Thoughtful Tuesday: The Trash and Thirsty Edition!

Our summer Tuesdays are all about serving others. As parents, service is a value we all want instilled within our kids, right? We want them to graciously lend a helping hand, offer up their seat, work hard and show compassion for others. Charity is something that starts at home and without charity, according to Paul in 1 Corinthians 13:2, we are nothing. Ouch. I certainly don't want to raise "nothing" kids who may have faith but not have a gracious heart for others. It's the little things that we do that can turn into the big things. A simple act of kindness. (see last week's Thoughtful Tuesday HERE)

So, last night I asked M what we should do for our Thoughtful Tuesday. She didn't even hesitate to exclaim, "I know! We can go pick up litter!" Ok sounds like a plan to me.

I also knew we would be taking Sonic drinks up to Daddy and his coaches at the LHS Basketball camp. They work so hard, y'know, even in the summer. :)

Picking up trash and delivering drinks led to the title for this post...."The Trash and Thirsty Edition". I guess it's better than "The Thirst and Trashy" edition, eh??

Anyway, when I lay my head down to sleep last night, I had remembered Myla observing some construction workers near our house the other day. She noticed they were in all long sleeves. She asked why they were wearing long sleeves when it was so hot outside. "I bet they are thirsty!" So that gave me another idea....

We would deliver ice cold water bottles to construction workers! When I told the kids this morning, they thought that was a great idea! Noah exclaimed, "I'm gonna see a backhoe!!!"

And M started helping pack the cooler right away. 

We wouldn't be able to deliver before VBS so we put back in the fridge for later. 

But..we did have time to help mommy gather trash around the house! Convenient that it is trash day today!

He does want to be a garbage man when he grows up so this is perfect.

Leaving the trash can upside down like the real garbage men do. I wonder why??

While N and I gathered trash, M wanted to color a picture for her VBS teacher. Pretty thoughtful of her, I must say. ;)

Taking trash to the curb!

 Such a great helper :)

After trash was collected we were ready to get on with our day.

Dropped this sweet girl off at VBS for Day 2...

And took this little guy up to see Daddy and drop him off at Basketball camp for the morning session.    Y'know, to spend some quality father-son time...aren't I so thoughtful?! No, not really, Jeff said I could drop him by so I could go run some errands sans kiddos. I guess he's really the thoughtful one here. Thanks babe!

After I had run my errands, (gosh, 3 hours goes by really fast), I went by the house to pick up the cooler and trash bags. Then headed to the church to pick up Myla.  First stop was Sonic to get drinks to deliver to daddy and his coaches. Turns out only one other coach besides Daddy was thirsty....

Pointing out Coach Collier 

Delivering his drink...

Running around the gym...one of their most favorite things.

Saying goodbye to Daddy...

After a quick Sonic lunch in the car, we stopped to get gas then we were on our way to find some thirsty workers. 

We had the cooler in the front seat and our eyes peeled!

It didn't take us long to spot a few!

I had Myla count the workers we saw and we grabbed enough water bottles.

They stared at us strangely at first but I explained that we thought they might be thirsty and that today was "Thoughtful Tuesday". They were very appreciative.

 Big smiles made it worth it!

After our first stop, Myla got back in the car and said, "That was fun! Mom, we didn't even know them or anything!"

Yep, honey, that's it...we can help people we don't even know. 

Found another thirsty worker! He was nice to pose for a pic.

We did have a little talk about strangers and how all of this was ok since Mommy was with them. :) Probably an important detail.

We drove around for awhile and didn't see any workers nearby and decided we would stop at a park to pick up trash (and play). 

We so conveniently parked by an HV landscaper's truck. :) We gave him some water too but didn't get a pic. 

Picking up trash...

Park was pretty clean already...maybe picked up 4 total pieces. Way to go City of HV!

Noah just wanted to play....

We stopped to play for a whole 10 minutes before it got too hot,

When we were getting back in the car, Noah grabbed his play hammer out of the car and went over to this post and said, "Wook, Mommy, I'm working!"

So, we had Myla bring him some water. This was when I noticed the HV landscaper looking and laughing too..

Our last stop was at Briarhill MS, as we knew there were lots of workers helping renovate for the summer.

We only had 4 water bottles left in our cooler and passed them all out.

They were very happy and told us to come back anytime to which Myla said, "Ok, see ya next Tuesday!"

Once we pulled in the garage at home, I noticed that the kids, being kids, had trashed the back seat. Trash from lunch, trash from a couple days ago, trash possibly from weeks ago...mommies cars are always dirty, right? Or at least mine is! 

We gathered the trash to clean up the car. 

To reinforce our theme for the day, I told them how thoughtful it was to clean up our own mess and even when it isn't our mess (mostly it was Noah's) it is still thoughtful to help out.

That concludes our Thoughtful Tuesday. 

So the little things. The 4 pieces of trash we picked up at the park, the Sonic drinks delivered to Daddy and coaches, and even the bottled water delivered, all little things that hopefully make a difference. If anything, hoping it becomes a memory to the kids and a reminder in how they helped. It can be our simple gestures of service, of kindness, of love that are the very tools God uses to bless his children.

Before her rest time, I asked Myla if what we did today reminded her of Jesus. She nodded and said, "Yes, mommy...he helped people too."

Exactly, my love, He did.