This was another fun week of reading about all of the wonderful (and kind) things you are doing for those around you. Thank you again for sharing it with us. I know that “random acts” are typically done quietly, without telling anyone you did them. But you’re still pretty incognito in the blog comments here, and you have been inspiring a whole lot of people in the meantime. You should read the emails I’ve been getting about this! It has been just awesome.
Just a few from last Friday’s post – I liked Jeannette’s idea of making up care packages to hand out to the homeless. Ziploc bags filled with socks, gloves, lip balm, and non-perishable food items. They keep them in the car to hand out. BethC decided to forego fries in her lunches this week and donated that amount to the charity container in the restaurant. Diane decided that she and her family had spent enough on gifts for family and friends and donated the rest of their Christmas fund to the Heifer Project. There was also a lot of snow shoveling, windshield clearing, coffee/cocoa buying, hat and scarf knitting, special help/gifts for the elderly, and Angel Tree participating going on. (Read the ones from our first reporting day, too, if you haven’t seen those yet.)
This week’s randomly drawn winners are: Elizabeth in PA and Kim in TN, who each win two skeins of The Loopy Ewe Solid Series and a pattern (their choice of color and pattern) and a tub of Soak’s Heel creme. I look forward to giving more away next week again, so be sure to leave your latest RAK comments on today’s post to be entered into the drawing.
Today’s recipe originally came from Elf Mary, who brought this in to Loopy last week. I got to thinking about it, and tried a new version over the weekend. I am going to serve these with brunch on Christmas morning!
Breakfast Cinnamon Puffs
2 tubes of Crescent Rolls
1 package of cream cheese
1 cup of sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 Tbl. butter, melted
cinnamon to sprinkle
Whip together the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla. Fill your cupcake pan with liners. Separate the Crescent triangles and put one in each liner, opened up (so that all three triangle points are laying on the edges of the pan.) Add 1 generous Tbl. of the sugar mixture to the center of the triangle, and then flip all three pointss in to cover the filling and make the little “puff”. I did a little twisty twirl with the longest point, just to make it pretty. 🙂 Brush with melted butter and sprinkle the top lightly with cinnamon. Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes, or until done. Makes 16 puffs. Can be served warm or cold.
(Note – the original recipe called for the same ingredients. Grease a 9 x 13 pan. Unroll one tube of Crescents and put on the bottom. Spread the cream cheese/sugar/vanilla mixture on top. Add the second layer of Crescents over the cream cheese. Spread 1 stick of melted butter on top and sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Either way, this tastes great!)
For those of you deep into scarf-wearing weather, check out this post about how to do a pretzel knot with your scarf. I tried it and I love how it keeps the scarf snug (and cute!) around your neck. (You might also want to check out Lisa’s beautiful jewelry, while you’re at it.) 🙂
Back to the RAK’s – tell us what you did this week to be a blessing to others! I’m looking forward to reading all about it.
Sheri tryingtobemoreimpromtuwithmyRAKsthisweek
This week, I went through the toll booth a bunch of times and each time I gave the toll booth operator enough to pay for myself and the four cars that passed through next. I know it isn’t much, but I hope it cheered folks up.
We had a bit of an ice storm this week, so I was home from work yesterday. I looked out and my neighbor was trying to get the ice off of her car by hand. I went out and gave her my ice scraper and then the two of us cleaned off her car and mine. The ice must have been coming from one direction all night, because the ice on one side would NOT come off. We were out there for a while chipping away.
And if anyone ever tells you that rubbing alcohol will melt the ice, don’t believe them. We tried a bit on the glass and it just froze it even harder to the glass!
I paid the parking fee for the person behind me in line at the airport when we went to pick up my in-laws for their stay with us!
we had two unexpected ‘snow events’ this week (the weather people call them events, I call them something else) after clearing my car, I cleared those on either side of me, then saw a woman from a few blocks away walking her two Chihuahuas. They both had toasty coats on but her hands were bare. I said WHERE are your gloves. She said she had already lost them so I handed her mine. Now I have an excuse to knit myself a pr of mittens after the holidays.
Without going into particulars, since this is about my work, I took a really tough call on behalf of one of my coworkers. It was NOT a fun phone call, to say the least – there wear tears and recriminations on the other end, and it pretty much ruined my day. But it was MY day that was ruined – not my coworker’s, who has worked her tail off these last few weeks, and deserved a break.
