Getting to Volunteer at School

I got to volunteer in my children's school for the first time this week.  My oldest child is nine, so this may be a strange declaration.  My children were homeschooled until this September.  We had chosen last spring to give public school a try after too much time together was not benefiting my relationship with my persistent, determined son.  He now loves kindergarten, playing with peers, dressing for the occasion, and daily free choice time with different art mediums.

My children's school is having a canned food drive.  Last week they could have a popsicle at lunch if they brought in a certain number of canned goods.  As the parent of children going through a lot right now, I wanted my children to be like the other kids (whose parents prepared for these things in advance) and get the prize this time.  My children don't make a big deal out of most things, though this day I felt I wanted to show them I show up for them in this way.  After my children went to school, I put their canned goods into bags, wrote a love note on the outside of each, and delivered them to their respective classrooms (unlike the lunch bag mix up that occurred the day before).  When I said to a teacher I wanted my children to be able to have a popsicle, I really meant I want them to know I am here to support them in a variety of ways.

Teachers hugged me and expressed their condolences for the loss of my partner to lung cancer two weeks prior.  Now that I am no longer struggling to simultaneously care for my ailing partner, my home, and my children, I get to have the energy to reach out and connect with others in new ways.  I talked with the third grade teacher about how it would be fun to team teach the group of 38 students together, and volunteered to grade papers at home.  (Before my first was one year old, I had the privilege of teaching third grade.)  Near the office, there was a great project underway with an artist in residence.  What a colorful, child-crafted scene!

So this week I returned to school with a cracker-eating toddler on my back to spread and coax charcoal grout into a permanent mural.  I found such delight in meeting new people, having small conversations with other adults, working without talking, caking my hands with black chunks, pouring buckets of black water outside in the sunshine, narrating my actions for my toddler, using my body to do things other than care for children and tackle mountains of paperwork.  Simple delights.  I got to volunteer in my children's school for the first time this week.  I look forward to an unfolding of relationships and new delights within each new day, and within this new-to-us community.

Pantene Beautiful Lengths Hair Donations

I love to grow my hair long and then chop it off every year or so for a good cause.  I donated to Locks of Love for many years, until I found most of their hair donations are sold for money to create wigs for those in need.  Pantene Beautiful Lengths shares all hair donations with women with cancer.  I feel good knowing my hair is helping other women in their own times of need.  I imagine a mom of young children with cancer covering her head with my beloved locks.  My hair lives on with others who are living with cancer, a topic now near and dear to my heart.

Seed Packets

We were helping a local organization separate bulk seeds into smaller envelopes when we ran out of small seed envelopes.  With some Portland Tour de Coops calendars, we created our own little seed packets.  Now we take our stack of packets with us when we swap seeds with friends.  They are so cute, reusable, and made with things we had on hand.  It feels really good to take something we have on hand and turn it into something we would otherwise purchase.  Staying home and crafting our envelopes was soothing and exciting for us all. 

calendar pages destined to live on as seed packets

Forget-Me-Not seed packets

Sharing the Valentine Love

My children and I love to take crafty projects everywhere we go, to craft them with friends, and then to release them into the world.  A few weeks ago I stumbled upon Ed Emberly's drawing books at the library.  I remembered all the fun I had with his books as a child and went home that day with a few of his books.  We have the time of our lives crafting with Ed Emberly's thumb printing books. 

This year, with the help of friends and a stash of stickers, we created almost 200 Valentines!  These were delivered to two different retirement homes, a Meals on Wheels program, to two streets of neighbors, and loved ones near and far. 

Each year on each holiday my children and I together deliver our cards and appreciate the gift of seeing recipients' faces light up with smiles and laughter.  In giving, we are also receiving.  My children are giving of their time and love, and also receiving assistance from friends and appreciation from friends, family, and strangers.  Giving and receiving are both such delicious gifts.  Our hearts are overflowing with love. 

Even before Valentine's Day had arrived, Hannah began planning out Saint Patrick's Day crafts, so we are already off on our next creative adventure.  Creating heartfelt gifts for others surely fuels our fire, raising the joy quotient to infinity and beyond!  Woohoo!

embracing our elders

It truly does take a community to raise healthy children.  As a parent, I continually revamp my parenting plan to include more nature, relationships, and community service.  Lacota children are typically raised by their grandparents while their parents focus on providing for the family.  Reflecting on this functional model, I would love for my children to grow strong surrounded by loving elders who have more patience and compassion and humor and imagination and perspective than myself.  As a parent, I feel ill suited at times for this full-time responsibility of raising my children, of helping their bodies and minds and spirits to grow healthy and strong while also tackling the details of our lives: laundry, meals, dishes, appointments, and all the scheduling.

When we regularly interacted with elders, our lives are enriched in new ways.  Bringing young and old together can greatly benefit both groups.  Both can share their stories, experiences, passions, thoughts, humor, and their big open hearts.  I personally benefit from a generous crone who has taken me under her wing to help me grow as a mother.  From her I've learned (and endlessly repeated) mantras such as "this too shall pass," "that is how it is in this phase of life," and "everything is as it should be."  I recently began brainstorming solutions for my family to grow relationships with more elders.  I began to journal what I dream for my children.  What I found was simple.  That dream is for gentle elders to join us for quality bonding time together: dinners or crafts or walks or stories or other possibilities yet to explore.

