Northern Reasons to be Cheerful #R2BC

We headed off up north this week, and that's a very rare occurrence for us. I was pondering if the kids have ever been up north and we realised they had once, back in 2011. We stayed in a holiday village near Hull and didn't really enjoy ourselves, so it's probably a good thing I had forgotten that before I booked this break.

This time we stayed in an Air BnB and I'd happily recommend Squirrel Court, which is close to Thornton village, Bronte Country. We were around 20 minutes outside the centre of Bradford, but it felt like it was a lifetime away, as we were in the countryside, with amazing hill views, a farm shop at the end of the lane and tons of local pubs.

*  We've enjoyed lots of family time, doing all sorts, from just chilling in the wonderful cottage to heading into major cities.

Reasons to be Cheerful - Feeding Giraffes, Time with my Mum & Being over 40!

Happy Thursday friends.

Can you believe it is September already? This year seems to be whizzing by in a flash and I'd quite like it to slow down really! The weather also seems to have moved into Autumn and I am thinking of packing my summer clothes away.

My parents and Aunt have been to stay with us for nearly a week and it has been good to have them here. They've been babysitters for us so we could have a night away to Port Lympne Reserve and also visit the cinema to see The Shack. My kids really love their grandparents so it is always special for them all to spend time together. I love that JJ chose to spend the day with them when he had an extra inset day off school. Many near 14 year old's would just stay home instead!

Here are my hubby and I getting settled into our home for the night last Friday. Giraffe Lodge was an amazing experience and one we were so lucky to enjoy. I love how happy my husband looks in this photo.

Dear So and So - Bank Holiday Weekend Edition

Dear School,

I'm so pleased you choose to have an inset day on Friday, meaning that we got a four day weekend. It has gone in a flash but that chilled first day really set the kids up so they could then have three full-on busy days.

However, I could sincerely do without them being off on Thursday for the election. It does bug me that I can't take them out for one day to have a long weekend away but you can close the school for the election when there is a perfectly good village hall down the way!

Sincerely Mrs Pannell

Packing our Christmas Shoebox Gifts - Creating Wow!

OK I did it, I know many think it is a cardinal sin to mention Christmas in September but when the gifts are going abroad in November I need to get organised. This last weekend the girls and I sat down and made up 4 shoebox gifts for Operation Christmas Child. As a family, we have been making these gifts up since JJ was a baby and I do enjoy collecting throughout the year and then putting the boxes together knowing they will bring real joy to a child in another country.

Having travelled with Operation Christmas Child (OCC) to Belarus in December 2012 I saw that joy first hand. Children that were quiet and reserved living in children's homes with little to their name came alive when they got to open their simple shoebox and find what gifts had been chosen especially for them.

This year will be a quieter year for me OCC wise as I have a lot of other charity projects on but I still hope to be involved with the collection at the kid's school.

Making up our boxes
I was super pleased when I got out all the bits I have been squirrelling away this year to find that all I needed to purchase to make nice full boxes was toothpaste, boiled sweets, notepads and soap. So I spent the sum total of £7.35 to make the four boxes. Now obviously I've spent odd bits throughout the year but by buying smartly at sale times I've been able to get brand new cuddly toys for £1 each (The Entertainer), 4 pack of sponges for £1 (Asda), 25p pencil cases (Tesco), skipping ropes for 49p each (Sainsbury's), 6 pack of toothbrushes £1 (Poundland) and so many more things. It really does make all the difference.

I've also collected quite a number of things that have not directly cost me anything - wrapped McDonald happy meal toys, marbles from a jarbola at a fete, party bag toys that were not needed, duplicate birthday gifts the kids were given, promotional items that came with magazines and goodie bag items from blogging events.

