Gratitude: Day 9

I finished my all-time favorite bible study a couple of weeks ago, Apples of Gold. The wisdom I gained and recipes I pocketed will stick with me for the rest of my life and I feel immense gratitude toward the six mentors that led our study and cooking demonstrations.  My heart has been burdened to express my thanks to them and I found the time to do so today. I quickly tweaked an old stationary design with our family’s newest addition and printed off a few blank cards (with some extras to save for later) and got to work on my handwritten thank yous. I hope they get the message that I’m so thankful for the time and effort they took to serve myself and the other young ladies in the study.

Gratitude: Day 8

My friend, Amber, is insanely talented, so I was thrilled when she agreed to take pictures of our family of four. I offered to pay her for her precious time, but she refused, so we had the Ford family over for dinner to show them our gratitude for Amber taking our family pictures this past week. On the table? Shiner Bock Roast (adapted from a new recipe I got from my Apples of Gold bible study) and honey beer bread. Yummy to my tummy. And everyone else’s.

For your taste buds:

Shiner Bock Pot Roast

• 3-4 pounds of round roast or chuck roast
• pot roasting bag and seasoning
• 8 new potatoes or 2-3 russets cut into wedges
• 1-2 red bell peppers, cut into wide strips
• 2 medium onions cut into wedges
• 8 peeled carrots, left whole
• 3 T. brown sugar
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 1 tsp. Lawry’s seasoned pepper
• 2 T. flour
• 1 beer – I used Shiner Bock, hence the recipe’s name
• 16 oz. jar of mild picante sauce

Put roast into roasting bag and place in large casserole pan. Mix the seasoning packet, brown sugar, garlic powder, pepper, flour, beer and mild picante sauce. Pour over roast. Close bag and poke 8-10 holes in top with a toothpick. Bake at 375 degrees for 2 – 2 1/2 hours. Let rest a while, 15 minutes or so. Then, carefully untie roasting bag, put potatoes, carrots, bell pepper and onion into bag and reseal it. Cook 2 more hours at 350 degrees. Open bag, put meat and vegetables into casserole pan. Slice meat.

The honey beer bread recipe can be found here and I hear that my dinner guests plan on cooking it themselves really soon because they loved it so much.

-The leftover roast (if there is any) is delicious in baked potatoes!

Gratitude: Day 5

Better late than never.

That’s what I keep reminding myself as I think about all the things people have done for me and my family that didn’t get the thanks they deserve.

My friend, Paula, oozes generosity from every ounce of her being. She is always thoughtful, thinks of the perfect presents you had no clue you need but couldn’t live without, and serves others often. Since we have no family in Tyler, Paula has been my rescuer on numerous occasions. Mason loves her.

For those who don’t know our first ‘children,’ we have two dogs. Maddy, our inside dog, tends to walk the line of crazy and adorable. She is horribly afraid of strangers and collapses into a deep depression when I leave town. Paula has been an answered prayer and keeps Maddy at her house when we go on trips. She kept Maddy a couple of weekends ago and it just so happened that she wasn’t home when we picked Maddy up. I told her thanks in a text message, but wanted Paula to know it meant a lot and that I remembered still her generosity.

So, I designed Maddy wrote a personalized thank you note in Photoshop and sent it to Paula. 

Gratitude: Day 3

Sometimes life throws us a curve ball.

Just like any other day, this morning I placed Emerson on his playmat so I could finish getting ready in the bathroom. Not one minute later, I heard a HUGE crash  in the living room and then screaming. A mirror had somehow fallen off the wall and crashed to the ground, taking with it a clock and our tv’s rabbit-ear antenna.  It fell right next to Emerson and was even on top of his little foot. Glass shards littered the living room rug. Thankfully, Emerson’s screams were out of fear and not pain and he was saved from any injury. The little clock landed in the perfect position under the mirror to elevate it just a little so it saved him from most of the weight of the mirror. And all the glass had shattered in the direction away from him. It could have been bad. Really bad.

Mason and I were both in shock and shaking, so I grabbed my two boys, hugged them tight and we prayed together. I prayed a prayer of immense gratitude that neither precious boy was hurt and together we thanked God for His protection over Emerson.

Just a minute ago, I was sitting here mourning the loss of our tv antenna (no cable in this casa). Family game night tonight? Yes, please. Thank you God for your protection and knowing what our family needs, more than we do.

Today’s curve ball was a massive, heavy mirror. And I’m thankful. But how could I not be thankful when I look into the smiling faces of these two?

