Gratitude challenge

I was reading my November issue of Family Circle and came across an article written by a Ginny Graves. She told of how she taught the true meaning of gratitude to her children. I was drawn to it bec. we as a society now tend to forget to be thankful on a regular basis, especially since material things comes easier to us than say one hundred years ago. Things can be purchased with a click of a button, we can get from point a to point b with a car, There's so many holidays now that there's always an excuse to give kids something, and on and on.

So since Thanksgiving is just around the corner, I thought of challenging myself to pay more attention to my everyday blessings and helping my little ones better understand the importance of it. And I also thought that some people out there might be interested in joining with me so I figured, I'd put out the challenge in blog. So are you up for it?

Ok so here's the thing, in the article the author mentioned 5 exercises she did with her family that helped them learn the value of gratefulness. She even called it the "gratitude check". Isn't that cool!

Anyways, I'll be posting one exercise a day for this coming week. Do the exercise, write about what you did and how it helped you and your family have a more grateful mindset. You can talk about it in your blog, site or the traditional journal and then let me know your progress by commenting on the post. If you've posted it in your blog, just add the link to your comments. I think it would benefit us in the long run if we write down our feelings right after each exercise, this way all of our emotions/perspective are fresh. Plus if you do consider this project as a good theme for a layout or mini album, all your journaling will be done. :) If you want, you could even take pictures of things or persons that will remind you of each exercise.

And to encourage you more, I'm giving out some raks (random acts of kindness) to those that participate.

So are you ready....

Exercise 1
"walk the talk"
Openly express your gratitude and praise family members when they try to follow suite.
The author says "The first step to changing kid's behavior is being a good role model". So for your first assignment, be aware of how you express gratitude and talk to your family about the things you are grateful for.

and the rak for this exercise is....
a copy of this book which just came out.


I can't wait to see your response.
Grace