Mommy's Project 52:9 Caring

There are so many ways to demonstrate that you care. It is important for our family that our kids grow up wanting to help and serve others. Here are some pictures that show some of the ways they care for others in their lives.

My husband has the privilege of still having both of his grandmothers so my kids have two great-grandmothers. It is amazing to see how both kids seem to understand and try to be gentle with both great-grandmothers. Just by being around them, they have an opportunity to really serve others. No one is better able than a little kid to get the shoes under the bed or find the domino that dropped under the table.

One of the reasons I am glad we have two kids is the opportunity for them to love and serve each other. In this photo, my son is trying hard to entertain his sister while we attend a graveside service. He also got to witness how people comfort and care for each other in time of loss.

This is my son in 2010 getting a shoebox ready for Operation Christmas Child. We started this last year when he had just turned four. We just got our shoeboxes for this year from church this week. For more information, you can visit www.samaritanspurse.org/occ. The local food pantry is another great way for kids to serve others in the community.

It starts small but I see caring actions initiated by him occasionally. He naturally wants to help and serve and I want to do all I can to encourage service to others as a life long passion.

Mommy's Project 52:8 Happiness

Happiness is something that I work toward in my life. It does not come easy to me. It is easy for me to get distracted by what doesn’t go right. So to stay on an even keel, I need to make an effort to be happy. That might sound weird, but being happy takes work.

I don’t know if this comes truly easy to others but this is what I do in my life to stay relatively happy.

1. Exercise – I know that when I get physical activity that it keeps darker thoughts away. I sleep better and I feel better.

2. Keeping a grateful list - I have a journal and when I pause in the evening to write down five things that I am grateful for from that day, my focus is on the right thing.

3. Let anger and resentment go - This can be hard to do but it will destroy all the work I did in a few moments time. It gets easier for me to do the older I get.

4. Participating in a spiritual community - For me, this is going to and participating in a church with my family.

5. Paying attention to and nurturing relationships - In my case, I need to make sure I don’t take for granted the people who are closest to me including my husband. They need love and attention and they should not be taken for granted. I need to tell them and appreciate them.

6. Learning to say no - I used to be so busy worrying that I would upset people by saying no that I made myself so busy and unhappy trying to make everyone else happy. This is one of the most empowering things I have learned to do. Once you feel free to say no, it can get very addictive. I try to pick one small and one big project to be involved in and I say no to everything else.

7. Eating healthy – This is something that I am not very good at but when I do it, I do feel better and that increases my overall happiness. I am working on balancing enjoying food and keeping it under control.

8. Let the silly out - I have been working on this the past few weeks and I can see baby steps at work. I try to use humor with my kids and it makes the days work so much better. Doing the above things makes being silly so much easier.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200910/the-road-happiness says, “…happiness is greatest when we combine frequent numbers of good experiences with a few very intense ones.” It seems to work for me. What makes you happy?