The Little Things

So last night, as you know, was our 8th annual blanket event. It was as wonderful as ever and I will share pics and tell you all about the night in another post.

But, first I wanted to tell you about the little things. The whole theme of our event was about kindness. We were making blankets for sick children at Children's Mercy and Ronald McDonal Charity House; blankets for foster teens at KVC, blankets for several Christmas "stores" for those in need at Community Services League, Mission Southside, and Sunflower House; blankets for seniors served through Shadow Buddies. So the BIG kindness project was to make blankets.

I'm always telling my kids, kindness doesn't have to be these big projects every month. Kindness can be found in the littlest of things.

As our evening wrapped up, there were 6 leaders who drove over to the Community Center to take all of the bagged blankets to the organizations. We loaded them up with all the bags and off they went.

Well, I was responsible for delivering to Children's Mercy, so all of those bags were pulled in a cart out to my car. I popped the trunk to put them in and quickly realized the HUGE mistake I had made. You see, ya'll have been dropping off hundreds of blankets to my house since December 1. I am pretty sure there were well over 400 blankets in my car. This is a "few" I drove around with yesterday before the event.

I was so diligent about who dropped what off and where they wanted their blankets to go. All the blankets were folded nicely and placed into GIANT clear trash bags and labeled with the organizations name.

My original intent was to bring all of these bags inside the OCC so that they would all be together AND so that everyone could see just how many blankets we really had. But after realizing how heavy they were I had decided to just leave them in my car until the end of the event. I was going to head out at 7pm to trade them off from my car to the 6 volunteers who showed up with their cars.

You know where this story is going. Of course I open my trunk and there are all the blankets, stuffed in from floor to ceiling of both my trunk AND the backseat. But all the leaders had already driven away...

I was so mad at myself because I had been SO organized and prepared and then I messed up my own plan. It wasn't a huge deal but I was more frustrated with myself than anything. It meant a few extra trips and some creative problem solving were in order.

Long story but it leads me into what is impportant about this post. The little things! So here we go:

Little thing #1: The kind lady who helped me problem solve at my car. She had already been so kind as to offer to pull the wagon full of several huge bags to my car and was with me when I realized my tragic mistake. She stood with me and offered numerous suggestions and was such a huge help.

Little thing #2: One of the 6 leaders had stayed around to help us at the end of the event. She helped me make light of the situation and even took my picture to capture the moment.

This is a picture of her prior to the event. Thank you Kristy!

Little thing #3: I was able to catch one of the leaders who turned her car around to come back AGAIN, and she was so patient and kind about my mistake. Pictured below is her daughter buried under the bags.

Little thing #4: Volunteers who stepped up at the last minute to help. There were many but I happen to have a picture of Holly who greeted everyone and kept things organized all night!

Little thing #5: The family who had more fleece than they were able to make so they offered it up to anyone who didn't have enough.

Little thing #6: The patrons of the OCC who held the door for us as we went in and out of the doors with our hands full.

Do you see what's happening here? As I focus on the little things, they start coming to mind easier and easier and I realize how all of these "little things" made such a difference. So for today, focus on the little moments of kindness and maybe even talk to your kids about how important those little moments truly are.