Good Deeds Week 3rd – 9th November

Join me in my weekly diary of Good Deeds, where I’m trying a year long challenge to do at least one Good Deed a day for a whole year. This challenge was inspired by Judith O’Reilly and her book “A Year of Doing Good” which I read back in April. Along the way I’ve inspired others and it’s never too late to join in.

November 3rd – Paid forward lots of tweeting for other authors and internet friends today on an otherwise quiet day spent with the family.

November 4th – Emptied out all my loose change into my jam jar which has been neglected for a while. Picked up and delivered a huge bag of potatoes for a friend. Started my Christmas shopping! Good deeds received; When I called at the farm for the potatoes the farmer offered to come out and put 2 bags in my car for me rather than me struggling them in myself (which I usually do, but they are heavy even if they are a bargain) Made a donation to The Poppy Appeal.

November 5th – My blogging friend Harula posted a lovely letter to a stranger on her blog today http://wordsthatserve.wordpress.com/2013/11/05/love-letter-to-a-stranger/ the idea being to leave it somewhere for a stranger to find like a book or a bench at the park. http://www.moreloveletters.com/letter-central/  Here are the last few lines which I found beautiful;

May love fill your days

May peace bless your nights

and May joy fill your heart

With love from one like you, who walks this path of life, one step at a time.

It has inspired me to find somewhere to leave such a letter myself. Wrote an overdue e-mail to a friend to invite her for a coffee and a chat.

November 6th – Posted a book review for Randy Mixter who will return to the blog for a guest author interview in a few weeks, drafted up another guest author interview which will appear in a few more days. Have been sorting out a coffee date with a friend that I need to catch up with. Have been reading a book by Louise Hay and planning to change the bad negative words which come out of my mouth all too often, they are of no use to anyone! Good Deeds received; Lots of thanks and appreciation for the potatoes which I had delivered to my friend, they are so much nicer than many from the supermarket.

November 7th – Off out to the local country market this morning, bought some cakes and jars of marmalade which I’ll use in Christmas parcels. Caught up with a friend who had been thinking of catching up with me only this week, what a great coincidence.

November 8th – Sent an e-mail out to some friends so that we can get together as a group for coffee and a catch up of news. Have been planning some more of my Christmas ideas and thought I might try making a parcel of a selection of my favourite recipes, and adding them to some cooking accessories or even the ingredients to make one of the recipes. Good deeds received: thanks and enthusiasm for our coffee date from one of our group.

Good Deeds Week June23rd – 29th

During this week I will officially pass my 10th week of Good Deeds, I started back on April the 16th, a Tuesday. Now I blog from Sunday to Saturday giving you, my readers, a weekly update on my challenge to follow in the footsteps of Judith O’Reilly author of “A Year of Doing Good”, who inspired this series of posts. If this book is new to you catch up with my review of the book here http://wp.me/p2Eu3u-1hL

My challenge is to complete at least 1 Good Deed a day for a year. I have already inspired others to take up the challenge and to draw on the good effect this can have on their own lives and I am especially thrilled to hear each week of others who are picking up the baton. I hereby invite you to join in too and let me know how you got on and what surprises came to you as a result.

Here’s an example; I have baked cakes and cookies which I take as gifts to friends when I visit, then the good came back to me and I won a years supply of rice and pasta! Which again I turned into a good deed as I have been able to give much of it away after providing free meals for my family.

Friends and family pass on books to me which I read, review and blog about, in turn more people send me books and the cycle continues. I pass on my love of books across the globe and back again.

June 23rd – I now look forward to Sunday posts where I catch up with Harula and we swop our Good Deed posts, they inspire us to continue and it’s so lovely to read what others are doing. Here is a link to Harula’s blog for you to enjoy her posts as much as me. http://wordsthatserve.wordpress.com/good-deed-weeks/ Sent 2 books to my mother-in-law to read and received 3 books back from her for me to read.

June 24th – Drove my daughter and two of her school friends to the Sixth Form College for their taster morning, helped to start some new paperwork checks at work which need implementing. Rang another work colleague and offered some extra help. Found my jam jar of saved coins in the kitchen and realised that I’d not put any money in it for a while. Added some money.

June 25th – Found money on the ground near my car at work, so saved it for my jam jar. I’m the person who goes around looking at the ground, usually to stop myself tripping over invisible objects, but it does mean I have the potential to spot shiny objects on the ground. Over the years I’ve found quite a lot of money; My best was £20 at the Boxing Day races! I certainly came home with more than I won on the horses! I once found £10 on the floor of a charity shop, but I felt I couldn’t pocket that due to the location, I was quite gutted at the time! Anyway back to today, I was going to dodge out of work quickly when my conscious reminded me of a phone call which needed making. I hesitated, should I pretend to forget it and leave it for someone else? No! my “Good Deeds” inner voice shouted! Oh Bother! Took 2 minutes to make the phone call which didn’t make any dent in my time, but meant the job was done. “See, I was right” said my inner Good Deeds voice smugly. Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Replied my inner adolescent child.

June 26th – The July issue of Fleet Life has arrived and I’ve scanned my page of book reviews ready to post on Monday when the online version goes live. Due to the imminent summer holidays, deadlines for the August and September issues all have to be completed by the 19th July, so today I’ve sent off my copy for the August issue. I love doing the “Big Reveal” at the beginning of each month and sometimes surprising authors with the news of their free book promotion.

