Making A Thanksgiving Gratitude Tree

By bobbi
November 19, 2019
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Once fall rolls around, I start getting the itch to celebrate Christmas. Some people are adamant about keeping the holidays in their proper lanes, but I’m not. In our family when it’s someone’s birthday, we celebrate for weeks, if not the whole month. If we get that, I think Our Savior deserves even more celebration. When Halloween is over, I dedicate November 1st to All Saints Day and November 2nd to All Souls Day. Then on November 3rd, I’m ready to indulge in Christmas music and the 24/7 Hallmark Christmas movies. However, I force myself to resist decorating for Christmas until the day after Thanksgiving. As a compromise, we tried something new this year – making a Thanksgiving Gratitude Tree.

Last year, I finally made the switch that I swore I never would do – we got an artificial tree. I have been a die hard fresh tree fan, but I hated that it eventually got so dried out that we had to keep the lights off. I started to toy with the idea of an artificial tree, especially after watching all those Balsam Hill Tree commercials on the Hallmark channel. We waited until after Christmas when the trees went on clearance and found the perfect one to fit in our living room. (I was surprised at just how life like it was!) I have been eager to try it out, so I set it up with only white lights and turned it into our Gratitude Tree during November.

I searched Pinterest for a colored printable of pine cones and found some pretty ones from MorePrintableTreats.com. (They actually have a lot of great printables!) I printed them on white cardstock paper and cut them out. I used a silver Sharpie pen to write down things we were thankful for, punched a small hole at the top of the pine cone, and tied a bow with twine. I used a tree ornament hook to hang it on the tree. (You could also bend a paper clip if you don’t have hooks.)

Each day we add one more thing we are thankful for, which helps us to keep the focus on Thanksgiving and being grateful for our blessings, while still getting a preview of the Christmas spirit.

The one thing I do miss about an artificial tree, is the fresh smell of pine. To make up for it, I bought these Scentsicles Tree Ornament White Winter Fir Scented Stick that a friend recommended. I hung them in the tree and now our room smells lovely! (Although you may want to skip it if you have allergies.)

Plus, we buy a real evergreen wreath for our Advent wreath and pine greenery from Trader Joe’s to hang on the walls. This adds plenty of pine smell to our home. 🙂 Do you have special Thanksgiving or gratitude decorations?

Happy Thanksgiving!

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#BISgrateful in November: A Special Time with My Girl

By bobbi
November 7, 2016
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Photo credit: Blessed Is She

For the month of October I participated in #write31days with my own 31 Days of Gratitude. It was a great exercise in being thankful, especially when I am prone to complain. It is easy for me to get frustrated and upset when things go wrong and it takes the grace of God and my taking a deep breath to instead look at the enormous blessings that surround my life. Practicing gratitude is something I want to continuously cultivate in my life so I am excited that I have the chance to be intentionally grateful this month of November with my sisters at Blessed Is She.

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Meagan wrote a great piece (that girl can write!) on the BIS blog and this week we are being challenged to share our gratitude! If you are a blogger, link up here. If you are on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat or whatever your social media preference, share the gratitude and use the hashtag #BISgrateful. There is a lot of stress these days – from our own families to the upcoming election to world events. We could all benefit from taking a deep breath and focusing on the positive in our life.

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Last month I talked about my boys and how after years of secondary infertility and miscarriages, they were truly a blessing from God. I shared how life is loud, messy and filled with giggles about bodily functions but that I am love with my sweet little guys.

Although I talk a lot about the boys and their antics on the blog, I don’t talk as much about my first born and sweet daughter Bella. That is simply to give her more privacy as she gets older. But today I am mentioning her because I am especially thankful for the time we shared this weekend.

Bella was scheduled to attend a Confirmation retreat/hike at the beach on Saturday. In the days leading up to the retreat, everything was going wrong and life was extra stressful. (You can always tell when things are stressful. The blog is quiet and I don’t post to IG. 😉 ) Then at the last minute, a call came in and I was asked if I could chaperone for a couple of hours at the retreat since the the other person had an unexpected situation come up. It meant changing plans and moving around schedules but I could feel God tugging at my heart that I should go, so I did.

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I may have been reluctant but I am glad I went because Bella and I were able to talk, share and pray together. (Not to mention that the beach was especially gorgeous that day!) We laughed that I felt like I was dying hiking up some of the hills and that I kept lagging behind the group (and got lost once) because I was taking too many photos. Plus, Bella is more like Brian, in that she tends to be more quiet about what she is thinking (whereas I post it for all the world to read) and it was touching to have her open up about things on her mind. It was good for both of us.

So not only am I thankful for our time together, but I’m thankful for the grace to answer the Holy Spirit’s prompting when I wanted to say NO. Sometimes things don’t go as I had planned but more often than not, when I surrender to God, He works things out even better than I could have imagined. For that I am truly thankful.

