We’ve started our Thankful Jar again this year.
Every night at supper we each say something we are thankful for and I jot it on a slip of paper and add it to the jar. I think this is our 3rd year doing this. The first year was super hard to remember to do it every day, and then last year we were a little better at remembering, and now this year I think we’ve got it figured out. In fact, it’s the kids who are most excited to do it every night! I can barely walk in from teaching and sit down at the dinner table before they are excitedly telling me they are ready to tell me what they are thankful for.
This is a “Fall tradition” that I didn’t actually mean to create, but somehow it’s become our thing. And I love it. And isn’t that the best kind of tradition? The kind that springs up just spontaneously in your family? I hope we can continue this for many years, eventually adding Maddie to the conversation and eventually little Levi will get a say too.
And it’s been a good thing for me recently. In my overwhelming days (which I admit are outweighing my normal days right now) I sometimes have a hard time thinking of things I’m thankful for. It’s too easy to complain about what DIDN’T go my way today, or what I DIDN’T get accomplished, or what I’m unhappy about. It makes me stop and look around me.
So, today I am thankful for the thankful jar. 🙂
I can only imagine how overwhelming it must be to be working basically full time while taking care of four children, two of them under a year and a half. Don’t expect so much of yourself. Just be glad when you make it through the day with everyone still in one piece. Believe me, there will be years and years and years without those little ones, when you will have more time than you need to “get everything accomplished.” Enjoy the time with the kids and don’t sweat the rest.