Tag: gratitude

Categories
Kids/Parenting Fulfillment

Catching up with Rebecca/Suwwy (and her robots) + 20 gratefuls

And my first twenty things to be grateful for:
Yesterday:

  1. Rain—don’t have to water the garden! (Borrowed from my friend Elisa, who’s also participating!)
  2. My garden (okay, my sugar snap peas) is growing.
  3. Ryan just cut both yards and they look very neat.
  4. Hayden’s drawings—today he drew me an awesome cow 😀 .
  5. Getting things done with the rest of the Executive Committee of my writers’ group.
  6. Chopped!
  7. Chatting with my sister, which I missed today.
  8. Contact lenses and glasses.
  9. Already having my pineapple CUPside-down CAKES, done and posted on Wayward Girls’ Crafts for this week!
  10. Sleeping in! (relatively)

And today’s:

  1. Naps, even if in theory only.
  2. Rachel kicking with delight!
  3. Checking things off my to do list (like this post!).
  4. Putting the kids to bed early-ish.
  5. That Rebecca’s hair will grow. (See last picture.)
  6. Potty training! (And being done!)
  7. Finishing off the cookies we made last night—no more temptation.
  8. Left overs and Ryan reheating them.
  9. Tuna salad sandwiches with celery, making me think of my mom.
  10. Hayden including his sisters in playing with his blocks. And his blogs. But more about that next week.

One day—it was a Friday, but that doesn’t matter—there was a little girl—and that does matter—learning to use the potty. And as she sat on the potty, she perched her fingers on her knees, with her pointer fingers out.

“Dees are my wobots,” she informed us. So these are Rebecca’s Robots:

(Her hands. Also note the plate of shredded cheese, which is pretty much all the child will eat for dinner.)

Her robots talk and help her do all kinds of things (being her hands). They love their mommy robots (my hands) especially.

Some cute things Rebecca has said lately:

  • Teese neveh wive in cups! Teese wive in bowws! (Cheese never lives in cups! Cheese lives in bowls!)
  • Wohwa’kates: roller skates
  • Yeh weww: yeah, well (at the beginning of a sentence)
  • Beebee: I’m not even sure what the exact translation of this would be (baby?), but it’s something she says a lot when she’s playing with Pinky, her stuffed animal. It’s either what she called Pinky, or what Pinky calls her. Or maybe both.

And some more:

Another favorite game is MontahINK! (Monsters, Inc.) Rebecca is Suwwy (Sully) and Pinky is either Boo or Mike ‘Akow’ki. I’m usually whatever Pinky isn’t, though sometimes Rachel gets that honor. Hayden has played Mike and Wannaw (Randall). Once I was even Wannanoos (Mr. Waternoose).

Her hair, obviously, spends a lot of time in her face, so today I did this (she cried, but she’s come to accept it):

I’m not really thrilled with how I did, but cutting my kids’ hair too short is something I’m good at.

What do you think? What are you grateful for? Isn’t Rebecca pretty much the best little girl in the world?

Categories
Fulfillment

A hundred things to be grateful for

Today at church, one of the speakers talked about gratitude. Granted, I didn’t hear a whole lot of what he said as I was wrestling with my kids, but after a very stressful morning of mental (and sometimes vocal) whining, it was a reminder I needed to hear.

To help me focus more on getting grateful, I’m going to make a list of ten things I’m grateful for each day over the next two weeks (Monday-Friday)—no repeats.

A hundred things to be grateful for. Are you game? Join in by sharing your lists on your blog or in the comments!

(And don’t worry, I won’t let the gratitude lists take over the blog. We’ll still have content. I might not post the lists every day, but whenever else I post, I’ll catch up on the lists.)

Photo by Alicia Cerullo

Categories
Fulfillment

Gratitude (and crafty giveaways)

G is for giveaways, of course! But not here, this time: my mom, my sisters & I launched a crafting blog this week, and we’re celebrating with a week of giveaways! Comment to win:

All created by us. And be sure to subscribe or follow us for fun tutorials and crafts in the areas of knitting, scrapbooking, home decor, sewing, quilting, baking and all kinds of creating!

G is also for gratitude. Sometimes it’s tough to think of what we can be grateful for in the middle of all the drudgery—and sometimes that’s just when those profound moments stop us in our tracks.

So today I’m grateful for snuggles. I’m grateful for the three times a day I get to rock a baby (usually) to sleep and watch the peace descend over her face. I’m grateful for Rebecca’s daily request at quiet time: “You duggle me?” (And even more grateful that almost every day, I do!) I’m grateful for Hayden’s spontaneous hugs, and how he like to sit practically on top of me from time to time, just to be close to me.

We’ve all known at least since Oprah that focusing on things we’re thankful for helps us to be happy—but it’s still so easy to forget in the rush and stress of our lives.

What are you grateful for?

Categories
Kids/Parenting Fulfillment

Happy Thanksgiving

I’m thankful to be a mother because of my children. I love seeing their personalities emerge. I love seeing them discover new things and put together the pieces. I love helping them learn and grow. I love their hugs and kisses and the way their eyes light up when they see me.

Why are you thankful to be a mother?

Photo by Br Lawrence Lew, O.P.

Categories
Fulfillment

If wanting ever taught you anything

How much of our time do we spend thinking about what it would take to make us happy? If we just had a little more money, if we just had more time off, if the kids would just go take a nap, if I could just accomplish this far-off goal . . .

Of course, I wouldn’t argue that we don’t need at least some of each of these things—but sometimes, as an OK Go song says, “If wanting ever taught you anything, it’s wanting more, (and more and more and more!)”

Agented author Natalie Whipple, whose blog I read, posted about this same phenomenon. On the one hand, she’s reached a major milestone in publishing—she’s gotten an agent. On the other hand, she has to still work on her writing and revisions and still has a long way to go to get published—and even then, the work will continue. She’s enjoying a modicum of success now, but it’s still so easy to fixate on what she wants out of the future (emphasis added).

But here’s the thing—my friends’ successes have not changed how they act or feel. Getting an agent didn’t transform them all into happy, perfect writers. Getting book deals didn’t stop them from worrying about the quality of their work. In fact, in some ways there is even more pressure to deliver perfection. . . .

Of course we’ve all had our low points and struggles—hard times are unavoidable. But it’s all about your attitude. If you aren’t happy now, getting an agent or book deal or whatever isn’t going to change that in the long run. You’ll just Want something else and withhold your happiness until you get that.

So for now, while I could always use a little more money, a little more free time, and a future goal to work toward, I think what I’m going to try to want most is to be content and grateful for what I have.

And that seems like an appropriate thing this week, don’t you think?

How do you focus on being happy with what you have instead of always wanting more?

Photo by James Jordan

Categories
Fulfillment

A kind word

A couple weeks ago, I made it through another harried hour at church (though this time was much better, thanks to another family in our congregation and their son’s help in entertaining Hayden). It was probably the first time I was alone with the kids in public, as Ryan sits on the stand at the front of the congregation.

As I was gathering up the toys and the baby at the end of the hour, the young couple sitting behind me leaned over the pew.

“You are such a wonderful mother!” said the wife.

And as soon as she said that, tears began to sting my eyes. Her husband joined in her praise.

Believe me, I thanked them, and I’m still thanking them.

It’s amazing what a simple act of kindness like that can do for a mother—her sense of self-worth, her happiness and her fulfillment.

So this week, go out and give a kind word to another mother—in your neighborhood, at church, through email or in the blogosphere. Tell her she’s doing something right—and if you can’t think of anything, here are five things moms do right.

Who knows? Even if you don’t receive a similar gesture, it might just make you feel better about yourself as a mother!