I’m super excited to be starting this new experiment in 2018. A gratitude journal!!! I have heard about gratitude journaling and the 5 minute journal for a while now. The idea is to take a few minutes, at least once a week, and write down 5 things for which you are grateful. I started to do this in December, only in my head, a few times a week and have loved it! It really makes me aware of how little things can make a big impact, things I would normally miss when I’m not being mindfully grateful. Sometimes my gratitude can be something as small as “Im thankful for the birds chirping while I walk outside” or “Im grateful for my car seat heaters on this chilly winter morning” or sometimes larger things like “I’m thankful that I love my husband and he loves me”.
So my plan is to reflect on my week and journal here, every friday, 5 things for which I am grateful. All this to hopefully gain a little perspective on what is important to me so I can cut out the junk and allow more time to focus on my family and friends and all the wonderful little things in my life. Here we go… my first Friday Gratitude.
Ice Cream Experiment
On Saturday Kyle, my son, and I had an hour or two home alone together. I wanted to do something fun and not just sit down in front of the tv together or each go our own way. So I decided we would make homemade ice cream together! It was a great 10-20 minute easy activity that we both enjoyed. It kept Kyles interest and we got to eat really yummy ice cream at the end!
I am grateful that we had this Ice Cream Experiment to do because it allowed me to connect with Kyle one-on-one.
5 minute Homemade Ice Cream Experiment
Ingredients
Supplies
- 1 pint sized zipper top bag
- 1 gallon sized zipper top bag
- Ice
- 6 tablespoons salt
Instructions
- Fill the gallon size bag half full with ice. Add the salt to the ice and seal the bag.
- Put the pint size bag into a glass, folding it over the top, so it will sit upright while you fill it.
- Add the milk, sugar and vanilla to the pint size bag and seal the top completely.
- Place the pint size bag into the larger one and seal again.
- Shake the bag until the milk mixture becomes ice cream, about 5 minutes.
- Take the smaller bag out of the larger bag and wipe the ice and salt from the outside.
- Open the bag and enjoy the ice cream with a spoon
Recipe Tips and Notes:
Holding Hands With My Daughter
This past Sunday I took the kids to a birthday party at the roller skating rink. I cannot tell you how much I love roller skating (not joking). It was my everything when I was a little girl. Me and my friends would spend hours coming up with roller skating dance routines in the driveway to then perform for any parents willing to watch! Well, I don’t think my daughter got the roller skating gene or maybe it’s just not as popular an activity as it once was. But as we took to the wooden floor her skates would slip and slide from underneath her and she would grab for my hand. We would skate around the rink holding hands lap after lap.
As my daughter gets older the times to be present and connected with her are becoming fewer and fewer. I am grateful for these moments when my daughter still needs me, holds my hand, and wants me by her side (even if it’s only because she doesn’t want to bite it in her skates!).
My Headphones
As I write this I am sitting in the middle of Urban Air Trampoline Park on a Tuesday afternoon. School is out and it is -3 degrees outside. Needless to say this building is bumpin’ with music and busting at the seams with kids. Obviously I am not participating in the jumping and instead trying to get a little work done. (At a certain point in your life jumping wildly on a trampoline is just a bad idea… especially after carrying two babies- It makes my organs feel like scrambled eggs! No thanks!)
I am having mucho grande gratitude for my lovely little headphones right now. They are currently piping the sweet voices of the ladies from Bitch Sesh into my brain. Love that podcast!
A Reminder
This week my younger sister came for a visit. She is the only sister that doesn’t live in the KC area so it was great to have her here. We got to hang out, relax, eat, play games, and talk. When all four sisters get together there is a lot of laughter and a lot of talking. It’s wonderful!
On her last night here we stayed up late and talked about our lives, our goals, our worries, and anxieties. It came at a really good time for me. Right now I am a blogger/recipe developer/photographer/mom when you mix that with a titch of winter blues and a couple failed recipes you get a particularly low moment. I was second guessing my goals and feeling like I hadn’t made any progress on Mom’s Dinner. What I had forgotten is where I had been and how far I have come. A year ago all I wanted was to be able to create content and post on my very own website. Instead I was stuck trying to figure out code and how to build a website (insert blood, sweat, and TEARS here). Now my website is up and running and I am able to post whenever the mood strikes! I had completely forgotten all the steps I had taken to get where I am today. A year ago, if I could have looked into the future at myself today, I would be SO PROUD!
My sister reminded me “If you can’t be happy in the here and now, you will never be happy”! How true! I was putting a goal on my happiness…. If I accomplish this, THEN I will be happy and feel successful. The problem with that is you will always move that goal to something bigger and grander… so you are never reaching that happiness/success goal!
I am so grateful for the convo with my sister and the reminder to be happy and grateful in the moment you are in RIGHT NOW.
A Warm(er) Day
I feel like this winter might just swallow me whole! It has been colder than any winter I can remember in the past 10 years. I am very much looking forward to spring. But, we finally had a day over 20 degrees here in KC. I think it hit 40 today! Woo Hoo!
Even though there was still a bite in the air and the wind whirled I took advantage of the sun and the warmer temps. Around 3:30 my son and I bundled up and took a 20 minute stroll around our neighborhood. It was short and sweet and I enjoyed every minute of the sun on my face. Kyle enjoyed stomping in the melting snow and picking up fallen leaves and something we call “sticky balls”- see the photo below.
Today I was grateful for the warmer temps and the chance to get outside and feel the sunshine on my face!
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