Kindness 58

I hope that number's right, if it's not, I'll change it tomorrow. Today was another repeat of a good deed, but here's my defense. It snowed a lot last night. There was about 6 inches of snow on our driveway, likewise on our neighbour's driveway. I took the kiddies out and set them up with dirt toys (which double as snow toys in our house), and got to work.

I shovelled both driveways, and here is why it's okay that it's redundant: It's not the normal, light, fluffy snow that is almost a pleasure to shovel. It's not even the medium snow that's sticky and a little heavier. It's the heaviest kind of packing snow, that's sticky and uncooperative and just wet. It took me over an hour to get both driveways done the first time, and then I had to go over it again to get rid of all the chunks of ice.

So in the end it took me about 75 minutes to clear both driveways, and that's what I am counting as my kindness of the day. An aside: I offered to go out and shovel a driveway last night for new neighbours moving in on the other side. They came over to ask for a shovel because the people who moved out haven't cleared the driveway in a month. My husband went out to do it. I didn't offer his services, but apparently (wait for it) if a woman offers to do a man's job then the husband's got to do it because it's not manly to let his wife do work. Huh? Whatever. I still count it as a kindness because I wanted to do it!

Kindness 57

Today I have performed some mini-kindnesses again. J's birthday was on the weekend, and one of his friends couldn't make it to the party. His mom brought J his present beforehand, because she wanted him to have it anyway. That was so sweet that I made up an extra-special loot bag for her son so J could give it to him today. We also gave out a loot bag to another boy who couldn't make it, due to a family emergency.

I also took a little boy to the bus stop for his mom, because she was up sick all night. And I went to the resource centre and donated some change for their coffee jar, although I didn't get a coffee. I also told another mom while I was there some tricks to weaning her child off the night feedings (she asked, I wasn't being bossy).

So I think that even though there aren't many specific "kindnesses" in there, all the "nicenesses" make up for it. It's been a good day so far.

Kindness 56

Yesterday we stayed at home for the most part, because J has been fighting off a cold for two weeks and E has been sick with a cold for two weeks. We managed to get out for a sledding excursion, so I had to find something creative to do from home that was nice.

There is a chance that we might become the lucky owners of three Peterborough Petes tickets. My five-year old nephew plays hockey (and he's awesome, too), so I thought that it might be nice if he came along. P and I aren't huge hockey fans anyway and E is way too young for a game, so we decided that I can take J and my nephew to the game if he can come.

Note: P is for husband, J is for oldest son, E is for baby boy.

Kindness 55

Today I was a little tired from the birthday party yesterday. We still got a bunch of errands done though, and had a very busy day. Since they were so little, I bundled two kindnesses to make one medium-sized one for today. Hey, I'm tired.

I am the organizer of my book club, and I delivered all the books to the members today. Normally they come and pick them up, but I offered to take them all out. The second little act was to take back some snow pants, mitts, and a hat for a boy who forgot them here at the party. I put them in the dryer too. I had everyone bring their snow gear because it was a sledding party, but anyone would think I got the kids all dressed up and threw them into a pool, with how wet they got. I didn't want to take back smelly pants, so I dried them first.

Maybe tomorrow I'll find a really big kindness to do.

Kindness 53 and 54

Kindness 53 has some back story: My husband was outside Thursday night and saw a neighbourhood cat get hit by a truck. It ran away and he found it 45 minutes later, and asked a neighbour to let him keep it in his garage so it wouldn't run away again. He called for an emergency vet and it was taken away, but it was so banged up that he couldn't say whether the cat would make it or not.

Fast forward to Friday, and I went around the neighbourhood to ask whose cat it was. I didn't know the owner, because I didn't see the cat, but I thought whoever it was would like to know what had happened. It turned out it belonged to a girl I know from the school bus stop, and one of Jimmy's acquaintances. She was so upset and so was the little boy.

I called SPCA several times that day, and finally they told me they couldn't give me any information if I wasn't the owner. So I set up a calling time for the owner and let her borrow my phone for a couple hours, because she didn't have any minutes left on hers. Her husband was able to call and figure everything out, because he was able to describe the cat. The happy ending is, the cat will be okay. I think it needs some more medical attention because he has a broken jaw and probably some broken ribs too, but he's going to live.

Kindness 54 wasn't nearly so dramatic or emotional. Yesterday was Jimmy's birthday party, and one of his friends wanted to come but his mom couldn't walk all that way with three kids, so she had called and told em he couldn't make it. I offered to send my husband to go pick him up, because Jimmy and this boy are very good friends and for us, it's only a couple minutes of driving.

That covers Friday and Saturday. The cat owners were very grateful, both for my husband finding the cat and the use of my phone to figure things out. The mother of the boy was grateful, but even more important, the little boy was happy to be here and had a great time.

Kindness 52

I was on the bus today with Eddie, and saw a blind man who often takes the bus. I know his name from the drivers, whom he talks to regularly. I always felt so uncomfortable talking to blind people though. They can't see me and I never know how much to describe or what to say, and I don't want to seem in any way condescending or superior, because I don't pity anyone with a limitation. He was rolling up his Tim's cup to see if he'd won, so I offered to read it for him. He said yes, and unfortunately he didn't win anything. That led to a conversation though, with him asking about my kids and me asking if he found it hard to walk on the incredibly icy sidewalks lately. He said his cane mostly keeps him up, but sometimes it's hard. I told him about rubber, ice-grippers that he can stretch over his shoes to prevent slipping, and told him where to buy them. He said he would do that today, and was very grateful that I thought of it. I will say hi next time I see him, and hopefully my voice is distinctive enough that he knows who I am.

Kindness 51

I was out enjoying my Starbucks evening. Once or twice a month I go out to the bookstore and then take my laptop and magazines to Starbucks to enjoy a decaf white mocha. I heard the coworkers talking amongst each other about baking. One of the guys had a kid's birthday coming up and he was in charge of the cupcakes, but he was ranting about some parents not wanting their kids to eat sugar so he wanted a good muffin recipe. I heard (yeah, I was eavesdropping, but people are so interesting) that his girlfriend was away until the day of the party, so he was in charge of the baked goodies. I wrote down my never-fail banana muffin recipe, and even gave him some alternatives for icing, like fruit jam or an oatmeal cinnamon topping. He appreciated it, and said he would have to figure out the stove, to which I told him, they usually have a knob or button for temp. control, and he was all set.