Happy Friday!

Hi Friends!

Here are the links I promised on Wednesday. Both of these organizations help needy children to have a happier night sleep. Click on the name to go directly to the website.

Project Night Night - packs little tote bags for homeless children with a security blanket, book, and stuffed animal.

Pajama Program - buys warm pajamas for children in need, who may be homeless or whose parents simply can't afford pajamas.

I love to hold my children at night when they have (finally) been wrangled into the bathtub and are all clean and dressed in their pajamas. But I also want to remember that not all children end their day like this. So the next time I am at Target picking up some pjs for my kids, I am going to throw an extra pair in the cart for kids that really need them. I'm sure a little pair of pjs would easily fit in a manila envelope and could be mailed for 4-5 stamps. (Anything to avoid the post office!) 

Have a great weekend! My birthday is Sunday so I am hoping to spend some time relaxing with my family and avoiding the kitchen, Swiffer, and laundry basket. I am also hoping to have some alone time (foreign concept) to work on a longer post for the DGG that I know you will love. Hopefully to be posted early next week.

Thank you for checking in!

Where Children Sleep

Hi Friends!

I came across this incredible book a few months ago, but it only recently popped into my mind to write about here for some reason. It's an amazing set of portraits by James Mollison called Where Children Sleep. Mollison had the novel idea to take pictures of children's bedrooms to show the disparities between how children live all over the world. The idea was that all children sleep somewhere, but those places are very different! I love Mollison's own description of how he developed this project:

From the start, I didn't want it just to be about 'needy children' in the developing world, but rather something more inclusive, about children from all types of situations. It seemed to make sense to photograph the children themselves, too, but separately from their bedrooms, using a neutral background. My thinking was that the bedroom pictures would be inscribed with the children's material and cultural circumstances ' the details that inevitably mark people apart from each other ' while the children themselves would appear in the set of portraits as individuals, as equals ' just as children. 

Here some of Mollison's portraits below:

Of course, this got me thinking about my own children's bedrooms, and what it says about them and their lives. These pictures are obviously from all over the world. And I wouldn't presume to say that just because a child is not sleeping in a room that looks like my kid's room in America that he or she is not loved or happy. But, it's hard to see the picture of the mattress above and know a little boy actually sleeps there.  When I tuck my children in at night, I see warm beds, soft pjs, and loveys to hold if they get scared. And I wish that were true for all children.

On Friday I will post some links to organizations that help children who don't have their own place to sleep. And after seeing these pictures, I will definitely be mailing off a lovey or some warm pjs to a child who needs them this weekend!

Happy Friday!

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I love the picture above so much. Thanks to my friend Anna for reminding me to count my blessings every day! Here are two good links to read over the weekend:

- If you have been hearing about the Kony 2012 video and wondering what all the hubbub is about, here is a great article from Kristen Howerton who blogs at Rage Against the Minivan to sum it up.

- Yesterday was World Water Day! Check out Living Waters for the World, an organization that trains and equips mission teams to share the gift of sustainable waters with communities in need.

Thank you for being a Do Gooder!

A Million Thanks

I don’t know about you, but whenever I see pictures of our troops leaving for a tour of duty, or returning home to their spouses and children after months or years away, I bawl my eyes out. I can’t imagine how hard it is to leave your family for long stretches of time, give up all of the comforts of home, and risk your life every day. I always think about getting a troop pen-pal and being diligent about sending her magazines, gum, contraband hidden in hollow books (just kidding), etc., but I never seem to get up the motivation to actually do it! 

Now there is no excuse, because A Million Thanks has made it so easy.  A Million Thanks is a website dedicated to sending letters to our service men and women. All you have to do is write a nice letter and mail it to the address below, and Shauna Fleming, the founder of the website, will make sure it gets into a soldier’s hands. On the website, Shauna lists some do’s and don’ts for your letter, but they are fairly common sense: keep it positive, don’t write anything that would upset the person, and keep it non-political.

Here are some suggestions for subjects to write about:

where you live

your family and/or pets

interesting news going on in the world

travel plans

new movies or books out

*Also, don’t forget to let them know that Yes, the entire cast of Jersey Shore will be returning for a sixth season. We can all breathe a sigh of relief.

Please send letters to:

A Million Thanks

17853 Santiago Blvd.

#107-355

Villa Park, CA 92861

Thank you for Doing Some Good Today!

31 Bits

31 Bits

Hi Readers! 

