Unexpected Gifts and Other Happy Things

Unexpected Gift: Remember when I told you about my awesome Secret Santa gift? Well, I thought that was the end of my Secret Santa surprises for the year and was perfectly content to go on my way. Then, a few days ago a mysterious package arrived from an address I didn't recognize. I opened it up and found these cute Dr. Seuss bookmarks and these lovely little magnets.




I thought, Huh. I wonder if I accidentally got TWO Secret Santas...cool! Turns out, I did not get two Secret Santas, just one really great Secret Santa. Also, I can finally reveal to you who my Secret Santa is! It's Jennie from Biblio File! I don't know how she knew that my bookmark collection consisted of used envelopes and old sticky notes and library receipts showing that I paid my latest late fees or that I just threw away a bunch of magnets because they had faded, rusted, or in some other way lost their magnet-y appeal; but whatever she's doing to figure out what gifts to send, it's working. Thanks, Jennie!

Unexpected Gift #2: Today I've been married for 14 years, and Hubby came home with four (4!) dozen red roses! Awwwww! Thanks, Babe, I love you!

Happy Thing #1: Waaaay back in October, Kari at Five Borroughs Book Review posted a review and giveaway for Sex, Drugs and Gefilte Fish. I don't enter many giveaways, but this one sounded fun, so I entered. And I won! Unfortunately, I wasn't paying good enough attention, and I missed the "please respond by" deadline. I responded anyway, but I knew it was fair game if she'd moved on to someone else (and, indeed, I thought she had. My name's crossed off the winner list and everything!). Well, whaddaya know? A couple...(few?) weeks ago I went to the mailbox and pulled out a mysterious package from an unknown address. And do you know what was inside? A copy of Sex, Drugs, and Gefilte Fish! Yay! Thanks, Kari! Also, I am a big loser because this is the first time that Kari is hearing about my receiving of the book.

Happy Thing #2: You know who is NOT a loser? Jaedin of Jaedin's Projects. I heard about Jaedin on the Cake Wrecks blog. A couple weeks ago, Jen and John decided that they were going to spend two weeks helping to raise money for charity (and this ties in to Happy Thing #3). For two weeks, along with their regularly-scheduled hilarity, they would feature a different charity each day. All they asked was that their readers consider giving $1 to each of the charities. In an effort to find 14 deserving charities, they asked for recommendations from their readers, and boy did they get an earful! Let me just say, I love me some comments, but I don't think I ever want to have to wade through 1500+ comments on a single post! Anyway, one of the people who commented was Jaedin's mom, Timber. As any good mom would do, she was nominating her son, Jaedin, who was trying to raise money to put together kits for newborn babies in Ecuador. Jaedin didn't make the Cake Wrecks final cut, but I visited his blog and was impressed with what he was doing so I donated a few dollars. A couple days ago, I received a hand-written thank-you note from Jaedin! Isn't that cool? I am happy to report that Jaedin exceeded his goal of $100 and was able to put together 15 newborn kits for the babies in Ecuador. Keep up the good work, Jaedin!

Happy Thing #3: As I mentioned above, John and Jen of Cake Wrecks fame decided that if they got all their readers behind them and asked them all to do just a little bit, they could make a big difference, and were they ever right! As of yesterday, they had raised over $50,000 for their charities. I saw another figure that had it as high as $70,000+. Tracking is inconsistent depending on the method of donation, so I went conservative, but either way, Wow! That last statement makes it sound like they're doing some sketchy accounting, but that's not it-visit their charity roundup page, and you'll see what I mean.

Happy Thing #4: Waaaay back in November, Wendy awarded me the Honest Scrap award. I've been meaning to publicly thank her for a while now, but, well, you see how I am with timely thank yous. I love Wendy's blog, Greenish Thumb, because she has a way of putting into words all the things that I've thought but never thought about trying to put into words, like why some of us who seem like the worst candidates for gardening ever often end up being the ones who love it most. I love her explanation!

