Week 11: A Great List of Service Activities

This last week was spring break. The girls spent almost the whole week with their Grandma. That was a wonderful act of service by my mom! The girls had a wonderful time.

One day, at the end of the break, we went to Hollywood as a family. We also went to the newly renovated LA Temple Visitor's Center. We have friends serving there and it was nice to visit with them. The church has done a wonderful job with the updates there.


Do you know of anyone who is interested in learning more about the family? Take them there!

On another note, in preparing my primary lesson for this week, I ran across this great website, KidsActivities.net, with a list of service activities for kids. I wanted to share it with you. They list tons of great ideas for families, kids or even large groups.

Week 10: Letters to Soldiers

This week the girls wrote a letter to a soldier. We love and support our troops and wanted to share our gratitude with them.


You can write a letter too. A Million Thanks is a wonderful website dedicated to helping our troops.

Week 9: Kind Words

This week we decided to think about what we say to others. Big and grand acts of service are awesome, but sometimes just our words can brighten someone's day.

We discussed the difference in how we say things using examples of tone and facial expressions. Sometimes we don't realize how something may come out of our mouths even with the best intentions.

The goal for this week was to say something nice to someone every day.

Here are a couple of Sienna's experiences:
♥ She saw a lady walking to her car and thought she was pretty. She and I were sitting in our car so we rolled down the window and told her that she looked pretty today. The lady was surprised and very happy. She drove away with a huge smile on her face.
♥ Sienna told one of her friends at school that she loved her and gave her a big hug.

Here are a couple of Haven's experiences:
♥ During the school open house, Haven went to her teacher, Mrs. Miller and gave her a big hug and told her she loves her.
♥ She told one of her friends how much she likes playing with her.

Together, when we were at the mall, we told the lady helping us that shirt was really pretty.

These are just small things that didn't cost anything. They just took a few seconds of our time. However, they probably made someone smile and warmed a heart for a long time.

Week 8: Place mats for the Elderly

This week's service was to make place mats to donate to an assisted living facility in the neighborhood.



The girls really loved this project. They had some scrapbook paper and made a collage on some poster board cut to the size of a place mat. The best part was cutting out all the different pictures in the scrapbook paper. Once the collage was done, we went to the local office supply store to have them laminated.




Next we will deliver them to an assisted living facility. (This part is still in the works...To be continued!)

Week 7: Humanitarian Aid

Our service this week was to put together a hygiene kit for the LDS Humanitarian Center.

Sunday night we had a lesson about hygiene. We talked about how it would be to brush your hair without a comb or brush; washing your body without soap; brushing your teeth without toothpaste. It would be really hard to do. We talked about if there is a big disaster like an earthquake or fire, we would need to leave our home and might not have the essentials.

I found this article in the Friend magazine, "A Year Without Gifts," and read it to the family. It's about a family who decided not to buy gifts for the family that year. They made gifts for each other and did a lot of service instead.

The church has a great program to help people in need all around the world. This video really shows how quickly the church works. We showed it to the girls.

Later in the week we went to the store to gather the supplies:

2 unbreakable combs (without sharp handles)
4 packaged toothbrushes
1 6-8 oz tube of toothpaste
2 bars of soap
2 15x25" new hand towels


Then we assembled the items together in a gallon-sized zip lock bag. After that we boxed them up and sent them to the church Humanitarian Center.

Latter-day Saint Humanitarian Center
1665 South Bennett Road
Salt Lake City, UT 84104


The girls really want their kits to go to Africa. However, there's no telling where they will go. It's such a blessing to know that we can, for just a few dollars, send hygiene essentials to people who are in need.

Week 6: Heart Attack Bouquets

This week for service we decided to give some Heart Attack Bouquets. The book suggested doing a Heart Attack for a local senior lady, but we wanted to put our own spin on it. The girls wanted to show their love and appreciation to their Primary teachers. We decided to do this anonymously.

Here's what we made.

It was fun and super easy to do. We went to the local craft store and picked up a big pack of red pipe cleaners and a couple packs of felt heart stickers. At our local hardware/garden center we picked up two mini rose plants.


Once home, we put two felt heart stickers on the end of a pipe cleaner. We made a lot of these heart stems. When they were complete, we trimmed the edges of the pipe cleaners so we'd have different lengths of heart stems. Finally, we stuck them into the dirt around the flower. We made a little note saying, "I Love You!"


