Guess I'll just spill my guts to you?!

I have to admit sometimes I don't know how much of me I should share on here. My focus is service and pictures of course, but sometimes I don't know if what I post about is what people want to see generated from The SIP project. What do you want me to post about/work on? I guess I have never really asked that, know why?! Cause I am really good at assuming!

I am thinking it could be fun to do a weekly post that's really more of a letter called Monday Reflections, (what else should I call it? I'm not sold on Monday Reflections.) One that you could use as a weekly prompt to write a letter along with me. You could go as far as starting a private personal blog that you use for journaling, using this writing prompt and print it out once a year. I would also encourage you to create other posts for your journaling blog and add pictures to go along with them. I have really been into my private family blog and I guess that type of journaling is spilling into The SIP project.

What I've Noticed About My Life...I was talking to my SIL Carla about this as I was packing up her pantry for her. I recently organized a Self-Reliance Fair for our community for the second year in a row. It takes 5 months of planning start to finish. Here is what I noticed; If I have cereal in my cupboard I am stressed, think Golden Grahms, Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Marshmallow Mattie's. It may seem silly to put this on here, but when I recognize these type of things it can better help me plan and snap out of it.  We do things like buy cereal and don't make the connection that stress is affecting our health. It's not like I am unconsciously buying cereal, but the next time I am at the store and have the urge to buy cereal I can step back and see what is stressing me enough to make me want to buy comfort food. Then hopefully it won't make it into my cart.

So the fair was two weeks ago and I have been trying to catch up on everything else I was putting off to work on the fair. I wanted to just get away, but I can't, such is life, right?! So my SIL and her family of 7 (well in Sept. they will be) have to move suddenly and so I of course want to help them, but I also just want to get away. I have had the kids stay the night a few nights and went over another day and helped pack all day long. What I noticed is even though I feel like I have a ton I need to catch up on, I didn't feel like helping put me behind. It was a busy week last week and as I reflect on it, I was the happiest when I was willing to lay aside what I wanted to do and help someone else instead. It's kinda seems like an oxymoron to lose yourself to find yourself, but it works, try it.

Summer Time...Last summer I started SIP Summer Camp as a way to do service with my kids over summer break it ended up being 9 weeks total. It was a lot to do, I had to organize the service project, document it and then blog about it in a week time frame. It just felt a little rushed, though we had a great time and included friends and family I felt like I couldn't spend the time to focus on the 'why' because I had to hurry on to next weeks plans. I am sure my kids learned and grew from last years experiences I just think it will be good to change this years approach. This year I would like to focus on doing service just with my kids. I am hoping it will give me more time to talk to them about what we are doing and why. I still haven't figured it all out and the summer is flying by. I wish I could be more like Sheila from Pennies of Time, she's so on top of it!

What inspires me...My SIL Keri watching my SIL Carla's [Carla: a women with one of the most tender hearts known to man.] kids for 5 hours in the house across the street (her mom's house) so Carla could get some packing done.

The picture is from a post I did a while back.

My SIL Keri who I sat down with last week to go over my idea for the large collection container for Service Beans. A program I came up with and will be heading up on the PTO in August. It's a way to raise money for local needs through the kids at the school doing service, more on that later. We drew up the plans and when I mean we, I drew up what I was thinking and I saw the look on her face, it didn't help her understand what I wanted at all Lol. Luckily she is awesome and we got it all figured out and she drew up the plans. We loaded up 6 kids and headed to Hobby Lobby and then to Lowe's. Then back to her house to start building it. We, (again her, I just assisted when I could, since I know next to nothing about wood working) worked in the HOT garage for about 3 hours. I know just like any of us she has a list of things she could have been doing instead of helping me with a program that won't even effect her kids...well maybe next year when she starts Service Beans at her kids school :)

My sister Amy was telling me about her cousin Misty and how one of her 3 little boys had to be in the hospital for heart problems. While she was at the hospital she heard about 150 women and children most of which have AIDS. They're coming here from Congo I believe to live in Berkeley and get the medical care they need. Well of course they are moving into unfurnished apartments and have like 2 pairs of clothes each. Misty heard this and while she had plenty of reason to dismiss it and focus solely on her little boy she immediately wanted to organize a way to help them get the basics, furniture, clothes, toys etc. I am sure they are just glad to be in the states, but wouldn't it be grand to have people welcome you into a foreign country by loving kindness. I will keep you posted on how we can help. I was telling Zaya about  these people and I think it really had an impact on her, she even wanted to send them some of her toys. I know it impacted me!
Until I wrote this out I hadn't realized those who inspired me so much this past week are all women in my family. I am blessed to be influenced by these giving women and I know their biggest influence is the Savior.

This is inspirational to the hilt! It's one thing to stick your toes into the waters of service, but it's a whole other thing to jump in 100%! If this isn't jumping in I don't know what is. Listen to Marcus Mitchell's interview. He gives away half of his income! I was interviewed on the Pay It Forward Radio show last year, if you need a pick-me-up listen to one of these interviews especially his!

Like I said at the beginning of the post I haven't really asked what kind of posts you would like me to generate for The SIP project. Please take a minute and tell me the one type of post that would interest you the most. For example, serving with kids, creating a service project from scratch, using your talents, see these are the lines I think along so I really need your input, I want to post about what interests you. Thank You! :)