An object in motion....

At mass recently, a volunteer parishioner (You rock, Jessica!) used the concept of inertia in her appeal to encourage more participation in a very important initiative at our church. Remember Newton's Laws? (And if you've been faithful followers of Salsa Mama, you may remember a past email about my wacky science teacher, Mr. Carroll, who was often very "par-TIC-ular" with us, young, silly,  unpredictable 7th graders?? Yes indeed, he was very excited about Sir Isaac Newton. But I digress....already!?). Ok, back to the point... We know that objects in motion stay in motion, and objects at rest stay at rest. Importantly, a force must either propel or stop the motion. For me, Jessica's words were just what I needed. The perfect catalyst, so to speak. I had been waiting for just the right message to "propel" the next sale forward, then voila (!) it was handed to me in the form of a parishioner humbly delivering a pulpit talk.  My biggest takeaway from her message? Giving prompts more giving.  Love begets love.  Pretty simple. Pretty profound.

Regardless of your church, or school, or neighborhood, daily opportunities abound for helping others. Here in the Shawnee bubble, there are teams of friends and neighbors rallying around mighty cancer warriors. There are driveways filled with neighbors in prayer.  There are meals, meals and more meals being lovingly prepared. There are hugs and tears and everything in between. It is so inspiring. This community continually proves that we can turn suffering into something beautiful by extending our love and (here is the most important part!!) RECEIVING the love from others. 

Knowing that receiving is difficult, I am so very happy that the Weathers family humbly and happily accepted the offer for Salsa Mama help for their son, Jackson! This important "YES" opens the door for us to join them on this road. 

Now, let's get to know this little man with the big heart! 

Meet Jackson!

Let's pause for a moment and check out this picture. Don't  you just want to grab this kid and tickle him???

This Royals tee-shirt wearing, thumbs-up, smiling cutie pie is the son of Nikki and Jason and little brother to big sis Isabella who is in kindergarten this year.  Jackson loves playing with construction trucks/cars, riding bikes, playing Ninja turtles, swimming, hiding in his "bear cave," giving big hugs, talking and meeting new people. He especially loves anything that allows him to be outside and MOST especially, anything that involves getting dirty! So basically, he is a typical 3-year old boy!!

This August, Jackson was diagnosed with Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis, a rare form of cancer that affects 1 in 200,000 people. His particular case is an inoperable tumor in his sinus cavity but thankfully, chemo IS an option. He has finished two rounds of already and will continue chemo/steroid treatment for the next year along with other biopsies and scans. 

From now until January 1, the Salsa Mama community will be helping Jackson's family with medical bills. Every pint sold automatically contributes to their fund. Any extra donations are welcome and greatly appreciated. The last sale for HappyBottoms was a huge success and I know the inertia will carry the Weathers family forward with gratitude and appreciation! 

If you would like to follow Jackson's progress, you can find his updates on Facebook under Jackson's Fight or follow him on Caring Bridge.

As you prepare for Thanksgiving, Advent/Christmas, and New Years, let me know if salsa fits in to your menu and most importantly, keep the Weathers' in your prayers! They are so grateful for your help, and I know that we are grateful for their allowing us to walk with them on this journey!

Life, Liberty, and Diapers for All

Hello Salsa Mama friends,

I have always been touched by the quote from St. Therese of Lisieux:

“For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy.”

Oh, this surge of the heart...it's such a real and powerful feeling, isn't it??? I rely on this when I'm deciding who Salsa Mama will help next. I've become surprisingly chill about this decision, considering my general want-to-plan-every-detail nature, but I'm finally learning that if I'm patient and "stay out of my own way," so to speak, the charity will present itself when the time is right. 

The moment I heard about HappyBottoms, that unmistakable surge of the heart bloomed and has been with me ever since. Oh, my friends, I hope this salsa sale is big! I would love for us to be able to send a significant donation. 

To start off, HappyBottoms is Kansas City's Diaper Bank. They provide diapers to 30+ organizations around the KC Metro Area. Since their beginnings in 2009, they have provided 1,853,197 diapers and counting. Their mission is simple and straightforward:

Our mission: working with our partners to provide diapers to low-income families through donations, both financial and in-kind while raising awareness of the need for diapers. 

In discerning how to present this information to you, I honestly can't even begin to focus. I want to ramble on and on about the facility I was able to tour. I want to elaborate on how amazing Liz Sutherlin, the current director is. I want to share with you all kinds of facts and figures and charts and graphs that Liz gave me showing the needs of our community. I want to explain how it breaks my heart that government assistance money cannot be used on diapers. And I want to shout out from the rooftops about the love and generosity of those involved in this HappyBottoms effort. It's so simple. It's so profound. It's just right and good and deserves our attention.

