Comments for a Cause: United Through Reading

Happy May Day!  It's the first of May and time to talk Comments for a Cause.  But before I talk about this month's recipient, let's review last month's cause, my local school's Kindergarten Class's Book Drive for the Latimer Little Free Library.  During the month of April I had 57 comments, equaling a donation of $28.50.  I'm excited to present this to the Kindergarten class at the end of the month when I get to meet them on their field trip to the Latimer Little Free Library, as they help me give the library a fresh coat of paint and fill up the library with new books!  I'll be sure to keep you posted on their field trip at the end of the school year!

Now for the month of May, in honor of National Military Appreciation Month I am donating $0.50 for every comment made on my blog to United Through Reading.

Comments for a Cause - Quilts of Honor

Happy New Year!  After sharing my Top Blog Posts from 2017 & my Goals for 2018, I can finally share about the new month of Comments for a Cause.

Thank you to everyone that commented last month to help me support The Michael J. Fox Foundation and for all the care and concern for my mother-in-law.  I am happy to report that she has returned home and is doing very well!  She is one of the strongest women I know and she's not going to give up.  That is one reason why I respect and admire the Michael J. Fox Foundation so much.  They aren't just working to find ways or things to help people with Parkinson's, they are dedicated to research for finding a cure.  Last month I had a total of 63 comments, equaling a donation of $31.50.  Thank you all for your continued support!

And thanks to everyone's continued support I am continuing my Comments for a Cause program for the 5th year!  To start off 2018 I am donating $0.50 for every comment made on my blog to Quilts of Honor.

Last year I learned about Quilts of Honor after a group of Veterans in an area Care Center received quilts through the nonprofit organization.  I thought the gesture was very honorable and I love to support any group that values the contributions of our veterans and current service men and women.

After years of quilting patriotic quilts for veterans, Quilts of Honor was officially founded in 2010 by Gail Belmont.  As a veteran herself, she had a passion and mission for providing comfort and healing to veterans and warriors.  One way of doing that was by providing "Quilted Hugs of Gratitude" to those who had served in the military.  To date, over 700 quilts have been awarded to veterans and service men and women across the country.

So help me and Quilts of Honor show our appreciation to our veterans and warriors for their sacrifice and service by commenting all month long.  Do you have a special veteran in your life?  You can request a quilt for them through the organization.  Remember to Comment for a Cause!

Comments for a Cause - Iowa Cookie Crumbs

It's November 1st and time to talk Comments for a Cause!  In the month of October I had 28 comments, equaling a $14 donation to My Stuff Bags Foundation!  This money will go to helping children in crisis centers and foster care have their own personal items.

In the month of November I'm looking forward to helping some Iowa bakers and their efforts to send cookies to troops overseas by donating $0.50 for every comment made on my blog to Iowa Cookie Crumbs.

Last December I read an article about a group of Iowa bakers that sent more than 30,000 cookies to U.S. military personnel stationed overseas during the holidays and I knew I needed to highlight them as a future Comments for a Cause recipient.  If you've been reading my blog for awhile you know that I have a sister in the Army National Guard and a brother-in-law who was in the Marines and Marine Reserves.  Needless to say, anything to support the troops means a lot to me, because I know how much it means to our soldiers, especially when they are deployed.  And since Veterans Day is celebrated during November, and I knew there would be a lot of cookie baking in preparation for Iowa Cookie Crumbs's holiday shipment, I thought this month would be the perfect time to showcase their compassion and appreciation for our military.

The Iowa Cookie Crumbs was formed by Abbie Crawford, of Southwest Iowa, nearly ten years ago and they not only send cookies to our troops during the holidays, but each month all year long.  In fact, last month the group hit the milestone of baking and sending over a million cookies!

All of the boxes of cookies are shipped to individual service men and women.  Names are collected through Treat the Troops, a larger network that the Iowa Cookie Crumbs works through.  The Iowa bakers do send boxes to local soldiers, based off of requests, but a majority of their cookies are sent to soldiers not directly from the area.

So help me, help this group of dedicated bakers by commenting all month long so we can help cover some of the shipping costs of all of these cookies!  ***If you live in the Council Bluffs area, you can personally help by attending their holiday cookie packing day on November 15th at Emanuel Lutheran Church.***  What is your favorite cookie?  Remember to Comment for a Cause!

Wordless Wednesday - Sometimes You've got to Stay Up for a Homecoming

Harvest creates a lot of long hours and long days, but earlier this week I was more than happy to add hours to my day.  After nearly a year from being away from home, my youngest sister and her unit returned back to Iowa this week!  I left my house at 10:30 pm so I could see her when she stepped off the plane at 1 am on "Monday night".

