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.