Heartfelt Acts: February The Month of Love

February is often considered the month of love, though many can't stand what they call a Hallmark Holiday; but for me the month of the love was a great month for Heartfelt Acts.

Jannette and I teamed up to try and figure out a way we could give more, do more and hopefully inspire others to do the same along the way.  You can read more about it here.

The February Goals were:

1.  Bring Flowers to someone
2.  Tell your Child/spouse that you love them every single day for the month.  You can change it up daily to fit your family.

I once again did both goals-- well kind of- as obviously the month is not over.

I decided rather than just pick a person to tell them I love them I was going to tell each of my family members I loved them and something I loved about them everyday by making a little heart for each.

The first day while the oldest two were at school and Eric was at work, I cut out a simple paper heart for each and wrote "I love you" and than something I love about them.

I put the hearts on each of their pillows, except for Ryder.  He saw me making them so I gave him his right then.

"What say?"  he asked me.
"I love you Ryder.  I love your hugs"

And that moment- it was like time froze and sped forward all in the same moment as I literally saw wisdom and an understanding beyond his age radiate from his eyes and then the smile that came on his face-- it was truly a moment I will never forget.

"Oh" he said while giving me a hug.  That moment right there made everything I do as a mom and feel like I "sacrifice" all worth it.  And his first heart, well he carried it with him all day, even bringing it to library story time.

Carrying his heart as we leave story time

When the others got home Ryder was more than happy to show off his heart so I prompted Lucas and Alex to go look on their pillows, they were all very grateful.  The second day when they found new hearts they were totally surprised as they figured it was a one time thing.  After several days Lucas told me that he loved the hearts so much but that I didn't have to make one everyday, but truly he would have been sad if I stopped.

Lucas' hearts that he saved on his project board in his room

It was so good for me too, as I would try and stop and notice some extra things that were specific to that day that I noticed and loved about them.  It made me realize the tremendous power of something so simple. 

The second idea was to give flowers to someone.  I was totally inspired by Janette's Heartfelt Acts from last month when she gave our gift cards to random people in Target- so decided to do the same with flowers.

I wanted to add a little note to each flower and made a little paper that said "Someone noticed you today" Heartfelt Acts.  As truly don't we all just want to be noticed.

Sorry for the dark picture- took this in the dark car before we went into the store

I told Eric what I wanted to do and he was rather skeptical; but this last Monday we gathered as a family and I shared a lesson, talking about how we are often asked to be God's angels and while we may not always know what is happening in someone's life He does.  We went to the store and picked up a bouquet of flowers.  I then took each flower and stapled the slip of paper I had made around each flower.  We then said a prayer that we would be guided to those who may need some extra love that day.

We went into Target flowers in hand, asking the kids to let us know who they wanted to give the flowers too.  

Getting the flowers ready to head into the store

Alex went first, picking a mom and a daughter in the makeup isles.  "I hope you have a good day." she said while handing the flower to the lady.   "What?" the lady asked. "Oh my goodness, thank you so much, that is so sweet."

"She was so happy"  Alex said after we walked away.

The other recipients reactions were very similar-- my kids often had to say excuse me a couple of times get the persons attentions, as don't we all rush through life a bit too much.  It was then Ryder's turn- he pointed to someone all the way across the store and so we walked over and gave her the flower and then he had one left.  He once again saw someone almost across the store.  This last lady, as Ryder handed her the flower, her countenance totally changed, her face completely lighting up as she thanked him and said that we had made her day.  I think she was the one-- while the others were all grateful and it made them happy, I believe she was the one who for reasons unknown to us truly needed this that day.

As we walked to pick out treats to end our family night Eric commented saying, "this was actually really awesome I liked it much more than I thought I would" and I noticed Lucas give Alex a hug and tell her that he loved her.

I am hooked- I am so hooked on giving if for no other reason than purely selfish as to see how happy my whole family was in this moment.   So thank you again Janette for brainstorming this idea with me, it is amazing so far.

Remember you can join in anytime; the linky is open for the entire year so anytime you blog about it you can add your link.

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For future planning: here are March's goals- you can do one or both.

1.  Thank you police or fire department- take them a baked item.
2.  Leave 5 random notes of love or affirmation in different public places.