A Year of Giving: March

March was kind of a hodge podge. I was struggling with a few things, like I mentioned last Monday, but still managed to give a little bit here and there. In most cases I had deeply personal reasons for giving.

I gave a bit to The Baby Schellman Fund for Mike & Wolfie, in the spirit of "when opportunities to give pop up." Mike lost his wife TJ, Wolfie's mom, to complications after childbirth--complications that easily could have happened to me when Sam was born. TJ was a colleague of my friend Jill, so when she posted about it on Facebook I decided to go ahead and give something.

Last week I read this post by Jessica at The Leaky Boob. Her website and the online community she's cultivated on Facebook have meant a lot to me over the past few years. Her eldest daughter (we Leakies know her as Earth Baby, though she's 14) is a determined and talented dancer, and in a family with six little girls, money for summer dance school is tight. I remember doing fundraisers to go on band trips, attend youth gatherings with church, and my big trip to German-speaking countries with my foreign language class. So I donated a few bucks as my way of paying that forward. Also the video she made with her sisters made me cry.

I also desperately needed a haircut, and it was long enough to donate to Locks of Love, so I did that. Pics or it didn't happen:

Before

Bye bye hair!

And after! See you again in a few years!

Last but not least, I finally finished blanket #1 and started and finished blanket #2. If I finish 3 and 4 next month, I'll be back on schedule. Not sure if that's going to happen or not, but I'm going to try.

Folded blankies on a messy couch!

I am a little sad that the blanket that took me 2.5 months to finish looks smaller than the one that took less than a week. Will write up a separate post for that one later. The picture kind of bleaches it out, but it is lavender, yellow and white.