Sharing Gratitude

 Our month of gratitude ends today, but I hope it will only be a spring board into a life of gratitude!  We really do appreciate more and feel more joy when we are thankful for the things we have rather than looking outside ourselves!

I've been busy getting as many things done for December before December actually gets here!  Some goals I've accomplished (or will finish up today) and some I didn't.  My 2011 album is almost done, but I still have about 10 more pages I want to scrap, so I will be waiting for a January print sale before getting it printed.  Some of my projects I will be posting here, throughout December to share ideas and things that work for our family.

Remember, today is the last day to download any of the gratitude templates!

I also want to thank each of you who have left me comments!  You have no idea how much I appreciate them and enjoy reading them each day.  I read every one, even comments left on past posts!  They are a highlight of my day!

One of the things I will be offering, the first few days of Decembers are simple templates for anyone doing a December Daily album.  They are simple and straightforward, as I think these albums are designed to be!  This is my first year doing one, so I'm going all digital, but maybe I'll branch out next year!  But, as I created my templates for me, I thought I would share!  It is an 8x8 size and tomorrow will be the cover page of the album.

Today's Template:

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Today's Prompt:  Think of at least one person you can share  your experience with or your journal with and do it.

Gratitude in photos

I can't believe we are wrapping up November and our gratitude project.  I didn't get very many of my album pages scrapped, but hopefully  my blogging will help me when the time comes to finish!

Our project for today is not really a prompt, like the others were.  I want you to get your camera out and try and take as many pictures as you can  (literal or symbolically) of all the things in your life you are grateful for.  This will serve two purposes.  First of all, it will help to create the cover page for your album, but it will also be one more way to think about the things we are thankful for and give us a visual way to remember them!

Yesterday went by way too quickly!  My oldest is still sick and so part of the time was spent taking care of him and figuring out if we should take him to the doctor or not.  It was also a monday and trying to get back into the swing of things from a long holiday was a bit difficult.  I'm working really hard to finish up two albums by tomorrow night so I can order them and use a coupon to get a really good deal.  I was able to scrap 4 layouts last night, but I really need to step it up today if I want to finish!

Here is the template for today:

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**Added Reminder!  Thursday is the last day to download the gratitude templates.  All the links will be inactive come friday morning!

3 Grateful Items

I mentioned in yesterday's post how much I have come to realize how much grateful I need to learn to be.  This is going to be one of my main goals for 2012.  In order to do this, my goal is to write down, each day, 3 things I am grateful for that day.  I am excited to try this and see the changes it will bring.  It will be nice to focus more on living in the moment and being grateful for each thing, rather than worrying about what I don't have or wish I had!

I hope you will all do this with me!  I'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences!

Yesterday was a pretty good day.  I already mentioned how nice church was and how much I got out of it.  After church, we had another turkey dinner.  I just love buying cheap turkeys at this time of year!  Chipper and Noah are sick again.  They can't seem to knock this cold completely and for Chipper I'm afraid it has turned into a pretty nasty sinus infection.  I hate that he is going to miss more school.

Template for today:

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Today's Prompt:  Set a goal to end each day with writing down 3 things from that day you
are thankful for and journal your goal.  Try to do this for a year-until next November.

The Hiding Place

First, I want to apologize for how late this post is.  In only a few short hours, I will be posting again!

Today, at church, a gentleman shared a story of two sisters.  They were arrested during the holocaust for helping Jews escape.  One of the sisters is the author of "The Hiding Place".  He talked about a time when they were together in a concentration camp and how they found ways to be grateful for even the fleas that lived with them in their small space.  It was a moving story and was just what I needed to hear as this month draws to a close.

I have learned so much about myself, this month as I have worked hard to apply gratitude to my daily life.  I thought that being thankful was something that just came natural and that this would be a fun and easy task.  I was so wrong.  I have learned that I have very far to go.  I am far too selfish, far too self-absorbed and well, I know now what I need to change and improve.

