30 Day Giving Challenge Day 13 2012

The House of Hills is once again participating in the

30 DAY GIVING CHALLENGE!

Our goal is to give something EVERY day of the month. Big or small, every give is a gift to someone! Join the giving with us. We’d love to hear what you’re doing.

It’s my birthday! Whoop! Happy Birthday to me. Happy Birthday to me!

I already had my birthday party – Operation Christmas Child style – so today was a pretty normal day. Well, not really. I had my yearly physical, which is of course always a joy. And, now that I’m 41 they add an EKG and chest x-ray to the fun. And, the gave me an order to go get a mammogram. I mean seriously… you go to the doctor once only to have to go a trillion more times. However, I was very kind at the doctor’s office. Even, when it was getting close to noon and I still hadn’t eaten because I had to fast for my blood work. I was nice to people and smiling while my stomach made ridiculous noises.

After school, Maggie and I headed down to church where Hubby was working a conference. She wanted to ring things up in the store, and I had promised to do the afternoon Starbucks run.

So our give today (after my smiles of course) started with the Starbucks run. You’ve got to love walking into Starbucks, pulling out your phone and then reading off things you don’t even understand. I always crack up when I do the run because I really don’t even know what I’m talking about. I don’t drink coffee. I have no idea what a half double triple frap with whip is. Is that even something? I don’t know.

We got the coffees and headed over to church to serve Hubby’s team. They were very excited to see us coming. Working conferences is HARD work people. HARD WORK! Be nice to people who work conferences. They’re usually exhausted by the time you even get there. And then they continue to work HARD!

Then the girl jumped behind a register in the store and rang people up. (No, she’s not allowed to actually do the taking of money part, but she does everything else.) She loves to ring people up! And, people LOVE to have her wait on them. We even had one guy ask her to sign the book he just bought. At one point, it was just she and I in the store. All the others had rushed off to do one thing or another or eat dinner. So, that was our second serve of the day. Helping out at Hubby’s store.

It was a good day. Even if I did start it getting poked and prodded.

 

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30 Day Giving Challenge Day 12 2012

The House of Hills is once again participating in the

30 DAY GIVING CHALLENGE!

Our goal is to give something EVERY day of the month. Big or small, every give is a gift to someone! Join the giving with us. We’d love to hear what you’re doing.

Tonight Maggie and I went and had pizza for a cause. We even met up with some friends.

Our friends at Mia’s Pizza and Eats and Cumming Local were having a food drive for Food for Thought. We gave our cans and a gift card to the wonderful people who run the organization.

If you are local, you need to check out Food For Thought. They do an amazing job distributing food throughout the county, and they make it SO EASY for us. They drop off an orange bag for you to fill when you can. Then, every other month, they come by and swap your full bag for another empty one. See, I told you it was easy.

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30 Day Giving Challenge Day 11 2012

The House of Hills is once again participating in the

30 DAY GIVING CHALLENGE!

Our goal is to give something EVERY day of the month. Big or small, every give is a gift to someone! Join the giving with us. We’d love to hear what you’re doing.

It’s Sunday again so I did my weekly Sunday giving by serving in the preschool environment at church. I do love those little cuties and all their crazy they bring to service each week.

In addition, this morning Maggie and I loaded all 75 OCC boxes into the mini-van and brought those to church.

We had a friend bring us a few things to pack in some boxes so I think we’ll get four more boxes packed this week and send those to church with hubby on Thursday.

WE ARE SO THANKFUL TO ALL OUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY that helped us pack shoe boxes this year. It’s such a privilege to pack these boxes each year. We love it.

Today was one of my favorite days at church. We started the BE RICH campaign. We’ve done it each year for the past five years, and it is just SO AMAZING to watch God work through it.

Timothy 6:18: “Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.”

We are “rich” here at the House of Hills, not by American standards, but for sure by World standards. We have so much more than so many, and it is such a blessing to be able to share. Our church does a great job of finding reputable organizations with which to partner to do fabulous things in our community and around the world. We even had a local news team at church today reporting about Be Rich. It was so fun to see our friends on the screen.

It was an amazing day of giving and watching others give. I so love when the our minds and hearts turn to how we can help and serve others during this season. It just makes me smile inside and out.

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30 Day Giving Challenge Day 10 2012

The House of Hills is once again participating in the

30 DAY GIVING CHALLENGE!

Our goal is to give something EVERY day of the month. Big or small, every give is a gift to someone! Join the giving with us. We’d love to hear what you’re doing.

Tonight we did a give that Maggie has been absolutely begging to do for the last two years. Each year as we start talking about what we’re going to do for the giving challenge, she has asked that we pay for someone behind us in the drive thru line. Each year, it’s gone on the calendar, and each year, it hasn’t happened for one reason or another.

