The ABCs of Thankfulness for a Christian Mom

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Ever since I can remember I have rejoiced over the time of year leading up to Thanksgiving.

 

Cozy evenings with my family in front of the fireplace reading and playing games in the firelight.

Piles of leaves that I would stomp through for hours on end!

(This one has lost some of the enchantment now that I am an adult in charge of the raking rather than just a cute little “helper.” :)) Although now I delight in watching my kids and dog carry on the tradition!

And most of all, the change of pace. We would slow down from the busy planting and harvesting seasons on the farm/ranch operation where I grew up. It was also several months away from the busy season with cattle so we finally had long evenings and slower days together as a family.

Even now that I am married, I can sense the shift coming. The weeks of November leading up to and surrounding Thanksgiving take on a slower pace. November is the birthday month for both my hubby and myself too (and our not-so-little-anymore puppy! 🙂 )

Since my husband has days off built up at work that he needs to use or lose at the end of the year, (December is too busy for him to use them then) November becomes our default month to just slow down and I LOVE it!

The best part about this time of year is the focus on thankfulness!

Throughout the rest of the year, it feels like I struggle to keep a grateful attitude but the month of November create a warm environment of thankfulness.

So in keeping with my excitement over this season of thankfulness, I decided to share my own personal list of things I am thankful for as a Christian mom.

And since I am in the middle of teaching the alphabet to our daughter, I decided to use the alphabet to aid my thankful musings! 🙂

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The ABCs of Thankfulness For A Christian Mom

As a Christian mom, there are so many challenges but today is a great day to focus on everything wonderful about being a Christian mom!

 

A- Air Freshners

I live in house with two kids wearing diapers, a long haired dog who adores getting muddy and wet, and stinky laundry just to begin with the list of odor-offending things in my house! Seriously, anything that helps me to not lose my mind over bad smells is AMAZING!

B-My Baby Boy

So this year, I became the mom to the sweetest little baby boy EVER. (Nope, not even attempting to hide the bias here! 🙂 ) Seriously, he has been the dream baby of sweet coos and ease for the most part and he is even stinking cute in how he keeps me awake all night. I love being a little boy’s mama now!

C-Computer

This trusty little laptop that I write my blog on has become a lifeline of sanity for me, especially since having our second child. It is my place to write and be creative in all the best ways. It’s my time when I can turn my brain on and really just have fun.

D-Devotionals

Okay, I should say Bible studies instead of Devotionals but B had a way more important topic! 🙂 This year the group of ladies that I get the joy of being apart of every other Tuesday has been working our way through several Bible studies, my personal favorite being The Armor of God by Priscilla Shirer. As we work our way through her study, I find my prayer life deepening and my desire to stand up to Satan’s attacks stronger than ever before!

E-Elephant Pictures

Okay, let me explain. The first year of our daughter’s life, every week we would take a picture of her next to her large stuffed elephant. At the end of the first year, I ended the routine but L and her elephant are inseparable. She brushes his hair, kisses him, and reads to him. It really is amazing the blessing of small things! And I already love looking back on those pictures with so much fondness…she was so tiny!

F-Farm

Growing up as a farm kid is seriously the most blessed way to grow. Yeah, it’s hard and grueling work some days but every day is an adventure. You truly have no idea what will happen each day. While our kids are not necessarily getting to grow up in the country, I am thankful for every day that my aging parents get to stay on the family farm and introduce the wonders of farm life to my kids. My heart melts watching L jump for excitement at getting to go gather chicken eggs with Grandpa and help Grandma pick fresh zucchini from the garden!

G-Grace

This is true on so many levels. First, the obvious fact that I am a recipient of God’s grace which is alone a pretty amazing fact! Second, the grace of my husband and my children as they let me fail them and make mistakes and show my short comings and they still love me in spite of all that! Third, the grace I am trying to learn to give myself on the days when nothing goes as I planned.

H-Hope

Honestly, the hope that is in Christ. The hope that this life is not all there is. Prayer-filled hope that I will get to see each of my children come to love God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength. Hope in the possibility that I might get to write and be creative during the course of my day. The hope that someday I will get to use the bathroom without the entourage of two small people and a dog. Hope gets me out of bed and moving a LOT of days.

I-Ice Cream

During the long hot days of summer, I love huge scoops of ice cream shared with my hubby and kids. It’s a sticky, cold delightful treat that I can never get enough of! And the more chocolate in it the better! 🙂 Plus, sometimes we even get the fun of eating homemade ice cream which is even better if that is possible!

J-Jesus

Nope, this isn’t a cop-out answer for J. It’s the most truthful answer. Without Jesus and His work on the cross, I would be nothing.

K-Krave cereal

Much like ice cream, this is our other go-to treat. So much easier to pick up off the floor than Cheerios too. 🙂

L-My sweet daughter

L brings a curiosity and love of living life to a whole new level! Her persistence in learning and growing up way too fast for this mommy never stop astounding me. She lights up our lives with her loving, caring ways with her new baby brother. L makes her Daddy laugh like crazy and want to lose his mind like crazy too! God used L to make me a mommy and for that blessing I will forever be grateful.

M-Marriage.

