The Gratitude Project

Maybe you've seen them and noticed everyone posting the things they're grateful for over the last week or so. For the last few years I have been posting my Gratitudes daily during the month of Thanksgiving (November) and this year I decided I would do it in pictures. I'm thinking I will do a summary every 9-12 days.

Here are the first 12 days...

1. My family

2. My daughters (Sunshine & Princess)

3. My husband (Superman)

4. My daily devotional; scripture reading, journaling and gratitudes

My family is basically the center of my universe. My main job is to take care of them so I suppose it's the first thing I'm grateful for. They give my life meaning and make everything else on the list matter.

I started with my daughters because I absolutely Love this picture! I think we all look good, which for a mom with two babies (Sunshine was 2 1/2 & Princess was maybe 9 months in this picture) we look pretty good and I love the pink wash and our white clothes. Princess is in her Blessing dress, by the way.

I am so happy to be married to the love of my life. He is my Superman! This is a lovely photo from our wedding collection. Even though it's kind of cheesy, I like this picture because we are looking at each other in total oblivion of the next 20-50+ years. HAHAHAHAHA!

My scriptures, journal, and gratitude journal. I got in the habit of reading my scriptures when I was in high school. It was further branded into me when I was a missionary. It's hard for me to feel "complete" during the day without reading them. I have kept a journal even longer than that, starting when I was very young and writing regularly from the time I was 12. The gratitude journal was introduced to me a few years ago by our then Relief Society president. She gave us each a journal to start and every day we were to record 5 things we were grateful for. I have been doing that for about three years now (I think) and not even sure how many of the little books I have gone through. It helps me to remember who to thank and to be content. 

1. Books

2. My laptop

3. My parents and my in-laws

4. My dachshund, Bailey James

Books are one of the loves of my life. It's true. I love to read them and am inspired by them. I love fiction (yes, it's true) and love romance most of all. My ToBeRead pile is ridiculous. I am never bored however!

I list the reasons to be thankful for my laptop partly because of the connection it gives me to people who I have lost touch with as well as making new friends that I only have contact with online. I was a better letter writer before email and texting, but not much. 

Both my parents and in-laws have celebrated their 50th anniversaries. What a milestone and what an example to their children, grandchildren and even great-grandchildren! I am proud to be related to both sets. Sadly my father-in-law passed away from cancer a few years ago. I still miss him and think about him often.

I had a dachshund as a child (her name was Suki) and I loved her until I became a teenager and found better things to do. I love dachshunds and wanted a puppy so bad and a friend offered one of her dachshund pups to me. I named him Bailey James after George Bailey/James Stewart (yes of It's a Wonderful Life) and loved him like my youngest baby he was meant to be. Unfortunately when we moved into our rental house we couldn't keep him in the house and he was not meant to be an outdoor dog so I found him a new home with other small dogs. I miss him every day.

1. Lake Powell with my parents & siblings

2. My membership in the LDS church

3. Veterans

4. My brothers

Since 1994 we have spent a week at Lake Powell with my parents, siblings and their families. It's a small space and it's a closeness we rarely get to experience otherwise. We enjoy lots of water sports (tubing, water-skiing, hiking, cliff-jumping, etc) and laying around (me) reading through my TBR pile.

I love going to church! It renews me and makes me feel ready to take on another week of humdrum but necessary activities. I am a Mormon and I like it.

I have so much gratitude for soldiers. My mind cannot really wrap itself around so much tragedy and horrors surrounding war and I'm thankful to not have to be the one to go fight. I know freedom isn't free. I know somebody has to make the hard choices and do the hard things so I can live in this country with the liberty to choose as I please (for the most part--and within the law).

I have all brothers. This picture only shows three of my five brothers, but I love them as much as I love my arm or my leg. We don't get to see each other as often as I'd like but we stay in touch in other ways. (Hello, thank you laptop!)

What are you grateful for?