Service.

The other day while Addison was at daycare, Meghan and Noah were bored and wanted to do something. I was fine with doing something, but had no interest in spending any money on entertainment. Especially after I heard them start fighting about what to do. And that's when it hit me. This was a great time to think of someone else other than themselves.

So, after offering a quick prayer of thanks that Somewhat Simple's Summer of Service idea was still fresh in my mind, I quickly brainstormed for something we could do that would be of service. And in the end I decided on donating supplies to our local humane society.

I told the kids to look up on the internet what the humane society needed as far as donations, then to work together to create a list of what they would like to purchase as a donation. Twenty minutes later we were on our way to Walmart to purchase the items on the kids' list.

When we got to Walmart they were told again, to work together. One person needed to be in charge of the list, one person in charge of the cart and together they needed to decide on the brand and price of what they were buying.

Their purchases included dog treats, dog food, cat food, bleach, paper towels and laundry soap. It wasn't a lot, but it was something, and that's all I was looking for in this lesson.

They were so proud of what they were doing. But it was when they brought their donation in and saw the joy on the volunteer's face that it really hit them: they were doing something good in the world. Gone was the wish for seeing yet another movie. Gone was the fighting over whether we should go bowling or play mini-golf. They were thrilled that they had made a difference.

And because in my mind no good deed should go unnoticed, especially when my kids are involved, I treated the kids to $1.00 shakes from Arby's.