(And, as I write this, wishing I could somehow mainline caffeine directly into my veins, he is now full-out begging to start his next campaign which will evidently be for the almost-extinct tigers. But that’s a project and a topic for another day.)

We had a solid turnout yesterday, with 31 climbers and dozen or so other attendees. All in, between our share of the climbing fees (31 X $9 = $279), sales of special Stone Creek Coffee, and donations, we raised $478 for World Wildlife Fund, which combined with the $145 previously donated through G’s World Wildlife Fund fundraising page puts him at $623, solidly over his $500 goal.

Wooooo-hoooo! Go G!!! And thank you, everyone.

Equally important, it seemed like everyone who participated had a good time.

At the end of it all, in addition to doing our little part to help endangered species, the real prize is THIS:

A kid that, at the end of the event, said “I have a rule. I don’t stop until I meet my goal.”

That, my friends, is gold. Pure GOLD.

Many many thanks to all who participated, climbed, donated money, donated prizes, showed up, donated food, ate, laughed, and cared.

HUGE thanks to Adventure Rock for being a great partner with even greater staff. And to Steve Hawthorne and Stone Creek Coffee for the super special coffee that helped push us over goal.

Much love. (a very tired) Spaight

ohmygawd…the G-man is on coffee!!! I am both ridiculously giddy about and deeply touched by this.

My amazing friend Steve Hawthorne from Stone Creek Coffee made this happen for G, for his wildlife fundraiser this Saturday, March 31 at Adventure Rock.

As cool and worth sharing as that is, I actually do have a point here. Steve’s kindness has brought to the forefront of mind how wonderful it is to make someone’s day. Within whatever resources we have at our disposal.

It doesn’t have to be STUFF, it can be as simple as a sincere compliment (my Dad is the master of this), a note in a lunchbox, any thoughtful thing that says:

“I see who you are and what you are doing, and care enough to acknowledge it.”

I try to do this from time to time. A yoga class for a friend in need of healing. Emergency gummy candy “meds” for a stressed-out friend. A good book for a friend who is missing her dogs, lost in a sudden divorce. But I need to do more.

It makes a LOT OF JOY. Imagine if we all did this every day.

What can you do to make someone’s day?

Peace. Spaight

So, I told him we could do a fundraising event, and asked him to think about what he would like to do. Having had his birthday party at Adventure Rock, a great indoor rock climbing gym located near Milwaukee in Pewaukee, Wisconsin, he decided he would like to have his fundraiser there. Great idea, kid!

There are many different ways you can be of help.

One big way is to come to the event, Saturday, March 31, 4PM – 7PM. There is a Facebook event here and it’s helpful if you RSVP so we know how many people to plan for; right now, a week out, we’re guessing 30-ish people. We could use more. :]

For the event, Adventure Rock was awesome and didn’t hesitate to let us have their big party room for three hours and for half of the proceeds from party climbers to go to the cause. It costs $18 if you plan to climb and $9 goes to G’s cheetah fund which goes to World Wildlife Fund. Adventure Rock is open until 10PM and you can stay until then/after the party to keep climbing if you want. If you plan to climb, please fill out this waiver and bring it with you.

If you’ve never climbed rocks or faux rocks before, not to worry. 1. If you want to learn, there is a very safe clip-in system at Adventure Rock and instruction on how to use it. 2. Climbing is totally optional. 3. There’s plenty of party room for climbers and non-climbers alike.

If you don’t plan to climb, you don’t have to pay the $18; we just ask for a small, optional donation of whatever you can comfortably afford.

If you can’t make it to the event but would still like to help, you can make an online donation.

If you can’t afford to donate cash right now, we completely understand. Maybe you can get creative and think of something cool you can do within your resources, like my amazing friend Steve at Stone Creek Coffee, who is putting G’s picture on bags of top-notch African coffee beans and letting us sell them at the fundraiser. (How cool is that?! The kid is on coffee!)

Maybe you can bring a food or beverage item to share. We’re donating beverages (bottled water, Sprecher sodas and Gatorade) and a ginormous tray of taco dip. Several other kind souls have said they will bring treats ranging from a fruit tray to Cheetos (Chester the CHEETAH, yo!) to sweet treats and other assorted deliciousness. I’m pretty sure no one will go hungry at this point, though we could use some additional nutritious choices like a veggie tray, maybe a meat/cheese tray, that sort of thing.