Any happy surprises for you this holiday season?

What You Helped Me Do

One month ago was Fight for Preemies day, and I posted about March of Dimes and the preemie in my life (or my Jedi preemie, as one of my commenters dubbed him). I also asked you guys to help me raise money for March of Dimes by commenting and adding links to your own stories. Well, I am happy to report that you all helped me raise $100 for March of Dimes! I will be sending in my donation today, and I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who helped!

Bonus! I just went over to MoD to make my donation, and it was doubled because I put it on my MasterCard! I totally forgot that MasterCard will be matching donations through the end of the year, so if you are inspired to give, now is a great time to do it!

Prematurity Awareness Month

November is Prematurity Awareness Month®, and November 17th has been designated as Fight For Preemies day over at Bloggers Unite. Hundreds of bloggers have signed up to blog "for a baby [they] love and to help others".

According to the March of Dimes, "Nearly 13 million babies worldwide are born prematurely each year, and more [than] one million die."¹ In the United States, one out of eight babies is born prematurely.² Premature birth can cause serious complications like respiratory distress syndrome, bleeding in the brain, heart problems, intestinal problems and eye problems leading to vision loss.³ If a baby survives all these, he could still be left with cerebral palsy, mental retardation, chronic lung disease, blindness and/or hearing loss. Many times, the reason for premature birth is unknown. The March of Dimes is committed to finding out what causes it and how to pevent it.⁴

I imagine most people will be blogging about their own babies, nieces or nephews, maybe their friends' babies or babies that they have taken care of as doctors or nurses. I have experience with none of this. I've never had children, so although I can imagine, I don't really know what it's like to be scared for your child, to bring a life into the world and then not know if you're going to be able to hang onto it, to wonder what difficulties your child will face as she grows up, to lose a child because he was just too small to fight. My life has, however, been changed by a preemie, and that's why I'm blogging today.

The odds are stacked against premature babies today, even with all the advances that have been made in medicine and technology, so you can imagine what they were back in 1972 when my husband was born 3 months early, weighing just 2 lbs., 2 oz. The odds were so bad, that the doctor who delivered him was going to throw him away. Now, maybe this speaks to the character of the doctor more than it does the state of medicine at the time, but for whatever reason, the doctor who delivered my husband was going to THROW HIM AWAY. He had so little faith that a baby that tiny would be able to survive that it wasn't worth the effort to try to keep him alive. Maybe he was just trying to save my mother-in-law the inevitable pain of losing a child after watching him struggle for life, maybe he thought a baby that tiny would be plagued with medical issues that would cause him to suffer the rest of his life, or maybe he was just trying to save his hospital some money. I don't know. What I do know is that my mother-in-law was A) coherent and B) damned if she was going to let some doctor throw her baby boy away. Luckily, the nurse in attendance felt the same way and was strong enough to stand up to that doctor and intervene on their behalf.

Like all preemies, my husband spent a lot of time in the hospital before he was able to go home, and understandably, his mother has always been a little more protective of him, even though he's not the baby of the family. Ladies, you know how hard it can be to win over your mother-in-law when you're coming in and taking away her little boy; well, try coming in and taking away this little boy. We've brokered a peace, but it was definitely rocky for a while!

Thanks to his mother's strength and belief in him, my husband did, of course, survive. He's always been ambitious and able to find a way to achieve his goals, even when everyone standing between him and his goal was telling him, "Sorry, that can't be done," whether it's gaining entrance to the Air Force Academy or getting a notary to accept his autographed picture from Miss Hawaii as his official form of ID. Seriously. His coworkers always tease him about his Jedi abilities ("These aren't the droids you're looking for."). I've always just written this off to the fact that he is unfailingly charming, but now that I think about it, I guess he's been honing these skills since birth.

