The Year of Living Generously

Good Deed # 8 - Kindness in a brown paper bag and another example of little people giving in a big way.

He has been our favorite since day 1!
His always friendly smile, his sweet comments on the Ls attire (especially Lulu's) and his call of duty to protect us 5 out of 7 days of the week from being run-over by some busy driver, who won't stop for a mom with two little kids on her hands, has made us like him from the first day of Kinder for L.

Our Crossing Guard of course!!!

We already thanked him during the hot September days with this and now, since it's getting cold and wet out there, we decided it was time again to show him our appreciation for his work and for being out there rain or shine ... always with a smile on his face.

First we had to create 
Kindness ...

 This is L's first cook book.

It's so awesome. She can figure out the recipe all by herself 

and learns to measure and follow directions. 

LOVE this book!!!

Kindness made with love!

It doesn't get any better than that, does it?

yummmm ... they smelled and taste super delish

 ...and  are very healthy

wrap the kindness in some recycled paper bags 

and add some home-made-leaf-bling 

(of course)

Three bags, one for the Crossing Guard,

 one for L's teacher and one for the Assistant Teacher

Add a "sponsored by GM" [THANK YOU!!!!] reusable coffee mug which will be filled with hot herbal tea tomorrow morning and deliver it to the man in the rain with a smile on his face. 

Happy Thanksgiving Mr.Crossing Guard, Mrs.O and Mrs.Y.

We are very thankful for all your hard work 

and your effort to keep our kids safe and "make them smart" (as L said it).

The Year of Living Generously

Good Deed # 7 ... almost random acts of kindness and appreciation

Ever since we sat foot into the Milpitas SPCA after  my Willie got his wings L has been talking about this place. We have gone back a few times to look at the puppies and kitties.

We are usually greeted by grim looking older women who stare at the girls like they are Satan's spawns or something like that.
I understand that, in order to work at the SPCA, one must be a special kind of person. Somebody who can deal with seeing animals in pain and treated badly on a daily basis and still comes back to work the next day.

I know that a lot of bite accidents are connected to kids and that families often "return" animals or drop them off because the dog doesn't fit into the family anymore aka somebody has all of a sudden allergies.
When we wanted to adopt a dog we were flat out told "NO!" by the Milpitas SPCA every time we were interested in a dog just because of the girls.

These people are strange ... very, very strange!
Good and kind to animals but not so socially adapted when it comes to dealing with homo sapiens.

Anyhow, I respect their work tremendously and I appreciate all their care for the poor, unwanted creatures that have nobody else to turn to.
If I'd work there I'd go home with a new pet every day. I know that, thats why I don't dare even think about volunteering or assisting there.
I have enough "special" creatures at home ... my funny zoo is already overcrowded :)

When L asked yesterday if we could go back to the SPCA we came up with a great idea.
Since we are being extra thankful this month we decided to show our gratitude to these wonderful people at the SPCA by baking them cookies,

Ls with their cookie plates

(Julia, look what they are wearing ... it arrived today!!!!)

We went to the store and bought a HUGE bag of puppy and kitty treats ($40 ... sorry Pat!!!)

 and L made two pretty pictures for the cat and dog keepers.

We delivered everything with a HUGE smile and a big "Thank You" to the front desk of the SPCA.
For the first time ever I felt like they didn't hate us completely and we even got friendly smiles.
And on their end they seemed quite surprised.
They asked me if I wanted a receipt for the donations?
NOOOO - I don't need a receipt for cookies ... your smile was receipt enough!!!

We wandered through the hallways looking at the many, many rooms and their little inmates.
(I didn't take any pictures inside. They seem very protective of their reservoir and it didn't feel right snapping photos while delivering a donation.)

The Milpitas SPCA is privately owned and a No-Kill-Shelter.
Once a little one has found his or her way into this place it's actually really RESCUED!!!

