March 2012 kindness: random acts

We had set up our March kindness to focus on small random acts of kindness sprinkled throughout the whole month.  We thought it would be a relatively easy kindness to carry out while we had a very teeny baby on our hands.  We originally made a list of target random acts goals and we gave the list a run for its money...we didn't all of them, but we also added a few new ones as well.  Here's the skinny on our month long journey randomly acting kind:)

1. Greyson and I (while Gemmi watched on) made some treats for the birds thanks to this pin that I saw a few months ago.  It's an easy little project that Grey was able to handle just fine...until he started chowing down on some peanut butter mixed with a little bird seed.  Besides that, our treats were made and hung up within just 20 minutes.

2. For more kindness towards our feathery (& and furry, ie. squirrels) friends outdoors; I followed the instructions of this pin to create a bird seed wreath to hang up.  It was surprisingly easy to make and a nice way to break in my new bundt pan.  One thing I'll need to figure out though is how to keep the wreath from busting up on its own...within a few hours, our wreath had broken under the weight of itself and crashed into the flower bed.

3. Brandon bought a golf course coupon book to support the American Cancer Society which is good for discounts throughout the whole summer.  

4. We bought some breakfast treats (cinnamon rolls and donuts) and delivered them one afternoon to our local librarian.  We stopped by and surprised her and perused some books including one by our favorite author Eric Carle; The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse. 

5. Brandon organized a team and played in an alumni basketball tournament to support a local youth mission group.  The tournament was over St. Patrick's day weekend and the kids and I were there to cheer on Bud as he put his basketball shoes back on after so long.  It was so good to see him playing again and Greyson was in awe of him.  Now he wants to be even more like Dadda (and Uncle Juice too!)

Grey was sad here because we were going to leave the gym and basketball.  hah!

6. Greyson acted out some kindness towards his family by serving us up some late night snacks from his 'cookin' toys.'  He even had some dished out for Bully and Trixie since all four of us (including Brandon and I) were sharing the couch.  He served them up while saying, "here ya go, Dadda.  Very hot, blow on it"

7. Then he gave a baby doll a bath which was kindness toward a doll that could use some love and also kindness towards Gemma and I as it allowed for some uninterrupted nursing time.  It was nice to see Grey playing so gently and calling the doll 'baby Gemma.' 

8. We made special art projects for the grandparents based off of this pin - even baby Gemma got in on this one (well her little foot did).  And Grey's face suffered a little surprise design as he was pretty intense about his painting.

9. Brandon and Uncle Jonny left a generous tip for their bartender/take-out waitress at our favorite local wing stop for no reason at all. 

10. We left a treat of candy in the mailbox for our carrier to say thank you for delivering us letters each day.  She responded by leaving us a post-it note that said, "you're welcome!  thanks for the candy!"

11.  Our original goal list included writing thank you notes to our family & friends which actually has inspired me to start a thank you blog post writing project for the year.  I'm going to call it "Thank you Thursdays" and you can read more about the project on here starting tomorrow!

12. We also made sure to smile at everyone we saw...and with faces like these who wouldn't feel kindness in their heart after that?  (haha, although I'm a little biased).

13. We made an effort to speak and act kindly to each other and Brandon and I even slow danced (in front of the kids) to Lee Brice's new single, Woman Like You.  Then we had a full on family dance party to LMFAO's Sexy and I Know it.  Totally normal weekend afternoon at the Studer house.  

14. We read books about being kind, including these books which I purchased on a full out book buying binge: 

Heartprints by P.K. Hallinan
Hands Are Not for Hitting (Best Behavior) by Martine Agassi Ph.D
Fill a Bucket: A Guide to Daily Happiness for the Young Child by Katherine Martin & Carol McCloud
Share and Take Turns (Learning to Get Along, Book 1) by Cheri J. Meiners M.ed

Although we didn't accomplish everything on our original random acts goal list, we are dubbing this month a (mostly) successful month towards our kindness challenge.  It was great fun to do a bunch of little kindness projects all month instead of working on one big event.