Happy Birthday to Mom!

I kept telling the boys that I didn't want birthday presents I wanted to go out and do acts of kindness for my birthday.  But alas birthday morning dawned with cards and my favorite goodie these days - rips!  Yum! 

After grabbing some breakfast we loaded up the boxes and bags of goodies and out the door we went.  

Off to do some kindness people!  LOL 

1.)  Our first stop was the mailbox 0- we think our mail lady rocks and we thought some goodies and a note would tell her so!  (She liked them too, she left us a thank you note the next day - how sweet!)

2.)  Our next stop was the Meals on Wheels office - we left some cookies and a note of encouragement for the volunteers delivering that day.

3.)  The next stop was our mechanic - we delivered some cookies to say Thanks for taking care of our cars!

4.)  Next stop - the local tax office - I renewed my car tags and we handed out water bottles with notes attached.  The ladies and gentlemen working were very thankful - guess they were thirsty!   

5.)Next stop the apartment complex on our MOW route - we stopped to fill the bird feeder.

6.) While we were there we stopped to say Hello to Mrs. Ford (one of our clients) and give her a book of bible verses and a bottle of lotion.  

7.)  Next stop - USPS - gave some goodies to the mail lady.  She was very surprised!  

8.)  Across the street from the post office we stopped at a day care and donated some books.  

9.)Next stop the library (one of our favorite places!) we gave some cookies to the ladies - they were very thankful!

10.)  We paid $2 on a random person's library fine.

11.)  We also donated some Campbell labels for education extra 100 points inserts to the library's teen program.

12.  When we left the library we stopped at the park and put out a "Valentines" Hunt!

I found this really cool idea on pinterest - Love bible verses - it is so precious I just had to fit it in some how.  So I printed the verses and tied them to the goodies for the hunt!

We left a bag on the table and hid Valentines cups and bags with small toys and bible verse notes around the park.

Bug enjoyed putting them high on the slides! 

And one was inside the tree.  We left a note on the bag that said "Have a Valentine Hunt and enjoy this act of kindness".

13.) Next we headed down to the Dollar tree to make some kiddos happy!  Bug picked a little wrestlers set picked a toy and we taped a $1 bill to the back.

14.)  Red picked a police officer dress up set. 

While we were there we picked out a bag of candy for our waiter, a couple of balloons and stuffed toys and a cat toy for other acts of kindness.

By this time we were starving, so we headed to Cotton Patch for lunch - yummy! 

15.)  Our waiter was our next target :)  Along with a nice tip we left him a bag of "Riesen" candies.  I wrote him a note that said "Thank you for all the "Riesens" you gave our family to smile on my birthday.  Enjoy this treat and have a blessed day.  I do hope it made him smile.  Lunch was certainly yummy!  :) 

16.)  After lunch we headed across the street to HEB.  We handed pens to the cashiers with notes that said "Enjoy this act of kindness and have a blessed day".   (We also handed out pens at Dollar Tree and Wal-Mart).

17.)  We also bought an HEB gift card and handed it to a random person in line.  (He was quite stunned as I turned and walked away).

18.  Our next stop was Wal-Mart - we rounded up some stray baskets and pushed them into the store.

19.)  On the way inside we stopped to recycle some plastic bags. 

20.  We handed out peppermints attached to a note that said "You're worth a mint" to the employees - the reactions were amazing, people were thankful, pleased, stunned, amazed...it was awesome to watch their faces light up.  Red asked me at one point - "Why do people keep saying Thank You like that?"  (Most were very expressive).  We had a good conversation about how the employees work hard and they have to deal with a lot of people and sometimes the people aren't very nice to them.  Or sometimes they are tired or don't feel good or something.  It was  great moment.  

 

21.  Have you ever made it to WM and figured out your little one needs a change and you just ran in for one thing so you didn't bring the diaper bag?  LOL  Well to honor all those Moms who have been their done that - diapers and wipes with an encouraging note on the changing tables (in the front and back bathrooms of the store).   

22.)  We also taped up a positive thoughts poster in the bathroom.  

