I have had my paperwork to fill out for my upcoming oncology appointment for over a week.
Category Archives: volunteer
Day 10 – 40DOW – tired
I’m tired.
Day 8 – 40DOW – gratitude
I’ve been sick the past few days. Fever and runny nose, you know that route, right?
The thing is that when you’re one week post op, you shouldn’t take risks, especially as I move on. Couple this with a change is what I will call discharge. I called my super awesome GYN. He had me come in to make sure everything was ok.
When I go back next week we will remove my IUD and I will get to keep it. I figure that since I actually kept my cerclage (it is a link to a link, so if you don’t want to see the knot that held me shut, you don’t have to click all the way through and just stop at my picture of Squink) that I wanted to keep my IUD as well. Symbols, if you will, of the two times my cervix failed me… or rather, of when we failed each other.
So, gratitude… yes. Aside from whomever is coming to see this blog (and it averages about 1 person per post (which may be me since I am writing this) I haven’t really told many people in the grand scheme of things. I have told my family, not all of them just the close and a few extended (a couple of cousins, though not all… I suppose I should do that tonight… though if truth be told the cousins I haven’t told are part of the group that thought letting me know that my grandmother had passed away via a public Facebook post was appropriate… so, I figured I could return the favor in some way).
Anyway, I sent out a bcc email to some folks who mean the world to me and who did not know. While I did not hear back from everyone I emailed, I was delighted with who did respond and what they said. I did send it out to a few males, I heard back from two. That was a surprise, they wrote these sweet gentle notes and considering that they are not sweet gentle men, I was touched.
I also told my fellow board members of an agency I serve on the board for, they were amazing and supportive. One bought me what she called her Catholic cancer kit; a statuette and booklets/cards of Saint Peregrine, some chamomile tea, and Holy water from Lourdes.
People who have chosen to reach out with messages of support and love have been so treasured. Phone calls, emails, letters, notes, offers of lunch or dinner and other… I feel so much comfort in their messages and offers of time and help. One (one of my guy friends) even saucily wrote that they would rather look at pictures of food than hear the news I had just given…
For you k…
I am so very lucky that I am not alone on this experience.
Being swallowed by the essence of life…
Volunteering.
It is considered on of those important things to do to lead a happy life.
I would agree, though if you are one of those who claim it is about (solely) reciprocal altruism… I would disagree. But that might be good for another post.
I recall conversations with my mother when I was a young girl in her pre-teens. Growing up in a third world country where poverty is very much in your face, and you are most definitely on the “haves” end of things can be distressing. My mother volunteered often and I recall asking her about poverty. She counseled me by telling me that it was our duty to help those who needed our help. That has stuck with me ever since.
On Friday I attended a work related conference and was fortunate to have an organization that I work with represented at their program fair. I shared the organization with people I had met throughout the conference that had mentioned they wanted to work with a good character development program.That organization is called Release The Fear
Saturday, I got to help another organization that I belong t,o a women’s membership organization (JLP), and we do really wonderful things in the community. Squink and I spent yesterday morning helping the committee tasked with training our brand new members what things we have done in our community. Here I am at the Arizona Science Center overlooking the Rosson House Museum (both projects the League has worked with):
We followed that with another volunteering excursion by taking Squink out for his first ever fundraising effort by setting up a popcorn sales table at a local Safeway.
I was/am so proud of him! The other scouts that were supposed to show up, didn’t. Though the city was deluged with a rather amazing rainstorm (floods and downed trees kind of storm). As Squink and I drove tot he location we talked about not going, but we also talked about fulfilling our obligations and we decided that it was best to go and see what the store said. They obviously told us to go ahead and set up.
Squink had one marvelous experience there. He met Keith. Keith was a retired photographer from the Arizona Highway department. They used to use his photographs of ruins and petroglyphs to create papier-mâché reproductions of them and how they were often featured at the sate fairgrounds. He also told Squink about his years as a door-to-door salesman in Indiana. Keith spent some time giving Squink pointers on how to be a better sales person. Keith did not have cash and we couldn’t take credit cards. So he said he would get cash back after his grocery purchases. Sadly, the rain had caused problems with the credit machines and the cash-back option was not working. When he came back, he told us that he could not do it, but that he had been planning to go out to dinner and had decided that he would now stay home and eat what he had on hand and watch a movie and use the money he was going to use to eat to buy a bag of popcorn. Keith used the scooters that the grocery store has to get around and had walked in using a cane. When Keith parked the scooter as he got ready to leave, Squink went up to him and asked if he could help him to the car. Here is a picture of the two of them walking out the door.
It was such a sweet experience, two friends (thank you Ronnie and Angie) stopped by and purchased some pop-corn too!
CUB SCOUTS
You can help him meet his goal of selling a minimum of $1500 by clicking on this link:
http://www.trails-end.com/All/b/6479672011?ie=UTF8&title=All+Products
Type in the council zip code of 85016
Look for the following once the scouts name field populates:
Josef S – Blair – Pack 0324 – Villa Montessori School
Here is the Facebook page for the program: https://www.facebook.com/BPAExchangeProgram
And you can contact me (again by comment or email) if you have questions or want me to email you the form in another format.
https://secure.edlio.com/ssl/forms/tax_donation/english_v2/index.jsp?ech=creightonschools.edlioschool.com&cross=1
PLEASE Make sure to enter Biltmore Prep and also to specifically mention the Hermosillo Exchange Program
Amount: * $
Any amount up to the maximum allowable 2014 tuition tax credit as follows:
Single or Head of Household: $200.00
Married Filing Jointly: $400.00
Married Filing Separately: $200.00
School Recipient: *
Biltmore Preparatory Academy
Program Preference:
Biltmore Prep Hermosillo Exchange Program
So, I have mentioned a few of the programs that I work with that if you want to support, I would be grateful.
One of the more exciting is that in addition to the School tax credit above you can also do a Working poor tax credit (yes, I believe that you can do both but check with a tax accountant/specialist!!!!)
$200. Taxpayers filing as “married filing separate” may claim a maximum credit of $200.
Taxpayers that file as “married filing joint” may claim a maximum credit of $400.
DONATE to Release The Fear ON-LINE HERE: http://www.releasethefear.org/donate.asp or get ahold of me for other ways. Make sure you mention in the comments that you want the tax credit and that Blair sent you.
And for that Women’s organization, you can make a charitable donation here:
https://www.jlp.org/?nd=donate_summary or get ahold of me if you would like to donate another way.
What is the essence of life? To serve others and to do good. ~ Aristotle