That night we drove to the lady's homes, put the note and flower heart attack bouquets on their doorsteps, rang the doorbell and ran.


The girls really loved the ding dong ditching part the best. But it was fun to make the bouquets too.

This is great for Valentine's day, but also great any time of year. There are so many types of felt stickers and different colors of pipe cleaners. It's just fun to make these to show appreciation.

Fear less, hope more, eat less, chew more, whine less, breathe more, talk less, say more, love more, and all good things will be yours.
Swedish Proverb

Week 5: Fireman Appreciation Week

This week we decided to show our appreciation for our local firemen. In the book, 52 Weeks of Fun Family Service, there are many ideas of things to do for the firemen. We decided to make a candy poster. Remember making those in high school or college?

Sienna and Daddy went to the store to pick out all the candy bars we'd use along with a nice sturdy piece of foam core poster board. We used our bright colored markers and came up with a cute card using the candy. Since it's close to Valentine's day we cut hearts out of wrapping paper and put them around the poster in several places.

Here's what it says:

"Dear Firemen,

Every Now & Later you deserve an Extra PayDay. It isn't 100Grand and it may give U the Snickers. Our Hearts are filled with Mounds of thanks for not being Nerds but for being Life Savers. Like the 3Musketeers you save KitKats from trees in your Big Red firetrucks and Whatchamacallits. From the Milky Way to Carlsbad, we thank you."


Saturday we stopped by our local fire station, Fire Station #6. There were 3 guys on duty. There was the captain, the engineer and the firefighter/paramedic. We explained about our year of service and how this week is Fireman Appreciation Week. We wanted to show our gratitude for all they do for our community. They loved the card. Sienna told them to only eat one piece of candy at a time.


They pulled the fire truck into the station so we could get a couple photos by it with them. I think it really made their day.


What the girls thought:
Sienna: "My favorite part was telling them to only eat one piece of candy."
Haven: "My favorite part was giving them the card."

This picture is the view from the fire station.
Great huh? They work so hard for us that they deserve the best view of all!

"Community cannot for long feed on itself; it can only flourish with the coming of others from beyond, their unknown and undiscovered brothers."

Howard Thurman

Week 4: Making blankets

In the book, "52 Weeks of Fun Family Service," it says to make a quilt and donate it to someone such as a foster family, retirement center, LDS Humanitarian Services, etc.


This is quite the task for someone who doesn't own a sewing machine!! (I had one but it died.) It's embarrassing to say that I don't like to sew. My grandfather was really tall and thin which made finding clothes in his size difficult. So he made his own clothes. He even made square dancing skirts for my grandma. He was a very talented man. My mom was really poor when I was growing up so she made most of my clothes when I was little. I was taught how to sew. I even took sewing as a required class at BYU when studying fashion merchandising. I just really do not like to sew. I'm really bad at it too. I think it's the lack of patience that I have for the whole process. The thought of making a quilt really just scared me. I even thought about calling my sister-in-law (professional quilter) to see if I could buy one from her. This task really worried me. Then I remembered!!! They have "No Sew" fleece blankets. Yay!


We went to JoAnn's to find 2 blanket kits. We picked two that were the same. After a nice Family Home Evening talking about this project, we started on the blankets. Sienna even helped - a bit. Suki, our cat thought the blankets were just for her!

We had decided that we were going to a local retirement home and would donate our blankets. Next week's project is to sing to seniors and I thought we could combine the two projects. We would sing or read a story and then give them a blanket.

We would do this Thursday night. Well, Thursday morning while getting ready for the day, I thought I should give the blankets to a lady in our ward and her daughter. I visit with her every month. Both are so sweet and I thought this would brighten their day.

Thursday evening after dinner we went to their house. The girls gave them the gift bags with the blankets inside. They loved them! The daughter was just saying how her mom was looking for a throw for the sofa that morning. Then we told them that we wanted to read them 2 good night stories. We picked out our 2 favorite stories, "The Story About Ping," and "Skippyjon Jones in the Doghouse."

They LOVED the stories! I read one and Haven even volunteered to read the second one.

What fun!

Sienna said, "I liked giving them the blankets. It made me feel so nice."

Haven said, "I liked reading them the stories. It made me feel good."

(I'm hoping to get them to expand on how it makes them feel by the end of the year.)


My favorite part was being able to see the love in their eyes when we gave them the blankets. I also loved the laughter and tears as we read the stories. How it makes my heart fill with joy to know that we brought smiles, memories and love to a couple people.

