Being Grateful

One of the things the moms at my church do is a 15 week challenge entitled "From Stressed to Blessed".  Our fearless leader, Carmalyn, posts the weekly challenges on Facebook.  The purpose is to find and/or recognize JOY!  It is a very simple online group of women who make lists of things that relate to our weekly challenge.  Things that we are thankful for, things that make us smile, things that make us happy.  You get the idea!

I love to participate because it reminds me that I have more than I deserve in my life.  I have many, many things which make my life great.  There is way more good in my life than bad or even slightly not good.  But, the daily grind sometimes takes it toll on my mind and more importantly my attitude.  When this happens I forget about all the great things and can only focus on the annoying things about my day.  If my attitude is crap, then things typically don't go well at my house.  My attitude eases its way into my kiddos and their behaviors become even less desirable.  It is such a horrible cycle and I am guessing I am not the only mom who repeats this cycle on occasion.

So, I was super happy to see this little challenge begin this week.  It has helped me focus less on what I have to do and more on what I get to do.  For example, after baking and assembling a 7 layer cake last week, I had to bake 50+ cupcakes for Jonah to take to the gym on Tuesday.  I was not thrilled to be baking again, but I was happy that Jonah has a great group of people who wanted to celebrate his birthday and eat cupcakes. 

These little list reminders show up on Facebook almost every morning and it is a great way to begin my day.  Check it out....Stressed to Blessed!  Anyone can join and maybe your day will be a little better!

My challenge from yesterday was to list five things I was thankful for in my house.  It forced me to focus on the positive and not see my "to do" list! My list was my comfy bed, my breakfast room table, my new shower head, the sound of my kids voices, and our blackboard!

So, readers what are you grateful for about your home or life or morning or whatever today?  Or, who are you grateful for today?

Share and hopefully we will all gain a little thankfulness from everyone's lists!!