Please Just Slow The _______ Down

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / Leave a comment

Life that is.  I know–I hate whiny posts about how someone has been so busy they don’t have time to blog.  The truth is–I’ve been exhausted and overwhelmed by the pressure I put on myself to donate each day and write about it.  Did I forget that I have a full-time job, make that two full-time jobs, if you count doing academic research for a dissertation a job.  Add on that one part-time job (I teach at the college), parenting, spousing, and well crap, everything else.  I just don’t have the energy to write about giving money away.

I am still saving a few bucks each day to donate and will be donating on Friday before I go on VACATION.  Sadly my vacation isn’t to attend BlogHer’11.  I have been trying to attend a BlogHer conference since 2006.  But every summer something gets in my way and it just doesn’t work out.  I vow to go next year.  I feel a little late to the party as so many of the people I know through blogging and whose blogs I have read since I started in March of 2006–have been attending every year and I’m sure it will be a little like walking into the neighborhood bar and everyone staring at you knowing you aren’t from the neighborhood.  UGH!.

I am currently taking time away from filling out my application for the trip to Thailand that I want to go on.  It will allow me to present my preliminary dissertation findings at an international conference.  And to see Thailand.  Awesome.

I am moving in high speed and am sure I am going to miss something.  As my to do list mocks me with all the things that I have already forgotten.  I need a frickin’ to do list for my to do list–or at least a to do list to remind me to look at my to do list.

In other totally exciting news–my washing machine is still broken and we leave for a 7 day vacation on Friday at that ass crack of dawn.  I will be packing dirty laundry to take with us and so at my MIL’s lake house.  I know so glamorous and a little…well…gross.

Isn’t my life grand???  Where the hell is my wine?!?!?!

One in 7 Billion: Africa

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / Leave a comment

I know that many in my circle are just as moved to help the Horn of Africa as I am. Ethiopia is part of this East African trouble zone–dealing with famine due to drought. I think often of my children and how this might be affecting others like them, perhaps their birth families and or relatives we will more than likely never know.

This week has been a bad week for donating–only because we just got hit with a repair bill for our washing machine. But I have still been able to squirrel away another $30 that I would have spent on little things I didn’t need–a soda here, a lunch there. I am saving this $30 to combine with what I don’t spend next week to donate to a couple of organizations that are helping in the Horn of Africa. I can’t and won’t turn my back on my children’s birth county in this time of need.

How things change. I remember growing up in the 80’s and the famine in Ethiopia and how the “jokes” about Ethiopians were so rampant. It makes me sick to think about how little I knew or understood about the world then. This beautiful country full of giving people–people who give anything they can to those who have less. Wow, if only in we could be half as giving as those I saw in Ethiopia. How we as a nation/society ever thought or think it is okay to denigrate a people amazes me and not a good kind of amazing.

If you want to give what you can–please check out agencies working to help the Horn of Africa.

One In 7 Billion Update

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / Leave a comment

Ah…where does the time and days go.  I am still donating money in place of spending things, but my computer doesn’t let me online at work (I upgraded to Lion and well–my work network isn’t ready for Lion so, I’m limited in my internet access at work and therefore, my time to blog has disappeared).

I have donated another 20 dollars to a great cause Tenth Life.  I have decided to save up the money I would donate on a daily basis and make one to two donations per week to worthy causes.  This will allow me to maximize donations and takes the pressure off of posting each and every day.  Part of that is because it has become apparent that there are some days that I just don’t spend any money.

So this brings the total for the first week up to $45 dollars donated this week.  It makes me feel good to be doing little things.  And to be honest I haven’t really missed anything I would have bought.  This has certainly made me much more aware of what I am spending and what is really important.

One In 7 Billion–Days 4 and 5

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / Leave a comment

Well this isn’t going to be a very moving post, but it will be an honest one and something I didn’t really think about when I started this challenge.  I hadn’t realized how much I had cut back on my own personal spending over the last year or so.  Yesterday, I didn’t spend any money and well today, I didn’t spend any either.  I planned to donate a default $5 on days I didn’t spend any money–but then today my little princess hit her chin at the pool and I had to pay a copay at the urgent care.

So, instead of beating myself up about it, I am going to allow myself to be honest on the days that I don’t spend any money.  There are going to be those days and there are going to be those days when an emergency comes up that requires me to spend money that would have been extra.

We live on a tight budget and all the money that I am donating on days instead of buying something frivolous–is from my monthly spending money.  I do believe that the smallest amount can make a difference and I am committed to being that difference.  I will keep working towards giving what I can each and every day.

 

One In 7 Billion Day 3

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 1 Comment

The giving up of little things continue (Day 1 and Day 2). Today I am giving up two things I would spend money on.  Breakfast and snacks at the pool.  My husband is out of town on business this week and has been since Sunday.  This means I am tired and there is never enough time in the morning to get everything done I should–like make my morning smoothie.  But today I will manage my time as best I can to make my shake so I am not tempted to stop and just buy breakfast when I get my coffee.

It’s going to be 100 today and we are hitting the pool this afternoon for a little bit to be able to play outside without melting.  The kids always want snack in the afternoon when I pick them up for school and head to the pool.  So, today I will make sure I pack a snack so as to not waste money buying snacks at the pool when I have a cupboard full of snacks.

So, by my calculations that will free up about $10 I might normally spend on something frivolous today.  Today’s charity is Help the Children. They do work locally and around the world.  With the economic situation in our own country there are many children who go without food and things they need here at home.  Help the Children has been working in Joplin, which is really close to home here.

Please consider leaving a comment about a charity you would like to see receive one of my donations.  Giving any little bit helps.  In 3 days, I have been able to donate $25 to three charities by just not buying something I would.  It only takes a little bit to make a difference.