I’ve made more of an effort to hold the door for people this week. Our interior door at work has a security lock, and I usually let people far enough behind me open it themselves. This week, I’ve checked to see if anyone was anywhere near the door, then waited for them to finish crossing the parking lot to catch the door. They don’t really need me to do this (they have keycards), but everyone seems to appreciate it a lot, especially since they don’t need to dig out their cards in the cold.
Instead of exchanging gifts this Christmas with my husband, we choose to pick a child from the local Children’s Advocacy Council and buy the gifts she had listed on her wish list.
This week I offered to cover a really crummy shift for a co-worker on the Sunday after Christmas. He’s a guy I really don’t get along with, but the boss was really dumping on him with this one, and I just couldn’t let that pass.
I have an online knitting buddy who has had everything that could go wrong go wrong this year. She is immobile right now and really wanted some pattern making software so she could stay occupied – she wanted preserve some heirloom patterns but couldn’t spare the cash. So I ordered it for her.
I went to buy a bag of dog food for the 4 legged kids and noticed the feed store had a donation barrel for the local humane society. I bought an extra 20 lb bag of dog food and added it to the barrel.
I love this! I paid for 2 cars behind me at the tollbooth. Went through the linen closet and went to the humane society furthest from my house to donate them because it’s a needier place and they are soooo good to the animals.
My story this week is one of those little/big things. I was invited to a friend’s house to bake along with two other people. One of the people isn’t my favorite person in the world – in fact I really couldn’t stand her. She had been very cruel in the past and I wasn’t really ready to forgive or forget. I dreaded the day of having all of this brought under my nose. I thought about canceling, but then I just went. I decided in the first hour that in order to not make the day and ordeal that I had to forgive her. So I started to be a little less cold and forgive. As the day progressed I found myself laughing with her and chatting lightly. The day went by and I found that I really didn’t resent her anymore. I haven’t forgotten, but I no longer actively felt anything strongly towards her.
One of my husband’s friends threw out his back this week. I’ve been cooking him meals so he doesn’t have to leave the house, and my husband lent him one of our laptops so he could finish his finals.
I had bought 2 tickets to a Christmas show, but my husband really wasn’t excited about going, and he had other things he really needed to do. I decided to invite a new friend to go with me instead, so I invited her and her husband over for dinner beforehand, then refused to let her pay me back for the ticket.
Love reading what everyone has been doing. The other day a neighbor and i went to another neighbors house who is gone for the holidays and cleared the downed trees for them. we have had some doosy storms the last few weeks so, lots of stuff down, lots of high water. We then went to another elderly neighbors and cleared their property of leaves. (my neighbor did her gutters as well… i held the ladder for that part! ) lol
This is a tough one to describe. There is a person that has made my work life very difficult over the last year. Due to changes in our organization a large chunk of my work will now be done by this person. I could have easily sabotoged her or give her less than complete information, either of which she either has done or would do to me. I didn’t do either of those things. I took the high road, gave her all the information, volunteered to do any training she would like and have even been very kind to her.
I knitted a couple items for a fellow knitter whose church was having an auction for a Relay for Life event. All monies made from the auction are going to be donated to Relay for Life.
I have a grocery store in my area that requires a quarter to be able to get a grocery cart. When you take the cart back then it spits your quarter back to you. It keeps the parking lot free of grocery carts and saves the store money which then the store passes along to the customers. Pretty neat concept that works. I had a lady gift her cart to me(with her quarter still in it), then when I was finished with the cart I then gifted it to someone else. Not much monetary value, but definitely pleased and caught the person off guard(along with myself).
Instead of exchanging gifts this Christmas, me and three of my very close friends are making a contribution to the local Helping Hands chapter which helps folks pay their rent, utility bills, and buy food. Since we are blessed to be able to do this for ourselves, it made more sense to help those in need rather than exchange gifts.
A few years ago I had cancer-I am fine now by the way.
Recently the wife of an acquaintance was diagnosed. They kept it very very quiet.
I knew about it only because we are in a club together and he could not do some club-related chores due to his wife.
I emailed her with “You will be fine.”
Even though I don’t like recalling what I went through, I email her with encouragement and “here is what I went through, and this is what I did about it”.
