This month is a very simple but very hard thing for me – giving up soda. Soda is my drug of choice – I’ve spent literally years trying to wean myself off of it. Sometimes going to non-caffeinated versions like Sprite or Sierra Mist. But something always happens and I ramp right up to 3-5 cans of Dr. Pepper a day.

It’s a truly sickening habit. I’ve had several bouts of kidney stones, have been unable to lose weight, sleep horribly, and believe that a lot of the blame for those  things should be placed squarely on my soda addiction.

So it’s 10am on my first day and I’m totally jonesing for a Dr. Pepper. My tired brain is waiting for that little caffeine buzz. And it’s just going to have to wait.

Peace!

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!

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!

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!

I’m getting ready for my January Revolution Resolutions. January is the month of “Abundance” at my church and to honor that I am going to be giving abundantly to different charitable organizations – both of my time and my money. Every day in January I’ll be either physically volunteering, donating money, or donating items to at least one charitable organization. I’ve been doing some online research and have a list of organizations I want to help that are both local, national, and international.

I also have started volunteering weekly at Cridlin Food and Clothing Pantry and will start volunteering at Tri-State AIDS Task Force next week. Many, many years ago I supported the Chicken Soup Brigade, a Seattle charity that helped people living with HIV/AIDS, and am happy to be helping out even more in that arena again. I’ll be (wo)manning the TSATF office once a week.

So I decided to break it down by month

January – Absolutely nothing! January is the Tri-State is a bit of a downer. Hibernating is key!

February – led a Bible Study group at my church entitled “Just Eating”

- participated in a local art show – and won an award!

March - found that someone had painted  horrible racist graffiti all over a local business right around the corner from me – and put out a Facebook call to gather people to cover it up – and we did!

-Chris was in a car accident that put him out of work for 2 months – tough times

-started a vegetable garden and discovered I love digging in the dirt! My dad, the farmer, is so proud. And the kids really love it as well.

April – took a lovely roadtrip to Lexington – so close and yet so far

May – watched two of the best people I know get married – and got to photograph it for them

June – spearheaded our church’s participation in the Pride activities in Charleston,WV

-watched the amazing William Kittinger in his acting debut

July – was a lunch lady at our church’s vacation bible school

-started a journey into minimalism – still on that journey

August – my babygirl started kindergarten – she really isn’t a baby anymore – sniff!

- did a 10-day juice fast with Chris – who knew vegetable juice could be so yummy?

September – headed to New Orleans and helped rebuild a Hurricane Katrina-damaged church – lifechanging!

October – went on the best family vacation ever – at Deep Creek Lake, MD

- Chris lost his job and I starting working again after more than a year as a stay-at-home mom – major life adjustment

- began participation in Project 333 – choosing just 33 items of clothing to wear for 3 months. A major change for this former fashionista – and the funny thing I think I’ve gotten more fashion compliments recently than in the past 10 years – simplification is good

November – led a food drive at my church that raised over 6,000 items of food that were donated to two food local food pantries and Tri-State AIDS Task Force

December – started volunteering at Cridlin Food and Clothing Pantry

- preached the Christmas Eve sermon at my church

I did receive some hand-me-down clothes from a friend of mine. The old me would have kept the entire mountain of clothes. The new me went through the mountain (at her home), and only took pieces that I thought would suit me (we have similar tastes but vastly different complexions and body types). At home I tried the pieces on and kept most of them, and returned the few that really wouldn’t work for me. Those that I kept are more “spring” colors so I tossed them into my hold bin.

I have bought a few new pieces recently – jeans to replace some dying jeans, shirts to replace some stained shirts. One thing I’ve noticed about being minimal is that when something wears out you really need to fill that hole. I have one pair of earrings – and lost one of them this past Sunday. I’m now on a search for another perfect pair. I only buy handcrafted jewelry so I’m scanning Etsy and other sites. Until then, I’ll go without.

I’ve also noticed that there are some items that I still haven’t worn 2 months in – and they’re either going away or getting put in the hold bin. One is a little black dress that I thought I would wear for dressier occasions but I’ve found I like my velvet split skirt better right now, it’s more of a summer dress anyway so it’s going in the bin. There are a few winter shirts that I apparently just don’t like anymore – they have gone away, and a few lighter shirts that it’s now too cold to wear – they’ve gone into the bin – no need to look at them everyday.

Even though the 33 items have changed a bit I’m still under 33  – and that is a victory for me. This fall has been unseasonably warm – so I’m glad I kept so much of the lightweight stuff in my closet but returning them to the bin and embracing my full-on winter wardrobe has been nice too. I don’t see any reason to make any changes until spring (unless something else dies on me) - boots and jeans and cords and cozy knit shirts will be the uniform until March at least.

I spoke to Chris today and he is up for trying out Project 333 in January. And we (most probably I) will be reducing the kids’ wardrobes to 33 items each also. My plan is to do a little culling this week – and then do a final run through after Christmas in case they receive some clothes as gifts.

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