Tis the Season-Guest Post

Morning everyone! I just love this blog world that I'm immersed in. I've had the opportunity to "meet" some wonderful women and develop relationships that encourage and inspire. One of those women is my guest blogger today, Cassie. She's funny, sweet, and has an amazing heart. I'm excited that she's here today so please welcome her with some comments, love, and most importantly participation! 

Hi everyone! My name is Cassie, and some of you may already know me from my blog “Sage.” Unfortunately I said a sad farewell to my blog a few months ago for reasons related to my professional career. Lauren has been lovely enough to still let me guest post on something close to my heart.

You may have seen other bloggers posting their “101 in 1001” lists. If you have not, this is just a little goals list of 101 things to complete in 1001 days. After seeing a few other bloggers complete one, I couldn’t resist. Although I do not still have a blog to share it on, I wanted it for my myself (Type A personality type prototype over here!).  My first goal (which I admittedly stole from my sweet friend Cassie over at Living onCloud 9 , was to make care packages for the homeless that I could keep in my car to hand out as I saw the need.

I quickly got my fiancé, Matt, on board with me. As Christians, we are always looking for ways to share Jesus and to serve others. This has become an especially important thing as we start planning for our marriage. We definitely want to keep Christ at the center of our relationship. Anyways, that is beside the point. So, the night after we agreed to do care packages for the homeless, my sweet fiancé went out a bought $100 (our budget for the bags) worth of items to include in our care packages.

I found a number of websites that had pre-made lists of items to include. You can check those out here and here. We decided to include the following:

·         Toothbrush/toothpaste

·         Deodorant

·         Socks (one of the most important items to include)

·         Granola bars

·         Body wash/bar soap (with a carrying container)

·         Pens and notepads

·         Razors and shaving cream

·         Mini flashlight with batteries

·         Lotion

·         Chapstick

·         Wash cloths/hand towels

·         Beanies

·         Wet wipes

·         Mouthwash

·         Combs

·         Shampoo

·         Church fliers (although you do not have to include these, consider including a note or Christmas card)

Not all care packages had the same items exact items, but we tried to put the essentials (e.g., shampoo, body wash, toothpaste/toothbrush, socks, etc.) in each bag. Some websites suggested using backpacks, but we chose to use gallon sized Ziplocs. These were cost effective and allowed us to make seven bags in total.

My point in sharing this with you today is that I want to encourage you all to join in with us in making these care packages. Christ calls us to help the helpless and during this advent season, we challenge you to do just that. Our goal is to make and distribute 100 care packages by December 25^th. With the cold wave sweeping the country (besides Lauren in Florida you lucky duck), there is a HUGE need. We challenge you all to get your friends and family on board to compile these bags and help us reach our goal of 100! You do not need to have $100 to go out and make these. You can put together small bags of just the essentials for under $10 a bag. Even making one will help us reach our goal and spread love and warmth. A few of our friends have recruited kids in the classrooms, people at their churches, and even  neighbors to help us reach our goal. There are so many great ways to help and we hope that you will join in as well.

If you decide to participate, please tag Matt (@mattybees) and I (@cass_mar) on instagram and use the hashtag #charitybagchallenge so we can add your bags to our count! We currently have 7/100 with 18 days left! Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions you might have (clm348@nau.edu)!  If you do not feel you can help us at this time, I ask that you pray that we can compile all 100 bags and that we will have the opportunities present to us to pass them all out. I also ask that you help us spread the word by sharing this on instagram, twitter, facebook, you know the drill.

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas full of joy and love. 

Thank you so much Cassie! I will definitely be looking to do something like this in our area this Christmas season.