It’s the most wonderful time of the year, so says the holiday songs, but for some, it has been such a hard year, it may be difficult for them to see the good. Amid all the black Friday and cyber Monday calls to shop and spend, shining a light on a giving day is one of my favorites to write about and share.
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community
Happy December! It is a
frosty morning here south of Nashville, TN. And I’m warm and toasty in my cozy
home office. I know there are many, right here in my county that aren’t as fortunate.
That’s top of mind as I put together this post for Giving Tuesday. This year I’m
going to continue to help where I live. To that end, I’m donating food, toys,
clothes, books, diapers, anything I can to help local community outreach
programs and non profits. If you’d like to help out in your community and need some ideas on
where to get started, read on for Six ways you can give on Giving Tuesday.
Recently my family and I enjoyed an evening full of holiday magic at the second annual Franktown Festival of Lights. I love the holidays and supporting local businesses and charities, so when the invitation to attend the media night right here in Franklin, TN., I happily said yes and started moving things around on my planner. I am so glad I did because we all enjoyed the Family Fun at Franktown Festival of Lights! If you are ready to get into the holiday spirit and can make the drive to Franklin, TN. Then read on to learn all about the Franktown Festival of lights.
How does one go about finding faith in ourselves or something bigger than ourselves? How do we step out in faith and believe in the whisper that some of us hear that says… do this instead of that? These questions and potentially finding the answers to my own nagging whisper had me happily agreeing to review a complimentary copy of The Hundred Story Home by Kathy Izard and to hosting a giveaway for 3 copies for you!
This is my third year as an ambassador #GivingTuesday, the global day of giving back to our
community, or the world depending on which causes and organizations you choose
to support. My family and I choose to support globally during most of the year,
but during the holidays, we love to give our support locally. Read on for my three easy ways to give back starting today.
1. Donate Funds:
The first way we give is by putting a donation in nearly
every Salvation Army bell ringers collection. Sometimes it’s just the change in
our hands from our recent shopping trip. Other times we give a more meaningful
amount, it really depends on where we are in our lives. Every little bit helps!
We smile and thank the volunteers who are out in all sorts of
weather promoting the Salvation's Armies promise to America to “Do the most good”.
Our daughters, now in their teens, have
watched us do this so often over the years, that now they reach in their purse or pockets to see what
they can give as well. This makes us very proud parents because we never asked
them to give, they want too. If you
would like to learn more about volunteering this holiday season as a bell
ringer, please visit www.ringbells.org
where you can do a search to find local volunteer opportunities.
2. Donate Food:
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The second way we give is by supporting local food banks. The
need is greatest this time of year, second only to summer when kids are out of
school. The idea of not having enough food is a scary and growing situation on
our country. It’s hard to fathom that 42
million people in America face hunger each day- that’s 1 in every 8
Americans! Sadly, school age children
are the most severely affected by hunger.
One of the easiest ways to help is to look for a collection bin at your
local grocery store and put one of your BOGO’s in it all year. If you have the
resources, perhaps you can adopt a family in need off of the giving tree in
your community. My local stores have
them up all season. If your grocery store doesn’t, just look up your local food
bank at Feeding America and ask what they
need.
3. Donate Time:
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Last but certainly not least, we want to help seniors in our
community this year. I’m contacting a local assisted living community today to
see how we might help brighten residents days. Simple acts like visiting for 30
minutes, smiling and saying hello to each resident we see, writing greeting cards for a
hallway of residents, giving out free hand massages since I’m an Avon lady.
If you don’t have an assisted living center in your community,
contact your local senior center or visit the National Center on Aging which has a wealth of
resources to help you plug in and help.
More Ways to help:
My three ways of helping may not be the best
fit for you, so I invite you to visit the #GivingTuesday website where you can find
countless ways to get involved today, next month or next year.
The one thing you can give freely, multiple times a day is
your smile. It costs you nothing, but to the receiver it may mean everything,
especially in our social media savvy world! Look up from those phones when you
are in public and Smile! Speaking of smiling- are you following me a.k.a. ismilefirst on Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest? I'd love for you to join me!
