My First Give Away

Hi Friends. Happy New Year.

I know it’s already the sixth and I really should have things figured out by now but that is just not the case. So here it is, six days of the new year already used up and I’m still wondering what the year will hold. I’m thinking about goals and intentions, about who I want to be and what behaviors and practices will get me there. I keep reading about other people who choose a word or phrase that will speak for them of intentionality or purpose, of present over perfect, or living simply. I’m not sure what this year should be. I mean let’s be honest, I want all those things.

So I’m thinking about it and I’m giving myself plenty of space to consider since I want to be sure to set myself up for at least a chance at success. One thing I know for sure is that I want to continue to pursue my goal of living generously.

Which brings me to my give away…

(I know you’ve been thinking, just get to it already!)

Last year I bought a custom key-chain for myself. I.love.it. In fact, I had to buy another one to share with you. But first let me tell you the story behind it…it will be even more fantabulous!

Once upon a time, a million years ago, Glenn and I lived whole other lives in Southern California. I taught school in Covina Valley and Glenn taught at Azusa Pacific University. It was a super rich time in our lives. Honestly, we weren’t much older than many of his students at the time and we made some remarkable friendships. One of Glenn’s classes was Bel Canto, a women’s choir. (We always argued over where the apostrophe goes in that phrase. Still not convinced which way is right but it’s important not to call it “a large ladies choir” which some folks made the unfortunate mistake of doing.)

Fast forward about 15-20 years (ahem) and today you’ll find a number of those sweet girls living the life of thirty-something women. They are mothers and wives, teachers and writers, business women and entrepreneurs. Some have gone into full time ministry, some live overseas, some hold down two jobs to keep body and soul together. Some have found great success while others have had hard, hard times and come back stronger. And through the magic of Facebook we’ve been able to reconnect, or at least catch up, with a lot of them.

That’s the history. One of Glenn’s student leaders, in what I think might have been his first year directing the choir, was Danice. She was the chaplain. That’s a challenging position to hold as a student but she carried it well. In the years between Bel Canto and 2014 she has married and supported her husband through schooling, they have four ADORABLE children, they’ve moved across the country and back and she writes a sweet blog about their lives. She also has an Etsy store where I bought my fantabulous key-chain.

One of their boys has cochlear implants (you can read all about him here) and last summer (yes, I’ve been sitting on this little gem for six months) this is what she posted…

Okay…Cole would LOVE to be able to hear while he’s swimming, and now it’s possible!!! Our family is brainstorming ways we can raise the money needed to make this a reality for our boy…(about $16k) The boys are doing a lemonade and cookie stand in Lake Arrowhead on his birthday (July 4th) and I knew it was time to do my part as well If anyone is interested in purchasing hand-stamped jewelry for someone you know, the link is in the comments below. All proceeds will go toward new CI’s for Cole, letting him hear all the time! Even in the water…amazing!

And I thought it was the perfect excuse to buy another fantabulous key-chain for all of you. Don’t you agree?!?

Phew. That took forever to tell but I know you’ll love the key-chain even more now that you know the sweet story behind it.

Here’s the sooo cute key-chain:

And here’s what you do to make it yours: Enter a comment below and share a goal, intention, resolution, plan, whatever–one thing you want to work on in 2014. It can be phrased beautifully or just crammed on the page. That’s it!

For a second entry, if you want to go a little crazy, share this post on facebook then come back here and comment again. You can simply say, “I shared on facebook.”

You can enter until midnight on Friday. We’ll select a winner at random and post on Saturday.

And if you need to buy anything adorable just for yourself, here’s the link to Danice’s Etsy store.