Months ago, I read this blog post about Robyn, an amazing woman who decided to use her 38th birthday as an opportunity to spend a day blessing others. As soon as I read her blog post, I knew I had to do it. I told my mom that when she came to visit me on my birthday, we would be spending the day completing 35 random acts of kindness.
I started making a list and checking it twice. The night before my birthday had a night before Christmas type of feel to it -- we were in the middle of many preparations, and the kitchen was quite a mess. Between taking care of the kids, doing my regular house stuff and getting ready for this project, I spend the whole day on my feet and was pretty wiped out -- yet excited -- by the day's end.
So, here's what we did, our 35 random acts of kindness in honor of my 35th birthday.
We started off at home and around our neighborhood:
1. I left a note and photo of the kids in my husband's car so he would see it on his way to work.
2. I left encouraging notes on 5 friends' Facebook walls. This was fun, I closed my eyes and scrolled my mouse around my friends list randomly. I ended up with a great group of ladies to share some Friday sunshine with!
3. I sent the boys over to a neighbor's house with a loaf of homemade bread and a note. I don't know why I didn't remember to take a picture of this!
4. I sent the boys over to the other neighbor's house with homemade muffins and a note.
5. I mailed a card and pictures to my Grandma.
6. We left muffins and a note in the mailbox for the postman.
7. I stopped down the street at my best friend Megan's house. I wrote her a note and gave her my $10 Starbucks Groupon. Then I made her take a picture of me and my mom. I did not take a picture of Megan because she was in her bathrobe.
8. I left homemade bread and a note at the doorstep of a friend who's been going through some tough circumstances lately.
Then we headed to the grocery store:
9. We handed out granola bars and water bottles to the store employees. They were a little confused as to why little kids were coming up to them and handing them food, so I had to explain.
10. We brought coupons and taped them to various items throughout the store.
11. We bought items to donate to Ephrata Area Social Services.
12. I had $70 left on a store gift card and swiped it in one of the check out lines to help pay for a family's groceries.
13. We bought a dozen donuts and took them to the ladies working at the borough hall. They were so happy!
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| Not sure about that face! |
After that, we went to Dollar Tree:
14. We left quarters in all of those little toy/candy machines that my kids love so much. I am wondering if sometime yesterday a lucky kid went and was able to turn the dials on every single machine and get a ton of surprises!
15. The boys picked out items to donate to a toy drive box that was set up in the store.
16. The boys picked out some different items, and we left $1.06 (the cost of the item plus tax) and a note in a little plastic bag taped to the item, so someone can come along later and find something for free
17. We bought some items to donate to a drive to fill Christmas stockings for members of the military.
Our next stop was the Emergency Room:
18. We brought new Sudoku and crossword puzzle books and pencils to leave in the waiting area.
19. We brought coloring books and boxes of crayons to leave for kids in the waiting room.
*Note: did you know that you're not ALLOWED to leave things in waiting rooms? It has to be approved first due to contamination. So the lady working there wouldn't let us leave them, but promised to try and find someone who could use them.
20. We left candy for the ER nurses (they did not hesitate to accept those!).
Then it was off to the library:
21. We donated books we no longer wanted for the library book sale.
22. The night before, the kids put together these Easter eggs, and we hid them around the children's area.
23. We brought a tray of muffins for the librarians.
24. We brought a bunch of change and let the kids put it in these fun animals, which all went to benefit the library.
At this point, we dropped off the boys with my friend Tiff, who gifts me with babysitting every year on my birthday so I can have a day with my mom. We wanted the boys to do some acts of kindness with us, but were ready to let them go play with their friends at this point!
Our next stop was lunch:
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| We refueled at El Serrano with this plate of happiness (plus many chips and guacamole, not pictured). |
25. We left the waitress a $50 tip, which was more than the cost of the lunch.
Then it was on to the mall:
26. I had a coupon for $5 at Kohls with no minimum purchase. I looked around for someone I wanted to give it to. I found this adorable little old Mennonite lady who was examining pairs of white socks. I went up to her and asked her if she could use the coupon. She stood there very quietly for a few moments, thinking. She didn't say anything for a bit of time. I thought that maybe she wasn't sure about it, like perhaps she didn't know if there was a minimum purchase, or didn't know why I was giving it to her. Then she said, "Well, I have a $10 coupon." This cracked me up! I did NOT expect that response that she already had a better coupon! We discovered that the coupons could be combined, so she was able to have $15 free.
27. We paid for someone in the Burger King line. It ended up being just a mom getting her daughter a vanilla ice cream and a diet Coke for herself, but she appreciated it anyway!
28. My mom brought 2 $5 Starbucks cards that we could hand out. As we went into Starbucks, I found an adorable pregnant mom with her cute daughter and got in line behind her. I offered her the card, and she took it but was a little confused. She said, "Do you want me to buy you something?" It was too cute. She ended up getting her daughter some type of vanilla looking kids drink with all kinds of whipped cream on top. SO happy.
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| We bought this, took it outside and put it in front of the Christmas tree for a photo because it was so beautiful. |
29. We took our beautiful, giant peppermint mocha frapuccinos with us shopping, and stopped when we saw the See's candy lady handing out samples. After she explained everything on her tray and we selected the ones we wanted to try, she said, "I'll trade you that candy for the rest of that Starbucks drink!" Well, I had the other $5 Starbucks card in my hand and gave it to her! She wasn't going to accept it, but I explained to her about our project and that if she went over there before 5, she could not only get a free giant peppermint mocha frapuccino like outs, but it was buy one get one free and she could bring one back to a coworker. She was THRILLED! Love. Her. See, the gift of coffee happiness is the best gift of all.
After we were done at the mall, we went to DSW and my mom did a random act of kindness for me and bought me some shoes. Then we headed to Target:
30. We bought items for a family that my MOMS club has "adopted" for Christmas.
31. We found a mom and her daughter shopping in the dollar section and asked the mom if we could give her daughter $2 to pick out something she wanted. It turns out that she was there shopping to put together a shoe box for Operation Christmas Child, so now she could add 2 more items to the box. Perfect!
32. We found another mom with 2 daughters (not sure why everyone we blessed today was a girl!) and asked her if we could give the girls $5 to pick out items in the dollar area. They were happy!
We then went to pick up the kids:
33. We surprised our babysitter with a gift certificate to get a pedicure at her favorite salon. I was glad we had that for her, because she had flowers waiting for me!
Then back home. We ordered some yummy Papa Johns pizza and breadsticks:
34. We gave the delivery guy a $20 tip.
35. We gave him another $20 and a note so he could tell the next person in line that their pizza had been paid for.
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| Forgot to take a picture before we started. We did some good damage! |
This was such a GREAT day. I'm going to make it my plan to do something nice for someone every year on my birthday, and I will have the kids do the same thing too. Thank you to everyone who supported me and encouraged me throughout this process! Also thanks to my mom and to Tiff for babysitting -- I needed BOTH of these ladies to make this day possible!
Now go out and do something nice for someone to day in honor of my birthday!
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