52 Week Gratitude Challenge. Week 1.

Blogging has become a fun little hobby of mine. I enjoy it for many different reasons. One being, it relaxes me and makes me feel more positive about life. Another is having a place to document our memories. A place I wont rip out of a book and destroy after so long. A place that isn't going to get lost or ruined. However, with all the many reason I love to blog, sometimes I can go months without posting. This doesn't always mean I'm not blogging.  Sometimes it means I have unfinished drafts, or drafts I would like to keep for just myself. Other times, the lack of posting is due to lack of ideas. Tonight, as I was scrolling through Pinterest looking for inspiration, I came across a Gratitude Challenge. [There wasn't a link attached to the picture, so I'm sorry I can't give proper credit.] It's a 52 week challenge, which is quite intimidating I have to admit, but I feel like it is something I need to take on. I'm not going to promise I will consistently post once a week, so this challenge may take up the entire rest of my being, but my goal is to simply make it through all 52 topics...eventually. If you are reading this, I encourage you to play along too! Reading others posts would definitely help me stay motivated, just saying! Here are the topics.

1. Why start this challenge?
2. Spouse/ Significant other
3. Family
4. A family member
5. Something someone gave you
6. The city you live in 
7. A friend
8. Express gratitude to 3 people
9. How did you do and feel (?)
10. List 5 things you like about you
11. Someone who inspires you
12. Your favorite personality trait
13. A challenge you've overcome
14. A talent you have
15. Things you like about Spring
16. Simple things in life
17. Something you take for granted
18. The weather
19. Health
20. Another friend
21. Things you like about summer
22. Something you use every day
23. Favorite physical trait
24. A book you learned from
25. Education
26. Someone you've met
27. Favorite spot in your city
28. Your past
29. Your favorite memory
30. Your current age
31. Core value
32. A city you've visited
33. Something you look forward to
34. Things you like about fall
35. Your neighborhood
36. Your home
37. Something you created
38. Music you love
39. Your heritage
40. Greatest accomplishment
41. Hobbies
42. Your favorite possession
43. A mentor / teacher
44. Your favorite holiday
45. What you do for fun
46. Technology
47. Opportunities you've been given
48. Your job
49. Things you like about winter
50. Lessons learned this year
51. 100 things to be thankful for
52. Did this challenge change you?

Alright, let's begin...

Week 1:

Why start this challenge, anyway?

 

When I came across the 52 week gratitude challenge on Pinterest, I thought, "Wow! What an awesome, inspiring idea." It did sound overwhelming committing to a year long challenge, (even though I'm allowing myself longer to finish, if needed) but it instantly felt like something I needed to do.  At times, I can find myself down in the dumps, feeling as though life has plateaued and there isn't improvement upon the horizon. I know this isn't true, so taking on this challenge is really going to help me appreciate the positive things I do have in my life. With some of the topics {mostly the ones about myself}, I'm really going to have to dig deep to appreciate things I don't always take the time to appreciate.  One of the points I'm excited most about is to see how it alters my everyday outlook on life.  There was a time in my life I remember feeling I was such a positive person. I seldom let anything bring me down. I took the tough times in life with a grain of salt, figured out how to resolve the issues to the best of my abilities, then moved on. I am still that way to a point, but somehow I feel like I have become less of this person. I'd like to think I'm still a glass half-full kind of gal, but often times I let the small things in life get to me more than I should.  I have no doubt this challenge is going to help bring back the full-time positive person it feel so refreshing to be.

Here's me [and Drayze] at the beginning of this 52(+) week challenge.
October, 2015 & 26 weeks preggo w/ "brother"

Life as we know it

It's funny, every time I open our blog I think about how with each post I tend to make our life appear totally put together, like a fantasy life. If one was to judge our character solely from our blog, I'm worried how we may be portrayed. Of course, I did create our blog as a positive place to document our good memories. I wanted a place our children and grandchildren can one day come to read about our day-to-day life. I've recently decided, it's just as {perhaps even more} important to be documenting our life as it is, just as ordinary as the rest.

We are just average people with our share of boring days, bad moods, life stresses, and constant struggles. Life isn't always sunshine and glitter like the moments I tend to highlight here on the blog, and I think it's important to acknowledge that every now and then. With that being said, I'll start by shamefully admitting, I am a yeller. Obviously, this is not something I'm proud of. I've told myself over and over I need to work on this, however, more times than not, I find myself reacting before given the chance to remember the promise I have made. Unfortunately enough, my unacceptable behavior has began to rub off on Drayze. He has his own moments when his temper gets the best of him. He too will sometimes yell when he is upset or doesn't get his way. Hearing myself in the way he speaks and reacts to an aggravating {or any} situation has been a bombshell for me. Beyond any doubt, I have to be better about my reactions and attitude. I don't want my son's inner voice to be a negative one. 

While I'm here exposing our dirty laundry, I may as well make it known {if you haven't had the chance to see for yourself} Zac and I really aren't the best of housekeepers. I quite honestly do try to keep up on it. I mean, I do the basic round(s) of clean up each night and make sure the grossest of things are properly taken care of.  Nevertheless, chances are you are more likely to find our house a "lived in" mess rather than perfectly put together. [[Like this post here]] For one, I absolutely hate doing the dishes, which results in a constant disgusting pile of them in the sink. Two, I'm also not very fond of laundry. This means my piles upon piles of {sorted} clothes take over Drayze's toy room until someone runs out of clean socks or underwear or until I acquire a rare burst of ambition. For my final excuse, have you seen how tidy a 2 year old is(n't)? I can only pick up so many Hot Wheels, balls and dinosaurs before I loose my mind. We have taught him to clean up after himself, but keep in mind he is two. Quite frequently Drayze and the toys win, taking up the majority if the house.  

Because we are just ordinary, mostly boring people, it goes without saying we are very much homebodies. 70% of this is by choice and 30% would be due to lack of entertainment money. Zac works his ass off, and I contribute by working part-time and the occasional little side "jobs" here and there. Though since we are being honest here, we have to admit, if given the choice to be broke and home together or working extra hours on a weekend we're not likely to choose work. Our bills {usually} get paid while the kitchen sits rather bare. We {usually} have enough money to get us by while luxuries are few and far between. 

Well. There we have it, a quick little look at our ordinary life. Some of our days may be a broke and boring mess, but I have always said, "When we look back on life we don't remember the amount if money we did/didn't have, if the house needed to be vacuumed that day, or even what kind of crazy mom yelled about all that morning. We remember the loving people who we made the sweet memories with. 

Here is to documenting more of the ordinary bits of life, because those are the days we tend to make the best of memories in which unfortunately fade over time.

Real life.

I love our simple boy, finding entertainment in paper towel rolls,

Sometimes we eat at the dinner table like your "ideal family" and sometimes we eat on paper plates in front of the TV.

My life. My loves. My happiness.