Five Simple Things (June 20)

Hello.

Here are five things this week.

1. These peaches.

And they were delicious!

2. These cards.

I sent these pop up cards to my nephew and niece in Arkansas. The Rite-Aid in our city closed after CVS purchased all of the Rite Aid holdings after Rite Aid filed for bankruptcy twice in less than three years. They kept stores open in Idaho, Washington, and Oregon, but shuttered several stores. Our store was one of them. Before they closed Rite Aid had a huge closeout sell and I was able to find a lot of small items and these cards. We also were able to purchase one of the hand carts Rite Aid had in their stores.

3. These tablets.

These Good Day Calm Chocolates have been my go-to this week. I have large amounts of anxiety that I deal with on a daily bases, which medication helps regulate that. But towards the end of the evening I have a harder time calming my mind, and slowing down. These have helps a lot with that. They taste good and actually work. Good Day Chocolate also carries supplements for energy, sleep, and supplements for kids.

4. This class.

We took a CPR class this week through the local CPR course with Santiam CPR. We learned the basics on how to assess someone that's choking, not breathing, and also learned how to preform CPR on young children and babies. We were also trained on how to properly use an AED. We became CPR certified after the class and it's good training that will last a year. I highly recommend that everyone, at all ages, learn CPR. And stay up on your training every year. You could very well save a life! You can find classes local to you here.

5. These flags.

I wanted a way to display our support for marginalized groups, which makes me upset to even type that. Juneteenth flag is on the left and the Pride flag on the right. It's our way of showing that our house is a safe house for everyone. We hung hooks that I found on Amazon to the top and the bottom of the flags. We used a grommet kit to add holes to the bottom of the flag and punch through a grommet so it's a cleaner hole that we slipped through the hooks.

We will forever show support and stick up for anyone being bullied, treated unfairly, or just feeling like they can not go on. We are THAT house and we are THOSE people; the ones that care about everyone. You can find all of the items we used to create this here.

One last thing:

It's strawberry season!🍓

Positive affirmations this week:

On the same topic as the flag display post above, hating certain people, for whatever reason, people concoct in their own minds, is learned behavior. I remember years ago being at a gathering with Jeff's family, and his dad said that he didn't watch *Modern Family* because of the gay characters. That always stuck with me. That he would make such a ridiculous comment, for one, but also that his own grandchildren were standing within earshot of his comment. All I could think was, if any of these kids are gay, I hope they know that there are people who love them no matter what, and that comment comes from stupidity and immaturity. The older generation, boomers, do not seem to consider their words carefully when making random comments that could hurt someone, especially people they know and are close to. This lack of consideration for others' feelings can cause significant harm and strain relationships. Years earlier, I had lost respect for this particular person, but it seemed that at every gathering, comments were thrown around as if no one cared who heard them. I felt that some of the comments constituted bullying behavior, so I made the decision not to subject my child to that mentality. Now, skip ahead 15 years from that comment. There are, indeed, a couple of the kids who were present that day who have come out as gay or bisexual. His comment was damaging that day, and it could still be damaging today. Hating a certain group of people is neither funny, sensible, nor logical. Being where we are in life is simply a matter of luck. Some in the boomer generation seem to forget that they were the ones who coined the phrase, "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all." And how quickly people forget that everyone's blood is red. If you have been bullied by certain comments just know there are more good people in this world than not. You are brave, you are strong, you are accepted, and you are important.

You can do this!🌈