Halloween is over and all of the ghosts and goblins are gone
until next year (well except those lurking under the bed). Now you are left
with buckets full of tooth decaying, denture sticking, sucker stuck in your
hair, candy. You have all sorts; the good stuff, the cheap stuff, the stuff
even your dog won’t eat. The kiddos are excited for their after school treat
while moms just want to figure out the best place to hide it all so it can be
rationed out appropriately. I remember those days all too fondly.
Well, worry
no more parents! I have an idea to help empty out that sugar coma bowl of
despair and do something positive with it and it’s a great way to involve your
littles in the process, too!
As parents, you try to raise your kids to be upstanding
citizens and you pray that you don’t screw them up and that they turn out right
(can I get an amen?). The lesson of sharing starts early when kids are toddlers
and as they get older, the lesson of sharing turns into more of the concept of
being kind, giving back and paying it
forward to others.
After Halloween is a perfect time to take these life lessons
and to involve kids in paying it forward
with some of the chocolaty loot they’ve collected over Halloween! The idea is
simple: Grab a few baggies from your
kitchen drawer and have your kiddo pick out a few pieces (and not just the ones
they don’t like either) and then have them hand write a note to someone they
want to pay it forward to. It can be
their school bus driver, their teacher, the person that cuts their hair, their
favorite bank teller that always gives them candy, or their mail person.
Now I know what you are thinking. These folks probably
already have enough candy in their house to fill a piñata, but, isn’t it the
thought that truly counts? It’s the act of doing something kind for another
person. It’s the smile that their bank teller gets after she’s had a really bad
day or the warm & fuzzy feeling that their favorite cashier at Franks will
have after she just lost her mother. You see, we are all people, that deep down
inside, want to feel loved and accepted and all of us have times in our lives
when we could use a little kind heartedness.
If there is anything I have
learned over the past 4 decades on this earth, it’s that you never truly know
what someone else is going through. We may not know of the recent diagnosis someone
has just had or the fact that they just put down their favorite dog, or that
they are about to lose their house. Those are things we may never know about
people. The one thing we all have in common and the one thing we all have to
give is a little piece of ourselves; a little kindness and generosity that can
go a long way in someone else’s life.
This simple & easy pay
it forward project isn’t just a great way to get the sugar out of your
home….. it’s a great way to spread kindness in the community we live in. In our
charming and little town called Grass Lake. You, my friends, have the power to
change and impact someone else’s day and the fact you can teach your child to
be a part of this, too, is the extra snickers miniature on top. Let’s connect
as a community. Let’s pay it forward
to one another, one random act of kindness and one kit kat at a time.
Happy Halloween!
xoxo,
Brenda
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