Please share in comments: Which way do you and your family
help give back to your community?
Today I woke up with a grateful heart. I am celebrating another day on this
wonderful planet and my family is showering me with love because it’s my
birthday. While I had originally planned
on sharing a post on working from home, a quick Google search of today led me
to a much more important cause. Did you know that today is National Missing
Children’s day? I didn’t either. How could I not know that I’ve shared my
birthday with this very important cause since 1983?
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| Sunrises make me happy and grateful to be alive |
About National
Missing Children’s Day:
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“In
1983, President Ronald Reagan proclaimed May 25 as National Missing Children’s
Day. Each year, the Department of
Justice (DOJ) commemorates Missing Children’s Day with a ceremony honoring the
heroic and exemplary efforts of agencies, organizations, and individuals to
protect children.
Missing Children’s Day
is dedicated to encouraging parents, guardians, caregivers, and others
concerned with the well-being of children to make child safety a priority. It
serves as a reminder to continue our efforts to reunite missing children with
their families and an occasion to honor those dedicated to this noble cause.”
Three easy ways to get involved today:
Every
child deserves to feel safe. Every child deserves to live with their families
without fear of being taken, sold, hurt or worse. I always feel terrible when I
get an Amber alert and I don’t take them lightly. I look at the photo, I study
it and then I take action by sharing the Amber alert on social media AND by
looking at the faces in the crowd as I go about my day.
1. Always pay attention and share local and national Amber alerts
My
husband and I always look at the missing children’s posters at the exit of our
local Sam’s Club. We pull our cart over so we don’t get trampled on by the busy
exiting shoppers and we look at those faces, we say a prayer and then we take
our kids home with us.
2. Always look at the Missing Children's posters post in your community
Keeping
our kids as safe as we can is one of the most important reasons I am a work at
home Mom. I’m here for my kids in a way that I couldn’t be working outside the
home. It was a choice to earn less to be here in my home and in my community
more. But not all Moms can do that, so I will try to do more when and where I
can. I will pay attention to the kids, vehicles in my neighborhood, and report any suspicious activity to my neighborhood watch and law enforcement.
3. Pay attention to activities in your neighborhood and join your neighborhood watch.
Lastly, I invite
you to visit http://mecptraining.org/educate/national-missing-childrens-day/
to learn more and find resources on how you may be able to help in your
community, or nationally.
If you are reading this and are a parent- hug and connect with your child.
Tell them how very grateful you are to have them in your life. Do you know how
many kids are never told they are wanted, valued, loved? Be sure you are giving your kids your undivided attention so they truly feel connected.
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Today is my birthday and I woke with a grateful heart and I
plan on using my voice, my talents, my heart to make today the best day of the
rest of my life by shining my light and remembering my blessings and hopefully,
plugging in to my community more and blessings others.
Please share in comments: In what way can you help a child
feel safe and loved today?
Happy Friday
dear readers! I hope you got to count your many blessings with family and
friends yesterday. As I was counting my many blessings with my family, I counted you among them. I love being a writer/blogger/WAHM. I love that I can create, share and hopefully
help and inspire you. Lately, I’ve been
writing eBay guides!
About eBay
Guides:
Use eBay guides to help you make more
informed decisions! Whether you're making an informed purchasing decision or
find out how to do something, the eBay guide writing community can help! Gone are the days where eBay was just
an auction site for pre-owned stuff or antiques. Now you can find you can find brand names, new items and
products that are sold directly from the manufacturer, so consumers don’t need
to worry about whether or not the things they buy are authentic. Now, whatever
you want, you can probably find it on eBay!
My Guides:
Here are some of my
most recent guides I’ve shared with the eBay community. Like all social
channels, you can now follow me and others on Ebay. Follow me here.
Recent Guides:
To read all my guides, click here. You can leave
comments, share, and vote on guides, which I would LOVE if you did on mine.
