Thankful Thursday #4: music & more

I've decided I'm going to shake up the Gratitude Challenge - sometimes I'll follow the prompts, sometimes I won't. Sometimes prompts can be so constricting.

This week I've been especially thankful for:

-a husband who is very handy and can fix things (even when I did something stupid that made them break to begin with)

-friends who can laugh off my embarrassing moments better than I can

-Spotify. Yes, I'm a little late to jump on that bandwagon since I have been a loyal Pandora listener, but I love getting to create playlists and listen to them repeatedly. Nothing says "Good morning!" like some good coffee and good tunes. This one's been on repeat most of the week.

-Sunrises. Even being able to travel in the daylight again has been delightful as we gain a few minutes of daylight back each day, but this week the colors have been stellar.

-Time to create fun things with the Cricut, like this:

Thankful Thursday #3: Today

I'm going to keep it short today - and not use a prompt. I'll throw in a bonus prompt one of these weeks to compensate.

Today I'm thankful for a great day. A long day with spending 13 hours at school, yes, but it could have felt much longer. I love my job, and I love days where we can celebrate the hard work the kids do.

Today I'm also thankful for two cups of coffee (the half-caff stuff...because it allows me to drink MORE coffee with LESS jitters!) and one cherry Pepsi. Because even though I love my job, I would not be able to do it without the caffeine that fuels me.

And a quote from Gilmore Girls will wrap this up perfectly, naturally:

source: pinterest

Thankful Thursday #2: Technology

And now for another installment of the Gratitude Challenge!

Prompt 46: Technology

Technology has been a part of my like since - well, before birth, really. And it's grown to be more of an integral part of life. Now it seems like we can hardly function without it.

One thing I truly love about technology, though, is that my phone (which is almost always with me) allows me to constantly have a camera with me. I love taking pictures, so this is a much better option than constantly carrying around an actual camera. I know this firsthand because I really used to carry a camera almost everywhere.

 It also allows me the chance to instantly photo-document things -- like the goofy way our dogs are sleeping -- and share them seconds later with my hubby on nights he's working. I know we'll also utilize this when we have children so they (and he) don't feel like he's missing out on as much with his work schedule being what it is. I also love how I've been able to incorporate this into my classroom this year to share what we're up to each day.

Another huge plus is having all this information at my fingertips. It can be something trivial like looking up who played a character in a movie, but it can also be something more useful like directions. Y'all know I am not known for having a stellar sense of direction, so using my phone as a GPS is a necessity. I also love being able to Google answers to questions whenever. We like to kill time on road trips looking up facts, history, or places to see while we're traveling because yes, we are just that cool, thankyouverymuch.

We are truly in the age where the sky isn't the limit anymore. Sure, technology can frustrate us or stress us out, but it also is a wonderful tool to have by my side each day.

source: here

Gratitude Challenge: Things You Like About Winter

Okay, so I missed this past Thursday...but here we go.

I wanted to jump to this prompt because last week we had ice, ice, ice, and more ice. We already had Monday off of school, but we also had Tuesday off as an "ice day". We were definitely in the throes of winter!

Prompt 49: Things You Like About Winter

• Weather that makes you layer on the warmth and cozy on up into blankets
• Christmas season! The music, the decorations, the smells of special baking and cooking, EVERYTHING!
• Time to recharge with family on Christmas and New Years
• Using the fireplace
• Crocheting warm things
• The way a layer of snow muffles the world to create a quiet surrounding that makes it easier to think, breathe, and be still. 
• SNOW DAYS - they are made for PJs and hobbies to be shamelessly enjoyed.
• The beauty of fresh fallen snow and layers of ice on trees
• The delight and excitement of kids when it snows and the dreams of all they can do outside
• Seeing yards full of snow creations

Added bonus: here are a few pictures from around our yard after last week's winter storm.

Thankful Thursday #1: The Gratitude Challenge Begins

source: here

I stumbled upon the Gratitude Challenge one day while getting sucked into a black hole browsing Pinterest.  You can find it here. Feel free to join me - whether you are a blogger, a paper & pen writer, parchment & quill, whatever! Get your gratitude on!

Prompt 1: Why start the Gratitude Challenge?

Life is messy and it's not always the fun kind of messy - you know, like baking and decorating sugar cookies kind of FunMessy. Nope, sometimes it's more like the "finding the leftovers you can't even recall making and now it's growing weird colors and smells" kind of messy. That's the kind you wish you could sneak back and let someone else deal with it instead.

All of this bloodshed, destruction, distress, anger, and ugliness in the world today crosses lines we never even dreamed we'd have to worry about. It makes your heavy heart ache and tears frequent when you face the barrage of bad news.

Yet even in this mess there's a lot left unsaid about how many beautiful, good, lovely, and delightful things are still out there for us to enjoy. It's the good stuff that's more powerful than the bad.

source: here

Me? It's rather use my time and energy reminding people of the beauty rather than fueling the sadness and anger. So here I go - the Gratitude Challenge.

Here's how it's supposed to go:
52 prompts.
1 each week.
1 whole year.

EEP!

Yes, once I blogged for a 365 day challenge, but my faithful readers (hi, family!) will remember my actual total was in the two hundred range. 288 to be exact. But there's a certain pressure that comes with deadlines like this. I'll commit to once a week ish, and 52ish prompts. Quite frankly, I will consider this challenge a success if I manage to do at least 10. I do miss having motivation to blog. I miss having the luxury of more free time to blog. And I miss taking the time to truly reflect on the awesome things going on and capturing snippets of the good in my life. I miss sharing these snippets with people that don't mind reading what I write.

So here we go.

See you next Thursday as I aim to tackle another prompt!