Since his birth waaaaaaaaay back in 1972 (I'm just giving you a hard time, Babe!) my husband has grown into one of the smartest, funniest, most generous and thoughtful people I know. He's also one of the most active people I know-he hikes, cycles, dives, climbs trees, surfs, kite surfs and kayaks-he is a preemie success story if ever there was one, and I can't imagine my life without him.

Luckily, my husband has been a fighter since the beginning, and he was able to overcome the great odds that faced him when he was born. Not all children are so fortunate; some struggle more than others, and some aren't able to overcome the difficulties of being born prematurely. The March of Dimes is committed to giving "all babies a fighting chance against the threats to their health: prematurity, birth defects, low birthweight".⁵ Of course, there are other ways to help besides a monetary donation, but if you would like to make a donation, now is a great time to do it. If you use your MasterCard to make a donation between now and the end of this year, MasterCard will match the donation (up to $225,000 in total). If you are going to donate, why not do it now while a matching gift program is in place?

I've never donated to the March of Dimes before because, honestly, I didn't really know what they did-it wasn't relevant to me. It still isn't relevant to me in the same way that it is for a lot of people, but there is a connection there. I will be donating a set amount to the March of Dimes this year, but additionally, I will donate $5 for each person who comments here. I'll bump it up to $10 if your comment includes a link to your story about the special preemie in your life.

Visit Bloggers Unite to read other stories by bloggers who are Fighting for Preemies or to add your story. Thanks to @GlendaWH, @Starbucker and @molokainews for tweeting about this.

1-http://marchofdimes.com/prematurity/index_learn.asp

2-http://marchofdimes.com/prematurity/index_about.asp

3-http://marchofdimes.com/prematurity/index_about_6306.asp

4-http://marchofdimes.com/prematurity/index_about_5576.asp

5-http://www.marchofdimes.com/787.asp

Matching Gift Will Double Your Donation to Women for Women International

A lot of you already know that I am a big fan of Women for Women International. Maybe you've checked them out and thought about giving but the time just wasn't right or you didn't think you could contribute very much. If that's the case, please reconsider. If you donate any time between now and November 15th, your donation will be doubled through a matching gift program.

Women for Women International currently has programs in eight countries, helping women survivors of war rebuild their lives through skills training, rights-awareness education, literacy training and leadership education. Many of these women have lost their husbands and other family members to war, have been raped, have not been allowed to receive an education, cannot read, cannot afford health care, have little or no marketable skills, and are now responsible for taking care of themselves and their families and rebuilding communities that have been ravaged by war.

After such war-time experiences, women often feel isolated, shamed and helpless. Women for Women provides a safe place for these women to gather and share their experiences while they learn new skills that will help them earn money for things like food, shelter, clothing, health care and education. Once these basic needs are met, women have the opportunities to continue on to become successful businesswomen or community leaders, striving for change and peace within their communities.

If you feel that this is a worthy cause, please donate soon. If you donate by November 15th, your donation will go twice as far. If you wish to donate but can't do it by November 15th, that's OK too. Your contribution will still mean a lot to a woman survivor of war.

Elizabeth Bintliff and Daisy the Cow

I am happy to announce that both made a respectable showing on "The Colbert Report" last night.  As I'd hoped, Stephen Colbert gave her a little bit of slack and allowed her to actually get some information out about her organization, Heifer International.  

You can watch the full episode here.  Elizabeth Bintliff's interview starts around 14:50.  You can also go to the Heifer web site to watch the clip of Elizabeth's interview.

Heifer International vs. "The Colbert Report"

You all know that Heifer International is one of my favorite charities. I've written about the work they do providing livestock and sustainable farming education to people living in poverty-stricken areas; and I recently reviewed Beatrice's Goat, a children's book about the difference a goat made in one young girl's life, providing her the chance to go to school, something she desperately wanted but didn't think she would be able to do.

