OGR Valentines Brunch

I love special event fundraising. I think it comes from this little piece of me that's always wanted to be an event planner or wedding coordinator. Not only do I enjoy the planning, logistical and creative aspects of special events - but I love celebrating a non-profit organization. It's a great opportunity to look at what the organization has achieved, and what is still to come.

Since I left my position at Opera Grand Rapids last summer, I've maintained my connection to the organization through their Opera Affiliates group and will be co-chairing a special event for them later this year.

Opera Grand Rapids is West Michigan's resident, professional opera production company since 1967. Each of their productions is built from the ground up in Grand Rapids, utilizing breathtaking national singers, amazing sets and costumes, our regional chorus, and the music of the Grand Rapids Symphony.

I received my invitation yesterday to Opera Affiliates' annual event: Valentine Brunch. This is a great event held at the Kent Country Club featuring good food, and good singing. It's a great intro to opera for those who may not know much about it, or may be intimidated by the thought of it. The performance is casual, with no props, set, or costumes (well, I'm pretty sure they are not in costume...) and consists of several musical highlights by the shows' stars.

Here's the event info:

VALENTINE BRUNCH
A benefit for Opera Grand Rapids
Sunday February 8, 2009
12:00pm
Kent Country Club, Grand Rapids
Lavish buffet with breakfast cocktails followed by musical highlights from The Elixir of Love
$45 per person

Travis and I will be attending - and invite you to join us! Just let me know if you're interested, and we'd be happy to carpool and make a day out of it! Come eat good food, experience great music (I promise opera isn't scary!) and support non-profit arts in West Michigan.

Oh, and $20 per ticket is tax-deductible, so you'll get a letter/receipt that you can write-off on your taxes. What a deal! : )

Everyday Cleaning

One of the things that I struggle with is finding the time and energy to keep my house clean and tidy EVERY day of the week! Trav and I find that by the time we get home in an evening, especially in the winter when it gets dark so early and the weather is bad, all we want to do is lay on the couch!

Our laziness meant that whenever the weekend rolled around, or people came over unexpectedly, we were running around like chickens with our heards cut off trying to clean as fast as we could. We needed to keep things in better shape consistently, so the cleaning and tidying were less time-consuming in the long run.

I found this article (below) at Real Simple magazine's website - and although it may seem self-explanatory - I found it really helpful. I like to have a plan, goals, and a deadline, and this article fit my personality. So we based our approach on the Real Simple article, and assigned ourselves both everyday tasks (keeping the dishes out of the sink!!) and a larger cleaning chore for each day (dusting, etc.) It's working out well so far. If you have any housekeeping secrets of your own - please share! Here's to a consistently clean and tidy home in 2009!

The Keep-It-Clean Plan

With a plan of attack, you can maintain a sparkling house in just 19 minutes a day

Mikkel Vang

These room-by-room to-do lists will help you get the work done quickly so you can put your feet up sooner rather than later.

Kitchen, 4 1/2 minutes daily

Always start with the sink. "Keep it empty and shining," says Marla Cilley, author of Sink Reflections (Bantam, $15) and creator of www.FlyLady.net, a housekeeping website. A sparkling sink becomes your kitchen's benchmark for hygiene and tidiness, inspiring you to load the dishwasher immediately and keep counters, refrigerator doors, and the stove top spick-and-span, too.

Wipe down the sink after doing the dishes or loading the dishwasher (30 seconds).

Wipe down the stove top (one minute).

Wipe down the counters (one minute).

Sweep, Swiffer, or vacuum the floor (two minutes).

Bathroom, 2 minutes daily

Make cleaning the basin as routine as washing your hands. But don't stop there. Get the most out of your premoistened wipe by using it to clean around the edges of the tub and then the toilet before tossing it.

Wipe out the sink (30 seconds). Wipe the toilet seat and rim (15 seconds).

Swoosh the toilet bowl with a brush (15 seconds).

