Long Family Word of the 2014 - Gratitude

My Hubs and I decided that we are going to start a new thing this year...a word of the year. One single character attribute that we want to improve in ourselves and model for our kiddos. This year the selection was GRATITUDE. Who knew in this age of self help that finding a book, or study, or online guide or, heck, even a stink'n coloring sheet on gratitude would be so blasted hard? It is! Hard like bedrock (Mavi quote)...hmmm is that a hint? Anyway, we found this or that, but honestly, nothing that blows my doors off when it comes to embracing or teaching your kiddos about gratitude. I would not be detoured!

By definition Gratitude is the state of being grateful; a feeling of thankfulness

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gratitude

We are making this study, family quiet time, familial self reflection, or whatever it will morph into being a nightly gathering for us to stay aligned as a family.  We knew that would be the "how", but what about the "what". The curriculum, if you will, for this mission must be found! So in true little-miss-boss-of-the-world form I ran ahead and to find it. I, I, I, I was going to put together whatever it would take to teach this to my husband and kids, I was sure I would pick up what I needed on the way. HELLLLOOO?!?!? Already a heart position of "I" was emerging. Not so gratitude-ish...dang it...we weren't even on day one. But I was blessed during quiet time with this thought, "just keep it easy". So we downloaded this onto my Kendall:
 
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18810535-21-prayers-of-gratitude

This is where we will start. We are also going to keep individual gratitude journals. I want to share this with you and your family. I am sure there will be many "mess-ups" in how we execute this, but you are invited to laugh, cry and grow with us on this first Long Family Word of the Year!

Returning to This Work.

I haven't touched this blog in two years.  There are lots of excuses I could give you, but the bottom line is I don't write, right. (For example, I'm not even sure if a comma goes between "write,right".) I would have never picked this up again...but for prompting. I have this friend that ALWAYS writes right. She said to me, "My work is grammatically perfect, your work is people perfect." That was 13 months ago (self thought: whew...a lot has happened in those months.)  Her brilliantly kind suggestion was to not let the fear of the unknown and the my perceived limitations stop me from sharing things that might encourage other mamas and papas... that might encourage myself. She is very persuasive, this right writer friend of mine.  So, I am ready to reengage this project. Thanks for coming with me.

Grace's 10 year old pics :)

These are pictures David Carpenter took of Grace for her ten your old birthday...my how time flys.

Building a blog...

SO...here is the deal...we do a ton of stuff around this joint...and we have no documentation. I am enjoying FB less and less cause it is well, getting old. So I am returning to the blog-land and see what I can make happen! This is Mavi begging for "don-dees" doughnuts.

A winter wonderland!

Well my sweet Texas husband had to call off work when he woke up to this "insane amount of snow". So he joined the home school day (after I had my pout about my women's bible study being called off). First we had a 1 hour delay at the Long family academy. That opened up time for chocolate chip pancakes and sausage breakfast. Then we did a science and math lesson. We estimated the snow fall on the back deck. I said 13 1/4 inches, Jason said 10 3/4, Gabe said 10 1/4, Grace said 9 1/2 and the WINNER WAS.....

GABE with the winning at exactly 10 inches!!!

Maverick, who is never found of being cold, stayed in! They played in the morning...did their home school...and went back out.

A Great Day to be a kiddo!

2008 Ornament Exchage!

Look Angela Carpenter thinks she is SOOOOO funny...Whatever!

Aunt Jo Best Dressed 2008. Heather Scellato was a very close second!

Amy was another Rookie this year.

Okay some pretty stink'n funny stuff went down this year. The Rookies torn up the veterans. No one was safe and I am here to tell you not even the host was safe!!!!! Pictured above is the 2008 Rookie of the Year, Jennifer Bond!

Notice Jenn and stinky Annette yammering in the corner. They got in trouble like 6000 times for talking! Notice Dawn Hudson. She looks very cute and sweet but all I can say about that is "4 balls". She even made me blush!!!

Rachel tricked them into looking bad. HA! Amanda...nice belly! Keep those pants up. She was stolen from atleast 5 times.

Kellie is happy 'cause she stole the boot!!!!! There were 35 people in my downstairs and it got warm baby. I think we all laughed our fool heads off. Five of the people fought it out for Rookie of the year! She won most beatiful ornament too. It was the best (we say that every year) party ever...thank you for making it great!

TEXAS or BUST

So here is my little boy going to TX. He was thrilled to see his dog Vinnie. We had to send him Jason's mom because of his bad joints. Gabe was thrilled! He got to go to his fist Longhorn game with Dad-o too. Hook'em

My dad and Grace were Shreky and Fionia...Gabe was Spidey and Baby's first Halloween was giraffe! Grace won second place in the Sams costume contest!

Road Side Pumpkin's

As an artsy person I savor the flavor of the fun of things. As kids...they just want their PUMPKINS. So I forgot about my need for drama and let them get road side pumpkins! Fall is in the air!

Dorky Kids

After much complaining about the jungle gym being too "babyish", my kids thought of a way to make it better...Rock on!