Working on Gratitude

One thing that we really work hard (though it's quite a battle and I'm not sure we're winning) to instill in our kids is that it isn't all about us. This pretty much goes against everything that small children believe, but at the least we want to show, at an age-appropriate level, that there are so many people who don't have what we have, that we have so much to be thankful for, and it is our job to sacrifice to help others. We try to focus on this all year, but definitely in the month of November. For the last few years, we have done a gratitude tree and a prayer each day of something we are thankful for. This year, I thought the kids were old enough to do more and wanted activities and something sort of like an advent calendar. I was so excited to order this one from pottery barn. It's so professional looking and attractive and so easy. I didn't have to sew anything or design anything. But then it came and was missing a 22 and instead had two 26s and most of the squares seemed to be glued shut. So I returned it. And was extremely disappointed. And had one day to find something else.

So coming down in the attractiveness and professional scale several levels, I ended up with this. I hope to make (now that I have a bad attitude about store-bought options) something more permanent in January. But for this year, we will give this a try and see how it goes. Each day has something to focus on to be thankful for and also a related activity.

Yesterday  we thanked God for the beautiful world he made for us and went on a nature walk around our neighborhood to collect some "cool" things. After we were done, Clara and Joshua relaxed on the driveway and literally howled at the moon. I am going to call that being joyful in God's creation.

Today we are thankful for our home and we made a centerpiece to decorate our home with the items we collected yesterday. I am a little concerned about our leaves lasting. I ironed them in wax paper and then removed the paper and mod podged them. I am hoping for them to be okay until the end of the month. We'll see how it goes. I hope that we will have both enjoy the various activities and get value and meaning out of them. The good thing about not getting my super professional calendar for this year is we now have time to test the concept before I settle on a delivery format.