Thankful Thursday

Praying before meals in something that rarely happens in this house.  It's pretty much limited to Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas dinners.  It's not that we don't know how, or not that we don't care to, it is really just not our practice.  Grace before every meal was something that I grew up with, and frankly grew out of.  I feel kinda terrible actually admitting that.

Upon recently enrolling the boy in a religious based VPK (because they don't offer VPK at military schools), I decided that I had better start prepping him for praying before his lunch.  His school that he will be attending come fall says a prayer before eating, does a small bible study daily, and they go to chapel once a week.  You can imagine the sudden feeling of indigestion the hubs is feeling about all of this. ha. 

But, if I was going to teach my child to "pray" before meals...it was going to be my way.  No thanking God for the food that's on the table, rather just giving "thanks" for the meal.  In short just a series of "I am thankful for...", a few from me, and a few from the boy.

So we sat to eat, and I said:

"Tonight we are going to say grace."

the boy: "Grace."

me: "No, we are going to say grace."

the boy: "Grace."

me: "Seriously, let's say grace."

the boy (now much louder and a bit  frustrated): "GRACE!!!!!"

That was when I realized that this had turned into a fun little game of "who's on first".

The point being that we did it.

I eventually realized that he had no idea what I meant by "saying grace", so I went first, and told him what I was thankful for that day.  He followed with some silly almost 4 year old ramblings about being thankful for "butts, and dogs, and poopoo caacaa", he then got THE LOOK and scraped together some appropriate things to be grateful for.

After doing this for a few days in a row it is starting to become obvious that the boy is gaining and understanding of what it actually means to be thankful as opposed to just saying "thank you".  I am teaching him young the importance of living a gracious lifestyle.  Showing him that the more gratitude that you display the happier you will be.

Teach your children to be grateful through your actions and words.  Let them follow you in expressing their thanks, and maybe the future generations will learn to live humbly instead of living with entitlement. 

For now, Happy Thankful Thursday!

Be Grateful & Inspire

Thankful Thursday

(source)

Do you ever just pause.

Stop everything.

Close your eyes, stand still, and just... 

be?

In a world where we are chasing the perpetual rabbit and 

in a constant battle with being bigger and better and stronger,

it's easy for us to just forget it all and be happy.

Society pressures us to strive to be better

and to search for the next best thing.

But what is wrong with where you are?

Right at this very moment.

Is there peace and happiness 

right where you stand?

Take that moment.

Stop searching and trying so hard.

It's already here.

Your perfect moment.

You have to just be.

Be Grateful & Inspire

thankful thursday

(source)

recognition. just how aware of your own happiness are you? how aware of your expressions of gratitude are you? is all of your recognition of thanks and praise kept in a selfish place? tucked deep down inside so that you don't have to share it with the world? who benefits from that? 

hiding your gratitude does nothing. no one will ever know that you appreciate the things that you have, the things that are done for you, or just life in general.  i have a problem of really wearing my emotions on my sleeve, but this emotion, i urge you to put this one out there.  why not share it with everyone you meet. 

there is a novel idea...sharing gratitude. pass it on. maybe someone needs the acknowledgement more then you know.  the lovely ladies over at 365grateful, whom i find everyday inspiration from, have come up with an amazing challenge this month. HUGS! why not? they are challenging us to 8 a day. read here to find out the reasons why. it's science folks.

meanwhile, shout it out from the roof tops! if you have something to be happy or thankful about, tell someone. hug someone. tell someone while you are hugging them.  and be warned, if you are within arms reach of me, brace your self for a hug. 

thankful thursday

(source)

ok, here it is, i have skirted this issue for quiet some time now. for what reasons, i am not sure. it's no secret that i am not super religious, despite being raised in a traditional catholic family, you know church every sunday, sunday school on sunday and wednesday, and when i was staying with my grandmother....well she went to church everyday. needless to say, i spent a lot of my childhood trying to understand religion, not just understand all the rules and memorizing all the things that we had to memorize.... what i was trying to understand is why you 'had to be religious to be a good person'.

now i know that many of you at this point are wanting to stop reading, but let me reassure you that this is not a rant about religion being bad or good, or any of my personal beliefs. simply it is going to focus on one thing....gratitude.

in my recent research for my weekly "thankful thursday" i have found an overwhelming common denominator....God.  why is it that the majority of the quotes regarding gratitude have such a religious undertone?  while i have no problem and somewhat understand....you know the whole message of the bible thing, the problem that i have is the lack of non-religious material about giving thanks. where is the support from the other side? i'm feeling a bit out numbered here folks.

today's quote nailed it! "your beliefs don't make you a better person, your behavior does".  i really couldn't have put it better myself.  so many people look at my husband and i and assume that we must be bad people....you know all covered in tattoos, nose rings, and alternative appearances and lifestyles...but give us two minutes to actually get to know us and you will find that there is much more to us.  we are some of the most caring and gracious freaks out there! hehe.  our religious beliefs, or lack their of, do not determine how we treat people and the world around us.

as a society we need to get past 'giving thanks' being something that we only do at church (or on turkey day) but something that we live everyday, where ever we are. behave in a manor that others know you appreciate the things around you. and on the flip side of that....some of you bible thumpers need to take a good hard long look in the mirror and practice what you preach.

the moral of the story is this: be good to people, give thanks for what you have, share your gratitude with others. plain and simple, religion or not. living a gracious lifestyle will bring you to a better place.

thankful thursday

(source)

go to the grocery store and find the sugar aisle.  now go ahead and take out your calculator because you are going to need it. start counting the endless amounts of artificial sweeteners. there are so many. fake. full of things that don't really exist.  all with one thing in common...they are all trying to make us happy.

