Day 30 of 30 Days of Thankfulness (30 Days of Thankfulness)

Wow I can't believe it is done! All thirty days. And I finished it! That in itself is something I am thankful for. For finishing something. I am the worlds worst at unfinished projects.

This small little thing, this 30 days of looking for something to be thankful for, has turned into something bigger and I am so so thankful for that.  It has caused me to look at everyday things a little bit differently. I have always considered myself to be an optimistic person. But over this past month I have realized that optimism is about believing things will all work out in the future. And I do believe that. I believe in a God who works all things for good for those who love God (Romans 8:28). So how can I not be optimistic?  But what this showed me was that optimism isn't what brings joy.  Always thinking that eventually things will be good can cause you to overlook how good things are NOW. That is where joy comes from.  Joy comes from being thankful NOW!  That is what I want in my life. Not anticipation of future Joy (which I have) but Joy now, everyday in everything.

This little 30 day experiment hasn't gotten me there.  This is too big a change for that. Remember what I said about idea and not finishing things? That is all about finding Joy in what could be, not what is.  Wishing for something different. I am not saying that isn't okay. It is a part of myself I wouldn't want to get rid of.   But it is part of myself that needs to be tweaked a bit.  I need to remember to be thankful for NOW. For what I am doing NOW.  It's hard to be depressed when you are thankful. I am learning that also.

So this is only the beginning of this for me.  I am glad those of you who have read my blog started it out with me. I won't be subjecting you to my daily lists, although I am sure it will creep in on occasion.  So now I will dig around upstairs in my book shelves, pull out one of my many many gratitude journals... rename it a thankfulness journal (Don't ask me the difference or what it matters but to me gratitude is different from thankfulness. To me gratitude is on the surface and thankfulness is gratefulness from your soul.  I know, crazy, but that is the way it is in my mind.) and keep thinking of everyday things to be thankful for. I know not everyone is as blessed as I am so it is time I live like it.

We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.  ~Thornton Wilder

Hem your blessings with thankfulness so they don't unravel.  ~Author Unknown

Shell

Day 29 of 30 Days of Thankfulness (Dan)

Okay, I know I said I wasn't going to do the typical my friends, my family, my house kind of list that I was going to look for the less obvious thing I was thankful for.  But seriously did anyone who knows me really think I would get through 30 days of thankfulness and not mention Dan?

There is this blog that read everyday. It is called Stuff Christians Like and I think he is hilarious.  I know he isn't everyone cup of tea but he makes me laugh.  The other day he was posting a list of thoughts that had run through his head in about 5 minutes as he sat in an airplane.  It was crazy funny. I thought to myself that no one else's brain works that way.....except maybe mine.  Then at the end of the blog he said that when he told his wife what he had been thinking and she said "It must be exhausting to be you"  I laughed and laughed and then I thought wow John Accuff is married to a Dan.  That is just like something Dan would say.

I can't imagine what it is like to live with someone who is so ...... me.

I can't tell you how many times I have come up with a new plan or idea and Dan just goes with it.  He just rides the roller coaster till the end knowing I have either hit on the next big thing or I will get tired of the idea and move on.  He grounds me in a way that doesn't hold me down.

I know I get a little crazy sometimes.  I am just thankful Dan along for the ride with me.

Shell

Day 28 of 30 Days of Thankfulness (Seeing old things a new way)

I love the whole "repurposing" movement that is going on right now.  That probably isn't surprising considering how much I love thrift stores and yard sales. I mean if I had to pick one thing I like most about no longer selling real estate it is having my  Saturday mornings free for yard sales again. But the whole recycle repurpose thing has taken on a life of it's own. There are shows on HGTV and DIY about repurposing. (notice how they had to give it a cool name.... repurposing sounds great doesn't it). 


My problem is I am crafty but not creative. There is a HUGE difference. I am good at making things but not so good with coming up with the ideas for the things.  I struggle to see things in a new way.  An old window is just an old window to me until I see something cool done with it. That is why I love craft classes and magazines and those HGTV shows. Give me the idea and I can run with it.


