Thursday, February 25, 2010

Fishful Thinking Thursday (& PSF) - Finding Meaning...

One of our family goals for this year is to make a better effort to serve in our community, and even get Abby and Noah in on the act. It's my hope that we can make at least a small difference in the life of someone else and that we can create some neat family experiences.

It's no wonder that this Fishful Thinking activity caught my eye as I was browsing around the site:

Finding Meaning
Ingredients: Optimism, Empowerment

The first, and most important, step in enhancing your family's sense of meaning is to think about experiences in the past that have felt meaningful. You can do this by sitting down and making an "It Felt Meaningful When" list. Ask each person in the family to share times when they felt that they were engaged in something meaningful and talk about what made it feel that way.

Here's what we came up with this afternoon (in the words of my kiddos) :

It felt meaningful "and nice" when...
  • We made a blanket for kids at the hospital that need help.(Pat found a website for Project Linus and met the kids and me to deliver our no-sew fleece blanket to the local chapter yesterday. We talked about how a giving a new warm blanket to a child who is sick is like giving a great big hug and would help him/her to feel a little bit better. The Young Women at church made a couple of them too so we delivered those as well.)
  • We donated t-shirts and tennis shoes for the kids in Haiti (through a drive at Abby's school).
  • Abby: I did Jump Rope for Heart for kids with disease when their hearts don't work right.
(Abby drew this picture to give to her PE teacher. She has been so excited to raise money for this event and practiced almost every day to get better at jump roping. Anytime she found a coin lying around the house somewhere, it went straight into her Jump Rope for Heart envelope.)

I hope that these meaningful experiences will help teach my kids to have greater empathy for others, and, as a family, we will grow stronger and become better because of these opportunities. When you think about it, there are so many ways to make a positive difference in the world around us. We just have to make the effort to take advantage of them.

Done any Fishful Thinking this week? Link up!


And for more Photo Story Friday - click over to Cecily's place!
PhotoStory Friday
Hosted by Cecily and Amy


18 comments:

Cecily R said...

Ohhhhhh your kids are lucky ones! What wonderful and meaningful things for them to be a part of! I LOVE this post!

Nancy said...

You are a kick-butt mom :) *LOVE* the no-sew blanket!! I'm so impressed with you and your kids...makes me want to gather mine up and teach 'em some more about helping others. (Thanks for that, btw! :) )

Indrani said...

You are one great mom!
They have made such a wonderful blanket. :)

Momisodes said...

You are such a good mom. This is such a great idea, and your kids are truly wonderful!

Unknown said...

You are SO good! I love what you are doing with your kids!! I'll be linking up late again...but I will link up!

Chris said...

Outstanding.

More than anything else, I long for my children to learn compassion and empathy for those who surround them -- and for those who are farther away, too.

Well done -- what a great family and a great post!

LeAnn said...

What wonderful ideas! You are creating wonderful memories and making great people in the process. ~

Carrie and Troy Keiser said...

How cool are you guys? What great examples you are and such great memories you are making.

Emmy said...

That quilt is so so cute!!!

Michelle said...

Great lessons like that will be learned. My girl scout troop has made those no sew blankets before for kids in the hospital. It really meant a lot to them to be able to do something to help other kids.

Anonymous said...

I stopped by from the Photo Story Friday mclinky...

What a wonderful post! I hadn't come across Fishfull Thinking before now, and had to go check the link out. I'm so glad I did! Thank you for sharing!

Krystyn @ Really, Are You Serious? said...

What a great mommy lesson for your kiddos. We tried to stress the importance of giving and sharing, especially to those that have less than us.

Jo Shabo said...

so glad you stopped by my blog- Happy Friday Follow!:)
your blog is cuuuutte!! :)

http://somewhatorganizedslightlycrafty.blogspot.com

amanda said...

look how proud they are!! you are such a great mama :)

DaBudges said...

I LOVE this post! I'm all about teaching your kids to be generous and serve others. Thanks for sharing!

tracey.becker1@gmail.com said...

AWESome!

Heidi said...

You really are creating wonderful kids.
I just did a lot of research about volunteering. I found it very interesting that volunteers without fail come from a family who volunteered.
Most people that volunteer believe that it is just expected and just how you give something back for all that you have.
I think you are definitely on the right track with your kids.
Just out of curiosity, are you using these little fishful thinking activites for FHE?

Anonymous said...

What a wonderful thing you and your children are doing!