June 27th – It’s school prom night tonight, so I’m firstly a taxi driver today as the girls get ready. Later tonight they are going to the prom in a horsebox! Which they’ve done up like a party bus. Have bought snacks for any of the pre or post prom parties and I have got flowers and beers for the two wonderful parents who are providing the transport and the after party sleepover. Posted a devilish writing prompt on the community storyboard site involving writing using a dialect. http://neverendingstorydepository.wordpress.com/2013/06/27/writing-using-a-dialect/

June 28th – It’s Friday and the evening is warm and sultry, so I’ve decided to go and watch my son play cricket under the false pretences that it will be a lovely way to spend a few hours. However out team’s game has been allocated the pitch in the middle of a field with very little shelter and the black clouds are heading our way. Then it starts to rain! Rain doesn’t stop much play in youth cricket, so I huddled with other mother’s under umbrella’s as we muttered about the umpires and the English weather. My good deed was being their to support the team who played badly in poor conditions, we clapped each lad who bravely faced bowlers who had better luck and sad as it may be us Mum’s were thankful when the game ended early as the opposition walked all over our team. We hurried back to the warmth of our waiting cars and left the menfolk mumbling about the state of play. I gathered are a few pieces of litter and couldn’t wait to get home!

June 29th – Agreed to review 2 more books for authors, finished reading another book and posted my review on the blog and at Goodreads. Will sort out some more books to pass on to my Mother-in-law. Took cakes when we went to tea with the relatives. Did some weeding in the garden and watered some thirsty looking plants for the mother-in-law. Hope this made up for the fact that I had to tell her that the jam was “off”, my son said the pate smelt “funny” and my husband commented on the cracked china – oops!

Good Deeds week 9th -15th June

This little project started on the 16th April when I read a book written by Judith O’Reilly called “A Year of Doing Good”. http://wp.me/p2Eu3u-1hL On the day I began the book, I started to note down any good deeds that I did for others as an experiment. I managed at least 1 deed a day until the end of April, so vowed to try and continue the challenge. Along the way I met Harula http://wordsthatserve.wordpress.com/good-deed-weeks/ who took up the baton and now on a Sunday we both post our weekly diary of Good Deeds. https://rosieamber.wordpress.com/my-year-of-doing-good-deeds/ Others are joining too, it’s such a positive thing to try to do. So without further ado here are my deeds for this week.

June 9th – Hopped to Harula’s blog today and read her very inspirational blog. Followed a link to the Happster blog and loved it http://happsters.com/ for anyone seeking a dose of happiness. I love this meeting place that we are creating on a Sunday. E-mailed a friend to wish her well as she leaves her job this week.

June 10th – My morning helping out at the local school, took along an extra pair of hands today, so two of us helped out. Picked up litter on our way home. My guest author on the blog this morning wrote about falling in love with an asylum seeker and its difficulties, gave her some publicity. Was chuffed to see a copy of Fleet life with my monthly book reviews on the magazine table at the chiropractor clinic when I had an appointment today.

June 11th – A work day today, tried to do a bit extra work so my overworked colleague has a little less in her pile. Nipped into the supermarket in between taxi driving the children, was extra friendly to the check out girl after the customer before me was rather grumpy, put a smile back on her face.

June 12th – A slow day today and just a book to finish for a review. A bit frustrated because the “Like” button on all the WordPress pages I go to today is stuck on “loading….” Have tried to tweak my computer but it doesn’t help, it leaves me feeling incomplete, I should use the opportunity to write comments instead, but I don’t want to on all the sites, feeling a bit Bah Humbug!

June 13th – Started a new book and added the details to Goodreads as I couldn’t find it on their records, hopefully this will help the author with a bit more publicity. Posted reviews from yesterday’s  book. Hooray the “Like” button is back working again on my WordPress family sites, I’m back in action. Later I put some money in to a donation box at the shops.

June 14th – Remembered a friends birthday and wrote out a card, took it to the post box. I took a bag with me to put litter in but at first I felt really stupid about being seen picking up litter. I heard a car approaching so didn’t pick up the first piece, the second piece was too near a group of workmen for me to feel comfortable stooping down to pick up someone else’s rubbish. I berated myself as I passed the third piece, vowing to pick up the very next piece that I saw. I nearly missed it, but dived down at the last minute to remove a scrap of card. I held it tight like a trophy and walked on depositing it in the bin next to the post box. Triumphant I posted my letter and headed back home on a circular route avoiding the workmen. I scooped up four more pieces of litter and dropped them all in my wheelie bin as I arrived home, I felt more comfortable now with my good deed and I smiled to myself. Later I spent 2 hours trying to set up a new DVD recorder for my parents, it was complicated due to their “Freeview” box and the “easy, automatic setup” just wouldn’t work. Technical jargon confuses me and Google was no help as the lap top took too long to load. I tried but failed.

June 15th – It’s the “Power of Smile Day” according to the Happster blog (see above link), so I re-tweeted their post. Set up another post for a blog tour promotion as it coincided with a book I read today.

So what do you think? Is doing a good deed a day something positive which could bring happiness to all our lives? Can it make us a better person? Do we really stop and think about being grateful when others do good deeds for us? I know we will all have different perceptions of what a good deed is, but I think that stopping and thinking about them a little more can only be a good thing.