now apply this to your life. think of all the fake thank you's, the empty mass "wishes", and half assed praises.  do any of these make us truly happy? gratitude is the purest of ingredients. it comes straight from the soul. share your graciousness with others and soon you will find yourself living the sweetest life. and always remember....it is not the happy people that are thankful, it is the thankful people that are happy.

thankful thursday

(source)

this little quote is coming into my life on a day that i really need it. it's funny how those things happen.  

i am sitting hear on the verge of pulling my hair out over the boys insane behavior lately. i find myself at wits end wondering what to do. i feel like i have tried everything.  but then i stop. think. reflect. there are so many things about the boy that i have to be thankful for! 

i am the proud parent of one strong willed and brilliant little boy. he must be brilliant because he's found a way to make his zen mommy loose her cool! haha.  

amongst all the craziness and timeouts there are these moments where i look at him and think about the miracle of this little creature that the hubs and i created. the boy is healthy, strong, intelligent, and so stinkin adorable.  he has these dance moves that make me giggle every time, he has the ability to make strangers laugh, and a serious love for nature. he's everything i ever dreamed of, minus the tantrums....which (fingers crossed) will pass.

and on a totally different topic...you never realize how much you enjoy the little things until they are gone! i am doing little at home experiment to determine if my swollen lymph nodes in my armpits are due to  a reaction from my deodorant.  i have decided to go au natural today....and peee ewww! how i do enjoy and miss you deodorant....even if you are giving me armpit cancer. 

for the rest of you that can not smell me....enjoy the little things! be grateful! and have a wonderful week!

thankful thursday

(source)

you know i tend to think of gratitude projects as just that....a project. and the truth of it all is that sometimes the larger the project becomes the less impactful it is.  but instead why don't we focus on the smaller picture. you know "doing little things for others".  

i don't want this to turn into a "chivalry is dead" conversation, but when thinking about this subject i tend to go directly to holding the door for others. have you ever been leaving a store with your arms full and the person in front of you lets the door go right in your face? it happens to me all the time. it's infuriating! it's become something that bothers me so much that i will go out of my way to make sure that i hold the door open for people. 

another on of the "little things" that comes to mind are notes in the mail. i have a very good friend who is exceptionally good about sending "thank you for no reason" cards. i cherish them. as a matter of fact one is sitting on my desk right now to help me remember that you don't need a reason to be thankful.

so when approaching your next opportunity to show gratitude towards another remember that it doesn't need to be some big project. hold a door, drop a note in the mail, help a friend with a heavy load, pick up the phone just to say hello.  sometimes the littles things go the farthest. they hold the biggest places in the hearts of the grateful.

thankful thursday

(source)

i wanted to start the first thursday of the new year off with a simple, yet powerful quote.  2011 was a difficult year for many. many people close to us lost jobs, lost friends, lost lives and on a much larger scheme many people around the world were faced with the same struggles. 

by now you should know that gratitude means a lot to me. it means more to me than saying thank you when you should or having good manners. gratitude is quickly becoming a way of life for me. it's putting others first, being considerate, being aware, and taking the time to tell someone that you appreciate whatever it is that they are doing.

so i challenge you this week....take a good look around. notice the differences between people in random scenarios. are the happiest people the one's who are sharing the most gratitude? look at those who seem miserable and observe how they interact with others.  it doesn't cost anything to pay it forward. give thanks and be gracious, you may find your self with a smile on your face.

november is for giving thanks: day 24

i am thankful.

november is for giving thanks: day 23

i am thankful for a car full of toys to take to the consignment store.

november is for giving thanks: day 22

i am thankful for my evan sollars coppery creation! 

november is for giving thanks: day 21

i am thankful for (free) yellow party dresses.

november is for giving thanks: day 19 & 20

first off, let me just apologize for the 2 day hiatus. i think you will understand after reading.

this past weekend a very loved, respected, and important man was lost. my husbands uncle richard.  i never had the honor of meeting uncle richard, but he's one of those kinds of people that you feel like you have known for ever... even though you only know him through pictures and family stories.  the sudden death really got me to thinking.

there are no pictures that can portray how thankful i am for my family, and in this particular instance, my dad.  seldom do we think about what would happen if our fathers were suddenly taken out of our lives.  now i know that everyones idea of sudden is relative, but i am talking mostly about the here fine and healthy and then gone in a matter of no time. uncle richard tripped and punctured a lung, and passed a few days later.  how do you loose a father when you have no time to prepare yourself?

on a completely other side of the hubs life, his work like, one of the higher-up father's was recently diagnosed with terminal cancer. the cancer had spread and taken over most of his body by the time that it was discovered. over the past few months the hubs has shared the few small details about this man and his family with me. the family is keeping the hole thing very quiet in honor of the father.  i am semi-close to a few people in this family and my heart breaks for them every time i think about the sudden nature of his illness.

all of this sadness revolving around fathers really got me to thinking about what would happen if our fathers were suddenly gone. what would i do if my father were suddenly gone? what about the boy, what if he suddenly lost his daddy? tell them how thankful you really are. you never know when you will no longer have the opportunity.

my thoughts are with all of the families involved in this post.

november is for giving thanks: day 18

i am thankful for super talent hat making friends!

november is for giving thanks: day 17

i am thankful for days full of friends and tire swings.

november is for giving thanks: day 16

i am thankful for little boys who think they are too big for booster seats.

november is for giving thanks: day 15

i am thankful for homemade sweet potato fries and sweet chili sauce.

november is for giving thanks: day 14

i am thankful for a day of no accidents.

....and the boys adorable butt.

november if for giving thanks: day 13

i am thankful for a hubs that loves 

hot dog anniversary dinners.

november is for giving thanks: day 12

i am thankful for homemade pumpkin spice lattes.