Today I want to share with you a jewelry business with a mission: 31 Bits. The company was founded by Kallie Dovel, who traveled to Uganda in 2007 through charity work. Here she visited with Ugandan women in refugee camps who made necklaces out of colorful scrap paper. Kallie was impressed with their resourcefulness and knew she could sell the beautiful jewelry back home in the United States to help these women earn an income to care for their families and feed their children.

Kallie named 31 Bits from Proverbs 31 - a Bible verse that describes an honorable woman who helps provide for her family. 31 Bits goes beyond just helping these women with a steady income though. Their mission includes education, AIDS prevention, and further vocational training for the women in the program. 

But my favorite part about this socially minded company is that I would definitely wear this jewelry! In general, I love the idea of these fair trade products, but I usually feel like they look out of place in my regular life. Sort of like the handwoven purse you bought at the outdoor market in Mexico on Spring Break. Didn't really have the same appeal once you got home, am I right? Not so with 31 Bits. Check out the photo below for one of my favorites. I will save my handwoven purse for street cred on visits to my local health food store, and wear this necklace everywhere else!

31 Bits

How you can Do Some Good:

Start a list of companies like 31 Bits that sell products that help others. (I like to Bookmark mine on my computer under the heading Gift Ideas.) When Christmas or a birthday rolls around, pick something from the list.

Happy Friday!

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Hi Readers! Happy Friday!

The Do Good Guide has gotten 417 visits since it's debut Monday.  That is above and beyond what I was hoping for! I realize my mom may have been 237 of them, but, still..... I am excited! So thank you very much for visiting.

Check back Monday for another opportunity to Do Some Good!

It's Time for the Prom!

Readers, it's time for the prom. I know that the prom is not on many of our radars now. It is never on mine, until I am leaving the mall and I see a limo pull up in front of Maggiano's and 45 teenagers in taffeta and tuxedos pile out like it's a clown car. At this point, my husband and I always look at each other and talk about how old we are, and that high schoolers look so young these days, and did we ever look like that? 

But, I love, love, love to see it, especially all of the dresses. Some are good. Some are bad. And some are not made of any more material than a pair of my socks and make me wonder if I should go over and try to get the girl to put my cardigan on over her dress. (I guess it's true: I really am old.)

But, point being, it's important to look your best on prom night so people like me can ogle your dress! Obviously, not everyone can afford a prom dress, or sew one themselves like Andie in the best prom movie of all time, Pretty in Pink. So, dress drives are taking place all over America to help these girls get a prom dress that they will be proud to wear. You can find one in your city by visiting Donate My Dress. I love the optimism of their mission statement:

The first national network to bring together local dress drive organizations across the U.S., we help you find one in your area so that once you've had your dream night, you can give another girl hers!

Clearly they were not at my prom! But, far be it from me to prevent anyone from having their own "dream night"! So, I will be looking through my closet today to see if there is anything prom-worthy in there. If you are local here in Tampa, Fresh Threads Consignment is having a dress drive that ends March 31st. 

So do some good today by donating a prom dress. Or a cardigan to go over a prom dress!

Every Mother Counts

Last week while I was shopping for groceries in Publix, I scanned the magazine section and picked up a copy of Women's Running with Christy Turlington Burns on the cover. I like to run myself, but I thought she was more of a yogi, so I was interested in reading the article about her. I was also interested in how a 43 year old mother of two looks like that in a sports bra and running shorts! (It turns out her secret is being a supermodel. Hmmm... I will have to look into that.)

My favorite part of the article, though, described her efforts to help improve women's health around the world by founding Every Mother Counts. Straight from the website: Every Mother Counts is an advocacy and mobilization campaign to increase education and support for maternal mortality reduction globally. The statistics Turlington Burns quoted in the article were pretty amazing - Of the approximately 350,000 deaths related to pregnancy and childbirth each year, 90% are preventable. As she told Women's Running, "If you have a healthy mom, you have a healthy family, a healthy society, and, hopefully, a healthy nation."  Sounds about right to me. And I love that she is using her celebrity to do some good!

How the article ties in with running is that she formed a marathon team called Every Mother Counts to run the New York marathon together to raise awareness about maternal mortality. I've never felt the urge to run for quite that distance, but I can see how running for a cause like that could help inspire you. I also think the team t-shirts sold on the website are very cute, and probably the only article of her clothing that I could also afford!

How you can help Every Woman Counts:

• WATCH Turlington Burns' documentary on the subject called "No Woman, No Cry" 
• RUN a race for Every Mother Counts
• DONATE an old cell phone
• LIKE Every Mother Counts on Facebook
• BUY a copy of the Every Mother Counts 2012 CD at Starbucks
• WEAR the cute t-shirt!