Week 28 - Give a Shower...Success!

Just knowing you are clean is refreshing to the mind and spirit. This week we were able to finally hand out one of our homeless bags.

We had decided that today was Noah day during vacation, and Noah chose to go to the Cardinal's baseball game for his special activity. We grabbed some nearly nothing tickets from StubHub, printed them off, grabbed snacks from Walgreens, and we were on our way.

When we arrived at the parking lot, there was no one there...we were too late to pay for parking. Sweet! A benefit of arriving at the bottom of the 2nd inning when the heat index is 111F degrees.

We had picked up some seats in the nosebleed section - on purpose. We were completely in the shade, with a nice breeze since we were in the second row from the top. It was actually pretty pleasant watching the game. All the boys love going to the game, and this was Jacob's first St. Louis Cardinals game.

It came down to the bottom of the 9th inning, with 2 outs, and the Cardinals made some fabulous hits to win the game. Quite exciting!

I still had my homeless bags with me, and we were on the lookout for someone to give one to on our walk back to our vehicle. This man looked like he had been blessed already, with a plate of food on his lap and others handing him a few things, but we gave him a bag anyway. The gentleman high fived the boys and was very appreciative of the items. When I asked to take his photo, he gave me a salute.

Week 17 and 18 - Shower Someone

The idea for this one was not my own. I had seen it pinned on Pinterest several months ago and repinned it for when we could use it.

These are Blessings Bags (see the original idea here), bags to give to the homeless.

Last week was our first St. Louis Cardinals game for the season, and we parked in our usual spot, walking our usual route down the street to Busch Stadium.

And, we saw the usual people: Cardinals fans, street vendors, and a couple homeless people begging for change.

It didn't sink in until after the game as to what we needed to do. I remembered my Pinterest pin from this winter, and our plan was hatched.

We had been given tickets to another game this week, so the boys and I headed to WalMart to pick up the items to be put into our Blessings Bag. Here is what we decided on:

• toothbrush
• toothpaste
• mouth wash
• comb
• Clorox wipes
• baby wipes
• Tylenol
• first aid kit
• tissues
• bar soap
• shampoo
• deodorant
• lotion
• germ-x
• chapstick
• gum
• granola bar
• crackers with peanut butter

I then slipped all the items neatly into a one gallon ziploc bag and added a Bible verse in the front. We made two of these bags, as we had seen two homeless men on our last walk to the stadium.

So last night was the game. I carried the bags in my tote, and Noah had an eye out for a homeless person to bless. And, we didn't see a single person to give the bags to. We were a little disappointed.

Plan B: pass the bags to our neighbors who are going to the baseball game tonight!