Easter

The past 40 days have flown by. 10 days ago, I started thinking that this whole list was a bit ambitious and didn't know how I was going to finish. But, I'm proud to say that I was able to get it all done! For me, I got a lot more out of doing this than giving something up like every other year.

I'm a big fan of Pope Francis in these first couple weeks of his papacy. He's demonstrated his humility, concern for the poor, and the importance of helping others. In his Good Friday homily, he said, "Christians must respond to evil with good, taking the cross upon themselves as Jesus did." I'm usually not a fan of telling people all the good deeds you've done, but I think it's important to see that there are a ton of different ways you can help others. These are 40 easy ways that you can do good and brighten someone's day because you really don't know what other people are going through. Some of these do require planning, but some of them are pretty easy to do. Most of the stuff I got from Target so if you're anything like me when I go there and find yourself buying random things, try to pick up something from this list and pass it on! If you're short on money, you can always donate your time to helping others as well. With the exception of the animal shelter and soup kitchen, these were done in places I was going to be at anyways. I do have to warn you though, the animal shelter one was dangerous because Cammy and I almost came home with five puppies! I think my favorite ones to do were leaving change at the fountain and buying carousel rides for a bunch of kids with Andrew--it was a lot of fun and super easy and was so cute to see him get so excited to help others.

Huge shout out to everyone who participated in the 40 acts and especially to those who helped me finish each one. As hectic as it was trying to cross these all off, it's been really fun and rewarding to see people's reactions and to hear stories about people paying it forward. Thanks for joining me on this journey--Happy Easter everyone!

xoxo,
Linh

#17: Leave diapers and wipes in a public bathroom.

I tried to this one at the McDonald's by myself because after doing the bubbles at the playground at Lake Elkhorn, I realized a lot of the parents were taking their kids across the street to McDonald's to use the bathrooms there. However, when I tried to drop the diapers and wipes off there, I found out they didn't have one of the changing tables there. So, I relied on my go-to place: Chickfila.This place is constantly packed with little kids as well so hopefully this helps a mom out!

#2: Give out bubbles to the kids you see throughout the day.

Myron and I went to the park today to hang out because it was a gorgeous day. We also brought along 20 tubes of bubbles from Target to pass out to the kids that were there on the playground. They loved them!

#11: Baby sit for a mom.

I have no idea how parents do it--whenever I take Nat or AB for a long period of time I'm exhausted afterward! Even more impressive are single parents--how do they do it by themselves?

One of my coworkers, Christie, just happened to stop by my office yesterday while I was talking about all the acts of kindness I had left on my list. I joked around about how I would love to take her 9 year old son for a couple hours today and she told me she would love it--so I picked him up today! Myron and I spent a couple hours together--we went to lunch, did some shopping at Target, and went to the park where he helped me cross off another one of my Lent acts. I told Christie to take it easy and just take some time for herself because she does so much all the time. She works full time, is in school, and cares for Myron. But, she used the time apart to clean the house and get ready for Easter. This was something pretty easy to do and seemed to mean the world to Christie!

I think I tired him out...

#15: Donate a coloring book and crayons to the pediatric department of a hospital.

I definitely seemed to save everything that needed to be delivered until the end. I've had the coloring book and crayons for a while, I just haven't been able to find time to go to a hospital. I like these coloring books because they can be pulled out of the book and there are individual crayon packs for each kid so lots of kids can benefit from this one! Teddi Stern (the co-mastermind between all these acts of kindness) helped me finish this though. Teeds is a pediatric nurse at Maryland so I was able to drop these off with her today and she'll be bringing them with her to work. Thanks TJS!

#33: Thank a soldier for their service.

This one was more difficult than it sounds. Well, it could've been really easy but I put all these rules on it and made it hard. When Tiffany/Greg originally helped me think of this one, we said it could just be seeing a random person out and saying thank you. It would be brownie points if they were out somewhere I was dining and I picked up their check. We also decided that people at work couldn't count because I work with so many military people. 

Problem was, outside of work, I never saw anyone out in uniform in the past 40 days. So, I got a little desperate. I found a website that you could send thank you cards or cards of support to and they'd distribute them to deployed troops. Greg told me that wasn't good enough, so I thought bigger. This entire Lenten period I've wanted to include Chickfila somehow since it's one of my favorite places. One of the kids that works the front desk at St. Louis now works at Chickfila, William. I reached out to William and asked if he could help me and he immediately said yes. I wrote a card to say thank you and came in to buy a $10 gift card. I put both in an envelope and gave it to William to pass off to the next military person that comes in. This way it's also completely random! 

#10: Thank my mail carrier.

My best friend Chris once told me that I could make friends with a wall if I wanted to. That said, I guess it makes sense that I've become friendly with the mail carrier at my work. Her name is Dionne and she's awesome--rain or shine, she's there. When she's out and there's someone else delivering our mail, she gets really upset when it's not done correctly and constantly apologizes. I haven't seen her in a couple weeks and was at the post office a couple days ago. I ended up talking to a supervisor about something else so I asked if she knew Dionne and knew what happened to her. Apparently she broke her ankle so she can't work in the field and instead has to stay at the post office and work in the back. I asked if I could drop off something for her and if she could get it to her, and she said yes! I dropped off a box of girl scout cookies (Dionne has a sweet tooth) with a note telling her how much we appreciate her hard work. I think the mailman I dropped it off to was jealous. ;)