Noticing November

There's a new sheriff in town.  Well, in all honesty, since my husband is TDY for a while i'm the ONLY sheriff in town.  And every military wife will add a resounding "Amen" when i explain why this is one of the bonuses of military life.  If you've gotta be without your spouse for ANY amount of time, you've gotta look for "perks" to keep from getting resentful in the times when you shoulder the burden of the household alone.  One of these "perks" happens to be getting to be the only boss in the house.  I think i speak for a great number of ladies i know when i say that THIS is the exact time we rearrange the furniture, reconfigure chore charts, and rethink the day-to-day operating procedures in our homes.  Some may see this as a power trip of sorts.  If we are getting really raw and honest this is our way of "controlling" an area of our lives when we find ourselves in a situation where we have very little control.

So, now that we've established that i'm a control freak during times like these, let me share with you what i'm "controlling" today.  I taught a lesson this morning at church about gratitude...funny thing, since this topic has been popping up all over my thought/prayer life lately.  I've made a decision to "control" the entire month of November by deliberately and purposefully cultivating a daily attitude of gratitude and thankfulness in my life and the lives of our children.  Lately i've been feeling like November is just a stepping stone.  It's that funky month between GETTING free candy for Halloween and GETTING more stuff for Christmas.  And i've decided to single-handedly shut that nonsense down in the Crabb Shack.

So, henceforth, this month shall be known as Noticing November (thanks to my super cool friend Sarah for her awesome alliteration!).  We are gonna spend this whole month noticing the things we have to be thankful for every day.  And it's gonna start with this jar:

Every day, for the remainder of the month, the kids and i are each going to write down something that we are thankful for that day.  And every day, for the remainder of the month, we are going to pray together and ask the Lord to show us ways that we can bless others.  Between now and New Year's Eve my deepest desire is that we take time every day to notice the ways that we are blessed and to keep our eyes wide open to notice ways that we can bless others.  Before we head into 2015 on the holiday high that often comes with receiving the gifts of our dreams, i want us to spend some serious time deliberately focused on what we already have and on what we can give to others between now and then.  Then, on New Year's Eve, i would like for us to open these little notes & count our blessings one by one so that we can usher in the new year with joy and thanksgiving and hopefully a commitment to serving and giving in 2015.   I want the cornerstones of our family to be joy and contentment.  And it just so happens that this sheriff thinks that gratefulness is a great place to start.