Birthday Freebies!!!

   Happy Halloween! Today is all about candy and costumes for most but it also happens to be my birthday. I've been thinking for a while now what kind of acts of kindness I wanted to do for my birthday and decided to give away my birthday freebies to a lucky few. Every year I get vouchers from several restaurants and stores for free meals or items on my birthday for signing up for their rewards club or membership etc... If you don't do this, you really should. most are free to sign up and then you get something for free on your birthday each year. The picture above is a few that I went and gave away to people today. We stopped at IHOP and gave someone a free pancake meal, went Arby's and gave someone a free shake, and we had several free ice cream vouchers to give away. The look and surprise on people's faces was great and I was glad to share some of my birthday fun with others!

Food Bank Donations

   One of the "bucket list items" on my list of good deeds this year was to donate food to a local food pantry, and that's just what I did today. Not sure why I haven't done this yet this year, but today I found many items to pass along to those in need. I bagged them up and took them over to Greenhouse Ministries where they gladly accepted them. After the government shutdown, many local pantries are very low on supplies since they had many more people coming in needing food while their support was temporarily suspended. Also since we're right on the heels of the holidays more donations will be needed as well. Glad I could help out today and if you have items just taking up space in your pantry maybe think about giving them to you local food bank.

Costume Care Package

   I was so excited when I found the skeleton costume that my daughter wanted this year for a whopping four dollars! Then a week later, we get a note from school saying that this year students are welcome to dress up as their favorite storybook character... Fail!! My friend Erin also ran into the same problem when her daughter's school said they could dress up as their favorite candy. I get it, I get it... they don't want kids wearing costumes that may scare some of the others, but having to come up with two costumes, boo to that! Well I did have an answer for Erin at least. My daughter has a big blue M&M shirt and today I took it over to Erin today so that her daughter could borrow it. Erin has also come down with strep so I took her some healing chocolate and meds to help her feel better fast!
   As for my daughter, I didn't come up with a different storybook character costume. I went and found a book about a skeleton!

Letter To Sophie

   While surfing the internet today I came across a site called Post Pals. On this website you can read about children who have chronic or fatal diseases and send them letters or emails to cheer them up. While searching around, I came across a little girl named Sophie who has a very serious malignant brain tumor. What caught my eye was the beautiful butterfly she had painted on her face in her picture. As I read about her I found out that she is the same age as my daughter and they share a love for butterflies. I chose to write to her today and try and lift her spirits. I sent some funny kid jokes, told her a bit about where we live since she lives in the UK and also included some positive and inspirational messages too. I think this website is a great idea and they make it so easy to send a little love to a child that could really use it. If you are interested, click on the link above and you'll find hundreds of kiddos that could use a smile.

MERGE!

   Looking at this picture makes me laugh, but I have a feeling that one driver on the road today made several others make this face. Earlier today while I was driving to a get-together I came to an intersection where right after it the two lanes quickly merge into one. There are plenty of signs alerting drivers that this will happen, but instead of slowing down and blending with the other lane, the car in front of me slammed on the gas and darted over into the other lane that was quickly narrowing, to pass several cars and came close to causing an accident. After they slammed on their brakes because they had no more road to drive on, they put on their blinker and tried to inch their way back into traffic. Well needless to say the other drivers weren't happy and were not having that at all. They all passed, not allowing the car back in and sharing some choice words and gestures. As I got closer I braked and let them back onto the road. Not because I wanted to, because that driving habit infuriates me as well and most of the time I feel like those people deserve to sit there and and let everyone else go since they were so impatient and had no regard for anyone else. But I did it because it was a kind thing to do... I try and remind myself that I don't know what's going on in that persons life. Maybe they have some emergency and have to be somewhere really quick. Who knows??? I just hope they remember that kindness and pass it on... and perhaps wait their turn to merge next time too!

A New Home

 

 Today was a fun day for my family with a few small acts of kindness here and there. We went to my daughter's girl scout fall festival and while there I was able to help some of the girls earn a pumpkin carving badge and assisted them in roasting hotdogs and s'mores. This evening was also the first service for Mercy Street United Methodist church and I helped greet people as they came in and direct people to where they needed to go. All of these are small kind things to do, but the act of kindness that I really want to share was one that was performed to me. I've been helping out the last few months as Mercy Street has been coming along and getting so excited of all the things to come. So tonight I went early to help out before the service and the pastor Charles asked if I would pass out communion tonight. Now to many this may not seem like a big deal, but to me I was so happy to do it and it was huge. I've attended several different churches as an adult and liked a few here and there but never really felt 100% comfortable or at home for one reason or another, and would have never felt comfortable enough to participate in that way. The fact that he asked my husband and I to do something like that and had the confidence that I wouldn't screw it up completely made me feel so great and so welcome. In addition to his kindness the service was great and I feel like our family has found a new church home. Today was a great day

Fall Festival

   For my good deed/act of kindness, I have volunteered to work concessions at my daughter's school fall festival this evening. It a huge event put on by the PTO to help raise funds for the school and also an evening of fun for the community. There are games, food, auctions and all kinds of goodies. If you are in the Murfreesboro area and don't mind freezing your buns off, lol, you should come out and support Blackman Elementary. I really enjoy helping the school and knowing the money raised is going to benefit so many children's education makes it even better.