52 Acts of Random Kindness, Week 8

An idea of the sectional I'm about to reference!

As this past week whizzed by, I was feeling a bit anxious by mid-week because I had yet to come up with a plan for the week's random act of kindness.  I think I have mentioned before that I do these acts on a whim, letting the universe present something to me rather than me intentionally seeking out something to do, at least that is how I usually let things move along.  So by Wednesday, I was beginning to wonder why nothing had yet presented itself.  By early Thursday morning, I was really beginning to fret that my week would end up involving so much time at the office that my act of kindness would fall short for the first time.  Well, ask the universe and you shall receive, right?

Early Thursday afternoon, a woman came into my family's business looking at some of our cash and carry/scratch and dent furniture items (by the way, the family business involves furniture, electronics, and appliances, just an FYI).  She worked at a local elementary school, and was trying to find some items to help out a Hispanic family that just moved into the district.  This poor family, which consisted of a mother, father, and several children, had nothing but a dining room table and some blow-up mattresses in their newly moved into apartment.  They did not speak any English, and while the father was going off to work everyday, the mother was trying to navigate getting their kids into school.  All of the children were going through testing to see where they stood academically in order to get them enrolled into the correct grade levels.  This family had no other relatives in the area, so basically they were going through all of this alone, with no support network but each other, and the kindness of the woman at the school who offered to help them in any way she could...hence why she was visiting our store.

While the woman from the school was checking out the items we had to offer, she told me the Hispanic family's story.  I instantly knew that I had to help.  Luckily, I had been storing a few of my old furniture items in our warehouse, the items I could not fit into my storage building, and was contemplating what to do with them as I am in longer need of them and they are basically just taking up space.  I had already sold a couple of items, such as my bar set and ottoman, but the other items I've been toying with also selling or donating.  I decided that this family could really use a kindness, so I offered to give them what items I had left which included my sectional, a coffee table, an end table, and a set of lamps. I didn't have anything else there to give that was my own, but I also managed to come up with a bunk bed and a set of bunkie mattresses that we could no longer sell through the business, so these items we also gave to the family.

The bunk bed we donated.

And two of these to go with the bunk bed!

I should say here that when the woman from the school came to our business looking for furniture items, she was not coming in looking for a donation or a handout, she was looking for items to purchase.  I very well could have sold her some furniture, but the story she told moved me.  Since I had already been contemplating donating my sectional and other furniture items, I was happy to give them to the family as my act of kindness for the week.

We delivered the items to the family late Thursday afternoon, and our delivery guys said the family was very thankful for the donations.  It felt really good to help them out, as I have everything I could ever need and want right now, and they were just barely getting by.  Sure I could have made several hundred dollars selling the stuff, but I am not hurting for money right now either.  I am no where near wealthy nor do I have money to just toss around, but I do have what I need with a little left over from time to time for the first time in my life.  Combine that with my pretty much perfect home life, family, and such, at least it feels perfect right now, than I am definitely in a place where giving to others is within my means, both financially and mentally...if that makes sense.

I still have a storage room full of goods, which someday I will get to cleaning out.  At that point be on the lookout for more donations!  I will probably end up selling my bedroom suite, but that's because my niece is looking to purchase her first car and the money could help her out, so that's sort of like a donation, right?

Well then, that about wraps up week 8's random act of kindness.  I was a little slow getting everything published, but I had a busy week and weekend with very little time left for writing. I cannot wait to see what this week brings, as once again I have no idea what my act of kindness will be at this point.  Stay tuned, as I'm sure it will be pretty awesome!

Piper approves of this act!

As per my usual spiel, please take a moment and vote for me over at Top Baby Blogs and Top Mommy Blogs by following the links below.  Then come visit me on my other social sites by following the links below those links.  And as always, have a great week everyone!


  

• 
  
• 
  
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

52 Acts of Random Kindness, Week 5

My random act of kindness for this week was premeditated way before it was implemented.  Last week I received a $10 birthday gift card in the mail from Kohl's.  It had to be used by August 31st, and I knew that since I was going to be heading to Kohl's to use my birthday card, that my random act would be performed there.

It's an awesome campaign!

I'm not sure how many of you have a Kohl's where you live, but in the front of every store I have been in they have shelving that holds books with corresponding stuffed animals.  These books and animals are part of Kohl's Cares, a charity campaign where 100% of the proceeds goes to education and  health initiatives for kids nationwide.  These goodies are always the same price, $5 each, and they change up quite often.  I have a few of the animal and book collections already.  I bought Piper an Aesop's Fables book with a stuffed owl while I was still pregnant, which was my last purchased one before this week.  I'm not sure if those two were supposed to go together, but the great thing about the campaigns is that you don't have to pair an animal with a corresponding book.  You can get just books, just animals, combos of both that go together, or mix it up a bit like I sometimes do depending on which items meet my fancy.