This year as we were looking at the calendar, she pointed to today and said.”There mom. We can do it on Saturday after my late rehearsal. I’m going to need to eat anyway.” I agreed, and we put it on the calendar.

On the way to rehearsal, she confirmed that going through the drive thru was still the plan. I assured her it was. When I picked her up, she was giddy with excitement. We were taking a friend home too, and Maggie was so full of joy about the whole thing that the other girl got excited too.

When we first got in the line, there wasn’t anyone behind us. Maggie was almost in tears. She was turned around in her seat praying that someone would pull in behind. When someone did, she started bouncing. “We’re going to do it mom. We can do it!”

When I pulled up to the window and asked to pay for the people behind us, the young man just looked at us stunned and said, “Why?” He apparently had never been part of an random act of kindness. I explained what we were doing, and asked him to tell the people behind us “Happy Thanksgiving.”

The girls were both turned around in their seats trying to see the reaction of the people behind us. Unfortunately, it was already dark so it was hard to see. It led to a great conversation about not needing recognition when you give to someone. I shared that my favorite way to give is anonymously. I don’t need the gratification of seeing the recipient’s reaction. I give because Jesus asked us to give, not so someone can say thank you.

So, today’s give was some chicken nuggets and a chicken sandwich… at least that’s what the receipt said.

Have you ever paid for the person behind you in the drive thru?

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30 Day Giving Challenge Day 9 2012

The House of Hills is once again participating in the

30 DAY GIVING CHALLENGE!

Our goal is to give something EVERY day of the month. Big or small, every give is a gift to someone! Join the giving with us. We’d love to hear what you’re doing.

Tonight I made dinner for my family… well, my hubby’s family. They came over for dinner and game night.

That’s us playing Apples to Apples – the favorite family game!

Then, there was some “Just Dance” action going on.

I love it when these three get together. It’s so much fun. They couldn’t look more like cousins could they? The girls are only 8 weeks apart. LOVE THEM ALL!

Oh, if you want to know what I made for dinner:

It was an AWESOME night of family fun!

What’s your favorite thing to cook for your family?

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30 Day Giving Challenge Day 8 2012

The House of Hills is once again participating in the

30 DAY GIVING CHALLENGE!

Our goal is to give something EVERY day of the month. Big or small, every give is a gift to someone! Join the giving with us. We’d love to hear what you’re doing.

Today’s give was actually a culmination of several days of giving. I mentioned Day 2 of the Giving Challenge that I had sent some goodies with our AMAZING customer service team. Well, actually, I sent more than that, but I didn’t want them to know so I couldn’t blog about it.

The leaders of the different teams in my company had teamed up so we could send a gift for every day of the retreat. Each day, they opened a bag and found something fun inside.

  • Day One: A funny video we made for them as well as popcorn and M&Ms to eat while they watched it.
  • Day Two: Individual baggies of Hershey’s Hugs and Kisses.
  • Day Three: Fuzzy socks to wear on the chilly nights.
  • Day Four: The book “Jesus Calling” with a hand written note inside.

They all really appreciated the gifts. I heard that they looked forward to the surprise every day. So much fun.

I also heard that the thing they LOVED the MOST was the hand written notes. In a world where everything is read on a computer screen, it is so refreshing to actually read something on a piece of paper. And, everybody knows that it takes more time to hand write something than it does to type it. A hand written notes really shows that you care about the person and that they are important to you.

The best part about hand written notes—they don’t cost much. You don’t even have to have a fancy note card. Paper will do.

So, I challenge you today! Before the end of the month, I challenge you to write a note to someone. Take a minute to just tell someone why they are special. Wouldn’t it be AWESOME to pass out notes at Thanksgiving telling your friends and family how thankful you are for them!

So, write a note! Then, come back and share who you wrote it to. I’d love to see this post blow up with comments!!!

You know what! I’m going to make it even more fun! (I’m totally thinking of this while I’m typing.) Let’s do a GIVEAWAY! Everyone who comments on this post telling me who they wrote a note to will be entered to win a $10 Target Gift Card (from me) so they can buy a set of pretty note cards.

GO!

WRITE A NOTE!

Then, come back and comment! WHOOP!

Giveaway will end November 30th. One comment per note you write. This is totally my idea. Nobody gave me anything. Have fun!!

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30 Day Giving Challenge Day 7 2012

The House of Hills is once again participating in the

30 DAY GIVING CHALLENGE!

Our goal is to give something EVERY day of the month. Big or small, every give is a gift to someone! Join the giving with us. We’d love to hear what you’re doing.

While we’re still in recovery mode from yesterday’s Big OCC Party, we had to jump back into life today.

