Scarlett Pannebaker

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is heading to San Francisco during December.

I just love the city during Christmastime. Growing up, my parents would take us to San Francisco to see all the decorations & now I love continuing that tradition with my kids.

San Francisco has a huge homeless population, so whenever we go to the city we see a lot of homeless people on the streets. It's heartbreaking. I have never been comfortable giving them cash, I usually give them food or a gift card. For the past 5 or 6 years, we have taken "Blessing Bags" with us to the city.

 What is a blessing bag?

It's a ziplock bag filled with items/food that you give to a homeless person. 

What's in a blessing bag?

That is up to you! Here are the items that I put in our blessing bags: 

-New pair of socks

-Peanut Butter crackers (or you could do cheese/crackers)

-Granola Bar

-Beef Jerky/Cheese Stick

- Package of Almonds

-Mini Water Bottle

-Juice Box

-Chap Stick

-Toothbrush/Toothpaste

-Travel Size Deodorant

-Cough Drops/throat lasenges

-Pack of gum

-Travel size Wipes

- $5 Gift Card to McDonalds (so they can get a meal and/or hot coffee)

***Other items you can add****

-Applesauce/Fruit Cups

-Hand Santizer

-New Mittens/New Beanie

-Bar of Soap

-Travel Size Shampoo

-Hand Warmers

 

 Put all of these items in a Gallon Size Ziplock Bag.

 I like to make 10 bags at a time to bring with us to the city. 

Here are all the supplies:

 Kevin usually keeps 1 or 2 of these in his car, so that if he sees a homeless person on the corner, etc. He can give them a Blessing Bag.

 My girls love to assemble these. We talk about how fortunate we are & that some people don't have homes & so this is something small we can do for them to help them out.

Kate told me this year that we shouldn't give them a McDonalds gift card because they don't serve good food and that we should give them In-n-Out instead. I explained that there are a lot of McDonalds in the city & no In-n-Outs and they don't have a car to drive to In-n-Out. 

I like to include a $5 McDonalds gift card because then they can at least get a meal and a hot cup of coffee.

 The girls also wanted to make Christmas Cards/drawings to add to the Blessing Bags this year. I thought it was a great idea.

 All of the items fit perfectly into a Gallon Size Ziplock.

 Our Blessing Bags all filled up!

We are headed to the city later this afternoon to pass out the bags & to go ice skating. 

These are just suggestions for what to put in a Blessing bag. 

You can make them smaller & put them in sandwich size ziplock bags, it's totally up to you!

It's a simple way to bless a homeless person. 99% of the time they are extremely grateful.  

Now, go bless someone who needs a Blessing Bag!

Last year I was apart of a blogger swap for busy bags, focused on our toddler/preschooler (Truman) as the recipient of the bag-o-fun. The main point of the busy bag, for those of you who are not constantly bombarded with ideas from Pinterest, is to give the child something he or she can do independently. Once you show them how it should be done, they should be able to complete the task without help---and bonus if it really does keep them busy for awhile! The first time I did this we all created seven of the exact same activity and then received six new activities for our little ones. It was super fun and we still use a lot of those busy bags today.

This year, Erinn from Strawberry Swing and Other Things, emailed myself and other (different from my first time) bloggers asking if we wanted to do a 'Back to School' themed bag swap for our two year olds. First, Cecelia NEEDS something to keep her busy these days as she still has not discovered the beauty of the boob tube (somewhat kidding, but not really--would a few minutes of Elmo kill you, child?). Second, I really do love creating fun activities like this and Erinn set it up so that we only had to make one bag. So yes, I was in. 

The guidance she gave us was to keep it inexpensive, no small pieces that little ones may want to ingest, and then she matched us up secretly using the Elfster site. I'll do a separate post on what I created, but today I wanted to show you what Cecelia received. 

Michelle from Ten June was the blogger who drew Cecelia's name and she did a spectacular job with this busy bag! I love it so much: Popsicle Felt Matching.

She used popsicle sticks and added tiny felt squares of color. Then larger felt 'popsicles' have a hole at the bottom, so that CC can match her colors and place the correct stick into the felt. Genius!


Sometimes CC gets a little frustrated trying to fit the stick into the hole but she's got the hang of it now. And she really needs work on her colors since she truly does NOT seem to care at all about them. Usually she will roll her eyes at me if I ask, 'What color is this?' but with this busy bag, she seemed to care more than her typical 0%. First attempt and she was able to match about half of the colors, the other half she didn't even come close. Oh, Cecelia. At least there is the bonus of fine motor practice trying to get the stick inside the felt, and I know she will learn her colors in due time.


(I definitely helped with this beautiful rainbow of felt-pops).




We obviously needed a smoothie and cereal snack break during this grueling brain-power activity;)

Love it so much, and I think the zippered floral bag *might* be the biggest hit of all. Cecelia asked me if she could put other toys inside, proceeded to shove some legos in there, and then announced that she was off to work with her bag under her arm. Oh boy.

Such a fun busy bag swap! It would be really easy to whip up for a little one in your house, and I like that it's something she can grow into a bit.

Here is the list of everyone who participated. 

