Send Sympathy Flowers

The project:
Send flowers to Mom after learning that her 17-year-old dog died yesterday.

Time:
15 minutes

Why bother?
Mom loves her pets, and for anyone who loves her pets, it's never really easy to lose one, even if, as in this case, she can see it coming. Lilly was a good dog who never met a stranger, greeted us with love and excitement, and tolerated our children. We'll all miss her.

Worth it?
Yes.

Tend Kids

The project:
Pick up someone else's kids and watch them for a few hours.

Time:
3 hours

Why bother?
Not sure if this counts as charitable when it resulted in my own kids having buddies over to play. But taking another mom's kids off her hands for a few hours while she gets some work done HAS to count. These are good kids, and our girls really enjoy their company. This may become a regular occurrence.

Worth it?
Absolutely! When it was time to head for home, I asked, "Who's comin' with me?" Four kids hollered from their various spots on the play structure, "I AM!" What energy! In the car, it was so fun to hear them all, and charging through a couple of errands on the way home it was fun to have a pack of kids with me.

Spend time with Seniors

The project:
Our daughter is playing fiddle. Her instructor invited her to join in a local fiddlers' gathering. Not sure who did a favor for whom, but we ended up driving her to the gathering, and spending a day with a room full of seniors, playing, singing and dancing.

Time:
4 hours

Why bother?
We were invited, and spending time with seniors is a great thing for kids, well, people of all ages.

Worth it?
Absolutely. How heart-warming to see these couples, some of whom have been together for a lifetime, some of whom found each other only recently, dancing and swaying or just sitting and enjoying the music. It was also fun to see my daughter playing alongside the fiddlers when she could, and singing when she didn't know how to play the song.

Photo courtesy Jeff Kubina under Creative Commons license.