2015 Gratitude Journal

Around Thanksgiving of last year I started toying with the idea of a gratitude tree to put on the wall.  I would have leaves of different colors and shapes and each day we would write what we were grateful for and stick it on the tree.  I went so far as to print out leaves but alas, I did not go any further and the idea went out with the leftover cranberry sauce, no wait...that is still in the fridge ewww!  The end of December I noticed lots of Pins and posts with pictures of gratitude jars.  Same principle, decorate a jar, put a pen and some slips of paper next to it and then write down what you are grateful for all year.  At Thanksgiving you pull down the jar and open up all the papers to remind your(self) family of all the blessings we received this year.  Bonus I can totally make these for the sisters that I visit each month.  But here it is the second week of January and I have not decorated my jar.  Great idea but I lacked the follow through to bring it to fruition.  Yesterday I read a letter in the January 2015 Ensign titled "I Poured Out My Soul In Gratitude" that really struck a chord in me.  This woman wrote "I felt so blessed every morning and night that I poured out my soul in gratitude to my Father..."  later she pondered why Heavenly Father was helping her so much and the thought came to her that he was helping her so much because she was being grateful.  Then this morning I picked up my phone in the dark to check Instagram, Facebook, etc and the first thing I saw was a this reminder from Al Carraway "Make prayer the first thing you do instead of checking statuses on your phone."  The two messages seemed made for each other.  So I poured out my soul in gratitude.  As my day has progressed, my heart has been so full, like overflowing almost painful full, of gratitude.  I do not think it is coincidence.  Let me fill you in on the details of the morning so far...after being woken up 4 times in 5 hours by my sick 3 year old she ended up in my bed at 5:30am.  Husband is already at work by this time.  I laid in bed for 30 minutes until it was time to get eldest daughter up for school.  Get her out the door by 7 and get ready for wave 2.  Get middle child up and guess what she has a yucky cough but since we have only been back from break for 2 days she is going to school.  Little one has a fever, 101, not happy but I get her bundled up and we are out the door pretty much on time.  The drive to school is good, except for the blanket of snow covering the valley.  Little one falls asleep in the car in the 7 minutes it takes us to get to sister's school.  Middle child tells me as she is leaving the car she will pray for Little.  Now on to school two to pick up Eldest and take her to school three (one day I will explain, it is such a blessing).  School two is over 10 miles away, 25 minutes in good weather, but today is icy roads and thick fog.  Arrive safely to get Eldest and get her back safe and sound to school 3.  On the way I am just overcome with gratitude!  From my calling (Primary) to family scripture study, to strength and patience today when I had so little sleep, I just feel the Lord's hand active in my life.  So I decided to blog.  I think I will still grab one of the 252 journals floating around in random drawers in my home and actually write in a gratitude journal this year.  When I look for things to be grateful for my eyes are opened to all the blessings in my life.  When I do not search for them, I cannot see them clearly.  So for this year lets be grateful AND recognize through whom all blessings come, THEN offer up many prayers of gratitude to our Heavenly Father.