Piper and her new kangaroo!

Right now the Kohl's Cares campaign is running a Curious George special.  From looking online, it looks like there are five stuffed animals to choose from right now which include a monkey, kangaroo, dinosaur, puppy, and a moose.  There are also five book, Curious George's First Day of School, Curious George's Dinosaur Discovery, Curious George and the Puppies, Curious George Visits the Zoo, and Curious George Goes Camping.  You can probably figure out which stuffed animals goes with each book, but at my Kohl's only the monkey and kangaroo were left, along with the dinosaur and zoo books.

The whole collection of goodies available right now.

After picking up Piper some new 6-month clothes, I went to go checkout.  I knew going in that whatever Kohl's Cares campaign was going on, I was going to purchase a book and animal combo for whichever lucky child happened to be near the checkout lines.  Seeing that there were two books and two animals being sold, I got one of each and headed to the checkout line.  (I did get an extra kangaroo and zoo book for Piper, too, as you could probably tell by the earlier picture).  As my purchases were being rung up, I noticed two little girls about 7 or 8 years old checking out the Curious George display.  I knew instantly that those two darlings were going to be this week's random kindness recipients.  And wouldn't you know it, right as the lady checking me out was finishing up putting the stuffed animals and books in separate bags for me to give away, as we had discussed my plan while chit-chatting during the checkout process, the two little girls and their parents got in line right behind me.  Once again, the universe speaks!

Close-up of the monkey, obviously Curious George.

As soon as I had all my bags of goodies in order, I turned to the family behind me, explained briefly about my paying forward a random act of kindness that was done for me, and handed each little girl a bag with a book and a stuffed animal inside.  I have never seen two little faces light up with such joy!  And the parents, they really made this weeks act feel special.  They were so surprised, amazed, and grateful of such an unexpected nicety, the mom teared up and almost cried.  Let me not lie, the dad did too!  It was so touching seeing their reaction.  They were in total disbelief and shock that this total stranger was doing something so kind and generous for their little girls.  The moment was so overwhelmingly emotional that I totally forgot to even mention my name or the blog, not that I do any of this for recognition.  But it would be nice to be able to share the write-up about my experience with them.  I'm thinking I should design little blog business cards I can hand or send out.  That way I wouldn't have to say anything much, just have the card ready, especially since I tend to get a bit tongue-tied when the reaction of others is so strong.  It's unexpected and totally awesome!

Close-up of the kangaroo.

It's kind of sad, but I think the reactions of people to these acts are so strong because there are just not a whole lot of random kindnesses in the world anymore.  At least that is the feeling I get from people.  I'm sure there are many people out there being nice without cause, but you just don't hear about it like you should. Our media is focused so much on the negative, and if you ever look at social media sites you will see a pile of negativity on those, too.  So it's not like people aren't being kind, it's that the majority of what you see and read is just the opposite.  I've always wanted my blog, my little corner of the internet, to be a happy place. There is too much negativity in the world, and I don't want to be a party to all of that.  I want people who visit here to leave with smiles on their faces.  That doesn't mean I'm going to try and be humourous all of the time, my humor comes when it does and I don't force it.  But one does not have to be doubled over laughing to be joyous and happy.

Too bad the corresponding dinosaur was sold out.

This week's random act was such a moving experience, yet such a simple concept.  I don't know if I can ever top it.  Then again, I'm not trying to top myself every week, if so I'd be in real trouble!  This was the first kindness I had performed where I was directly interacting with the recipients, so that may have had something to do with my feelings towards it.  Hopefully I will have the opportunity to be directly involved again soon, even though this was never a requirement of performing these acts.  Then again, anonymity was never a requirement either.  On a side note, this week was also really cool in that not only did I put joy on those little girl's faces, along with their parents, the proceeds also went to charity, which made it double the good deed!

Also got Piper her own copy of this one to go with her kangaroo.

I hope everyone has enjoyed the story of this week's act of kindness.  If you feel the inkling, go out and be kind to a stranger the next chance you get, it feels really good!  And if you want to be really kind right this second, then drop me a vote over at Top Baby Blogs by clicking on the button below.  I've made it to #28 thanks to all you folks, and my next goal is to break into the top 25!  Also, come visit me over at my other social sites by following the additional links.  I especially recommend Facebook as Piper and I are on there daily.  If nothing else, have an awesome holiday weekend!

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

52 Acts of Random Kindness, Week 4

What he said!

For this weeks random act of kindness, I chose to send a gift to a stranger from their baby registry at Babies R' Us.  Luckily you can search registries at their site by last name, for that is how I picked the recipient.  But how did I ultimately choose who to send the gift to?  Well that is the fun part.