At the first of the month, I posted a quote about how spending one month in focusing on gratitude could be life changing.  I didn't really understand how, but I was willing to try.  I can honestly say that my life has been changed by taking on this challenge.  There is still so much I want to learn and improve on, but it has been a great starting point.

I would love to reach a point, where I could be as gracious as women like Corrie and Betsie where I could even be thankful for the fleas that infested my surroundings.  I would love to be that type of person.  I  may never face the dark pit that they each did and the daily hell of a concentration camp, but I hope that I can follow their example.

As I did further research on them tonight, I was incredibly touched by a story that Corrie told.  She was the only one to make it out of the camp. Her sister died there.  She came face to face later, with one of the guards from that camp.  He had since converted to Christianity and he came to ask her forgiveness.  In her words, here is what she wrote:


And I stood there — I whose sins had every day to be forgiven — and could not. Betsie had died in that place — could he erase her slow terrible death simply for the asking?

It could not have been many seconds that he stood there, hand held out, but to me it seemed hours as I wrestled with the most difficult thing I had ever had to do.

For I had to do it — I knew that. The message that God forgives has a prior condition: that we forgive those who have injured us. "If you do not forgive men their trespasses," Jesus says, "neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses." ...

And still I stood there with the coldness clutching my heart. But forgiveness is not an emotion — I knew that too. Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart. "Jesus, help me!" I prayed silently. "I can lift my hand, I can do that much. You supply the feeling."

And so woodenly, mechanically, I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me. And as I did, an incredible thing took place. The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes.

"I forgive you, brother!" I cried. "With all my heart!"

For a long moment we grasped each other's hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. I had never known God's love so intensely as I did then.

That type of faith and love does not come naturally.  I believe that it was born in a heart that was filled with gratitude.  It came from a life of being thankful for the smallest things.

Thank you for letting me share this today and thank you for letting me share this month with all of you! I have enjoyed blogging each day and I look forward to continuing.  I hope I have not bored anyone too much!

Here is today's template:

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And the prompt for today:   Think of one way to go the extra mile in my life and write about how that affects me

I'll be back in a few hours with another template and another prompt!  Also, I have some fabulous things planned for December.  I will be giving away some tools for scrapping your December Daily albums, as well as tools for holiday gifts and things!  As for my blogging, I will be sharing lots of Christmas memories, so get ready for some fun reading!  I hope you will share with me, as well!  I absolutely LOVE reading all of your comments! 

Choosing Less

I have to admit, today's prompt is very difficult for me.  I think that we live in a world where so many things are at our fingertips!  I have been very blessed with so many things, but often I find myself wanting more.  Yesterday, I drove my oldest over to a friends house to work on a science project.  She lives in a beautiful home in a very nice area of town.  Easily, every home in the development is more than a million dollars.  That isn't a world I will ever experience.  Even if I had the money to buy a home like that, I hope I wouldn't.  Not that there is anything wrong with those who do, there are just so many more practical things I would want to do with the money.

However, I will admit, as I drove through this tree lined neighborhood with Christmas decorations being put up and the Fall leaves on the ground, I couldn't help but picture myself living there.  How fun it would be to have all my kids home and someday have grandkids in a big beautiful mansion.  It is fun to think about.  But, then I found myself a little dissatisfied when I returned home.  My house looked so simple and plain.  The decorations my husband was working so hard to hang, just didn't seem like enough and I felt a little cloud rest over me.  Instantly, I knew what was wrong.  I was looking for what I didn't have, rather than what I do have.

The thing is, when we "Choose" to have less, we really will appreciate more.  The mere act of choosing puts the power in our hands, rather than in thinking we are picked on.  Ultimately, the only things that really matter are the things that can't be bought anyway, so why not choose to enjoy those and stop focusing on what we don't have.

Here are a few layouts I've scrapped this past week:

Found HERE

 Found HERE

I've still got about 20 more layouts to do before the 30th so I can get our 2011 album ordered!  Wish me luck!

