Tomorrow is the start of the Grateful Hearts, Giving Hands series. I am so excited! There are some wonderful guest posts coming in about learning gratitude, learning to give, and changing our lives little pieces at a time.

To start off the month I’d like to introduce to you to a charitable campaign called LDS Bloggers Give Back (hashtag #GiveOhGive). I don’t know if you have noticed or not but I have a new LDS Philanthropies widget in my sidebar. (If you are reading in a feed reader I really encourage you to come to the blog and see for yourself!) I had the wonderful opportunity to attend a special blogger meeting in Provo, UT on Friday. It was actually a nice little getaway for Mr. Ferrero Rocher and I (and Ganache) as we left the other children at home. We met an amazing single mother, Megan, who shared her story. You can hear it in her own words on the widget. Just click on the sound icon to turn the sound on (above and to the right of the video). Or just click on it here in the widget provided in this post.

Our project this month is to raise as many funds as we can to provide scholarships for single mothers who are attending LDS Business College. Why single mothers? We all know of someone who has had to be a single mother. It is hard! Can you imagine having to provide for your children without a good college education? It is almost impossible, especially in today’s world.

• Single moms with children have the highest poverty rates.

• 60% of children living in mother-only families are impoverished.

• Single moms are more likely to be poor because of lower earning capacity.

• Single moms median income is only about 25% what a married couple make.

(info found here)

The initial goal presented at the meeting was $7,200, enough to fund one full-ride 4 semester scholarship for one person, or four single semester scholarships for four individuals. I think we can totally blow that goal out of the water! There are 45 single mothers attending LDS Business College this year. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could raise enough scholarship funds for each of them? I know that the readers of my blog are generous. You have proved it in the past with the Haiti Relief effort. Do you remember? One + One + One = Many. I believe we can do it again. If just those who read this blog via feed reader (all 2,359 of you) donated just $5 each that would be $11, 795, enough for one and half scholarships. If $10 was donated by each reader $23,590 would be raised, enough for three full scholarships! That is very doable, especially as I know there are many more that come here every day to read this blog. I am not the only one involved in this campaign. There are initially over 20 bloggers who will be helping. But it doesn’t have to stop there! If you have a blog you can also help by adding the widget to your sidebar. If you have blogger just click on the “Add to Blogger” button right below the widget and it will easily be added. If you use a different platform to blog click on the “Share” button in the widget to get the code.

The widget will be updated on a weekly daily basis, meaning we’ll be able to see how much money has been raised so far and how many have contributed. It will be a great way to track the progress throughout the month. I will write little weekly reports so you can all see the good you and other generous people throughout blogland are doing.

A few more things you might want to know before contributing. 100% of the donations goes to the scholarship fund! Did you read that? 100%! A receipt is sent to your e-mail account and is also provided (in the e-mail) in a pdf form so you can print it off for tax purposes (it can be used as a tax write-off). It is easy to donate. Just click on the “donate” button and you’ll be taken directly to the form.

I thought I’d give you a preview of what to expect this month. My regular schedule will be thrown off a little bit. No homemaking posts on Tuesdays or homeschooling posts on Fridays. There will still be Wordfull Wednesdays (on November 9th and 23rd). Thursday will still be simple pleasures with a focus on blessings. There will be a linky on those days for you to link up your gratitude lists.

There will also be a two week blitz of homeschooling posts, Nov 7th-18th, as part of Heart of the Matter’s 10 days of series. I will be sharing 10 days of creative writing ideas for your homeschool. Those posts will be clearly labeled and will be separate from our Grateful Hearts, Giving Hands posts.

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