For any of you that follow me on Facebook, you are probably aware that last night I asked for you to throw out a random last name via a comment.  I had earlier in the week tried picking one myself, but I felt that wasn't random enough for some reason.  I went with the first last name thrown out there which was Nielsen, which was provided by Kristen Tucker.  Once I had the last name, I went over to the Babies 'R' Us baby registry page and searched using that last name.  Altogether, there were 0 registries with Nielsen, however there were 51 registries with Nielson that popped up.  I always like the universe to play some role in the random acts, so I went with the alternate spelling for I took it as a sign.

My first task was to scroll through the list of names to see who was a good candidate, mind you not all registries are current so it was imperative to find a woman whose baby due date had yet to arrive.  Another criteria I was looking to cover was that the recipient be another single mom, or at least had no spouse listed as a co-registrant.  I know not having a spouse listed doesn't necessarily mean the future mom from the registry would be single like me, but it was the best indicator I could use.  Well low and behold, I found not only a soon-to-be mom that seemed to be single, but also had her own name listed as the co-registrant, which I considered even more of a sign of possible singlehood.  Now don't get me wrong here, I don't want anyone to think I was discriminating against couples, lol.  I chose to go the single mom route solely on the fact that I was also a single mom, and single moms often have less of a support network than having someone there who is your partner in crime.  Anyway, I'm sure you all get what I'm trying to say, so I won't try to hash out all my reasonings.

Once I had the possibly single mom whose due date had not yet arrived picked out, another sign flew at me fromt the universe...this mom was having a little boy whose due date was on my birthday, which is this coming Tuesday on the 27th of August!  How coincidental is that?  And I love the idea that my gift would possibly arrive around the same time as her little boy, how cool!

The next part in my little fun adventure was picking out the gift.  The woman I chose didn't have a ton of items on her registry, but my goal was to not go overboard, just a simple gift, and one that I could purchase using the gift card I received from buying diapers at Babies 'R' Us this past week.  That narrowed my max spending limit to $10 before shipping and tax.  I know there's not a whole lot of baby things one can get for $10, but she had registered for a boys cap and sock set which was $9.99. Since none had been purchased yet, the item was the perfect pick!

I thought these were too cute!

As you can see, the items is adorable and a simple little gift that fit my budgetary needs.  Yes, I'm trying to keep my acts of kindness on a reasonable budget.  Last week was a bit on the pricier side, but I knew it would be.  However, once my wheels were spinning, I couldn't make them stop!  So this week I knew I had to stick to my guns, for kindness shouldn't cost a fortune, if anything at all.  So far all my acts have contained a slight monetary side, but that's not the intention.  I just have yet to come up with creative free ways of performing these acts.  I thought about baking cookies for people, but we're no longer in the 1950s and unfortunately people get suspicious of homemade edible goods.  I'm working on coming up with freebies-to-me ideas, I have 48 weeks left to do so, so surely my brain will come up with something in that time.  I do have some ideas along those lines, but with balancing work and a new baby, time constraints also come into play.  Right now I've been taking the easy route, but I'll make myself step up my game before it's all said and done.  Man, I'm getting off track, lol, back to the point!

With my gift I also added the free gift note.  I was limited to a small number of characters, so I simply let A. Nielson know that I was doing these random acts, that she had been chosen this week, and gave her my blog address in case she wanted to know more about how and why she was chosen.  I hope she doesn't think it is all creepy and freak out.  I really would hate anyone taking such a nice thing and being wary about it.  The fact I worry about this is pretty sad.  People don't trust people the way they used to, and it's a shame.  If she does jump on here and read this, I'd like to say the following to her:

Although I cannot use your first name because I respect your privacy, congratulations A. Nielson on your new little boy!  I'm not a creepy baby registry stalker, just a woman who is trying to pay forward a random kindness that was done for me.  I also hope my new daughter, when she is old enough to read her life story through this blog mostly dedicated to her, will see these posts and it will somehow encourage her to be a better person, to decide to always be nice to people (even strangers), and to do her part to make the world a better place, even if it is something small that is on the individual level rather than on a global scale.  If everyone would work on making the world a better place on the individual level, then the world would be a better place.  Yes, a Utopian idea but still a nice thought that doesn't hurt to be thunk (I just love that wrong word so much!).  And Ms. Nielson, I do not expect you or anyone else to turn around and pay this act forward.  I'm not expecting a thanks, a mention, praise, recognition, or anything of that nature.  What I hope is that it made your day a little brighter and put a smile on your face.  Smiles are contagious, so if anything pass that along.  I hope your little boy is the light of your life as my little girl is the light of mine.  Enjoy him and your time together, and tell him you love him every day.  Sincerely, Ashley.

Yes, I'm the sappy kind!

