A Summer of Kindness

This blog has never had my full attention. It just hasn't. No reason in particular. I love to write but I am scattered by nature and having to plan something out -- like a blog -- takes a lot out of me. Yesterday my daughter and I did something pretty cool and a random lady suggested I blog about it. She looked at me and said:

"Write this down somewhere, somewhere you won't forget about it and somewhere she will have the opportunity to remember it. You're doing a good thing, momma."

So here I am. I keep a journal to each of my kids that I started when I was pregnant with each but this seemed worthy of blogging. I mean, I'm not promising you will ever get a follow up, but it's a start.

This summer, my 4-year-old daughter Lainey and and I are setting out to have a Summer of Kindness. As humans, as sinners, we are, by nature, selfish people. I am selfish. My kids are selfish and it's a trait I refuse to let run my home. So we are setting out to change that culture in our home. Each week, Lainey and I -- with sweet Hudson in tow -- will set out to do a random (or planned) act of kindness. We are searching for ways to serve other people. We want to think of them first, not ourselves.

To be honest, when I first brought this up to her, her response was "WHY?".

And that's when and how I knew I was doing the right thing. Lainey is a sweet kid. She is genuinely funny and she is not mean. She is brave and wise beyond her age. She is sensitive and she feels emotions so big. I truly admire her spirit. But as Christians and people striving to be better than we are, it's important that I instill the need to serve and to provide a better example to my kids. We are too blessed to not serve others well.

Yesterday we woke up early -- that's a trend with my kids -- and we decided to try our hand at baking some dairy free cupcakes to practice for my son's upcoming second birthday and it came up that all of our first responders were spending the holiday working instead of with their family. We decided that this was the perfect first duty in our Summer of Kindness.

My sweet girl mixing her batter. Homemade, dairy free vanilla cupcakes. 

Adding her icing. It came out a bit runny but, hey, we are new to
 this diary free lifestyle so whatevs.

From start to finish, except for the oven parts, Lainey did it all! She mixed the batter, poured the cupcakes, iced and decorated them. I was so proud of her. I have such fond memories of baking with my grandma and to see her truly enjoy and take her time doing this was so special for me.

We delivered a dozen cupcakes to our local police station to thank them for keeping us safe this holiday weekend and always. I truly feel our police force is under appreciated. It's a hard job that puts their life on the line daily and keeps them away from their families. If you don't know an officer, I really don't think you truly see what it takes. We love our officers and were so happy to present them with a fun, yummy little snack to get them through the day and I was so proud of my girl for making the delivery! She was a tad shy but the officer was kind and thankful and as soon as we got in the car, she was so proud of herself! I am always proud of my girl and she truly does leave a little sparkle wherever she goes but I am hoping that our Summer of Kindness will bring out something in her that makes her radiate kindness wherever she goes.

Each week we will set out to do something that serves another. Be it small or large, we are on mission this summer. The best way to tell others you love them, are thinking about them and the best way to tell people about Jesus is to show them. So join us this summer as we make it a Summer of Kindness.