Gratitude

Since forever, my mom has been reading her prayers every single morning over a cup of coffee, a banana (with all natural peanut butter) and a small glass of orange juice. (Not really part of the story, but I wanted you to paint a picture.) About the time I went to college or maybe a little after, my mom bought me one of the books she uses to count her blessings in the morning. This book was given to her by a dear friend of our family and mom's copy of the book is so worn, the binding is loosely hanging on. The book is called Simple Abundance by Sarah Ban Breathnach. In her daily musings, she gives a way to simplify or improve your life and/or sometimes just make you feel better about who you are and what you are doing. For the first time since she gave me the book (sorry mom) I have decided to make it a daily habit of mine, as well. On January 14th Sarah required that we start a gratitude journal. This is to include five things everyday for which we are grateful. I don't have a fancy journal in which to write them and I already have enough piles of books and papers in my house to keep track of. Plus, if I write them and keep them hidden, I wouldn't feel like I was giving proper thanks and recognition for the things God has given me. Soooooo.....I am going to try my best to use the blog world as my gratitude journal. Here goes:

A few of the things for which I am thankful:

1. Today is the last day of the work week and that means we get to travel to Edisto for the weekend. Our friends So Happily Us and Freeman Family Fun are meeting us down there for a weekend of NOTHING!!!!! Just hanging out, letting the kiddos play and probably some board/card games of our own. I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!!!

2. I am so glad that my children are so happy and so welcomed where they go to school. Everyday they come home and have had a blast learning and playing with the other kids. That makes me a really happy mommy.

3. I am so fortunate that my brother and brother-in-law have married such wonderful girls. I love both of them so much and since I didn't get to grow up with a sister, they are great sisters to have.

4. I love that God has given me a flexible schedule to be able to be with my girls as well as my nephew most days. I love these little ones and I am glad to have them around (most days :D).

5. Finally I am glad today that we have a roof over our heads and food on the table. Every day this is a blessing, but especially in light of the tragedy in Haiti we can certainly be thankful for what we have.

Finally, I'd like to share some sweet photos with you all of the aforementioned kiddos that I love. They have been so funny today (even though they have run me ragged!!!). Jac and Liam were playing hide-and-seek in my bed sheets earlier.......

A couple of notes: 1. Jac is almost 22 months and Liam is not yet 5 months.....note the similarity in size!!! 2. There was something on my camera lense so some of the photos are fuzzy at the bottom. 3. I didn't realize how puffy Jac's eyes were until I looked at these pictures. She's had a little cold going on.