25 Ideas to Help Out Your Community!

25 Ideas to Help Out Your Community!

25 Ideas to Help Out Your Community!

Here at Doozy Cards, we love helping people share special moments with family and friends with original eCards, but we also love helping those in need and we believe in giving back to our community. That’s why we donate a portion of our proceeds to St. Vincent Meals on Wheels–the largest privately funded meals program in the U.S. – every time someone signs up for a membership St. Vincent provides over one million nutritious meals every year to homebound seniors and others that are too weak, ill or impoverished to buy or prepare food for themselves. Continue reading

How to Help Your Kids be Grateful and Appreciative

How to Help Your Kids be Grateful and Appreciative

How to Help Your Kids be Grateful and Appreciative

The holiday season is one of the times we talk to our kids* about the importance of being thankful for all the wonderful things in their lives. From happiness and health, to family and friends, learning to be grateful for life’s gifts is a powerful lesson that will benefit them years to come. To offer you a bit of guidance from things we’ve found useful, here are some of our suggestions on how to help your kids be grateful and appreciative.

  • Incorporate gratefulness into the daily routine – Weaving appreciation into normal, everyday conversation can help build a lifelong foundation. Saying “please” and “thank you” are of course important, but you can also reinforce the attitude by having a special part of the day, maybe at dinnertime or bedtime, where you talk about all of the good things that happened during the day and what they’re grateful for. We have found focusing on gratitude is a saving grace when things are down and dark, especially. In our family, it’s like the oil that makes the engine of life run smoothly.
  • Have kids help out with chores – They may not be thrilled about the idea and the tasks might take a little longer, but having the kids help out with household chores like clearing the table, feeding the pets or raking leaves, teaches them to appreciate the effort that these activities require and how to feel good about taking responsibility for their own family and home.
  • Practice saying no – While the gift-giving season and potential meltdowns can make this one a tough lesson to practice, saying no to constant demands for toys can help teach children to be grateful for the gifts they do receive and to not take for granted that they get everything they ask for.
  • Participate in goodwill activities together – While volunteering is a great way to develop gratefulness, you don’t have to take your kids to a soup kitchen every week. Practice small gestures of goodwill together, like making cookies for a sick neighbor, that will demonstrate how kind gestures benefit others. When he was in grade school, we took our son, Otis, on rounds delivering Meals on Wheels and it really opened his sense of compassion for people.
  • Write thank you notes together – Make sending thank you notes and thoughtful e-cards to friends and loved ones a part of your family’s regular routine. The act of writing a thank you note can help kids feel more grateful for the gifts they’re given. We try to teach our kids that this is a tool for making loving family relationships over time.

Keep in mind that learning to be grateful and appreciative won’t happen overnight with kids, but incorporating these activities into daily family life will help instill the habit of thankfulness for their lifetime. What are some of the ways that you help to teach your own kids to be grateful?

*Our long time members will remember pictures of Oliver in the Dancing Baby ecards and you will all be shocked to know he is getting taller than I am at the mere age of 10!

Doozy Brightens a Son’s and Mom’s Day

Bob is one of our most loyal customers. He called us the other day with a Christmas message and explained what our service means to him. Bob moved to the Coachella Valley in California some years ago to care for his 93-year-old mother, Liz, whose health had begun to waver in her nineties. Here’s a lovely picture Bob sent us of them both. (yes that’s right; We get snow on our desert mountains here in Southern California!)

On mornings that are harder than others, Bob visits DoozyCards.com, plays one of our animated ecards, and shares it with his mother. He tells us that our light-hearted, animated ecards put both of them in a smiling mood and help them get on with their day. In his message Bob says “We want to thank you for bringing so much joy and happiness into our lives. We applaud each and every one of you.”

We found Bob’s and Liz’s story to be remarkable. The irony that Bob sends us a thank you note with Christmas greetings is that it is perhaps his sunny disposition that deserves the highest recognition. Most us of hope to live to age 90 like Liz; the wisdom that comes with it is earned. Parents dedicate their lives to us and sacrifice so much for us, and when it is our turn to care for them later in life it is truly a gift. We know that Bob and Liz are treasuring this time together. We are glad to bring a little merriment and joy to their day. They certainly bring some to ours! Happiest of Holidays, Bob and Liz!