365 Gratitude Project- Week 11

Day 69:

I am so grateful that we only have to go to our backyard for some outdoor fun on these BEAUTIFUL days! The baby LOVES the slide and is so fearless that he throws himself down it. Big Brother tried to hold him back a couple of times so I could try to get a photo, which turned out super cute as well. So much fun!  (By the way, I feel the urge to mention that I didn't dress the 4 year old today. I had nothing to do with that and I wasn't even home when he put that on....)

Day 70:

I am grateful for the sweet cuddly moments right when Baby N wakes up from nap. Those are some of the most peaceful moments I have with him, and I get them EVERY DAY! 

Day 71:

I am grateful for tricks I've found on workout days so all three boys still get a somewhat healthy dinner without Daddy having to scramble to figure out something to eat when I tag him in as I'm running out the door to the gym. Easy, and ready to eat when they need it!

 

Day 72:

I am grateful for routine. I am a very routine person anyway, but I cherish these moments that have become routine over the years, including the quiet moments of warm milk after waking up either in the morning or after nap. (Plus it's super cute seeing little brother wanting to be JUST like big brother in these things he sees big brother do every day.)

 

Day 73:

I am grateful for moments of rest and deep breath after very busy....play. 

Day 74:

I am so grateful for this 4 year old and the wonderful dates we get to have just Mommy and Bryce. It was such a wonderful day and I am so proud of him in so many ways.
He is such a good kid.
We drove in Daddy's "zoom zoom car" which he loves (that used to be Mommy's "zoom zoom car" by the way...).
We went to the toy store to pick out a gift for his friend's birthday and he didn't even ask for a toy for himself. He picked out a toy for his friend, and then, when we walked by a group of toys that caught his eye, he just said "Wow! I'll save my quarters for this one!" (He gets quarters as rewards for doing really nice things with little brother or for over-and-beyond things like setting the table without us asking or surprising us by cleaning something other than his room or playroom. The rewards thing has worked wonders with him!) I was pretty impressed. I think MOMMY had the harder time walking away from those toys because I knew he would love them, they were really cool, and I REALLY wanted to buy at least one for him right then...instead we walked away to check out. He was such a big kid to me in that moment.
We left the toy store and went to lunch at The Cheesecake Factory, and he was so much fun at the restaurant. We told jokes, giggled, practiced writing letters, and ate our lunch. We walked around the mall a bit after that just the two of us. It was AWESOME!
As I am working on this grateful stuff, my son seems to have it mastered today. In the car he rambled on and on about the "beautiful day" and all the things in it. "I love this drive to the store, the beautiful weather, the beautiful mountains, the snow on the mountains, the snowflakes falling on everything, the hills we drive fast over, the cool power lines, the grass on the earth, the trees, the beautiful clouds, the wind blowing the car windows...." It was heartwarming listening to him talk the whole way. And he even ended the car ride home with,
"I love time with you Mommy."
MEEE TOOO Son!

 

Day 75:

I am grateful for celebrations! For celebrating life! Bryce has some very fun friends (as do I), and I am so grateful for fun birthday parties with wonderful friends to celebrate another year of a sweet child's life. Bryce had SUCH a fun time at his friend's very creative super heroes party! I was so impressed with the party, the games, and everything else there. So neat. Of course I am also grateful for anything that wears this little boy out. He took a NICE LONG nap when he got home.

365 Gratitude Project- Week 10

Day 62:

I am grateful for family game time. Our 4 year old loves games and is learning so much from them. This game, "Robot Turtles", teaches him basic programming logic. It's pretty fun seeing him enjoy learning these different games. 

We got it from Kickstarter. It's an open source community trying to get ideas to market. It's pretty neat. Check it out.

 

Day 63: 

I am grateful I found more healthy, easy lunch options. I've been less tempted to steal the kids' yummy gluten this week.

 

Day 64: 

I am grateful for the opportunity to renew my mind during Lent this year. Lately, I've been coming into the Lenten Season as a time for reflection, a time to block out all other voices (including social networking), refocus on faith, and evaluate my own life, where I am with God, my faith, and my treatment of others around me. It's a time to simplify, to study, and to search my heart asking some pretty tough questions. Am I living true to my beliefs or just saying them aloud? Am I loving others, or living for myself? Am I twisting my faith or justifying wrong (unloving) acts in the name of "religion", or am I living in LOVE and following Jesus? Are there places within my faith I want to look into and define more? Are there ways I need to change? Are there points I may be missing or perspectives that need a different light? Are there things holding me back from God? Things that are stopping me from loving others and illuminating God's love?
As I am looking at a few of these questions and going whichever direction I feel led, I am focusing on and praying for God's overwhelming PEACE in my life. Peace in my reactions to others (especially my husband). Peace in my decisions. Peace in my failures. Peace in my current situations. That word "peace" has become my main focus this season as I seek God and all of the blessings of Lent.
I want to come out of Lent this year renewed, changed, focused, closer to God, and moving forward as a better person.

