Gratitude (Journals), Our Little Family, & Christmas Approaches!

Hey you guys!

I am feeling super grateful this morning for my awesome husband. He is sleeping in right now (he worked from 8am to 11pm yesterday, and then had homework and stuff to do, so I don't blame him one bit) but I was just thinking about how wonderful he is. When I came home from New Hampshire, he had two sweet notes on the front door for me to see when we got home at midnight and the apartment was super clean (which I realized more the next morning). He did a great job and it was so nice to come home to the bed made, the living room clean, with no dishes to do. He knows just what I like (is it weird that I think it is hot when my husband cleans?). Anyway, he is a great guy and I feel incredibly blessed to have been married to him for the past three+ years!

As a side note, I can't tell you enough how grateful I am that I got married at 20. I know there were people out there who were wondering what I was thinking getting married so young, but I have no regrets about it. It's just one of those things where you can't know what it's like unless you're in the situation yourself. When I met Dalin, I knew that he was different than any other guy I had dated. After getting married, we waited for a little over a year before trying to have children. Amazingly, I got pregnant right away and at (just barely) 22, little Tenley joined us. 18 months later, we knew we wanted to expand our family further and I became pregnant with our little boy. We are excited about the growth of our family and can't even wait to meet this precious baby who is already such a big part of our lives (Tenley hugs and kisses my belly every day when I mention her baby brother...and usually throws a few raspberries in there, too;).

Well, since it's November and Thanksgiving (and Christmas for some of us;) is on everyone's minds, I wanted to offer a suggestion that you and your husband (or wife/just yourself) start doing gratitude journals for the remainder of the month! I know a lot of people share what they are grateful for each day this month, but last year Dalin and I started the little tradition of writing one thing each night that we are grateful for about the other person. I love doing this because it helps you look for things to be thankful for which is always good especially if you aren't always naturally inclined to do so. It's also nice to be reminded of the blessings that your spouse brings you on a daily basis.

Anyway, I definitely recommend trying out the gratitude journals--they're fun to read after, too! I tend to sneak peeks at Dalin's because I like to see the things he is grateful to me for, and it motivates me to want to do those things more often or even better. (For instance, he wrote that he likes how I make the bed so nicely each day (funnily enough, he wrote that last year too as his first entry haha. I guess that must be important to him...or maybe it has something to do with the fact that we write in the journals each night before bed;) so now I want to make sure I keep up that habit).

Did you realize that tomorrow, we'll be 50 days from Christmas Eve? Crazy. I have a post planned for stocking stuffer ideas that will be up tomorrow actually so stay tuned for that if you, like me, like to be prepared! Dalin and I try to be conservative in our gift-giving to one another so we usually do a few special gifts and then put some effort into the stockings. It's weird that Tenley will actually be able to open gifts this year, and even weirder that next year our little family will have our first Christmas as a family of four! Wow! Time flies.

Well, thanks for putting up with my musings today. I really want to hear if you decide to give the gratitude journals a try or if you have any crazy unique stocking stuffers that you think I might not have thought of! Check back in tomorrow for my stocking stuffer ideas! :)

Best wishes always!