Small Acts of Kindness Can Make a Big Difference
- By Lisa Soesbe
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- 25 May, 2018
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In the words of Ellen Degeneres, "Be Kind to One Another."
The other day I saw a clip from The Ellen Show on Instagram and I thought to myself, "Ellen Degeneres has the best job in the world!" I have seen her show many times and never really stopped to think about this, (until I was inspired to write this), but she truly has a gift. She can make anyone smile. Her positivity is absolutely infectious. I mean, can you imagine if you were able to do what she did on her talk show in your every day life and how fun that would be? If you haven't seen the show, Ellen has a way about her, just a genuine, (and really funny) kind nature about her that you can't help but smile when you watch her show. One minute she is joking and dancing with her audience and the next she is giving a deserving person an amazing gift because they are great. Check out what she did for this deserving person:
One day, I want to be able to do what Ellen does daily on her show for just one person. This is a bucket list item of mine (along with being on the Ellen Show of course). But until then, I do my best to teach my children about being considerate of others. Every year my children help me with some volunteer projects that some friends and I commit to. The most recent one was showing kindness to our local law enforcement deputies by gifting them with some handmade cards and candy during National Police Week in an effort to show them how much they are appreciated. Every year that we do this, my kids love to help in some way. One year they sorted goodies to put in the bags we gave out, another year they helped put the goodies in their boxes, and this year they helped to double and triple count the candy that was made and bagged. I think it is important to teach children that the world does not always revolve around them and that it is nice to be kind and thoughtful and think of others. I want to raise children who are willing to help others in need of a smile or a helping hand.
Sometimes, as a mom, you don't think that your children are watching or listening to you, but they pay close attention to everything that you do, so it is important for you to be the example that you want them to follow.
I will give you an example of this. One day my son and I were at Aldi on a grocery store trip. I often let him keep the quarter that is needed for the cart after we are done shopping. This time I noticed that when he put the cart away he purposely left the quarter in the cart. When I asked him about it he told me that he wanted to leave it for the next person. That was a proud mommy moment! Here was my six-year-old son paying it forward without even realizing what "paying it forward" even meant. I had never taught him this, he was thoughtful enough to come up with this idea on his own. I made sure I praised him for doing that! It may seem small but by leaving that quarter for someone else, he quite possibly could have made someone's day. You see, you don't have to have a talk show and celebrity status to do something nice for people. It doesn't take much to put a smile on someone's face. If you ever see your child doing something nice like that for someone, make sure they know that you noticed.
About a month ago, our next door neighbors had their new-to-them family car stolen right out of their driveway. I found out about this incident the morning after and just felt sick for them that this happened. While my children and I were out grocery shopping, we saw some pretty flowers on display at the store and decided we would get one for our neighbors in the hopes that it would make their awful day of having to deal with their stolen car a little better. When we got home, I found a blank card and wrote a nice little message in it expressing how we hope our gift would brighten their day if only for just a moment. My kids were so excited to present this small gift to them. I handed them the card and flower and they marched to the neighbor's house and rang the doorbell. The mom answered and they handed her the gift and they said: "We hope this will brighten your day". She thanked them and my kids ran back to our house with excitement. It made them feel good to do something nice for someone.
Then, guess what happened...
The next day our neighbors gifted us with a family movie night (popcorn, candy and 2 free movie rental coupons) to thank us for thinking of them. We were so surprised by this. Although it was a nice gesture, we were really more excited by the fact that we truly did brighten their day.
In the same way that Ellen Degeneres closes The Ellen Show, I will close this blog post by saying:
"Be kind to one another."
Then, guess what happened...
The next day our neighbors gifted us with a family movie night (popcorn, candy and 2 free movie rental coupons) to thank us for thinking of them. We were so surprised by this. Although it was a nice gesture, we were really more excited by the fact that we truly did brighten their day.
In the same way that Ellen Degeneres closes The Ellen Show, I will close this blog post by saying:
"Be kind to one another."
Have you ever bribed your children with sweet treats to get them to do something? Let’s face it, we have all done this before. I’ll be the first one to say I have done this until I realized why I should stop the cycle.
