PPBF: Peaceful Me

Happy #SELday 2023; where do YOU find yourself

this springtime afternoon on the Peace Attitude Scale?

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A Heart At Peace

Glancing at the calendar, I realized nearly a month has gone by

since I checked in here with you, dear reader.

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What Grief Looks Like

Recently I got a glimpse at what grief looks like,

through the lens of one of my 8th-grade friends.

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Pressing PAZ

Today I'm feeling excited about this display;

what do YOU need to hear today?

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Tattoos On My Heart

Today I've been reflecting on this Mother Teresa wisdom.

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Belonging: It's An Inside Job

Today I'm thinking about belonging. And peace.

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PPBF: Draw The Line

So this week had me feeling nostalgic and left me longing in a familiar way, taking me back to my first days and months of retirement two years ago. Only I didn't really retire, just moved into my encore career. Still, there was a big hole in my educator heart because I missed the energy of empowerment.

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PPBF: Peaceful Hearts

Happy Friday; how's April going in your corner so far?

Everything's coming up roses here. Can you smell them?

It's one of the reasons why I like springtime so much.

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Color Me Calm

You may remember that I chose awe as my #oneword2019. 

As luck would have it, 2018 went out in an amazing blaze of glory; 

check out this picture our daughter took near Waelder, TX.

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The People You Fall On

Today I'm reflecting about something that happened on my flight home from Pennsylvania this past week. Storms put us on a weather delay, so I was pretty excited when we finally took off Saturday afternoon. Energized but exhausted from a fun-filled week, I was eager to pull out my pillow for a power nap. Unfortunately, the flight attendants' repeated reminders to stay seated, not only for our safety, but for the well-being "of the people you will fall on," kept that coveted rest from happening.

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The Kindness Olympics

Happy Random Acts of Kindness Week. We've been on such a kindness kick at school this year that it almost feels like we're training for the Kindness Olympics, as if there were such a thing. We kicked off the year by collecting quarters so that our Student Council leaders could buy some fleece to cut and tie these beautiful blankets to help warm up our friends who are struggling with homelessness. We collected enough quarters to buy the fleece for fifty blankets . . . 

and fill Mr. Whitlock's van for distribution in Houston.

We had just finished with the fleece when we received this incredible donation of blankets from our friends at Warm Up, America!, knit, crocheted, and tied as housewarming gifts for those friends who are just now returning home after Hurricane Harvey displaced them six months ago.

What a delight it has been to distribute this generous gift. Even as I was finding homes for these gorgeous throws, we were busy in Art class creating our Kindness Rocks. Just this past week, this one came in from a school in Racine, Wisconsin.

At the end of January, we welcomed the Kids For Peace Kindness Team . . . 

 to build our Peace Garden and dedicate our Peaceful Hearts Playground. We are so grateful to GameTime, Hasbro, Kind Coins contributors, and our PTO for our new state-of-the-art play space.

Our #kindcoins spokesperson, Jet Stream Jax, has gone on location several times these past few weeks to video chat from the playground with schools who donated to help make our dream play space a reality. It's super fun to watch him interact with other kindness crusaders from coast to coast. 

Before we could even start breaking in our new Challenge Course, it was time to launch our annual Sweets for Our Soldiers campaign. We made these colorful, creative Valentines for our troops in Counseling Classes . . . 

and sent out this request for baked goods.

And did our school family ever respond in kind; just look at this table filled with kindness from our kitchens waiting for our student leaders to put together our priority mail packages.

Thirty six of these care packages are heading to the ten deployed servicemen that we adopted at the time of this post.

And for fun, we cut up our PSA posters like this one . . . 

 and put them in the boxes to give the soldiers a puzzle to build.

We are so grateful to the Friendswood Rotary for their

$500 donation to help defray the cost of postage.

You may think that we're done donating for a while, but just this week I saw some adorable PSA posters being hung in our halls, announcing a Pet Supply drive to help our shelters who are still housing Hurricane Harvey rescue animals. 

See what I mean about the Kindness Olympics? Just imagine if the world were as determined, dedicated, and driven to warm our world with kindness as our olympic athletes are to win a medal for their countries.

I'm so thankful to work in a place where we truly are 

in training for the Kindness Olympics all year long.

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Peaceful Hearts Playground

What a wonder-filled week it has been for us; tonight I'm at once exhausted and energized about our Peaceful Hearts Playground

 and our Kindness Rocks Peace Garden.

Photo source: Kids For Peace

Upon our return from winter break, students started working on Kindness Rocks in Art class. Once they all finished painting theirs, we held a Paint For Peace event so that families could also paint a rock for our Peace Garden. 