 

Day 65:

I am grateful for the light I see in my children. They shine goodness, innocence, light, and love.

 

Day 66:

I am grateful for the relationship developing between these brothers. Even when it seems tough and I spend a sleepless night worried they won't get along, they seem to show each other love and happiness and I love watching their relationship grow. 

Day 67:

I am grateful for a few things today: time alone to just breath, a church community/worship/message at JFC that always seems to bring me back to a better place emotionally, and some go to verses that ended up being the ONLY thing that got me through a high anxiety night. 

Day 68:

I am grateful for an alternative to running that I do really enjoy, YOGA. I am also grateful for the friendship of a person who, no matter what is going on in her life, always seems to want to help me and is always willing to meet with me somewhere (anywhere), as she did this morning for yoga followed by a nice lunch.

365 Gratitude Project- Week 9

Day 55:

I am grateful for the super nice weather breaks in the middle of the winter so the kids can play outside. (and for the cuteness of little baby shoes over footsy PJs. The things we put on our kids...)

Day 56:

I am grateful for another day to be alive. I know, I know, that's pretty general, but my 4 year old woke up in an incredible mood this morning and said while drinking his morning milk, "Hey Mommy, I am just happy to be alive.", followed by a deep breath and an adorable, content kind of smile.  Yep, son, me too.

Day 57:

I am grateful for organization. Even if it takes a good amount of work in the beginning to get things organized (and with crazy kids, it rarely stays organized), it's all worth it and makes me feel so much less stressed. I finally took the time to clean the pantry, partly so things wouldn't continue to fall out every time I opened it. I cleaned out all of the gluten (except a couple things for the kids), threw away all of the expired things, and then tackled the fridge in the same way (even making the space to organize and store all of those different flours for baking now). I feel so much better now that it's done.

Day 58:

I am grateful that we don't have mice...
because if we had even one, it would never leave with the amount of crumbs this house has on the floor pretty much all of the time...

Day 59:

I am grateful that I found a really yummy gluten free pizza crust recipe. It's easy, it works, and tastes awesome. I am so grateful for that because I love pizza and really didn't want to give that one up completely. (I am also supposed to give up tomatoes because they came up as "moderately reactive" in my food sensitivity test. I hardly ever have them now, but again....pizza. Hopefully a little tomatoes here and there won't make my head hurt.)

This plate is my favorite handmade pottery from Batton Clayworks.

Day 60:

I am grateful for the beauty found in nature. It snowed this morning and we couldn't help but stare at all of the pretty, perfectly formed snowflakes sticking to the window. I LOVE when it snows like this, and I am always fascinated watching these picture perfect snowflakes falling, sticking to the windows, and staying for awhile before melting. It was so peaceful and so beautiful. There are far too many metaphors or connections that can be made between unique snowflakes and something in life, but I won't go there, because this time I am truly just grateful for the beauty of them.

Day 61:

I admit, I do complain quite a bit about not getting any "alone time". Seriously, most days I rarely get to go to the bathroom on my own. (read this Scary Mommy blog post, 25 Ways You Know You're a Stay At Home Mom, for a laugh. I actually related to most of them, but #13 and #23 on that list describe the part about being alone in the bathroom.)

BUT, today I feel very grateful that I have this little face (and also his brother's little face) to be constantly watching everything I do, because their little eyes on me are helping me to be a better person on a daily basis.

365 Gratitude Project- Day 47

Day 47: A gratitude at this level deserves it's own post...

I am grateful for the relationship between my husband and I, and the life we have created.



We celebrated our anniversary on this day so here is a look back at our wedding, a day that I will always be grateful for.

Us on our wonderful wedding day:

 

First seeing each other and some other photography fun while it was snowing:

 

Romantic poses in the snow that has made for beautiful framed memories around our house:

 

SNOWSHOEING fun before the ceremony:

 

More romantic time to play in the snow:

 

And time to take in those BEAUTIFUL MOUNTAINS while enjoying each other!

