Monday Musings...Living out Gratefulness!

Hi friends!!! Happy Monday!!!

How was your weekend?? I sure hope it was a good one! 

We had a really nice weekend- it was a mixture of doing a fun activity together as a family as well as being at home getting "regular" stuff done like yard work, grocery shopping, and laundry plus an added bonus of Aaron and I having a date night on Saturday :)

I was reading Erika's blog post last week about ideas for raising grateful kids and it was kind of perfect timing because I have been wanting to share a little bit more on how Aaron and I approach teaching and instilling gratefulness in our family!

For us- gratefulness and service go hand in hand. We can tell our kids all day long that they should be grateful for all that they have- but until they come in contact with people and experiences that show them how others have different circumstances than them- it is just a lot of words. It can be so hard for little ones (and let's be honest- hard for adults too!) with limited real life experiences to truly "get" something like, "You need to be grateful for your dinner...some kids don't have dinner every night!" Of course, these kind of conversations are SO important and talking with our kids about their abundant blessings is a constant in our home....but we have also committed to putting action to those words and have found different ways for our kids to consistently provide service to others and in turn instill gratefulness in their hearts. 

So- before I go any further- I wanted to be very clear that I am not sharing any of this to be boastful and act like we are just amazing parents doing so many great things with our kids. Aaron and I are constantly being humbled with how little we know about parenting and for as many "good" things we do as parents there are a hundred other things where we are probably failing. All of our strength as parents comes from God's wisdom and grace and we are just so thankful he is the Rock of our family.

Okay- I thought I would share the ways we are currently serving others as a family and then provide some other ideas that maybe you might like to try with your family!

Since moving to Greenville, we have been volunteering once a month at our local food bank. I called our food bank and talked with the volunteer coordinator about wanting to volunteer as a family. Our local food bank has several Saturdays a month where groups and families can come to help! The jobs that need to be done are geared towards kids- so its simple things like bagging apples or onions, organizing capri suns or bagging up sweet potatoes. We go to the food bank once a month for 1 hour and it has been such a great experience for all of us. 

On this particular Saturday we were bagging up onions!! You can tell we were having a horrible time! HA!

At church, Aaron and I volunteer with two different ministries that the kids can be with us when we are serving. In this season of life, with our kids being so young, we have really prioritized finding volunteer opportunities that the kids can be with us. If you are a member of a church, you know there are SOOOO many ways to become involved! We volunteer in our church nursery and we are leaders of Children's Liturgy of the Word (we take all the kiddos who are at mass and present the readings to them in a more child friendly way). We are able to do both of these activities with our own kids- and they LOVE when we work in the nursery and are "children's word leaders."  We do both of these things about 2 times every three months!

Last summer, we were having a particularly ungrateful week with our kids and I was feeling like the BIGGEST failure of a parent. We had a sit down conversation with our girls and pointed out all the little things we do "for fun" as a family- get slushies from Sonic, go out for dinner, pick up little trinkets at Target or Walmart, get ice cream...you know- the list goes on and on! We talked with them about how different their "normal" is from so many other little girls their age in different parts of the world. We then visited a website called, Naomi's Village (I had heard about this organization from another family) and showed them these precious kiddos that needed sponsoring so they could go to school. get uniforms and notebooks. BASIC NEEDS. My girls were blown away and by showing them REAL little girls, with the same interests as them (on the website they describe the children's favorite foods/activities)- they immediately- without prompting from us- said, "I want to give up getting so many slushies from Sonic!" "Mom! We don't need to go to Chick-Fil-A every week!  Let's save that money and give it to Naomi's Village!" So- that's exactly what we did! 

We have been sponsoring the most precious girl for about a year now and along with our monthly sponsor donation, the girls put together a little package for our little girl that we sponsor every couple of months. Naomi's Village is AMAZING and they will send us videos of our girl opening her presents or telling us thank you! We have also had the opportunity to FaceTime with her! 

There have been times when someone wants to get a treat or they pitch a fit because they don't like what I am making for dinner and say something like: "can't we just go out??" (UGH. I am embarrassed to even admit my kids say this!) and I just bring up our family commitment to do without a few extras every month to sponsor our little girl and that really helps bring them back to reality. It has been a wonderful thing for us to be a part of the sponsorship program with Naomi's Village!

We have one other organization we just started volunteering with- Ainsley's Angels. This is an organization whose mission is to include individuals with special needs in all aspects of the community- including endurance races. Aaron and I love to run and we both have always had a passion for the special needs community- so we are SUPER excited to be Angel Runners for Angel Riders here in Greenville. Aaron ran in a race this past Saturday- so the kids and I came with him, got to meet all the runners and race participants and cheer them on! Next Saturday, I am running a race, so Aaron and the kids will be cheerleaders.  This is another situation that works great for our family, because even though only one of us can be running a race, the rest of our family can be involved by being cheerleaders (which, if you have ever run a race, is SO important)!!

