service Archives - What's up Fagans?

How to Assemble Blessing Bags for Homeless People as a Group

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November 30, 2016 By Katelyn Fagan 9 Comments

This post is sponsored by Mormon.org. All opinions expressed are my own. This year as part of our homeschool, we participate in a local Christian Exploring Co-Op. We take turns planning field trips for our kids. In addition to the field trips we schedule a Moms Night Out, a Teen Night, and a Service Project each quarter too. Our last service project was a few weeks ago and we collaborated as a homeschool group to make blessing bags for homeless people. I know many of us (myself included) are never quite sure what to do when confronted with a homeless person. Should we ignore them, look the other way, gesture that we don't have ...

Family Service Ideas to Give Back and Pay It Forward

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February 12, 2016 By Katelyn Fagan 7 Comments

Last week I was doing my regular weekly grocery shopping trip, which meant it was during the day and with all four of my children, as we are homeschooling the oldest two for kindergarten. It was a pretty uneventful trip if I remember correctly. The kids were even fairly well behaved. But, when I got up to the register, I received a very nice surprise: the cashier informed me that the lady ahead of me had left a $25 gift card for me to use on my groceries! I easily remembered what this lady looked like - she was young, had short blond hair, and was sporting workout apparel that left her forearms bare allowing me to admire her ...

Money Can Buy You Happiness When You Give Forward

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January 13, 2015 By Katelyn Fagan 4 Comments

This post is sponsored by GiveForward and Find Your Influence. All opinions are mine. There have been a lot of times in my life where I have been on the receiving end of another's generosity, and I'm not just talking about holidays and birthdays. My family wasn't very well off while growing up, and bags of (hand-me down) clothes would often show up on our doorstep, among other gifts of kindness. After getting married, my husband and I faced several financial hardships, from paying for the wedding itself, to paying for college and expenses, to becoming parents to twins, moving, going through a major car accident, and not making a ...

The Best Places to Donate (or Sell) Your Old Clothes

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December 31, 2014 By Katelyn Fagan

Burlington Stores sponsored this post. The opinions and text are 100% mine. When we were preparing for our big move from Indiana to Texas, I wanted to go through every closet, every box, and everything we own and declutter our lives, downsize, and get rid of us as much as possible. Not only would it make it easier to move, but easier to live. Among the possessions we purged were clothes. I got rid of lots of my old high school and college T-shirts. I live for a T-shirt, so this was a very big deal for me. I also got rid of pants, skirts, dresses, and coats and jackets. I did the same for my husband's clothes. However, knowing ...

Hunger in America – The Monkey Do Project

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July 25, 2014 By Katelyn Fagan Leave a Comment

Today Jacqueline Wilson, the founder of The Monkey Do Project, and fellow Indianapolis blogger, is guest posting about something very important - Hunger in America. This is especially a problem as many children no longer have school lunches and meals. Find out how you can help end child hunger right here in the United States of America. Shocking Facts about Hunger in America A family of six lives in a shed without a door, sharing two cans of pasta for dinner. A child falls asleep in class on Monday because she hasn't had any food to eat since last Friday's school lunch at school three days before. People have to walk ...

Instilling the Value of Service in Our Kids

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February 3, 2014 By Katelyn Fagan 28 Comments

Charity, service, helping others. Whatever name you give it, service is a value that every parents wants instilled within their child. We want to raise children who believe in assisting, in lending a hand, and in putting in the time and/or the hard work in order to do so, because if we do not have charity, we are nothing (or so says Paul in 1 Corinthians 13:2). I certainty don't want to raise nothing kids who have faith and hope, but don't give a darn about anybody or anything else. I want kids who understand the value of service. Our family believes in doing just about everything together, from the simplest of shopping trips ...

A Stranger Asked Me for a Ride, but My Kids Were in the Car…

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September 25, 2012 By Katelyn Fagan 7 Comments

A woman was walking around our apartment complex as I was putting my kids in the car to head off to our weekly church play-group. My husband was inside the house, intending to stay home and do some schoolwork. After I strapped my kids in the car, I grabbed my husband's school bag out of the back when this woman apologetically asked if I could help her out and give her a ride. She told me she used to live in the townhome on the end of our building, lived there for six years before moving to her current place and had tried to see if some people she knew where around to give her a ride, but they weren't, and there wasn't a bus ...

A Little Help From My Friends

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April 13, 2012 By Katelyn Fagan Leave a Comment

Josh here Fagan fans. I don’t have a ton to say today, in fact I am not going to talk about bad actors or cars, but I did want to make a request. You see, I believe in the power of prayer. I don’t think that all of my prayers are that great or thoughtful, but I believe that the Lord listens to them anyway and He answers in His own way. The more I put into my prayers the more I think He puts into His answers, the less I put into my prayers, well His answers always seem to be sublime and more than my poor effort sometimes deserves. Certainly we have a Father in Heaven who loves us. Anyway, at this point I wanted to use this ...

12 Days of Christmas Secret Santa Gift Ideas

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January 3, 2012 By Katelyn Fagan 3 Comments

Looking to give service for the 12 Days of Christmas? Here are 12 Days of Christmas Gift Ideas for a Secret Santa! I'll never forget hearing that knock on our door, opening our front door and discovering no one there. Instead, there was a present waiting for us. It was Christmas 2011 and our little family of four was going through a very rough time going through a very rough time. At the beginning of November, my husband was in a major car accident that totaled our one and only vehicle, broke my husband's sternum, and left him unable to work for the next two months, decreasing our already small income. My husband suffered ...

A Thanksgiving Gift

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November 19, 2011 By Katelyn Fagan 1 Comment

Josh and I were out and about today, running some errands. We picked up some books and his laptop from work finally (where the cleaning lady wished him a good recovery). We then went to Wal-Mart, where don't usually go for groceries, but we only had a few things to get, and went there because we also needed to buy an ink cartridge, thus it would save us a trip. We also picked up National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation on DVD because it is one of Josh's favorite Christmas movies. As we got to the check out, the lady ahead of us didn't leave the store but kinda of just stayed at the end of the lane. As I was about to pay for our ...