My sister walking off of the airplane

Our first hug since her leave at Christmas

I'm very proud to be a solider's sister and am so happy for her to be at home.  It was great to see many soldiers from her unit step off the airplane earlier this week.  I'm happy and honored that I got to be apart of this military homecoming!  Remember to Comment for a Cause!

(This post is a part of a 31 Days from a Tractor Seat series.  The best way to keep up with this series is to follow via email on the right sidebar of this post or by following on Bloglovin.  Also be sure to like the Corn, Beans, Pigs and Kids Facebook page for daily updates from the field.)

The Best Christmas Present of All for My Military Family

We have been busy celebrating Christmas since Christmas Eve.  If you include the Christmas Eve dinner we had with my confirmation mentee and our own Christmas Day morning celebration of just the four of us, we have had seven Christmas get togethers.  This holiday season has made us feel very blessed and we felt very fortunate to have my youngest sister home from her deployment for Christmas.

My sister during her deployment ceremony in November
(She is third from the right.)

In mid-November, my youngest sister was deployed on a peace keeping mission in Kosovo with her Aviation Support Army National Guard Battalion.  When they deployed in November they traveled to Texas for some pre-deployment training before heading overseas.  Luckily for us they won't officially be traveling to Kosovo until after the New Year and that one of the casinos in Iowa donated a bus to pick up all of the soldiers to bring them home for a few days for Christmas.  It really meant a lot to all of us to have her home for a few days because we won't see her now until November 2014.  The group is suppose to be home in time to spend Thanksgiving in Iowa.

This isn't the first deployment for my sister and most likely not the last.  Each deployment is unique and hard in its own way.  While in Kosovo we are hoping and planning on her having better access to internet so we are able to video chat.  This is a big deal to me and my family as LP and MP continue to grow.  My sister will not receive any leave during this deployment, so that is another reason why we all will want to be able to not just email back and worth, but hopefully set up video chats.  I know deployments of today are probably easier than deployments before the days of Internet access, but they still are hard on families at home and soldiers that are stationed away.  So as we all continue to celebrate the holidays, remember our nation's soldier and their families.

The best Christmas present of all - my sister home from deployment
My sister and I the night before she had to go back

9/11 - What? So What? Now What?

I traveled to New York City in July of 2007.
Here is a photo I took of where one of  the
World Trade Center Twin Towers stood.
They were still cleaning out debris
not quite six years after the attacks.

What?  Today is September 11th and 11 years ago there were terrorist attacks on the United States that forever changed the United States's future and history.

They always say you'll never forget where you were on September 11th, 2001 and I guess "they" are right.  I was a junior in high school and before first hour began I was sitting in a hallway with some friends talking when another friend came up and asked if any of has heard the news that a plane hit one of the World Trade Center Twin Towers.  None of us had heard because we'd arrived at school before it happened.  We then proceeded to our first hour class where we found out from our chemistry teacher that a second plane had hit the other Twin Tower.  Soon after class started, which consisted of watching the news in the classroom, a plane hit the Pentagon and a little later, another in Pennsylvania.  It was a crazy day.  No one knew what was going on and how the United States was going to respond.

My youngest sister at her
Iraq deployment ceremony in June of 2008.

So What?  So what should we be doing to remember the 9/11 terrorist attacks.  Take pride for being an American and realize that freedom isn't always free.  I've always been proud to be an Iowan but I do have to say, after September 11th I have more American Pride.  My American Pride has only grown as both my youngest sister and brother-in-law began their careers in the military.  My youngest sister joined the Army National Guard when she was seventeen.  She served one tour in Iraq and is currently in her eighth year of service.  My brother-in-law joined the Marines after graduating high school & served two tours in Iraq.  He's now in the Marine Reserves & is a police officer.

Now What?  I thought it was very fitting that yesterday Iowa's Governor Branstad and Lt. Governor Reynolds announced a new volunteer initiative.  Their "Volunteer Iowa:  A Call to Service" goal is for Iowa to become the national leader in service and volunteerism by 2015 (currently Iowa ranks second in the nation for percentage of population who volunteer).  One way of accomplishing that is through their "What's Your 50?" campaign.  Iowans are likely to volunteer but their volunteer hours are less than the national average.  The "What's Your 50?" campaign challenges all Iowa's to increase their service activities to 50 hours per year.  I hope you find something new to volunteer at or that you increase your volunteering efforts this year.  I love volunteering and am very proud of groups that I volunteer for such as my church, 4-H and Make-A-Wish!