Gratitude = Success

For May I determined to write in a gratitude journal every day.

I've heard great things about gratitude journals and how they will change your life, and I was excited for this. Especially since there was no set period of time or length of gratitude I had to feel or think of every day.

I grabbed a (mostly) empty notebook and began on May 1st with a pretty short list knowing that I still had 30 days to capture it all.
prayer, my boys, family, the ability to "run", my calling, bed, pillows, voice
I wrote.

Tommy was going through a phase of standing in the middle of my bed and dead-dropping flat on his back into the mound of decorative pillows no head has ever touched. I reminded him a million times that those pillows were not for playing when I realized I have never in my entire life dead-dropped into a stack of pillows like that. He was immediately engulfed by the pillows and I heard the tiny giggles telling me "is funny mom!" while I unburried him for the umpteenth time.

I was thankful for pillows no less than 5 more times throughout the month and I have yet to set my head on them.

I was thankful for family pictures and photo shop in the same day.

I was thankful for callings and visiting teaching and the opportunity to learn and serve every week.

I was thankful for gentiles and I already can't remember why - but I'm confident it was funny.

I was thankful work.....technically.


I was consistently thankful for my body and exercising sports.

I was thankful for friends: mine and my boys'.

I made no rules about repeating or length of lists. But somehow I was surprised that in a whole month I only filled the front and back of one lined piece of paper.

I did not experience that magical "I was looking for things to be grateful for" thing that people swear happens throughout the day, but I did find that I felt more appreciative for a lot of things I didn't know I was so glad to have in my life.

Josh's job and mine (which I often whine about), running and cleaning (which I rarely enjoy), and cooking and shopping were things I was surprised to feel happy about. I didn't know I loved my house so much, or even the people in it. But my boys topped my list each day.

So that was my surprise blessing through doing this.

I likely won't do this every day for the rest of my life, but since a whole month only filled one page of a notebook I have an unofficial desire to fill a whole notebook sometime before I die. Maybe I'll keep that book by my bed and write in it as often as I think of it.

To hold me accountable for all the months so far......click here.