Here's a sample of how amazing they turned out.
I made a FlipGrid to showcase some of the rocks; click the link and use the password PeaceGarden to view the video clips. 

All of this was prep for the big day on Tuesday, when Friendswood was the ninth stop on the Kids For Peace #KindnessMatters bus tour! Isn't their bus dreamy?

Part of the Kindness Team spent Tuesday beautifying our school grounds with this heart-shaped serenity spot ... 

while the others crafted these beauties for our playful hearts tree!

On Wednesday morning they created this magic. 

That afternoon, students came out with their rally towels in hand ...

to experience the ribbon cutting and celebrate the grand opening of the new state-of-the-art GameTime Challenge Course built in partnership with our PTO and the Kids for Peace Kind Coins campaign contributors.

As you may know, our third-grade meteorologist Jet Stream Jax served as their spokesperson for this year's campaign, so we went on location from the playground a few times this week to talk with students in New Jersey and Montana. What a thrill and joy it was to watch this young role model in action connecting with peers from coast to coast. 

We are forever grateful to all of the school who fundraised with Kids For Peace to give our school family the gift of play as we continue to heal from Hurricane Harvey's fury. Hasbro, a company synonymous with play, is going to match donations until February 15th if you haven't had the chance to contribute to the Kind Coins campaign yet. The Kindness Team's plan is to head to Puerto Rico next, to build a play space there to help them heal. 

I'm hopeful that they'll need a translator.

When I asked Jax to sum up our experience in just three words, 

he eloquently replied without pause,

Live. Love. Play.

If ever you're in the Houston area,

please come and play with us.

UPDATE: Phase 2 of the Peace Garden found us laying bricks and a crushed granite bed so that our serenity spot helps us ... 

to mindfully unwrap the present for a very long time to come.

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Supersizing Kindness

Today I woke up energized by the incredible week of kindness we've had. The hurricane may have detoured our lives for a bit, but it hasn't damped our spirit. On Monday, we started this year's counseling classes with a meet-the-counselor and storm debrief feelings lesson. We really enjoyed Marianne Richmond's 

Be Brave Little One.

I told my students this story; when I first saw it in the stores I didn't buy it, because my students aren't littles, but middles. {For fun, I did rearrange the books on display at our local Barnes & Noble to seize a photo opp for a shot to send to the author.} 

Just days later, Hurricane Harvey blew through and this treasure trove of courageous things took on a whole new meaning, so back to the bookstore I went to purchase a copy for us and am I ever glad I did. 

My favorite line might be, "Be brave to be scared," although the page about being brave to be with our feelings is a strong second. Actually, the entire text and its beautiful illustrations {especially the girl on the tree swing!} are picture perfect. I absolutely loved reading this rhyming gem aloud; check it out because I think you'll connect with it, too. 

Compare and contrast it with these titles. 

After our discussion, we each chose a comfort card to take home,

from this creative collection from all over the nation.

We have been incredibly touched by everyone's generosity and love; here's our visual to show students and stakeholders where each seed of kindness was planted.

By Monday afternoon, the map was up on our wall of fame,

just in time for our friends from Kids for Peace to arrive.

They met my friend Jax; click the picture to donate to his Harvey Relief Fund.

Executive Director Jill and her friend and film maker Kirsten 

came to Texas to bring their Undy 500 donations from CA,

The California Undy 500 quickly became the Undy 5000!

 and see what else they might do to help us 

recover and rebuild our community and state.

We had a glorious three days; they told us that they left Texas 

with oversized hearts from the super-sized kindness.

On Friday, this kindness came in the mail from my friend Tanya.

A year ago this week, I was at her school talking with her counseling colleagues and school family. And, without talking, we were both making maps, they to help us recover and let us know they're praying for us, we to thank school families like theirs for their empathy, compassion and kindness. Providential, don't you think? Thank you, Tanya, for our priority mail.

Friday afternoon, I got another box, this one from young Ayel in Florida who was determined to cheer us up even as she and her family were going through Hurricane Irma. Check out the Keppy cap this caped kindness crusader painted. 

Talk about being the rainbow in someone's storm. She also sent bookmarks with a lucky penny and a hand-written inspirational message for our flood survivors because she never wants anyone to lose their page. Thank you, Ayel.

And then, Stefanie in the Dallas area sent us ten of these scripture cards attached to a gift card for our staff members whose homes flooded.

It felt so good to be able to put these in their boxes

to treat them to a little something after a long day of caregiving.

In the middle of all of that, we celebrated

International Day of Peace.

We didn't plant pinwheels this year but instead,

a character rock garden is planned for February.

Have we had fun supersizing kindness this week or what?

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