Maybe you have a new or gently-used toy sitting around that you can donate for a door prize for the kids, like another generous six-year-old boy and his Mom did with a cool Lego Ninjago Mountain Shrine set. Chili’s in Franklin also donated some gift certificates and a TON of free kid’s meals, so that’s cool. And Adventure Rock even donated a couple of climbing certificates for us to give away, which rocks (pun totally intended)!!!

Maybe you have or know of a business that can donate some small animal toys for the kids or sell them to us at cost…we’ll be happy to set up a table to share/promote the business in return, as long as it is local/sustainable/cheetah-friendly. : ] (Talking with the Milwaukee County Zoo about this…fingers crossed!)

Anything you can do is equally appreciated. Most of all, we’d love to see your smiling face and have your positive energy in the house with us next Saturday.

While we hope G can meet his goal of raising $500 (so an additional $355) to help protect his beloved cheetahs and other critically-endangered wildlife, the biggest thing that I am hoping he will get out of this experience is a taste of the sheer power of community. I believe that if we want our kids to fix problems in this world, we have to show them how to do that: TOGETHER. It does, as they say, take a village to raise a child; so I’m asking for your help showing this one, and a bunch of other ones, that people care enough to show up, take action, and unite for a cause.

Questions? Comments? Always welcome.

Peace. Spaight

To every Mom (or, yes, Dad) out there who has ever walked into an airport to leave on a business trip with a kid shrieking insanely in the car: I feel you.

To every Mom who has endured the massive day-before-the-business-trip-pleeeeease-don’t-gooooooooo, kid-hanging-on-your-leg guilt trip: blessings and peace to you.

To every Mom figuring out every day how to get ready for the business trip, write a meager 200-word blog post, walk your kid to school, walk the dog, get your work done, get to yoga class or the gym, get more work done, get to an appointment, get the rest of your work done, eat well, watch How the Earth Was Made with the kid, pack for tomorrow’s 6AM business trip, maybe spend 30 seconds with your spouse, ensure that the house is left in reasonable shape and the fundraiser invitations are taken care of: Godspeed.

No pity parties here…certainly there are people with harder lives. Just empathy and admiration, for you, and all you do. I see you handle your juggling act with apparent grace and am in awe of you. I also know you must have your moments, out of the public eye, when your heart is being torn out and stomped on. Even though you LOVE your work, and are uber-excited about the business trip. Because you love your kid more than all the rest of it put together.

I salute you.

How do you do it?

If you saw my post about the short, happy life of Fletcher Trouble Macgonagall Moorhead yesterday, you know that our dog Fletcher was on death row for aggression issues that were unmanageable and dangerous for us, as parents of a very unpredictable small child. As I wrote the post and afterwards, I cried for literally four hours straight, with my son telling me not to cry and to look on the bright side (having another dog to snuggle). With no real sense of hope whatsoever, I started to get in the shower in hopes of reviving myself enough to play with Fletcher and my son and prepare for the worst.

Then, I got a text from my friend Katie Klein with love and telling me to hang in there. If you know Katie, you know she is a catalyst and is also one of those people who can – and will – do anything to help a friend when needed. So on a wing and prayer, I asked her to tweet #savefletcher with a link to my blog post. We debated whether or not to do it, because of a really hateful comment I had gotten on my blog recently.

We agreed that hate cannot win. So Katie (@bootyp) posted a tweet that said: Awesome dog who’s a little on the aggressive side, needs a home. It’s life or death. Please. #SaveFletcher

Not long after, I got a DM from a kind, lovely soul who has taken in “the broken, the beaten and the damned” before and has experience with dogs with aggression and other issues. She asked to talk to the trainer that evaluated Fletcher. They talked, and we talked, and the trainer and I talked. And, in an absolute gift, this kind soul – who wants to remain more or less publicly anonymous in case Fletcher doesn’t make it in his second chance, which is totally understandable and appropriate - agreed to give Fletcher a second chance.

