365 Days of Thankful ~ Day #8

Today I am thankful for the Lord putting His arm around my shoulders & His hand over my mouth ...

365 Days of Thankful ~ Day #7

Today I am thankful for Tomato soup & grilled cheese sandwiches ...

365 Days of Thankful ~ Day #6

Today I am grateful for another year & another day of life . . .

I am 38 years old today. It's been a roller coaster of good & bad over the years (mostly good) & I thank God for blessing me with another year !! Every morning when I wake up, I say a silent prayer in my head, "Thank you, Lord, for another day of life." Every day isn't going to be the best day we've ever had.  I had a HORRIBLE morning. But the outpouring of love I received throughout the day for my birthday quickly washed away any fragments of the bad & warmed my heart that people actually took a small part of their day to think about "ME" !! How AWESOME is that ?!  So, thank you all, from the bottom of my heart for caring about me enough to think about me today !! And thank you, Lord, for another year & another day of life !!

365 Days of Thankful ~ Day #3, #4 & #5

Yeah ... So, on the weekends, sometimes I procrastinate a bit.  I got 3 days behind in my project, so I will combine the weekends when I do that.

Day #3

Today I am grateful for Santa Claus at the mall . . .

Day #4

Today I am grateful for church on Saturday & a FABULOUS Christmas program . . .

Day #5

Today I am grateful for pleasant surprises . . .

I was surprised with birthday gifts & a card from the kids this evening !! Early birthday gifts !! What a nice surprise !! They were so proud of themselves.  It was too cute !! I love my babies !! I got the Better Homes & Garden Wax Warmer I wanted from Walmart (see picture below), a bar of Baked Apple Strudel & Apple Cinnamon Fragrance Sticks.

365 Days of Thankful ~ Day #2

Today I am grateful that teenagers eventually grow up . . .

365 Days of Thankful (December 7, 2011 ~ December 7, 2012)

During the month of November, as I mentioned in my last blog post, I posted every day with one thing that I was thankful for.  I really obsessed over this project, as I do with most things, but I took it to heart as well.  I wanted to make sure that what I was posting was truly something genuine that I felt within myself & was truly, at that moment, grateful for.  I enjoyed the daily postings so much, and the warmth & positivity it brought to my day, and to others I hope, that I have continued this daily task into December.

Now, however, I have decided to make this my new project.  I will be posting on my blog daily what I am thankful for for 365 consecutive days.  Some days, I may simply post what I am thankful for.  Other days, I may post more.

So, here we go :

Day #1 of 365 Days of Thankful

Today I will be thankful when bedtime gets here. I had a long night last night & an even longer day today ...


Last night, I was watching the news, which I have taken up again this week (I do not typically watch the news ~ too sad & depressing). There was a story about a 3-year old little boy in the county I live in who was hit by a car at a Christmas parade & died. He would have been 4 next week.


http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/10466692/

I began bawling as they interviewed the parents & the mother talked about her final moments with her son. I just couldn't even begin to imagine the heartbreak of losing a precious child at all, much less a week from a birthday & so close to Christmas ... I thought of my own 3-year old, my other children & how they are my life.  I began to pray for the family as I cried.  I went & hugged my children, really hard, and then I tried to pull myself together, make dinner and go on with the evening, cleaning & such, until bedtime.

When bedtime came, I just couldn't stop thinking about that family.  I prayed for them again. I felt as if the weight of the world was on my shoulders.  I could almost feel their pain as if it were my own.  I tossed & turned until some time after 5 AM, and woke at 7:30 AM to get my 5-year old ready & off to school.

When I got back home from walking M to school, I had more cleaning to do as our housing office was coming to do an inspection of our home (which I didn't know military housing did, since we've only lived one other place) and I wasn't sure exactly what they were going to be looking for or at. My 3-year old was so good while I cleaned & I was reminded once again how very blessed I am.  And I prayed again, for the family & in thanks for all that I have.

SIDE NOTE : Because my house was so clean (per housing), all they did was check out fire extinguisher & made sure our smoke detectors worked.  They were in & out in less than 5 minutes.  All that work for less than 5 minutes ... LOL Story of my life ...

Now, however, at 8:43 PM, I feel so very drained, emotionally & physically.  I've had a migraine off & on since December 1st, and my crying jag yesterday & our crazy weather the past few weeks has done little to help.  So, I'm turning in early tonight.  I think this will be the first night in many, many months that I have gotten in bed before midnight, much less actually gone to sleep.

Please pray for this family as they find a way to deal with & get through such a horrible thing in their lives.

Good night, my friends & God Bless !!

Accomplishments, Fear & Hope

So, I completed my 30 Days of Thankful on Facebook today.  My closing gratitude was :


Today I am thankful for Strength. I'm not that physically strong, but I have a lot of internal strength that I need to be thankful for. Thank you, Jesus, for allowing me to draw my inner strength from You !! Psalm 73:26 
My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. (NIV)

I am so proud of myself for doing this every single day & for genuinely, truly being thankful.  And there are so many more things that I can & will be thankful for.  So, I'm not going to stop.  I'm going to keep going until the day comes when I either forget to do it, or I'm no longer thankful.  I just don't see the latter happening ...

I'm often proud of myself.  I'm proud of the accomplishments I've made despite the circumstances I have had to overcome.  I'm proud of the Christian I am & am becoming.  I'm proud of the parent I am & am becoming.  I'm proud of  myself for earning my BA, even though it took me forever.  I'm proud of my Facebook/Etsy shop.  I'm proud of how my Thirty-one business is SLOWLY but surely bopping along ... My dad used to tell me how proud he was of my ALL the time.  As a child, I would find myself pushing myself to the point of exhaustion & illness to be "the best." I was SO afraid of failure.  Failure was NOT an option.  At the time, I really thought it was me.  *I* wanted it.  I wanted it so badly that I would deprive myself of sleep & make myself sick to make it happen.  As an adult, I realize now that I just craved my parent's praises so badly, that I did it for them.  NOTHING feels better than for your parents to be proud of you.  I miss that ... 

So, I stopped reaching for the stars for a while. 

Now that my dad is gone, I find myself pushing myself like that again ... Obviously, not to gain his praises.  I do it with the expectation of "Dad would be SO proud of me for doing this if he were alive ..."  Something is different now, though.  I do things now with the knowledge that I'm learning, growing & hopefully making a difference in other people's lives somehow and not with the expectation of praise.  I try to do things with love or at least with caring. And if I can't feel like I accomplished those things or at the very least SOMETHING good at the end of the day about something, then I don't do it.  And if I did it right, I made at least one person smile or feel like they mean something to someone or give them something to hope for ... It's about the giving, not about the receiving, because not everyone is going to appreciate you & what you do for them.  As long as I know I did the right thing, though, that is gratification enough for me.  

So, I hope for the best when I attempt something new, cry when I fail, and then I shake it off, get up & keep on keeping on.  And when I feel like I don't have the strength to keep on going, I go back to what I am thankful for today :

Today I am thankful for Strength. I'm not that physically strong, but I have a lot of internal strength that I need to be thankful for. Thank you, Jesus, for allowing me to draw my inner strength from You !! Psalm 73:26 
My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. (NIV)

I know my Dad would be proud ....