Coming Home

We are home from a whirlwind of a weekend.  Our days jam packed with parties, people, laughter, and (mostly) content exhaustion.  I love our weekends in Illinois, back to the life we once lived.  And I love returning here.  I love it without thinking this time.  It has been slow in coming, loving returning, that is.  To what is becoming known as home.  To quiet spaces and a small family of four.  To the home we are creating, filled with reminders of what I value. 

Like our grateful tree, which I pass just after entering, reminding me to pick up my hammer and choose contentment when I might otherwise groan at the pile of suitcases awaiting me. 

It's February now, so we are clearing off our grateful tree, jarring up our named gifts, and making room for new ones. 

 

January, winter's wind and all, offered much to be grateful for, and we followed along most days with Ann Voskamp's Joy Dare prompts.

 

Some of my favorites include:

 

"an unexpected package"  (Because how stinkin' spoiled am I to have such amazing friends?  A hand stitched journal arriving unexpected.  A starbucks card sent to my mailbox just because.  These are the kind of friends I want to both keep and be.)

 

 

 

"uncle steven," occasioned by this prompt: a gift that brings laughter

 

 

"Daddy" ( Need I say more?)

 

 

And "Michigan," a truly unexpected gift that is better than I could have asked for.

 

 

 

 

Hammering Gratitude

“That habit of discontentment can only be driven out by hammering in one iron sharper. The sleek pin of gratitude. I hammer” – Ann Voskamp

I have hammering to do in 2013.

By far, the most impactful read for me of 2012 was  Ann Voskamp's "One Thousand Gifts."  Ever  on the lookout to name the every day gifts around her, she hammers out discontentment by ushering in a new habit - of gratitude, of joy. 

Oh, that discontentment wouldn’t rear it’s ugly head in my life so frequently.  And it’s not disappearing on willpower alone. 

So hammering it is.  I'm looking to name gifts.  To speak joy.  And I've invited my five year old to join me, to start making the habits now, while he is small.  We have begun with three a day (times 365 brings us to just over 1,000 gifts in 2013)

I'm thrilled just walking past our latest idea of solidifying gifts.  I'm noticing this one little act of speaking and writing three things each day shifts my focus to notice other things, unspoken and unwritten, throughout the day.

Here it is, our latest wall hanging, that last month held Christmas cards and this month holds written evidences of gifts and of gratitude:

Nothing quite contributes to my grateful heart than watching my five year old write down his own list of gratitude, especially, for goodness sakes, when I'm part of them.  sigh. 

His list: "My whole family, that God is always with me, and - of course - dessert (because what gratitude list would be complete without dessert?)"

And..."Playing Sequence with Mommy."  Stab me in the heart right now.  

Even my two year old joined the fun, prompted with "Nolan, what are you happy about?"

"The practice of giving thanks...eucharisteo...this is the way we practice the presence of God, stay present to His presence, and it is always a practice of the eyes. We don't have to change what we see. Only the way we see.” -Ann Voskamp 

Here’s to sight in 2013.  To true sight.