Jesus Christ said, "A new commandment I give unto you,
That ye love one another;
as I have loved you, that ye also love one another." John 13:34

Week 3: Cleaning the Church

^"Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing;
and establish a house, ... a house of order, a house of God..." D&C 88:119

Every 3 months at church we are asked to volunteer to help clean the church. We decided to use this as our third week of service. (I didn't get any photos though.)

Saturday morning the family arrived at the church at 7:30. We started by cleaning the glass doors. We made sure all the chalkboards were erased. We dusted in the chapel and made sure all the hymn books were in their holders. And we cleaned the mirrors in the bathrooms.

It is wonderful to see the girls taking pride in the way our church looks.

It is such good feeling to be in the church alone. I can really feel the Spirit. I feel that cleaning the church gives us a better respect for the building...knowing it is the House of the Lord.

Sienna said, "It made me feel happy to clean the church. My favorite part was cleaning the chapel."

Haven said, "I liked cleaning different parts rather than just cleaning the windows. It makes me feel good to keep the church clean."

Week 2: Recycling

This week according to our book 52 Weeks of Fun Family Service is RECYCLING WEEK. Recycle cans & bottles and donate the money to charity. I made a list of charities that I thought the girls would be interested in and let them pick.

Sunday after church we went around to some of the homes in our neighborhood. We had a flier explaining what we were doing (in case they weren't home). We introduced ourselves and asked if they had any bottles or cans for recycling. We would take them to the recycling center to see how much we could get. The money we raised we would donate to the Escondido Humane Society. This is where we got our kitty, Bowie. We went to 16 homes. 12 of them were home. The others we left the flier. We asked if they wanted to help, if they would leave their items in a bag at their front door. Monday night after dinner we'd come by and pick them up. Everyone was really happy to help.

Monday night we went around in the dark and collected all the bags. Out of the 16 homes, 13 participated! We had quite a few bags.


Saturday morning we sorted the plastic, glass, and aluminum into bags and drove to the recycling center. We got $11.88!


Saturday afternoon we drove out to the Escondido Humane Society to give them the money. I thought it would be better for the girls to see us giving the money rather than just writing a check and sending it in the mail. The ladies there were very nice and impressed with what the girls had done. We even spent a few minutes looking at the kitties and dogs for adoption.


After this experience, we talked about what the shelter could buy with the money we donated: food, bones, kitty litter, blankets, toys, cat scratchers, medicine...

Sienna said, "I felt really good helping the kitties and doggies. It was fun."

Haven said, "It's really nice to help. It makes me happy."

Bowie, adopted by us on January 2, 2010

Week 1: Thank You Cards

God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today.
Have you used one to say "thank you?"
~William A. Ward

For week one, we focused on Thank You cards. This is the perfect time of year to write them.

It seems so simple of an idea...writing thank you cards. However I truly believe that teaching our children to be grateful is one of the most important things we can teach them.

First we had a little lesson. We talked about how nice it is to hear a "thank you" when we do something nice for someone. We also talked about how we can feel sad when we do something nice don't get any acknowledgments. After that we read the story of the 10 Lepers in the Bible. Only one of the lepers goes back to thank Jesus after being healed.


We made a list of the people we could send cards to. We hadn't sent any cards out for the Christmas presents we received yet. So thought we'd do that and send out a couple other thank you cards. Our list included grandparents and auntie. Then we added the girls' teachers. We talked about others we could thank, such as the mailman, our Bishop, and church teachers. In the end we had time to send out 7 cards with pictures.


The girls had a great time. Wish we could see the smiles on the faces of those who receive the cards. Since we can't, we talked about how they will be smiling and thinking of us when they read the card.

We ended with a piece of cake and then off to bed.

(This was the first idea in Merrilee Boyack's book, 52 Weeks of Service. She is an LDS author and lecturer.)

2011 is our year of Service

Hmmm. A blog. I've done this once before and got too busy to keep up with it.

However, this is different. This is a project. A fun project.

I decided that I need to do more service. I also thought it would be great to teach my girls about service. So I bought a book 52 Weeks of Service, by Merrilee Boyack to help me out. That gave me the great idea to have a service project every week of the year. They don't have to be big as I don't want to get overwhelmed. But they need to be true acts of service that we can do as a family.

Hopefully we will grow closer together as a family and our love for others will grow.

Here's to 2011, our year of service!