Little loves

It is December 1st and I am thrilled!!!  This month has hope for me that I haven't had in over two months.  We officially have health insurance once again and the opportunity for some answers.  I have never been more grateful to be poked and drained of blood! :)

This may sound odd but I have realized that illness has a way of making me very self-focused.  For the most part, that is a natural phenomenon when we don't feel good...our brains have no choice but to tend to pain or discomfort or odd feelings.  It makes sense to be wired that way for self preservation.

But, I have a real fear of becoming like Agnes Moorhead in Pollyanna:

I can hear one of the lines from that movie running through my head....she looks at Pollyana and says while scowling, "You have a stubby little nose!"

Couple this fear with a need to obtain an advent calendar for my children and there you will have the perfect marriage and understanding of what we are setting out to do this month.

I started to purchase a chocolate advent calendar for my children this year.  Then I had the realization that even if we tried to be fair and rotate the days that a day would come where the schedule was in debate and it would cause arguments amongst the children rather than bringing them together.  

So, I started to look at unique ideas for advent calendars and found many suggestions for Random Acts of Christmas (kindness).  And, bells began ringing...ha ha!

It is much harder to be selfish or self-focused or worry about being sick when you are planning and doing kind things for others.  

In the process of researching what we would do, I found these two movies that will get you in a good mood and smiling if you watch:

And, here is where the name for our project comes in!  You must forgive the fact that it sounds kind of cutesy.  However, I have found a running theme in my life lately that the purpose of life, and what God mostly wants us to learn, is to love.  So, when I heard the last video's song...I thought that the perfect name for our endeavors is "Little Loves"  

So, here we go throughout the Christmas season offering "Little Loves" each day to bring more meaning and count down the day to the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Our first offer of Little Loves is to gather as many toys and clothes as we can to donate.  I promise that the next few should be a bit more creative but, we're just getting warmed up!

Here are my own little loves....can you believe that we have accumulated *that* many shoes!!!!!