Other service activities that we that we have done together as a family and LOVED are:

- volunteering at a homeless shelter that was specifically for families. We would volunteer in the childcare room and watch the children who were staying at the shelter while their parents attended classes, cleaned up their room or just got a little break! We did this while we lived in Indianapolis and just really loved it. The girls would get so attached to the little ones we watched!

- Delivered food baskets to families at Thanksgiving time. This is more of a once of a year opportunity- but one that is great for doing together as a family. Our church coordinated donating hundreds of food baskets for families in need and we signed up to deliver some of them! The girls went up with Aaron to deliver the baskets and it was a very special experience for all of us!

- visits with the elderly! We created little goodie baskets with socks, hand sanitizer and pictures made by the girls and we went to a facility where elderly men and women along with individuals who had cognitive disabilities came every day. We visited with them and it was a BEAUTIFUL experience. We did this only once, while we were living in Indianapolis, but if we would have stayed living in Indy, we would have SO made this a regular activity!

So- I know what some of you might be thinking: "Great Justine. I am really happy you get out and do these things with your kids...but I have 3 kids under 3 or my husband works a lot  or I work full time or it just kind of overwhelms me to think about doing any of this."

I GET IT!!!  I really, really do!!! :)

First of all- even though my kiddos are getting older, it is still A LOT for us out to get out the door at 6:45 am on a Saturday morning to go to a race. We definitely deal with attitudes and not always being so giving. But we make it a priority!! Our volunteer commitments are on our calendar, just like the many other activities we have going on and they are NOT negotiable! The kids will miss a birthday party or we might miss a fun activity taking place at the library or the park so we can give the time we have committed to the places where we volunteer.

 We also didn't do any of this stuff when Aaron was in medical school and we had 3 little babies!! We slowly started doing more once he was in residency and have gotten progressively more involved once we moved and have settled into our new town.

There is a season for everything and this might not be your family's season to get out and actively volunteer!

BUUUTTTT- that doesn't mean you can't do service activities with your kiddos!!

Here are just a few, SUPER simple activities you can do with your kiddos that will spark SO many great conversations with your kids about gratefulness:

- write letters/send packages to men and women serving in our Armed Forces-here's one organization you can check out to do that:  Operation Gratitude

-support our Veterans and their families...there are so many organizations that help support our Veteran's- just a few of them are:

The Wounded Warrior Project

The USO

The Independence Fund- check out the children's book the amazing Sarah Verardo just wrote!! All proceeds from this book go back to the Independence Fund!
The Fisher House Foundation

The Veterans of Foreign Wars- VFW
Homes for Our Troops

- the next time you are at McDonald's- purchase a couple $5 gift cards. Keep them in your glove box and when you come in contact with an individual in need- you have something to give them! There are several places we frequent where we live that have individuals asking for help...this has brought up a lot of questions from the kids and we decided together a small way we can help is to: 1) Smile and look the person in the eye- even if we aren't giving him/her anything and 2) purchase gift cards to have on hand when we do feel led to give.

- WRITE THANK YOU NOTES. This probably deserves a whole entire blog post on its own- but I am a HUGE believer in thank you notes. My kids are expected to write a thank you note for anything they are given and if they moan or groan about it- they lose what that person gave them. We typically don't have any issues with them not wanting to write thank you notes- because they love to color and draw- but that is the consequence when and if someone gets persnickety. I write thank you notes for James and Marshall- but I have them color on a piece of paper- even if it is just scribbles and if I am really on top of my game- include a picture of them using/enjoying the item that was given to them. It is a small of act of "service" that means SO much to the person who took the time to GIVE the gift!

- talk to your kids about ways they can "serve" your family. I am constantly talking to my girls about how setting the table is a way to do an act of service for me (so I don't have to do it) and it's a sign of gratefulness for the meal we are going to have. I also encourage the girls to do random acts of service for one another...things like pick up a mess one of their sisters made, pack a snack and a note for each other, if someone left a mess in the bathroom, clean it up for them...you get the idea! 

And the simplest, yet I think most profound way to instill gratefulness and hearts of service in your kiddos- is to BE GRATEFUL. Happily serve your husband and children. Talk about how thankful you are for the gorgeous weather when you're outside playing. When you get the fridge loaded after a big grocery shopping trip- express your gratefulness for the food in your house! Tell your kids and husband WHY you are grateful for them. 

It is one of our personal missions as parents, to instill a mindset of "IT'S NOT ALL ABOUT YOU" in our children. Not in a scary, authoritarian way...but in a loving, gentle way that guides them to live with gratitude in their hearts and a desire to always be looking for ways they can spread love and kindness to others.  
It's not always easy- BUT- I can tell you it's worth it!!

I know so many of you are doing incredible things with your families to teach gratefulness and give back to others. Will you please share what you are doing in the comments??? I always love getting new and fresh ideas and that is the beautiful thing about this blogging community- we can all learn from each other!!

Wow. Was this a little more than you bargained for on a Monday?? HA! I bet you were maybe just checking into see if we did anything fun over the weekend. HA!

Thanks for listening to what was on my heart to share today!!

Hope you have the BEST day!!

Linking up with Johannah, Heather and Lindsay today!