The template for today is:

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Today's Prompt:  think of 3 ways in your life that you can live with less, in order to appreciate what you have.

Paying it Forward

For all who celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday, I hope you had a great day!  I know that I sure did!  I love getting together with family and I love eating yummy food.  All my gluten free recipes turned out really well, so that made me very happy!

I also had another amazing moment yesterday.  As most of you may know by now, my 7 year old is on the autism spectrum.  He has several different issues, including a major speech delay.  One thing he has never been good at is social interactions.  He isn't shy and will walk up to complete strangers and just sit down or act like he totally knows them.  But when it comes to appropriate social protocols, he doesn't do them. If someone tells him hello, he ignores them.  He rarely makes eye contact and will seem that he is ignoring people.  We work with him often, trying to get him to at least respond when someone greets him or says goodbye.  And at school, they work on these important social skills on a regular basis.

So, last night, after dinner, as we were all visiting and trying to overcome the food coma we were all in, John's aunt and uncle stopped by to visit.  Sam has met them a few times, but probably not enough to really know who they are.

As we're sitting there visiting, he walked up to Aunt Stephanie and held out his hand.  "Hello," he said, "my name is Sam".  He was making eye contact and everything.  Everyone in the room thought it was adorable, but for me, knowing what this little breakthrough means, wanted to cry and laugh and shout for joy-all at once!  I'm thankful for little steps that can be so big!

The prompt for today, is about paying it forward.  I love this concept, but find it harder to put into practice than to think about.  Most of this month, I have focused on prompts that make us think about all the areas in our life where we experience gratitude.  The rest of the prompts are things to make us think about doing something with the gratitude we feel.  I hope you will take a few minutes today to ponder the prompt and how it can affect your life.  I know I will!

The template for today is:

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Today's Prompt:  List  3 people, in my life, I can pay it forward to.

Happy Thanksgiving

I will keep my post, today, short and sweet!  For all of you who are in the US and celebrating Thanksgiving, I hope you have a wonderful day and eat lots and lots of yummy stuff!  To everyone else, I apologize for letting this holiday dominate my blog!

I have most things ready.  I still have 4 pies to finish making and the stuffing to finish, but then we'll be ready to head to grandma's house to eat!  I can't wait!  I love turkey day!

Here is today's template:

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Today's Prompt:  Think about 1 thing I can do to beautify the world around me as a way to give back.

Grateful Today

My five things for today:

1.  Family
2.  Faith
3.  Friends
4.  Home
5.  Music

I made my list simple, because sometimes that is the easiest way to say a lot!  Most of my life is encompassed in those five simple words!

Yesterday was a fun day.  I love getting ready for the holidays!  We pulled out all of our Christmas stuff and have it ready to decorate on friday.  Mitchell and hubby got on the roof and started hanging lights.  The kids finished up school before break and I'm looking forward to having 5 days off!  Abby learned how to make a pie at her Activity Days and she made a yummy looking Reeses one for tomorrow's dinner.  I got the house cleaned, floors mopped, etc. and today I can start my pie preparation!

I hope you are all having a great week!  If you are traveling today, be careful and safe!

Today's Template:

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Today's Prompt:  List the 5 things you are most grateful for today.

"Conscious of our Treasures"

 I really love today's quote that I found for the prompt.  I think it has so much truth in it.  Some of the darkest times of my life were when I was too self-involved, felt sorry for myself, etc.  I think that gratitude truly helps us to live and be aware of the precious moments we have each day.  If you are overwhelmed with life, feeling discouraged or sad, I encourage you to take a step back and just find the treasures in your life.  Focus on what you are blessed with and let it take away the anxiety and worry and fear over things you can't control.

Yesterday was a pretty good day.  I'm feeling a bit crazy over all I want to get done before Thursday (see, I need to read above and take my own advice!)  I didn't have my nephews yesterday which was probably a good thing.  Several of my family have been sick with colds and I have been fighting it, but it hasn't turned into one yet.  Today is the best I've felt in two days, so hopefully it is going to pass me by with nothing more than some extreme tiredness!  I'm going to start on the pie crusts today-the cookie ones, and I can't wait! I just love this time of year!

