Gratitude.

 Good morning, friends! Today I want to talk a little bit about gratitude. Specifically- gratitude in the mundane. 

If you recall, my three words for 2024 are freedom, growth, and abundance. So, I have been trying really hard to focus on these words and how I am going to apply them in my life. I have decided that growth is a great place to start. With growth, I believe freedom and abundance will follow. I want to grow in my faith, my marriage, and in my home.

One thing I am doing to make this growth is finding joy in the little things and being grateful for the most simple and mundane tasks. For me, those tasks are laundry, cooking, cleaning, working out, doing school work, and getting dressed and ready for the day. These are pretty much my daily tasks. There are for sure days when I am overly busy with school and really cannot complete most of these tasks. But, for the most part, this is my day. It is very easy for me to complain about doing these things, and then I end up just not doing them. However, I have decided to change my mindset, and that has helped tremendously. 

Read the word. Pray about everything. Give my troubles to The Lord. Give my gratitude to The Lord. These are some things I try to do every single day. When I do these things, I'm a nicer, better version of myself. I would not be where I am today without my faith, and when I think about that, I think about where I'll be in 5, 10, 15 years, etc. if I continue with that faith in Jesus. Not only do I want to continue in my faith, but I want to GROW in my faith. 

See this pile of laundry? It would be very easy for me to complain about me having to fold and hang this pile. BUT, I saw a TikTok recently that made take a long look in the mirror and reframe my mindset about laundry. The lady that made the video had recently lost her husband, and she was doing laundry that included some of his clothes. She talked in her video about how that was the last load of his clothes she would ever GET to wash. Talk about a gut punch. That video right there made me so grateful that I GET to do mine and Caleb's laundry. I don't have to, I get to. Now, it is overwhelming sometimes, but I have found that doing one load a day is not as overwhelming, and we don't run out of clean undies 🙂.

I have recently started following @theboujiebrady on TikTok, and I am loving her content! She is precious- she talks about faith, family, fashion, and breaking generational curses, among other things. Something she always says is that if you're staying at home all day, get dressed and put your shoes on. I have been doing this all week, and it has made me feel so much more productive all week! So, I have been making a point to get dressed, put makeup on, fix my hair, and put on my shoes!

Cleaning my house is one of my least favorite things to do. But it's also one of my favorite things once it's done. It is never lost on me that we are incredibly blessed to live in this house, that we are able to fill it with furniture and decor, and that we get to make happy memories here. I am incredibly grateful for this house, and there are absolutely times when it is a disaster, but I try to have it completely tidied at some point during every day. Whether that be first thing in the morning, mid-day, or right before bed. I'm in a much better head space when the house is clean, the bed is made, and the dishes are put away. 

Ok, that's what's on my mind today. I feel like I'll share more along the way, though (as I GROW in this season 😉). I hope you all have a great day!!