Hi friends! I'm so sad the KAL is coming to an end. This is my last creativity blog post but I'll definitely be around until every person is finished and happy with their project, so just holler as always if you need a hand. I plan to do a big round up post in the coming weeks as well, as soon as we feel like a bunch of us have finished or are nearing the end. 

Today's blog is a short and sweet one all about gratitude. I thought this would be a nice way to wrap up this side of the KAL. People all the time say it's important to feel grateful for what we have and to spend time each day writing these things down. I think until you really start doing it, it's hard to see the benefit. I am a big fan. I find that it helps to put things in perspective when I'm feeling overwhelmed or upset about something that happened. My old practice was to wake up and write down just a few things I was grateful for every morning but this was too few. I just sort of glossed over it and went on with my day, something that I just had to check off the list. Then I went through this phase last winter and spring where I would sit and write about the things I was grateful for for about 20-25 minutes each morning before the kids woke up. There's no better way to start the day, well at least it's my vote. It definitely put me into such a good place. Since we moved and because the kids wake up so early to get to school by 7:30, it's been harder to implement this routine into my new daily life. Truthfully, I'm struggling to figure out my new routine (still!!!) at our new house. I take it with me in different ways now. In the same way I cope with failure, when something comes up that I'm not happy about, I try to see the good in it, what I'm grateful for. 

I have a funny example of how embracing gratitude has helped my family too. Just the other night, Trammel and I were getting ready for bed and he was telling me a little bit about how stressed he feels at work, how he feels like he has a pattern of getting himself into tricky situations. I tried to get him to focus on all of the good things this job provides him and our family. For example there's a lot of freedom and the potential for even more. That's so exciting to think about since both of us want to take the kids to India and travel a ton with them.  In this small way I think it helped.

I also make a special attempt on the weekends to take my time with the family and just be in the moment and appreciate it. It's simple. This weekend I wanted to put lights on the xmas tree but the boys wanted me to draw them paw patrol puppies for an hour so that they could color them in. That's just what we did and it was fun. I started to think about how grateful I am to have the time with them with no big plans or things to do. We get to just be together. So I'd still love to work the writing back into my routine but for now the little mind shift change all that writing did is staying with me. Family and 2 sweet boys aside, I'm so grateful for this community and for you being up for doing this KAL with me. It's an honor and I know this time around there have been errors - your yarn was late etc. I apologize heartily for that. I bit off a little more than I could chew, as a frequently do. Thank you for bearing with us. We'll keep improving and getting better, I can promise that. Thank you thank you thank you thank you!

Let me know if you have a gratitude practice. I'd love to hear all about it!

Thank you so much for joining me here! Lots of love, Amy