My birthday used to suck. My husband is in finance and works long hours mid September through mid December each year, during budget season, right through my birthday. He tries, but mostly my birthday was just me trying to convince my kids to be extra nice to me all day, and letting myself eat all the junk food. I ended the day depressed and lonely (and vaguely nauseated).
About nine years ago I knew my birthday was going to be extra awful. We had just moved to a new place, I had recently had a baby so my hormones were all out of whack and I had some other hard things I was dealing with personally.
A couple weeks before my birthday I read about this idea on the internet. You celebrate by doing the number of acts of kindness as your age. It was so genius. I knew from previous experience that nothing makes me happier than serving others. A whole day of that sounded blissful. Real, concrete experience that would prove that my existence mattered to the world outside my toddlers was just what I needed.
My favorite thing from that year was ordering pizza for a family at church who were dealing with some pretty scary health issues. I sent it completely anonymously and was shocked to receive a thank you note a few days later. They had done some fancy voodoo magic to find out who I was. I’m pretty sure the pizza place acted illegally. Anyways, a mutual friend told me later that they had been there when it was delivered and that the mom in the family burst into tears when the delivery person explained what was going on.
After that I was hooked. My favorite part each year is the reaction of the people I make my co-conspirators. It brightens their day almost more than the people receiving the service. I used to pay down layaways at Walmart. The workers were always so confused at first when I explained what I wanted to do, but they quickly got excited once they understood and had fun finding the perfect candidate. Unfortunately, Walmart discontinued their layaway program but I’ve found lots of other great ways to serve.
This year was extra fun because my parents came out from the other side of the country to join me and my kids had the day off school so it was a big party. I usually don’t count the individual number of people that I serve, just the different acts of service, but my mom was taking notes this time and that’s how she counted.
I’ve gotten old now so I’ve given up on doing a number that matches my age but if you count it like my mom does it’s not that hard to do.
I am absolutely terrible at remembering to take pictures so sorry about that.
- I always start the day waking up early to make a pumpkin pancake breakfast for my family
- Goodreads book recommendations.
3. FamilySearch.org indexing project. This involves looking at PDF images of old documents (like birth marriage and death records) and transcribing them into a searchable database so people can find their family history. It’s an especially good project if you’re good at reading hard handwriting or if you speak a different language.
4. Kiva Loan. Microloans. You can search by the kind of industry, the type of people it benefits or geographic area. I always like to focus on supporting refugees. There’s also a feature that keeps track of which countries you’ve loaned to, it’s a kind of “gotta catch ’em all” fun thing.
5. I always do my kids chores for them. My mom beat me to it this year.
6. I bought a present for my husband.
7. Made nametags for NICU babies. My kids had a lot of fun with this project. Made with love. I really wish I had thought to take a picture of them before I mailed them in.
8. We made cards for my husband’s grandmother who is in hospice.
9. I put together General Conference kits for the women at church that I’ve been assigned to watch out for. (Here’s an explanation of how that works) General Conference is our church’s worldwide meeting that happens twice a year. It’s full of inspiring, uplifting messages. I always look forward to it. The kits had fun snacks and otherwise festive stuff inside.
10. We made bird feeders
11. Took brownies to all the neighbors on our cul-de-sac. (tried to be anonymous but people figured it out.)
12. Made dinners for three families who I thought might need it. (Enchilada assembly line party!) I got a very sweet reaction from one of the young moms.
13. Paid for the car behind us in line at the drive-thru. We went to Culvers.
14. Took pictures of headstones. You can do this for Find-A-Grave or BillionGraves
15. Put cash in our favorite library books along with a note praising the reader for their excellent choice in books. This is my kids absolute favorite activity.
16. Put together a birthday box for a needy kid through Box of Balloons. This was so much fun. You put together all the makings of a birthday party, including a present and decorations and cupcakes. There’s a sheet that tells a little bit about the kid so you can theme it appropriately and get the right gift. This is the first year I’ve done this one but we’ll definitely do it every year. Another one I wish I had taken a picture of before I sent it off.
17. We went to the park and hid little playdoughs all over the place. We put little notes on them so people would know they were to take. We hid thirty of them and then watched little kids find them, it was so fun to watch. Especially when those kids decided to share with others.
18. Donated items needed for homeless families just getting into a home through a church service project.
19. Made a fleece tie blanket to donate to the homeless shelter.
20. Left a large tip when we went to dinner. I love doing that too. I always feel like we need to runaway really fast before the server sees it. lol.
I was a little sad I didn’t get to all the things on my list this year but now that I’m writing it all out I can see how much I did and it feels great.
If you hate your birthday I highly recommend this coping method.