Heifer International has designated April as Pass on the Gift month, and tonight Heifer International's Elizabeth Bintliff will appear on Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report" to talk a little bit about that. If you're a regular viewer of "The Colbert Report" you know that Stephen Colbert tends to be a merciless impossible distracting tough interviewer, but every once in a while he backs off and lets the guest actually get his or her message across. I'm hoping that will be the case with Elizabeth Bintliff. Either way, I will be watching, and I hope you will too!  

Weekly Geeks 2009-13: Favorite children's books

In honor of National Poetry Month and International Children's Book Day, this week's Weekly Geeks challenged us to "Be a kid!" or "Be a poet!" Since I'm not too good with the poetry, I am going to take this opportunity to talk about a couple of children's books, which, in my opinion, happen to fit in nicely with the upcoming Easter holiday.

The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes by Du Bose Heyward

Opening lines:

We hear of the Easter Bunny who comes each Easter Day before sunrise to bring eggs for boys and girls, so we think there is only one. But this is not so. There are really five Easter Bunnies, and they must be the five kindest, and swiftest, and wisest bunnies in the whole wide world, because between sunset on Easter Eve and dawn on Easter Morning they do more work than most rabbits do in a whole year.

This is one of the books that has remained a favorite of mine from childhood, so much so that I bought myself a copy a few years ago. Originally published in 1939, this is the story of a little brown country girl bunny who aspires to be one of the five Easter Bunnies. Upon hearing about her high aspirations, "...all of the big white bunnies who lived in fine houses, and the Jack Rabbits with long legs who can run so fast, laughed at the little Cottontail and told her to go back to the country and eat a carrot. But she said, 'Wait and see!'"

Well! That's some chutzpah! (Bonus! In this discussion of "The Symbolism of Rabbits and Hares" you can see a picture of our heroine standing up to the big Jack Rabbits. Double Bonus! There's a children's poem at the end of the post!) The little country bunny grew up, got married and had 21 (!) children and sort of forgot her dream of becoming an Easter Bunny until one day word came down that one of the five Easter Bunnies had grown old and slow and Old Grandfather was going to need a new bunny to take his place. Mother Cottontail gathers her 21 (!) children and they go to the Palace of Easter Eggs to watch the competition. Old Grandfather watches all the jack rabbits speeding across the lawn, all very impressive, but the little mother cottontail with her 21 (!) well-behaved children in tow catches his eye. OMG! Do I smell a life-long dream about to come true?? I think so! You'll have to read the book to find out!

I'm not really sure why I liked this book so much as a child. The cottontail mother teaches all of her children to help around the house, doing dishes, sweeping the floors, making the beds, etc., so maybe I felt kind of proud because I could do those things and be a good helper. It could be that I grew up in the country and thought I had a chance of growing up to be the Easter Bunny...Yeah, I know; there are a few problems with that. But the little country bunny was no big male jack rabbit, and she had 21 (!) kids to look after, and she made it! (Oh...um, sorry. That's ok, I didn't really give away anything that isn't on the back of the book.) Then again, I think it might have been the Palace of Easter Eggs that sealed the deal-a whole palace filled with Easter Eggs! I also love the illustrations by Marjorie Hack. If you click here you can check out the cover art and the first page.

If you are looking for a (new-to-them) book to read with your kids for Easter, I think this is a good one. It subtly encourages children to be well-behaved and helpful and to follow their dreams even if everyone else laughs and says they'll never make it. Besides, it's intriguing; I mean, five Easter Bunnies? Seriously? There are five??? Who knew?

Beatrice's Goat by Page McBrier-I actually read this a few weeks ago for the Weekly Geeks 2009-08: Rewind - Political & Social Issues challenge, but never got around to writing a post or a review of the book, so I think now is a good time to follow-up on that. Beatrice Biira was a girl in Uganda whose family received a goat through Heifer International, an organization whose mission is "To work with communities to end hunger and poverty and to care for the earth." Heifer gifts usually come in the form of livestock, like Beatrice's goat, and the recipients are required to pass on the gift by sharing offspring, knowledge, resources and skills with others in their community. Beatrice wanted to go to school, but her family could not afford to send her. Eventually, the money she made from the sale of her goat's milk helped her achieve this goal. The book tells Beatrice's story and shows how Heifer can help a community pull itself up out of poverty.