Here are the contents of one of our boxes, they are all pretty similar as I have a formula that I use for packing -

• Something to wear - hat, gloves, scarf, sunglasses
• Something sporty - skipping rope, ball, mini bat & ball
• Boiled sweets to enjoy
• Stationary - a pencil case with pencil, biros, pencil sharpener, eraser and either coloured pencils, crayons or felt tips
• Note pad and small colouring pad or printed sheets
• Stickers
• Cuddly toy
• Toothbrush & paste, soap and flannel or sponge and hair comb or brush
• Something pretty for the girls - jewellery, hairclips etc
• Something to play with/ make - bead sets, crafty set, toy cars, musical instrument, brain teaser toy, girls doll
• Photo of my kids with their finished boxes
• Christmas card for their whole family
• Note to show we have made our distribution cost donation of £3 per box online

Having helped sort quite a number of boxes over the years I realise I pack mine quite full but that is my choice and even if you could only put 6 or 8 items in a shoebox it will still be really appreciated.

Creating Wow
The subtitle of this post was Creating Wow and I called it this because that is the sound you hear when you are in a room full of children opening their shoeboxes. It would be very easy to judge the shoebox gifts by our own privileged and western standards. I know that as much as I have tried to instil gratitude into my children they are still not great at it. If they were given a shoebox with a toothbrush and paste in they would probably turn their nose up. (I'm not proud of this but you know I like to be real with you) but from what I observed and learnt from veteran OCC staff it is very different for children in other countries.

They are happy for what they receive, I did not hear one moan of 'but their box is bigger than mine', 'I want that one' or 'I don't like it'. All I heard was wow and wow and even more wow and if you watch the short video below you'll see what I mean. Listen for the wow, it will warm your heart.

Might you fancy making a shoebox gift up this year?  
You can make one yourself (see my tutorial over here or another example of a box I made here ) or if you like the idea but you are short on time then you can use Shoebox world and choose your items and pay the price and then just leave it to someone else to pack it up and send it off on your behalf.

If you do make a box, don't forget to include an envelope with your £3 transportation donation or donate it online and this will create your tracking code so you can find out where your box is delivered to. Then drop it off at one of the thousands of collection points that are collecting between 1 - 18th November 2014.

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From recipient to donor - Meet Kymbat

Anyone that has read this blog for any length of time will know of my love affair with Operation Christmas Child.  I adore putting the shoebox gifts together for children abroad who otherwise might go without a smile this winter. I know there are other far more important and life-saving projects and I'm involved in those too but I see no issue with giving to the big picture projects and also donating my time, effort and money to projects like Operation Christmas Child that are about offering a small bit of joy in a shoebox and also showing many children that someone, somewhere cares enough for them that they took the time to make a gift just for them.

It has been an absolute blessing to me this year to meet and get to know Kymbat, she is from Kyrgyzstan. Not only because she is a beautiful soul and part of our pastoral group but because Kymbat received shoeboxes as a child in her home country. You read the stories of adults who received boxes as children and how it touched them but nothing prepares you for meeting someone who felt the love and care of receiving a shoebox gift them-self.

This is Kymbat in the summer as she helped to pick in our kitchen garden

Kymbat came shopping with me recently to buy some items for the shoeboxes we would make as a community this year and as I picked up the toothpaste, an item that I consider really boring to add to the boxes she told me about how she loved her toothpaste in her box as it was especially for a child and had a great flavour, something her mother could not afford and that was not readily available in Kyrgyzstan ten years ago. Of course, this lifted me and showed me yet again that I must trust God and his plan, things that I think boring and unnecessary are actually seen quite differently by others.

This weekend at church Kymbat's testimony of receiving her shoebox was read out by a friend of hers and there was many a wet eye in the church as we heard about how proud Kymbat was of her pink hat, no other child had a hat as beautiful and colourful as hers. She knew for sure that someone cared when she received such a special shoebox gift.

It was with great love that Kymbat joined myself and some of the other international volunteers the other night to put together quite a number of boxes. We had a lot of fun and feel sure that many children will be blessed with these boxes filled with love.

