Y’all, I am pumped. As evidenced by my use of the word y’all, despite the fact that I am from Cincinnati.
You may notice a new button on my sidebar. And also, I am twittering. Which makes me a technological genius. And I want to use all of my new skills for good….
Let me start with a conversation I had with Kate the other day while we were walking to the mailbox.
“Come on, Kate, it’s cold. Honey, keep up with mommy.”
“My feet hurt, momma.”
I turn around and see her walking down the freezing cold aggregate driveway completely barefoot.
“I’ll wait for you here, momma.”
Note here that my children may need psychological help at some point, which works out well because I am a psychologist.
“No, babe. I want you to walk with me (insert teachable moment here).”
She looks at me like she does when she has detected that I am on a mission. She starts to walk gingerly, and after a few steps, she calls out again.
“It’s too cold. My feet hurt.” I know that this isn’t going to hurt her in the long term. It’s uncomfortable, but not dangerous.
“Come on, hon. I will carry you back, but I want you to walk to me.” She is mumbling under her breath, and paying close attention to where she steps. Eventually she chooses the wet grass.
After we got the mail, I picked her up. Her feet were cold and had little pieces of grass all over them. I ran some warm water in her tub and sat with her while our feet dangled in the bubbles.
“That hurt, didn’t it baby?” She nodded.
“Did you know that some people don’t have shoes?” She looked at me, genuinely confused.
“At all?”
“At all.”
For the next 20 minutes or so, we talked about what it must be like to have to endure pain everyday, and how grateful we should be that we have socks and shoes and warm, sudsy bath water. I don’t want her to take it for granted.
I don’t want to take it for granted.
I heard about this great project called 50,000 pairs in 50 days. You may have seen it on other blogs as well, and I wanted to encourage you all to check it out. $5 buys 2 pairs of shoes!!!!!!
Oh, the thought of “Jesus” and “shoe shopping” in one sentence makes me a little giddy inside.
About 20 minutes after I posted the button on my sidebar, I read an email from Danielle, saying that she was thinking of doing a little something in honor the fact that she is about to hit 50,000 (yes, I’m serious) visitors, and she was wondering if I had any suggestions.
I laughed out loud at the irony, and told her that yes, in fact, I had a suggestion.
SO.
If you would like for Danielle to redesign your blog for you, for the next 3 days ONLY, she will only charge you $55 instead of $80. Why $55 when she is hitting 50,000? Because she is donating $5 from every order to 50,000 shoes in 50 days.
Which means that you get a fabulous new blog and TWO pairs of shoes are donated to a worthy cause.
Now that feels like the Christmas spirit.
Feel free to take a (barefoot) walk with you kids tonight. And when you come back, sit with them at the computer and tell them that they can use their allowance to change someone’s life.
I want to live a grass-stained life with my babies, don’t you?
Consider me your friendly postwoman.
Mail’s here.
🙂
Angie
