So January did not go as planned. I few financial bumps in the road kept me from giving as much money as I would have liked to different charities. Doctor’s visits and medication, car issues, etc.

But what I did do is give of my time – a lot.

I am now the Wednesday morning girl at Tri-State AIDS Task Force. The Task Force assists people living with HIV/AIDS. We help our clients get connected with housing assistance, provide information and literature on HIV/AIDS and prevention, and disseminate information on where to get tested.

I am also the Wednesday afternoon girl at Cridlin Food & Clothing Pantry. Cridlin provides food, clothing, and personal items such as soap and toothpaste to economically challenged individuals and families.

I also recommended and received approval to start a Peace and Social Justice  Team at my church. We’re already active and have even started a blog. As part of my participation in this Team I will be participating in the Fairness WV Lobby Day. I will also be participating in a Marriage Equality Protest on Valentine’s Day. We will also hosting a clothing drive in April to support Cridlin Food & Clothing Pantry and other area non-profits.

I am also part of an exploratory group that is looking to start a food co-op in Huntington. As food and nutrition stuff is very close to my heart I am very excited about this!!

So I didn’t give as much money as I wanted. But I have given a lot of my time – and as that is what I have that is what I will continue to give. And my friend Jenny and I have started an ATC group that will be meeting monthly. I already have been doing a lot of that work, but now have a few more duties. And I’m the newly appointment head of the Christian Education Team at my church. Oh yeah, and I have a friend who is starting website dedicated to LGBT issues in WV. Wooohooo – I don’t think I’ll be saying yes to anymore time commitments for a while. My plate is full!

First week of Revolution Resolutions – and I think I did pretty good so far.

I gave money to:

our church – First Congregational United Church of Christ

the in pre-production independent film Ladybeard - because the couple that is producing/writing/directing it is awesome

Little Victories Animal Shelter - in memory of my brother-in-law’s friend who passed recently

I’ve donated my time to:

Cridlin Food & Clothing Pantry

Tri-State AIDS Task Force

And we’ve donated stuff:

out-of-season-clothes and housewares to Goodwill

in-season clothes to Cridlin

furniture to a friend

 Sounds pretty good, right? Not bad for a first week. Now here’s the cool things that happened this week.

A person I am “Facebook friends” with posted on my wall that she’s been following my posts regarding First Congregational and she will be joining us for this Sunday’s service.

I have some church friends who will be bringing in clothes to donate to Cridlin – fabulous!!

I posted about donating to Ladybeard – and several friends shared the post and/or made their own donations. One of those friends posted the link on one of Huntington’s community pages. The following day there was a small article in the local paper about project and where people could go to donate. Cool!

A new member at the church has volunteered to help out at Cridlin this month.  Rockin’!!

Another friend has expressed interest in volunteering at Tri-State AIDS Task Force. Supercool!

Payin’ it forward!!

8' x 9' master bedroom!

Around November I thought I had finished purging. I knew there was some maintenance, of course, but that I would never have my porch full of “stuff” like it was back this summer. Oh yeah, never say never. Chris and I did some major purging the last couple of days.

We also  had promised Katie that we would swap rooms with her so that she can have a “big” room like William has. Katie was really given the short end of the stick when we moved into this house.  Her room was tiny, had what we had deemed as an “unusable” closet, and no fan. Katie had mentioned to Chris recently that she would like to have a big room – and if Katie asks something of Daddy, Daddy gets it for her.

So we swapped things out on Saturday – and amazingly we now have our queen bed in the room,  have storage space for all of our underwear, workout wear, kicking around the house clothes, and I have all of my clothes hanging on a garment rack in the craptastic closet. And the room feels light and airy!  Crazy!

And in one of those “the universe will provide” moments our friend called us Saturday morning to ask if Chris would be willing to help with some furniture moving. He showed up and instead of moving furniture we were gifted with a bedroom suite that is perfect for Katiebaby. We were able to purge some of the not-so-pretty bins and baskets that we had been using to store her clothes and toys and now she also has all of her stuff in her room, as opposed to most of  it being stored in William’s room. Score!

Chris purged over half of his wardrobe. I found three leather coats that I moved from Albuquerque and left in a garment bag  - one of them still with tags. Sigh – I’m such a freaking hoarder! We also purged some kids clothes, toys, a shredder that doesn’t work, storage containers, bookshelves we no longer need, curtains I’ve never liked, and recycled what feels like a ton of paper. The porch is once again full of our castoffs. Now to find appropriate new homes for all of this stuff!

Today is my first day of Revolution Resolutions. To keep things easy for a quiet Sunday I am counting my giving to my church. This year we have pledged to give 33%% more per week over our 2011 giving.

I grew up Catholic. And we went to church every week – no matter what. The other thing we did every week was put money in the collection plate. Although I rejected Catholicism, religion, and any belief in a higher power very early – and finally vocalized that when I was in high school – the act of giving stuck with me. My parents have always put their money where their faith is – and also given their time to things they believe in as well.

I hope I am instilling the act of giving in my children as well. They actually fight over being the one who gets to put our check in the offering plate. Today I forgot the checkbook – and Chris had to race home to grab it and get back before church started. There’s no way I can visit a house of worship empty-handed.

Peace!