To start, why does our school district have Spring Break so early? We woke up to a frozen tundra of ice and snow that literally froze my car locks shut. I know I am now a true Wisconsinite as I luckily carry a two foot ice scraper and a bright yellow bottle of Ice-B-Gone in my trunk year round. I was mighty happy for these two items as I stood in three inches of arctic ice water in purple flip flops no less, packing up the car this morning as we checked out of the resort. I knew I still had a full day ahead of me before we would return home, but I tried to find the humor, the memory in the moment of insanity. Now I am home in my warm bed and am so thankful for the next four days to recoup from the madness we all know called "the great American Family vacation"!
I will not bore you with stories of me nearly throwing up on the kiddie coaster, or me cussing at the arcade when the I lost Deal or No Deal....again... or me taking no prisoners when I didn't go easy and let my child win Air Hokey. Those are not the kind of sweet memories that I want to share, though I will always remember them.
What I do want to share is my excitement over finding another piece of the puzzle for my project. A few days ago before I took my vacation break from my newest obsession, Alison brought up an idea of having a little figurine or token that could be sent to our special Lady of the Month as a reminder of us... I addressed this in my usual "I need to ponder this for a day or so to figure out the perfect idea." The Martha Stewart part of me wanted to find something that would "Coordinate" with the motto: a Pinch of Kindness. But what? The thought pillaged my brain for a few hours and then I consciously had to tell myself, "Mitzi, you're going on vacation...give it a break!!!"
So you can imagine the glee I felt on a mid swim/coaster break at a small gift shop when I happened upon miniature eternity circles. It could be put on a simple chain, a keyring, even made into a magnet or a number of other creative things. But most significant to me was that it had the word kindness engraved on it and was the size of a coin, just the perfect size to hold between my thumb and my pointer finger... a pinch. The silver circle was a mere three dollars. By all means, not extravagant, just a cheap reminder of such a extravagant objective...kindness.
Before I even got my kids home from our trip, I myself was reminded of this notion as I pillaged through my purse in search of a quarter for my youngest son, zonked out of his mind from too much fun, not enough sleep vacation as he requests "a quarter...I need quarter Mom... I want quarter...do you have a quarter Mom?" I furiously dig into the bottom of my purse, just wanting to dig out a quarter to shut the kid up so we can get to the car and on the road home and pull out what I think is the sought after coin, only to find this miraculous find from the gift shop. I take a breathe, turn to my son and say: "Did you have fun at Mt.Olympus?" In turn, Nicolas says, "I did Mom. I had a great time! Thanks so much for taking us!" I smile and ask, "what was your favorite part?" Nicolas beams... "Everything was my favorite..." and goes on to give me a play by play of everything we did over the last couple of days and suddenly no one was whining for a quarter... he never brought it up again... KINDNESS
No comments:
Post a Comment