Gratitude

Gratitude is not easy for me sometimes. I get caught in some of the grouchy, irritated and just plain bad feelings I have and that's where I stay. Take today for example. It should have been a good day. We were all home, relaxing and enjoying some of the gifts we had received...well, that the kids received. They were up early, whipped through their "must-do" tasks and then jumped full-throttle into the Nintendo Wii game they were playing. This, for them, is a lot of fun.

As for me, I slept in late, having slept not so well last night. This cough of mine hasn't let up and I cough so much that it gives me a headache. So as much as I relished the idea of sleeping in it really wasn't the best since I woke up with an even worse headache.

I came downstairs and the kids were having a great time. Yet all I saw was the mess in the living room and kitchen from Christmas eve and from dumping all our stuff after our day out yesterday. The dishes were piled on the counter still and there were things everywhere I looked. I seriously wondered why I got up this morning.

This afternoon didn't improve my outlook much. Wandering ar0und in Blogger World, I began to envy much of what others have written in their blogs. The blogs I read were so inspirational, funny, heart-warming or hard-hitting pull-no-punches sorts of stuff that as much as I loved reading them, I felt discouraged because my pitiful little blog is nothing of any of that sort. It's just a blog...boring, unread and uncommented on by anyone. I kept thinking I should make an effort for 2008 to blog consistently but then I just got overwhelmed thinking about it.

But then...as I was making Peppermint Balls, and dwelling on the whole blog dilemma, I thought that maybe I should just be grateful. Oprah always talks about a gratitude journal. My blog could be that...a gratitude blog. It could be a good way to end the day by focusing on something other than the bad stuff or negative feelings or the blahs of the day. Beginning the day with prayer and reading God's word and ending it with praise and thankfulness for something that God has blessed me with truly appeals to me.

So now, today, I am grateful for this blog and the blogs I read earlier that inspired and pushed me to think outside my critical self. I am thankful for God's boundless patience with me when I give in to my feelings and forget that there is so much to be thankful for.