According to Phil...

Well, the groundhog has spoken... and it looks like we're in for 6 more weeks of winter.

I guess it's a good thing we live in Florida! I just hope those of you who don't live in Florida don't suffer too badly in their extra 6 weeks...

Give a Day, Get a Day

Last year it was get in free on your birthday. This year, Disney is doing a "Give a Day, Get a Disney Day" program for tickets.

Basically, you search their site for the available volunteer opportunities with various organizations in your area. You sign up, show up, do your work and Disney will send you a voucher for a 1-day, 1-theme park ticket.

Today, Sweetpea and I did our giving. One of the opportunities in our area was to help out at one of the local Girl Scout camps - perfect volunteer job for a Girl Scout to do :)
We showed up and they had a list of different things that they wanted to be done. I had Sweetpea pick which one she wanted to do and she chose to clean up the dead trees and branches around the cabins.
Luckily, a couple other mom/daughter groups signed up for that as well - so off we went.

We all worked really hard - and boy do my muscles feel it now! Sweetpea said it was fun and was having a good time and made some new friends in the girls that were working with us. One of them was also a Girl Scout.

We accomplished a lot in the 5 hours we were there and feel we really earned our ticket!

If you haven't done so yet, go check out the program and see what is available to you - there is a wide range of things... some as simple as donating blood! It's for a good cause - whether or not you get something in return for it (although I'm sure that's helping). We both feel good about what we did today, and I'm sure you will too!

Sweetpea standing in front of our first pile of branches.
It didn't seem like much until she stood in front of it and it was as tall as she was!

Great American Teach-In

Yesterday was the Great American Teach-In at our area schools. It's a day for adults to teach kids about their professions, their hobbies, their heritage... just about anything.

Sweetpea's school had quite a few interesting things. A Native American dressed in full garb and bearing many items that Native Americans use - he even did some dances for the kids. A man who lived in Australia for many years brought along some of his items and things he learned - including a didgeridoo. A woman came to talk about traveling. One man did cool science experiments. One man came in to talk about being a chef... just to name a few.

My friend The EcoChic also spent some time at her son's school talking about recycling.

I spent the day volunteering also. Now, mind you, I certainly wasn't as exciting as some of the guests, but I did what I enjoy - reading. I had Sweetpea help me pick out one of her favorite books (including the stuffed friend that goes with it) and I went in and read to five 1st Grade classes and two 2nd Grade classes. The book was called "Duck Soup" by Jackie Urbanovic. All the kids seemed to really enjoy it - and I knew they were actually listening when they laughed at the appropriate spots, "eww"ed at the appropriate spots and clapped and thanked me when I was done.

Reading is one of my family's favorite hobbies and I was glad to have the opportunity to pass along that hobby to so many kids.

In the year 2016...

...the Summer Olympics will be held in Rio de Janeiro. Way to go Brazil!
The first time ever the games will be held in South America!


(This post was also a test... I tried to post earlier but couldn't get it to work... I figured out the issue - but hours after I wanted to post... better late than never I suppose)


-- Posted on the run from my iPhone