Why I do this crazy thing

Teaching children to be "citizens of this world"

Love this: "We are focused each day on opening kids’ eyes and minds to circumstances different from their own...We want them to understand at an instinctual level that, as citizens of this world, we are responsible for each other and we must take care of each other every day."

http://littlehelpinghands.org/lets-get-to-work/

Every donation matched!

Every donation matched!! As shared in the video, in celebration of me entering a new decade, all donations made until the end of January will be doubled! Don't miss this great opportunity to support he critical work of promoting kindness, family volunteering, and community building!

To donate: 

• Doing Good Together: http://www.doinggoodtogether.org/donate-dgt 
• Little Helping Hands: https://littlehelpinghands.org/donate.php/

Remember to indicate it's for the "Schmidt Ironman." Thank you in advance for your support of these amazing organizations!

More fun helping animals

We had a great time again volunteering with Operation Pets Alive again today.  Ty got to join us this time and we a good conversation about the work of the organization and how people are making sacrifices in their lives to make our community a "no kill" one.

Taking advantage of "small" opportunities

With two working parents (one who travels a lot), kids in school, sports, and before-school clubs, I knew that increasing our time volunteering in the midst of IRONMAN training would be a bit of a stretch.  Our weekends contain about 6 hours of training right now (which will only increase until our race) and weekdays are pretty packed too, starting at 4:30am and full of activity until around 8:30pm.
So, my search for activities that fit into our "free" time, had left me a little discouraged.  However, Mother Teresa's quote reminds me that it's not about planning the full day activities or anything too grand, but instead, it's about taking advantage of the "small" opportunities we have.

We got to enjoy one of those opportunities today as we visited a senior/nursing residential facility near us.  The volunteer coordinator was extremely flexible and gracious, allowing us to come at any time that was convenient for us and to stay as long as we wanted.  To be honest, I was a bit nervous about it given that small talk isn't a strength of mine.  I wasn't sure exactly what to expect and I knew I had to be a good model for the kids even no matter how uncomfortable I was.  Our brief time there was full of pleasant surprises.  The staff and residents were so welcoming.  We had fun conversations that led to the ultimate surprise...Megan didn't want to leave when we had to go.

I'm also so thankful to have Doing Good Together as a resource we're set up with some wonderful ideas for other "small" opportunities we can utilize to build and reinforce kindness habits in our family.  Their blog post 4 Elements of a Kindness Practice  has very accessible ideas.  As their blogger states, their "tools and resources are designed to help you launch a kindness practice with your family. Not all at once. Not in an overwhelming way. Rather, meaningful acts of kindness can and will become an essential part of your family’s routine one habit at a time." I think we might do their Helping Habits worksheet soon.

I look forward to finding more small ways to show great love as a family.

It's go time :)

Now it gets real...I made the decision to be a bit "flexible" with my training plan since our last race, but with less than 16 weeks to go, consistency now becomes king. I'm a bit nervous about what the next 4 months hold, but more excited to see what changes and growth they may bring.