Tis the Season For Giving – Warm Coats to Children in Need

Let’s face it – children are expensive. While some parents are financially capable of handling the rising costs of raising them, other parents’ incomes are so low they can barely afford to buy food. For a variety of reasons – job loss, divorce, illness, etc. – some parents have little to no income. Budgeting becomes an ongoing problem for them, especially if they are single parents and the other parent contributes nothing or less than they were court ordered to pay. How do you budget when your expenses far outweigh your income and you don’t have enough money for necessities, like food, shelter, or clothing? 

Because kids grow so quickly they need new clothes and new shoes at least once a year. As a single parent who raised four children, I understand their plight. Fortunately for me, however, grandparents and one of my sisters often helped me with necessities (my other sister was raising kids of her own).

Other families aren’t so fortunate. Some children, after having no breakfast, walk to school in sub-freezing temperatures wearing nothing but a t-shirt. 

According to the United States Census Bureau, “In 2020, there were 37.2 million people in poverty…” 37.2 million people living in poverty! To put that in perspective, the population of the entire state of California is 37.2 million. Imagine that! How can we help all of them? 

While the basic necessities include food, shelter, and clothing, one very important item for children is a winter coat. And that’s where Warm Coats for Cool Kids comes in. Established by Garry and Debra Vaccaro in April, 2021, and staffed only by volunteers, this 501(c)(3) nonprofit charitable corporation provides winter coats to children from families in need. 

Located in a western suburb of Chicago, Warm Coats currently distributes warm winter coats to children from late September through March by conducting events at local schools, churches, and other community organizations.  They also accept individual requests for coats submitted through community organizations. And when available Warm Coats distributes new winter hats with each coat.

Warm Coats offers coats in many sizes (from 4T to adult medium) and styles, and they maintain an inventory. When supplies run low, they purchase new coats from local retailers and Operation Warm. 

Be kind this holiday season by helping a “Cool Kid” be warm this winter. No child should be left out in the cold. Just click this Donate button! Not one penny of your donation goes to anything other than coats. What that means is that 100% of your $20 (or more) donation will provide one child with a high quality, warm, and stylish coat. More donation = more coats. Warm Coats for Cool Kids, all children recipients and their parents thank you for your generous donation. 

When Your Kids Say the Darndest Things, You Need to Write Them Down! These Journals Will Help!

 Your kids and/or your grandkids say the darndest things, don’t they? Have you ever heard your child say something so profound, so inspirational, or so humorous that you felt a need to record it? 

We all agree, don’t we? – that a child’s perspective on life is so delightful to hear that we want to hold on to those precious memories forever? Of course we do! 

Sometimes what we find humorous is not what our kids or grandkids say, but rather what they do. My oldest daughter, for example, when she was about three or four, needed to use the bathroom after I told her repeatedly that if she needed to use it before my shower, she should use it now. “I don’t have to,” she responded. 

About 3 minutes into my shower she decided she needed to use the bathroom. I told her that if she could figure out a way to come in, she could. A few minutes later, the door opened. 

“How did you do that?” I asked her. She showed me two bobby pins. And that was the day I learned that my oldest daughter might become a locksmith – or she was setting herself up for a life of crime. Maybe, and more likely, she was just intrinsically mechanically inclined.

My son used to sleep with every new toy he got. Somebody bought him a rifle one year and he slept with it. I took a photo of him with his treasured new toy and when he became a United States Marine, the memory of that moment surfaced.

One of my daughters is so imaginative that when she was a little girl, as we sat in the back yard on a windy day, she said, “Look, Mommy, the trees are laughing.” I could just imagine them feeling tickled by the wind.

Another daughter, when she was very young, had a very unique vocabulary, so when my mom babysat once, I had to write a dictionary for her – yoke is milk, yo yoke is more milk, yepper is diaper, and sow is pacifier.

One of my granddaughters asked me, when she visited me in my “trailer court,” why she lived in a cracker house (apartment building) while I lived in a hot dog house (mobile home in a manufactured housing community). 

Her youngest daughter, one of my great-granddaughters, would play Barbies with me. I asked her how she wanted to play with them, and she always said that her Barbie was sick or injured and that we had to take her to the hopsito (hospital obviously). She’s still very young, but I wonder if she will be a caregiver when she grows up.

One of my grandsons, when he was very young, told his mommy that he wanted to marry her. She explained that he couldn’t marry her, but that he could marry someone just like her. After thinking about his options, he responded, “I know! I’ll marry Grandma!”

OK, I’ll stop. I have 20 grandkids. I’m pretty sure you don’t want me to continue. This blog is getting fairly long already anyway. And I have written many of my stories in one of my other blogs, My Heart Blogs to You, which you can read if you're interested.

The point is that what our kids/grandkids say and do impacts us in ways we never imagined, and we want to hold on to those memories, because they’re so much fun to remember. Imagine being able to pick up one of these journals and read through it when you’re having a bad day! Imagine being able to look back from some point in the future to bring alive all those old memories!

Many of my memories are recorded in several journals, alongside thoughts, situations, and ideas. So I decided that it might be better to have a journal devoted entirely to just kids and grandkids! Before I put together this journal, when my kids told me funny, silly, imaginative things my grandkids said and did, I would say, “You should write that down.” 

For that reason I have created the following two journals, which I would like to share with you. Honestly, who is funnier than your kids or grandkids? Don’t you want to memorialize their thoughts, words, and actions!

