, crazy dark clouds coming from the west. If the Hawks win this one, they win IT ALL!  My older son had practice at 6:50pm.  Game Six started at 7:30…not a problem.  I knew the game would be on at the rink and I could watch some of it there and get home for the end.}

 

^{Just as we are about to load up the van and leave, a huge storm blows through and freakin’ knocks out my power!!!!}

 

 

^{I’m still ok…figure it will be on by the time the game ends and all will be well.}

 

^{It wasn’t.  Quickly I thought of all the places we could go to watch the game--friends’ houses, sports bars, restaurants…Chicago was crazed with hockey fever.  But my youngest had fallen asleep and I couldn’t justify waking him up to go to a crowded place full of crazed fans.}

^{So my husband and I sat in the dark and put on the emergency radio and listened to the game. (Kinda romantic, right?)  Definitely not the same as watching on a large screen HD TV, but at least we could hear the incredible last 2 minutes of that game.  Afterwards, fireworks could be heard everywhere and I could only imagine how awesome it was to actually see those boys hold up the Stanley Cup and skate around the ice.}

 

^{The kicker in this story is that the houses that were just across the street had power!  Uggggggh!}

 

^{Murphy’s Law…}

 

^{In early September of 1993, my all-time favorite rocker, Bruce Springsteen, was coming to Chicago to perform.  I had worked at the venue where he was performing all summer long as a beer seller and it was the best job ever!  I got to see all the bands warm up and do their sound checks before an empty auditorium with (hardly) any one else around.}

^{My boyfriend at the time was from New Jersey and I wanted to impress him so I got tickets for the Springsteen concert and figured we could hang out before in the auditorium since I was still able to arrive early before the crowds.  We were back at school at the time, in Chicago, about an hour from the venue.}

^{I had a long day of classes before we could leave.}

^{I got in the elevator in my dorm with about 12 other people.  It was hot, humid and sticky.}

^{About half way up to my 13th floor dorm room, the elevator stopped.  Broke. Not moving.}

^{I was stuck in an elevator with a capacity of 15 with twelve other people!  For a couple of hours!  Breathing in each other’s air and feeling woozy from the heat.}

^{And we missed the concert!!!!  Ugggggggh!!!!}

 

^{Here’s another example…}

 

^{In 2005, my sweet sister asked me to be in the OR while she delivered her first born child.  What an honor!  I was all ready to be her support, camera ready to take that first precious picture….}

 

^{Guess what?  I had kept turning on and off the camera all morning taking “before” pictures that when it was time for the baby to arrive, my camera was dead!  No battery life!  No time to say, “Hey, wait a second, push that baby back in while I go and get new batteries.”   Uggggggggh!!!!}

 

^{There are plenty of other ways Murphy’s Law applies to me, as it does to everyone, but I will not bore you with more details.} 

 

^{Just know that it will all work out in the end!}

 

^{For instance, that boyfriend I wanted to impress so much from New Jersey?  Well, I ended up marrying him and he is the best husband and father I could ever imagine.}

 

^{And about 15+ years later, we ended up with Floor Seating for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s “Born To Run” re-tour.  If you had General Admission seating like we did, they handed out numbers before the concert and randomly picked the number to start with.  By sheer luck and a lot of Grace, we ended up second row from the stage.  That concert was seriously one of the highlights of my life.  I was thisclose to Clarence Clemons, Bruce and the band.  An old grade school friend even wrote me on Facebook and told me he saw me on the JumboTron during “Hungry Heart.”  (Which isn’t on the “Born to Run” album, I know.)}

 

 

 

 

^{As for the birth of my niece, by some more sheer luck and a lot of Grace, my camera turned on for one picture…}

 

 

      Can’t get any better than that first moment!

 

So I know I have to be patient and things will work out.

I’m taking the boys to the victory parade in Chicago tomorrow and who knows, perhaps by sheer luck and a lot of Grace, we will get thisclose to the Cup and those fantastic hockey players that made it happen.

 

If not, I am very content to be one of the millions cheering and being part of the incredible energy that is sure to be.

 

Way to go, Blackhawks!  Congratulations on an amazing season!

 

Love,

Me

Pay It Forward Friday #2

 

Harder Than I Thought It Would Be…

 

 

 

Truthfully, this is harder than I thought it would be…how could doing one simple, little nice thing be so difficult for me this past week?

 

Because sometimes I forget, sometimes I am nasty, sometimes I don’t really feel like it.

 

I meant to surprise some little kid at the ice rink by leaving some money in a baggie on a vending machine, but I was in a rush to get my son to his game and had too many other things on my mind, so I forgot…

I meant to leave a home-baked treat on my cranky neighbor’s porch, but then he yelled at my son for accidentally kicking a ball into his yard, so I thought, “Screw you, Jerk.” (See, I told you I am nasty sometimes…Remind me to get a 6 foot fence…)

 

I meant to send a card to an old friend who I haven’t talked to in a while, but I kept putting it off, distracted by all the “day to day” chores and errands that fill up my day.

 

I meant to, I meant to, I meant to…

 

So here I am on Friday…

 

The best thing I did was to offer to cover a co-worker’s weekend night shift so she could go to some party but I did this grudgingly….(during the summer I work only weekends so any free weekend night is precious to me.)

I’m a nurse, did I mention that?

 

How was your week?  I would love to hear what you did…

Pay It Forward Friday #1

 

 

At the beginning of this week, I posted about this concept about “paying it forward” inspired by our trip to New Orleans.  You can read about it here.

I think I picked the wrong week to start this because I am a crabby, crabby mess.  I blame it on peri-menopause and hormones because, let’s face it, what the hell else is there to blame it on?  Not even the Blackhawks winning the first game of the Stanley Cup could flip me out of my funk.  I think I counted AT LEAST 5 people I wanted to punch in the throat.

On top of all that, I had computer issues.  Big ones.  It’s a very good thing I didn’t throw the damn computer out the window a couple times.  My children and husband have been running for cover for the last few days.  I feel sorta bad about this, but believe me,  I believe I am acting rationally.  Doesn’t everyone cry, laugh and then yell all in one sit-down dinner?  No?  Well too darn bad…for 2 or 3 days out of the month, I do!

By the way,  I wish I had a Red Tent to retreat to…(literal reference to one of my favorite books.  Go read it!)

So…..I digress.

But here it is…

 

 

I started something and I want to follow through with it.

For our first week, we bought a small geranium and made a card.

 

 

 

We wrote a little note inside it…

 

 

And left it on a park bench…

 

 

 

We didn’t see who took it, but in my mental state, I actually thought to myself, “Self, what if no one takes it and it’s just sitting there all night long and this nice gesture is left there to fall over and geese poop on it?”

Well, someone must’ve taken it, because I did check back an hour later and it was gone.  And my bad mood was gone too.  It felt really, really good to imagine someone picking it up, being surprised and taking it home.

 

What did YOU do?  I would love to hear all about it. 

If you have a blog, feel free to link in and link back to your blog.

If you don’t have a blog, please just use the comment section to tell me (and everyone else) all about it.  I can’t wait to hear all about it.

<