Ways to Give Thanks

After posting about gratitude yesterday I was reading through some of your posts and Kristen @ We Are That Family has a wonderful idea to use with your family.  It is a Thanksgiving Countdown Calendar with sweet I am Thankful cards to fill out each day and place in the cute numbered sacks.  She has the instructions to make it and some printable forms for the cards.  Check it out here.  She also wrote some thoughtful insights into the holiday too so go visit there today.

Here is another idea I'd like to share.  Give each person in your family little "calling cards" to leave when they do a good deed for another member.  The cards are little 3"x3" colored card stock.  Each person has their own color of cards so the color indicates who left it.

My family had a good time personalizing their color with stamps.  Now the fun begins as little deeds of goodness are done and make way for the cards to be left anonymously.

I am so happy and grateful that our weather is so warm and pleasant this week. I am thanking God for each day of Indian Summer that we have.

  What are you thankful for today?

November is Gratitude

It is always nice when November rolls around.  The spooks,zombies and skeletons have gone home, we pull out our plaid and flannel throws and make our homes cozy and warm.  But it is also a time that we have to really concentrate on being grateful for those little and big things, people and blessings that we have in our lives.  I say we have to work on it because I think we are not prompted and guided in our thought processes to do so by the media or retail establishments.  Gratitude isn't something that we can hand our hard earned cash down on any check-out line with a cashier eager to take it, and so many stores would and could just as soon sweep Thanksgiving under the carpet and ring the bells as loud as they can and run ad after ad for the next big profiting holiday--Christmas.  That is why stores are all decorated in red and green, and all the orange, red, rust and tan have been packed away with the leftover Halloween merchandise.  It is up to us, those who have grateful hearts, to love and celebrate this day of giving thanks for everyday blessings by giving it and the reason behind it priority in our busy lives.  But, we can do it without support from any retail establishment and without commercialism because we can do it right in our homes with our families by quietly sharing our feelings of gratitude together. And we lovingly teach our children and grandchildren by example to cherish who they are, with what we have been blessed.  I, for one, want to take the month of November to count my blessings each day and share this gratitude with those I come in contact. To make everyday a day of thanksgiving!  Thanks to each of you for coming here today.  I am grateful for you too.