30 Days of Gratitude

Happy November! At the beginning of October, I put out an idea to start intentional play with your children. The original post can be seen here: Choosing to Play. So, how did our October challenge turn out for you? For me, it was fabulously fun, eye-opening, tiring at times, but so worth it! Was I perfect in implementing it every single day? No, honestly I did miss doing it a couple of times. But as I did play through the month with our son, I  learned some very cool things! First of all, 15-month-olds can do a lot more than I knew! I loved watching him problem-solve, get excited with his accomplishments, and actually enjoy the time I was spending with him. Some days, we broke up the 30 minutes, but a lot of days we played hard for the whole time. Some days were easier than others, and some days I simply laid there and talked to him while he drove cars all over my back (great massage, BTW!). I found that my discipline of focusing 100% on my child, without any distractions, really taught me more than it taught him. It is a discpline and a choice. There will always be a million things to do for SAHMs, and we are excellent multi-taskers (which isn't always a good thing). But at the end of the day, I love that my child will remember that sometimes I simply chose him over dishes, laundry, projects, Facebook, blogging, or TV.

There are many days when I played more than 30 minutes with him. As we moved through the month, I found that it was quite fun and easy to pick times throughout the day to simply stop what I was doing and get down to play. I'm learning how to be silly and play with him when we're grocery shopping, I'm learning how to make games out of folding laundry, and I'm learning how to prioritize so that when my funny kiddo tugs at my leg with the latest toy, I can focus on him and his unbridled joy for life. If you do a simple Google search, you can find tons of websites that offer play ideas and crafts for you and your child of any age. I plan to make this a daily habit and consider it a privilege to be home and privy to his daily achievements, learning abilities, and development of his personality. What a gift we have as SAHMs! Let's vow to keep appreciating it every single day.

Speaking of appreciation, welcome to a month totally devoted to gratefulness! I'm giving myself a challenge to find thirty verses, one for each day, that teach us as Christ-followers about being thankful to God and to one another. I don't know if there are thirty, but it will be fun to pray and search for scripture to encourage myself and all of you while we continue in the seemingly thankless job of motherhood. For instance, instead of my toddler expressing gratefulness for the delightful French toast breakfast that I made for him this morning, he proceeded to throw a tantrum for 15 minutes over absolutely nothing. He has even learned, as of yesterday, to roll around on the floor kicking and screaming. If this keeps up, I may start charging for tickets. The sudden transformation from precious boy to uncontrollable tiny monster is quite fascinating. Sorry, I digress...

Regardless of the circumstances, we are instructed to live in an attitude of gratefulness. Let's attempt that precise lifestyle during November. Just as we focused on play in the month of October, let's focus on being thankful for our lives, whatever they may look like, for this entire month. Here is the verse for today, the 1st:

 "Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name." Psalm 100:4

Whenever we go to the Lord in prayer, our first thought should always be one of gratefulness, not a laundry list of what we would like for Him to do for us that day. Staying in the habit of entering into time with Him in praise is a simple reminder that all good things come from Him. It may be an absolutely terrible day in the life of a mommy, but we can be grateful that we are still breathing, our children have life, and that our husband is safely at work. We have shelter to sleep in, food to eat, and heat to keep us warm. It's so easy for us, myself included, to complain about what we don't have, when what we do have far outweighs the blessings of many around the world. This isn't meant to make you, or me, feel guilty. Let's just consider it a gentle reminder that we do have so much more than we realize sometimes. For that, let's be grateful to the Father!

Today, and everday, be blessed! Happy continued playing with your children, and I pray that you will open your heart, along with me, to a season of gratitude.

MMSM #56

I found this great idea on Pinterest, did it, and now have to share! Get an inexpensive white plate from anywhere, find a few Sharpies, and have a blast! After you have made your design, bake the plate for 30 min. at 350 degrees, and then keep it in there while the oven cools down. Always hand wash (never put it in the dishwasher), and enjoy bringing it out to use on special occasions, send the plates away as gifts, or make it an inexpensive art project for kids!