Wipe the mirror and faucet (15 seconds).

Squeegee the shower door (30 seconds).

Spray the entire shower and the curtain liner with shower mist after every use (15 seconds).

Bedroom, 6 1/2 minutes daily

Make your bed right before or after your morning shower. A neat bed with inspire you to deal with other messes immediately. Although smoothing sheets and plumping pillows might not seen like a high priority as you're rushing to work, the payoff comes at the end of the day, when you slip back under the unruffled covers.

Make the bed (two minutes).

Fold or hang clothing and put away jewelry (four minutes).

Straighten out the night-table surface (30 seconds).

Family Room, Living Room, Foyer, 6 minutes daily

Start with the sofa — as long as it's in disarray, your living room will never look tidy. Once you've fluffed the pillows and folded the throws, you're halfway home. If you pop in a CD while you dust, you should be able cover the whole room by the end of the third track.

Pick up crumbs and dust bunnies with a handheld vacuum (one minute).

Fluff the cushions and fold throws after use (two minutes).

Wipe tabletops and spot-clean cabinets when you see fingerprints (one minute).

Straighten coffee-table books and magazines. Throw out newspapers. Put away CDs and videos. (Two minutes.)

Spare Change?

TWO great needs have come to my attention this morning. Please take a moment to read about them, and see if you can help:

Vicky's Pet Connection, established in 1998, is a non-profit organization dedicated to rescuing, caring for and placing homeless and abandoned pets in our community. They are approaching a decade of service with over 9,000 lives saved directly through rescue and adoption, over 800 in 2007 alone. Primary focus of our mission is community animal welfare education, spay/neuter advocacy, and low/no cost spay/neuter assistance. Every animal that passes through our doors is sterilized. Literally tens-of-thousands of lives have been indirectly saved with their aggressive spay/neuter programs.

Leyla is an exceptionally loving and beautiful 7-month old Boxer. Sadly, Leyla's short time in this world has not been filled with the love and care a puppy needs Over Thanksgiving, while we found ourselves enjoying a warm home and family, Leyla found herself scared, alone and injured in the animal shelter. Unfortunately, the severity of her injuries was underestimated, her leg was simply placed in a soft cast and there she remained for several days.

Upon coming into the care of VPC, Leyla was immediately vetted, received successful leg-saving surgery, placed into a loving foster home, and is well on to her road to recovery. The cost of Leyla's extensive surgery and other vetting was nearly $2300.00. Please consider making a donation of any size. Your generosity will offset the cost of Leyla's care.

To find out more and learn how you can help, visit Leyla's page.

Kelsey is serving amongst the people and abandoned children of Marghita, Romania. She moved "home" to Romania in August of 2004 and currently works under a foundation called, Fundatia Crestina Elim (The Elim Christian Foundation.) Coordinating all discipleship with the children at the Casa Alba orphanage takes up most of her week but she also loves being able to serve the other missionaries here through leading and encouraging worship, Bible Study and prayer groups amongst them. She also is Mama to Caleb, a four year old foster son. She has been his Mom for 4 years now and will adopt him as soon as a door opens for that. She met Caleb during her first shift of taking care of the babies at Casa Alba orphanage where she was first assigned to work in August of 2004.

"I love being able to serve God here in Romania, where I truly feel at home. I believe that the work I do with the Casa Alba children, teaching them about Jesus, will have a major impact on this country as they grow up and move into the workforce. They will be lights shining for Jesus and instigators of change in a country so desperate for direction and hope."

Kelsey is a friend of mine from high school doing great work. She is currently looking for nine donors who will commit to $25/month during 2009.

To find out more, and to see if you can help Kelsey, please visit Kelsey's page.

“Make all you can, save all you can, give all you can."

— John Wesley (1703 - 1791)

Blog Insecurity

When I first began writing this blog - it was primarily a personal communication tool. I was planning on phasing out Facebook (yeah right - WAY too addictive and stalktastic!) and wanted a way to keep people in the loop with the goings on in the lives of myself, Travis, Bella and the cats. The more I blog, and the more I investigate other people's blogs, the less satisfied I am with my own.

