Finding Joy

November Blessings Part 3:
19. Yummy Thanksgiving food for lunch at work.
20. Parents who truly care for their children and are concerned with what is in the child's best interest.
21. My almond sugar cookie recipe :)
22. Spending Thanksgiving with a great family. I'm thankful for my family back at home too. Such a blessing to have 2 loving families in my life.
23. Playing fun games with fun people.
24. Waking up early and getting a lot accomplished.
25. Beautiful Christmas music.
26. Being taken care of when I'm sick.
27. A 2 year old wanting to say a prayer for his mommy and the "baby in mommy's tummy!"
28. People who truly appreciate things you work really hard on.
29. A bombardment of hugs, love, and "Emily!!" screams from a few special 2 year olds who I've missed a lot lately....guess they missed me too :)
30. Feeling well enough to go out and see a funny play.

After stumbling upon the book, One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp a year or so ago and since I started following her blog, A Holy Experience, I have thought a lot more about what it means to count blessings and find joy in every aspect of life. There are gifts, both big and small, surrounding us every day, and sometimes I need that gentle reminder to stop and see all the ways in which I have been truly blessed.

Ann has created a calendar that helps give a little direction when it comes to counting blessings- things like 3 white gifts, 3 gifts of hope, a gift bringing laughter, etc. She made it for 2012, but I'm going to try and use it in 2013 (starting with this December). Maybe she'll come up with a new one for 2013, but for now my plan is to follow this calendar of  joy dares.

If we all found joy in each day the world would become a much more lovely place to be.

DIY: Paint Chip Calendar

So I saw this calendar on Pintrest from Hey, things change! and I thought hmmm I could do something like that. This calendar was done on a big notepad so you would have to make a new one each month- I thought that would be a lot of paint chips and quite the commitment to always making a new one every month. SO I decided to make one inside a frame and use the glass like a white board to write the numbers and what-not on it.

Here's what I did:

Gather supplies: paint chips, paper cutter, tape, ruler, empty frame (16x20)

Cut paint chips apart

Outline each chip with a black sharpie

Lay out the paint squares to make sure you have seven columns and five rows

Once you have an idea of where they will all go, tape away!

I used stamps for each day of the week- Sun, Mon, etc.

The finished product!

Now all I need are some dry erase markers to fill in the dates and what's happening! Although it took me a few hours to complete the whole thing (it would have been done quicker if I was less OCD about perfection in crafts) I think it was totally worth it. It's a little more fun than the white board calendars you can buy at the store and much cheaper! (since I already had all the supplies, minus the paint chips- which I picked up at Lowes this morning). I'm excited because it should go quite nicely with the duvet cover and pillow I picked up at IKEA for my room this year :)

I love Pintrest and have spent so much time looking at blogs with cute crafty ideas, yet I haven't really made anything I have seen. I always think "ohh I should do that someday..." and then nothing. So I am making a goal to be more crafty and try more of the recipes I find too. We shall see how that goes...