23.)  Well if you know me, you know I love coupons!  LOL  So of course I had to share some coupons on my act of kindness day!  LOL  We taped coupons to several items.  I figured sharing some savings was a good way to show kindness!   

24.)  On our way out of the store we stopped at the kiddy ride - Pumba - at the front.  We taped some quarters and a note to the ride for someone to enjoy! 

25.)  The next stop was Target where we dropped off some plastic recycling.  

Red also handed out "You're worth a mint" candies to all the ladies - that was a hit.  He got a hug from one - much to his embarrassment!  LOL 

27.  Next we went to our church to drop off some food for the food pantry.

28.  We also gave the church secretary a bottle of water with an encouraging note.

29.  And we left an encouraging note for the Children's Director - Ms. Teri.

30.  Our next stop was the laundromat in town - we taped quarters to the dryer along with an encouraging note.

31.  Then we headed over to Ms. Virgie's house (she is another of our MOW clients).  Ms. Virgie loves her kitty, so we got her a new cat toy for him.  She was so happy to see the boys and I and she was so sweet about the new toy.  She couldn't wait to show it to "Tom".  :) 

32.  We dropped a Free Kid's Meal Coupon in the mail for Cousin Davin.

33.  Next stop the local hospital.  We took balloons and stuffed toys with encouraging notes to patients.  As we went up to the nurses desk we asked if their was a couple of patients that could use a visitor.  The nurse guided us to an elderly lady that had broken both of her arms.  :(  She was very happy to see someone come visit and was so happy about her balloon and stuffed bunny.  

The nurse then sent us over to another room - she said the patient was "grumpy" and could use some smiles.  LOL  We only spent a couple of minutes in her room, but when we left she had an ear to ear smile.  Red gave her the frog and sports balloon and she was very pleased.   

34.)  While we were at the hospital we dropped off (in two different waiting areas) home made coloring and activity books with boxes of crayons.   

35.)  Coins on the vending machine at the hospital. 

 

And one to grow on...we stopped by the local fire dept to drop off some cookies and an encouraging note (and we got a tour!).

Well there it is...my 35 acts of kindness (well 36 really) we did for my birthday.  I have to say this was the best birthday yet!  I had so much fun and it was just awesome to see all the smiles today.  

Boy oh boy am I blessed...

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Week One February is almost gone...oh my!  Does anyone else notice how time seems to be flying by lately?  Wow!  Well I wanted to do some blogging about our school stuff last week, because we did some fun science stuff and I just decided to sit down and get it done!  LOL  No putting it off (for now anyway).  I figure that I am much more detailed and complete on my thoughts if I don't wait so long to post.  

Bug began working on graphs and charts this last week, so we are working on making various lists and then "graphing" the information.  We did a "pictograph" of people in the family who have freckles and those who do not. I was surprised at some of the names that made the list...Granny and Aunt Jean were on there.  We haven't seen them since they went home to Jesus in '08 - I was a little surprised he remembered whether they had freckles or not.  :)

Our current science chapter is about plants and seeds, so we have been doing several projects over that subject as well as reading A LOT of related books.  We decided one afternoon that we wanted to go on a seed hunt to find some seeds for our nature study journals.  Since we got that good rain around here the creek behind the house is steadily flowing, so the boys decided they wanted to venture down that way.  Okay, sure, why not?  So we head outdoors, nature bag in hand and who's waiting by the gate.  The three hounds!  LOL  So we leashed up the short-legged ones and off we went.  Ladybug doesn't need a leash as she will simply follow and listens very very well.  

Lady loves loves loves the creek and immediately had to wade out for a swim.  LOL 

Sadie girl, who normally dislikes water intensely went right in for a dip as well.  You can see we ended up letting her off the leash once we got down to the creek so she could have some freedom.   

Which she immediately took advantage of.  Silly girl, she went to the other side and crossed the fence.  Apparently she found some sent that she felt would "disguise" her well.  LOL  If you know anything about hounds, you know they like to "mask" their sent - so that their "prey" can't smell them.  Makes sense, right?  Well hounds are well know for rolling in all sorts of stuff.  I have to say that I am glad they are fenced.  I remember more times that I care to remember that Odie (our beagle when I was a kid) would come home smelling like something dead.  Yuck! 