It is a brand new facility and is VERY cool and modern.
All animals have their own ROOMS with an outdoor play area adjacent.
The cats have a HUGE play-room where they can run and scratch and climb (the wall art is actually a huge climbing tree for the cats).
All cats have little houses and several scratch trees and hammocks.
The outdoor dog park is AMAZING and if a Milpitas resident wants to use the dog park then a $100 membership fee per year is required as well as a behavior tests for the animal and the o.k. from the vet.
Seriously .... it's that complicated to pee on a fake fire-hydrant in Milpitas ... :)

It really is a very nice place to be homeless at and I do understand why these people are so extra careful when it comes to potential adopters.
After all that work they put into the rehabilitation of these poor creatures they want to make sure they find the perfect home for them.

So needles to say the leaf of the day was for the "animal people" as L calls them and all three of us were super thankful today that there are so many people out there fighting for the well being of animals.

I saw last night the video clip of an undercover Humane Society worker in an egg farm who reported the cruel treatment of these sad creatures. Made me not want to eat eggs ever again.
I then spent an hour at the Humane Societies website looking at more footage of even worse cases (the baby calf followed me into my dreams!!!).

Brining cookies to the local SPCA (especially after seeing these clips) seems hardly like a good deed since there is so much more needed but this is all we could do on such short notice.

But the seed has been planted! Anke, Judy ... let it be heard.
The search for local farmers who will provide organic produce, dairy and (yes Pat ... I know!!!) meat from well treated animals will start ASAP.
It'll be hard to find something close by but we will try. Very hard!

The Year of Living Generously

Good "GREEN" Deed #6

BIG job done by LITTLE people to "help keep our world in Milpitas clean" [by Lillie]

This one was due for some time now.
The Ls and I have been talking about it so much and since the weather god must be in love and shares this feeling by sending us a belated summer, we decided that today was the perfect day to "SAVE THE PLANET".

We have been walking this little path since we moved to this neighborhood and it's been so good to us.
My sweet Willie had his slow walks there and enjoyed waddling slowly from bush to bush marking his territory vigorously :)
Ed has been racing this path up and down and up again and did re-mark Will's territory quite a few times.
Lately we have noticed a lot of garbage on the path and we saw a duck with a fishing line on her foot.
We decided some cleaning up needed to be done and since nobody else was going to do it we had to take action ourselves.

Equipped with large garbage bags, make-shift gloves (little zip-block bags did the job) and K9 Ed the Garbage-Sniffer  Dog we went on a mission to clean house ...outside the house :)

Ready to do some damage!!!

 Action Hero Lillie

"Garbage-Picker-Upper-Girl"

Lillie: "YUKKKK!!! Mama these people need to get a naughty card for throwing their stuff on the floor."

Mama: "These are cigarette buds, these people don't get naughty cards they get cancer!"

Garbage Sniffer Dog in action

L is VERY upset about the graffiti on the wall. She wanted to clean this up too but I had to explain that this should be the job of the people who mess it up in the first place.
This really "P's" me off big time! Art is one thing but senseless spraying of stupid stuff on public walls is ...

In Sahuratita we saw a Saguaro (cactus) which had been spray painted and wood pieces were slammed into it to make it look like a Police Man.
The Saguaro had two arms ... it takes about 65 years for this cactus to grow one arm ... IDIOTS!!! 
This plant was at least 70-80 years old and was destroyed by teenage kids for fun.
Grrrr .... I am still mad about it {as you can tell!}.

Lulu in action with Garbage Sniffer Dog

More trash! Lots of paper cups and Styrofoam, aluminum cans and  plastic bottles.
At one point we found a place with at least 20 cigarette buts ... must have been one-hell-of-a-smoker-party ... or a stalker ...

Two large garbage bags later ...

Contents also included dog feces bags.I am not getting that at all!!!
It's one thing if your dog poops on the trail or street and you don't have a bag to clean it up. It's bad but I have to admit it happed to me too.
But to pick it up, seal it tightly in the plastic bag and then trow it in the bushes??? What the  ...???
Now you are preserving the shit and pollute with plastic on top of it. Thats just plain dumb!!!
At least the poop is organic and will disintegrate at some point but wrapping it in a bag and throwing it in the bushes? Why???