*cue tears* So, thanks to some amazing and generous people, armed with Twitter, and the shared belief that it might – just MIGHT – be possible, Fletcher was saved five hours before his scheduled demise. I have no words. None. *cue more tears, of happiness and gratitude*

FAITH, everyone. You have to believe in something for it to be possible.

THANK YOU, to Katie, and Fletcher’s new guardian, and to all of you who offered your love and support over the past week and especially yesterday.

So much love. Spaight

Sadly, today is likely to be our dog Fletcher’s last day of life. Unless, at his 5:00 vet appointment, they find something medically wrong with him that results in a stay of execution, which is of course highly unlikely. Or unless some kind soul with a lot of land and a lot of expertise in training aggressive animals reads this post and says “I’ll take him!” which is even less likely. (#saveFletcher?)

Some of you know the story of Gomer. We used to joke about Fletcher being Gomer’s reincarnation. Not so funny anymore. I seem to have quite the knack for picking dogs (and, occasionally in the past, men) with aggression problems. Fletcher’s former food aggression turned dog aggression turned object aggression turned human aggression quite suddenly over the past two weeks.

Last night, Amy Ammen from Amiable Dog Training came in for a professional consultation. I’ve taken Amy’s classes for years and she knows her stuff. She ran Fletcher through a bunch of aggression tests, the conclusion being like a boot to the stomach: bad genetics. You shouldn’t keep him in a house with a child, and you can’t rehome him. Which leaves us with only one alternative: The Rainbow Bridge.

Yes, I of course know the Rainbow Bridge is something a grieving dog owner made up to help the rest of us through times like this. But still, I must try to take comfort and amusement in the imagined scene of Fletcher meeting Gomer there, and all hell breaking loose. And I must try to celebrate Fletcher’s short-but-happy life.

Fletcher loved him some snow, and finally, finally just learned to drop a retrieving dummy and sit on a hand signal.

He was a pain in the ass. And we love him. And saying goodbye sucks. And I hate that Griffin has to go through it at only six years old.

But life happens. Someone said, Don’t cry that it is over. Smile that it happened. Imma try to go with that.

We recently put ourselves on a new family budget, which includes a little bit each month to donate to a great cause. I’ve asked G (my 6-year-old son, Griffin) to help pick the cause each month. During this month of Thanksgiving, we’re giving what we can to help BEAT HUNGER. Which, here in Milwaukee, I’m sorry to say includes the HALF of children who live below poverty level. That just can’t be acceptable, right? So please do what you can to do something about it. If we all do, we can make it right.

G and I have chosen to donate through Food Fight MKE, a movement initiated by young adults to educate, engage, energize and inspire citizens to help beat hunger in Milwaukee. (Disclosure: the young ‘uns powering Food Fight MKE are part of the OrangeAid internship program at Jigsaw, the agency that pays for my family’s food. This post, I promise you, is purely my personal opinion/beliefs.)

To participate, just text FOOD to 52000 and $10 will be donated to Hunger Task Force, which is expert at making money go as far as it possibly can to help local families. You can donate this way up to three times, and I strongly encourage you to do so. I did.

Semi-secret tip: You can also have some fun and help kick off Food Fight MKE by coming to the Bradley Center this Friday, November 11th at 6:30 PM and participating in a Beat Hunger flash mob. Hope to see you there.

What are you doing to help BEAT HUNGER during Thanksgiving month?

After the big Yin Toxin Fast and the Clean Program, having dropped 14 pounds in short order, we went on vacation, a beautiful week of family time on Green Lake. I was totally cleansed and refreshed, in so many ways. Ahhhhhhhhh.

But when we got home, I took a good look around and, newly energized, realized how many other things in my life were…out of control, frankly. About three minutes after we walked in the door, I cleaned the refrigerator. And the cupboards. And the closet. And it spiraled from there. The month of September was completely dedicated to getting our house in order, literally. We cleaned and de-cluttered EVERYTHING. (OK, we’re still working on the basement. That’s kind of a lifelong project, evidently. And from the looks of my desk as I write this, it could still use some help…)

We also found a FANTASTIC, no B.S. new financial planner, who I’ll be happy to hook you up with if you need help. (Many thanks to Erica Conway for hooking US up.) She helped us take a hard look at our finances, re-budget to a more realistic level (read: what we can actually afford), refinance our house, update our life insurance, re-think our investments, the whole sticky ball of wax. We’re in a good place now, with a fresh start, and some space in the mental cache has been cleared for things like writing more.

