Things you can give to/or do for your Secret Sister for $5 or less

These ideas are great for anyone, not just your secret sister! If you have a friend who's having a bad day or someone you know at church who needs some extra support. Perhaps these ideas can be utilized by us all to help brighten someone's day.

The Secret Sister Program was designed to do just that- brighten someone's day. Build support of each other, anonymously, to show that others are thinking of you, care about you, and love you! This program was not designed to show off what you have or spend lots of money. Quite the opposite. We just want you to be aware of your secret sister and what's happening in her life. Show support in small ways and large ways and just love them for who they are- an amazing MOM!!!

• PRAY FOR HER and her family! Do it privately but also occassionally send her a note telling her she's in your daily prayers.
• Postcards, notes, cards, letters in the mail! Everyone loves getting mail. Thinking of you notes, funny cards, etc are a great way to brighten someone's day or even week!
• Baked goods! No one can pass up some homemade baked bread or yummy cookies. If you are already baking at home, bake one more for your secret sister or another friend. Bring it to a meeting or drop it off on her doorstep with a note!
• Get creative with your drop offs. You do not have bring gifts to meetings to participate. Drop off at their door, send them an item through a sealed lip friend. Leave them a note on their windshield or put a gift on their car. If your kids go to the same preschool or school, put a gift in their child's backpack for mom!
• Send your husband to do drop offs too!
• use their survey to find out what they like or don't like. Have a spy or someone they know who's in on the Secret Sis thing ( they MUST be sworn to secrecy). Have them tell you more about your SS and what she likes. Have this person tell you when she needs extra support or is going through a bad time.
• THink consumables- we all love things that we can enjoy but don't take up lots of space in our cluttered lives and minds....a simple bottle of water or soda, gum, a candy bar, one cookie, a bag of chips or a donut!!!
• Candles, frames, and other small house items
• Small giftcards. No need to spend lots. Find out they love sweet tea from McDonalds? Buy a giftcard with $2.12 so they can buy two whenever they need one. A cup of coffee from Steeple Gallery or one specialty chocolate item from Waky Nackies!
• Go to the dollar store and collect a few items to put together in a bowl or bag for them!
• A package of seeds in the spring to spread in thier own garden or to spread in a park!
• A photobook before a vacation they are going on
• A donation to an organization THEY love!
• A full meal delivered to their door so they don't have to cook one night!
• Good at something crafty? Do it for your SS! She'll love it!
• Think like a kid! Madlibs, crosswords, yoyo's- you know we all love them too!
• Magazine and pop culture stuff to feed our brains away from our daily life!
• A coupon for one night of free babysitting next summer as soon as they find out who you are!
• Write her a letter telling her why she's so great!
• Make a Positive Daily Affirmations box with little pieces of paper that she can read that say great things about herself " You are loved and lovable" "You are smart" "you are strong""You make a difference in people's lives just by being you"
• Send her flowers

A few reminders about Secret Sisters

• We try to keep it a secret til the last meeting of the year-it's hard but so much fun! if you do think you know who your SS is, don't say anything- she doesn't want to be found out- just play along!
• You do not need to support your SS each week but please do think of them often and remember how you feel when you get a special treat from yours!
• When you come to meetings, try to put your SS gift, on the sly, in the box right outside of the door. Some moms will even drop them off the day before a meeting to ensure no one sees the drop
• If you have to leave a meeting early, look through the box before you go. You might not have anything this week however it makes it easier for the leadership team to not have to drop it off at your home.

A Thanksgiving Article Worth Reading

Am I thankful?
Sure I am.
As long as it’s convenient. As long as the gift-giver is within ear’s reach of my thank you.

And as long as what I’m thankful for is good, comfortable, pleasant and smells great.

I never thank anyone for rolling over my toe with their cart in the grocery store or thank someone for an unkind word.

And I never thank God for struggles. I mean, how stupid would I sound: Thank you, God, for NO MONEY to pay the mortgage today.

Thank you that my seven-year-old has emotional outbursts every morning before school that reduce her to a pile of unbrushed auburn waves and tears on the bathroom floor.

Thanks for spilled apple juice, dried and sticky on the floor.

Thank you, God, for the rejection of friends and that crazy mean email last week.

Thank you for the tears it cost. Thank you for the argument I had with my husband last night.

Thank you, God, that he doesn’t understand me.

No.

We are usually thankful for blessings. Gifts. Encouragement. Provision.

We send thank-you notes to mothers and cousins for baby gifts and Christmas packages.

We call our pastors and thank them for the sermon.

We are grateful for warm beds and fireplaces that glow in our family rooms.

We are thankful because it’s easy and expected. But the sweet times, the easy-flowing happy times are not what shape me. I am comfortable and will stay the same if everything always goes my way.

Discomfort is the only way I grow.

And I am never grateful for sitting in the valley of hurt and pain.

I’m never thankful when things don’t work out like I planned. I stamp my feet instead and no-fair God. I tell Him He doesn’t know what it's like to be me. I’m not changed in the lots-of-money, kids-are-well, husband-adores-me days.

But I am changed in the I’m-fat, second-argument-this-week-with-my-mom, worried-about-my-kids days. This is when I’m moved to trust.