Here is the template for today!  Just a few more left for the month!  Remember on December 1st, all links from November will deactivated, so grab the templates you want now!

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Today's Prompt:  “We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are
conscious of our treasures.” — Thornton Wilder. Journal what this quote means to you

Gratitude for Health

Health is such an important thing and something I don't take lightly.  I don't have major health issues, but rather lots of little ones that can kind of pile up to be not fun!  I'm thankful for natural healing. I am really into doing whatever I can to improve my health with diet and supplements.  Its not that I don't believe in medication, because I do, I just like to keep it as a last option.  I've been very blessed, so far!  A year ago, I was dealing with a lot of panic attacks and other issues that have been completely resolved.  I'm still dealing with an underactive thyroid, but things are moving in the right direction and hopefully into next year, I can start losing weight again.

Enough about that though!  In one of the comments, over the weekend, I was asked how I do it.  Do I scrap layouts and then create templates from those?  I'm actually the opposite.  I create the templates, then when I want to scrap a layout, I just pull out one of my templates to use.  Here's the thing.  I love, love, love planning out a layout, trying to think visually how photos should fit on a page-keeping a good balance of white space and always trying to think of the rules of thirds.  When I am in this mode, I don't like needing to also focus on which photo to use, what I should journal, what title, etc.  So, by making it a template, then I can focus on the composition of the layout and that only.  When I get ready to scrap, I want to put my energy behind the photo/the story/etc. and I don't want to think about the composition of the layout.  I don't know if that makes sense, but its what works for me!!

And I also had a request to share the info of one of my online friends who designs. Her name is Angie, and she is awesome!  She sells her designs at ScrapMatters under the design name of Down This Road Designs.

Here are just a few of my favorites:

You can click HERE to browse through here store.

And HERE is her blog!

Are you ready for Today's template:

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Today's Prompt:  What about my health am I grateful for?

Ten Years Ago...

 Ten years ago, this week, we traveled from Las Vegas up to Provo Utah to spend Thanksgiving with my inlaws.  I had a 4 1/2 year old boy, a 2 1/2 year old boy and a sweet 6 month old baby girl!  My husband was in his first semester of law school, we had sold our home and moved into a small apartment so we could afford school.  The day after Thanksgiving, my brother in law was married and we were all there to celebrate! It was a wonderful weekend!

As I look back at that day, I remember all the good things.  I remember being together and cousins playing and lots and lots of love.  I don't really remember all the little stressors of the day: family being late for dinner, bridesmaids dresses needing to be finished in the middle of the night, perhaps fighting between cousins!  I wish, I would have known then that all the small petty things, that seemed big, really wouldn't have been big when looked back on-years later.  My wonderful sister in law had traveled in from Florida to have dinner with us, and it was so great to see her!  That was the last  Thanksgiving we have spent with her-until this year!  A few months ago, she and her husband and their two sweet boys moved from Florida to Utah and will be in attendance at our dinner this week!  It's amazing how fast the time has gone and yet how long ago it seems--all at the same time!  I can't wait for Thursday!  My sweet six month old is now the sweet 10 year old cousin who loves holding the babies and helping out everyone.  My 4 1/2 year old is now almost a foot taller than me, speaks with a deep voice and is so much fun to hang out with.  My 2 1/2 year has grown into an amazing young man with a big heart!  At 12, he's still trying to find himself, but he is so much fun to be around!  I've doubled the brood-in 10 years, but don't plan on doing that in the next ten years (unless it is with a grandbaby or two!)

I guess what I wish I had known about gratitude 10 years ago, is just to have had more!  If only I had known how precious each memory would be, maybe I would have cherished those moments!  Either way, I hope to cherish today so that 10 years from now, I will have no regrets-just lots of happy memories!

Here is today's template:

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Today's Prompt:  what do I know today about gratitude that I wish I had known 10 years ago?

