family bucket fillers: eBooks for the Barlows

We’re really making an effort over here to do more ‘bucket filling’.

After reading one of the sweetest books ever, How Full is Your Bucket? For Kids, by Tom Rath this spring, we started to talk about ‘bucket filling’ and ‘bucket emptying’ pretty often.

I needed some visual way of showing Maddy, Owen, and Cora how their behavior affected others, and I really think it helped.

In the book, ‘bucket filling’ refers to all of the ways we make ourselves and others feel good–by sharing, giving, listening, helping,  and loving.  ‘Bucket emptying’ refers to the opposite–treating others unkindly, excluding them, acting rudely toward them–you get the idea.

Obviously, we all feel better with full buckets, right? I really think that it’s a super way of bringing it all together for kids, helping them to talk about their feelings–which is sometimes a difficult thing for us all to do.

Our ‘bucket filling’ conversations kind of drifted off as the summer wore on, but I’ve been thrilled to see that one of my kids has been doing a whole lot of ‘bucket’ talk in class. 

Owen has been learning about bucket filling, talking about it, talking more about it, and his class goes as far as thanking each other on little slips of paper each time a person ‘fills’ his or her bucket.  I love it.

So we’re bringing it back to our house, too–in a big way.

How Full is Your Bucket? For Kids by Tom Rath is what we’re all about this fall. . .

. . . and hopefully our bucket-filling will carry on all year long–in our family and in others!

This post will kick off what I hope will be a long and lasting season of sharing how our family is incorporating this super-important concept into our every day.

Here’s the skinny:

• Family Bucket Fillers– eBooks for the Barlows: Yesterday, I had a really crummy day.  I felt miserable, struggling with a wicked cold that’d hung on for over a week, I was jet-lagged, and emotionally and physically drained after a long weekend of travel and a whole lot of the natural craziness that comes along with family, kids, and work.

We are going to try to become a serious bucket-filling family!

Then I received an email from a fellow blogger, a woman I know not well but with whom I have had some interaction over the years.

I have never met her but shared on teach mama a Spring eBook that she and my pal Allie had collaborated on a few years back.  When I read Mandi’s email, everything stopped.

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from Mandi, of life.yourway.net:

Earlier this month, my friend Jenny called 911 after her husband became disoriented and incoherent. He was immediately taken to ICU with a brain infection and fell into a coma-like state. Over the 10 days that followed, we prayed continuously for his healing, and it was a bit of a roller coaster ride as they doctors would become hopeful that they had a diagnosis or treatment and then things would worsen once again. Two weeks ago, he passed away, leaving behind his wife and five children between the ages of 9 months and 11 years old.

As Jenny moves forward as a single mom after her husband’s death, I know finances are a huge stress for her. She’s a stay-at-home, homeschooling mom, and while they did have life insurance, it’s really not enough given the circumstances.

As a way to help their family while still providing a great resource for readers, I’ve brought together a small group of bloggers and put together a pretty amazing benefit sale, which includes the 9 ebooks listed below plus the complete set of Life Your Way printables. The set is worth more than $50, but will be available for just $5 for three days only, starting at midnight ET on Tuesday, 10/2.

• Easy Homemade by Mandi @ Life Your Way
• One Bite at a Time by Tsh @ Simple Mom
• 31 Days to Clean by Sarah Mae @ SarahMae.com
• Mindset for Moms by Jamie @ Steady Mom
• 50 Books to Enjoy with Kids by Veronica and Jessica
• Fill ‘Em Up by Laura @ Heavenly Homemakers
• Guide to Freezer Cooking by Crystal @ Money Saving Mom
• Tell Your Time by Amy @ Blogging with Amy
• How to Have Your Cake and Eat It, Too by Mandi @ Life Your Way

The purchase links will be added to the static sales page by midnight tonight, and I’d love if you’d consider sharing this with your readers between then and the end of the sale on Thursday night: http://life.yourway.net/barlow-family-benefit/

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So that’s where I am tonight–filling not only Jenny Barlow’s bucket through my purchase and donation, but hopefully helping you to fill yours as well. . .

Many thanks to Mandy for sharing, for you for reading and always managing to fill my bucket, my friends.

 

fyi: This is a completely unsponsored post, and opinions–as always–are completely my own, influenced only by my three little bucket-fillers, my bucket-filling husband, bucket-filling dog, and (trying to be a) bucket-filling self.  Affiliate links and buttons are are included on this site;many thanks for your consideration in using them.