out of the blue Hello

Today is the first day of Random Acts of Kindness Week 2017 and do you want to know what I learned?

I learned that there is NOTHING cuter than 6 year olds FaceTiming each other!

The suggested RAOK for today was to call someone you haven't talked to in a while, to catch up, touch base, and let them know that you are thinking about them. I called an old college sorority sister and my sweet son decided to call his BFF from our last duty station. Calling turned into FaceTime which was incredible because we quickly learned that what 6 year olds really want to talk about is "what does your new room look like?" "look how many teeth I've lost!" and "have you gotten any new Legos?" Gosh darn it they are cute!

Cost: free

Random Acts of Kindness Week 2017

get ready

get set

its almost time 

Random Acts of Kindness Week 2017: Feb 12-18

You betta betcha bottom dollar that we here at Lil' Miss Gratitude will be celebrating with joy (even with Daddy at home) and we would LOVE for you to too! Every day there will be a suggestion- you can implement it in your own way, spend as little or as much as you want, bless people you know or strangers, its all up to you-

SUNDAY Feb 12: call someone out of the blue

MONDAY Feb 13: ding-dong ditch

TUESDAY Feb 14: let them go first

WEDNESDAY Feb 15: feed someone

THURSDAY Feb 16: leave an uplifting note somewhere

FRIDAY Feb 17: thank an overlooked someone

SATURDAY Feb 18: support a small business/MLM shop/mom-trepreneur

I'll be posting our RAOK daily both here on the blog and on Instagram: lilmissgratitude using the hashtag #LMG_RAOKweek 

Interested in playing/giving/sharing/spreading kindness with us? tag your own pictures with #LMG_RAOKweek or just leave comments on our daily posts with what you did. I hope this will be a manageable way to spread some kindness in your community. See you next week :)

a super welcome

We greeted the flight-line in our ATL Falcons finest. SO ready for Lil' Mr. Gratitude to be home so I could oh-so-lovingly say "tag, you're it". I made the boys stay at the other side of the hangar to avoid spreading the plague to anyone else and wiped down our bench before loading Daddy up and taking him home to cheer on our other boys. 

Despite how the game turned out, we still love them. our boys and our other boys.

oversized love

Lil Mr. Gratitude is a simple man. He's also one of those men who thinks Valentine's day is a Hallmark holiday and would much rather say an extra "I Love You" or two on Feb 13th and 15th just out of spite/love/resistance. I have learned that he will always acknowledge the day but not to expect diamonds ;)

We found these huge, obnoxious -apologies if this is your holiday go to- valentine's cards at the store. At first I thought of getting it for Lil Mr. just as a joke but then I thought that my sweet 95yr old Grandpa might like it better. Its not your average card. Its easy to read. Its a statement piece, inviting conversation from any nurse or other retirement home patient who should happen to walk into his room. YEP. Gottahaveit. We found one that wasn't mushy gushy love card but more of a "wanted to take a moment to tell you you're loved" card and the boys and I had a blast signing it real big. Hopefully he gets a real big smile out of it.

Cost: under $10 for card and extra postage

extra credit

give credit where credit is due

Simple in theory, even more simple to slip to the bottom of the to-do list.

All three boys are home from school -they choose GERMS to share with each other, I would much preferred legos or the last cookie- and we are just watching movies and drinking Pedialite through straws, waiting for the next round of who's going to blow. Lots and lots of mommy phone surfing time. 

I thought back to helpful interactions over the past week. The caterer that did a great job on a ceremony reception. The clerk who when out of their way to check the back when shelves were empty. The urgent care doc who checked out 3 kids when they were only billing for one. 

so I yelped it up- I took 10 minutes to leave positive reviews, email supervisors and let people know that their kindness was not overlooked.

Cost: free

team work makes the dream work

Have you ever had one of those "well now I've seen it all" days? You see a puppy getting pushed in a stroller or someone reversing back up the highway on ramp. Things that make you go mmmmmm (cue music)

I ran out to get a quick-pick up meal because after our lovely house guest Noro decided to get cozy with yet another child, me actually preparing something for myself and the one boy left standing just wasn't happening. Lack of sleep, dazed and confused, I'm sure looking like life chewed me up and spit me out- it was a long quick trip.

I was stopped at a light when the guy in front of me hopped out of his trick and proceeded to shimmy under it. I'm guessing to fix a jerry rigged, zip tied part, but honestly I have NO clue. I do know however that when traffic started going again I desperately wanted to swerve into the next lane and go around. Maybe, it was the sleep deprivation but at that moment I had a morbid thought of me swerving to go around the car and another car behind me barreling up and ramming the guy, not realizing it was stopped. So I waited. Not too much longer he shimmied back out from under and gave me a short wave- long enough for me to roll down my window and yell "you dropped your phone" that had fallen as he was getting back up.  I mean, no need to have his bad day turn into a REALLY bad day, right. 

So yea, lesson of the day. It can be quick and unplanned, kindness is taking one minute to make the world or even one little intersection a better place.

Cost: free

sending in reinforcements

This week our family has the pleasure of hosting strains of the Norovirus family at our house. The days have been long and the nights even longer it seems as I remember what its like to have a child get so sick, so often. Mr. Gratitude is of course away (why does that always seem to be the timing) so I called out of work and stayed home doing approximately 982,349,875 loads of laundry. 

Our random act of kindness today was one we received. A sweet neighbor thought of us while at the store and picked up a bottle of ginger ale, a case of lysol wipes and a smell good candle. When I got her text and opened to see this beautiful sight, I could have wept, but I had to bust open all three right away and didn't have time for tears.

Cost: a few bucks

Worth: A WHOLE lot more