Well, what a week.

I'm physically and emotionally drained. What's going on in Haiti is crippling my ability to focus on much. Which is as it should be... right? We can't pretend it's not happening.

One of the opportunities that came out of the Haiti earthquake was being able to talk to our kids about how to respond to a crisis. I'm not usually a "rah rah, go America" kinda gal, but I felt pretty dang proud this week that the Red Cross was reporting millions and millions of dollars being donated by people in this country. David and I talked about teaching our kids that in an emergency you give right away. We teach them to give throughout the year, but this is different. We talked about Haiti and what the devastation is like there. Truly, they could not comprehend it. How can any of us comprehend it? We didn't want to guilt them into giving, but we certainly wanted to give them the chance. I was really proud. Lily and Carver gave from the heart. They dug into their money jars and handed it over to me. Lily even went and got her crutches out of her room and gave them to me. She wanted someone in Haiti who had a broken leg to have them. Her favorite Christmas present of all time and she wanted to give it away. So sweet.

Zinabu, well.... he was a different story. He chose to hang onto his money. He would put a quarter in my hands and then take it back and say "It's so hard!" At least he was honest. It was a starting point.

And if you're participating in 30 Days of Nothing, the timing is rather eerie. It's pretty easy to go without for the rest of January when you know an entire country is without everything. Interestingly, both Jayme and Melodie have recently commented that they like living this way now. They like knowing they're saving money and not spending it on "things," and they want to continue this curb on spending for longer than January. And I completely understand their motivation. Why do you think I wanted to do 30 Days of Nothing again? Because once you start, it becomes a bit addictive. You find it hard to go back to your previous lifestyle. Even if you're extremely budget conscious, challenging yourself to think about parting with every single penny is a worthwhile exercise.

I hope to be back this week with my normal trivial blathering. I'm still recovering from the shock of so much devastation. Thanks for listening.