 

Gratitude: Day 2

I’ll be the first to admit it, I’m a horrible gift receiver. This is my public apology to those I did not thank, whether out of laziness or sheer forgetfulness. I dread the gift opening part of holidays and baby showers because I’m afraid my guests will be able to tell I’m trying to fake my excitement. Not that I don’t appreciate the gift or even love it, I just fail miserable in the expressing gratitude for it part. Out of all the ways I like to be shown love, receiving gifts is way, way, way down towards the bottom. Actually, I don’t think it even made my list. Give me your quality time, people! And tell me you appreciate me. How cheap are those gifts?!

But unfortunately for a few of our family members, the way the like to show they love our family and me is by giving us gifts. And I’ve been slacking in the gratitude department. Seriously, how hard would it be to send a text message thanking my mother-in-law for the cute Halloween socks she sent my boys? Umm… that would have taken all of 10 seconds. Maybe 2 minutes for an e-mail of thanks.

Maybe this 21 day experiment in gratitude will allow me to practice my gift receiving gratitude, just in time for the Christmas season.

Dash just got back last night from a trip to New York City. It was his first time to visit NYC.  He was really busy with tennis matches, meeting up with friends and family and taking his players sight-seeing around the Big Apple, but he still managed to think about us three sitting at home in little Tyler, Texas. Within 1 minute of being home, he was already pulling out our presents. Mason is still showing his gratitude for his NYC taxi cab with his excitement as he crashes it across the kitchen floor. Emerson “goo”s and “gaa”s at his red monkey. Me? I think I mumbled a thank you and put my new coffee cup in the dishwasher.

While Dash was at work today, I busted out a dry erase marker and wrote a thank you/love note on his bathroom mirror. I truly love his thoughtfulness. Now, every time I use my I heart NYC mug, I’ll remember his kind gesture and be thankful that my husband remembered me. Even in the midst of a fun trip to New York City.

Gratitude: Day 1

This is the first November that I feel like our 2 ½ year old can start to grasp at the concept of gratitude. With the holiday of thanks right around the corner, I wanted a project to teach him about gratitude. I found one on pinterest that suited my tastes and his age to a tee. We set about making this little project but soon I realized that I can’t teach my boy about being thankful if my life doesn’t serve as an example for him. Little people learn way more by our actions than our words, right? So even though my plans were to just to ramble on and on teaching him about gratitude, I need to be a student as well.

Lesson one in Gratitude: Our Thankful Tree (idea found here)

We finished our project. And to the nice sum of zero dollars. My prayer is that all three of us (3 month old Emerson, you’re excused this time!) will get into the spirit of gratitude for the next 21 days so that it permeates our everyday living and at the end of this little experiment, we won’t be able to shake our thankful attitudes.

And now for the details. Mason has a growing servant’s heart, especially when it comes to helping his parents around the house. I look for little excuses to ask for his helping hand. A cold front blew through Tyler last week and knocked lose several branches in our yard. We cleaned up the yard and gathered our first supplies for our project – free sticks. We painted them in a dull golden tone with leftover spray paint (as well as some grass) and stuck them in an oversized glass vase we already owned (from Pottery Barn for our wedding 5 1/2 years ago). I found some extra ribbon and raffia lying around the house to spruce up our tree. A few sheets of leftover scrapbook paper later and our ‘leaves’ were ready for our thankful thoughts.  

On day three of our Thankful Tree, it boasts gratitude ranging from crayons and trucks to my mom coming for a visit and Dash safely returning home from New York City (with surprises in tow). Mason is focusing his gratitude on material things that he can see right now, but it’s a start in the right direction. And this mom is thankful for that!

Hello, world.

Welcome to my blog! As you’ve heard before, they say it takes 3 weeks, or 21 days, to become fluent in something if you are immersed deep in it. Whether that is fact or fiction, I’m testing the waters in an effort to become more intentional with my life and my family. This first blog entry comes on the end of my self-imposed 3 week Facebook fast. It took a few days, maybe even a week, but the detox symptoms faded and my ‘addiction’ to Facebook dwindled more and more. So did my weakness for comparing myself to others and the secret monster of jealousy and competition that lives inside me. It has been so good for my soul! Facebook had become such a time waster for me that I felt my family, house, work and attitude all suffered because of it.

By the way, no, I didn’t unfriend you. In fact, I missed you!

I plan to get back on Facebook soon – in moderation – but my Facebook fast gave me an idea. Why couldn’t I apply this 21 day challenge to other areas of my life? Could I add some fluency to other things in my life that need to be tackled?

And my next 21 day experiment was born…