Have You Filled Your Bucket Today?

Ezie and Mallory came home the other day with a note from their school regarding a book about bucket filling. I put the note to the side to read later and this morning I finally got around to reading it. I am always so impressed with the Elementary School in our town because they started teaching the kids about respect, honor, pride, manners and other character building things in Pre-K and continue to teach these values through the 5th grade.


In our town I honestly think that if these values were not taught by the Elementary School a huge percent of the kids would never be exposed to them. These values are things that we have instilled in our kids since they were just little toddlers. I am huge on please and thank you's, respecting others feeling and things, treating others as you would like for them to treat you, and so on. Unfortunately, most of the people in this town cuss and fight with other people in front of their kids. Show disrespect to other people, the police and to their own kids. The only reason we live in this town is because it has very cheap housing, but we definitely have been paying the price. Hopefully we will be moving in the next few months. I will miss the kids school though. The Principal and staff are such wonderful examples to our kids and I really admire them for the work they do.

Anyway, back to the subject. The note is about a new program called, Bucket Filling, that the school has started. The program is based on the book Have You Filled Your Bucket Today, by Carol McCloud.

Here is an excerpt from the book:

"All day long, everyone in the whole wide world walks around carrying an invisible bucket. You can't see it but its there. You have a bucket. Your Mom and dad each have a bucket. Your sister and brother have a bucket. Your grandparents, friends, and neighbors all have a bucket. Everyone carries an invisible bucket. Your bucket has one purpose only. It's purpose is to hold your good thoughts and good feeling about yourself. You feel very happy and good when your bucket is full and you feel very sad and lonely when you bucket is empty. You fill a bucket when you show love to someone, when you say or do something kind, or even when you give someone a smile. But, you can also dip into a bucket and take out some good feelings. You dip into a bucket when you make fun of someone , when you say or do mean things. or even when you ignore someone. That's being a bucket dipper."

I haven't read the book, but I am once again impressed by Mrs. Shields and the teaching staff for initiating another program to help build character in the children of our town. Thank you Mrs. Shields!!! You are a wonderful principal and person!!
We are going to get some buckets for our family and write down things about each other and ouselves to encourage bucket filling. Be sure and check out the Bucket Filling site and the program.

I am Related to a Real Author!!

My very talented and amazing niece, Sophia, who some of you may have visited last month during my Blogiversary Party, has just gotten her first book published. The Life of Allie Cates is the title and you can view the book or even buy a copy of Sophia's book by going to http://www.lulu.com/content/4172756
I haven't read the book yet, but I can't wait to get my copy and read it!!

Congratulations Sophia!! We're so proud of you!

Things I Received from My Wonderful Swap Partners and I have to Show A Picture of My Mallory

First I received this wonderful piece of art from Tina for the Cowgirl Swap. Her blog is {glue on my fingers}paint in my hair formerly Papermojo. She sent the coolest tag, a cowgirl banner and another little piece with a quote from Will Rogers on it. I LOVE everything Tina sent and am so honored to have a piece of her artwork!! Thank you Tina!! Yours will be on it's way tomorrow.
Next I received my second box from the Itty Bitty Swap. This one is from Pam. Look how beautiful the tin is painted. Oh my gosh, Pam put a lot of work into the container and then all the little treasures are wonderful. My Jace has already emptied the confetti a few times. He is just spreading the love with all those confetti hearts (I'm trying to be positive about the mess)!! Pam sent some fibers too but I've already used some of those before I took the picture. Thank you Pam. I hope you like what I sent to you too! Then I received this uniquely wrapped present from Twyla for the Parasol and Paper Swap. I love the pattern paper used for wrapping, what a great idea!! In the packages were four pieces of beautiful paper, the insides for a brown bag scrapbook, a beautiful pillowcase, a purple parasol and a pansy doily. I LOVE pansies and have the perfect spot for the doily and the pillowcase is gorgeous!! Thanks so much Twyla, I love everything you sent. I hope you will like yours too, it will be in the mail tomorrow! I'm running way behind schedule! Sorry!!!!
Today I received the sweetest gift from Angela as a Thank You gift for hosting The Brown Paper Bag Swap. Angela decorated the bag so nice and then gave me a little pop-up book with cute little poems in it and really pretty pictures. It is so nice to sit and look at. Thanks Angela!!
Thank you to everyone for such wonderful swap goodies!!! I love everything and I do apologize for my stuff being so late!! I have been slightly overwhelmed lately! Thanks for your patience!!

Mallory got hit in the face with a metal baseball bat on Saturday night. She really didn't even cry, except about 2 hours later she started screaming that her ear on the opposite side hurt. She kept crying and crying which isn't like Mallory so I took her to the ER just to be on the safe side. It turns out she had a really bad ear infection and the hit must have knocked it loose or something like that?. I took this picture a couple hours after it happened.

Of course, Sunday was Mallory's Dance Pictures. She looked so beautiful up their with her shiner! That's my Mal!

I Saw Red, I was Read to and I Got Mail!!

Finding red things in my house is a little harder than I thought it would be. These are the valance in our kitchen. Earl is a big hot pepper freak so I have 2 of each of these 3 bandanna's sewn together going across our kitchen window. They were a quick and easy curtain to make and they look kinda cute too!

This is just one of his jalapeno decorationsThis is the book that Mallory read to me when I was sick the other day. It is the cutest story about a little boy who wondered what kind of award he would get at the end of the year awards ceremony for the kindergartner's. He felt like everyone else was better at everything than he was, but he ended up getting the "Best Friend" award which I thought was so nice! It's also about how kids and teachers deal with the end of the year and moving on.

Excellent choice of books Mallory! Thank you!
and finally this is what I received from Anna Chadwick for the Itty Bitty Swap. Thank you Anna for the Oodles of goodies. Yours will be in the mail tomorrow, I promise! Did you know that an Altoid tin can hold quite a bit of stuff? I was really surprised to see how much stuff they can hold.