Of course you do! And here they are!

Funny, Silly, Imaginative Things My Kids Say and Do: A “You Should Write That Down” Keepsake Memory Journal for Parents

Funny, Silly, Imaginative Things My Grandkids Say and Do: A “You Should Write That Down” Keepsake Memory Journal for Grandparents

As always, thank you for visiting! If you don't want to purchase the journals, but you still want to help me afford my life, please consider contributing to what I refer to as my "Living My Life" fund at Crystal Butterfly Creations. Thank you again!

Need Money? How To Earn Money at Home During The COVID-19 Corona Virus Pandemic!

For so many of us, especially single parents, losing our incomes is scary. Raising children alone is scary enough, but when you add COVID-19 and the Corona Virus to the mix, it's REALLY SCARY! And when you are no longer employed, you have to consider all options available to you to help you earn money.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) "The number of unemployed persons rose by 1.4 million to 7.1 million in March." Lack of employment, and by extension, lack of money, has become a national crisis. So when are those "incentive programs" supposed to begin? Nobody knows. 

Can we wait that long to pay our electric bills, our rents, our mortgages? What about car payments and homeowner's and auto insurance?

And how can we afford to feed our families?

Working from home is one option that many employers offer to their employees, but not all people can perform their jobs at home, especially if they are servers or hairdressers. So working at home seems to be an option that could work. 

But are work-from-home programs reliable, safe, and trustworthy?

Work from home scams abound, so trusting that what I'm going to relate will take a leap of faith. I have no affiliation whatsoever with Sarah Chrispy, the woman in the video shown below. I am not being paid to promote her, either. 

Sarah provides proof in this video about the information she conveys, and I'm telling you, because I want to help you provide for your family. Watch to the end, because she offers even more help, something we all really need during this pandemic.

Stay safe. #StayHome Find a little joy, and sprinkle it everywhere.

Adulting? When Did THAT Become a Word?

Yes, it's called Adulting these days. Webster must be in crisis mode with all these new words arising every day. Words aside, let's talk about adulting – or more precisely what it takes to be an adult. Raising responsible adults requires so much knowledge and effort. We want our kids to be kind, compassionate, and wise, but we sometimes forget that our kids don't even know how to write a check, and maybe we didn't want them bothering us in the kitchen, so we never taught them how to cook.

In our focus on education and after-school activities, we might have neglected some basics in preparing our children for adulthood. In this video, you'll find basic information on how to prepare your child to become an adult and take on adult responsibilities:

A Dating Nightmare!

Bad dates, dating fails, and dates gone wrong don't happen just to single parents, but they happened to me, and I'd like to share one of those dates gone bad with you. I also invite you to comment below the video on YouTube to share your dating nightmares with me.

Perhaps had I read the red book (linked below) first, I might not have made so many dating mistakes. Don't let the "bad words" in the book deter you from reading it. Mark Manson, the author, is insightful, inspirational, and wise!

Here is the book by itself:

Thank you for visiting. Please find a little joy and sprinkle it everywhere!

Breaking Up is Hard To Do – Especially If You Do It The Wrong Way!

Have you ever been in a relationship that you knew was going nowhere and you just wanted it to end, but you didn't want to hurt your partner's feelings?

As somebody with experience, who never could figure out how to break up responsibly, I'd like to offer you the following video as the wrong way to end a relationship with a suggestion for how adults should end their relationships:

Thank you for reading this short blog post and thank you for watching the video. Today and every day, find a little joy and sprinkle it everywhere!

Unique Gender Reveal Idea

Gender reveal parties have become very popular since 2008 when the first gender-reveal video appeared on YouTube. Today everyone wants to come up with new, clever, and unique ideas for revealing their baby’s gender.  

From party games to scavenger hunts to guessing games about the date baby will be born, anticipation builds as mommy and/or daddy wait for the moment they reveal their baby’s gender.

But what about long-distance grandparents, aunts, and uncles who can’t attend the party? FaceTime, Skype, and other forms of face-to-face contact allow friends and family to participate in the event if they can’t come in person. But sometimes, getting a little something extra in the mail can be a beautiful surprise, too. 

For instance, if you send one of these mugs or tote bags to grandma and grandpa and write on the box that they can open it only when they video chat with you, you’ll be able to see the expressions on their faces when they learn the sex of their new grandchild.

Girl Mug 

Boy Tote 

If you decide to have a party, instead of cutting into a pink or blue cake or popping a confetti-filled balloon, try wearing a gender-reveal article of clothing to your party. Layer your clothes with one of the gender-reveal shirts shown below as the bottom layer and, at the appropriate time, remove the outer layer and reveal the baby's gender! 

Girl shirt 

Boy shirt 

You could even make a game out of it. Tell guests that the revelation is hidden somewhere in the room out outdoors if you're outside and the aim of the game is to locate it. After they’ve looked everywhere, and if they're unable to find it, take off your outer shirt! Or nonchalantly open your shirt and wait for somebody to notice.

Long sleeves, short sleeves, totes, and mugs appear in each linked item above, and the shirts come in lots of sizes. You can even find stickers to send!

Congratulations on your little one. May your life be filled with lots of blessings and lots of joy.

Thank you for visiting Help for Single Parents! Today and every day, find a little joy and sprinkle it everywhere!