The Kelly Journal

While I haven’t been writing many of these Thankful Thursday posts, I have continued to keep my eyes peeled for the big and little things I can be grateful for. So, why not start the new year off right and write my first Thankful Thursday post of 2012!

This week I’m thankful for the little things:

1. sideways smiles

2. a little one who loves the vacuum

Sometimes when playing with Joshua he’ll get this look on his face and he’ll move his jaw sideways and give you a silly grin. I love it.

this is an older picture but better than the one I took today

Joshua is a big fan of the vacuum. It’s so cute. He’s fascinated by it. This morning I vacuumed most of the house with him following behind me. He’d either be a few feet back holding the cord (which was actually quite helpful) or he was playing with something near by but always close to me (and the vacuum). Whenever I’d stop he would come over and check out the vacuum, try to push it, fiddle with the buttons. I am grateful to not have to add vacuuming to the long list of things I can only accomplish while he’s asleep (like blogging)!

helping with the cord

(And no, I don’t let him play with the vacuum or the vacuum cord unattended.)

attempting to push the vacuum

Don’t worry, little guy… as soon as you’re big enough, vacuuming will be one of your first chores! Seriously, though, I don’t normally enjoy vacuuming (just the results of having done it) but today it was so fun because I experienced it through his eyes of wonder.

Ack! It’s thursday again? How did that happen? This week has been a sicky week for our household. We all caught colds and then Joshua and I shared the stomach flu (thanks buddy!). Blech. One thing I’m thankful for is getting better! I do hate being sick but it definitely makes you appreciate feeling “normal” when you’ve felt rotten all week. And I’m thankful for soooo many different foods that I wished I could eat all week but I was stuck with crackers and 7up. Yesterday I had ice cream. Glory.

I’m also in love with fall. Well, I always have been. It’s my favorite season and the only thing I don’t like about it is how quickly it fades into winter. Once Joshua and I started feeling better this week we made a point to spend some time outside playing in the leaves, enjoying the sun and breathing the fresh air. Joshua LOVES being outside. He loves trees and sticks and leaves and water and dirt and everything about it. Yesterday we went on a family walk, dog and all, and Joshua had a blast (minus the scraped knuckles from attempting to run and not being very good at it yet). We didn’t take our camera on the walk but I did get a couple fun shots of Joshua playing with leaves the day before (okay, I was the one throwing the leaves).

What am I grateful for this week? Fall leaves, fresh autumn air and the health to enjoy it all.

I’ve recently rediscovered my love for reading. Seriously, it had been over a year since I’d read more than half a book and in the last couple months I’ve read five! The book I’m currently reading is One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp. It’s so good. It’s basically all about growing in gratefulness in the every day, mundane, small things in life. Living fully present in the moment. She’s such a good writer that the pages fly by and pretty soon you realize it’s time to go to bed and you’ve stayed up later than you meant to. Or at least that’s what happens to me.

I’ve decided, like probably everyone who’s read her book, that I want to start a “gratitude journal” to help me open my eyes to the gifts all around me. And I thought it’d be fun to share here and there some of the things with you all. Don’t worry, I’m not going to turn the Kelly Journal into Kara’s personal gratitude blog. I think the things I’m thankful for are way more meaningful to me than to the internet masses (as if the masses are reading this!).

Enough explaining. When I remember, I’ll post a little thing or two on Thursdays that I’ve been thankful for that week. And hopefully it will be something I had the chance to document with a photo because blogs are so much more fun with pictures. :) So here’s my first attempt at growing in gratitude.

What am I thankful for today? Little hands grabbing cheerios. I just love his chubby little hands and how he grabs a whole handful at a time and shoves them into his mouth. I could watch him eat them all day long.

little hands grabbing cheerios

And then there’s the cuteness of how he likes to share with the dog (even though he’s not supposed to and sometimes it turns out bad for the little hands because of the greedy dog.)

sharing beloved cheerios