12 Months of Kindness Project: 2017

We are starting our ninth year of our commitment to the 12 Months of Kindness Project and it's really become part of who we are as a family.  We try to choose kindness, patience, and empathy in all things we do throughout the year - but our #12mokp is a way for us to intentionally build out at least one kind act for each month of the year.  I have found that if you don't plan it ahead of time, the days just swallow you whole in the regular busy of life and you find yourself at the end of the year in a blink trying to remember where all the days went.

Our 12 Months of Kindness Project gets its own dedicated page in our family yearbooks and the kids ask regularly when we will do certain things again.  We love that our kids are learning first hand that being nice can be easy and makes you feel good....That we get to choose to be nice in all situations - it's up to us!

Over the last few weeks, the kids and I have talked about some of our favorite kind acts we've done in the past and about some new ideas we might try together.  We also talked a little bit about the kindness we do that doesn't technically count for our 12MoKP - like giving breakfast treats to Greyson's bus driver and leaving notes and candy for the mail lady.  And we try to include them in conversations about kind acts that they are too young to do yet - B and I tell them about helpful/kind moments in our days, they check my Red Cross app to see how much 'blood Mum got out' for others, and they make trips with us or help us in small ways to work towards a bigger kind task.

So we're back with our list for this year and as is true for each year, it builds up our year with things to look forward to and ways we can help make this world a little nicer for everyone.

January:  deliver (3) meals to families we know that could use some extra support and love

February:  make valentines for people to brighten their day (classmates, family, the librarian, firefighters, elderly neighbors, etc)

March: Volunteer at our church's Lenten fish fry dinners

April: Volunteer our time at the Johnstown Backpack Project

May: 9th annual Studer Scholarship for high school seniors at CV

June:  Studer's Invitational Beer Olympics (funds go to a charitable cause)

July: Donation to the Humane Society

August:  Pick up trash locally

September:  totally kid-run (plan, make invitations, cook, serve, clean up) at our house for the grandparents (and 'honorary grandparents') for Grandparents Day

October: trick-or-treat for UNICEF

November: make placemats for our local Meals on Wheels (and deliver?)

December: white envelope gift

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I'd love to hear about the acts of kindness that you and your kids do together.  If you're tracking your kindness, please feel free to tag your photos with #12mokp too so that we can inspire one another!