Challenge #4 Start a Gratitude Journal

Dear Reader,

Have you started your gratitude journal?  I started one last year and I should stop putting so much pressure on myself about it.  It is suppose to be fun and remind me of all the things to be grateful for.  There aren't many entries from last year- not because I wasn't grateful but because I was trying too hard to use the Joy Dare prompts.  I am still using them this year but I don't have to worry because I have them all printed out all ready.  I just use a simple composition book but it might not last long because I have already had to tape it back together.

Here is an example of an entry:

Please excuse the bleeding black marker from the back.  It is a picture of a terrifying drawing I did while on vacation last summer when I was so bored I started drawing- and if you saw this drawing you would know perfectly well why I do not draw.  I have to bored out of my mind to draw and that is exactly what happened.  Just to give you a sense of how terrifying this drawing is I named it- Evil Queen Elsa.  The only way I am showing it to you is if you beg for it.  Since I am certain I have very few readers, if any- this picture will be safely hidden.

During this challenge I will take a picture every time I fill up two pages and post it on Sunday or whenever I feel like it or have time.  It is fun to look back on these entries, but I also wanted to keep them a bit more private.

Hope you have fun this week putting together your own gratitude journal.  Next week- let's bake a cake!

Yours Truly,

L.L.

New Year 2017

Dear Reader,

It is already 10 days into the new year and I have yet to share anything!  If you will forgive my Advent posts that kinda fizzled out and died, I hope you will still stick with me any way.  I had a feeling that would happen but it was so wonderful while it lasted.

Now it is time all those resolutions and stuff.  I don't like the word resolution.  I don't know why.  Just the sound of it makes me cringe a little.  But I do like the words goals and challenges and that is what I think of when we enter a new year.  I was tempted to do a past thing where I pick a theme for the year at random but that didn't work out so well last year.  Before Advent I decided to start a Happiness Challenge but a more realistic version.  I will not be doing a challenge every single day- with my life right now that is totally not possible.  I was debating with myself whether I should start over at day/number 1 for the new year or just continue from where I left off.  Since I only got to number 3 I will continue on.  I will check in with my progress at the VERY least- once a week on Sunday- provided I have access to a computer/Internet and my husband and children are occupied (they have seemed especially demanding over the holidays).  I wanted to check in this Sunday but alas it had snowed and church had been cancelled so my husband wasn't busy.  I have looked at a few of the challenges and some of them might require me to write more often but we will get there when we get there.  I will have to find a way.

Other new year goals:  Read the whole Bible chronologically, be a little more intentional about church, post cross stitch progress, complete the Popsugar Reading Challenge for 2017 (I will post reviews HERE), and participate in The Hogwarts Running Club.  It has all been a little overwhelming but I am up for it.  I think, pray, and hope this is practical and not too much.  I tend to try to do too much as anybody who has even tried to make sense of this blog could probably tell.  I tend to have these grand ideas that never happen or just barely happen.  It seems to be a part of who I am that will not let me go.  Any advice would be appreciated.

Next Sunday I will post my Number 4 Start a Gratitude Journal post.

Happy 2017- may you not torture me the way 2016 did.

Yours Truly,
L.L.

Advent Day 26

"Bless us Lord, this Christmas, with quietness of mind; teach us to be patient and always to be kind." -Helen Steiner Rice

Another day with no frills of Christmas cheery photos.  This surely was a quietness of mind day because I puttered around cleaning and reflecting on the year to come soon.  I was a little nervous because I bought a new outfit, which is already awkward but the reason is for church in preparation for the song the girls and I are planning on singing.  We haven't practiced much but I still thought it was cute.  I could tell the lady who asked me to do this clearly thinks we aren't ready and that we are pretty much all show and no talent, but you know what?  As long as my heart is in it, God will bless it.  He teaches me patience and kindness as I try to keep it light with one daughter who doesn't like the song or singing, one daughter who wants to sing but is clearly shy and nervous and one daughter who clearly steals the show- it is Christmas,  it is messy and this is real- not perfection.  We'll get there.

Advent Day 25

"Every piece of the universe, even the tiniest little snow crystal, matters somehow.  I have a place in the pattern, and so do you." -T.A. Barron, writer

Today I have no photos but I had a great day.  Thank you, God, for having a place for me in the pattern of life.  I was preparing to do some laundry so I could have the Christmas PJs ready and my husband's church clothes for Sunday, but it ended up being a mostly cleaning the little girls room day because I couldn't even find the floor let alone their Christmas pjs.  The cleaning wasn't fun- but the clean room was nice AND I spent the evening Christmas shopping with a friend.  I haven't been out like that in what feels like ages.  Time to take it slow and try to clean up life.  

It is only 3 days till Christmas!

Advent Days 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, & 24

"Life's most persistent and urgent question is, "What are you doing for others?" "- Martin Luther King Jr.

"The thing about Christmas is that it almost doesn't matter what mood you're in or what kind of a year you've had - it's a fresh start." -Kelly Clarkson

"In the midst of the chaos

When the wind is howling I hear

The ancient song

Of the ones who went before

And know that peace will come." -Susan Stauter

"This is extremely important.  Will you please tell Santa that instead of presents this year, I just want my family back.  No toys. Nothing but Peter, Kate, Buzz, Megan, Linnie, and Jeff.  And my aunt and my cousins.  And if he has time, my Uncle Frank.  Okay?" -Kevin McCallister, Home Alone

"Don't wait for permission to do something creative." -Ava Duvernay

"Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?" -Charlie Brown

"Here is my recipe for dairy-free, sugar-free, vegan eggnog: Bourbon." -Bette Midler

Advent Days 13, 14, 15, 16, & 17

"I think Christmas is about celebration and come on, on the inside everyone wants to dance." -TobyMac

"Smiling is my favorite.:"

"Look, Daddy.  Teacher says, every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings." -Zuzu Bailey, "It's a Wonderful Life"

"Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come.  You wait and watch and work: you don't give up."-Anne Lamott

"Can we all agree that the person who first thought of dangling long, fuzzy socks over a fireplace was an arsonist?" -Conan O'Brien

Advent season is rushing by.  I do have some pretty good excuses but the main one was the stinkin' dryer.  It was stealing my JOY.  The week that is suppose to be joy AND my birthday- God does like to teach me many lessons this time of year.  

James 1:2-3 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.  

Advent Day 12

"Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word." -Mary, Luke 1:38

I love the Christmas story.  Mary's response to the angel is beautiful, intriguing, humbling, and amazing.  Tonight I wish I could be eloquent, but I can't.  I wish I had time to study her life.  I don't worship her but I admire her.  The mother of Jesus, she inspires and teaches.  Blessed is she among women!

So...it snowed a little today.  In fact school was cancelled.  It was surprising because it wasn't much snow at all and it melted in 10 minutes.  It still weirds me out a little bit because in Idaho it would snow so much more than it does here in the Willamette Valley Oregon and we were still expected to be at school- no delays- on time.  I drove nearly 10 miles an hour just to get there.  Any way, it threw off my day and I spent most of it just staring at screens.  I have been a little more tired then usual and eating so much junk food.  A Christmas movie marathon is in order.  

Let it snow!  Let it snow!  Let it snow!  (as much as it usually does in the Willamette Valley Oregon)  Hehehe!