2012 was a great year. We have a lot to be thankful for from 2012.
2012 brought us this sweet girl.
It brought us lots of traveling and treasured time with family. It brought us to the decision to homeschool our girls. It brought us health and friendship and two freezers full of self-processed, healthy meat.
2012 also brought us sorrow. Big, heavy losses. The kind of losses that make you stop and think about your life. Take stock. Examine priorities. Realize all that you do have in the face of what you just lost.
Yes, these are the types of losses we have faced this year. Losses that have led us to some big discussions. Long talks about our Life and how we want to live fully and not take things for granted and simplify. Conversations about just how much we have to be grateful for and how we can make the most of our good fortune to give something back.
I think I’ve always been pretty good at recognizing my blessings and not taking things for granted. But this year I feel like my gratitude has really blossomed.
In the new year, my goal is to truly embrace gratitude.
When I feel cranky or pissed of? Gratitude.
When I’m tired? Gratitude.
When I worry or fret about whether I’m getting this whole motherhood thing right? Gratitude for the chance to do my best at it.
This morning, I had a small chance to practice. I got up and fed Baby Sis. I changed her diaper. Then my husband offered to get up with her and Miss and let me go back to sleep.
I have to admit, I had been looking forward to the chance to sleep in a bit this morning for a week. I love to sleep, I just don’t like to go to bed early, which puts me at a disadvantage when I have children who, as children do, love to get up before the sun.
But I digress. I was given the chance to sleep in this morning… Unfortunately I couldn’t fall back to sleep. Just as I started to drift off into dreamland, who should come creeping into my room, climbing up my bed steps, whispering, “Mama?” This girl.
Oh, I did start to feel frustrated. But how could I refuse when she climbs up in my bed and says, “I want to get in your bed and snuggle with you”?
We snuggled a bit. Then she fidgeted and rolled around while I stayed very still and hoped and hoped that I might be able to fall back to sleep. Of course I couldn’t. After a few minutes she climbed down and went back downstairs to play.
I started to fume for a minute in my disappointment that my one morning to sleep in didn’t work out the way I wanted.
But then, as I was snuggled in my bed under my cozy covers at 7:45 am, not sleeping, I reminded myself that it was totally ridiculous to be mad or frustrated or otherwise annoyed about the situation.
I decided to stop thinking about how much I would have loved to sleep in and remind myself how thankful I am that I have a sweet girl who wanted to come in my bed and snuggle with me and a thoughtful husband who was willing to get up this morning and let me try to sleep more.
A much happier place from which to begin my day.
One of my goals for this next year and beyond is to begin keeping a gratitude journal. Every night before bed, I will write down at least one thing from the day for which I am grateful. It won’t be hard, because there is so much.
Tonight my gratitude journal will read something like this:
“Today I’m grateful for a snuggly 3-year-old and a thoughtful husband. Oh yeah, and 45 minutes or so of peaceful rest in my oh-so-cozy bed.”
What are you grateful for?
