Look What the Cat Dragged In...

Poor little guy...

Our cat considers himself to be a great hunter and usually brings us all kinds of poor little baby animals to take care of. This year, thankfully, this guy is the first (and, hopefully, the last) of our visitors. He's got a little knick on top of his head that looks superficial. But , then he's got a little bit of roughing up just behind his neck, too. I wanted him to calm down before I checked him out any further, so he's in the bathtub, in a big box with lots of rags to bury himeslf into.

I think he'll make it and, by the size of him, he'll probably be ready to head off on his own pretty soon! As a teenager, I worked for wild animal rehabilitation center. (Yeah, that always gets me - what am I rehabilitating them from? Drugs, alcohol?) Anyway, I've been lucky enough to gain enough experience to know how to handle the majority of the mammals, birds, and - yikes! - even reptiles that may need help.

Now, who could turn down helping out this poor little guy who's lost his mommy and gotten beaten up by a big, bullying cat?!

Please Sign This Petition!

I just saw this at One Rich Mother and think it's important. Basically, a homeless woman living in Madrid ended up in a homeless shelter with her 15 month old daughter. She practiced co-sleeping, still breastfed, was an attachment parent, and used gentle discipline. The shelter wanted her to take medication to dry up her milk and wean her child. The woman refused. One day, while the child was in daycare, the shelter would not let the mother have her back. No court ruling, nothing. The mother got kicked out of the shelter and put on the streets because it was a shelter for mothers and children - she no longer had a child!

This is the only way I know to help her. You can check out the post at One Rich Mother, which also has links to embassies. I just don't know how to go about contacting someone, who to contact, or even what to say! On my sidebar, is a petition you can sign. Here is the link to where the petition originated: IMMF Give Back Habiba's Baby

Newest Random Acts of Kindness {March of Kindness - March 18-23}

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It's been almost a week since my last March of Kindness post, so I figured I had better get caught up! I could have written an entire post for each of these, but things have been pretty busy around here. I'm trying to keep up with my Educational Psychology course (it is SO interesting!), my oldest has been caught lying about his homework (again) and I found out he's missing a whopping 21 assignments, and the great weather had gotten us outside quite a bit. Well, my homework is done for today, my oldest is sitting at the kitchen table (his new home) doing his homework, and the weather has turned cold and yucky again. I think I have time now!

#1 - Clean Up the Neighborhood
We live approximately 100 yards from "the wrong side of the tracks" - literally. Around here, it is not a stereotype, but a reality, about the amount of trash floating around low income neighborhoods. People just don't have any pride about their surroundings when their homes are so run-down looking. So, when the snow melted a little over a week ago, all of the trash that had been strewn about all winter surfaced. It looked terrible! Everything from potato chip bags to empty pop bottles to broken fifths of vodka littered our neighborhood.

This is our side yard. The "wrong side of the tracks" is just beyond that train.

When we went on our neighborhood walks, the boys and I took along two trash bags each time. One was for the trash, the other for recyclables. We always came home with both bags completely filled. It was hard trying to teach Little Guy which things he could pick up and which I wanted him to leave for me to touch. Broken glass seems to be a huge draw for him with it's sparkly, shiny qualities! On each of three walks, we came home with two completely filled yard size trash bags. My oldest got to keep all of the cans and bottles we found (worth 10 cents each in Michigan!) and ended up with $20! We found a book shelf that only needed a little cleaning, a few Hot Wheels cars for the little guy, and even a $2 Canadian coin. We got weird looks from passers by for the first day, then we noticed a few people walking around with trash bags on our second day out. And THEN, we saw FIVE other groups of people out cleaning up on our third day!!! Yes, there is a ripple effect for random acts of kindness - I just can't believe that it's turned into a tsunami in our neighborhood!


#2 - Help an Evicted Neighbor
Last weekend, our downstairs neighbor was evicted. In our area, the eviction process lasts a mere 2 weeks from the time the tenants are served until the sheriff's department comes to escort them out of their homes. This leaves little time for securing a new place to live and for packing belongings and getting them moved out. Our neighbor went through this and had only managed to move half of her things out before the locks were changed. She managed to get her large items into storage - furniture, appliances, etc. but she had none of her other things like dishes, bathroom items, and even most of her clothes.

This is how it's supposed to go. But, in our county, they've changed the times around and you can be out within 10 days of the start of this process.

I called the landlord. He came over the next day and let me go into her former apartment to get the rest of her things out. It took forever and I had no place to put her stuff. The four of us live in a tiny, 625 sq. ft., one-bedroom apartment - there's no room for our stuff! But, we stacked everything up wherever we could find the room. Our house looked like those pictures you see of hoarders' homes! She was so happy when, a couple of days later, she was able to come for her things. It felt good to know that I was able to help someone like this. I have been evicted a long time ago and lost everything but the overnight bag I had packed - it was so hard to start over! I know how she was feeling and I am glad that I had the ability to take some of the stress off of her shoulders.