So there you all have it, random act week 4 accomplished!  Now on to contemplate what I'm going to do next.  It really does come as a surprise to me every week, too.  By the way, if anyone has any suggestions for ideas, or has performed acts of kindness of their own, I would love to hear about them.  Feel free to leave them in a comment or come visit my Facebook page and tell me all about them there.  Or drop me an email at ashley@singlemodernmom.com.  It really has been an enjoyable process so far. Although I will admit I go through a bit of a panic stage every week thinking I won't come up with anything new to do.  I know, only week 4 and I'm already overthinking it!  Got to love that personality trait of mine!  On that note, I'm going to quit over thinking how to wrap this entry up and just move ahead with my usual ending about Top Baby Blogs and my social sites info.  I'm holding steady at #29 on Top Baby Blogs thanks to all your votes!  Don't forget you can vote every 24 hours, so if you have voted before, go vote again!  I'm so excited for the day when I will break into the top 25.  I know it will happen, and I'm proud that I've made it as far up as I have on the list.  Help me to continue to move up by clicking the button below!  Then come join me on my other sites, especially my Facebook where all the daily action occurs!

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Here is a random picture of Piper, because she is my inspiration!

52 Acts of Random Kindness, Week 1

And make it a habit!

Several months back I was swinging into the Wendy's drive-thru to pick up some lunch, (yes I ate some fast food while pregnant), and when I got to the window to pay, the Wendy's employee told me the vehicle in front of my paid for my meal.  No, I did not know these people, and no they didn't wait around for me to say thanks.  It was a random act of kindness that was completely altruistic.  That day I decided I would pay that act of kindness forward.  Time went on, and although I am always nice to strangers, I admittedly forgot to keep my promise to pay it forward.

Today I decided to change that.  I started where it all began, at the drive-thru at the same Wendy's.  As I sat waiting on my order, I remembered that stranger many months ago who had bought me lunch.  When I approached the pay window, I decided it was time to make good on my promise.  I informed the window girl that I wanted to pay for the vehicle behind me, she said okay, and off I drove with a warm, fuzzy feeling in my heart.

It felt really good to do something nice for a stranger, something that hopefully brought a little extra happiness into their Monday.  It felt so good that I have decided to make it a weekly event.  Now I'm not going to specifically target random strangers at Wendy's, so don't go hanging around there during lunch watching for my vehicle to pull in.  I am, however, going to make an conscious effort to throw a bit of kindness to one random stranger per week for the next 52 weeks.

I need to interject here to let you all know that perform random acts of kindness all the time.  I enjoy making people smile, so this plan of mine is not to make up for a lack of kindness on my part.  However, my acts of kindness are usually directed at family and friends because I am around them more often.  My new assigned task is specifically aimed at complete strangers.  Why strangers, you ask?  It seems to me, that this world could use a little more love and happiness and a lot less anger and hate.  What better way to promote happiness than to intentionally put a smile on person's face?  Maybe by making that person smile, they will also be compelled to do the same for someone else.  That's what happened in my case, so who is to say it cannot be continued from person to person, stranger to stranger?

Here is how I hope my little happiness creating spree to go:

Once a week I do something nice for a total stranger.  These events will not be pre-planned, just spur of the moment events.  The stranger will be random, as well as the act itself.  These acts must be of greater significance than just opening a door for someone or letting someone cut in in traffic.  These types of acts are part of my everyday existence, so they do not count towards the act of the week.  I can, if I so choose, do more than one act a week.  However if I do, the extra act does not count towards any future acts.  There must be one done a week, no exceptions.  Upon completing the act, I must write a new bog post explaining the act of choice, and recording my feelings about what I have done.  In the case that the stranger is aware of the act, unlike the person today who never saw it coming nor saw anything more than the tail end of my vehicle, I will also record their reaction to the act.  Hopefully all acts will have favorable reactions, although I am aware that sometimes people are suspicious of random kindness especially from strangers, which is really quite sad and disturbing. After 52 weeks of performing kindnesses, I will write a final blog entry reflecting on my year's worth of good vibe making.  Hopefully I will learn something about myself and others during this process.  Hopefully I will decide to continue on after my year is complete.

Just to wrap up and reiterate this weeks random act...

I paid the lunch tab of the vehicle behind mine at Wendy's drive-thru over off of Baseline Rd. next to the Southwest Little Rock Walmart.  I decided to start there because that is where months ago a stranger did the same for me.  I did not know ahead of time what they had ordered, nor did I ask before paying.  However, the window girl did give me their receipt.  So to prove I am doing what I am doing, here is the receipt for your viewing enjoyment!

Act 1, paid for a strangers lunch!

One last thing, I have added a link at the top of the homepage titled 52 Random Acts.  All of my posts regarding this weekly adventure can be found here after their initial post on the main page.  And if any of you feel like participating in my little project, feel free to post a comment about your own act of random kindness!

Here's an act of kindness you can perform right now...

Please drop me a vote at Top Baby Blogs by clicking the button below. Also, feel free to join me on my other Social Media sites by clicking on the additional buttons below that!

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
•