365 Gratitude Project- Week 13

 Week 13: Enjoying family and capturing fun in the midst of crazy spring weather.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 83:

I am grateful for spring and the mature blooming trees around our house. I feel at peace sitting on the deck surrounded by the big trees.

 

Day 84:

I am grateful for the perspective of my wonderful 4 year old son through photos. These are some unedited photos that HE took on his own while walking around with my camera. It makes me smile to see how he captures things, and I love the angles and perspectives in his photography!

 

Day 85:

I am grateful for the opportunities to step back and not take life so seriously. Moments of dancing, laughing, spinning, playing, smiling. Moments and captured memories like this make everything else in the world right.

 

Day 86:

I am grateful for the moments of sweetness between these brothers, rather than moments of rivalry.
Big Brother: "I want a hug. Give me a hug, please, just like this."
Baby: Just stares, then "okay" and stands up to hug big brother.
SO CUTE!

 

Day 87:

I am grateful for new growth. For learning new things by planting herbs and veggies for the first time. I am also grateful for family time I shared with my husband and boys as we painted the planters and planted the herbs. 

 

Day 88:

Mother's Day. This year I am mostly grateful to come to this day with happiness and a full heart, when I know many others come to this day with sadness... (I wish I could say more here, but I don't quite have the words...)
I really do have so much to be grateful for on Mother's Day, but today I am ultimately just grateful for these boys who made me a mother, and for this crazy life phase of mothering young children.

 

Day 89:

I am grateful for the chirping birds in the midst of the snow. The song in the storm. 

365 Gratitude Project- Week 12

Day 76:

I am grateful for goals and accomplishments (particularly through running). I know I need goals and accomplishments in life to remain happy and healthy. This is especially true after I became a mother. So I began running.
I finished my first half marathon race at 2:17, and very soon after made a new pace goal of under 2:00 for my next. That was two years ago.
Then here we are, at the race, after a pregnancy, a baby, a lot of work, and some super fun achilles issues just a few weeks before the race.
I ended up keeping a very nice pace, while learning a lot from my trainer/running mentor in the process, and I did it. I finished the race well under my 2 hour goal time with a strong PR of 1:54! I was so happy about this PR because I went from feeling strong and ready for the race, to injury, to thinking I would have to sit it out completely (I was pretty crushed), to being able to go to "just have fun and finish", to actually making my goal PR. I did it!
Although I am still struggling with the achilles issues and what my next steps should be (and having to sit out other races I would have liked to run), I am so grateful for the opportunity to complete this goal and have this accomplishment.

Day 77:

I am grateful for new learning experiences and growth from a second child. I've been experiencing and thinking about this a lot, and then today a friend posted a blog, Learning to be Humble, that hit home to what I've felt in this area. I have said so often already in this baby's life that he's thrown out everything I thought I knew about parenting. Far too many times with my oldest I put more weight on what I was doing as a parent rather than on his personality. Then, "So you thought you knew what you were doing huh Mommy? AND you even thought you were good? How cute. Now try this one." Enter in #2, a whole new world, yet a whole new amazing different love. He is so different than big brother, so crazy, and so sweet, and he keeps me running far more than my first, yet I love the challenge and he won my heart when he came into this world. I love the opportunity to grow.

(Another note: probably worse than a non-parent with their advice, article posts, and lists of "I will never..." is a mom who thinks others are doing it "wrong" based on how her own first child acts. I need to apologize to those I judged or treated in this way, for myself being that mom, when I should have been understanding, and when us moms should be sticking together. I am sorry.)

"Hmmm, what dangerous thing can I try now to make Mommy's hair turn gray faster?"

Day 78:

I am grateful for my son's hand to hold. I love that he wants to share these moments with me. This is heaven. He won my heart holding my hand on the day he arrived in the world, and he has an even stronger hold on my heart now. 
"Mothers hold their child's hand for a moment, but their heart forever."

Day 79:

I am grateful for the calm moments I get to watch my son learn and pick up big concepts. I love my little early reader who seemed to make a big jump lately in development. He now knows a few sight words, is sounding out easy words using all of the letter sounds he knows, and is pointing to words as he sounds them out or reads them (the ones he knows). I really enjoy watching early readers grow!

Day 80:

I am grateful for music. More specifically on this day, I am grateful for music/concert date nights. This was one of the funnest concerts we've been to, and at our favorite venue, Red Rocks. It was a very diverse concert that opened our eyes to a bit of the hip hop genre (bands Tedashii and Lecrae), yet completely satisfied the rocker girl part of my heart (specifically from Skillet, but also TobyMac). It's funny how music can make everything in the world feel okay. I love the ability to get lost in the music so everything else that I was worried about, thinking about, fighting with my husband about, just disappears for the night. All the troubles went far away when the music started. I am grateful for music, and the wonderful, relaxing, problem free night.

Day 81: 

I am grateful for Colorado's beauty and the many places here that I have come to love. This feels like home.

Day 82:

I am grateful for opportunities to teach my son a healthy lifestyle so he has a solid base to remain active and strong. Sure, there is a balance that I have not always done well at reaching (leading to a step-back point and unfortunately a lack-of-motivation rut right now), but I am very happy that he sees this in me and can get excited about it someday too.
These are his answers to a Mother's Day thing he did with his preschool teachers. I also laughed at the "My Mom is smart! She even knows...when I do something wrong." Yes! And of course, even though he tells me that last line every day, it was still nice to hear him tell somebody else, and I still melt a little every time I hear it. I love this kid with all of my heart too.

I LOVE this cute smile!!!

365 Gratitude Project- Restart and Refocus

It has been far too long since I worked on my gratitude blog.

75 days was a good consistent stretch, right? I guess I'm going to have to keep going into 2015 to get all 365 days.

The intent of this year of gratitude was to look at, focus on, and remember all the things in my life I am thankful for whether it's family, friends, health, material things, simple pleasures, or everyday annoyances that make me feel alive, especially when days are tough.
You know, things like this:

Then life happened, and those busy days, upset days, sad days, tough situations, doubts and fears all made it far too easy to forget about the gratitude and all the good around me.

Also worthy to note, I've changed dramatically in the past couple of years. Many of my viewpoints, thoughts on my beliefs, religion, and the world have all changed. Once somebody starts the process of analyzing beliefs, one thing tends to snowball into another creating more changes than originally planned. Although this process is necessary and good, I'll admit, I've hit some pretty intense cynical and bitter spots (I probably should have stayed off Facebook during these times because every other post/article/status made me sad or angry and seemed to completely hijack my day).

And while stuck in that cynicism and bitterness, I unintentionally set these gratitude blog posts aside.

(how easy it is to get completely stuck in those negative feelings and thoughts, unable to see the good)

Then, today my sister-in-law introduced me to a song "Thankful" by Josh Groban that I hadn't heard before.

Beyond his overall insanely amazing voice, the song was surprisingly a good reminder for me. "...and even though this world needs so much more, there's so much to be thankful for."

Oops! I had put all my focus on that first part and all that was wrong with the world, my life, and everything around it, completely forgetting about that second super important part. I realized I have been spending far too much energy focusing on the anger, the bitterness, the cynicism, and my own life frustrations lately. I do think it's still important to analyze those things, and those emotions are sometimes necessary to help bring change, but in my life right now, I think it's about time to make a switch and once again focus more on the gratitude.

Thank you, my wonderful sister-in-law, for the reminder. Here's to a restart and a refocus on the amazing things in my life and the world around me.

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