30 little things with BIG love

well, today was a big day at our house.

J turned 30 years old.

in case you hadn't noticed, he means a lot to me, so

i wanted to do something totally different and unique for him on this most special of days.

here is the letter that J read while eating a special birthday breakfast this morning:

Daddy, we know you love the quote: “Today, little things with great love.”

We are so lucky to have you in our lives to teach us what this means.

And today we want to honor you and the 30 years of life that you’ve been blessed with by doing 30 little things with great love.

We’ll start close to home and get further and further away….ending with lunch at one of your favorite places!

• Mail a letter to a soldier
• Send a card to Great Grandma Avis telling her we love her
• Call Grandma Zachow just to say ‘hi’
• Leave a treat for our mail carrier
• Take a treat to Gene and Mary
• Bring homemade goodies to Angie, Richard, Nicholas and Sophia
• Bring a meal to Tony and Bonnie
• Leave quarters at the laundromat
• Bring snacks to the librarians
• Chalk up something encouraging on a public sidewalk
• Take some of our garden veggies to next door neighbors
• Bring treasure hunt to the park (basket, items to hide and sign – have fun finding these items!)
• Bring a story to Mala Strana and read it to someone there
• Leave a joke on the Red Box screen
• Push the carts in from the parking lot at Alco
• Go through the drive-through at McDonalds and pay for the person behind us
• Leave $5 at a gas pump
• Leave free carwash at Holiday drive through
• Walk around church and clean up any trash outside
• Find a vending machine and leave enough change for someone to pay for a soda/snack
• Leave a diaper and wipes on a public baby changing station
• Leave scripture in a public bathroom
• Recycle our plastic grocery bags
• Hide dollar bills at the Burnsville Dollar Tree…so some lucky person can get what they need/want for free!
• Bring treats to the animals at the Burnsville Humane society
• Park far away from the restaurant…let someone else have a close spot
• Over lunch, make a list of things we are thankful for
• Leave a generous tip for our waitress at BD Mongolians
• Buy dessert for someone else before we leave
• After lunch, go buy a flower…come home and plant it.

Around 9:30 we set off on our birthday adventure. I'll let the pictures do most of the talking.........

we started by taking homemade goodies to our neighbors

then made our way to the laundromat

Peach's favorite part was hiding the toys at the park - I wish we could have stayed around to see the kids that found our little game :)

some lucky guy got 5 bucks towards his gas purchase - hope he passes the blessing along

diaper and wipes for the changing table at the grocery store

me check, check, checkin' off my list!

attempting to clean up the area around church - we couldn't find any trash!

blessing Mother Earth by recycling

when we went to read Green Eggs and Ham at the nursing home, we found this spunky gal, who shares Peach's name!

she is 107 years old!

there were a few things that we wanted to get to on the list, but Miss Tulip started to get a little cranky, signaling that nap time was near.

I thought we could fit it all in, but after 3 and a half years of doing this parenting thing, we've grown wise enough to know when we can push it and when we can't.

luckily, J and I have a little anniversary date planned on Monday and we'll be able to finish up our good deeds then

all in all, we enjoyed the opportunities to bless others and spent the rest of the day wondering who the recipients of our love were and how they reacted to the little day-brighteners we left around town today

as i sit here and write this, i'm reminded once again what a great guy i have

he inspires me to be better

and i know that our kids are learning what generosity and kindness look like by watching him

he truly knows how to take the little things in life and fill them with BIG love

happy birthday, J :)