Today, I came across an organization that I think is doing a wonderful job of loving anonymously. I can't count the number of times I've been caught in the rain without an umbrella. Unpredictable rainstorms are pretty common where I'm from, and it's never fun walking to class or sprinting to my car while trying to avoid getting drenched! That's why I love Here You Go.

Here You Go is a community project that originated in Pittsburgh. During rainstorms, they hand out yellow umbrellas to anyone who needs one. In return, all they ask is that the person who receives the umbrella does something nice for someone else. What's really cool is that they attach a postcard to each umbrella, and the people that receive the umbrellas can mail back the postcard saying what good deed they paid forward! If you check out the website for Here You Go, you can read some of the postcards that have been mailed back.  Doing kindness to spread kindness; such a sweet idea! You can even become a partner if you'd like!

If you know any people, blogs, websites, or organizations doing good, please contact me!

DIFFICULTY: Medium

This year, for Lent, I wanted to do something different. I thought about what I should give up. My favorite TV show? Soda? I finally settled on giving up dessert. Going from a cookie a day to no cookies, brownies, ice cream, or any chocolate at all has been pretty difficult, but in a couple of weeks I will be able to have all of the dessert that I want. Giving it up for 40 days will not have changed me. I knew I would feel the same at the end as I did at the beginning.

That's why, this year, I decided to write "Lent Letters". Love letters to 40 different family members, friends, and classmates. It's giving rather than giving up, and I think this is the true spirit of Lent (and Christianity in general)! I can already feel the difference it's making (in me, more than anyone else). I never fully understood the power of a letter.

When my friend told me about The World Needs More Love Letters, I was so excited! What a wonderful way to spread the love. These letters can be to friends, family, acquaintances, or even to total strangers. Some write thank yous to waiters and waitresses, some leave encouraging notes for others, but whatever the letter they all end up in someone's hands with the purpose of brightening their day!

Before letter writing, I recommend checking out the website. They have a Starterkit with some great information for new letter writers, a Letter Vault filled with letters that have been sent or found, and a map showing how the letters have traveled around the world! You can even subscribe to their email list, which lets you know when a specific person is in need of a letter!

Is there a better way to Love, Anonymously?

DIFFICULTY: Easy

It's the last day of January! The month has really gone by fast. The last Random Act of Kindness challenge of the month is to make breakfast for someone you love! It can be as pancakes or as complicated as french toast sausage and eggs! Breakfast is definitely my favorite meal of the day, and who doesn't love a big breakfast every once and while?

On another note, the end of the month means the end of the monthly project. This month's project was to Be a Secret Agent! The great thing about this project, is it can last all year! I still have a few more items to drop and many pictures to put up relating to this project as well as many of the daily challenges. I'll put them up as soon as possible! Tomorrow I'll be announcing next month's theme as well as February's monthly project!

Also, thanks to my sister and her friends, I have 36 more soda tabs to add to the count! :)

DIFFICULTY: Medium

Today's challenge is to anonymously send someone flowers! This could be someone you know, or even a stranger! You could have them delivered to the person, or just leave them on their doorstep (maybe not such a good idea during winter!). This is a really nice thing to do, especially with Valentine's day coming up in a few weeks! (I can't believe it's the end of January already!) Who wouldn't love to receive flowers for no reason one day? What a great way to put a smile on someone's face! :)

I was hoping to get the pictures up from yesterday's post, but I had a really busy day today! I'll definitely have them up in the next few days though!

DIFFICULTY: Medium


Today's challenge is to reward someone else for a good deed they did! It can be a favor they did for you, or even you just noticing them doing something really nice for someone else! You don't have to be really obvious and actually say that you are rewarding them. Instead, you can reward them by doing them a favor or treating them to something special. What better way to encourage good deeds than to reward someone for one? The only reason this is rated as medium is because it may take awhile to find someone to reward!


On a side note, I have many updates! My mom found five dollars on the ground today, which is going to be added to the changepot! There are also three more soda tabs to be added. We finally got the chance to go complete some of the other deeds today including Notes!, Be a Genie, Toys!, Operation Beautiful, and even the monthly challenge, to Be a Secret Agent! It would have been kind of hard to take pictures without anybody noticing us performing these deeds, but we did manage to get a few snapshots with a cellphone! Hopefully we'll get those pictures up tomorrow or Sunday :)

DIFFICULTY: Easy

Today's challenge can be as easy or as difficult as you want it to be, but it's always very kind! The challenge is to pick a random name from the phonebook and send them something! This could be a little present, or a card, anything at all! ALL of us get bills and advertisements in the mail everyday, but not always a nice card. It's a great feeling to receive mail when you don't expect it!

DIFFICULTY: Medium


Today's challenge is to be a genie for the day! How do you do that? By granting the wish of a local nonprofit. You could grant the wish of a larger organization by donating, but local nonprofits usually have lists of specific things that they need as soon as possible! It doesn't have to be a large amount of whatever you donate, because every little thing counts! The only really difficult thing about this challenge is picking which organization you want to choose and actually getting the item!


On another note, here is a video from Haiti about a girl they found 15 days after the earthquake hit! What great news!

DIFFICULTY: Easy


This challenge can show your support for others AND be fun at the same time! Today's challenge is to attend an event, sports game, concert, or play that your friends or family members are participating in! Why not bring a friend in a play flowers for their performance? Or try to fill the fan section at a sport event that not a lot of people go to? It's a great way to be kind to others and to yourself!


Also, 20 more cookies and 4 more soda tabs! :)

DIFFICULTY: Easy

Today's challenge is a really easy one, especially if you drive a lot! Ever stop at a Dunkin Donuts or another drive through and order a coffee or something to eat? A lot of people do this every day, on their way to work or school. So today's challenge is to pay for someone else's meal or drink at a drive through! Sometimes, the person behind you will end up paying it forward to the person behind them and so on. If you search for this on youtube, you can find several news reports about long chains of people paying for the person behind them. What a great way to pay it forward!

Here's an example of one of those news videos:

Also, I just wanted to say thank you to my aunt for sending me several box tops to add to the count! I've also added several more soda tabs! :)