Spreading Joy

Making a Difference One Person At a Time One Day At a Time

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Spreading Joy Summer Project Family

sj summer project wk 3

 

Spreading Joy Project – Family!

 

Don’t you love Summer and all the *cough* free time it brings? I know, I know – super busy yet still, we love the lazy hazy days of summer don’t we?

Our Summer project has encouraged many to do more for others by celebrating the Little things as well as remembering that simple kindness is more of a “big to do” than many people give it credit for!

This challenge we want to place our focus on our family.

We tend to do “random acts of kindness” for strangers and do so happily.  Never once do we give thought to doing random things for those we love the most.  We expect more from them, we hold them more accountable and often display more anger towards them when we are upset (just being honest here….) so why NOT do more acts of JOY for them?

You know them better than anyone else, so this should be an easy thing for you.

Here are some ideas to get you Spreading JOY to your family:

  1. Favorite meal – take 1 or 2 days each week and have favorites of 1 or 2 of your family members.  Seriously, do this! If you are crafty, print up little menus and title it “XYZ’s Favorites” and enjoy with them.  So what if their favorites are Pizza Rolls and Doritos, it’s not like you’ll be doing this every single night.
  2. Chore free day – In our family the kids always had household chores they were 100% responsible for. Their birthday and a few days in the summer time were the only days they were “off”.
  3. Treat just before bed time – Have you ever stayed at a hotel or been on a cruise where they would leave a chocolate on your pillow? This is what I’m talking about. Leave them their favorite or whatever you have on hand…they will LOVE It.
  4. Sweet notes – Are the kids going to grandma’s house? Camp? Write a note for them to find each day they are there.  Label it “Monday”, “Tuesday” etc. Are they going on a Missions Trip? Do the same but tuck $20 inside the Last day’s note so they can have a little spending money on the way home. AND – as far as sweet notes go, don’t forget your spouse. This is a very nice thing to find from your sweetie.
  5. Plan a special afternoon at the park or scavenger hunt – This is so much fun! Have fun creating a special sheet with things to find.  Keep it natural if you are going to a park!
  6. Take some photos together and Get THEM Printed – Let the kids take some photos of you and your spouse and then you take some of them and then get some selfies with all of you together. PRINT them out and frame them, putting one in everyone’s room. Printing those memories keeps them fresh.
  7. Game night – One of our favorite nights. Have finger foods and play several games. Our kids are grown and sadly – gone…but we still do this when we all get together.
  8. Flowers for the Girls – if you have girls get them some flowers for their dresser. Pick out one of the cute cards and “deliver” it to their door. Have it waiting on her when she wakes. *ahem* Husbands, we gals like this too. Aldi and Walmart have great flowers.
  9. Special Delivery for the guys – so, guys don’t like flowers. Maybe you could deliver pizza to the Mr. at work or put together something your young man likes and leave it by his door for him to wake too.  Pizza hut will deliver a pizza for you. You can pay for it, tip and everything. I usually have them write something sweet or different for the Mr. on the box top.
  10. Volunteer Together – Help the elderly in your neighborhood, deliver meals on wheels together.  Doing things for others like this will bring your family closer.
  11. Start a “I like you because” Jar – Take a jar or container and put names on it. Cut strips of paper and each day write down 1 thing you like about each family member (or something they did to make you smile or happy etc) and place it in the jar. Do this daily and allow the owner to look at it as often as they want or need to. Can you imagine at the end of one year how cool that jar will be?
  12. Have the kids make a card for another family member – it could be for Grandma or Grandpa. It could be for an aunt or uncle.
  13. HUG… hug often. Kiss goodnight and give hugs freely. If you are home with your children, hug them when you pass them. I miss hugging my kids so trust me this is a gift. Hug your spouse, kiss your spouse. Hold hands.

 

family

 

What would you add to this list? How are you Spreading Joy to your family?

Did you miss the first 2 Projects? Here are the links to them:

Kindness Matters

Little Things Matter

Want more ideas? Get our book Spreading Joy Daily – filled with ideas for each day that ANYONE can do to impact the heart and lives of others.

 

 

no joy like spreading joy

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Comments

  1. 1

    I’m going to start the “because I like you” jar idea… I think my kids would love it! They’re going through the squabble about silly things phase, so this sounds like a great way to reinforce that, under the squabbling, there is still love. Thank you for another fabulous idea Marie! – Jerusha, TheDisneyChef.com

    Reply
  3. 3

    I am a new empty nester, but one of the things I learned along the way is that we have to be intentional with our children. Thank you for the reminder and now that they are grown up perhaps I will come up with my own list of being their number one encourager in life.

    Reply
  9. 9

    I love these ideas! I’m always trying to find little ways to change things up and make them fun while making my family feel special in the process. It creates wonderful memories.

    Reply
  10. 10

    This is a great list :)My family does most of these things and it definitely makes all the difference.

    Reply
  12. 12

    Oh these are great reminders. It’s hard with teenagers who are so caught up in their own little worlds. I have vowed to make these last few weeks of summer to make us connect more and I can start it all off by doing more of those things on the list. And of course sharing it with them to try as well.
    Leslie recently posted..Young Modern Vintage Bedroom

    Reply

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