It seems that everything for Austin’s graduation open house is taking me twice as long as it should because I feel the need to create/design everything myself. I found myself spending an hour just designing his return address labels. I’ve been having fun with it though. I’ve decided to go with a rustic theme, from the open house invitations to the labels for food, props for food tables, and decorations. Here’s the open house invitation… (address blurred for security purposes)
Holy whirlwind Batman! Can it get any busier than this? Between work, my side business, 2 baseball schedules, and graduating a senior, some things have been pushed down to the bottom of the list; my blog being one of them. BUT, I’m still doing the random acts of kindness which, I guess, is the important thing. So, to catch you up on what I’ve done..
On week 17, I sent a neighbor a thank you card, thanking him for having such a beautiful lawn. It’s the type of grass you just want to throw your shoes off and roll around in. So lush and green.. But not only does he have nice grass, his flowers are pretty amazing too. I thought he should know that his hard work and treatment of his grass doesn’t go unnoticed. I hope he wasn’t too freaked out when I told him I often resisted the urge to run through his yard barefoot. Lol.
On week 18 Conner King, a friend of Austin’s and also a teammate on the New Castle Varsity baseball team, broke the all-time hit record for New Castle baseball. As a random act of kindness, we sent a card to Conner, congratulating him on his accomplishment. I say we, because my whole family signed it.
On week 19 I didn’t put much thought or creativity into my random act of kindness. Usually when I check out at a store and they ask me if I want to donate money to a particular charity, I say “not today”. Well, not this time. On this week, I donated money to Riley Childrens’s Hospital. I did it in your honor, Jackson.
So now I’m nearing the end of week 20 and have nothing to report yet, but the week isn’t over. I’m not sure how often I’ll be reporting the roak’s with graduation coming up. I may bundle them like I did this time. After mid June it should slow down.. hopefully.
The last two random acts of kindness lack orignality. On both occasions I went to Starbucks before work and bought someone their cup of coffee. A little disappointed in myself for not thinking of something new to do, but the feeling of doing something unexpectedly kind for someone was still as inspiring as ever. When I first started doing this, I was asked why I was blogging about it. “For recognition?”, they asked. That was not it at all. Partly, I’m blogging about it to keep me accountable for continuing to perform a random act of kindness for 52 weeks. Mostly though, it was to help spread the kindness and to get others thinking about what they could to do make it a kinder world to live in. I have to say, after 16 weeks of deliberately showing kindness to someone once a week, I’ve found that it has really changed me. It has made me look at others beneath the surface. I feel I appreciate people more and actually care about them more. I find myself taking in the moment, enjoyng every second. I’m so glad I ‘ve started this New Year’s resolution. I would recommend it to anyone. Now, next week I’ll be more original with my ROAK. 
