Thirty days of gratitude: Days 18, 19, 20, 21 and 22

Here I am with another weekly wrap-up masquerading as a Friday night grateful moment! What I love about the season right now is that there are grateful moments everywhere, every day. It's what I love about this time of year.

I have been enjoying this photo challenge quite a bit, even though it ends up creeping into the evenings and my creativity gets a little hampered. When I'm savvy enough to look up the daily grateful word in the morning, it can follow me throughout the day, and that's a nice thing. But often I'm up and out the door before I remember, and it's a wild little scramble to get my act together that evening.

But, still, I'm grateful, even in the noise of the day. One morning this week I was caught off guard by a feeling of gratitude while at a traffic light. Probably there was some song playing on the CD player that poked into my sentiment, and I had a little tear at the awesome blessings that we have as a family. Blessed. Loved. Grateful.

Day 18: Change

My one nod to the holidays (so far) has been putting some bulbs out to sprout. And oh how they have sprouted! I love watching the green shoots climb up to the sunshine. Watching how they change is like I imagine God feels, watching a child grow from infancy into adulthood--zoom!

Day 19: Knowledge

When I think of what it is that I really know--as Oprah says, "What I know for sure," it is that love is really all. I think I've heard it said, "No matter what the question, the answer is love." I agree.

Day 20: Scent

This was one of those days when I had nothing. Scent? Grateful for smell? Really? What smell, where? Nothing. Then toward the end of the evening--one of our first really cold nights--I made hot chocolate. The scent wafted up, and I knew what I was grateful for. Hot chocolate is a bit of a ritual around here in the winter, and I love making up mugs for the boys and having mini marshmallows and whipped cream to "enhance" the experience--and the scent!

Later in the week I roasted some garlic and made some croutons with garlic, and I thought of the word again, and was re-grateful for scent. Roasted garlic is really heavenly smelling!

Day 21: Kindness

I am so grateful for kindness in this world, and in my life. There is nothing like kindness to set a day, a person, an act, apart from the ordinary humdrum day, person or act. Kindness makes everything better. Sometimes kindness looks like correction--think of putting a kid on the right path rather than allowing them to continue down the wrong one--but done correctly and with the right heart, kindness really does rule.

Day 22: Home

There are many things I like about our actual physical abode. Right now, on this cold winter night, I love that it is warm--the fire is going and we're all tucked in. In the summer I love the light coming through the windows, and the amazing view. But the best thing about this house isn't something you can touch; it's the love and laughter we have here together, we three.

Wherever you are, I hope you are warm and welcoming the weekend.

Peace.