Tuesday’s Tip: Growing Gratitude
Long before Google searches made it simple to explore any topic in the blink of an eye, I attended my first teaching conference. While I was there, I took part in a workshop called THE IDEA SWAP. The concept behind this little activity was simple– each educator shared in writing one great idea that had actually worked in the classroom. In return, she gleaned hundreds of tried and true tips from other teachers in the trenches. What I loved most about the ideas that emerged from that intentional exchange was their practicality. They weren’t theories that looked good on paper but failed to produce the promised results with the real live kids in my classroom. They were a treasure trove of wisdom born out of my fellow teachers’ trials and failures, prayers and victories.
I’ve often thought about that IDEA SWAP when I’m fixing the same meal for dinner again or I’m playing my fifty-third round of Go-Fish for the week. Wouldn’t it be nice to glean a few fresh ideas from other moms? Wouldn’t it be fun to share a tried and true tip that has actually worked with the real live kids who spill milk on our dinner tables and throw tantrums in the grocery store? That would be like excavating treasure from the diaper pail!
So, would you grab your shovel and join me? I’m inviting you to dig for treasure in a new feature called “Tuesday’s Tips.” Just think of it as a weekly IDEA SWAP for moms. I hope that when you stop by on Tuesdays, you’ll find jewels of encouragement and clusters of creative ideas from the sticky trenches of parenthood.
Of course a SWAP wouldn’t be a true exchange without many voices. So, please consider chiming in the discussion and sharing your own great ideas. If you’ve discovered a tried and true trip that has made motherhood a little easier, a little more exciting, or a bit more meaningful, please let me know. Just leave a comment after this post or send me an email (rbruxvoort@iowatelecom.net) so I can share your idea in the next swap! I’d love to feature you on an upcoming Tuesday. Let the digging begin!
Growing Gratitude
I’m always looking for ways to grow gratitude around our house. I don’t want thanksgiving to be a habit we merely practice on the third Thursday of November. I want our family to practice a life style of praise. I want to raise kids who practice THANKS-LIVING, not children who merely pause for turkey and potatoes at the start of the holiday season.
One of my favorite autumn activities is creating a garland of gratitude. Years ago, I discovered someone’s marvelous idea of incorporating leaves of praise in our Thanksgiving decorating. I’ve used the simple concept for a decade now. Originally, I just printed out a leaf template and copied dozens of leaves onto colored paper. Each time we sat down for a meal, we grabbed a leaf and wrote on it one thing for which we were thankful. Then we hung the paper foliage from a piece of twine strung between our doorway. By Thanksgiving day, our garland of gratitude was bursting with leafy thanks. We let the kids take turns reading aloud the praises before we ate our Thanksgiving meal. It made a marvelous prayer!
If you’d like to try out this easy idea, you can find the leaf template and the details here: http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/garland-of-gratitude-668045/
Or, if you’d rather…
Over the years we’ve modified this idea to keep it fresh. Sometimes we hang leaves on our kitchen curtain rod and create a window of thanks. Last year we wanted to specifically encourage the kids to acknowledge God’s little gifts scattered throughout their days. So, we set out a “thankful box” as our table’s centerpiece and placed next to it a basket of construction paper leaves. Throughout the month, they wrote their thankfuls on a leaf and dropped it in the box. Then we “opened” the bulging gift on Thanksgiving Day and counted our blessings together.
This year, we were inspired by our creative friends Brooke and Chelsea who recently hung a huge Thanksgiving tree in their hallway. Over the weekend, we decided to create our own Thanksgiving tree, complete with a tree-house and tire swing. We used a brown grocery bag to cut out a humble tree shape. Then we set out a basket of self-stick foam leaves and the kids began to add some blooms of gratitude to the naked limbs. I can’t help but smile every time I walk into the kitchen and see our colorful praises. I hope by the time we sit down for Thanksgiving dinner next week, our tree is in full bloom!However you choose to count your blessings this Thanksgiving, may your heart be decorated with gratitude.
AWESOME!!!!!
I will have to show the kiddos!!!!
We have plans to make a big tree like that, too – hopefully we do it before Thanksgiving! Love the tire swing and tree house on yours =)