My best gift to you was to teach you to practice gratitude daily

This is one of the projects I did for Pink Paislee for September. It was inspired by the bouquet below.

isn’t this bouquet amazing?

It inspired me to create my own circle of butterflies.

Journaling Reads:
My sweet boy, I really hope that you continue writing one thing you’re grateful for every day for the rest of your life.

Details:

9 comments to My best gift to you was to teach you to practice gratitude daily

  • wow what a beautiful layout!

  • sara

    love this. I’m a new-ish follower (though I’ve stopped by your blog before countless times) and I’ve always been amazed at the level of work you do with your older son. I LOVE that he writes in a daily gratitude journal.. do you mind me asking a few questions about it? My older son is about to be 6 (I, too, have two boys… though mine are much closer in age at 18 months apart!) and I can’t even fathom getting him to do this! He can read really well and write fairly well, but I am not sure I could explain the concept to him in a way he’d understand and embrace it. Was it difficult to begin? Was he resistant at first, or are there ever days he doesn’t want to do this? if so, what do you do on those days? Is he ever just totally silly about his gratitude? I can see my son writing stuff like “toots, boogers and falling out of a chair” or something like that! 🙂 How did you start and when? Sorry for so many questions, but as I said I’ve always loved that you do this and today sealed the deal. Knowing it’s one thing you are happiest about really makes me want to give it a go! Thank you for sharing so much of yourself with us!

    • karenika

      it was a bit hard to start but mostly cause he had to understand the concept of gratitude. when he doesn’t want to do it, i tell him he has to. it’s not negotiable. think of it like a chore. (maybe without wording it that way 🙂 ) he knows i post them online and i do them too so that also helps. if he starts to be silly, i just tell him he can’t be. this particular thing has to be something he truly feels was good. it can be small but not silly. it also can’t be the same thing day after day. during the school year, it has to be something from school (which is another way for me to find out what goes on at school) i started it last year after my having done over 6 months of it daily and decided it would be great for him to do it too. he was just learning how to write. i just got him a book and we started. i just never let him off the hook. sometimes he whines. but i make him do it. today at school he learned about the good wolf and the bad wolf (this story about how there are two wolves inside us and they are always fighting and the one that wins is the one you feed, he came home and told me he also has 2 other wolves the happy and the sad one. and i told him that’s why we do the gratitudes because they feed the happy wolf. they show us how even on the saddest day something good happens. even if it’s something small.) sometimes he has a hard time coming up with ones but i try to encourage and push until he does. it’s been over a year and he always has managed to come up with one. (actually he only writes one in the notebook but i used to put 3 for him each day on the blog so he had to come up with 3 a day – tho there he’s allowed repeats.) I hope this helps. sorry i just wrote without any punctuation 🙂

  • I love it!!! Beatiful layout and teaching. Thanks Karen.

  • oh this is AMAZING!!! this layout is beyond gorgeous! LOVE!
    makes my heart happy. thank you for sharing such beauty. your gifts are incredible!

  • Roxanne

    Beautiful LO. How did you do the butterflies? Did you buy them, cut them with a diecut machine or cut by hand?

  • BARB T

    Thank you for sharing your beautiful lo. I love that your son does a daily gratitude journal. It is never too early to start.

  • This is absolutely beautiful.. I have been following you for quite some time and I love your work.. though I get lost in your blog a lot, I still love it!.. you have become my inspiration for starting my layouts using white cardstock.. (Thank you!).. Thank you for sharing with all of us…

    Softbrn

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