PS – You can follow RoL on Bloglovin, Feedly or another news feed. If you are a social media fan like me, we can stay in touch through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, GoodReads, Letterboxd, or Spotify, 😉

Happy Thanksgiving 2015: Living A Life of Gratitude (Guest Post at BIS)

By bobbi
November 26, 2015
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Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you are enjoying a blessed time with family, friends and loved ones. Today is a perfect day to stop and think about all the numerous blessings we have, but living a life of gratitude should be a daily goal. God has been teaching me a lot about gratitude over the years – during the good times and during the more difficult times. It is a life-long lesson but there are seven things that have helped me cultivate gratitude. I share them on the Blessed Is She Blog. Here is a snippet:

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Photo credit: Blessed Is She

Last month I participated in a writing challenge for bloggers in which we posted 31 days in a row on one topic. I chose to write about Gratitude. It is something so simple and so needed, yet there are times when it is hard to be thankful, especially when you are stressed or carrying a heavy cross. But life without gratitude sets us down the path of bitterness and negativity. Nobody wants that!

Here are some practical things I’ve been doing to cultivate gratitude in my life:

Turn It Around – This is the simplest solution; yet, I struggle with it the most. When I am up to my neck in a messy house and the noise level in our home is about to make me explode, I have to force myself to turn it around. I have to see those dirty dishes and thank God that we have plenty of food to eat. I see mounds of dirty clothes and thank God we have clothes to wear. I look at that dirty toilet and thank God that we have running water. When the kids are driving me crazy, I recall the years I spent crying myself to sleep for want of a child of my own. Re-directing our thinking can sometimes feel weird in a Pollyanna sort of way, but eventually God’s grace helps you to find perspective as you practice the habit of gratitude.

Think of Others – When we live in our own little bubble, it is easy to get caught up in our cares and forget the bigger picture. If recent news has taught us anything, it is that there are people who are suffering unimaginable pain. When we reach out to those who are hurting we are acknowledging that we are blessed and we want to share that blessings with others. Whether it is volunteering at a soup kitchen or collecting Christmas toys for a homeless shelter, giving money to a non-profit helping refugees or bringing a meal to sick friend, we are not focused on what we want but are thankful for what we have and desire to share it with others. This is gratitude in action.

Let the Holy Spirit Do His Thing – Along the same line of “think of others,” helping out with time and money are not things we can do all the time but practicing gratitude can be turned to a missionary’s prayer…

Read the rest here.

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Have a blessed Thanksgiving weekend!

xoxo,

31 Days of Gratitude 2015 (Day 25): Gratitude Quote of the Week

By bobbi
October 25, 2015
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The 31 Day of Writing Challenge continues. It’s Day 25 of my 31 Days of Gratitude 2015.

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Happy Sunday! Take a moment to stop and thank God for your blessings then spend some time with those you love. 🙂

31 Days of Gratitude 2015 (Day 22) & Theme Thursday

By bobbi
October 22, 2015
12 Comments

The 31 Day of Writing Challenge continues. It’s Day 22 of my 31 Days of Gratitude 2015.

I’m linking up with Micaela for Theme Thursday: Same Photos, Different Angles.

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As I mentioned yesterday, I went with Matthew to his class field trip to The Farm in Salinas. Yesterday I was feeling nostalgic and talked about Matthew most likely being my last baby and how I had to let go and surrender to God’s will for our family.

Today I am still grateful for the time I spend with my little guy. He is very much “all boy” and a mama’s boy that loves to be my helper and has not reached the age were he is too big for lots of hugs and kisses. (I am so grateful for that!!)

But today we are also talking about photography since it is time for the Theme Thursday photography challenge. Micaela asked us to play around with light and how different positions change the look of a photograph. The best time to take a photo is when the sun is softer – early morning or sunset but sometimes you have no choice but to take a photo in full sun.

I tried taking a picture of Matthew with the sun behind me. I got a clear shot of the pumpkins but poor Matty was nearly blinded by the light.

I told him to turn around and I then took a photo of him with the sun behind him. The photo was darker and I had to edit it and lighten it up but he has a more natural smile. Maybe if I would have done a few more shots I could have avoided the light and shadow on his face. However, the class was not going to wait for me to finish a long photo shoot!

Either way, he is still my cutie and for that I am very thankful. 🙂

Revolution of Love

Do small things with great love.

Tag Archives: gratitude

Making A Thanksgiving Gratitude Tree

#BISgrateful in November: A Special Time with My Girl

Happy Thanksgiving 2015: Living A Life of Gratitude (Guest Post at BIS)

31 Days of Gratitude 2015 (Day 25): Gratitude Quote of the Week

31 Days of Gratitude 2015 (Day 22) & Theme Thursday