The back-to-school schedule has challenged our ability to do good in the last couple of weeks. My to-do list has bulged thanks to the myriad, somewhat confusing details related to school plus our renewed commitment to a reasonable bed time, healthy family dinners, and less television. Not to mention the aggravations of work, home ownership, that aggressively growing lawn, and the needs of our small chicken flock.

Thanks to an entire summer dedicated to doing good together, we have consistently squeezed in a few minutes to think about others around us, even during these hectic weeks.

I grant you, our efforts have been very simple.

After kindergarten on a cool fall day, Miss K and I spent time together baking cookies. It was a lovely, quiet way to interrupt the rushing tide of the week. We then split up the resulting four dozen snickerdoodles into several bags.

I prompted Miss K to think carefully about who might need some cookies this week. She was delighted to have something to give. So much so that her deliveries were made very quickly and very close to home.

Her choices were surprisingly thoughtful:

• A nearby friend, because she just began school this week and might be nervous.
• Our neighbor, whose teenage daughter just ventured off to college.
• And her grandparents who happened to be swinging through town and might want something to remember us by.

We had a wonderful time baking together. She read the recipe to me, stretching those kindergarten muscles with vanilla and soda. And we got a chance to talk about how the people around us are feeling.

We’ll call it community building, and empathy building.

On this most chaotic week, we still found time to connect and spread good, homemade feelings into the world.

Tags: Building Community, Free

About Sarah

Sarah Aadland is striving to make family volunteering a meaningful habit for her family of five. Join the conversation as she ponders what they may (or may not have) learned and looks for helpful information about raising compassionate kids.Though she plans to one day put her Masters in Public Policy back to work for social justice, she sees family volunteering as a way to build a stronger community, a better world, and a more connected family. In addition to her children, Sarah tends a large garden, a small flock of chickens, and a habit of mindfulness amid the necessary rituals of parenting.

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