If you are on eBay, please let me know in
comments and I’ll follow you there too!
Happy Holidays!
When The Motherhood
sent out an email asking for volunteer #GivingTuesday social media ambassadors,
I signed up immediately because I had been putting a lot of thought into how I
might use my online voice to help others offline.
As a family, we give
a little here and there all year long; whether that’s supporting Saint Jude
when we get our hair cut, or donating our gently used clothes, toys and books
to our local Goodwill.
We believe that every donation helps, no matter how big
or small. It’s the act of giving that’s the important life lesson. We’ve always
told our girls, we may not have everything we want, but we are blessed to have
everything we need and that if we look closely, we will see someone who may be
struggling to have their needs met.
With the holidays drawing near, you may be feeling blessed
with all that you have as well, even if it isn’t all that you want. Now is the
perfect time to lend a hand to those less fortunate. #GivingTuesday can help find
a cause or non-profit that speaks to where you are in your life. This is a
fairly new initiative so here’s some information for you.
About #GivingTuesday:
#GivingTuesday was founded in 2012
by New York’s 92nd Street Y partnership with United Nations
Foundation. #GivingTuesday, a global day dedicated to giving back,
encourages people to share their own giving stories and favorite giving moments
or organizations. No one charity is supported- with more than 12,000 nonprofit partners and projects, you have lots of choices on who to support and how, whether it's
a tweet or a donation.
When: #GivingTuesday
is on Tuesday December 2, 2014.
I invite you to learn
more about #GivingTuesday by visiting their website and then joining. You can
help spread the Give on Tuesday December 2, 2014 by sharing your own #Unselfie
and sharing ways you are giving by using hashtag #GivingTuesday on your social
channels. You’ll be joining your voice with charities, families, businesses,
students, community centers around the world coming together for one common
purpose, to celebrate generosity and give.
Share your Unselfie!
Here’s my #UNselfie
showing the charities my family and I choose to support this #GivingTuesday. I
hope you’ll join us and post your own #Unselfie! Tag me on Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram @ismilefirst so I can share in your giving choose. Tag
and follow TheMotherhood as well on Twitter!
Like my #Unselfie? Visit the tools page at #GivingTuesday to
download your own #Unselfie template, check out tool kits, ideas and more. And stay
tuned for more information on a special Twitter party I’ll be co-hosting with
other fab TheMotherhood ladies!
I am truly blessed and thankful that my little O'Hana has everything we need and that we are able to help those who don't have a better day.
Happy Holidays from our home to yours!
Happy Holidays from our home to yours!
As parents, we spend a lot of time discovering creative ways to nurture our children’s curiosity. Luckily, being outdoors provides the perfect landscape, fueling young imaginations and creating endless possibilities for exploration, discovery and creativity. Children’s Claritin hopes to inspire parents to create innovative play spaces in their backyards, and communities.
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Children’s Claritin also believes in the benefits of outdoor activity for children, and wants to help children get the most out of every day! They’re teaming up with KaBOOM!, a national non-profit, to help bring innovative play spaces to communities in need and you can help! By voting, you can help them pick the four community organizations that will receive Imagination Playground™.
What’s Imagination Playground™? See imagination at play – watch last year’s winner enjoying Imagination Playground™.
I invite you to visit ClaritinVoteforPlayspaces.com where you can place your vote and gather play space inspirations for creating your own backyard play space. While visiting the Children’s Claritin & KaBOOM! Facebook page, you can also:
- Learn more about the twelve organizations you can vote for receiving Imagination Playground™
- Download coupon offers
- Locate a play space near you
Please Vote now and help pick the four community organizations that will receive Imagination Playground™. You can vote one time per day through 9/26/14. Click here for voting rules.
Please share in comments: Does your neighborhood have enough play spaces?
Disclosure: As a member of the Children’s Claritin Mom Crew, I receive product samples and promotional items occasionally to share and use as I see fit. No monetary compensation has taken place and any opinions expressed by me are honest and reflect my actual experience. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.
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