A Month of Thankfulness: The First Week

November snuck up on me.  In fact, mentally, I think I'm still in September.  So, I will confess, I did not get my act together to do our usual Thankful Tree.  Wah, wah.  But I cannot let my month of Thankfulness pass by.  It is one of my favorite times of the year!

Recently, I read a book called The Secrets of Happy Families*.  I loved it.  I made Lucas read it.  He agreed that there were some great ideas.  One of our favorite ideas was a weekly family meeting - which we started this fall.  I could spend paragraphs telling you how much we love family meeting and all of the wonderful things that have come out of family meetings that have changed our family for the better.  But that isn't what this is about.  This is about how we added time in our November family meetings to share (and write down to be displayed in the dining room) the things for which we are thankful from the previous week.  There is no limit.  Everyone has to say at least one.  It has been a great way to end our time.

Attempting to get a picture with my children to send to the donors of my college scholarship who also donated money to the twins' school - enough that the Lower School is named after the donors - to thank them for the generosity.

 Here - along with pictures taken from the first week of November - are all of the things for which our family is thankful from our first week.

Sometimes no one is looking...

 We are thankful for:

Mommy & Daddy

Allie & Ryan

Bumble

Sharky

That we are a forgiving family (many of the items covered in our family meeting regarded or required forgiveness)

The Bowsers

Art Supplies

My Family

School

Church Family

My Job

Students/Friends

Game Night & Brownie Sundaes (we always end family meeting time by playing a game together...we try to also have some sort of special treat - this night that treat was brownie sundaes).

Sometimes Mommy is the only one who isn't looking...

 Can I add that I'm thankful for family meetings?  I'm thankful for the time we spend laughing together and problem solving together and playing together.

Finally, a keeper.

We might not be taking a daily account of our blessings for which we are thankful, but hopefully our weekly list will still help us practice having an attitude of gratitude.

* I should mention that I was in no way asked to or paid for recommending or endorsing this book in any way.  I just really liked it and have found it to be beneficial for our family, so I thought I would share!