Monday, October 31, 2011

A Month of Thankfulness!

Tomorrow we start November and we are inching closer to Thanksgiving! I can't believe how quickly time seems to be going by this year. The twins will be 5 months old on November 7th, Stella is 18 months and Max is FOUR!

Something that I think is really important to Rob and I in our parenting is teaching our children to be grateful. There are SO MANY adults and kids today that have a HUGE sense of entitlement and it drives me bananas. Instead of being grateful for the blessings that we are given we are constantly on the hunt for more or unsatisfied, even when our every need is filled. We are not perfect and can definitely be guilty of this as well!

In an effort to remember just how blessed we are as a family, we are going to be celebrating November with a Month of Thankfulness and Gratefulness! We plan to show our appreciation for those around us with random acts of kindness and little things that just say THANK YOU!

Some ideas that I have for the month are...
  1. Make treats and take them to the fire house down the street. These firefighters are the ones who responded to our scary 911 call with Max last year.
  2. Send treats to Mommy and Daddy's coworkers.
  3. Give a $5 gas card to someone.
  4. Leave a $1 by the coffee machine at a gas station.
  5. Donate our old clothes to friends and others.
  6. Donate toys we don't play with anymore.
  7. Turkey our neighbors with a surprise on their doorstep.
  8. Visit the Oklahoma Food Bank and donate canned goods and $ for meals.
  9. Pick up trash somewhere.
  10. Take a treat to our LifeKids Director at church.
  11. Give an offering at church.
  12. Make dinner for friends.
  13. Take old towels and treats to the local animal shelter.
  14. Write a Thank You card to a friend.
  15. Send a TS gift to someone just to say we love you.
  16. Leave candy for the mailman.
  17. Adopt a kid for Christmas.
  18. Leave change on a vending machine.
  19. Treat our sitter to a sonic drink.
  20. Take a coffee to our MDO director.
  21. Bring breakfast for our MDO teachers.
  22. Leave nice notes on bathroom or dressing room mirrors for the ladies.
  23. Make a military care package for a deployed soldier.
  24. Take a dinner to a military wife.
  25. Pay for the person behind us somewhere.
  26. Pray for a friend.
  27. Call our grandparents just to say Hi.
  28. Tip the teenage boys who helped us take our groceries out.
  29. Give a gift to our siblings!
  30. Adopt a family for Christmas.
Other little things we want to do are be kind, smile at strangers, teach Max to open doors for ladies and the elderly, put carts back at stores, let someone cut in line, give more hugs, say Thank You to everyone, complain less, laugh more and pray often!

I don't know that we will get close to doing everything on our list but we are excited to show others that we are thankful for them!

Our month was inspired by this!
http://ticklestogiggles.blogspot.com/2010/05/my-birthday-was-awesome.html

2 comments:

Danielle said...

Perfect! You've inspired me to do some of those as well!

Elizabeth said...

I love this idea. You are such a good mommy, and your children are always so sweet and kind. I want to incorporate this into our month of Thanks as well.