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.
Showing posts with label
give
We are in the home stretch, friends!
With Christmas just 5 days away, I thought it was the perfect time to share an
easy, tasty cookie recipe that doubles as a great last minute hostess gift or a
special show of appreciation to a teacher, bus driver or neighbor.
I love baking from scratch
whenever I can, but sometimes this busy work-at-home mom needs to streamline
the baking process, too and that’s when I turn to premade cookie mixes. Mixes like Betty Crocker's help me keep calm and whip up a batch or two of these easy Peanut Butter
Toffee cookies in no time. Trust me when I say, these cookies are so quick and
delicious, nobody will believe they aren’t from scratch!
Here’s
my quick and easy recipe for Peanut Butter Toffee
Cookies.
Ingredients:
- 1) 17.5 ounce peanut butter cookie mix
- 1) 8 ounce bag English toffee bits (found in baking aisle of most grocery stores)
- 3) Tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2) Tablespoons water
- 1) Large egg
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line cookie sheets with parchment paper. In large bowl mix oil, water and egg in peanut butter cookie batter until no longer grainy.
- Gently fold in toffee bits.
- Shape dough into 36 small balls or make drop cookies like I did by gently sliding off tablespoon-size dough balls onto parchment paper.
- Bake cookies for 8-10 minutes for regular size cookies, or 9-11 minutes for large cookies.
- Allow to cool.
If you are giving cookies as
gifts like I am, get your cookie container ready while the cookies cool. I prefer using Ziploc containers because they are sturdy and reusable,
which truly comes in handy this time of year! Sometimes, I even receive my
container back with a goody inside as thanks.
I’ve found that a
dozen cookies fit perfectly in the 1.25 quart size plastic containers.
Sometimes you can get lucky and find the holiday containers, but if not, you
can decorate your container as festively as you want. It really is a
simple and easy way to spread kindness and cheer at this special time of year!
I hope you enjoy
these cookies and all the joy that this, the most wonderful time of the year, brings.
Merry Christmas from
us to you!
Three easy ways to give back to your community on #GivingTuesday
in #GivingTuesday, community, FamilyLife, feed, give, help, smile, volunteer, by Linda A Kinsman, Tuesday, November 29, 2016
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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source |
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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source |
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?
Once I’ve served Thanksgiving leftovers at least twice, I feel comfortable turning my attention to all things Christmas and that means decorating and baking cookies! I love baking from scratch whenever I can, but sometimes this busy work at home Mom needs to streamline the baking process and that’s when I turn to Betty Crocker Cookie mixes. This week, I’m spreading holiday cheer with my Peanut Butter Toffee Cookies that started with a Betty Crocker mix. These cookies are so quick and delicious; nobody will believe they aren’t from scratch!
I bake cookies often throughout the year, but at Christmas time, I’m baking like a boss all season long. I bake for family and friends, I bake for cookie swaps and teacher appreciation days at my daughters’ schools and I bake cookies to give to my neighbors.
It really is a simple and easy way to spread kindness and cheer at this special time of year. All you need is a Betty Crocker Cookie Mix, about an hour and a few Ziploc containers to put your cookies in. I chose peanut butter because I knew it was a favorite ; but Betty Crocker has plenty of options like Sugar Cookies, Chocolate Chip and Double Chocolate chip just to name a few. Both the mixes and the Ziploc containers are on sale right now at Publix, so be sure to visit readysetsave.com to download your digital coupons. Be sure to check out all the fun holiday recipes there too!
Here’s my quick and easy recipe for Peanut Butter Toffee Cookies.
Ingredients:
- 1) 17.5 ounce Betty Crocker Peanut Butter Cookie Mix
- 1) 8 ounce bag English toffee bits (found in baking aisle of most grocery stores)
- 3) Tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2) Tablespoons water
- 1) Large egg
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line cookie sheets with parchment paper. In large bowl mix oil, water and egg in Peanut Butter cookie batter until no longer grainy.
- Gently fold in toffee bits.
- Shape dough into 36 small balls or make drop cookies like I did by gently sliding off tablespoon size dough balls on to parchment paper.
- Bake cookies for 8-10 minutes for regular size cookies or 9-11 minutes for large cookies.
- Allow to cool.
If you are giving cookies as gifts like I am, while the cookies cool, it’s time to get your cookie container ready. I prefer using Ziploc containers because they are sturdy and reusable, which truly comes in handy this time of year! Sometimes, I even receive my container back with a goody inside as thanks.
I’ve found that a dozen cookies fit perfectly in the 1.25 quart size Ziploc containers. Sometimes you can get lucky and find the holiday containers, but if not, you can decorate your container as festively as you want.
Win it!
Thanks to my sponsor, Betty Crocker, one lucky reader will receive a $10.00 PayPal cash transfer so you can purchase some cookie mixes too!
No purchase is necessary to enter using the Rafflecopter from below. My WAHM Plan is responsible for prize fulfillment. Winners will be notified by email used on entry form and have 48 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen. This giveaway is not associated with nor endorsed by Facebook, Twitter, or any other social channel. You must have a PayPal email account to enter.
Good luck!
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. Please join us:!
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!