Thanksgiving may be over, but that doesn’t mean I’m any less thankful for the blessings in my life! Today I wanted to share 5 things I’m thankful for right now, along with a few ways to be more thankful every single day! When life starts getting crazy, I like to write down a few things I’m thankful to help remind myself to live in the moment and appreciate the sweet blessings life has to offer! I try to do this every single morning because it seriously helps you realize just how many blessings you have in your life! Just thinking about this post and what I was going to write about has lifted my spirits! Of course, this list is in no particular order and I tried not to be too typical! (Obviously I’m thankful for good health…) I wanted to think past traditional answers and write down the things I’m truly thankful for TODAY.
1. My Husband
OK OK…. I’m ALWAYS thankful for my husband. He is a ray of light in not only my life, but in everyone’s life who knows him! This week I’m especially thankful for him because I’ve been feeling under the weather and he has taken it upon himself to cook dinners AND breakfasts as well as help out even more than usual with the kids! I love my family so much and I’m so happy that I have a supportive partner to go through life with!
2. Frozen Pizza
Yes, you read that right…. frozen pizza. haha On the nights where I’m exhausted but still want to have a fun dinner night as a family, I pull out our favorite pizza’s from the freezer and know that the whole family will be happy! Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE cooking. I love creating recipes and cooking for my family as well as a large crowd for parties! (Maybe I should write a cook book??) But on the days when I’m super tired but don’t want to do drive through, I can pull out a frozen pizza and a bagged salad mix and POOF, everyone is happy sitting around the table talking about their day!
3. Saturday Mornings
Saturday mornings are the BEST around here, and let me tell you a little secret… I am NOT a morning person! (more about that on my next bullet point) But one thing I love to do is sleep in on Saturday mornings! (and by sleep in I mean 8am… haha If you’re a mama you understand the struggle) But Saturdays around here mean PJ’s all day, a big homemade brunch, movies on the couch, family baseball games out in the back yard, and endless laughs and cuddles! It’s something so small that literally MAKES my week!
4. My Flexible Work Schedule
My husband and I own a business together which is absolutely amazing! We have spent the last 4 years of our life working 80+ hours a week, sharing a car so we could afford more product, and even waking up at 2am for 5 months straight to start our work day because we were living in Hawaii but needed to be on the same schedule as our customers on the east coast. I’m so grateful that I now have the ability to work from home when need be! As previously stated…. I’m not a morning person! Don’t get me wrong, I totally CAN be a morning person… on days when I need to be up early it’s absolute fine. But I don’t LOVE it. What I do love is waking up when I feel rested (usually 6:45am) and making breakfast for my kids and hanging out with the family before Lance takes them to school. THEN I start getting ready for my day. I always have my laptop open on my vanity answering emails while getting ready though. And as an entrepreneur, I am never really finished working! Once the kids go to bed I like to get a few more hours of work in. But I’m forever thankful for our company’s flexible work schedule!
5. Quality Friendships
One thing I’ve learned in my old age of 28…. is that when it comes to friendships, quality is ALWAYS better than quantity. I recently formed a book club with some of my best friends in my town and I love being able to share the good and the bad with them! It’s so important to find your tribe and love them fiercely though the thick and thin!! I am seriously forever thankful for that girl gang! I also have a special and LARGE place in my heart for my best friends who live in different towns or states! I went to nursing school in Little Rock, AR which is 3 hours away from Fayetteville, where we live now, and I had to leave a lot of them behind when we moved up here (back to my home town). But there is just something to say about your college girls! They have literally known you at your worst in some instances yet still love you to death. That is just something I will never take for granted!
6. Family
One of the reasons we moved back to Fayetteville was to be closer to my parents and brother. Our family is extremely close and not a week goes by without us all hanging out! Lofton and Linden have been raised since day 1 to appreciate and value family like nothing else! I’m so thankful for a close knit family and hope that the boys will learn things from our families that we could never teach them!
7. My Boys
I KNOW…. I said I would say anything too mainstream. BUT YALLLLL my boys are my happy place!! I just love the incense of a child and I love how hard they LOVE. They don’t care about the silly little things that stress us out throughout the day, or that XYZ stock is down or WHATEVER. They just know that they love you SO much and want you to be happy and spend time with them! And y’all, on that note, kids really can sense when you are stressed or upset. Their level of EI (emotional intelligence) is STRONG. So when I get home from a hard say I’m SO thankful for my sweet boys and how they can take my mind off of anything stressful that has been happening! Their unconditional love is something else!
8. Bubble Baths and Wine
Yep… following up the sappy kid post with wine. But yes, I am so thankful that after a hard day I know I can get the kids to bed and then run a hot bubble bath with some aromatherapy bath salts and pour myself a hefty glass of wine and just…. relax. So yes, NO SHAME, I’m thankful for bubble baths and wine. Self care is one of the most important things you can do for yourself because if you don’t care for yourself, you can’t care for other people. My bath time is a time for me to turn my phone on silent, sip my wine, and reflect on my day so I can be a happier person all around!
So if you are looking to be more thankful of what you have in your life, practice this simple exercise of writing it down! I promise, just writing down what you are thankful for will GREATLY improve your mood and remind you of the blessings you have in your life! I know that sounds silly…. “How to be thankful? Write down what you’re thankful for!” But I’m seriously y’all, it works!! And they don’t have to be heavy! (after all, I’m thankful for frozen pizza and wine!) So try this right now. YES, RIGHT NOW. Take 5 minutes to reflect on the things you are thankful for this week. If you’re at work or running a million miles an hour, just take a deep breath and take a few minutes to think about it. I promise it will make you feel amazing and help you tackle your day!!
XO, Lauren
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Catherine
January 30, 2018 at 4:11 pmNo matter your age or lifestyle, this is SO relatable. I’ve always been a firm believer in counting your blessings when it seems like the chips are down! Great post, Lauren!! Love reading your blog.