Moving from creating a dream to identifying resources, I asked myself, "What untapped elders are in our circle?"  We see my parents every few months.  A great-grandmother lives next door (not personally ours).  I take workshops with grandparents.  An elder friend cares for another woman's children once a week.  Numerous untapped retirement homes are nearby.

How can we connect regularly with these elders and bring them into our family circle?  This is our plan.

• We have scheduled monthly visits with an elder friend.  
• We have invited elders we cherish to join us as our dinner guest.  
• We will ask to visit with my parents and family friends monthly.  
• We will ask our elder neighbor how we may spend more time with her (tea party, art time).  
• We will talk with the local retirement homes and arrange to visit each month with residents (through art projects, personal visits, etc.).  
• We may even deliver meals with Meals on Wheels (and decorate lunch bags for the program). 
• I will meet with the activity coordinator of the large retirement home and attempt to develop a monthly craft/activity time for our friends to join us in bonding with and loving our elders.
• We will commit to volunteering with North American Youth & Family Center.
• We are listening together to our land's Native People's stories through Wisdom of the Elders.

These are all things we are certain to accomplish.  However, there are potential weaknesses in the plan, such as scheduling, energy levels, cooperation on the part of retirement homes, and finding elders who want to spend time with my children.

I'd love to hear your ideas and suggestions on this topic, Dear Reader.  What has worked for you?  Thank you for allowing me to share my current adventures with you.  I am so invigorated and inspired by working through these ideas and sharing them with others.  Tomorrow morning I will write out a plan of activities for a meeting with our local retirement home.  Let this beautiful journey to a more inter-generational community begin!

Mill Park (Johnson Creek Watershed Council)

Over dinner last week, Hannah told us about erosion and how you can stop it by planting more trees.  With her Nature School friends, she found that stabbing sticks ("pretend trees") into a mountain of dirt kept the dirt from washing away.  It's pretty cool when your first child can tell you about erosion over a shared meal.  Last weekend we joined the Johnson Creek Watershed Council to control creekside erosion in Mill Park.  Along with 400 volunteers in nine parks, we planted shrubs and trees, pulled weeds, and laid bark.  Hannah made a new friend who she continues to talk about.  We had such a great morning digging in to the work with other volunteers.  As volunteers, we have found we learn things for free that other people pay to learn.  It is amazing what a four year old can learn in a short time.  Her new skills include getting a plant out of a pot, loosening the roots, placing it straight up in the ground, gently filling in and tamping around the plant, shoveling dirt into a wheelbarrow, moving an empty wheelbarrow, collecting pots and weeds from volunteers, and finding other odd jobs to help out.  I was so impressed by how helpful she could be.  And she truly delighted in her new skills and independence.  We would like to do more activities like this to help out in our local community.

loving her time in Mill Park

testing out the hole before the tree is planted

volunteering with children

Growing up as a volunteer and hearing of my parents' many volunteer projects, my mind has been on volunteering for the last six months.  It took that long for me to find a way to volunteer with these two young children that are always at my side (when not on my lap).

This afternoon, with a toddler strapped to my back and a talkative preschooler at my side, we tried our hand at volunteering.  Once we got to the right building, we talked and listened and sorted and counted and helped fill hundreds of grafting kits for Portland Fruit Tree Project.  This local organization helps with all things tree related, gleans unwanted fruits from trees, and shares half their produce with the Oregon Food Bank.  While there, both kids and I had a grand time.  Hannah counted out endless tree ties and q-tips for kits while Liam socialized and played with film canisters.  We met some nice new people, practiced our math skills, ate some delicious chili cherry chocolate, and helped an extraordinary organization.

It is so invigorating to finally get out to volunteer when I've been looking forward to it for so long.  For us, volunteering has moved from a possibility to a reality.  The next step will be to find more organizations that will appreciate the hands of small children.  Once we get the hang of volunteering, we will invite friends to join us.  The inspirations and possibilities are endless.  I'd love to hear about how you volunteer with small children in your community, dear reader.

Volunteer Opportunities for Children:
Portland Fruit Tree Project
Oregon Food Bank
Children's Book Bank: donating and organizing books
SOLV tree planting: bring kid gloves, some locations safe for smaller children
Meals on Wheels: making place mats or art to be delivered with meals
Growing Gardens: children at our sides while volunteering
Retirement homes: share time, crafts, art

volunteers wanted

Dear Hannah,

My parents started early getting me excited about volunteering.  As a child I regularly volunteered in retirement homes and libraries.  Your grandparents continue donating their time in libraries, soup kitchens, schools, and their church.  I continued volunteering as an adult.  I prepared activities and themed books and read them to daycare children through the local library.  I shuffled papers for a local non-profit organization.  These opportunities helped me practice my creativity, learn more compassion, generosity, and patience.  And I want to share these learning opportunities with you.  Motherhood has temporarily kept me from my volunteering adventures, though soon we three (you, your brother Liam), and me will be heading out into the world to share our time.  Your natural charm would flourish in a retirement home, you would bring extra creativity to the library's children's crafts, or you'd learn about an ecosystem while collecting garbage at the beach.  There are so many things you would enjoy.  Remembering the value and pleasure of donating personal time, you and I will talk about it and plot a course to get out there to bring a smile to someone's face.  The longest journey begins with a single step, and life nowadays feels like so many single steps.  Let this new journey begin.

Happy travels,
your mama

More links to come!

find a local library
Clackamas County
Clackamas County Library
Multnomah County
Multnomah County Library
Multnomah County animal services
Zenger Farm volunteering

US Fish and Wildlife Service 
EPA
World Wildlife Fund