Last night at our club party she came up with tears in her eyes to thank me for the support. I gave her both my phone number and said “when the black cloud descends-CALL!”
This week, after hearing a co-working describing the plain, black hat that her teenage daughter has wanted for over a year (and they’ve been unable to find), I offered my knitterly services and we started pattern and yarn searching. She’s buying the yarn, but the services are free and expect/want no recompense/gift of any kind. I’ve had to make this part clear. Really lady! I’m just trying to be nice – that’s all! 🙂
I knit a neckwarmer for a colleague and mailed it to her. She has had a tough year and thought a warm, soft surprise might cheer her up. She received it in yesterday’s mail and called me last night from her apartment in Philadelphia. She was almost in tears to think someone would do this for her. I have known her for quite a few years but we aren’t really close, although we are friendly. We work in offices several hundred miles apart and only see each other a few times a year. It gave me a warm feeling to know how happy the knitted surprise made her.
This was actually a random thing done for me that was really touching. It’s not an entry, but it sure was nice.
My husband was helping me pull all the dirty clothes from the hampers for laundry day. He was replacing the old bath towels with the fresh bath towels, while I was emptying the hamper. I saw him put a towel on my drying rack and one on his drying rack. Then, he went and swapped the towels. I asked him what he was doing and he said that he always made sure I got the fluffiest bath towel towel. So simple and it was so nice. 🙂
I made muffins and coffee for a group of volunteers this morning.
This week I finished 4 “tit bits” (pattern on Knitty) for a friend of my mother’s who has had a mastectomy. She is petite and finds the silicone prostetic very heavy. My mom brought them to a luncheon that they were both attending to give them to her. All the ladies were passing them around in the restaurant to have a look.. which I find very funny!
Along with her new boobs, I included a couple of pairs of socks for her wheelchair bound grandson (5yrs old). Because of his poor circulation his feet are always cold, and you just can’t buy warm wool socks for 5yr olds…. but you can knit them out of LL Shepherd Sock!!!
I adopted a family from our “Mitten Tree” at work. I loved shopping for the kids. All the Mom wanted was a grocery store gift card. So, I got her that and wrapped it up with one of the scarves I crocheted.
Thanks for doing this Sheri. It’s awesome to hear all the things everyone else is doing too!
Our scout troop had a trip to 34th Stret here in Baltimore, where the Christmas lights are amazing…on the whole block, both sides of the street. My husband and I decided to stay back at the church and wait for them to come back for carolling. While they were gone, we baked 10 dozen cookies for when they got back and prepared hot chocolate for the crowd. I would have liked to see the lights, but I will find a way to get there on my own. It was great to see so many people happy about warm cookies and hot chocolate and turned out to be one of the nicest nights I have had in a long time.
I have been making scarfs that I have donated to the local Blue Santa collection.
My current RAK is to knit some surprise mittens for the dd of a friend. The poor thing has been wanting mittens but can’t find any here. Since she has two siblings, I’ll probably be knitting three pairs in total, but they’ll have warm hands.
I gave money to the local food bank. They use it to buy gasoline for all the volunteers.
I do this all year: I knit caps for chemotheraphy patients. When I do this, I think of my mother who lost all her hair during chemo (and she was very vain about her hair!); she was okay with losing her hair, because it turned out that her head shape was very nice, and she was able to brag about that! Unfortunately, she passed away, so in her memory I’ve been knitting caps (in between and in addition to other knitting projects) – these are for people who may be self-conscious about having lost their hair or may just be cold without hair. I try to make them in cheerful, fashionable colors. (Maybe this isn’t really an RAK because it’s very satisfying to me.)
I’m not out of the house much, so I don’t have as many opportunities to RAK as I would like. (I’m always crazy perky goofy with coworkers, and I can hear the smiles through the phone, so that doesn’t count.) This was a small one, but important to me.
I was out at a strip mall, getting blown around by the bitter wind we’d been experiencing. A gentleman with a walker paused in front of a shop, then began the process to open the door and get himself and his walker inside.
I jumped for the door, and said, “Sir? Please. Allow me.” Once he was inside, I let the door close, and walked away.