This year marks 5 years of marriage to my sweet hubby. To be honest, I don’t know how it has already been that long. It seriously feels like we just got married a few months ago! The years fly when you are married to your best friend for sure! I love the joy of being his wife. Watching him be an amazing father to our kids fills me with butterflies. (I still get a little teary eyed every night when I get to listen to him and my daughter say bedtime prayers!) No matter how much the man might drive me up a wall some days, I could not be anything but grateful for him! 🙂

N-Nap time

Oh how I miss the days before kids when sleep was just a given part of my daily life! Nap time is now my reprieve to some fashion of silence in my day to regroup and face the second part of my day with some semblance of dignity. This is a little tainted by the fact that my two darling children like to stagger their nap times with a clock-like precision but I try to enjoy the quiet and one on one time with them just the same.

O-Oranges

The best guilt-free snack that my daughter can’t get enough of! Those little easy peel oranges have been a life saver as my daughter can satisfy her sweet tooth and her snack cravings and I don’t feel like I am just giving her sugar all day long! Thank the Lord for the creation of oranges!!

P-Pictures

How did my parents ever make it through my childhood with a bulky old camera that would only take 24 pictures per roll of film? And then wait three weeks or more to find out how the picture turned out?! (Yeah, I just totally showed my age there…I predate digital cameras.) To be perfectly honest, I probably have taken at least 24 pictures in the last two days on my phone. And I get to enjoy the instant gratification of finding out if I took a decent picture before getting it printed! I love capturing the moments in our day to share with grandparents and friends with just a quick touch of a button!

Q-Quilts

First off, Q’s are hard! So, I am going to go back to an old stand by word for Q-Quilt. Why? Because my daughter gets to sleep with a quilt that my Grandma made me when I was a kid. It is a super sweet legacy of my Grandma’s love and prayers that I can tangibly give to my daughter even though she never had a chance to meet her Great-Grandma. I pray my daughter can use her energy to serve God in the same way that my Grandma who made the quilt did. (They seriously could not be more alike in their energetic qualities!)

R-Reading

Books are pretty much at every pivotal moment of my life. From my very first memories with my Grandpa, to my nightly story times with my mother, to the fact that our mutual love of reading led to my relationship with my husband, to the book cake at our wedding, to my husband’s career change from teacher to librarian, God has used reading and books at every juncture. Now I get to read to my kids every single day, sometimes for hours at a time. It is the highlight of my day watching their eyes light up as they listen to stories and re-read stories already!

Also, as a Christian mom, I love reading books that encourage me through this journey of motherhood. Reading has allowed me to learn from many moms throughout history.

S-Sleep

I know I said Nap time earlier but you have no idea how much I value sleep or how little sleep I get to experience right now! Sleep is a golden magical experience that is looked upon fondly from the distance right now. So every time I get any amount of sleep, I am truly thankful!

T-Time

Time is a precious commodity and it is does go by much faster than I ever expected it would! While I don’t know who originally said, I have heard the quote many times, “Parenting a child makes for long days and short years.”

There is so much truth in that. I am pretty sure that today with a teething, cranky child that each hour lasted about 10 weeks. However, when I realize that we are about to celebrate his half-birthday and her second birthday, I am shocked with how quickly time is speeding by and what a short amount of time I really get to spend influencing my kid’s lives. (Yep, I am not going to think about it long or else I will cry!)

U-Ugly Cries

Speaking of crying, some days a Christian mom just needs to have a good ugly cry. It really is therapeutic. Let’s be honest, living on this broken earth of ours brings so much heart-break and sadness. There are so many moments where I feel overwhelmed with worry for my kids, my husband, myself, the future, etc. Then there are some days where I am just bone-weary and need a break but no break presents itself. These are the days when I relish a good, old-fashioned ugly cry. Preferably in the shower so I can not look to horrible after the ugly cry! 🙂

V-Violet

Yep, it’s my favorite color to this day. And yes, I love the fact that my bathroom is even painted this color! My husband claims it looks like the Easter Bunny’s Batcave but I don’t care! (He was the one who let me choose the paint colors so…)

W-Water

Water keeps us alive so that makes it pretty awesome. However, I love water even more due to the fact that it will entertain my daughter for hours on end. Whether it is splashing in her water table outside or the bathroom sink or her nightly bath, L transforms into an angelic creature of fun giggles when water is around and I love that!

X-eXperiences

Yeah, I am stuck cause currently I am not overtly thankful for x-rays, xylophones, or Xerses…so I am doing a cop-out answer here. I am thankful for experiences. Each day presents itself with new wonders from God for me to experience and learn. I am have so much to learn in my faith with God, in my marriage to Nick, in my mothering of my children, and in my blogging. These experiences make up the fabric of life as a Christian mom and I wouldn’t have it any other way!

Y-Yard Sales

Since we live in rural community with little options for weekend entertainment, we have become fascinated with the activity of going to all the local yard sales every Saturday. Surprisingly, it can be super fun to look through other people’s stuff and find little “treasures.” Some weeks, we return with huge finds-like three almost brand new bookshelves for under 30 bucks!-other weeks we find nothing. But we get to go around town as a family and spend hours together so it is the best weekend fun ever!

Z-Zoos

My husband’s family loves visiting zoos. It is kind of their “thing.” Having a small daughter who loves ALL things animal related just proves that God knows what He is doing when He placed her in our family unit. L will have many opportunities growing up to nurture her love for God’s creatures while visiting zoos (and Grandpa’s farm too! 🙂 )

Whew, I know I have so much to be thankful for! So much more than will ever fit on a single list but I love taking the break to focus on just a few areas that I am thankful for in my life!

Your Turn

Leave a comment of something that you are thankful for this year!

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