Is there fun in fundraising?

It is that time of year again... and I do not mean Fall... It is the time of year that I start receiving emails and letters asking for money, donations, and volunteer time from my daughter's school. I believe in helping to enhance my kid's education, and think getting involved is a good idea... but...

I am a lazy person. There, I said it. I also procrastinate, and have a great talent for being able to accomplish nothing for long periods of time (but that is another story).

Anyway, being lazy means I do not always like to help out at school, and when I do help, I would like to do the least amount of work as possible. I also complain, as in bitch, a lot.

However, despite the complaints/bitching, I think deep down I do kind of like volunteering. I really like hanging out with some of the mothers (and nannies) at the school, and volunteering means that I can talk, okay gossip, with them for more than the five minutes we have during drop-offs and pick-ups, and who knows, I may actually get to meet new people.

And, last year, I volunteered once every two weeks in my kid's class. It was a great opportunity to see her at 'work' and to meet her little friends; and I can now match faces to names (my daughter likes to call every kid she meets 'friend' so we have lots of 'friends' but no real way to tell them apart, which makes scheduling play dates challenging – here is our typical conversation: daughter, “My friend invited me to her house.” Me, “Great, what's her name?” Daughter, “I don't know... my friend, the one with the hair...”). Being in the class was actually a lot of fun, as long as I armed myself with lots of headache medication prior to entering the classroom...

So, I guess I really should stop whining and just embrace helping out more. I want to teach my daughter that helping others and being involved in your community is a good thing.

On the other hand, as one the other moms suggested, I am also quite happy to just write the school a cheque at the beginning of the school year and forego this fundraising stuff.

Now, if you please excuse me... I have to go bake some cookies...  

Filling notebooks - I really should write more

When I was little, I loved blank notebooks. Okay, I still love pretty notebooks and journals, especially the leather ones. This is the reason why I own a small collection of notebooks (it is now small, because I am more fiscally responsible, and I managed to actually, but reluctantly, give some of them to my little one – I hope I am not turning her into a notebook addict as well).

I love blank notebooks because they are aesthetically pleasing. Who doesn't love the smell or a feel of a soft leather covered journal?

But mainly, I love notebooks because of the potential and promise they contain.

I love to write. So I see each blank page as a new story, a new adventure, a new emotion, a new thought, a new idea, that is just waiting to be pulled out of the ether, to become something concrete.

Unfortunately, as much as I love to write, my crappy time management skills, combined with my advance procrastination skills, leaves me little time to actually put pen to paper, or in this case, fingers to keyboard. And, I am not the kind of person who likes to listen to the sound of my own voice, so usually I do not write unless I feel like it is something that should be shared. This leaves me very little to actually write about, and thus the blog is so rarely updated.

So now, I hope those of you who read my blog is willing to be patient with me. I am going to actually try to write more, sometimes it may be thought provoking (I hope), sometimes it may just be silly, sometimes I may just babble nonsensically (I hope not), and though it will mainly be about life with a kindergartener, maybe I will also just write about me.

I know I need the practice; I realize just because I like to write, does not mean I am any good at it. It is time to actually start filling and using those notebooks.

... and I am glad that I am not obsessed with something more expensive... like cars...

picture courtesy of: Paul Preacher