Tuesday's Tip: Fostering a Sense of Community

Handwriting is a dying art.  The importance of penmanship is being replaced with typing skills in schools.  My son's baseball coach, a grandfather of another boy on the team, said he would be sending out team updates via text.  In the current digital age we have replaced thoughtful, personal contact via letter and even telephone in favor of the instant gratification of technology and its many forms.  I even use a web-based program that has apps on our smart phones for the family calendar.  It allows my husband and I to update our calendar instantly and to check for family availability without checking with each other first.  It has eliminated the need to actually talk to each other.  While my husband and I do make it a point to talk to one another, our world is decidedly turning away from personal means of communication in favor of (although faster) less personal technology. 
The result of this trend is a well-informed but disconnected population.  With that move we often lose the sense of community that comes when we make personal connections with the people around us.  But we have the opportunity to fight this and strive for the sense of community we all felt growing up.  The next time you find yourself in charge of an event or a group, take the time to call each person individually.  Pick up the phone and call your friend instead of sending them an email or a text.  Even better, grab some fabulous stationery, dust off your address book and send a "thinking of you" note.  I promise it will give the recipient (and you, too) a warm and fuzzy feeling, fostering a sense of community. 

Giving It All Away

 Marker & Mud recently made two donations to worthy causes.  One to the American Red Cross chapter in Vicenza, Italy and one to a family seeking to adopt a child from the foster system.  I don't put that on here to receive any kind of pats on the back for either of us, but to let our clients know that profit is not our first priority.  In the early days of a new business there is no such thing as profit.  Every penny that comes in right now goes right back into our business as we get on our feet.  Why, you ask, would we then spend money we aren't making to make donations?  Simple, it's not ours to start with.  As women of faith, we firmly believe that nothing we have is our own.  We can't take it with us.  While we hope to some day help support our families with income from Markers & Mud, that time is still far off in the future.  But Jesus doesn't call us to wait until we are financially profitable to make donations.  Instead he asks us to give generously, to care for widows and orphans and those around us in need.  So that's what we're doing.  The American Red Cross has chapters at military installations across the world.  They offer support services for our men and women in uniform and their families.  This is, of course, close to our hearts.  Adoption is an expensive undertaking, and this family is willing to take in a child who needs a forever family.  This is how we can help to take care of the orphans.  So today's post may not seem like much of a tip, but in all of this I hope you'll walk away with this tip:  Do What You Can, even if it doesn't seem to make sense.  Be a blessing to someone else, through a phone call, a card, a financial donation or your time.  Much like marker scribbles on walls that our kids sometimes leave behind, THIS is how we can leave a mark on the world.

Blessings,

Tuesday Tips: Beating the Birthday Party Blahs

My kids are all late spring and summer babies so it's time for good ol' mom to start thinking about birthday parties again.  Having four kids, I've had parties that included almost every cartoon character imaginable.  After a while cartoon characters, cake, pizza (or hot dogs) and the like start to leave me feeling like this:

I'm so tired of the usual cartoon characters covered in cake and ice cream.  And I talk to other moms like me everyday that suffer from the same cartoon character overload.  So we're going to lose the cartoon characters and explore some party ideas that will thrill your kids and their friends while avoiding the cliche of the cartoon character.

-Pick a theme based on your child's favorite activity or the activity your child has been asking to do.  My oldest son loves to play paintball and has been asking to play paintball with his friends for his birthday for months.  We are using the splattered paint concept for much of the decorations.   If your little guy is into pirates (including the popular pirate character on TV right now) then a perfect theme (with activity) would be a treasure hunt.  Gold coin candy can be purchased online and I even saw plastic treasure box shaped storage boxes at my local discount store recently. 

-If your sweet girl wants to have a sleepover, use a color instead of a theme.  If her favorite color is purple, then make everything purple.  Serve purple food, purple drinks, and let them leave with a purple party favor. 

-Base your child's birthday on what he or she wants to be when they grow up.  Let your sweet baby go to his own party in costume. 

-Is your little person into certain animals?  Use that to create your theme.  Perhaps they love sharks.  A beach themed party is a fabulous way to incorporate that.  Are they into lions?  Then perhaps a safari themed party should be in order. 

-Turn the usual party food into delightful munchies when you rename them.  Having a space-themed party?  Try renaming hotdogs something like "rocket dogs" or calling the kool-aid "jet fuel".

The smallest of details can make the simplest party ideas fabulous.  If you have an upcoming party and need some help, Markers & Mud is at your service!  Contact us and we can help you with theme development or custom items to make your party fantastic.