4th of july

I have always loved this holiday.
The tradition, the celebration of independence.
The kick off of summer with hot dogs and watermelon and lots of red, white, and blue.

But I also love it because it's the day before my birthday.
And as a child my parents told me the fireworks were to celebrate me too.

And so the 4th of July has always been filled with anticipation.
It feels like a New Year's Eve of sorts for me.
A chance to evaluate the year and set goals for the one ahead.

And this year I was so inspired by this blog post and this movement to join in on the Birthday Project.

So I will be doing 40 acts of kindness in honor of my birthday.

I thought it would be an awesome way to share with my kids how much more fun it is to give than receive.  And I thought it would be a memorable way to ring in this new decade.

I'm going to be realistic and am listening to the advice of loved ones to not try to do this all in one day.  But this weekend I'll be prepping things to begin our acts of kindness next Monday through Thursday.

And celebrating with me, friends and family will be doing an act of kindness in honor of my birthday.  If you'd like to join in too...feel free.  The more the merrier.  If you happen to get a picture of the act send it to me at willowofwonder@gmail.com and I'll include you in an upcoming post sharing all the kindness.

But  today I'm sneaking in an act of kindness early for you.
It's a July desktop wallpaper.  With a girl reminiscent of the childhood me doing something I always loved, playing with sparklers.

You can click on the picture and then right click to save it as your desktop picture.  But if that doesn't work, you can also download it by this link on google docs.

If you don't know how to save it from there, go to FILE (it's on the top left hand side of the screen) and then click download.  Save it on your desktop.  Some computers will then allow you to right click to save as your wallpaper.  If not go to your system preferences, then click the icon for desktop/screensaver and select the image.  Then it should appear as your wallpaper.

Feel free to send friends over to download it also.

Happy almost July!
You can expect more surprises here next week too!