As well as box packing, some of the fun came about as Haribo had sent us some chocolate Christmas cupcakes and fairy cakes to get us in the festive mood. These were great and the price is very reasonable at £1 for 6 fairy cakes or £1 for two very big buttercream topped cupcakes but the kids favourite was by far the 12 pack of smaller cupcakes, which I think retails for about £5. Very good value. These are all available from Tesco, Morrisons and Asda and JJ tells me we will definitely be buying more Christmas.

I think by the time we finish up, there should be about 70 completed shoeboxes from the local church and community here and that is a fabulous effort, well done all. Mich x

Disclosure: The cakes were sent to me free of charge.

Views of Minsk (Belarus) through my iPhone

About seven weeks ago I was in Minsk, the capital Belarus with Operation Christmas Child. It was such an amazing journey and one that will impact me for life.  This afternoon I have just spent an enjoyable couple of hours reliving my journey through Minsk as I prepared to share my faith journey for Church and the practical shoebox distribution for my children's school assembly.

Arriving at the beginning of December the snow was only just starting to fall and we saw it fall and fall as the week progressed. Whilst I delighted in about 3 inches of snow and temperatures of down to -8 degrees. I believe there is now about 10 inches of snow and temperatures more like -18 degrees! ekk

There is no logic to these photos, they are just shots I took as we travelled around the Minsk region with my trust iPhone, they will give you an insight into how the country looks. From the grandeur of the city to the poverty of some of the villages.

These photos have not been manipulated, they are as they were when I took them....

It might look a bit bleak and cold but it was well worth a visit, a real education for me!

Operation Christmas Child: Insider shoebox tips

I have made many Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes up over the years and always really enjoyed doing it.  Each year I try and make the boxes for less money but include better quality items.  It is quite a challenge but a fun one for someone like me who likes shopping and thrifty buying!

Having completed the full circle this year from buying the items and packing a box (or 6), to helping out in a warehouse to then travelling to Belarus and putting the shoeboxes in the hands of children - I have gained quite an insight and learnt so many new things, so I thought it was only right that I share.

Favourite items in the box

I have to be honest and say that not one child I came across got excited by the toiletry items. It might just be that in Belarus they do have this sort of thing available to them but basically, they all just looked past those as they saw them in the box.  That is unless they were particularly fun, the type of wash mitts that are characters was pretty popular.

By far the most popular things were as you would expect - the toy item.  They really seemed to love the traditional toys, the girls loved dolls and the boys liked cars, planes etc. It was an eye-opener to hear the kids ask me what some items were, I realised that when we make the boxes up we use our Western, affluent perspective and put in the things that might be popular with our kids, like the plastic 'silly bandz' bracelets - they had no idea what these were.

Also popular - hats, gloves and scarfs, colouring items, cuddly toys and jewellery.

Tips from the warehouse

I went and spent a few enjoyable hours at a local warehouse checking the boxes and this turned out to be really enlightening, I'll share with you the thrifty tips I learnt there -

1.  Include ribbon in girls boxes, they love to tie their hair up and make it look pretty.  This costs us just pennies and just because it is not fashionable here right now does not mean children in other countries would not like them. And actually, look my Miss E loves ribbons in her hair.

2.  You can make up your own craft pack to include with the box. Look at below - some Christmas card fronts, coloured paper, perhaps ribbons, stickers and sparkles and a small glue stick and there you go - an instant pack of joy for a child.  I bought a pack of 12 small glue sticks in Sainsbury's in the summer for under £1 - crafts packs really can just cost pennies if you collect items in the sales and such.

3.  You can buy multi-packs of toothbrushes, soap etc and then just bag them up in a cheap sandwich bag or clingfilm.  I have always bought single packs as I thought they had to be wrapped, but now I know you can wrap them yourself and this will make things even better value. Make sure those soaps are wrapped so they don't stink the box out and of course no soaps which look like food, we do not want to be confusing the kids that have not seen anything like before!

