Motivation for Your Monday

Well, this is the last Monday before Christmas folks. In keeping with the Christmas theme, I wanted to have a quote from one of our family's favorite Christmas books/movies/stories- A Christmas Carol.

One of the hub's favorite authors is Charles Dickens and one of our Christmas traditions is to watch at least one movie version of A Christmas Carol every December. So far we have watched A Muppet Christmas Carol which is just so cute, have you seen that one? I just love it! And now, to prove we are adults, tonight's viewing will be the version with Patrick Stewart. I do not think I have seen this one in quite a long time but is the hub's favorite. 

As far as quotes go, this is one of my favorites from A Christmas Carol, it is just so good. Gifts are great and seeing family is wonderful, but nothing can lift or lower a mood like our attitude. This Christmas, my goal has been to stay relaxed, kind, patient, and nice. I would like to be solution oriented rather than basking in all the issues of the holidays. Sure we are giving family and friends gifts, but this really does seem like the greatest thing I can do for all of them- especially the hubs. Poor guy has had to deal with my Christmas craziness for too many years now. Not this time :)

Merry Christmas!

Motivation for Your Monday

Happy Monday! I hope your weekend and your Thanksgiving was absolutely wonderful! We were able to have a great time with family this past weekend and I loved it. Now, we are into the holidays and today we will be putting the finishing touches on all that decorating. The tree will be going up today along with all garland and a few craft projects. I am thinking we might needs a house photo tour with all the Christmas decs up, but we will see :)

As far as motivation, this week we are keeping it simple. The holidays can so easily turn from a time to give thanks and be with family to a crazy material fest filled with stress. This year, I want to focus on what really matters during the holidays- family, love, gratefulness, and joy. To-do lists and presents will take a back seat to the real purpose of life; giving. 

Does your family have any special traditions for holiday giving? We always give a bit more time to the places we volunteer at over the holidays and donating gifts for those who may not get any. I would love to start doing a few more holiday traditions about giving and would completely love any ideas! 

As far as the blog goes though, we will still have plenty of holiday themed posts going on including a few DIY projects (mercury glass, anyone?), gift guides, and sale updates. And, talking about sales, I hope you are taking advantage of all these cyber Monday deals! Express, Target, J. Crew, Gap, and almost everywhere else are having some pretty great deals. A few places are 50% off your entire order! 

Motivation for Your Mondays

Well, this motivation is getting out a bit late, but better late than never. This week, I am going to be focusing a bit more energy on being kind and loving to all those around me. This quote is such a great reminder that without love, there really is nothing. It is often far easier for me to react in annoyance towards someone not meeting my expectations or desires. Silly isn't it? Especially since we all fail all. the. time. Myself included.

The world could use a bit more love and understanding and I hope to make my little bit of the world a bit better through love and compassion. There is a great passage in The Power of Positive Thinking that talks about how the people that pass through our lives. Their are many people who pass in and out of our lives that we will only see or talk to for a moment. Imagine how much better we could make the world if our goal was to be a positive influence on all those peoples' moments, days, and lives. There are many people that I can think of who I only knew for a moment, but have left an impact on me- some for good, some not.

Let's be the positive bit in someone's day and make our part of this Earth a bit better than we found it!

Amazon Smile

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Amazon recently started up a whole new buying program that I am absolutely loving. This is definitely for all those people who enjoy giving back and love certain charitable organizations- because now, a portion of your purchase can go to funding the charity of your choice! 

I was super surprised by this the other day when I logged on to Amazon and was asked to be redirected to the "Smile" page. Amazon Smile is just like Amazon normal or Amazon Prime, except now 0.5% of your purchase goes to the charity of your choice. Sure, 0.5% is really not a lot, but when thousands of people are donating 0.5% on a daily basis, we can make a really great difference! 

The charities current;y available on the main page are World Wildlife Fund, Charity: Water, Wounded Warrior Project, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, and The American Red Cross. If, however, none of these fit your fancy, you can also search for any organization that you wish and donate to them instead. Searching is super easy and really does seem to have it all. We regularly donate to an organization called Free Wheelchair Mission which gives wheelchairs to those who do not have mobility. It is an incredible organization but quite small on the big charities scale. I was able to search them out, get some info about them, and choose it as our Smile sponsor. Pretty neat! 

What I also loved is that ridiculously local charities are on this list as well. The St. Jude All Children's Hospital Guild I work with is on this list along with our local marine laboratory. For now, I to support Mote Marine. 

What are your favorite organizations to give to and are they on the list?