This Thanksgiving a lot of people will be spending it alone thanks to the current COVID crisis. Due to the isolation and economic situation that many of us face, I want to issue a challenge to those of us who might be able to make a difference.
While some kitchens might be closed off to the needy this holiday, there are other ways of making sure needy people get help. Sign up for your neighborhood’s Nextdoor feed and monitor the threads for people who are looking for help. We have started putting in extra time for our side cash job so we can start a little fund for those who might be looking for help.
Remember you do not have to set loads of cash to the side to help someone. In most cases, as little as 20 bucks will help a family of two celebrate Thanksgiving. Food has this uncanny way of making people feel better, so I challenge you to make a difference in your community.
This week started out kind of hard. If you could imagine a turtle trying to skirt back into its shell, then you would pretty much get how my mood has been. Freaky anxiety for no reason, but I’ve been pushing back mentally. I have been working with my plants and trying to get more supplies from Amazon! I purchased a small greenhouse for my veggies because our cat crawled into the pot and tried to claim it as his home and I can now see little buds. Just being able to work on something new is helping to ease the uneasiness to a small degree.
I was finally able to find a small freezer online from Walmart’s. My refrigerator is too small to hold our frozen food, I purchased the cheapest one Home Depot had last year, and now I am having to deal with the error of not getting what I needed the first time around. My husband wanted to buy a larger fridge, but I felt like a small freezer would do the trick, plus I didn’t want to waste money.
I only paid 40 bucks for the greenhouse which was also a money saver. I’m trying to make sure we can at least have veggies if all else fails. Last year I planted a group of veggies and the snails got a hold to my garden and that was pretty much, all she wrote. I have tried for least ten years to grow a vegetable garden and something always happens. From landscapers cutting them down, snails, cats or too much rain, I have no luck. So, this year I am determined which is why I ordered the greenhouse. I think they are supposed to keep water and insects out of the veggies.
A lot of crazy is transpiring today in different states across America. I have chosen not to dwell on it because at the end of the day, you cannot force people to do the right thing. Plus, thinking about this stuff constantly makes you stressed out. I would say we are all feeling at least some level of acute stress, if not more. There are just so many crazy things happening right now. It just overwhelms you if you dwell on it too long or forget that life still goes on. As for this second, I want to think about my Girl Scout cookies that have yet to arrive. I thought for sure I would be smacking on some shortbread cookies and having myself a glass of milk.
Anyway, I just wanted to pull myself out of my isolation box and say hello. Normally, I would just let this feeling keep me hostage, but for some reason I don’t want to be sucked in right now. Maybe it was getting up to water my plants, or seeing life grow when there is so much death around. I just feel a little more hopeful and I think I owe it to my plants!
Our daughter came home last night and told us about a female student who was clearly showing signs of distress. My husband and I both informed her that she needed to talk to her school counselor about the student in question. After we picked her up today from school, we asked her if she talked to the counselor and her reply with unfortunate.
“Mom, I really don’ t think they care. When I talked to the counselor, she didn’t really seem to want to hear it.”
We both stated that she had done her job and now it was time for the school to do their job and follow up with the report. Right now children are looking and they are paying attention, more than ever. If you work in a school and see problematic behavior, you must act. If you think your role isn’t important, think again. You are a lifeline, a lifeguard and even the it factor in some of the children’s lives.
About four year ago, I got the chance to go to a conference and see Kevin Hines as one of the main speakers. It was an eye opening experience in how we should all be dealing with people who show signs of distress. You don’t wait, you check it out.
I’ve come to the conclusion that our children feel like that must be happy 100 percent of the time. Recently, my daughter told me she felt unhappy and that she couldn’t put her finger on the reason. I explained that it’s normal to be unhappy at times and that it would be quite abnormal to be happy all the time. She looked at me as if I had said something Greek.
I went on to explain that we all feel unhappy at times, but it’s what we do with those feelings that predict the outcome of that day. I told her about the family I had to question with their dying child in the room. Happiness will be hard to find for a long time due to the loss of their child. She looked and said yeah you’re right. She revealed that she was unhappy because she felt like none of the guys she liked ever liked her back.
After watching the sorrow in her eyes, I insisted that she take out a list and write everyone’s name down for future reference. She looked at me and smiled. I then informed her it was the Brown curse to be a little different in middle school but to turn into a beautiful butterfly in high school, revealing that it happened to me and both of her sisters. In that moment my daughter was happy not for some nice object that I presented her with, but that I took the time to help her find a solution to her problem.
Listen to your children!
Don’t forget to get my book! It’s free for two days!
Shellzonit 