What I am realizing is that most people's blogs have a "theme" which allows for more cohesive posts, more opportunities for followers, dialogue, and discussion, and is just more interesting. I've read blogs of complete strangers focusing on babies, organic living, photography, crafts, art, fundraising, and more. The more I read - the more inadequate I feel about my blogging!

Realize that this entire post is written with a touch of sarcasm. I'm not losing sleep over this, nor do I believe that the integrity and substance of my blog is of dire concern to anyone, let alone myself, but I am THINKING about it - right now this minute - so I thought I'd shout out for feedback.

I've thought about writing soley about fundraising - it's what I do after all. But I think seperation between work and personal life is important for me (workaholic, much?) and that I'm very young in my career to be preaching and advising about donor advised funds, IRA's and planned giving, and major gift solicitation. While I feel well established in my field, I don't think I'm at the point where what I have to say has MUCH benefit to others.

I could write solely about my family - and our adventures. But to be blunt - we're kind of boring! I mean, we're not BORING exactly, but we just came off a year where we did all kinds of life-changing things within the span of 12 months: Planned a wedding, HAD a wedding, went on honeymoon, bought a house, got a puppy... I mean, if there had been a good time to write about our lives - last year would have been it! I could have written a kick-ass blog about wedding planning... ah well.

I could write solely about the arts. The arts are important to me. Sadly though, I'm still working on fitting the performing arts into my "adult" lifestyle. It's so easy in high school and college to participate in EVERYTHING. Nowadays I rarely play flute or sing (good thing I have that music degree!) and can't even find the time to create my wedding scrapbook (even with my new basement craft room!). So until I find the balance - there's not much to dedicate a blog to there either.

Balance is kind of what it all comes down to really, isn't it? Travis and I have been joking around a lot about new year's resolutions lately (being 2009 and all) and I've unofficially made approximately 1,256 of them. But what these "resolutions" really boil down to me is that now that the flurry of 2008 is over - I need to find BALANCE. I need to eat better, and exercise (yeah, yeah I know), I need to not only keep my house clean and tidy (now that I have one of my very own!) but keep on top of the never-ending list of home improvement projects as well, I need to continue my education and professional development so that I can continue to be successful in my career, I need to get the performing arts back in my life, I need to find time to putz around in the craft room and work on projects, and I'd LOVE to take a photography course, some dance classes, and some art classes this year.

Phew. Balance. Maybe that's a subject for a blog?

I've also noted from this post that I use a LOT of parantheses, capitals and exclamation points. Don't hold it against me. I'm a passionate person.

Feedback?

It's Not Too Late!

2008 is quickly drawing to a close and it's not too late to get in those year-end charitable gifts! I have blogged about this before, but it is becoming more and more apparent that these are tough times for non-profit organizations and I just feel the need to promote year-end giving and supporting your community.

My organization, for example, is currently sitting at less than 50% of its year-end campaign goal. This is very sad news indeed. Year-end dollars are unrestricted funds that we are able to use for general operating monies throughout the year, and are incredibly important in keeping our doors open and programs running. Non-profits need year-end and other general operating donations in order to continue serving the community. There will be no bail-outs for the non-profit sector.

The bottom line is that we all have something to give, and there are plenty to give to. There are educational organizations like Grandville Avenue Arts & Humanities, who give under-served children the opportunity to experience the arts and learn and grow. There are animal shelters who are aiding sick animals and placing unwanted ones in new homes. There are hungry children, people who have been abused, children without toys this Christmas. There are parks and safehavens being destroyed by pollution. People are dying of cancer and diabetes and malaria and AIDS. There is so much heartache in our world.

Won't you give back? What can you do to help? Can you give $25, $50, or $100? Please, make a difference in your community. It's the best Christmas gift you can give.