365 Days of Gratitude

Well howdy!  See, I told you I'd be back soon.  Here it is, the 2nd of January, and I am thinking about the year to come. I am so thankful that 2013 was a good (or at least BETTER) year for me and my family for the most part, and I am hopeful that 2014 will also treat us kindly.

Last January I stumbled across a post somewhere (maybe it was on Facebook, maybe Pintrest, I don't remember) about how someone made themselves a jar of "Happy Moments."  I loved the idea and decided to do one for myself.  Here is an excerpt of what I wrote about in on my FB page.

This is the best idea I've come across in a long while. I saw this at the end of last year, and added my own little twist. Last year (2012) was a really tough year for me - so I was determined to remember the good moments of 2013. With each note I wrote I included a little cash. This morning, on New Year's Day 2014, I opened up each note, reminisced about the happy moment, and started adding up the cash. When all was said and done, I have some incredible memories, and $826! AWESOME! This will be a yearly tradition for me for sure!

Here are some pictures from when I opened my jar yesterday...it was so fun! 

As I mentioned, I will be doing this again this year for sure!  It was a wonderful way to stroll down memory lane and remember all of the really joyful days I had in 2013. The extra cash at this time of year is pretty sweet to have too!

I've already started my jar for this year - and have my first "happy moment" note it in - with a bit of cash of course.

I've heard about 2 other really fun things I think I'm going to at least try to do this year as well.  The first is the "weekly bank" game that so many people have been talking about.  You start off the first week of the year, week 1 of 2014, and you put $1.00 into a piggy bank, or other safe place.  Then, at the end of week 2, you put $2.00 in the piggy bank, and so on...until the last week of the year, when you are supposed to put in $52.  If you do it every week without cheating, at the end of the year you will have $1378!  That's not shabby! 

I LOVE this idea, but once again I'm going to put my own little twist onto it.  I'm going to reverse the order. I'm going to do a count-down with the money (since my funds always seem to be tight at the end of the year with family birthdays, holidays, etc.) So, every Friday, starting with tomorrow, I'm going to put money into a piggy bank.  Tomorrow I'll put in $52.  Next week on Friday I'll put in $51, the week after that $50.  You get the point.  I think it will be fun to do, especially if I can remember to do it each Friday!

The other thing I'm going to try to do this year is to post my 365 days of Gratitude.  Again, someone mentioned this to me, and I thought it would be a fun and easy thing to do.  This one is very simple. Each day you take a photo of something you are thankful for.  You post it either on your blog, or FB or Instagram, etc, and you simply mention what it is you are thankful for at that moment.  You don't need a long explanation, just the date, a couple of words and the photo.  I think this will be really fun to do.

Since it's only the 2nd of January, I figured it wasn't too late for me to start doing this.

So, here goes for my first two posts.

Jan. 1, 2014 - I am thankful for this group of friends, and so many others that weren't able to be with us on the stroke of midnight. 

Jan. 2, 2014 - I am thankful for these lemons, picked from the little tree in my yard just this afternoon. Without lemons we couldn't enjoy the sweet taste of lemonade. Corny? Maybe. But certainly true.

So...give it some thought and let me know if you plan on joining me in any of these little adventures...I'd love the company.