Stories by shutterfly (3 matches)

An 8-Year-Old Experiments With Smiles

My 8-year-old daughter  is experimenting with kindness and smiles.  She has been making her own colourful smile cards in all the colours of the rainbow and often takes them to school or stuffs her pockets with them when we go out to run errands.  She makes them very carefully and takes great pride in her work :) Last Sunday, I took the kids grocery shopping with me.  My daughter packed her pockets with about 20 of her homemade smile cards.  She was hoping to see John, who is an elderly man who gives out samples.  We see him from time to time and he is so happy and friendly, that we can't help feeling good talking to him.  John wasn't at the store on Sunday, so my daughter decided that it would be a good idea to distribute her smile cards to all the store's other employees.  As much as I have ... Read Full Story >>

Inspired By "Food For Thought Jar"

I've been racking my brain trying to think of meaningful homemade gifts to give for Christmas this year.  My family has agreed that instead of buying gifts for each other and for extended family and friends, we will be donating our gift budget to a children's charity.  However, I would like to make "thank you" gifts for the adults in my life to acknowledge the holidays and thank them for their support this year (since they won't be receiving gifts from us).  Then I remembered this story from HelpOthers.org about the food for thought jar. 

What a perfect gift idea!!!  Jars come cheap or can be found around the house and recycled.  I am going to take the food for thought jar a step further here and give them as gifts with the hope that my mother and sister and friends will read the special tidbits inside and feel good every day :)  (and of course, each one will have a smile card in it.)

Thank you to Bedbug for her creativity and inventiveness and wonderful idea that I am going to recycle and reuse for my own purposes.

Supporting A Daughter's Kindness Mission

I wanted to share my daughter's kindness idea which came to her through her school's reading program. We had ordered some books through the school reading program and in the pack she received, there were a couple that didn't interest her.  She asked if we could send them to kids in Africa that didn't have books?  This question sparked a conversation about how we might do that and the momentum took hold.  She is going to talk to the teacher in charge of the student council to see what she can come up with.  She is excited by the idea of collecting books and sending them to developing countries for the purposes of setting up libaries in the villages or schools there so that they might benefit from the joy of reading as my daughter does.  She has been talking for a while about starting her own charity...and books happen to be a ... Read Full Story >>

Virtue Is The Only Shelter We Have In This World

What's Making You Smile Today?

The Power of Words