Good Neighbor Day

September 28th is national Good Neighbor Day! What a great reason to celebrate in your own community. What a great opportunity to teach your kids that it is important to take the first step in being kind to your neighbors. At our house we like to bake goodies (pumpkin bread this year) and take them to our neighbors. I think this year since my oldest can write I will have him write a little note to attach to them. We live in a really great neighborhood and I am so thankful for the friendly atmosphere our chunk of homes offer. For the most, we are surrounded by elderly and retired. I love it and my kids do too. My kids have been invited over to help wash a car for 10 cents, to help feed pets, to go swimming in a neighbor's pool, and just over for ice cream or cookies. I love the relationships my kids have with our neighbors and mine too. I can always go next door to borrow a wheel barrow or an egg or even a truck to load stuff away! We are blessed with our neighbors and I am happy to thank them on Good Neighbor Day! Take a few minutes to walk across the street tomorrow or next door, if even to say hello and drop off a candy bar or a flower from your yard. Good neighbors make great communities!

Here are some suggestions for celebrating the day:

• Help your neighbors in some way
• Offer a smile and friendly hello to your neighbor
• Have your neighbor over for a meal
• Hold a block party
• Get to know your neighbor a little better

I could really use...

Sometimes we just need a little something to get us over a hump... it may be something radical or something very small. Today, my somethings are small...I could really use a date night with my husband, a laundry fairy (did I mention I have done 6 loads today and still have about 5 left? ahhh!), a good hair-cut, and a movie night on my couch with a good chic flick. (Maybe I can make the husband thing and the movie thing happen at the same time tonight? :) These things are small and not super life shattering, but all the same, it would be nice!

When I start feeling or thinking this way I sometimes start to think about other people and what might they really need at that moment. I usually am surrounded by my healthy family, in a warm cozy home, and in comfy clothes when I have these thoughts. It makes me feel pretty darn blessed and the "somethings" I think I need are just icing on the cake for this life I get to live.

The days I get to have that hair-cut at that nice salon or a night out with my hubby or the remote all to myself for a night (and lets just be honest, there is no laundry fairy) become really great moments in an already great life. Are we not spoiled at times? Even better, I love spoiling my mommy friends when I can because I know under their already really blessed lives and totally awesome families, that they are very hard working moms who often put themselves last. And you know what? They deserve a little something every so often. So, what is it for you? What could you really use today? How about your pal? Maybe you could treat each other a bit?

I think us mom's should all tell our mommy friends to take a little time this week and do a little something for yourselves. I think we're better mom's for it!

Do you have space?

Lately, I have been thinking hard about how I live my everyday life. I am feeling like I want to live a life that has space for life to just happen... instead of trying to make my life happen all the time. I want to have my heart ready for what life brings us, my head able to be in the present moments, and my home available for life to just unravel here. Space. I am feeling a lot lately that in order to live daily filled with joy and peace that I need to allow for space. Leaving room for my heart to be filled and my head to be challenged and my home to have lots of possibilities requires me not being too bogged down to miss or over plan for these chances. Chances of a life time. These are short but important thoughts for me tonight. I want to start waking up in the morning feeling available for what God has planned for me and my family that day. Hmmm.... space for God to work and for me to follow. I think I need more space...