But right now I am seeing something else in a new way. Something that I thought was tried and over done.  Right now I am seeing thankfulness in a new way.  That is kind of funny considering the fact that "everyone" has talked about it for years. Gratitude journals take up entire shelves at the local Christian book store.  The idea that we are to be grateful for all things in something we hear all the time.  As a matter of fact it has been done and talked about so much that if I hear someone talking about it or see a book about it I think "Yeah Yeah be grateful ...got it".

So this looking at an old thing in a new way started about a month ago.  I was looking for a picture of rain to post on this blog.  I found the perfect picture in google images. I went to the page it was from to make sure it wasn't someone's personal photo I was about to steal. It was on a blog from a couple years ago. I blog where the writer was doing so many days of things she loves.  I thought what a neat idea for a blog.  Then on her page there was a link to a blog on Thankfulness and the two kinda merged in my head and the idea for my 30 Days of Thankfulness sprouted.  I didn't go into it seeing thankfulness any different it just sounded fun.  First the Gardener must prepare the soil.


Then a few days into it I started the new book for our Tuesday night study.  One of the first things she talks about is thankfulness and the lack of it. That got me to thinking. Next the seeds are planted.


Then through out the day I would see something silly or small and think that could be something to put in my Thankfulness Blog. Or someone would see me at the grocery store and say "Warm Fuzzies huh?" I would laugh and say "Yep Warm Fuzzies" Then the fertilizer is applied.


Seeing something old (gratitude) as something new (thankfulness) has started to grow and I realize I am looking at things a little different. Then a friend says you should check out this book that I got today called "One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are by Ann Voskamp" so I download the book and start to read it. Now the plants are watered.

I am captivated (my mind is literally as it is pretty much all I am thinking about right now) by her idea that thankfulness for the small silly things in life as well as the big amazing things is truly really what life is all about.  That it is the highest form of worship.  That it is the only way to true joy. That it is the greatest of all gifts we can give our children.... to be thankful in all things.  I know it is all a growing process. You don't plant a garden and get fruit the next day. I see how with this 30 Days of Thankfulness the soil of my soul was being tilled and weeded and prepared so that I wouldn't read the title of the book Heather suggested and say "Great another book on gratitude".I am not sure how long it will take for this to grow.  What I do know is that I know what seeds were planted and I am sure of the eventual outcome.


A life contemplating the blessings of Christ becomes a life acting the love of Christ. ~~ Ann Voskamp the harvest.


Shell

Day 27 of 30 Days of Thankfulness (Cats)

I had a whole nother post planned for today but have you ever had a thought that was brewing and it is in there churning and it just isn't ready yet?  This thought/idea isn't ready for other people yet or at least I am not ready to share it with everyone.  So I was sitting here petting one cat watching the other one outside playing and trying to decide what I would write about while I let my other thought stew.  Then I realized I am thankful for these cats who are such a part of my day sometimes I don't even notice how wonderful they are.

I had a cat that I loved. His name was Newton and he used all 9 lives. That poor cat was just as beat up as you can imagine.  His three closest calls were when we rescued him from the pound (not a no kill shelter), when he got in the car on a REALLY hot day and we didn't know it and shut him up in there, and when he disappeared for 2 weeks after a bad storm. He came home with his back end crushed and the muscle in one leg atrophied.  But that was years before we lost him. He just kept on going.  Then about 2 years ago he was gone. We have no idea where he was just gone. I kept waiting for him  to come back like when he took the 2 week walk about but it didn't happen.  So I said "NO MORE CATS.  They won't stay in the house and then they get hurt or killed and I can't take it so NO MORE!"

Then a friend from work said her daughter had rescued a cat only to discover she was pregnant. So she needed homes for the babies. I looked at the picture of the kittens she posted on the bulletin board at work for days before I went and got Tonka.  His name is an Native American word for big feet and his paws were HUGE!  Right now he is sleeping in the window happily and everyone who has heard me talk about him knows he is my baby!