 

Back inside for the romantic, intimate, amazing ceremony:

 

Now the fun really begins! First Dance:

 

Yummy Cake:

 

All Smiles, and deep LOVE: (this photo is my favorite and brings back the rush of love and happiness I felt on that day)

Beautiful day. Beautiful start to a life together. I would do it all over again. Still, that was just one day. So what have we been up to since?

 

Hiking, traveling, snowmobiling, enjoying different experiences, and each other.

 

And Dating! Concerts, baseball games, ice skating, Christmas parties, dinners downtown.

 

Celebrating special events (weddings), life changes, and milestones: 

 

And of course.... having and enjoying kids!

 

All while finding time to fall in love all over again throughout the process:

 

Us and our life together now: 

 I am so grateful for this relationship and for the beautifully messy life we created. I wouldn't change a thing.

Wedding Location: Wild Basin Lodge
Wedding Photographer: Cheryl at Artist i Photography 
Top Right Couples Photo, Bottom "now" Family Photo, and Professional Family Photos scattered within the "having kids" collage: Andrea Flanagan Photography.
Beach Sunset Photos in the "finding time to fall in love" collage: Amy Gray Photography

365 Gratitude Project- Week 8

Day 48:

I am grateful that my son takes interest in things I do, and that he is independent and confident enough to jump right in and do it too.

Day 49:

I am grateful for this silly personality who always finds a way to make Mommy laugh. (he has always liked practicing fun yoga moves...)

 

Day 50:

I am grateful for my small family unit. The overall idea of family. The safety of family (thankfully I feel ours is a "safe place" when many people can't say the same). The unique love shared within the family. Everything about my little family. 

Bryce said today, "I love you Mommy, and baby Nathan the most…and Daddy the most too. Out of every person in this world, I love you and Nathan and Daddy the most!" 

His comment made me really grateful for this family. It's a simple, logical, "of course" kind of idea that you love your family the most, yet the comment still made me overwhelmingly grateful I have this comfort in my home and this safe family unit to love more than any other person in this world.

Day 51:

I am grateful for the one-on-one time I get to connect with Baby while Big Brother is in school. I appreciated all of that time I got with my oldest, and I'm so grateful I also get it with the youngest. 

Day 52:

I am grateful for dinner date nights downtown to reconnect a bit with my husband! (especially when the last few planned date nights/weekends had to be canceled because of sick kids)

Day 53:

I am so grateful for calm, quiet, relaxing, talk time with my son. I put the baby to nap, and went into my bedroom to take a quick deep breath "mommy time out" moment before going back down to play with Bryce. He soon came up, saw the ottoman piled with blankets and pillows, and decided to make a nice little bed for himself for "resting". For over an hour he stayed right there all comfy while I was all comfy in my bed, and we just talked about the world. It was truly one of the best moments of my life.

His comfy resting spot that he said, "Thanks Mommy, for putting these blankets here JUST FOR ME", and my view from my comfy spot on the bed. Peace.

Day 54:

I am grateful for the learning experiences with baking. I have never been a fan of baking, but it's fun to learn and experiment more now. I set up all of my different flours for gluten free baking, made up the dough wondering if the consistency was anywhere close to what it should be (who knows!), then I baked paleo blueberry muffins and gluten free sandwich bread. The muffins were a success, the bread a fail, but it's fun to learn at least. (Apparently this is what I do when I have to take time off running. Baking in place of running probably isn't the greatest idea I've ever had...)

 

365 Gratitude Project- Week 7

Day 41:

I am grateful that Daddy and Bryce can enjoy things together, like watching rocket launches. So. Cute. 

Day 42:

I am so grateful for modern conveniences...like the slow cooker which makes dinner time sooo much less stressful. 

Day 43:

I am grateful for the sweet innocence of a child. I think we can learn a lot from the way children look at the world. 

Day 44:

I am grateful for opportunities to work on cute projects with Bryce, and for opportunities for him to practice writing his name. (He got pretty confused making these monster Valentines for his class though, and kept saying it was Halloween because of the monsters...) 

Idea found here

Day 45:

I am grateful for all three of these boys' love in my life. The hands that warm my heart. My husband's and my two sons' hand prints for Valentine's Day. I love it. 

Day 46:

I am grateful for wonderful gifts sent/given to the boys from family. It's always sad to have so much of our family out of town, but they still find ways to make us and our boys feel loved!