4.  Can you knit?  Yes, then you are onto a winner. Any kind of knitted item seemed to go down well, you can't do stuffed toys because of the fire safety issues but hats, gloves, puppets and even small handbags go down a storm. Look at these super cute little bags made from a child's metal bangle and a knitted sack - simple and perfect.

5.  I have been chatting to a great lady, Tricia who helps out each year at the Wirral warehouse and asking her about her top tips.  She reminded me that the cheapest items are often left out and are so appreciated by the kids. So please do remember to include some paper (pad etc) and sweets in each box.

6. You can clean up and repurpose fashion dolls as the kids abroad love the traditional toys. A new hairstyle, a bit of make-up and some handmade clothes do the dolls up a treat and they are so appreciated. Or if you have the skills, you could sew a doll and her own blanket.

7. It was also pointed out to me that Chinese takeaway dishes (you know the plastic-type with a lid) can make great boxes for home-made puzzles, bracelet kits and board games made with bottle tops. There are some very clever and creative types out there. Check out the Wirral OCC community page on Facebook as well as the official OCC UK Facebook page for great ideas.

8. My biggest tip and the one I hear time and time again from everyone who is involved with making boxes is to plan and buy all year round. Not all items in £1 shops are badly made tat, if you regularly keep an eye you can buy great things and buying a little each month as the year goes by spreads the cost and makes it more affordable to make up a box or two.

Thank you to everyone involved in OCC, my increased involvement this year has been such a privilege. Just look at the picture below to know what a difference you make. 

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Operation Christmas Child Exposed

Me with our translator, Nastia

I’ve been back from Belarus for almost a week now and I have been enjoying the downtime, it is as if I do not have enough brain capacity to blog right now, I am well and truly spent. I did wake up this morning though and have a silent longing for it to be last Sunday again; we met so many fabulous kids in Belarus and we were riding the high of our successful webcast. Last Sunday was for sure my best day there and the people I spent the week with were such fun and kept me grounded during a week which could have been very emotional.

I feel as if I have been propelled on a journey that started in November 2011 when I was first asked to travel with Operation Christmas Child to be part of and blog about a shoebox distribution abroad. Once the initial panic of just three weeks’ notice had dissipated I was so excited to take this journey, as OCC is a charity I have supported for years and love the idea of, so why wouldn’t I do this? I soon realised the answer to this – there are so many people who are anti-OCC and they were not going to make my journey easy. The number of negative comments I have received in the last year could have been seriously demotivating if I had allowed them to be.

For one reason and another I did not make the journey last year but it was agreed I would join the OCC team this year, so I had lots of time to prepare and that was much better for me. If I’m honest I spent much of this year in a bit of a panic that I might not be able to offer OCC what they wanted from me. I was really conscious that as a charity they do not have money to waste and were putting a lot of faith in me to write their stories for the web and their publications. My trip to Ethiopia with the ONE Campaign helped to boost my confidence I could do this, but still, the niggling doubt remained. Oh Michelle, ye of little faith!

Image Credit: Jonty Wilde

R2BC (Week 50) - 50 Smiles....

Some of you might have noticed I was missing from Reasons to be Cheerful last week, I was in Belarus with Samaritans Purse, the charity that runs the Operation Christmas Child initiative.

It was a superb week, I met so many awesome children and had my eyes opened in so many ways. If you look back through my last few posts you'll see more from my trip if you are interested.  At the weekend I'll be publishing a post about what I learnt about OCC while I was away with them, it will make for interesting reading.

Thanks so much to Kat for being a great host last week and this week is being hosted by Sally over at Pressies by Pebbles. Write your post and then please go over and see her to link up, leave a comment and go share some comment love. I'll certainly come to visit anyone this weekend that leaves me a comment.

#R2BC will be back here with me again next week and will run each week over Xmas and the New Year, so do join in.

So what is my reason to be cheerful this week?  Simple - 50 smiles as they received their shoebox gifts...

