A Life of Gratitude

This morning the boys and I were running errands when Chris Tomlin's new song, "Whom shall I fear" came on the radio. If you haven't heard it, you need to right away! It's an amazing song. As I was singing along, I looked back and Evan was clapping and "singing along" too. It was obvious that he was really enjoying the song. During those moments the chorus was playing. It says, "I know Who goes before me. I know Who stands behind. The God of Angel armies is always by my side. The One who reigns forever is a friend of mine. The God of Angel armies is always by my side." As I watched Evan clap and heard Dylan singing, I said, "I guess that is something worth clapping about." So, we all started clapping! Today I am thankful that I know the One who goes before me and the One who stands behind. The God of Angel Armies (wow, imagine that!) is protecting me. He is always by my side. What do I have to fear? NOTHING! I'm praising God...

We've had a wonderful day of decorating. Bryan was off work today so w e listened to Christmas music and made a huge mess.  Our home is now officially ready for Christmas!  Dylan had so much fun too. He could barely contain his excitement! He even had to bring all the presents out in his little wagon. It was adorable. Evan got in on the decorating also. It is much more difficult to decorate with 2 little ones "helping" but it sure is cute to watch their little eyes light up! Today I am thankful for the fun time we had decorating our home for Christmas. This is my favorite time of year and I love having our little house spruced up!  I enjoy seeing my boys have so much fun as well.

While looking on Pinterest this morning I came across an article entitled "Mother and Son Date Night Ideas." As I read the article it occurred to me that "date nights" with my little boys don't have to cost a lot of money or take a lot of planning. Spending a little while playing with them or building a tower of blocks means just as much to my little guys as paying for an expensive trip or dinner out. So, this evening I spent some quality time with Dylan. It was an "impromptu date night." Dylan's grandmother recently gave us some adorable gingerbread men ornaments to make for our Christmas tree. Dylan and I spent a while tonight making them. It was wonderful to talk with him one-on-one. He is so smart and absolutely hilarious! He did a very good job with gingerbread men too. Tonight when I was tucking Dylan into bed he said, "I love you Mommy, you're my best friend. Tomorrow, let's do lots of fun things together!...

We've had a wonderful time visiting with Nana Smith over the past couple of days. It has been such a joy to see her with her great grandsons. Today, we also got to spend some time with Millie and Jim. Millie is Nana Smith's neice. Her and her husband are such a gift to Nana because they visit her each week and bring her coffee and cookies. Since all of Nana's family lives out of state, people like Millie and Jim are precious gifts from God for Nana! Millie also prints out copies of my blog for Nana to see. She has made a notebook of the blogs called "A Scrapbook for Aunt Pearl." Nana keeps it in her room. Yesterday when we took Nana back to the nursing home, she asked me to bring the notebook back to our hotel and read it. So, of course I did! It filled my heart with joy to see how Millie has compiled my blog posts for Nana, along with pictures and even quotes from facebook.  As I read a bunch of my old blog posts, I was overwhelmed with gratitude. I've s...

"Its not happy people that are thankful, its thankful people that are happy!" Its been 2 years since I began my "gratitude journey" and I can honestly say the quote above is true! Since I begin actively searching for reasons to be thankful on a daily basis, I am a happier, more peaceful person. I think I'm more peaceful because now that I am recognizing God's gifts each and every day I realize that regardless of the situation, God is at work and He loves His children. Even as I look back over this day, I can point out at least 10 reasons to be thankful in this day alone!  So, in honor of Thanksgiving...here it goes! 1. We took the boys to the Philadelphia Thanksgiving Parade this morning. Yes, it was cold and we had no idea where we were going but it was so much fun! I am so thankful we decided to spend a couple of hours in the cold! This is a a precious memory that I will never forget! Awww...our sweeties at the parade. 2. We only arriv...

My sweet little family arrived in Philadelphia late yesterday evening. We come to Pennsylvania every year to celebrate Thanksgiving with Bryan's family but this year, we decided to come a day early so we could spend some time in the "City of Brotherly Love." We enjoyed a great day of sight-seeing! We started off by touring Independence Hall and the Mint. The attention span of a 1 year old and a 4 year old aren't the best for guided tours but Dylan loved seeing how money is made! Next we visited the Federal Reserve Bank where the boy's were given bags of shredded money. Dylan loved that! After that, we made our way to the subway and took the train to the Reading Market. We had lunch at a little Diner inside the market and then rode the subway back to the Historic District. (Dylan absolutely loves trains so we had to incorporate the subway somehow!) We spent the rest of our afternoon at the Franklin Institute. The boys really enjoyed playing in all the science exhi...

 I am on a medication that really helps with the aftermath of my spinal headache. Although this medication is a miracle drug for me, it is really expensive. Seriously...8 pills is $370! Worker's Comp doesn't want to pay for these pills and my insurance doesn't want to pay for them either. As you can probably imagine, we really can't afford these pills but they are really helping with my headache. Thankfully, my doctor's office has given me enough samples to last 25 days and they have offered more samples. Without these pills, I would probably be on bedrest again so I am very grateful for these samples. I realized today, God has provided me with $1156 worth of these pills and a shot in case the headache gets really bad again. WOW! Not only did God provide the doctor I needed for healing, He has also provided all the medication so far, absolutely free! Today I am thankful for God's provision. In the past couple of months, I have become abundantly aware of all...