In schools, sporting clubs, and other activities where children are involved, people reward children with candy and other unhealthy snacks. There are even popular lesson plans used in schools that include using M&M’s or Skittles; after the children use the treats for their lesson, they get to eat them as their reward. In American society, this has now become the norm. Go to the barbershop and Johnny gets a treat because he sat so nicely for his haircut. Go to dance class and little Mary gets a piece of candy at the end of class. Go to the bank and Joey gets a lollipop for being a good boy in the bank. It goes on and on. The people that assume that this is okay think, “What’s the big deal?”. This may even be you! I will tell you why this is such a big deal. This is affecting our children both physically and emotionally.
In schools, sporting clubs, and other activities where children are involved, people reward children with candy and other unhealthy snacks. There are even popular lesson plans used in schools that include using M&M’s or Skittles; after the children use the treats for their lesson, they get to eat them as their reward. In American society, this has now become the norm. Go to the barbershop and Johnny gets a treat because he sat so nicely for his haircut. Go to dance class and little Mary gets a piece of candy at the end of class. Go to the bank and Joey gets a lollipop for being a good boy in the bank. It goes on and on. The people that assume that this is okay think, “What’s the big deal?”. This may even be you! I will tell you why this is such a big deal. This is affecting our children both physically and emotionally.
If there is one thing I am good at, it is stretching a dollar. This is one reason I love getting gift cards for gifts. I know that I am great at getting as much out of that gift card that I can by shopping myself. It is like a game for me to see how much stuff I can get with a gift card paired with sales and coupons. Call me weird but it saves me money! I do the same thing when it comes to purchasing groceries. I have standards when it comes to the food I am eating and feeding my family. Food is one of the most important things that you buy and what kind of food you are buying matters in terms of your health. So while I would much rather to be able to purchase good food than sport a luxury purse or designer clothing, I still like to stretch my food dollars as much as possible. If I told you that you can actually get cash back for eating healthy, would you believe me?
I want to share a little hack I discovered a long time ago that I use a lot and pretty much for any online shopping. Have you ever heard of Ebates ? If you are not a member, you are going to want to click on the word Ebates anywhere in this post and sign up today because it will save you lots of money on anything you buy and if you use the referral link, once you sign up and spend $25 or more, you will get $10. If you are not a member you have nothing to lose because it costs you nothing. Do you shop online at all? Chances are your favorite retailer is on Ebates and you will get paid for your normal shopping routine just by signing into Ebates first and then going to your favorite site. Some examples of stores I am talking about are Target, Walmart, Kohl's and even Amazon! You simply must check this out.
Now, let me tell you about how I get cash back for eating healthy. My hack is to log in to Ebates and then shop the sales on Vitacost.com. Vitacost is an online health and wellness store with over 45,000 products. They also tend to have the best prices on most things. This gives me great savings because I can buy stuff like organic coconut milk, raw nuts, soy free chocolate chips, nut butters, and gluten-free flours as well as personal care items like deodorant, shampoo and conditioner from Vitacost when it is on sale and if I am buying through Ebates I will normally get at least 3% cash back from Vitacost. They also offer free 2-day shipping on orders over $49 so I usually order stuff that I will need for the month in one order so that I can save on shipping as well.
I want to share a little hack I discovered a long time ago that I use a lot and pretty much for any online shopping. Have you ever heard of Ebates ? If you are not a member, you are going to want to click on the word Ebates anywhere in this post and sign up today because it will save you lots of money on anything you buy and if you use the referral link, once you sign up and spend $25 or more, you will get $10. If you are not a member you have nothing to lose because it costs you nothing. Do you shop online at all? Chances are your favorite retailer is on Ebates and you will get paid for your normal shopping routine just by signing into Ebates first and then going to your favorite site. Some examples of stores I am talking about are Target, Walmart, Kohl's and even Amazon! You simply must check this out.
Now, let me tell you about how I get cash back for eating healthy. My hack is to log in to Ebates and then shop the sales on Vitacost.com. Vitacost is an online health and wellness store with over 45,000 products. They also tend to have the best prices on most things. This gives me great savings because I can buy stuff like organic coconut milk, raw nuts, soy free chocolate chips, nut butters, and gluten-free flours as well as personal care items like deodorant, shampoo and conditioner from Vitacost when it is on sale and if I am buying through Ebates I will normally get at least 3% cash back from Vitacost. They also offer free 2-day shipping on orders over $49 so I usually order stuff that I will need for the month in one order so that I can save on shipping as well.
How we prevented a potentially bad situation by paying close attention
