We got home from Trick or Treating last night around 7:30 p.m. and I spent the next thirty minutes slamming dishes around trying to get supper on the table. I was in an extremely unpleasant mood. It was not pretty and I can’t even tell you why. Lately, I have had a heart that is more filled with envy than with joy. I look around and I see the things that people have that we don’t – a larger house, incredible vacations and on and on and on I find myself asking “why not us? why can’t we get ahead just a little bit?” Not only that, I’ve been feeling resentful about so many of my obligations, thinking that everyone else in the world has time to do fun things but I don’t. Between work and scouts and my other volunteer activities, I barely have time to cook dinner, clean house, and read with the girls. Truthfully, most nights I don’t even have time to do those things. The house is a disaster; we’re eating too much take out and there are many nights the girls go to sleep without their bedtime reading. I’ve been on the verge of tears more times in the last month than I can count. There are a lot of things that I can’t change, but I can change my heart, I can change the way I take things, and I can change my attitude. So, this month, I’m going to consciously think of something each day that fills me with thankfulness. Of course, the idea of counting your blessings in November is nothing unique; it seems like everyone I know on Facebook is listing their daily thanksgivings. Totally awesome! I thought about doing that, but two of the things I’ve really been missing lately are writing here and scrapbooking. I already have all supplies for December Daily this year and I’m really excited about it – it will be a hybrid project and include glue and glitter (lots of glitter!). But, I really want to work on something a little easier, something I can do without pulling out my supplies. So, I bought Cathy Zielske’s Thirty Days of Thankful templates and I’m going to do a completely digital November album. full of my blessings. I’m going to try and finish my pages daily and post them here. Some days (like today, obviously), I may write more than the text of the pages, but some days, I’ll just post my page. Hopefully, at the end of this month, I will have rediscovered my thankful heart and will be ready to start the Advent season with the joy and anticipation that it deserves.
