Send Care Package to a Grieving Family

This week's act of kindness centered around sending comfort to a grieving family. I have been following a Facebook page for about 8 months now, which was created in memory of a beautiful little boy who passed away early in 2013. I happened upon this page after my Facebook Wall showed a comment made by one of my friends from high school on this memorial site. I was instantly captured by the beautiful smile of this little boy; and then completely drawn in by the raw and powerful words of his mother who bears her heart in every thing she posts. You can't help but grieve with her; and as much as I know she didn't want this "impact" on people's lives, she has brought so many people together through her words. Not just the people who share or follow her messages, but indirectly by reminding people to cherish the loved ones they share their lives with. I never get through one of her posts without tears in my eyes, and numerous times Bug has walked in on me openly crying. Bug talks about their "shooting star" numerously and always asks to look at his pictures. I have such an incredible admiration for the strength this woman has for sharing her pain so publicly and beautifully. So many people hide behind grief, but she is so honest. It has truly opened my eyes on how to be there for someone who is grieving, especially given my line of work.

Recently, one of her posts spoke about how even after 15 months, she is in the same, if not more pain when dealing with her son's death. She simply stated she still needs hugs. I have always wanted to send something to her and her family, and her need helped make me come up with an idea. We put a load of Hershey hugs in a jar, and Bug wrote a little message for the top of it, saying "When you need a hug". I wrote her a letter for her care package, explaining that since I can't give her a real hug, I figured a chocolate hug might be just as sweet...especially since it comes with an extension of a hug from Calgary. 

We also made a sun catcher for her out of melted pony beads with star cut outs. Her son was a star and they refer to him as their shooting star. I explained in the note that we have made one for us last summer, in memory of a dear friend of mine. Once we came up with the jar of hugs, this craft popped back into my head. It just seemed right to make it for them, so that even in the sunlight, their shooting star is shining.

Our List of our Random Acts of Kindness

Remember to check out our Website: Plant a Kiss Project

Or our Instagram: @plantakissproject

Or our Facebook Page: Plant a Kiss Project

And any random acts of kindness that is inspired by our project or your experience with ours that you'd like to share, type #plantakiss with your social media picture.

List of Our Random Acts of Kindness

Seeing as how blog posts are really difficult and time consuming to go through when looking for a previous date, I decided to compile a list of all our completed Random Acts of Kindness. Each post will now have a link to this list (where the items in our list will actually be linked to the actual post). I know how frustrating it is when you are trying to navigate through a blog; so hopefully this helps.

1. How our Plant a Kiss Project came about.
2. You Are Beautiful
3. Love Thy Neighbour
4. Random Act of Giggles
5. We Love Our Nurses
6. Send a Care Package to a Grieving Family
7. Give Library Patrons a Bag of Bookworms
8. Make Birthday Cards for Isolated Seniors
9. Snail Mail

Remember to check out our Website: Plant a Kiss Project
Or our Instagram: @plantakissproject
Or our Facebook Page: Plant a Kiss Project
And any random acts of kindness that is inspired by our project or your experience with ours that you'd like to share, type #plantakiss with your social media picture.

We Love Our Nurses

Some of you who are following me, know this about my career. But for those of you who don't personally know me, I'm a Respiratory Therapist. Every day at work, I work along side many fabulous individuals who have the heart, compassion, and amazing personality it takes to work with the sick. Many of these co-workers of mine are the kindhearted and loving nurses that many people come in contact with in a health care setting...whether you are the patient or the support system for family or friends. I have an insane amount of respect for the nurses I get to work with, and I look forward to the work days I get to share with these incredible women and men. They make what we do on a day to day basis manageable; anything from a shoulder to share our grief with to the laughter we share to bring joy to what is a stressful and at times, incredibly sad job.

This past week's Random Act of Kindness fell on our National Nurse's Week. And what better way to show our love then to include these amazing friends of mine in our project. It wasn't much, but we bought some individual hand sanitizer and peeled off the label to affix it with our own handmade one that said "We love our nurses"! We then attached a little tag that said "Happy Nurses Week". I packed them in Bug's back pack and we went on a little biking excursion to "visit my working friends" (that's what Bug says when he knows I'm on my way to work). We went into our ICU and proceeded to hand out our little gifts to the nurses working that day. Sorry to the nurses we never gave any to. Bug is a very inquisitive almost 5 year old, so I didn't want to spend too much time around the patients as he kept asking why they were sick. So to those who never got our little gift, and to the ones who did: thank you from the bottom of our hearts for doing a job I couldn't do.

