Finances, Immunizations and Autism

Back in college, I worked as an intern for a Senator on Capitol Hill for a summer. There was a lot of copying and reading long boring briefs involved. But I learned a lot. One of the things I learned was that just about every day, week and month of the year has been proclaimed something like Seat Belt Safety Month or Recycling Awareness Week or National Ball Point Pens Day (some proclaimed special occasions seemed a little more important than others...).

Anyway, there are three things for this month that I think are really worthy things to be more aware of so I'll share them here:

April is Financial Literacy Month.

We work really hard with our kids to help them learn the beauty of hard work and the value of money. Until the end of this weekend, Power of Moms is offering a free one-hour online training by me and April that offers lots of tried-and-true ideas for teaching kids about work and money.

Free Online Training: Teaching Kids About Work and Money
(feel free to pass this link along)

This week is World Immunization Week.

When we were first married, Jared and I spent some time in a tiny village in Kenya. They held school under a tree outside for a couple weeks so that Jared and I and the other volunteers could sleep in the mud and thatch school house. We helped them build a new room on the school, helped build a water cistern, taught English and Jared taught the older kids some math, and assisted the doctor and dentist in our group with the make-shift medical clinic set up during our stay. Moms walked for hours at the crack of dawn and lined up with their sick children outside the school building in hopes that they would get a chance to see the doctor or dentist. The line was very long and some moms had to camp out and try again the next day. The doctor trained us to help with the things that were fairly simple. We cleaned and dressed infected wounds. We gave out vitamins to malnourished kids. And we saw so many children suffering from so many diseases that could have been prevented by a simple shot of vaccine.

Did you know that for $20, a child can be vaccinated for life against 4 deadly diseases? Don't we all have a way we could spend less on treats or entertainment for a week or two and save $20 that we could put towards saving a child's life? Check out the information and think about donating a bit if you can. We can't help with all the sadness and suffering in the world. But we can prevent a needy child or two from getting the deadly diseases our own children will never get.

Learn about the United Nation's Shot at Life Campaign and donate here.
(feel free to pass this link along)

April is Autism Awareness Month. 

I have an aunt whose just recently been diagnosed - sort of - she has either Aspergers or Autism - it hasn't been confirmed which. Growing up, everything just thought she was strange. She's had a hard life in a whole lot of ways. I sure wish there had been more awareness of Aspergers and Autism when she was growing up! I have so many friends with children who are on the Austism spectrum and I'm always learning more. I think it's important for everyone to understand at least a bit about Austism. Check out this article on Power of Moms for some great perspective:

http://powerofmoms.com/2012/04/autism-awareness-are-we-speaking-the-same-language/
(feel free to pass this link along)

So there's a little food for thought today!