Mags had a video shoot for Orange (yes, where I work). She’s been doing the “One Thing” videos for the GET REEL product. It’s used in elementary church environments. It’s a great little two minute video that focuses on a child learning that month’s life application.

The last one we did was shot at our house, and they were back again to shoot this one. In addition, an OBD friend of Maggie’s was used in another one of the videos so they shot that one at our house too.

So, today’s give was allowing my house to be a production studio.

Have you ever let strangers come into your house with video cameras?

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30 Day Giving Challenge Day 6 2012

The House of Hills is once again participating in the

30 DAY GIVING CHALLENGE!

Our goal is to give something EVERY day of the month. Big or small, every give is a gift to someone! Join the giving with us. We’d love to hear what you’re doing.

 

Today was the day of our BIG GIVE! It was my Operation Christmas child Birthday Party! See—I even got to wear my birthday pin!

This was our THIRD time doing this party, and I think they just get better every year.

First, let me say this. I COULD NOT do this party every year without my hubby. He is such an integral part of the entire process, and I was SO THANKFUL that he took the day off so he could party with us. He helped with setup. He helped people pay for their boxes online. He took out countless bags of trash, and I’m sure there is a ton of stuff I don’t even know he did. So, a big shout out to my best friend.

Another person who works hard for this day is Maggie. She rocks at party prep, and prepping for this party is fun for us to do together. Being the actress that she is, she decided that she needed to do an orientation video. We had it available for people to see when they first came in. She decided to make this one hour before the party was going to start and had no help from hubby or I. I just had to share it with you. (Please excuse the lighting issues. She’s learning.)

So fun, right?

Once our guests had experienced orientation, they dove right in to packing boxes.

Check out all those boxes being packed at once! My mom came with two of the cousins, and they packed TEN boxes. Then, a friend came and packed SIXTEEN! It was awesome.

At one point, my hall was full of people getting things for the boxes!!!

This makes me SO HAPPY!

All in all we packed 75 BOXES! WHAT? WHOOP! I’m thrilled with that. And, there is still stuff sitting in my hall. I might run by the store and grab a few more “big” items tomorrow so we can pack a few more before we take the entire load to church on Sunday.

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! to all my friends and family who made my birthday so special this year! I appreciate you more than you’ll ever know.

There’s still time for you to pack an Operation Christmas Child Shoebox! You know you want to. Just do it!

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30 Day Giving Challenge Day 5 2012

The House of Hills is once again participating in the

30 DAY GIVING CHALLENGE!

Our goal is to give something EVERY day of the month. Big or small, every give is a gift to someone! Join the giving with us. We’d love to hear what you’re doing.

Today was preparation day! Tomorrow is my big Operation Christmas Child Birthday Party, and there was lots to do to get ready.

Maggie and I went to do a little shopping at Walmart. We found several matching outfits on the $1 rack, and were so excited about adding those to the boxes.

I was so proud of my girl. She puts a portion of all the money she makes through her allowance and odd jobs aside to give to others. She had been saving for an entire year for this year’s shoe boxes and had $100 to spend. That was enough to pack five boxes, including the shipping.

After the two of us filled the mini-van with bags from Walmart and the Dollar Store, we headed home. Poor Hubby had to work.

But, several friends my Small Group  helped us organize all the goodies from my tubs in the garage.

Then we put together the 100 boxes I’d ordered from Operation Christmas Child.

Maggie helped too.

By the time we went to bed that night, we were ready for a fun OCC party in the morning.

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30 Day Giving Challenge Day 4 2012

The House of Hills is once again participating in the

30 DAY GIVING CHALLENGE!

Our goal is to give something EVERY day of the month. Big or small, every give is a gift to someone! Join the giving with us. We’d love to hear what you’re doing.

 

It’s Sunday. Sunday means serving at church. Every Sunday. For the past twelve years.

See, it even says so on my name tag. “Serving since 2000.”

That seems crazy to me. Has it really been twelve years since I started serving in the preschool area at my church? I guess so. There has been SO MUCH CHANGE since I started. The preschool wing has more than doubled in size. I’ve been there longer than most of the staff. I’ve watched countless kids that I’ve held and loved move on up to the elementary and even high school program. I’ve served with hundreds of volunteers—some there for a year, some there for as long as me.

But, there is one thing that has never changed. There are always a little faces looking up at me that need to know God made them. God loves them. And, Jesus wants to be their friend forever. They need to know that I care. They need to know the love of Jesus, and I show them.

That love looks different for each child. Some need a hug. Some need a lap to sit on. Some need an extra scoop of Goldfish. Some need an adult to listen to their story.

All need to know their Heavenly Father.

That’s why I wear my name tag with pride. That’s why I serve every Sunday.

Do you serve somewhere on a regular basis?

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