This week, I’m thankful for:
It’s been a rough couple of weeks but that makes it even more important to take time to be grateful, so today I’m thankful for:
The last week has had tons of emotional highs and lows, including a tragic reminder of how precious life is.
This week, I’m thankful for:
What are you thankful for this week?
Wow…December 1st. Where has 2011 gone? Soon, we’ll be reflecting on the entire year, to determine our New Year’s Resolutions. What do you think your Resolutions will be? Do you even make Resolutions?
Things I’m grateful for in the last week:
What are you grateful for?
Ironically, today is American Thanksgiving. I hope there are many people realizing how much they have to be thankful for, even if it’s just the small things in life. Personally, I’m thankful/grateful for the following this past week:
What are you thankful for?
1. A nervous habit I have is hmmm…I’m not sure. I used to crack my knuckles when I was nervous, but that was when I was a kid/teenager. Now, I’m not sure what I do when I’m nervous. I guess I don’t find myself in many situations where I am nervous. Thinking back, I think I flap my hands to release some tension but that’s just a couple flaps…and only in front of someone I trust to show that nervousness to.
2. Something that makes me sad is when my daughter mentions that she misses our dogs that passed away. She’s said it a few times recently, and then she seems to move past it quickly enough, but it makes me sad every time.
3. Today I am thankful for being able to volunteer in my daughter’s Grade 1 French Immersion class. Since I’m one of the only parents of the kids in her class who is fluent in French, I was able to work with 6 of her classmates individually on their counting assignment booklets. It was a great afternoon!
4. My favorite room in my house is my bedroom. All earthtones, pillows, photos, books, etc. It’s a very calming room…when the kids and I aren’t wrestling in there of course. 
5. I can’t stand when people think they know everything about how to manage kids with Autism because they met someone once who had Autism. I can’t remember who said it but “when you meet someone with Autism, you have met only one person with Autism”. There’s a reason it’s called “Autism Spectrum Disorder.
6. If I had an extra $100 to spend on whatever I wanted today I would replace some very worn down articles of clothing I own. Our clothing budget is basically zero so, whenever I can allocate money towards clothing, it goes to the kids’ needs rather than my own.
7. The last person I hung out with was my man. My days are filled with tons of appointments, school bus schedules, and being taxi to get my son to IBI so I don’t have much time to “hang out” with people unless they come to me in the evenings. When I do have free time, I usually spend it with my man.
A couple months ago, I came across Motherhood Looms’ Gratitude Project. After my marriage ended, I started doing something similar every night (which I call my “Daily Thankfuls”) before going to sleep, to ensure I finish each day on a positive note. When I first started, I had to say them out loud to be able to focus on what I was saying. Now, I find I can just think my Daily Thankfuls before going to sleep, and it still helps calm my mind.
I thought I would do a Gratitude Project of my own by jumping on board with “Thankful Thursdays”. Although Motherhood Looms did her Gratitude Project daily for a month, I think I’ll post my Gratitudes on Thursdays, and if there are any additional ones I want to share in between, I’ll post them on my Facebook status (so be sure to “Like” me to read them!).
So, I’m grateful for the following this week:
What are you grateful for?
Day 27 – A problem you have or have had in the past
A problem I have is being too trusting of others. I want to believe that everyone wants to help others, and I was brought up to firmly believe in community and “doing unto others…”. In the last couple of years, I have learnt to be trusting AND unfortunately, also being prepared for the worst.
At the other end of the spectrum, another problem I used to have is being too negative. It was great in my former career of being an event planner because I could immediately determine what risks were involved in any new event before even doing the walk-through.
After hearing a few too many times from many people that things always just seem to happen to me, I was finally receptive to hearing what a dear friend told me about how she turned her life and marriage around…she started listing what she was thankful every night and asking her Higher Power for guidance. Sounded kind of strange (weird, hokey, New Age, and yet also really hard!) to me but I thought I would give it a try. At first, all I could find to be thankful for was my kids and my friends who had helped stabilize me after the end of my marriage. Soon, my “daily thankfuls” were expanding to the little things we were experiencing every day, to being able to list off many things that had happened each day.
Eventually I was asking Spirit for guidance, strength and help for others, and now I’m able to silently go through my “daily thankfuls” and even ask for help and guidance for myself and my life, and immediately fall asleep into a blissful sleep. I notice I have strange dreams on nights when I fall asleep before I can go through my “daily thankfuls”.
What problems have been holding you back, and how did you resolve them?