And then the trash right next to the garbage cans??? Not getting that either.
You are standing RIGHT next to the cans and you can not throw your buds, beer cans or bottles in the cans but litter all around it? It doesn't get any lazier than that.

Boy did we get mad today!!!
People are so selfish and lazy. Doesn't anybody care anymore?
I am far away from being an environmentalist nor do we live as earth-friendly as we should but I do care about this world and our planet.
I have brought two people into this world and would like to preserve as much as possible so they can enjoy life as we can. Too much damage has already been done. We all need to take care of this place!!!

You don't have to do it for me but for yourself. Who wants to live in landfill???
If everybody would just pick up their own trash the world would already be cleaner ... and that is without even mentioning living green or with less impact on the environment.

After seeing all the cups and Styrofoam today I will not get a coffee-to-go or a meal packed in a Styrofoam box for some time!! What an eye opener!!!

One grumpy citizen of this dirty world!!!

Clean-up, clean up,

Everybody everywhere, 

Clean-up, clean-up 

Everybody do your share!!!

Done for the day!

Mission Completion

"Garbage-Picker-Upper-Girl"

A clean path one way

and a clean path the other way

Clean-up celebration hug time!!!

A kiss for a job well done!

Good job my wonderful, green and caring children. 

L said she will from now on tell everybody to clean up their garbage so she doesn't have to pick up after them anymore. 

Hm ... maybe the same should count for toys in our house?? I am just saying ...  ;)

The inspiration to this deed came from the documentary

"No Impact Man"

Colin Beavan and his family tried to live for one year without making an impact on the environment.

 ... and that while living the middle of NY City.

It's a great documentary!

Watch it!!!

I feel like I need to shower now!!!

Off to wash off the dirt of "the world of Milpitas" :)

The Year of Living Generously - Good Deed # 5

This is another AMAZING example of little people giving in a big way!!! My girls are just the best ever and make me so proud!

L has a little friend who lives a few houses down and walks with us to school every morning.
We had never seen her before the summer. After walking with Velvet and her uncle every day to school we heard her story ... a very sad one which I don't need to repeat online.
All there is to know that this little girl and her older brother and sister are now living with their aunt and uncle after they had a very unfortunate, sad, sad, awful start of their lives with their "parents".
Everything bad that could happen to a child did happen to these kids ... everything!

Anyhow, they now have a normal life and are healing every day a little more. Their uncle and aunt became guardians of three young kids over night and are now trying to make up for what was lost before.

Velvet told L this morning that her stroller had broken and they could not fix it again. She said "I don't have one anymore."
When L came home we were chatting about how Velvet had no stroller and we have FOUR!
After applying our new learned basic elementary addition and subtraction skills we found out that we have more than we need and Velvet had none. The Ls made the decision to share and give one of their strollers to their little friend.

Now came the hard part ... which one to part with???!!! Remember this post? The Ls decided that this was the ONE. With a brand new cover this one was perfect to hand over to a new, happy owner.

The Ls walked down the street and gave the stroller to a very excited and bouncy Velvet.
Deed #5 ...  WELL done!!!

The Year of Living Generously - Good Deed # 4

It's been going a bit slow with this generosity thing but we have not given up on it yet.
We have a huge project in process which should be completed within the next two weeks (in case you were thinking we are sitting here doing nothing :) but today we made a little something to add to our list.

Giving can be done in big ways and in little, by big people and by little ones.
Here is an exquisite example of giving in a big way by a little person :)

How to say 

"Thank You!" 

to your School's Crossing Guard. 

L made a bottle sleeve out of crafting foam in form of the vest the Crossing Guard is wearing every day.

Added a little note ...

Wrapped it around ...

Et voila ...

 a wonderful, small sign of our appreciation to the man who makes sure our kids can cross the street on their way to school and back home safely.

This little baby will stay in our fridge until it's time to pick up L from school tomorrow.

It'll be nice and cold for the kind and always smiling recipient, 

who helps us, rain or shine, every, single school day.
L is so super excited and can not wait to hand-deliver this little token of our appreciation. 

Thank you dear Mr. Crossing Guard!