Then last winter (the one a year ago not the one that just passed) we had a calico that showed up under our porch.  I told the kids not to feed her.  If you feed her she will stay. She has a home. She needs to go back to it. DO NOT FEED THE CAT! Then we had that all that snow.  It was strange for here to have so much snow so late.  So I said fine go get the cat and bring her in.  Caitie insisted she was a boy and wanted to name her Steve. I insisted the cat was a girl because Calico's are girls 99% of the time. I have actually only seen one male calico ever (shout out to Bama) and they are crazy rare. But the whole time the cat got used to us she called her Steve. Finally she warmed up to us and decided we were okay. I checked and yep it's a girl.  So she is now called Stevie. And Stevie, who sleeps with Caitie at night, is outside doing her cat thing. Looks like she is hunting. Voles I think based on what she is doing.  She is the sweetest cat.

I like our dogs. Dogs are great. But I LOVE my cats!

Shell

Day 26 of 30 Days of Thankfulness (Quiet moments)

Most of the week Dan wakes up at 5:15 am and leaves the house by 6. Timothy gets up at 6 am and Caitie at 7. On Saturdays we don't usually set an alarm and I wake up around 7:30 or 8. Either Timothy or Caitie is usually up by then.  But Sunday mornings.... that is different.

I set an alarm on Sundays so we can get ready for church and Sunday School. I get up and the house is so quiet. It is a different kind of quiet than the kind after everyone leaves.  After everyone leaves you can still feel the hussle and bussle and rushing around that went on. The peace has already been disturbed and it just isn't the same.

On Sunday mornings there is a special content kind of quiet in the house. The kind that holds expectations for the day.  The kind that says that all the people I love most are warm and cozy and safe and sleeping right here in this house.  The kind that says any minute the house will be crazy and rushing and full of energy.  Usually I don't care for the quiet. I want music or the tv or some kind of noise going on. But on Sunday mornings I love the Quiet.

Shell

Day 25 of 30 Days of Thankfulness (Our Yard)

Okay for this post make sense there are a few things you have know about me up front.  I do not like yard work. I do not like to be hot.  I do not like mosquitoes  or no-see-ums (which for those of you who don't know are tiny little gnats that bite).  It appears the rest of my family agrees with me for the most part.  I do not have a "yard" I have acreage.  But to really understand how that can all be true and yet today I can be thankful for our yard you have to have read Day 6 of 30 Days of Thankfulness (Ideas).

I have some big plans for my yard this year!  I have trees/hedges that I want to pull out. I have plants to be divided. I have ideas for a new flower bed. I want to plant my garden in old tires (believe me pictures will follow).  I want to paint the front porch. I want to paint my swing. I want to plant a row of butterfly bushes or hydrangeas in front of my fence line.  I want to cut back the honeysuckle and fix up my back patio.

Shoot this morning I want to fence the acreage fill it with pigs and sheep and goats and spin wool and make goat milk soap and ..... You get the idea!  This morning with the sun shining and the whole day ahead of me I am full of ideas! Thank you yard today you are my muse!

Shell

Day 24 of 30 Days of Thankfulness (The Mundane)

I got nothing today.  Today is kinda blah.  I am going for coffee with  my friends like every Friday. I am thankful for that but I already wrote about it.  I have an appointment this afternoon for work.  I have to go to the store and the bank. I have whole handful of errands to run.  The kids are heading to school. It is the end of the quarter so not much is going on there.  We don't have much of anything planned for the weekend. Just some to do stuff around the house.  Sounds pretty boring doesn't it?

That is what I am thankful for today. Sometimes we all need a day where we have a simple to do list. A simple no frills day.  A day free of DRAMA!  Just a plain ordinary day.  I am feeling like I need one of those and so far it looks like today could be one of them.

Shell