The joy of gift-giving; The guilt of gift-forgetting

For me, giving gifts is way better than receiving them. Around the holidays I begin asking people, "which gift are you most excited to give?" Then I watch as their face lights up picturing their loved one opening the gift my storyteller has excitedly, and sometimes nervously, given them. Will they like it?!?

On the flipside, the terrible feeling I have when forgetting to minimally text someone on their birthday is so heavy. I feel like a bad person and when those same people send me the smiley faces on my birthday, I'm reminded of two things: 1. These are people I care about. 2. Why the ever-loving %@*$ can't I remember to text, call or send a card when it's their turn?

I have ADHD. I only discovered this a few years ago after seeing some articles about symptoms that I knew all too well. Since my official diagnosis, I've learned so much about what it means to have a brain that processes things differently. There are really fun upsides - I can envision the big picture, dive deep for hours into anything that catches my interest, and I love change because things get boring VERY quickly. However, there are the downsides. The ones that drive an annoyance at myself or my brain for not being "normal". One of those is that I have NEVER been able to remember to give gifts or send cards on time, if at all. Each year used to start with a resolution that THIS would be the year that I'd keep a list of people's birthdays and at least send everyone a card. How hard could this be? Well, friends, you can probably guess how I ended each year.

So how to turn this frown upside down? Marry someone who can make me a website to remind me of upcoming events! OK so not everyone can do this but somehow my husband came into my life and brought with him the ability to code for hours on end. I shared the idea for GiftMinder with him nearly 10 years ago. Over the next few years, we'd brainstorm all of the fun things it would do. When I had an epiphany that I forgot someone's birthday (again!), we'd look at each other and say "GiftMinder!" even though it didn't actually exist.

Yet.

But now...I'm so excited to share something we've built that I hope helps others like it helps me.

GiftMinder can help you with the second of the two things I mentioned previously. But take time each day to remember the first.