Touche

Not long ago, I made the mistake of prescribing hard candy as a hiccup cure. Charlie had hiccups and I gave him a hard candy to suck on, and it actually worked. But, alas, my children are geniuses of unspeakable evil. By the next day, they were tugging on my skirt, "Mo-om! I have the hiccups! Can I have a piece of candy?"My response quickly became, "Prove it."

So a couple of days ago, Abraham comes to me.
Abe: Mommy, I have hiccups! I need piece of candy to feel me better!
Me: No you don't.
Abe: Yes it is! I have a hiccup! It's in my nose!

I have no response for that.

Random Act of Kindness

A while back, someone did me a random act of kindness. An anonymous person in a van in front of me in the drive through line at McDonalds (Sh! Don't tell anyone I eat there occasionally or it will blow my nature-foodie persona!) paid for my meal. On purpose. I'd like to say it brightened my whole day. In a way, it did. Every time I thought of it that day it put a big goofy smile on my face. It was a reminderl that kindness exists. Yet I have to admit that I probably snarked at my kids just as much that day as any other. Probably I was just as cranky about having forgotten my list at Warlmart. Quite likely, I didn't remember to be more thankful. And evidently, I didn't get around to writing this until a long time afterward. Still, it has stuck with me, and made me question whether or not I am always kind. So how much is a random act of kindness worth? I decided to do a randomish act of kindness today. I bought some kids at the library a jug of chocolate milk. I wonder what they'll do. Will they remember that? Behave better in the library? Think about doing something nice themselves? Oh, I doubt it. Yet I don't mind spending a couple bucks to give a couple of kids a dose of calcium and vitamin D. It might have done me some unnamed good to do it. So I think a random act of kindness might actually turn out to be worth something. Not that I expect the world to change in a pay it forward-ish way. But maybe if I try to stay conscious of what kindness can do, I can be the exponent. Maybe I can increase kindness for people in a small area. Or maybe it just amounted to a free smoothie. What do you think?