Erin at Hello Erin

Stay tuned for a post on what I made and how I made it! But head over to Nat Your Average Gal if you want a sneak peek. We are encouraging you all to post about your busy bag ideas next Monday, September 15th. Then link up on any of the above blogs to spread the busy bag love, and have fun!

Remember when I posted about doing 40 Bags in 40 Days waaaaaaay back in February.

Easter is in 8 days and I am waaaaaaay behind on my 40 Bags in 40 Days.

But, hey! It's all about grace, right?

I thought I should at least update you on what I have done so far because I said I would update as I did them. (Big Fail on that so far, also. Please accept my apologies)

This was my original list:
 So, here is Update #1.
And, for your viewing pleasure? Before and After pics. Because apparently I have no shame in showing you my filth ;)

My closet....yikes.
 RIGHT SIDE BEFORE:
 
RIGHT SIDE AFTER:

Got rid of this skirt, circa 2004 from Gap. Size 1. HAHAHAHA.
I'm just going to do myself a favor and get rid of that since I can guarantee it will never fit again. Buh-Bye.

LEFT SIDE BEFORE:

LEFT SIDE AFTER:

Dresser Drawer #1 BEFORE:
 
 Dresser Drawer #1 AFTER:
 
Dresser Drawer #2 BEFORE:
 
Dresser Drawer #2 AFTER:

Dresser Drawer #3 BEFORE:
 
Dresser Drawer #3 AFTER:
 
Dresser Drawer #4 BEFORE:

 Dresser Drawer #4 AFTER:
 
My closet (and drawers) weren't in THAT bad of shape, I have kept them in decent shape since last year.
In all, I got filled up1 bag black trash bag of clothes/shoes for giveaway.

Claire's Room. AKA: The HOARDER.
Hell hath no fury like the wrath of Claire when you try and get rid of her stuff.
Claire's Closet BEFORE (right side):
Claire's Closet After (Right side):
 
 Claire's Closet Before (Left Side):
Claire's Closet AFTER (Left Side):
 

 Claire's Dresser Drawer #1 BEFORE:

 Claire's Dresser Drawer #1 AFTER:
 
 Claire's Dresser Drawer #2 BEFORE:
 
 Claire's Dresser Drawer #2 AFTER:
 
  Claire's Dresser Drawer #3 BEFORE:
 
 Claire's Dresser Drawer #3 AFTER: 
  Claire's Dresser Drawer #4 BEFORE:
 
 Claire's Dresser Drawer #4 AFTER:
 
 Claire's Dresser Drawer #5 BEFORE:
 
 Claire's Dresser Drawer #5 AFTER:
 
 Claire's Dresser Drawer #6 BEFORE:

 Claire's Dresser Drawer #6 AFTER:


Claire's Dresser #7 BEFORE:
Claire's Dresser Drawer #7 AFTER:

Claire's Room...1 Black Bag of Giveaway (clothes/toys)  & 1 Target bag of trash.
 Next up, Kate's Dresser Drawers!

Drawer #1 BEFORE:

AFTER:
 
Drawer #6 BEFORE
 
 AFTER:

 I haven't done Kate's closet yet, that is a project for this week (Spring Break!)
I got rid of 1 Target bag of Kate's clothes for giveaway & she gave a handful of things to Claire that don't fit her anymore.

Next up, the Linen Closet. It was in pretty good shape from last year's 40 Bags clean out.
Upper Cabinet BEFORE:


AFTER:

Bottom Cabinet BEFORE:

AFTER:

I filled up 1/2 a black trash bag for giveaway which included our king size electric blanket (haven't used it in years) and 1 set of king size sheets.

Downstairs Hall Closet (which has become a catch-all for random toys, etc)
BEFORE:

AFTER:

Filled up the rest of the black trash bag with some games we haven't played in years....Scene it & Scene it Friends. Also gave away a basket & other random decorations that I stored in here.

Kitchen Pantry is next. UGH. I don't know why I let this get so bad. YUCK.
BEFORE:

I mean seriously....

I have no shame when showing you these pics:
AFTER:

You can see the floor & now I have a good place to store our vacuum.

This wasn't too bad, just re-organized the shelves and tossed out a couple things that were expired.

Family Room Side Table Drawer #1 BEFORE:
AFTER:
AFTER:

China Cabinet Drawer #1 BEFORE:
AFTER:

China Cabinet Drawer #2 BEFORE:
AFTER:

For these drawers, I just recycled/shredded a bunch of paper work that was in these drawers, which became a catch-all for mail, etc.
Got rid of 2 Target bags of recycled paper.

{If you want the free printable, check out THIS post.}

I have 12 out of 34 items checked off, which is 35% of my list so I am over 1/3 of the way done.
I have donated 6 Bags of items for Giveaway & 6 bags were trash.

Will I finish before Easter? No. But that is okay, since it took me until August last year to get it all done.
I am officially on Spring Break this week...YAY!
My goal is to get another 8-10 areas checked off this week!

If you made it to the end of this post, sorry you had to look at our filth & messiness.
Like I have said before, my house is generally clean, but closets & drawers are a DISASTER (as you can see!)
 
Are you doing 40 Bags in 40 Days or Spring Cleaning?
If so, how are you doing?