Grateful for Online Friends

I really enjoyed the ideas left in the comment section of yesterday!  Thank you Lindsay and Natalee for sharing!  I really love the idea of gratitude journals for the kids, and I agree that it would be amazing to continue them even past this month!

Yesterday was a lot of fun.  During the day was mostly normal activities.  I cleaned, I did some designing, I practiced the piano, I did grocery shopping, etc.  In the late afternoon, I met with a very sweet lady who is a behavorial specialist working with kids on the spectrum.  Sam will be participating in a pilot drum lesson class in the New  Year, and she will be helping to facilitate that.  We are also considering hiring her on a weekly basis to work with Sam, at home and in activities outside the home.  It is an added expense, but I think it will be so good for him.  She does a mix of ABA and Floortime methods, which really appeals to me.

After that, I drove up to Salt Lake City to meet with 3 friends-all of whom I have met through online connections.  Eileen and I met almost 4 years ago on a digital scrapbooking board at ivillage.  I lived in Nevada, she lived in New Jersey at the time.  We now live about 20 minutes apart and get together once a month.  She is one of my dearest friends!  Angie and I met while we were both designing at BrownieScraps.  She also lives about 20-30 minutes from me and we have become super good friends, as well.  I work on her CT team because I absolutely adore her kits.  She currently sells at ScrapMatters and has some amazing stuff there!  Mari also came with us, and she is friends with Eileen, so we met her that way and she has become a good friend, as well!  It is just a lot of fun to get together.  We were missing Natalee from our group last night, but hopefully we'll get to see her at our next one!  We watched the new Twilight movie, Breaking Dawn.  We had a blast!

We came out from the movie at about 9:30 to find that it had been snowing while we were inside!  I was quite nervous driving home, but I just took it slow and I made it home safe and sound!

Here is the free template for today:

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Today's Prompt: What about my life today is different than a year ago-that I'm thankful for?

Teaching Gratitude

How do you teach gratitude to your children?  I would love ideas!  I think one of the best ways is through example, but that isn't always an easy one to see!  I've never been very good at making my kids write thank you cards (intent is always there, just don't get it done!) and I think this would be another great way.

Yesterday was a busy day!  I had a doctor appointment in the morning and then dashed over to Abby's school to watch their Shakespeare play.  It was so cute!  In the afternoon, by the time I finished up carpool, it was time to take Chipper to voice lessons and then quickly feed the kids.  It was respite night at Sam's school, which means that an amazing group of young people volunteered to come and watch all the kids and their siblings.  I dropped off my four youngest and went out to dinner with my two older boys!   John is out of town for work, so I just enjoyed the two hours with my 14 and 12 year old.  It was a lot of fun! I'm so glad they still enjoy hanging out with me.

Also, I wanted to mention that the free templates this month will only be available for download through the 30th of this month.  After that, I will be deactivating the links and retiring them.  So, let your friends know to grab them now!!  I have lots of fun things planned for December.  The downloads from October will still be available, but just the full templates are only good for this month only!

Today's template is:

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Today's Prompt:  What do I want to teach my children/grandchildren about gratitude?

Grateful for weakness

 I think it is very difficult sometimes, to look within and not only discover, but share what insights we have about ourselves.  One thing that I've learned about myself is that when something is a weakness for me, I feel this strong desire to fix it!  I want to change it from a weakness to a strength.  Now, I'm not always patient with  myself in the process, but I'm still grateful for this process.  I think it helps me to improve and become a better person-or at least that is my desire!  When I learned that my son had some significant challenges, I felt overwhelmed and so unsure of many things.  I began to read and research and pray and work.  I wanted so badly to help him and change my own weakness into strength.  I'm still working at this one, but when I look back over the past 7 years, I am amazed at how far I've come.

