30 Days of Gratitude ~ Days 23 - 30

"We can only be said to be alive

in those moments

when our hearts are conscious

of our treasures."

~Thornton Wilder

 

I saw this quote recently and it touched me. During the thirty days of November I have made a conscious effort every day to be grateful for the treasures I have; from small things to big things, from family to appliances.

 

This daily practice has made a difference!

I feel different!

I feel blessed!

I feel overwhelming joy!

 

Day 23

My dishwasher went out two days before Thanksgiving. I'm so grateful to my husband who insisted we purchase one on Thanksgiving Eve and then proceeded to install it just in the nick of time for all those dirty Thanksgiving Day dishes!! I'm sure my daughter and daughter-in-law where just as thankful as I was!!  We gave this new baby a hard test; four loads on Thanksgiving Day!!

 

 

Day 24

I'm grateful for warm, cozy quilts. This one was is a scrap quilt made by my  mother! It's bright, it's cheerful, and it keeps me warm every night! 

 Day 25

 I'm grateful for the beautiful sunset reflecting in my neighbor's pond!! The sky seems to be blazing!

Day 26

I'm grateful for my Mom's teachings. She taught me to sew when my feet barely reached the pedal. She helped me make my first apron and nine-patch quilt blocks. From there I went to skirts and later made my first three-piece suit. Today my sewing consists mostly of quilt blocks and decorating projects. Just the sound of my sewing machine brings back many memories.

Day 27

 Thankful for the food we have and the ease with which we are able to obtain it!

 

Day 28

 I'm grateful that my camera has taught me to see through different eyes!  I'm also grateful to all of my online friends that have encouraged me,  inspired me, and taught me so much. I would never be where I am today without each of you! I'm sending a special thanks to all of you who follow my blog!  I love when you stop by!

 

 

Day 29

Grateful for music that fills my home and soothes my soul!

 

 

Day 30

I saved a very big gratitude for this last day of November. Words cannot express how thankful I am for the wonderful man I've been married to for 40 years!!

I have certainly enjoyed my 30 days of gratitude documented with 30 photos.

 

I've been blessed to take part in a flicker group where we posted and shared our daily gratitude. If you have some time, stop by and see all the blessings that have been recorded! This project helped me spend the month of November in thankfulness.

 

 ^"O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good;

for his mercy endureth for ever."

1 Chronicles 16:34

30 Days of Gratitude ~ Days 16 - 22

As I thought ahead about my gratitude photography project for the week of Thanksgiving, I thought I'd look for small things each day just as I had been doing. After all, it's a given that I'm thankful for my God, my family, and my home. I wanted to look for little things that are sometimes overlooked as we busily hurry through each day.  That just wasn't in my heart this week as all my family arrived. My heart was full of gratitude for my amazing family! This gratitude post is all about them!

 

As the boys played, gramps raked the front yard.

A pile of leaves + four boys = fun, fun, fun!!!

A pile of leaves + one gramma = gramma slipping and landing flat on her back, camera flying through the air, miraculously missing grandson's faces!!!  All is well, gramma is fine and so is camera!!  Thank goodness for the pile of leaves!!

 

I'm thankful for the spot in the pasture that will not grow grass. I'm thankful for that good, old sandy dirt that makes a great place for the boys to dig, build roads, and play with their cars.

I'm thankful that we have trees with limbs low enough for climbing. Just so as you know (Drew says this and I love it) his mommy is right beside him!

 

 

I'm even thankful for my Cricut. The boys cut and pasted for hours the morning it was too cold to be outside. You can't see it on the paper, but Drew had just cut out a large roller coaster and it was pretty awesome!!

I never thought I'd say this, but I was thankful for the TV and movies when two of the boys began running a fever!  Aaron and Josh (on the left) are the sick ones.  Drew (with the remote) changed the movies, controlled the volume, and pushed the buttons as necessary. Much to the dismay of the others, he likes to pause it a lot!! Josh finally had to go to the doctor; he has strep! Just a few doses of antibiotic and he was feeling much better!  Aaron had a fever and upper respiratory symptoms. We're just waiting to see if any of the rest of us get strep!  So far, so good!!

 

 

Thankful for board games that kept them busy when we had to stay indoors and for gramps that is teaching Josh how to play checkers with his older brother, Jake!

 

Every little second that I'm with these boys and my family is a blessing. Josh, who's five, wrote this note. He wrote "we went to" and then I would spell the last words in the sentences. The last line makes me cry tears of joy. He was writing about our many adventures together.

 

 

We went to the lake.

We went to the park.

We went to the zoo.

We went to Rush.

We went to church.

We went to the library.

We went with gramma.