Bug and Sadie Girl enjoyed a rousing game of "rock". 

At one point Sadie crossed the creek to the rock ledge side and took off down the stream.  Bug had to chase her down before she got to far.  She had the sniffer going!

And she found something else to roll in! 

Her rock landed in the water and she gave it a good talking too before pulling it out. 

Here's my Scamp Scamp.  My mentally ill dog.  He is so funny, precious boy.  I love him!  We took off his cone so we could leash him, but he was walking so tenderly (on those feet he still manages to chew on sometimes) that we finally just took his leash off and let him mosey his way down.  I mean seriously, how far was he gonna get? ;) 

I really think he had a good time though, he sniffed around and checked everything out.   

The seed jar was very very interesting to him. 

Ladybug had a ball, she played in the water and sniffed all around.  She loves going down to the creek. 

Scamper getting a drink.  He did not find the need to enter the water like his sisters. 

We found a few berries and grass seeds down at the creek, but not much so we decided to go over to the garden to see if we could get anything more.  We found some broccoli that had sprouted up.  Funny!  We also collected dried tomatoes, pepper seeds and honeysuckle seeds. 

Last Sunday was the first day of our GA bake sale at church.  We made over $97!  Woo-hoo!  Here are the little signs I made for the goodies.  You know I was a little surprised, but the puppy treats were a HUGE hit!  I am certainly gonna have to make more for next Sunday! 

Here is another seed project we did.  We read the book How A Seed Grows and created our own pictures of each part of the process using "collage materials".  If you look closely you will see "seed"; "seed with root"; "Shoot"l and "bean plant".  Each of the boys also included the elements that the plants need to grow, water, soil, sun.  I liked this project.  Bug of course loves loves loves art and Red likes it okay, but they both seemed to enjoy the creative process of this one. 

I definitely have to incorporate more of this "painting" type stuff!  LOL  We read the book A Seed Is Sleepy and the boys painted while I read.  It was really cool.  I told them to paint whatever they wanted as I read.  I was a little surprised, but they actually picked "plant-ty type stuff". 

Here are their finished creations.  The left is Bug's - he painted a sunflower and the sunflower dying and dropping it's seeds.  The right is Red's he painted a blueberry "tree" on the left side and a cherry tree on the right.  It was raining in his picture. 

Here is one of Bug's English lessons - we were reviewing adding the suffix -ing and -ed to words.  His penmanship was atrocious 

Check out the giant breakfast cookies I made for the bake sale.  LOL - these went quick.  But I can't blame anyone, they are super yummy! 

My table all set up to sell! 

Here's the start of the 35 acts of kindness stuff!  I saw this really cool idea on pinterest.  It was a Mom who was turning 38 and she wanted to do something special with her kids.  So she took her kids out and did 38 random acts of kindness.  Wow - how cool is that.  Well I figured 35 is a pretty special birthday...I thought rather than get presents for me the family and I could venture into our little piece of Texas and spread a little love and kindness.  Although I stopped calling them random, because let's just get real.  I am toooooo much of a planner to do anything at random.  So I have been planning my "acts" for weeks now and am getting all the components into order, so their won't be anything random about it, but it will be kind!  LOL  I am very excited, and I think the boys are, well at least Bug, are too.  I think once we get going they will really get into it.  We have lots planned! 

The bead stair addition...Red was working on this today...he's pretty quick though and I had to make him go back and actually check the work with the beads instead of just counting it in his head.  We are working on that trusting the number thing right now. 

Here is our seeds, we didn't actually get them into the books last week because we got busy playing outside.  We found a lot of variety.  We discussed how they looked and how they were shaped and how that affected  their "transport".  

And the pile has grown!  LOL  You can see I have gotten more stuff together.  The boys and I made activity and coloring books today as part of our school work, we plant o leave those with some crayons at the hospital.  They did a really nice job of creating the pages of each book.  (I helped too!)

Well that is all for now...until later (hopefully not too much later) love on your babies and pray a lot!  we-