Grace in Small Things — It’s all Schmutzie’s fault.

Posted on by Kylene

Schmutzie at Schumtzie’s Milkmoney or Not, Here I Come brought up an assignment from her therapist lately.  It was an idea that I’d just recently read about in Real Simple magaine and thought was interesting.  And then Schmutzie made it into a challenge and I was really interested.

Real Simple called it Sharing Gratitude.  Schmutzie’s calling it Grace in Small Things.  Every day for the next year, she’s going to write a gratitude journal.  She’s going to write something for which she is thankful.  She even made badges because she’s inviting everybody else to join along with her.

Isn’t is pretty?

Now.  I’m not sure if I can do a full 365 days worth of posting things I’m thankful for every single day.  But I can try to at least do it as often as I can.  There’s been research, I heard lately on the radio (yet another reason why this idea’s been sticking with me–I heard about it on the radio!) that people who keep journals about what they’re thankful for are happier with life and more optimistic.  Now, I’m not convinced that the one leads to the other instead of it being that people who keep journals telling what they’re happy about aren’t just happier people to begin with, but it’s an interesting idea to toy with.

So.  It seems appropriate that I should kick this off on Thanksgiving Day.  I’m going to try to keep this up until next Thanksgiving.  I think it’s going to be very interesting to see what this looks like at the end of the next 365 days.

With all that said, here I go.

I am thankful . . .

  1. That my family, even though I couldn’t be with them this holiday, are all well and healthy and happy.  And that they’re not angry or upset at me for not making it up north and that they’re so understanding.
  2. That Justin and I are both employed and doing well.  This time last year, this wasn’t the case.  This year, Justin has a job where he does excellent work and I just got hired on direct at my company and got a significant raise in pay. (Just as a disclaimer–Justin didn’t get to design the page in the link, but he made it work better.)
  3. For my husband and eight months of giddy wedded happiness.
  4. For health insurance that actually covers medical expenses.
  5. For really, really good turkey, gravy, potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, rolls, and cranberry sauce in the shape of a can.