Yesterday was my quiet day!  I can't even say how nice it is, once a week, to send the kids off to grandma's house and just enjoy a quiet house!  It is so wonderful because first of all, I know they are loving it at her house.  She watches 4 of my nephews on the same day so she has a house full of cousins who are all close in age and absolutely love to play together!  Of the 6 kids, my Olivia is the only girl, but she is in heaven!  She feels very doted on by all the little boys!

I spent the time cleaning, designing and went to a nice lunch with my hubby!  And then, last night after dinner, Chipper watched the younger kids and hubby and I went to see the last Harry Potter movie.  We are a little late in getting to see it, but oh how we enjoyed it!  Crazy to think that when John took Chipper, to the very first one, he was only 4 1/2.  It was 10 years ago.  It feels like only yesterday.

I have some layouts to show off today!  I love release days because then I get to share what I've been working on!  Here are 3 layouts that are part of the new releases at The Digichick!

Click HERE to see credits and leave love!

Here is today's Template:

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Today's Prompt:  What insights in my life am I grateful for?

Showing Gratitude

As important as it is to feel gratitude and even to express our gratitude, I think it is important to show our gratitude.  This isn't always easy, and I know for me, becomes one of those things that I put off-thinking I will do it later.  I always have good intentions that sometimes don't get followed through with!  So, today, in honor of our prompt, I'm going to change that.  I'm going to think today, about 3 ways I can show my gratitude and I'm going to do it.  I'll report back once I've finished!

Yesterday was our Thanksgiving Dress Rehearsal.  It was our first year doing it, but my hubby and kids were very quick to say they want it to become a tradition!   The idea started with me wanting to try some recipes that are gluten free for next week.  I've never made a good gluten free pie or stuffing.  I had bought a turkey, on sale, last week, so I decided to make a whole meal-from scratch-to see how it would go.  It turned out so yummy, but dang, it was a lot of work!  Usually, I do some of the prep work for Thanksgiving dinner on the day before, but doing it all in the same day was exhausting!  But I'm happy to report that the pie turned out perfect!  We were all happy!  I haven't eaten pie in almost 3 years, so it really tasted good!

Here is your template for today!

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Today's Prompt:  what are 3 ways I can better show my gratitude?

I also want to take a moment and thank you all for your comments!  I have so much fun reading them every day!  I'm so happy to know that you are enjoying these templates and that they are helping your scrapping skills!  This is exactly what I was hoping for!  I'm also in the planning stages of doing video tutorials so that anyone-even if they've never digitally scrapped before-can learn how to do so!  I'm hoping to get the first one posted soon!

Have a great day!

Gratitude for Everything

The longer I go in this month and focus on the things I am grateful for, I realize that I truly am grateful for everything in my life.  The more I seek to be grateful, the more I find to focus on.  And the greatest discovery of all has been focusing on the things I'm grateful for, in my relationships, rather than what I expect out of others or what I think they should be giving.  By focusing on what I'm grateful for, I feel better about every relationship in my life.

Yesterday was a harder day, but I survived and I'm grateful for days like that, that help me better appreciate the quiet days!  I watched my nephews again, which was a lot of fun.  It really only got tiring during the last 2 hours when I had all 6 of my kids home, as well.  I am not used to a fussy baby at dinner time!  It was a good reminder of why I'm done having babies!  It's just a lot of work to keep everything balanced!

Hubby came home from work, grabbed a bite to eat and immediately left with Chipper for a play in Salt Lake.  They didn't get home until 11.  I missed him!  We usually love our evening time together, so it was harder to have him gone.  But  I'm so grateful that he was willing to go with Chipper and I think it was great time for them to spend together!

Here is today's template:

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Today's Prompt:  What does gratitude mean to me?

Grateful for my girls

I am blessed with two little daughters! They are five years apart in age, so currently, they are 10 and 5.  This can mean a lot of drama at times and yes, they love to fight with each other!  However, they also adore each other and can be so cute together.

Abby (the 10 year old) has recently discovered how to use a curling iron!  She would curl everyone's hair, if they let her!  Olivia (the 5 year old) thinks that having her hair done by her big sister is the coolest thing ever!  She has let me know, several times, that Abby does a much better job than I do!  I don't take it personal, because I'll be honest, it is quite nice having someone else to help out on a Sunday  morning in the hair department!