#3 - Helping Out Other Bloggers
This was an easy one and I'm kind of embarrassed to even mention it, but maybe it'll give someone else an idea to do the same and get that ripple effect going online. I spent the past week blog hopping like crazy. I tried to leave comments of every blog I visited. I followed those blogs on GFC, Facebook, or Twitter (or all three, in some cases). I added buttons in my sidebar for the blogs I really enjoyed and want to share. I entered lots of low-entry giveaways and often shared those giveaways on Facebook or Twitter to help the blogger and sponsor out. (Hey, if I can't use the prizes, I know people who can!)

I also joined a new hop hosted by Real Mom Reviews designed to lower Alexa ratings and hopped around as much as possible. I'll keep on doing this Monday hop because it helps me find new blogs to follow, lowers their Alexa ratings, and improves their stats all around.









LOL - I know, not a great hint, but it's all you're going to get!

Where Are My Random Acts of Kindness Posts??? {March of Kindness 3/5 - 3/17}

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"So, what happened to your March of Kindness project?"

Well, it's like this. After my last posing for this meme about being kind to myself, everything fell apart. My computer crashed (again), my little guy had a round of the Terrible Twos that was deafening, dinner was burnt, my oldest came home with a note from his teachers sayiong that he hadn't turned in one bit of homework for a minth, and my husband decided he needed to take a nap in the midst of it all! I went to bed that night wishing I had skipped my little bit of luxury - it wasn't worth what came after! Guess karma had it out for me that day.

Things slowly got worse for a few days, then got better. I wanted to jump back into the March of Kindness, but I feel like a hypocrite. I look at the great list of ideas posted on Code Name: Mama's site and feel as if these are things I should strive to do everyday, anyway. A few years ago, I had a complete change occurr within myself. I no longer looked out fo me and only me. I regained the empathy and compassion I had back when I was a child. It was around that time that I decided to try to be "good" to others at all times. I began trying to look for little ways to make others' lives easier, whether it was helping someone carry heavy bags of groceries to their car or finding that lost dog's home.

I feel weird posting about these little things that I do every day. It's like tooting my own horn and that's not me at all. I get embarrassed about it. I don't want to feel proud when I do these things, I just want them to be a part of who I am. So, if I don't post every day about these thing, now you know why. When I do post, it will be to share an experience that, perhaps, one of my readers may be inspired to try out, too.

With that said, here is one thing I did last week that helped me, my family, some homeless in my area, the local library, and some pregnant teens and their little ones.

I have a huge collection of books. I love browsing our local used bookstore's shelves for interesting titles and very old first editions. When these books are only a dime a dozen - literally! - I end up coming home with stacks each time I visit the store. Most of these books are the kind that I intend to read but just don't have the time. The rest are books that I think I may need someday. They line all of my walls. They collect big, thick layers of dust. About 90% of them have never been opened by me or anyone else in my family. So, I decided to swallow big and get rid of all but the essentials. It was a huge job. Since there was so much dust, and I'm highly allergic, I had to carefully remove each book from its place, vacuum it off, then wipe it with a wet rag. I made four piles: Keepers, Donate to Salvation Army's Homeless Shelter, Donate to Teen Pregnancy Charity, Donate to Library.

We live a block away from a Salvation Army homeless shelter. This is a refuge for families who have been evicted. The shelter offers private rooms for each family, meals, and help finding jobs. I put all of my "how to save money" and "how to fix your home" books into that pile along with all of my novels and the children's books my kids don't read anymore. Those kids have lost everything. And, when you're being evicted and have no place to keep your stuff, the last thing most people are going to pack up and take along are their book - they're heavy and take up a lot of space!

I have a ton of natural childbirth, breastfeeding, and attachment parenting books. I don't need them anymore. I'm not having anymore children, I'm a pro at breastfeeding and little guy is close to self-weaning, and I really don't need to study attachment parenting - I'm living it! I don't think that teen mothers are prepared for any of these things. They are told how to eat right. They might be taught how to make formula and change a diaper. That's it. What they learn is about from friend is how to ask for epidurals to make the "excruciating" pain of labor disappear, and that breastfeeding is "gross", and they're often on their own when it comes to caring for their little ones. So, hopefully I will be able to help educate some new moms and make their lives a little easier.

Finally, all of the random books I had that didn't fit the other two categories went to our public library. They have a book shelf in their foyer that hold donated books. You can buy anything you want for whatever you think it's worth. The money goes to fund after school programs in that particular library. We live in a poor area of town and our library always gets the short end of the stick when they're handing out the funds each year. It's nice to know that my books will be used to help the librarians buy craft supplies, etc. to use for their after school programs!

The few books that I kept are either used often or special to me. I managed to give away a whopping 300 books and kept about 75! My house is dust-free (for now) and I have all of this extra shelf space. So, if oyu're looking to get rid of a few books, keep local charities in mind - they don't often get book donations because it's not something we think of giving.