Have a great week, Mich x

All images by Jonty Wilde

Operation Christmas Child - Belarus, Andrey's story

This is Andrew but pronounced Andrey when said with a Belarusian accent. He was just the most gorgeous boy that we met during our whole stay in Belarus. Yesterday at dinner I told my family about him and I kid you not both my husband and son nearly had tears rolling down their cheeks.

I'll tell you his story -

Andrew is now nine years old and has been living happily with his Babushka (Grandma) for the last three years, it is clear for all to see that they adore each other. We were proudly shown the medals that he had won in the local family fun days, apparently, he had run on behalf of himself, his mother and father and then his Babushka had taken her turn and they had come home with the medal! Very impressive and a good start to Andrew’s desire to be a ‘Speedy man’ when he grows up, that is a racing driver to you and me.

Andrews life did not start out anywhere near as happy. When you learn that he lives with his Grandma you automatically start to wonder where his parents are. It turns out that Andrews’s parents had not been married when he was born and in fact, his father had gone off to Russia to make a new life with his wife and children. Andrew lived with his mother for the first couple of years of his life but sadly she was not fit to look after him and he was taken into care and ended up in an orphanage.

During this time his Babushka learned of his existence and set about proving she was his biological father's mother, this was an expensive and lengthy process but luckily one that she won and Andrew was able to come home with her.  No wonder he is so happy now.  His first couple of years were spent with his mother who I do not really know much back history on but I do know she lost her parental rights through a lack of care for Andrew and she has now died.  He then spent about 4-5 years in the orphanage where he was just one of many abandoned children, it can't have made for a secure and happy young childhood Andrew now lives in a very basic house which is desperately in need of repair but it appears he does not see his surroundings as he feels blessed to be loved. He greeted us at the door of his house with a smile that could light a room. He started to look through his box straight away and then his Grandma called us into the house to take a seat and chat for a short while.

Andrew asked us who had made this box for him and his manner was very inquiring and you could tell it was important to him.  We informed him that children in the United Kingdom had made up the box as they wanted to send him some gifts.  When he saw there was a hand made puppet in there he asked us if he could make something to send to them to say thank you.  We told him his smile and photograph were enough...... 

And they will be enough for me for many years to come. I am sat here feeling so emotional as I type this. The children we met in Belarus were so respectful and giving and are a fine example to our own children. It literally churns my guts when I think of how much kids here have and how ungrateful they are for it. Don't gte me wrong my kids are no worse than anyone else's in the UK but you would have thought the world ended yesterday when I told JJ he was having a week without his computer.  I think maybe he learnt a little lesson himself when I talked about children over there of the same age as him never having used a computer.

May the Lord bless you, Andrew, I hope your dreams come true.

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This was my SoundCloud made on the last day on the trip and I think I might even have mentioned Andrew in it, he touched me deeply.

 Last photo Image Credit - Samaritans Purse/ Jonty Wilde

Operation Christmas Child, Live web cast in Belarus - Job done!

I have had such an amazing time here in Belarus, we have experienced so much in such a little time. A real whistle-stop tour of this great place. The culture is so different from anything I have experienced before and I have been really impacted by the place and the people I have been privileged to travel with. My eyes have been opened to new opportunities, ways to achieve things and avenues to explore.

There are loads of blog posts brewing in my head but for today I'll just share with you the live webcast that we filmed this afternoon and my sound clip made last night at the end of day 4.

It has been fantastic having you join me on this journey. Thanks so much for reading. God bless. Mich x



Day 4 sound clip for you -
 

Oh, and I have to share my favourite pictures of today too. We went to visit the Sunday school at the church where our translator Nastia is a Sunday school teacher and the children had been working on the topic 'God holds each of us in His hand'. The children drew some pictures and asked me to take them back to my children at my church/ school, they liked the idea of reciprocal gifts.  Yes, I was welling up at this point and as I just had not expected it.

One of the drawings

The budding artists!