Double Digits and 31 Days of Kindness.

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I discovered this in her notebook weeks ago.

Today is a big day in our house.

Double digits.

AlmostTween.

She’s unbelievably excited and I, like all parents, am unbelievably stunned how quickly this is all going.

When I launched my first personal blog we were collecting adoption paperwork (an adoption which took ages to complete).

Ten years later I’m still blogging and she’s heading toward…womanhood.

(or something like that)

I’ve shared before how my favorite thing about her is her nurturing heart (that’s a shoutout to life-changing teachers everywhere).

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I’ve also written about how we don’t really give gifts for birthdays or Hanukkah as we’ve chosen instead to do experiences.

Tickets to musicals. Special one on one time with a parent etc.

We also try to incorporate an element of giving back as she heads toward her birthday celebration each year.

In honor of double digits, however, she & I decided to do something a little different.

Instead of performing mitzvahs correlated to the age she’s turning we decided to mimic the Christian advent calendar except using mitzvahs/kind acts. 

(Sort of mimic, anyway. This Jewish Mama didn’t think about how our calendar could end at Christmas. We kept going.)

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We found a blank calendar online.

We brainstormed 31 acts (some big, some tiny).

We typed and we printed.

It all starts tomorrow.

I could pretend “as her birthday gift she wants all of you to join us!” but that wouldn’t be true.

Today she’s laser focused on rushing to school and being the center of attention with her friends.

It is *I* who love the idea of others joining in our 31 Days of Kindness adventure.

I’ve shared our calendar and it’s deliberately small.

It’s big enough you can probably read our ideas–but not created as clickable to print.

Join us in creating your version of a 31 Days of Kindness adventure.

And that’s my invitation to you today.

No question at the end of this post.

No real call to action.

Just an invitation to print a calendar, fill it out and spread the kindness throughout December.

Oh and one final thing:

I realize kindness is a practice not a project.

Sometimes, however, the project serves to move us back to the practice.

<3

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Comments

  1. LOVE!…and the boys will love coming up with all the ideas to fill up the calendar. This is a perfect week for us to start too. Thanks Carla and HAPPY BIRTHDAY to your daughter!!

  4. I love 10 (as you would say). 10 is the perfect number to demonstrate a full month of kindness at the end of the year. Hopefully, 11, 12, 13… will all be the perfect numbers to demonstrate kindness even further! (I have no doubt)

  7. I love this idea, and that you have thought out concrete things to do. Even a little kindness can go a long way in turning around someone’s day.

  9. I loved it when my daughter was ten! (After that not so much-until her twenties-and I STILL want control-ha!) We did this very same thing. Interestingly enough she is now working in what she calls her “dream job” and is providing mental health services to those in need through art therapy.

  14. Happy Birthday to your daughter! Was her bday November 29? If so, she and Mini Me share the exact same birthday!!! Mini Me turned 10 yesterday too. Can you believe they are 10 years old already?? It doesn’t seem possible! Hope she had an amazing double digits birthday.

  15. First, Happy Birthday to your gorgeous daughter!Double digits is certainly exciting.
    Second, I absolutely love, love, love this!From what my poor menopausal eyes can read, these are creative and warm loving tasks, no surprise. I will try to join you too. It is a great way to get through the Holiday season for those of us not enamored with this time of year.

  17. Oh I love this idea! Super sweet!

    Mr Science and I never give each other gifts on actual gift-giving holidays—if we happen to see something we think the other person will like, we’ll get it and give it as a gift on a regular old day. We celebrate the holidays through sharing experiences together, like you said. I really like that 🙂

  18. Happy Happy Birthday to your grown up girl! I distinctly remember how incredibly excited I was to turn double digits. It’s a special birthday!

    I love your focus on an experience as a gift, rather than stuff. And I love this giving calendar – I think I will print one out and put down some 3-year-old appropriate acts of kindness.

    Hope your little lady has a really special day and feels the love. <3

  20. “Sometimes, however, the project serves to move us back to the practice.” Thank you Carla for this wisdom. I just wrote it in my affirmation journal, it has my brain thinking in good ways. Wishing you and your little one a wonderful month filled with kindness. And a very happy birthday to her!

  21. Happy birthday! My oldest will be 10 in May, and I too, cannot believe how quickly they grow up.

    I love this idea of mitzahs!!

  24. What a nice idea! I like to take someone out for lunch on my birthday but your idea is larger and affects so many people in a lovely, unselfish way.

    Happy Birthday to your big girl! 🙂

  26. What a beautiful idea…it sounds like you are instilling the most wonderful and wholesome values in your daughter as she heads for something like adulthood 🙂 I applaud you for that and I cannot wait to make my own 31 Days of Kindness plan.

  27. Happy Birthday Tornado!!
    What a beautiful way to celebrate a beautiful spirit!
    I will be joining in.
    Today I donated a stuffed teddy to the local women shelter. More kindness to come!

  28. Such a beautiful idea to help spread kindness in your life. I like your idea of focussing on making “experience” the real “gift” especially with all the material things that are available in this day and age. With December coming up and such an important month filled with giving, I am going to use this idea and create a 31 day Kindness Calendar for my family.

  29. Happy birthday to your kind-eyed girl 🙂

    Realizing that your girl and my stepgirl are exactly 20 years apart in age AND I met my stepgirl when she was about a week shy of her 10th birthday.

    When I turned 10, my mother and stepfather took me out to an “adult” restaurant and then to a movie about reincarnation. I think Barbara Streisand was in it.

  31. We give during the month of December, but i hadn’t thought about one kind act of giving a day. Since i think each day of something to be grateful for, i will also work to see if there’s a small blessing of kindness i can do for someone each day.

  34. This is perfection. Things have been flying by so quickly. This is just the kind of thing we could do to slow down just a bit.
    The blessing of a birthday!

  35. Carla, I always enjoy reading your posts…they are always so heartwarming and I feel as if you are talking directly to me. What a great idea…the calendar. I’d like to make one too now. I also love how you choose experiences instead of gifts…what a great idea! Thanks much for sharing this…have a wonderful December…from the looks of it…it’s blessed for sure!

  36. She is definitely a fun kid, I love seeing and hearing about your adventures together. Saw how you surprised her at school today too. What a cool mom thing to do!

    I’m also doing a random acts of kindness deal in December. Excited to do something for others more often.

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