Part of the reason that I didn't get around to doing this review before is because I wasn't thrilled with the book, quite honestly. It was just little things; for example, Beatrice's goat is named Mugisa, which means luck. Throughout the book, the goat is referred to as Mugisa. Later other animals come into the picture; I can't remember what they were or where they came from-perhaps they were Mugisa's offspring, or perhaps they were other Heifer gifts-but their names and their English translations were also given, but then the author continued to refer to them by their English names (like Prosperity and Fortune). This was a little thing, but it bugged me.

Also, I was hoping that the book would be more of an introduction to Heifer International, but I don't think it ever actually mentioned the organization by name except in the afterward, written by Hillary Clinton. I guess the idea was to tell Beatrice's story, not to be propaganda for Heifer, but...in a situation like this, isn't the point of telling Beatrice's story to get the word out about Heifer? I suppose it is a fine line between piquing readers' interests enough that they will seek out additional information on their own and forcing an agenda on your readers. Either way a portion of the proceeds from the sale of the book go to support Heifer.

Despite the fact that I wasn't blown away by this book, I still think it's a good way to introduce a child to the idea of charity and show him how he can make a difference in another child's life. I think Heifer in particular is a charity that would appeal to children because of their gift catalog which consists almost entirely of animals. What better way to celebrate Easter than by giving a rabbit or some chicks to a family in order to help them provide a food source and/or money for things like school, clothing, or medicine? For as little as $10, you could contribute toward the gift of a sheep, a goat, a trio of rabbits, a pig, or even some trees.

So, now that I've covered the kid lit part of the challenge, perhaps I will attempt some poetry after all. Let's see...

There once was a child who read

She loved to stand on her head

Although upside down

She still loved the sound

Of books being read right out loud.

Well, Whitman it ain't, but you get what you pay for! Hope you all came up with some better stuff than that!

Five Go-old Rings!

This is a post where I am mostly going to re-direct you to a bunch of older posts in order to appear "helpful," when really what I mostly am is "lazy."

Firstly, since it is getting close to Christmas, some of you may be starting to panic if there are still people that you haven't crossed off your list yet.  You know how it is, you want to get them something nice, but you are running out of time, and you're afraid you're going to end up buying them something cheezy out of desperation.  Perhaps I can help.  Go here to read all about my friend at Silversmyth who makes hand-made jewelry-beautiful, practical, AND personal.  (Just substitute "Mother's Day" for your holiday of choice as you read).   

Here is a showcase of some of the pieces you can find at Silversmyth.com

In case you're curious, you can see the Silversmyth herself at work here

Even if you don't buy anything, stop over and tell her I said, "Hi!"  She's quite sweet!

Maybe jewelry isn't your thing.  That's ok, because in the post I referenced you to earlier (here it is again, in case you forgot in all this holiday madness!), you can also read about the fabulous chocolates at Lesley's Life is Sweet.  Not only does she make chocolate to die for, but she donates part of her proceeds to charity, and I'm pretty sure that officially cancels out any guilt that might be associated with indulging in the chocolate.  

Okay, so maybe jewelry isn't your thing and nobody you know likes chocolate, and you'd just like to make some charitable donations this year to help out those less fortunate than you.  Guess what!  I have a post for that too!  Here is a roundup of some of my favorite charities and why I like them.  Maybe one of them will catch your eye, or maybe you have some of your own favorite charities.  Either way, donations (of time or money) are greatly appreciated, especially now with more and more people finding themselves in need and more and more people finding themselves with less to give.  

What is standard practice for gift giving in your family, and is it changing this year due to the current economic situation?  Are you finding it difficult, or is it a freeing change of pace?  Whatever your situation is this year, I hope you are finding ways to celebrate the important things like friends and family.