On our outing today, we also brought back our Random Act of Giggles and You Are Beautiful projects. We left jokes on six random cars, and then when we went to pick up some groceries after our nurses delivery, Bug picked out another special lady. He really does enjoy being "the delivery man", and thank you to the wonderful lady he chose today who engaged my child in a 10 minute conversation. You have no idea how much enjoyment he gets out of socializing!

Check out our list of completed Random Acts of Kindness

Remember to check out our Website: Plant a Kiss Project
Or our Instagram: @plantakissproject
Or our Facebook Page: Plant a Kiss Project
And any random acts of kindness that is inspired by our project or your experience with ours that you'd like to share, type #plantakiss with your social media picture.

To read about how this all came about, check out our Plant a Kiss Project Outline

Random Act of Giggles

This week's random act of kindness was geared around laughing. Our family is a bunch of goofs, and the sound of laughter is constantly heard among us throughout the day. Nothing can uplift your spirit more than a bout of giggles. So, I scoured the internet looking for silly jokes that gave me a chuckle. I then got Bug to practice his writing and we made little cards (double the size of a business card) with our jokes. I laminated them in hopes that these cards would be passed around to bring cheer to another person's day. We called them "Random Act of Giggles".

Our Jokes
1. What do you call a fake noodle? An impasta

2. Why did Dracula go see the doctor? Because of his coffin

3. What do you call a nun who sleep walks? A roaming catholic
4. How does NASA plan a party? They planet
5. What did the buffalo say to his son leaving for college? Bison
6. Why don't cats play poker in the jungle? Too many cheetahs

After our jokes were all made, we went to run errands, carrying our stash. Bug once again dived into the delivery man role and was really excited to be picking vehicles to leave our giggles with. He was pretty selective in the cars he chose, so hopefully the individuals who received our silly cards got a good chuckle and their day was brightened.

Check out our list of completed Random Acts of Kindness

Remember to check out our Website: Plant a Kiss Project
Or our Instagram: @plantakissproject
Or our Facebook Page: Plant a Kiss Project
And any random acts of kindness that is inspired by our project or your experience with ours that you'd like to share, type #plantakiss with your social media picture.

And to read about how this all came about, check out our Plant a Kiss Project Outline

Love Thy Neighbour

This week's random act of kindness was geared around loving our neighbours. What better way to show our love than to give them a little sunshine. I'm getting really excited that I can now include my almost 2 year old in our activities. Bear shows just as much interest in painting as Bug (my almost 5 year old) does. We painted some small terra cotta pots with yellow and orange by stamping with a bunched up face cloth. 

Bug then meticiously filled them with soil and we planted a sunflower seed in each one (my favourite flower). With all of our activities, I try to incorporate some learning (especially for Bug). I got Bug to draw a picture of a sun and write out our little note for the bag our planted sunshine will be given in. Once again, our package also had a little note explaining our Plant a Kiss Project.

After our packages were complete, the following day we went on a little walk and Bug chose the neighbours he wanted to give the sunshine to. He was so cute as he was riding his bike and each time he stopped at the house, he called himself the delivery man. We just left it at the doorstep for a nice little surprise our neighbours could find. Hopefully with a little TLC from the recipients, our little gift will bloom.

We also brought back the "You Are Beautiful" random act of kindness for one lucky lady when we went grocery shopping this week. Bug very thoughtfully chose a woman pushing a child in a cart...he held onto the envelope for about 10 minutes before he found the right person. And how could you not feel blessed when my adorable big boy gives you a note that tells you he thinks you are beautiful! Check out the post for this random act of kindness: You Are Beautiful!

Check out our list of completed Random Acts of Kindness

Remember to check out our Website: Plant a Kiss Project

Or our Instagram: @plantakissproject

Or our Facebook Page: Plant a Kiss Project

And any random acts of kindness that is inspired by our project or your experience with ours that you'd like to share, type #plantakiss with your social media picture.

And to read about how this all came about, check out our Plant a Kiss Project Outline