Friday, February 1, 2013

Kindness Day

Wow, it's been such a long time since I posted!  I think I needed the break.  I've been doing lots of fun things since Halloween though, so at least I have plenty to write about!  I want to start with my favorite plan for this year, Kindness Day!



One of my plans for this year was to try and do one service-related activity every Friday.  I call it Kindness Day, and so far it is a big success!  The first week, I had Serenity look through her toys and choose some to donate.  I told her to pick one thing from each toy area.  Sometimes she chose things that she had outgrown or was done with, but she also chose a few things she actually likes.  I was so proud!

Week Two we did thank you notes.  I printed off a little page so all she had to do was fill in the blanks.  So for each note she wrote the name of the person the note was for, what she got, and then she finished the sentence, "I like it because..."  And she signed her name.  So it was quite a bit of writing practice in addition to gratitude practice.  We also tried to take a picture with each present to send with it.  We came down with the flu that weekend, so I'm not sure we got all the thank you notes written, but we got quite a few sent out! 



Week Three was chosen entirely by Serenity.  She was reading over my shoulder as I was looking for ideas for our activity, and she saw a salon gift basket.  Probably inspired by the amazing girls day she had with Aunt Jennifer and Raegan, she wanted to make salon baskets for girls at a shelter or hospital.  We bought cute buckets and filled them with nail polish, sparkly files, some jewelry, and chapstick.  They are super cute, but we haven't delivered them yet!   

Week Four was a sewing day.  We made cornbags for Grandma and Little Casey.  Mom had mentioned to me that she didn't have a single corn bag, and that little Casey often wished she still had some.  I happened to have a little corn left over from the last batch I'd made, so I let Serenity dig into my fabric stash.  She helped me pin them, she pushed the foot on the sewing machine, and she measured and poured the corn in.  They were SO happy to get their cornbags, I think Serenity was absolutely ecstatic!