Long Weekend

Chad and I are motoring to Wichita today for a long weekend with the fam. Jordan & Lacie have worked on Kyrie's flower garden in their yard, plum full of pink flowering plants. Dad is working on his wall shrine for Kyrie. Chad is legitimizing some Kyrie-inspired ideas that I had hoped to share this week, but next week looks more realistic. I, too, have been working on some Kyrieness of my own, and it sounds like many of you are as well. Love all the walk ideas! Yes, yes!

Erin wrote something in her comment this week that has been echoing in my ears ever since I read it: Go, Kyrie, go. And so many of you have said that she's made you change your behavior in little ways, more appreciative ways. So I was thinking about all the little things I could do today that would honor a child, this child, your child. Came up with 100. And it's not BIG things that, honestly, we should probably be doing, too, like adopting crack babies and joining the Peace Corps and ending pollution. Just ordinary decisions that culminate into extraordinary goodness.

Oh! And since today is a Thankful Thursday, my itty, bitty thing for which I'm thankful is the color pink.

1. Hug.
2. Use your turn signal.
3. Grow flowers.
4. Pick up trash.
5. Go for quality not quantity.
6. Read.
7. Read aloud.
8. Pick a charity & donate consistently.
9. Pick a charity & volunteer consistently.
10. Take lunch to a friend.
11. Send a letter.
12. If you can sing, sing.
13. If you can organize, organize.
14. If you can paint, paint.
15. If you can care, care.
16. If you can encourage, encourage.
17. If you can build, build.
18. Take photos and give them to your subjects.
19. Extinguish blight.
20. Wave to your neighbors.
21. Stop gossip.
22. Take extra flowers to a nursing home.
23. Organize a clean-up effort.
24. Buy local.
25. Ignore yucky “entertainment.”
26. Learn a craft.
27. Teach a craft.
28. Memorize and pass on your favorite poem.
29. Memorize and pass on your favorite psalm or proverb.
30. Take your car to youth car washes.
31. Buy something at a bake sale and take it to someone lonely.
32. Plant trees.
33. Remember that someone’s birthday.
34. Share your garden’s produce.
35. Visit.
36. Look for a child in need to whom you can give your child’s clothing.
37. Hold the door open.
38. Make a new friend.
39. Smile.
40. Let a car into your lane.
41. Rescue a mutt rather than buy a pedigree.
42. Eat dinner together at the table.
43. Laugh out loud.
44. Examine your “latte factor” and decide where that money could be better spent.
45. Comfort the sad.
46. Encourage the disheartened.
47. Conserve.
48. Hire an adult with a developmental disability.
49. Donate blood.
50. Get & use your library card.
51. Become a “block parent.”
52. Donate coloring books to hospitals.
53. Shovel snow or mow the lawn for an elderly neighbor.
54. Mentor.
55. Recycle.
56. Attend high school theater productions.
57. Cook a homemade meal for your family.
58. Teach your children to cook your favorite recipe.
59. Pick & master a new hobby.
60. Teach your hobby to children or to the community.
61. Give a “thank you wave” when someone lets you into their driving lane.
62. When it comes to stuff, remember that less is more.
63. Notice.
64. If you’re feeling bad about your behavior, apologize.
65. Use your manners, i.e. please, thank you, excuse me, etc.
66. Listen.
67. Listen to another perspective.
68. Listen to musical virtuosos.
69. Thank a farmer.
70. Thank a custodian.
71. Thank your parents.
72. Thank God.
73. Get interested in something that’s meaningful to you and good for others.
74. Drive slower through school and construction zones.
75. Have patience when driving slower through school and construction zones.
76. Don’t assume the worst about someone.
77. Give another family a Thanksgiving meal.
78. Be a Christmas angel to those in need, even it means having less for yourself.
79. Discuss the bible.
80. Choose to work with joy.
81. Assume nothing about another’s character by his or her clothing or hairstyle.
82. Bless a sneezer.
83. Make yourself feel someone else’s pain.
84. Prepare.
85. Choose one day of the week that’s TV free in your home.
86. Accept gratefully, even if it’s less than you expected.
87. Be careful with your words.
88. Take 10 minutes to think about someone else’s life.
89. Recognize and nix manipulation and corruption.
90. Walk for those who can’t.
91. Pray.
92. Don’t jump to conclusions.
93. Research and appreciate your ancestors.
94. Allow another’s path to be different from yours.
95. Right a wrong.
96. Picnic.
97. Go fishing.
98. Appreciate.
99. Be authentic.
100. Do a good work without expecting anything in return.