It is these little things, the ways she finds on her own, to help me out, that I'm so grateful for!  Raising children can be tiresome and a lot of work, but these little moments, make it all worthwhile!

Yesterday was a good but busy day.  I am the teacher of one of the little nursery classes at church.  Today we had 13 children ranging from 1 1/2 to almost 3.  It made for an exhausting 2 hours, but it was so worth it. I just love those kids!  I am also the new piano player for our ward choir.  The sad part is that I don't play very well, so I feel bad for all the choir members that have to listen to me stumble over the keys!

Here is your template for the day! I can't believe we are entering the 3rd week of November!  I hope you all have a great week!

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Today's Prompt:  Who in my family am I grateful for today and why?

Gratitude for extended family

Yesterday was a good day.  We spent most of the day at home, resting and getting things ready for next week.  Chipper had a dance performance and then a Night on Broadway performance at the high school, so John took him to those.  My aunt was celebrating her 60th birthday so I  took the rest of the kids to that.  My parents and two of my sisters were there, with their husbands and children.  It was a lot of fun to see everyone!  My parents have 20 grandchildren and 16 of them were altogether last night!  It reminded me how thankful I am for all of them.  I especially love all my nieces and nephews and wish I could see them more often!

After the party, I took the kids home, got them ready for bed and left them with Mitchell.  I went and joined John at the high school, so I could watch Chipper's performance.  We had a blast! He did such a great job and looked to be having so much fun!  I'm grateful for all the wonderful friends he has made, in such a short time and thankful for these opportunities he has had!

Here is today's template:

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Today's Prompt:  What challenges from my childhood now make me grateful?

Grateful for my children

I think that it can be so easy, in our busy daily lives, to take our families for granted.  I often find it a bit crazy that I treat my kids as though they have to just put up with me, rather than the cherished people they are in my lives.  When I spend large amounts of time nagging about this and that, it is hard to remember how beautiful they make my life and how lost I would be without them!

We had such a great day yesterday.  Only Sam had it off school, so we spent the morning cleaning and baking.  I made 2 loaves of gluten free bread, 20 gluten free cupcakes, 2 pans of pumpkin bars and 4 large gluten free pizza crusts.  We took the kids out for lunch so they could play a bit and then we had a few errands to run with the older kids.  Abby had a dentist appointment, Mitchell had voice lessons and then a birthday party and Chipper had a rehearsal for the Night on Broadway thing he is doing tonight at the highschool.

After all the craziness, we ended up back home and my sister, her husband and their six kids came to visit!  They live in Henderson, NV and have come up for a family party tonight.  They spent dinner with us, and we had such a great time!  Four of her kids were recently diagnosed with Celiac Disease, so they are gluten free too!  It was fun to share some of the recipes and things I've learned with her.

Here is your free template for today!

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And today's prompt is:  What am I taking for granted, that I really am thankful for?

Grateful for Service

Today I am grateful for the service of others.  In particular, I am grateful for the thousands of men and women who are serving and who have served our country.  I feel so blessed with the freedoms I enjoy in this country, and I know that has come at the sacrifice of so many lives.  Here in America, today is Veterans Day, an opportunity to celebrate and honor those who have served.  I add my public thank you to everyone else who feels grateful for that service today.

Yesterday was a good day.  Most of it was just the normal day-to-day stuff of grocery shopping, cleaning, baking, etc.  Last night, we had a dinner for the women at church, and that was a lot of fun.  After that, I drove about 30 minutes to my friend's Eileen house to watch Eclipse.  I had never seen the Twilight movies, so she has been catching me up so we can go to the new movie next weekend!  I'll admit that I only agreed because I thought it would be a fun girl activity!  But I have enjoyed them more than I thought I would.

Here is today's template:

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And the prompt for today:  What service has someone given me that I'm thankful for?