 

Oh, the memories we have made together!! Each one a special blessing!  I'm so thankful that the time we spend together is not only special to me, but it's special to my grandsons.

 

The boys said the blessing at each meal this week. I love the way they pray from their hearts and with innocence. I wish I could remember every line from every prayer. Here's just a small sampling of their prayers.

 

Dear God,

Thank you for mommy and daddy.

Thank you for gramma and gramps.
Thank you for memaw and pepaw.

Thank you for Aunt Patty, Uncle Jacob, Aunt Aimee, and Uncle Randy. (We regularly went through every one's name that was at the table!)
Thank you for cousins.

Thank you for this beautiful day.

Thank you for toys. (and any object that was in sight; we don't always keep our eyes shut)
Thank you for all being together.

Thank you for bread or hot dogs or ham (or whatever).

Thank you for this beautiful food.

 

Oh and we must not forget:

Help the Pilgrims and Indians.

Help us be good and pleeeeeeese no sin!

 

And so it went, little boys full of thankfulness!! Their prayers brought smiles and tears to the rest of us! I'm thankful that their parents have taught them from a very young age to pray.

 

I hope that your Thanksgiving was full of special memories and thankfulness; mine certainly was!!

30 Days of Gratitude ~ Days 7 - 15

My daily gratitude photography project has been much easier than I thought!  It's not that I'm not grateful for so much, it was the photography that had me worried. I thought I would struggle finding a way to photograph the things I am grateful for. That hasn't been so, each day, it has come very easy. I guess I was a little intimidated by putting my gratitude into a photograph.

 

Day 7

As I looked at this pile of rocks that my grandsons have collected and given me, I'm thankful for the variety in nature. It would be a boring world if everything were exactly the same. Of course, I'm also thankful for the four boys who bring me these treasures!

 

 

 Day 8

I'm grateful for the sense of adventure photography has brought to me!  I never know when I grab my camera and hit the road, what wonderful things I'll discover!

Day 9

I'm grateful for the wind that unfurled the United States and Arkansas flags today! Their beauty takes my breath away!!

 

 

Day 10

I'm filled with gratitude that I was able to spend a few days with theses three handsome guys and their mother!! Today we had a picnic and went hiking near the Buffalo River. Gramma is a little tired!! These guys are hard to keep up with!



 

Day 11

The power went out in the middle of church service this morning. Thankfully we do have several windows in our sanctuary! We sang and the pastor preached in near darkness. It made me very grateful for electricity and that we don't have to read by candlelight!!

 

Day 12

I know I'm a little different, but I am so very grateful that the temperatures are getting colder!! The heat this summer was brutal on those of us who are hot-natured!!

 

Day 13

I'm grateful for every minute I'm able to spend with this guy!! He came and stayed with me today while mommy and daddy worked. We always have a great time!

Day 14

I'm always grateful for the little creatures that I find along the way. I was told this is a  cucumber beetle.

Day 15

Our first really frosty mornings have arrived. I'm grateful for the sunshine that makes the frost sparkle.

 

Can you believe the month is already half over!!

I wonder what things I'll be blessed with in the last half of the month!

30 Days of Gratitude ~ Days 1-6

 

The month of November has arrived and with it the celebration of Thanksgiving. So many times I'm guilty of looking at Thanksgiving as just a time to spend with family. This year, I want to focus each day on being grateful; grateful for the many things I've been blessed with.  I've begun a 30 Day's Of Gratitude project. Each day I look for one thing that I'm thankful for and then capture that in a photo. Some are big things like family and home, other's are small ordinary things I encounter. Some may be serious, some may be funny. It's all in how I see things that day.

 

 

Day 1 ~ I'm grateful for the colors in nature.

Day 2 ~ This morning I was grateful for a very small thing. I'm thankful that I finally found a cereal that does not get soggy before it's all eaten. I really, really don't like soggy cereal!!

Day 3 ~ My heart is filled with gratitude for the beautiful day my sister and I spent with our mom and dad!  We traveled to the small town of Rush, AR, enjoyed a picnic lunch, and soaked in the beauty of fall in the Ozark Mountains!

Day 4 ~ I'm grateful for a wonderful worship service this morning! The beautiful music brought me peace and joy!

Day 5 ~ After the drought we experienced this summer, I'm grateful for every little drop of rain we receive!

Day 6 ~ I'm grateful for our little piece of land in this wonderful nation!

 

I hope you'll join me each day and

find sometime big or small that you're grateful for.

You don't have to take pictures, maybe you could just make a list!

Whatevery you do,

enjoy this season of thanksgiving!

 

"In every thing give thanks:

for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."

1 Thessalonians 5:19 (KJV)