Winter Happenings

Admittedly, this winter has been a tough one.  While the weather has been mild with no snow for January and February, germs are still around, and boy do they linger!  I've been battling what seems to be the same cold for close to 12 weeks, and this week I came down with some sort of virus with flu-like symptoms.

The constant exhaustion, head congestion, sore eyes, achy muscles, dull headache, and upset stomach have definitely interfered with some of our weekend plans.  My exercise routine has been placed on hiatus, too.  Lewie has had a few colds, but thankfully, both my boys (husband and son) have been relatively healthy.

Here are a few things we've been up to this winter 2020.

1) Little Lewie and I made an unexpected visit to the Fairfield University Bookstore to greet my long-time, bloggy friend and her daughter.  They are always involved with interesting projects; this January, they spent countless hours making bookmarks to support the wildlife in Australia that had been devastated by the raging bush fires that have been burning since July 1.

Between selling bookmarks, raising awareness through local TV and radio interviews, and creating a GoFundMe page, my friend's daughter has raised $3,500 and counting.  Of course, we had to stop by and buy some of her adorable bookmarks!

2)  On a cold weekend in February, we decided to go to a bowling fundraiser.  I'm proud to say I beat my two boys with a score of 100!  We had so much fun that Lewie decided he wanted to buy Wii Sports, so we could continue the bowling fun at home.  After tracking down a refurbished disc, we've been playing the game ever since.  Now, Little Lewie is the grand champion at bowling, with my husband second, and me in third place.  (At least I know I can kick butt at "real" bowling.)

They wanted to show off their bowling shoes.

3)  During Lewie's February break, we visited some friends for dinner on Valentine's Day, we spent a morning Roller Skating, and then we made our annual trip snow tubing at Ski Butternut.  This time, our snow tubing trip included Lewie's best friend Ryan with his mom!  Last year he came with us and said he would have rated the day a perfect 10 except his parents weren't able to come.  This year, I forgot to ask about his rating, but I'm pretty sure we may have earned that perfect 10.  Here's to creating a new annual tradition, which now includes both of our families!

Now I'm back to a weekend at home, nursing a cold and some sort of stomach bug.  Lewie went to his cousin's "paint party" for her 9th birthday today, and tomorrow he plans on spending time with our beloved Aunty Kiki.  If I'm able to kick this illness and scrub down the house, it would be fun to have her over for a game of Wii bowling.  We shall see what tomorrow brings...

Happy Valentine's & Random Acts of Kindness Day!

This year, both Valentine's Day and Random Acts of Kindness Day fall during Lewie's February vacation.  For school, Lewie made cute ruler Valentines and handed them out on the 13th (before his break).  On Valentine's Day, we drove to my mom's place of work and surprised her with a beautiful flower arrangement.  For Random Acts of Kindness Day (February 17th), I will be doing my usual and surprising friends with a few unexpected gifts.

Here is what we've been up to!

For Lewie's Valentines, I want to make sure to give credit where credit is due.  As you can see, we fell in love with two different designs (which are not my own).  The first design, by TidyLadyPrintables, can be bought on Etsy HERE.  The second design with the stars were absolutely free; they were created by an awesome blogger named Crystal from the blog Little Bit Funky.  The "You Rule Valentine" design with the stars can be found for free HERE.

The last pic are my "care packages" that will be hand delivered to friends this year for Random Acts of Kindness Day.  I'd also like to do something like treat a random person or family to dinner by paying for their meal.  A few short weeks ago, Little Lewie and I were recipients of the very same kind gesture.  On a random Sunday, Little Lewie and I ordered breakfast at Friendly's (his favorite restaurant in the whole world).  When it was time for us to pay, the waitress told us there was no charge because a gentleman already paid for our breakfast.  "What?" we asked, completely in shock!

The kind man had left the restaurant before we could ever thank him.  I quickly asked Lewie, "Would you like to pay it forward?"  There was a young man with two little girls eating breakfast next to us.  I  quietly gestured over to them.

Lewie smiled and replied enthusiastically, "Yes!"

"Can you pay for their meal?" I said to the waitress as I gave her my credit card.

She took my card and commented how much she loved it when an act of kindness starts a chain reaction.  Evidently, this mysterious gentleman has paid for other peoples' meals before.

We paid the bill and left with only a quick smile cast in the direction of the young man with his two girls.  He didn't know at that moment that we paid for their breakfast, and we wouldn't be around to be thanked.  We would be just as mysterious as the kind man before us.

As we got into our car to leave the parking lot and go home, I said to Lewie with tears in my eyes,  "Didn't that feel good?"  He was teary-eyed, too.  "See, there's a lot of good in this world, Lewie.  There's really a lot of good."

This February 17th, I want to share this type of joy again...  There's a lot to be said for being KIND.