Happy Friday! Today is Day 21 of #write31days challenge and my 31 Days of Gratitude 2016. I’ve got the three boys home today and I promised them we would finally get out the fall decor and decorate the house (since I never got beyond decorating the front porch.) However, while they are doing a quick morning clean up (the threat of no playtime until it is done is good incentive), I am going to participate in Five Minute Friday. I did my first last week and it was so much fun, here I am again. 🙂
The rule is to write 5-minutes straight about the topic of the day, more specifically, as the blog states, “This is meant to be a free write, which means: no editing, no over-thinking, no worrying about perfect grammar or punctuation. Just write.” Okay, setting the timer and go…
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Earlier this morning I was looking through a computer file of old photos and I found one from a past trip to Disneyland Park. The boys were in the room with me and they asked if I could start from the beginning and look at the photos with me.
We went to the beginning when Bella was the only child of the family. I remember that first trip to Disneyland Park so vividly. I had so many fond memories of visiting DL with my family as a kid and a teen and I was eager to give her the same memories. As the boys and I scrolled though the photos we saw Andrew, John-Paul and Matthew as they were babies and as they got older, laughing and playing.
Sure there were also meltdown and babies that had accidents (and forgot to put the change of clothes in my backpack) but all the fun far outweighed it.
This year we will go pack to the Disney Parks when we visit my family at Thanksgiving. We thought my mom wouldn’t be able to join us after her cancer surgery over the summer but the other day, she changed her mind and said she wanted to keep up the tradition of joining us for our annual visit.
Now I’m counting down the days until I once again roam the park with my kids, laugh on rides with them and hug my mom and remember the joy I felt of being by her side on these special trips. 🙂
STOP.
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That was fun! And I couldn’t help but add a little collage of trips to Disneyland Park over the years. 🙂
For all the great memories I have with my family (past and current) and for future memories to come, I am truly grateful. 🙂
Have a great Friday! Don’t forget today is the last day to link-up for Weekly Writingin October. (If you are doing 31 Days, just add your favorite post.) The new link-up for Week 3 will be up tomorrow morning.
It’s Day 11 of the #write31days challenge. My topic is 31 Days of Gratitude. You can see my previous Gratitude posts here.
Want to join the writing challenge but are unable to write everyday? Join me for the Weekly Writing Challenge in October instead.
Now for today’s post…
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This morning I saw a Dove commercial on Facebook and I can’t get it out of my head. It is one from their “real beauty” campaigns. In the video, they show a man a series of photos that contain faces of models. As they look at the photo and describe the model before them, their heart rate is being measured. Towards the end of the photos they are shown women in their lives – a wife, a mother, a daughter, a sister, etc. As the men describe the beauty of their loved ones their heart rate rose and at times their voices would quiver with emotion. The point of the commercial was to help women develop a positive relationship with the way they look.
I think this commercial stuck in my head because this weekend Brian and I celebrated the 17th anniversary of the day he proposed to me. I thought about how young and in love we were and how just being near him sent my heart racing. I thought about how he would gaze at me and get this “look” that told me that he loved me as much as I loved him.
Our wedding photographer caught a glimpse of that look on our wedding day. I love the way Brian is looking down at me and I remember seeing all his emotions there in his eyes.
Fast forward almost seventeen years and we’ve been through some amazing times and some rough times. We’ve survived the normal trials of caring for babies and toddlers with its messy days and sleepless nights. We’ve survived family trials, miscarriages, cancer and the death of a loved one. It would have been easy to fall away from each other if not for the grace of God! We are still crazy in love with each other but the years have taken their physical toll. We’ve aged.
I look in the mirror and for the most part I think, yeah, that’s me and I’m okay with it. But sometimes I look in the mirror and all I can see are the tired eyes, wrinkling skin, double chin and plus size figure. I wonder, “How in the world does my husband still find me attractive?” Yet, despite the flaws and aging, I’ll still see “that look” when he holds me close or when he steals a kiss in the kitchen or when he reaches for my hand when we are out in public. Because of his love for me, he is able to see something in me that I sometimes can’t see in myself.
However, this goes beyond something we experience with our husband. I see it in my children’s eyes when they hug me, kiss me or tell me that “I’m the best mom eber!” I see it in the loving look of a sister or a friend who gives me a hug when they see me and are eager to catch up and talk.