I’m writing more on the Jigsaw blog these days. But, I’ll also be posting here from time to time, especially after a redesign that’s in the works is finished.

So, Happy Fall. What’s up with you? What in your life could use a fresh look or a little de-cluttering?

Several years ago, my acupuncturist gave me this Yin toxin fast because I couldn’t seem to shake the feeling of being sluggish. Those who knew me when I did it still talk about it; in 13 days I went from a chubby slug to super-energetic and dropped about 12 pounds (which stayed off for a long, long time). Since my surgery in May, I haven’t been able to shake the feeling of being sluggish, just not being able to find my energy. So I’m doing this again starting today.

I’m not a doctor. I’m not recommending this for everyone. I’m just sharing something that has worked for me in the past. And I’ll let you know if it works again. It’s a thirteen-day taper fast, in which you move slowly to detoxification from a “normal” diet and then back again. By “normal” diet, they mean a 100% unprocessed, vegan diet, not the “normal” diet that most of us eat.

Throughout the 13 days, there is no caffeine (OUCH, this is the hardest part by far), no sugar, nothing processed (no sour patch kids hahaha), no dairy (no YoMama goodness…boo), no alcohol (not that big a deal, except for my friend’s awesome birthday party), nothing refined or processed at all.

Day 1: beans, spices, fruits, grains, cooked vegetables, soups
Day 2: a little less of everything from day one
Day 3: very few spices, no beans
Day 4: less vegetables, more grains, no fruit
Day 5: few vegetables, mainly mixed grains
Days 6-8: one cup of organic brown rice 3 times a day
Day 9: few vegetables, mainly mixed grains
Day 10: more vegetables, grains
Day 11: very few spices, some fruit, no beans
Day 12: beans, fruits, grains, soups
Day 13: beans, spices, fruits, grains, vegetables, soups

If you try this, during days 6-8, you’ll pretty much be resting…no child care, no heavy exercise, no work, nothing. You’re letting your entire body including your digestive system rest, and it will thank you for it. This will mean it’s going to be difficult to impossible for me to attend 3 on 3 for Niebs this weekend which really bums me out, but I have to do something to feel better. Hopefully some of you will go for me. : ]

See you on the other side. Anything like this ever worked for you?

I never met either Andy or his family. But my heart breaks for them, and I’ve heard many of you say the same. I’ve never met Jennifer, but having watched my own Mom die from cancer many years ago, my heart breaks for her every time I read her blog. Katie, I’ve met, and come to know well, and love, and having watched my own dog die five years ago almost to the day, my heart breaks for her, too.

So, is it worth it, ultimately, opening yourself up to the pain of people who are, often, strangers? Yes, I think so. Why? Because every bit of “sad” brings with it a bit of sunshine.

The truly heartbreaking story of Andy results in getting acquainted with Jon and Maria Tiegs, who took it upon themselves to organize a fundraiser for Andy’s family, and, as I’ve told them, restore one’s faith in humanity. The heartbreaking story of Jennifer’s Mom results in getting to know the incredible strength of her spirit and Jennifer’s spirit. And getting to know Katie is…well, the gift that keeps on giving. : ] And these are just a few examples of the stories we all hear every day.

The other upside? Gratitude. Today is my little man’s 6th birthday, and following Andy’s life and death is a constant reminder to be grateful for today.

It also makes us more prone to actually step in and help other people, which I still hope you will do for the #cancersucks fundraiser for Andy. I will be in attendance with my little man, and would love to see you there.

My good friend Erica Conway commented yesterday on the “helplessness of empathy”. I love that turn of phrase. It can make you feel helpless. Obviously, there’s nothing any of us can do for Andy. BUT there is a great deal we can do for his family. There is always SOMETHING that we can do. The trick is getting off our butts and DOING it.

Sometimes, it’s all a little overwhelming, to be honest. There’s only so much emotion that one can process at a time. Do you ever find it to be so?