My next door neighbor organizes our annual Luminaria nite and really spends countless hours getting ready for this…she serves hot cocoa and hot cider and treats for over 250 people…..I made her a pair of mittens this year to keep her hands warm……
I have been returning shopping carts left out in the grocery store parking lot to the cart corrals.
Helped at my Daughter’s winter party at her school today….great fun!
I buy small bunches of Christmas flowers for women I know who do not have a significant other, or who can’t afford to buy them . My favourite pick is something I call star of bethlehem–it is like an orchid, with a long green stem. White petal flowers open all along the stem from bottom to top and the blooming can take up to two weeks. The joy it is has brought so many people makes my heart glad. And I am always changing who receives them–it does not have to be a relative or close friend.
I had a random day of courtesy. It began when I refrained from honking when a pickup cut me off on the way to work and accelerated to an increased awareness all day long of ways to do small courtesies. As it turned out, it was an act of kindness to myself as I felt peaceful all day long. Maybe there is a message for me in this ….
As teachers, my colleagues and I tend to give each other a lot of little cutsie stuff that none of us really need and just ends up in a box somewhere! This year, I decided to make donations in their names to various charities that would mean something to them personally. Not sure if this qualifies as an RAK but glad I did it.
Went to the local Wally World to pick up groceries, and met lots of folks coming out with bikes and trikes from lay-away. Evidently all of my small town thought of shopping today. You can imagine what the check-out lines looked like.
I found my spot, and had most of my groceries on the belt when I heard the lady behind me say into her cell phone “They just needed bread and lighters, so they sent me out to get some.” Well, hey, Loopy is expecting good things of me, so I said “Why don’t you go ahead of me?” Alas, we had found the one efficient cashier in the store, and she had already begun my check-out. I wasn’t able to yield my spot, but I was able to give/get a big smile to/from the lady behind me.
working on filling packages for soldiers overseas. I also had my daughter make an angel for a race car driver who was injured. I’m trying to keep the excitement for the presents at bay by encouraging her to help others.
I surprised an ex-coworker at lunch today with a Noro Traveling Women shawl. Even though we don’t work together anymore, I consider her a good friend and she really appreciates a handknit item. It’s so nice to see her excitement when she opens up a shawl. She’s unemployed and the local job market isn’t that good so it is nice to cheer her up. I’ve made two Noro shawls now and she owns both of them. Someday I will make one to keep for myself.
I’ve also been going through knitted items that my mother and I had made and we pulled some out and donated then to a local soup kitchen to give out.
Finally on vacation from school this week, I let my partner take a much deserved rest while I got up early every day to walk our daughter to school. My partner has been picking up a lot of slack for my while I’m in a really demanding school program, so in addition to making sure we get to spend some time together this week, I have been trying to make sure she is able to take some time for herself which she rarely gets to do during my school terms.
I knitted a pair of fingerless mitts and mailed them off to my niece’s babysitter in London. She’s been taking such good care of my grandniece while her mother is at work and my nephew came back to the US to look for a job! She sent him lots of lovely photos and he passed them on to me! They brightened my day and I hope my mitts did the same for her!
This week I sent off a scarf that I had knit for the Red Scarf Project that sends care packages to kids who have finished the Foster Care program and now are attending college or some sort of trade school.
Today, one of my 7th graders forgot her $5.00 gift for the Dirty Santa game we were going to play at our class Christmas party. She was the only one without a present, so I put a $5.00 bill in a sack and counted it as her gift!
Donated extra food for our Church’s Outreach Program.
I bought some M&Ms in our school colors and made little tins for some grad students who will be having a somewhat austere holiday season this year.
I helped print out photos for Santa’s visit at our hospital. It made for a long day, but it was a lot of fun and the kids were just precious.
I went on a special shopping trip yesterday and spent $130 on foods to donate. I always donate food to different programs during the holidays because for a few months of my life I lived off of one small meal a day and I hate to think of other people having to go through that or worse.
I did something very simple this week: my sister-in-law couldn’t come to my brother’s business’ Christmas party (she had her own work party the same night), so I went and I took care of their kids while my brother was busy taking care of party/business-related stuff. It wasn’t much, but it made a real difference for him.
I kept trying to do the driving for a friend’s kid, but she kept forgetting and showing up anyway!
We did do Heifer Project for some of our gifts, and made an extra donation to some foster kids who have aged out of state assistance. 18 is so young to be completely on your own.