I have to because nothing else works.

These are the days when God comes in and under-girds my heart with His own, turns my head to refocus my attention and then asks me to trust.

And I should be grateful that He thinks enough of me to carefully craft difficulty to edge me toward beauty, kindness, and grace with pressure.

I don’t want to just be thankful for the easy. I want to be grateful for the hard.

And that involves a choice...one I'm making today.

Ideas from the group on how we can SHOW gratitude to our children!

Thanks for all the responses. I've listed them below.

I do want to add one tremendous idea that KerryK mentioned to me a while back. For Lent one year she served plain rice EVERY DAY for lunch, reminding them that for so many people in the world this was ALL they got to eat, no breakfast, no supper. How's that for effective!

I do need to keep in mind that this is the only lifestyle Kate knows. She has always lived in a house, with a bed, with a closet full of clothes, a room full of toys, and food at every meal. She knows nothing else. I guess it's my job to find ways to expose her to reality for most of the world's children. Please and thank you is nice, but an "attitude of gratitude" is what I'm shooting for.
- giving her old clothes, coats, toys etc. to charity.
-maybe having her go with you to willow tree to make that donation. and talking about the kids who will be able to use these.
-donate food for the food drive so a child can have a full belly at Thanksgiving
- putting together a Christmas box together for a needy child
-have her help to earn the money for a new toy for the giving tree at Christmas for a girl her age
-adding in her prayers how grateful she is for all God has provided for her, and praying that he will bless the other boys and girls in the world that don't have enough food or a warm bed.
- Start with talking about Thanksgiving and work at a food/shelter for part of Thanksgiving Day. There are lots of kids even in town who only have one pair of pants.
- You could take her and volunteer as a family to a woman’s shelter or a food drive or something along those lines to show her that there are many children that do not have clothes, or toys or even a meal some days.
- We went thru and packed up all the toys that the boys never hardly played with and cleaned them up for the Willow Tree toy drive. I told them that there are children that live in their town that wouldn’t get any toys for Christmas from their parents and that helped the boys understand.
- Sometimes volunteering can make a big difference. There is always the internet as well. You could show her 3rd world countries. (Of course I would watch the stuff first). :)

GOO recipe

Every few weeks at the meetings, craft Guru, Cara German, delights us with a quick and easy craft or activity that we can do with our own kids at home. This week, she shared the recipe for the famous GOO that we make at the Monticello Celebration each fall!


GOO Recipe

What You Will Need:

Solution A
1 cup water
1 cup white glue (Elmer's school glue works best)

Solution B
1 1/3 cups warm water (warm enough to dissolve the borax - we premix with hot water and let it cool for the Celebration)
4 tsp. Borax (laundry booster)

How To Make It
1. Mix ingredients in solution A together in a bowl
2. In a separate bowl, mix the ingredients in solution B until Borax is completely dissolved
3. Slowly pour solution A into solution B
4. Roll solution A around in solution B 4-5 times
5. Lift solution A out of solution B and knead for a couple of minutes.
6. Store in an airtight container (we use Monical's sauce containers) or Ziplock bag

Thanksgiving Traditions Your Family is Proud of and Ways to say Thanks

1. Pick 2 or 3 non family members ( school secretaries, neighbors, friends from church, grocery bagger, etc) in the month of November. Adopt them! Make them cards saying thanks or that you are thinking of them. Make them a meal or some yummy treats, write them a note. Do something nice. Make sure the whole family is part of the process.

2. Start a Thankyou journal. Buy a simple journal and bring it to your Thanksgiving celebrations. During your time together, have each person write a few things they are grateful for. Keep this as a running record of the special things that have happened each year.

3. On your way to a Thankgiving celebration, take turns going through the alphabet saying one thing you are thankful for this past year....A is for Alaric, B is for the new babies at church, C is for the cards of love and support we've gotten, etc.

4. On your way to a Thanksgiving celebration ( especially if you have to go to more than one home) take time to say one nice thing about each of the people you are about to see.

5. Make a Thanksgiving craft this month that reflects all you are grateful for. Take time each day or week to highlight the craft and add to it.

• Styrofoam ball wrapped in yarn. Take craft sticks covered in paper and write down something you are grateful for and stick into the foam
• http://familyfun.go.com/thanksgiving/thanksgiving-craft-decorations/thanksgiving-turkey-crafts/a-thanksgiving-turkey-715080/
• http://thefuntimesguide.com/2008/11/thanksgiving_kids_crafts.php
• Turkey body on paper, handprints with thanks as the feathers

6. Make your Thanksgiving celebration extra special by doing something different.

• Collect all your little items/free stuff ( mouthwash, toys, lotions, soaps, jewelry, etc). Have everyone bring them to the Thanksgiving celebration. After the meal, instead of napping- hand out Monopoly money to all the family members and have an auction for all the "stuff" people brought! make it fun!
• Have Thanksgiving Olympics. Break into teams. Compete in areas such as biggest bubblegum bubble, penny toss, clothespin drop, etc.

7. make a family comittment at Thanksgiving to dedicate yourself to a local service agency during the advent season. Make monetary donations, give time, items,etc. Decide as a family at Thanksgiving, research together, DO IT!!!!