I see the same thing when I look at my friends. When I think of their various qualities, the things that come to mind are these: she can light up the room with her smile, she would drop everything to help a friend in need, she makes me laugh so hard I cry, she listens to you like you are the only one in the room or she is smart and strong and makes me feel like I am capable of the same.
Despite their various shapes, sizes, ages and occupations, I don’t give much thought to those things. It’s their qualities, their strengths and their kindness that makes me love them. Our friendship allows their beauty to shine brighter in my eyes.
So today, if you are feeling less than beautiful, stop for a moment and see yourself through the eyes of those who love you – a spouse, a child, a parent, a sibling, a best friend. They see beauty in you. They see someone they enjoy being with and are blessed to have in their lives. Be thankful that God made you uniquely your own person. Be thankful for the qualities that bring beauty to your soul and to the world around you.
It’s Day 6 of the #write31days challenge. My topic is 31 Days of Gratitude. You can see my previous Gratitude posts here.
Want to join the writing challenge but are unable to write everyday? Join me for the Weekly Writing Challenge in October instead.
I’ve got to admit that the only way I am going to make it writing 31 days in a row is to cheat a little. I’ll be having Throwback Thursdays and reposting past posts. Here is one I posted two years ago in this date.
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I love Fall and today was the first day that it felt like it. The fog cleared and the sun came out, yet there was still a little chill in the air. There are pumpkins everywhere and changing leaves and it makes me want to bake something that will make the house smell like cinnamon and nutmeg. So today I’m trying a new pumpkin recipe – Chocolate Covered Pumpkin Donuts from My Whole Food Life.com. I especially liked that these donuts are baked, made with whole wheat and have no processed sugar.
Normally, I change a recipe to my liking but for the donuts, I followed Melissa’s ingredients exactly. I think the next time I may use a touch less ginger and cloves.
Ingredients
For the donut:
1 3/4 cup white whole wheat flour (To make them gluten free, just sub GF all purpose flour)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp ginger
1/3 cup applesauce
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 egg (I used a flax egg replacer)
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup pumpkin
1/4 cup milk (I used unsweetened almond milk)
For the chocolate coating:
2 cups chocolate chips
3-4 T milk (I used unsweetened almond milk)
Melissa’s Instructions
Preheat oven to 350.
Grease a mini muffin tray.
In one bowl mix the flour, baking powder, salt, and spices.
In another bowl mix pumpkin, maple syrup, applesauce, egg, milk and vanilla until smooth.
Add dry to wet and mix just until combined.
Spoon mixture into the mini muffin tins and bake for about 11 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
After the mini muffins have cooled start the chocolate coating.
Chocolate Coating
Using a double boiler, melt the chocolate chips and the milk until you get a smooth chocolate sauce.
Roll the donuts into the chocolate sauce until it is covered.
Then place each covered donut onto a baking sheet or plate and put in the freezer for at least 10-15 min.
Store them in the fridge on a plate or baking sheet.
(Melissa has a lot of other delicious looking recipes that I want to try. Check out her blog at – http://mywholefoodlife.com/.
Now, when I made Melissa’s recipe, I didn’t have mini muffin tins. Instead I made one batch in my mini-donut pan and one batch in my regular donut pan. I also didn’t have a double boiler so instead I stuck a handful of chocolate chips in a bowl with a dash of milk and microwaved it for 30 seconds. I stirred it and added milk to make it the right consistency. It worked great.
The final verdict. When I tasted the donut plain, I wasn’t convinced since it seemed like it had too many spices and not enough sugar. However, after topping each with the chocolate, which added plenty of sweetness, I thought they tasted really good. The proof? I can’t show you a photo of the mini-donuts because the kids wiped out the batch. So there you go. 😉
A “healthy” fall treat that the kids loved, for that I am thankful. 🙂
Well, I did it. I posted 31 days in a row, completing my second #write31days challenge. I’ll admit that many of the posts were so short I normally wouldn’t have bothered posting at all but I didn’t want to break the streak. Besides getting me in the habit of writing more, it truly was an exercise in learning to be more grateful even on the days when I didn’t “feel” it.
Pumpkin carving and Peanuts cartoons. What more do you need for a Halloween afternoon?
I was hoping to do a recap of #loveyourlettering today but it was another day filled with family time so I never got a chance. Luckily the class has been extended into November so I still have time to finish catching up.
I hope you had a fun Halloween and enjoy a blessed All Saints Day tomorrow!
For the month of October and all the joyful moments that came with it, I am truly thankful. 🙂
