How quickly Monday morning details can seek to commandeer our hearts and minds. We’re not talking about big or even remotely tragic things, just the stuff of life. Chores and time changes and the way words are strung together in a sentence. Details. Life. And another opportunity for choosing gratitude on a Monday morning, even when it isn’t the autonomic response we would wish it to be.
Today is a national holiday. I know! I had no idea either. As it turns out you can look up all sorts of holidays at nationaldaycalendar.com and find that each and every day is a national holiday of some sort. Why this week alone we’ve celebrated National Plum Pudding Day, National Tortellini Day, National Gumdrop Day and National Cabbage Day. Personally, I could do without a few of those but there are others, like World Nutella Day that I can totally get behind! So back to today, it’s National Random Acts of Kindness Day. Good thing I was listening to the radio on the way to appointments this morning or I would have totally missed the festivities! Being the friend that I am, I don’t want you to miss out either so here are a few random thoughts, because it’s a random day and I have a million things on my list for the day and random is about the best y’all are going to get today so there it is and here ya go …
Standing at a drive-thru line one day and watching as a streak of Read More
… His mercies are new every morning
… “morning” can be at any new moment of the day
… even in the knock the wind out of you moments of the day
… all the time
… the fact that I truly to get to choose gratitude
… whether I can change the trouble this day may hold or not
… I will sing a new song to the Lord
… because He has called me to
… because He knows it changes me
… because it can be the flicker of hope that grows to a flame
… because the flame can shed enough light for the next step
… because taking the next step can bring life
How about you? For what are you grateful?
If you’re not living in a flame of gratitude season, then my prayer for you is that today you find your flicker. And that day by day your flicker grows to a flame. And that your flame will bring light to all around you.
Happy Thanksgiving friends! I’m so grateful for each of you. For your company and your encouragement. I pray you’ll know the flicker you’ve been in my journey.
You are part of my thankful list this day.
And I am grateful!
My boys came home unexpectedly the other day. The one I married and the other one who’s graced our home for nearly 21 years now. They knew it was a rough day for me. Apparently, they had talked, because when our tall boy walked in, he dropped his backpack, turned to me and asked, “I don’t have to be back until 6. Where’s the tree?” Really?! These two! Their hearts don’t go all aflutter with the idea of adorning our home for Christmas, so I usually don’t subject them to such things. Can I just say it’s rather overwhelming when love waltzes right in your front door like that! All deliberate-like, dripping with grace and tied up with a big bow.
So one by one, boxes were opened, partially emptied and returned to their shelf. Branch by branch the tree was assembled. This thinning tree that has Read More
Thanks for all the love on the Chalkboard Wall project we completed this week. It’s always fun to watch something come together the way you had imagined. It’s even better when you get to do any project with your favorite people. And as far as were concerned, the challenge of thinking outside the box and using what you have requires ingenuity and leaves behind a strong sense of fulfillment. So just for fun, here’s a little run-down of what really went down in our kitchen the other day in the making of a bargain chalkboard wall.
It’s always a good place to start, this listing of assets and liabilities. It helps to establish parameters and to have a starting point to launch creativity.
Our list of assets looked something like this …
One of my favorite spots in our home is the skinny little chalkboard wall between our kitchen and eating area. For the past 3 years, it has held grocery lists, messages, childhood masterpieces and an assortment of random thoughts. After last week’s kitchen purge, it seemed like the right time to freshen it up a bit and shift the focus a little to make it a chalkboard wall of thanks.
You may remember this shot from last year when I armed our son-in-law with a jar of chalk and a few ideas. I asked him to do something magical and he more than delivered on that request. It took until Valentine’s Day for me to be convinced that maybe it was time to erase his work.
**All photos are shared with permission from Krista Browning Photography. Krista loves capturing the emotion of people’s stories through pictures. She is based in South Florida, but she is open to traveling to meet your photography needs. You can find her by clicking on the following social media platforms | website | facebook | Instagram | Pinterest. We are honored for her to have donned a disguise and hunkered down in some bushes on a hot Flordia afternoon to capture these moments for us.**
It all started just over 14 years ago.
She, a 7-year-old pig-tailed blonde sporting glasses and watching out for her 2 younger brothers. He, a sandy-headed 5-year-old ready to run with the big dogs, and do whatever his big sister said because she had convinced him she was the boss of him. It was the first day of a weekly sports club with a pavilion full of kids. New faces fully anticipating a morning of sports and yet slightly nervous about making friends.
This girl!
Where to even begin!
She’s the baby. But really she’s an old soul, this youngest of ours. Years ago, when this Mama thing was so new, exciting and terrifying, I wondered how we would ever survive with the house being all quiet and almost boring when the older three had grown up and journeyed out to make their own way.
We were chatting and lingering a bit at our favorite local bakery. She had just passed her driver’s license test. First time. Last child. Big rite of passage in the life of a teen. And a Mama.
They strolled in on what appeared to be a date. To be fair, she did more bouncing than strolling. Her little flaxen curls bobbing up and down with each step.
She had chosen a donut. Good choice. Covered in sprinkles. More like smothered in sprinkles. She plopped down in a chair looking up at her daddy like he was the greatest of all the great Superheros. He had after all just bought her the most regal of breakfast fare.
He slid her new sprinkled treasure right in front of her. All else disappeared.
