Sharing the Savings

Last December, I purchased one of those "save around" coupon books from a youth I work with who was doing fundraising for his school musical. 

There are way more coupons than I could ever use in a year.  So I have been strategically distributing some of them.  I have already encouraged folks I know to sift through and take the coupons they want.  For the rest, when I am out and passing by the restaurant, I pop on in and hand them to a current patron.  Lots of fun. Perhaps a way to spread the mitzvah joy is to give the coupons to an employee to share with the patron of their choice...

It Comes Around...

Our grass had gotten so long that I was a bit worried about the wild life that had set up camp in our lawn.  Our broken lawnmower has yet to be fixed.  With two weekends out of town, I knew we needed to do something before we had droves of neighbors marching at us with torches and pitchforks.  We happened to pass a neighborhood adolescent mowing his lawn.  I used this as an opportunity to meet a new neighbor and take care of a chore we could not.  We paid the boy to mow on that Saturday.  To our lovely surprise, we came home a week later with a freshly clipped lawn and a note indicating that it was our neighbor's pleasure to mow our lawn again. 
These are nice folk we just met and already they were doing a mitzvah for us! (secondary note, two weeks later, as the husband was using the push mower that is functioning to get some of our lawn mowed, his cousin walked over saying he would mow the front lawn because he knew it would take the whole weekend to mow it with the push mower.  Added bonus, their 3 year old came over to play).  And, yes, I am aware we need to find a way to get the mower fixed!

I would love to dedicate this blog to all the wonderful things we are trying to do in this world, but it seems too one sided.  We are very lucky to have generous people in our lives too!

The Wounded Warrior Project

My loving spouse (and brother in law, along with several friends) recently participated in the Tough Mudder , an apparently super-fun 12 mile run with periodic intense obstacles.  All of the money raised from this even benefit the Wounded Warrior Project . Given the many physical and mental tolls that serving in a war can take, it is great to see that we are looking to take care of those who take care of us. 

End of the School Year

This past week was my daughter's last week of preschool (well, for this year, anyway).  Where does the time go???  Anyway, as I've mentioned before, I think very highly of those that provide care to my children, and this year, she had two really great teachers.  It's so nice to know that my daughter is starting off her academic career on a positive note, and I know it will help to carry her on.  So, as a thank you, I bought them these vases and had them personalized for each of her teachers.  I then bought a bouquet of roses and split them among the vases (They're bud vases, so they didn't hold an entire bouquet).  Then, I made thank you cards, and on the inside was a picture of my daughter and the following things my daughter said about each of them (respectively)...

“I like that Ms. Susan is at school. She is smart, pretty and funny. I like it when Ms. Susan reads.” – Alexis

 and

“I like Ms. Tara. She is cute, smart and nice. I like to sing with Ms. Tara and do crafts.” – Alexis

 Then,  I signed them like this...

Thank you for taking such great care of our baby girl! Teachers like you are a rare and special gift!

Love,

Alexis and the rest of the ____ Family
Finally, I had Alexis color around the picture of herself and sign her name at the bottom.  Her teachers really seemed to enjoy and appreciate them (as they have with everything we've done for them this year).  It was a nice end to a great year!

Rice for All

With an upcoming road trip, I am looking for reasonable ways to amuse my children so as not to lose our minds.  I came across this great site that has lots of spectacular projects.  I led my eldest child through the "Find It" jar project.  I had a twinge of guilt as I looked at the entire bag of rice we were coloring and playing with, having no need whatsoever to rely on rice for sustenance. We are very lucky.  I have re-acquainted myself with Free Rice.  They donate 10 grains of rice through the World Food Programme for every word definition you get right (they start out super easy and progressively get harder).  Being a fan of both satiation and vocabulary building, it is a double win!

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night should allow anyone to go hungry.

Today is the National Association of Letter Carriers Stamp Out Hunger Day.  You can help feed the hungry, by simply placing a bag of non-perishable items in or near your mailbox, and your mail carrier will pick it up and deliver it to the needy.  Don't forget to put up your mailbox flag!

Teacher Appreciation Week

 It's Teacher Appreciation Week, and whether or not you have kids in school, I think everyone knows an under-appreciated teacher.  My daughter only goes to preschool two days a week.  So, today, she will be giving her teacher these, and on Thursday, she will be giving them cards with drawings of each of them.

I got the idea here, but I will warn you, they were WAY more time consuming than I anticipated.  Of course, that may have to do with the help I got from my sweet little three year old, and I cut out each letter by hand.

She sure does love crafts.

 Each of the pencils was filled with an array of candy...

The labels read:

"Teachers like you are worth a MINT!"

"Thank you for helping me put the PIECES of knowledge together."

"Thanks BEARY much for being such a great teacher!"

"You're worth 100 GRAND!"

"Don't SNICKER, but I think you're great!"

"You are Mighty Magnificent!"

"Thanks for helping me TRI(dent) to achieve my goals."

You Are Beautiful

There is a wonderful "you are beautiful" movement out there.  A simple notion, really.  There is beauty within every human being.  So I took my inspiration from Operation Beautiful and wrote "you are beautiful" on a pad of post it notes.  I am keeping them in my purse and putting them up in all of the bathroom mirrors that I go to.  Simple and fun.  Plus writing "you are beautiful" 100 times has got to sink into my psyche somehow, right?  I may take it as far to keep sidewalk chalk in my purse too and write it on sidewalks!