Please, please, pretty please, click on this link and then on the YouTube video link for a wonderful peek into the world of the HappyBottoms diaper bank. I promise it won't be time wasted. I know this is asking a lot....In general, I normally only click on about 1 in 100 YouTube links, thinking that I just don't have the time. Trust me, just go grab a cup of coffee and plant yourself for a teeny bit of time to understand why my heart strings were tugged. You won't regret it. 

Salsa Mama will be sharing with HappyBottoms for the rest of the summer through mid-September (Sept. 8-14 is Diaper Need Awareness Week).  In partnership with Salsa Mama, there are several ways that you can HELP this effort all summer long.

 ***Please keep in mind that monetary donations are the greatest wish because of the volume discounts they can get! 

If you choose to donate diapers, the larger sizes---4s, 5s, and 6s---are the most needed.***

Ways to help:

• Leave diapers (any amount, whole package, part of package, 2 diapers, anything...) with your cooler/payment on salsa delivery day
• Include extra payment for your salsa order and I'll keep track of the extra donation for you. 
• Click on the HappyBottoms donation page and choose your method of payment for a $10 minimum donation. Look for the "select designation" drop down and click on Salsa Mama. This works for ALL modes of donation---credit card, eCheck, all of them.
• Encourage your children to collect small change or even have their own little diaper drive. I'm happy to come pick up.
• Make a direct drop off at one of the convenient locations around town (for our area, most convenient will be Wonderscope and Little Monkey Business in Shawnee but check this list for many other drop off sites).  Send me a quick text if you do!

ANY of these loving, generous acts of kindness automatically qualify you for a prize, not that any of you expect a prize or any recognition (that is why I love you so!) but hey, this is fun for me to reward you.

Two prize levels:

• Donating diapers or leaving extra payment enters you into a drawing for a free pint of salsa.  

• Donating directly to the HappyBottoms website using the link above enters you into a drawing for $50 worth of salsa. That's right...Your $10 donation could turn into 10 pints of salsa. Wahoo!

Thank you for your support and for continually inspiring me to link people like YOU up with amazing people like LIZ and the team at HappyBottoms. We will most likely never see these sweet babies or their grateful moms face-to-face, but we will know that our efforts came from that surge of the heart so eloquently described by St. Therese.  

I hope that you are enjoying your summer!

Erin

You're going SHOPPING!

If you know me well, you know that I'm not much of a shopper. Even before I avoided shopping because of my kid's "occasional" monkey-like behavior, I avoided it like the plague. In high school, my girlfriends and I came to Kansas City from Wichita to shop for prom dresses on the Plaza. My friend Liz and I lasted about 5 minutes before we were wandering around as far from clothing racks as possible. As an adult, I'm a huge fan of online shopping or quick dashes into stores if I know what I need, but somehow I was skipped over in the passing on of the "Let's go shopping!" excitement that many other friends and relatives enjoy. I'm tempted by the occasional space-out-and-wander-through-Target run and every so often I will go crazy at the Old Navy clearance, but honestly, it's on the lower end of my enjoyable activities. My poor mom...she needed a better shopper for a daughter! :)
As we get to know the needs of more and more people in our community, I have discovered that shopping can be fun if it seems worth while.  In this spirit, Salsa Mama fans, I'm happy to announce that the next sale will give you a chance to win a shopping spree for the Catholic Charities food pantry!
Our friends Marianne and Justin Morgan are dedicated volunteers who work monthly to collect food at Hy-Vee on Mission. Volunteers across the county do the same each month, enabling over 1000 families in our area to have much-needed groceries.  Justin and Marianne (and their kids, Drew and Rachel) are just as busy as the rest of us---or more!---have a house to run, jobs to manage, sports, activities, and many church volunteer positions, but they have passionately committed to this cause as a family. So inspiring!!

So, how will this work? EASY!
Order salsa anytime between now and Easter and you will automatically be entered into a drawing. The winner will get the same amount of money that I would normally donate to a charity (half of the profits). They will take that money and hit the grocery store to buy items for the Catholic Charities food pantry. I will coordinate the delivery, or better yet, their family can deliver straight there to see how the food pantry operates.

Right now, the most needed items are:

Pasta
Spaghetti  sauce
Paper towels
Rice
Canned Veggies or Fruit
Cereal ( any kinds)
Mac and cheese
Ramen Noodles
Soup
Can Openers (hand held)

In the mean time, please check out the Johnson County Emergency Assistance Center for more information about donating food or other items. Food is just one type of donation needed. From this link, you can find much more information about helping in other ways.

For now, thanks for your support and know that I appreciate each and every one of you!