Feeling happy

It's so funny to me, as I walked through this week thinking about kindness, how simple being kind is. Why doesn't it happen more often? How did we become a society that thinks of self first? I'm sure it's a sad story- and one I am not really interested in reading. We can turn this around people.

This week I found myself annoyed at my neighbors. I live in an apartment complex and have been here for a while. I have never seen as much dog waste laying in the grass as I have in the last few months. We even have TWO dog parks and dog waste stations all through the property. I decided, this week, that as I walk my own dog and grab her waste, that I will also grab at least one other pile. Now I know that this probably doesn't effect anyone but me- but it does make me feel better. One less ugly thing in the world.

Also this week I started a kindness program in my classroom. I created a "coupon book" of ideas for kindness. The first week we are focused on being kind to ourselves. Week two is showing kindness to our peers. The third week is kindness to the adults in our lives (this is for 8-9 year olds). The last week shows kindness to our community. Each week the students have 20 activity choices to choose from and they only have to do one, but they can do as many as they would like. I had one student turn in 8 coupons for this week! I can't wait to see how this progresses.

Finally, today is Friday and we are all grateful to see the Fridays of our lives. I made sure my partner teacher and TA knew that I appreciated them this morning. I regularly stop at Sonic in the morning- but today- I stopped at Starbucks and picked up their favorites. Then later on at lunch, I invited another partner teacher to lunch with me and we picked up a Starbucks order for another co-worker and a large lemonade for yet another. In total, I touched at least 5 other teachers/staff at work today. These small things DO add up for others. All it takes is a moment.