Sometimes we give away stuff; sometimes it’s money or time. Several years ago my husband started mentoring a young man from a local junior high school. Although he’s the one giving his time, I realized that Josh was the ideal person to give some of the posters to that no longer decorate our kid’s rooms. I also gave him a souvenir from my Egypt trip.

Now that our kids have all graduated from college, not only are we free of tuition payments but some of our kids are actually making money. We asked if they would like to contribute to a scholarship fund for high-school graduates from their inner city public high-school. We would match what they contributed. They agreed. Now we all are investing in the education of a future generation. Time, posters, souvenirs, and money add up to at least seven items this week.

Actually the harder “time investment” I’ve been making for the past couple years has been tutoring at our son’s school. Giving money is easier than making a weekly commitment to be there for elementary math and reading.