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12.27.2012

26 Acts of Kindness Update + A Winner

After the tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut, I posted how I was going to follow Ann Curry's lead and do 26 Acts of Kindness in honor of the 26 victims.
I wanted to do them before Christmas and I did! 
Last week was NUTS, but I am so glad I did my 26 Acts....For me, it was a good way for me to reflect on & pray about the Newtown tradgedy.
Here is a list of 25 of my 26 Acts (the 26th one deserves a post of it's own)
Most of the acts were just simple little things!

1. Telemarketer called during dinner and I was nice. Normally, I just hang up on them. But, last night when they asked to talk to Kevin, I was polite, said that he was unavailable & that I hoped they had a good night. Simple. I also didn't make Kevin take the call.

2. Donated $10 to a friend who posted on Facebook that has a friend in need who is battling cancer and they are trying to come up with money to buy her 3 kids Christmas presents since the mom is in the hospital. You could just donate money from your paypal. I only donated $10, but hopefully it will help a little bit.

3. When I was nursing Claire, I was a donor to the International Breast Milk Project and was able to donate my breast milk to babies in Africa & in the NICU. I have been meaning to get re-qualified since I had Luke, so this week I finally filled out the paper work & got my blood work done to be a donor again. 
 
So now, I'm all cleared to be a donor again!

4. A friend from high school put a request on FB that she needed a bundt pan and some mason jars. I happened to have an extra bundt pan and several spare mason jars, so I gave them to her.

5. I put candy canes in 7th grade girls bathroom at my school.
6. Kate's school was having a canned food drive, so I donated a bag of food.
7. One of Kevin's friends has twin girls and needed clothes for them, so I cleaned out several bins in my garage & was able to give her a couple bags of clothes.

8.  My school was having a toy drive for a school in the inner city, so I donated 3 new toys (one for each of my kids)

9.  I Put a $1 on the Red box machine
 
10. Paid for the person behind us in the drive thru

11. Brought in our neighbors trash cans on trash day

12. Made Peppermint Chocolate Chip Muffins & dropped them off at a nursing home
13. We sponsor 2 Compassion girls, Sarah & Faith (one for each of our girls) We wanted to sponsor a boy for Luke, so I signed up for another one, meet Jose Emanuel:
14. The girls made a picture for our mail lady & we gave her a cupcake to go along with it.

15. I had a Subway coupon (but I don't eat at Subway) so, I gave it to our school custodian along with a Thank you note.
16. There is a woman who works at our Target, named Sylvia. I always go to her line at Target because she is so nice to me & the girls. She has worked at Target for years & always has a smile on her face. The girls drew her a picture and I gave her a  Starbucks card:
 
17. Called my Grammy, I hadn't called her in a few weeks.

18. I bought 4 Lotto tickets at the gas station, I gave one back to the cashier.

19. Taped the other 3 lotto tickets to the gas pumps:
20. My Principal heard that I was doing 26 Acts of kindness, so jokingly he asked where his act of kindness was. The next day, I got him a gift card to his favorite sandwich shop near our school.

21.Gave my friend Kelly a bottle of wine because she is awesome & because she picks up Kate from school 3 days a week. I love her.

22. Left exact change in a  Soda Machine
 

23. I was planning on giving Claire's preschool teachers just Starbucks cards (didn't have time to do anything else) but then one of them (who had Kate last year) told me she was hoping they were going to get the Christmas Cookie Mix I gave them last year, so I decided to give them that as well.
 
24. Left quarters in the toy machine at the grocery store:

 25. Christmas picture & Cookies for our neighbor:
26.  Act #26 is still going on and has morphed into something only God could be responsible for....It deserves it's own post, so stay tuned :)

I loved doing #26ActsofKindness
It made me look for ways to be kind to others and even though I finished on Christmas Eve, I have found myself the past few days looking for ways to do random acts of kindness.
As a teacher & as a mom of an almost 6 year old and having a friend who's children were there, this has really affected me deeply.
I really want to do #26Acts again each December in memory of that tragic day in Newtown when 26 lives were taken too soon.

And, I realized I never picked a winner for the Cookbook Giveaway! 

Congrats  Kimberly!
Let me know your address & Hershey's will send you the Cookbook and some chocolate!

Check back soon for the 26th Act of Kindness, can't wait to share it...I am still processing the outcome of it.

21 comments:

  1. Your an awesome person. Great ideas. The world needs more people like you. Happy New Year and God bless you BIG.

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  2. How fun!! I have a question regarding you donating your breast milk. Did you start donating after you were done nursing, or did you donate and nurse/pump? How are you going to do it this time? I've been wanting to donate, but I'm still nursing and he gets what I'm pumping. Thanks :)

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  4. Love it! Geez, you're good...I've never even bought Chris a sandwich! Can't wait for the post on 26!

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  5. Your 25/26 acts are so sweet and inspiring. I need to do it too. I think I need to write them down though to keep myself accountable to reach 26. Thank you for motivating me to be the good.

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  6. This post has totally inspired me! I think it's so, so, so awesome how you did all of this! Very cool Mama Mel! Very cool!

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  10. I emailed you my address! thanks again. can't believe I won!

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  11. You are inspiring, Mel! I pray you are blessed for being such a blessing to others!

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  12. Thanks for the inspiration to do the #26actsofkindness. My family and I have loved doing it!

    Can't wait to hear what your 26th act is!!!

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  13. awesome!!! You should share this on The Today Show's website! I have been reading your blog forever, but rarely comment because I'm usually catching up on blogs from my phone- anyway, I just had to get on the computer & tell you what great ideas for RAK! Here is ours~


    http://twopinktutus.blogspot.com/2012/12/pay-it-forward.html

    I got my 4 year old involved :) I wish I would have documented everything like you did! so great!~

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  14. These are all so fantastic and a lot of them really doable. I really want to try to do at least one or two acts a week. :)

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  15. Loved your acts of kindness!
    It really has been nice to participate in this and focus on the good that still exists. It's been so fun thinking what we can do next! Tonight we picked up dinner from a Greek place by our house that we love. They are a little ma and pa shop and she gave us extra pita bread and free baklahvah just because so we walked out of there and I said, "This place is gonna be my next act of kindness!" Not sure what I'll do yet, but I just love thinking this way and paying things forward!

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  16. Great job sweet mama! I love that you took pictures of it all :)

    Hugs,
    Trisha

    ps- Thank you for your sweet and encouraging comments on my blog. It really means a lot to get them (I don't get many) especially from someone that I admire :)

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  17. I just love this idea. I will definitely be doing acts of kindness next Christmas, but I think I'll try to remember to do them throughout the year. I can't wait to read about the 26th act of kindness!

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  18. Love your ideas! The kids and I had fun doing some random acts of kindness as well. I had thought it would be fun to participate but it was just a thought. A few days before Christmas someone paid for my drink and quick snack I was picking up at a quick stop market. It made me cry and gave me the kick I needed to get started with my family.

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  19. Hi Jamie! I nurse for a year & then donate after I am done nursing. I have a huge stockpile in my freezer. I am an over producer, so I pump more than they eat & I keep that frozen for when I am at work and also to donate. I think you need a minimum of 100 ounces to donate. Not quite sure of the exact number, it's been a few years since I last donated.

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