Gratitude Project 18 - 20 April 2015

What a lovely weekend we had!

Mr M was working on Saturday, so I had Mac and Warrie all to myself. After a morning of chores around the house, I took them out for the afternoon.

After running around a playground for nearly two hours, I decided it was type for this mamma to go home and have a cuppa.

As I was strapping Warrie into his seat, Mac piped up with "Mummy, can we go to IKEA and play in the ball pit?". Unable to think of a valid excuse not to go, we headed over to IKEA and proceeded to wait for 45-minutes to get them into the one-hour free child care. Then I headed upstairs for a cup of tea and cake; I fully intended on working on a project I have, but ended up spending the time reading a book! It was such bliss.

Yesterday, we had a film crew at our house for a short film that Mr M is working on. I took the boys to a playcentre to meet with a girlfriend and her boys. Five hours of non-stop running around later, I headed home to find the crew still there. With two more scenes to film, I was delighted to be able to watch Mr M in cameraman mode for the first time ever.

{Mr M, doing his thang!}

It was utterly fascinating to be behind the scenes and see how the magic of the silver screen is made.

Today was a wet and miserable day, which of course meant that all the crazy people were out on the road to work.
After a shocking commute, I got out of the car only to realise that the umbrella was not in the car as I had assumed... and to top it all off, I discovered that my shoes have a hole in them, so I ended up with wet feet!
Oh well, if that is the worst thing I have to endure today, then I am a very lucky girl!

So the things I have been grateful for this weekend:

1. Spending some awesome time with my baby boys at the playground. They must have gone down that slide 50 time each - easily! Warrie crashed in the car before we made it home, so I put him straight to bed and then had a wonderful one-on-one cuddle with Mac. Which we both enjoyed. Those boys are the light of my heart.

2. My physio. I have some weird nerve/muscle/skeletal pain going on in my shoulder and neck. Whilst it hurts being manipulated, the kazillion cracks she got out of my back at the end of the session made it all worth it!

3. Mr M. I don't tell him often enough how grateful I am for him. I just always assume that he knows, but I want him to know know. Ya know? So not only will I put it out here, so the whole world can see how thankful I am for my amazeballs husband, I'm going to tell him to his face. And then I am going to give him the biggest cuddle ever!!

How was your weekend? Do you have a hole in your shoes? What was one of the biggest highlights of your weekend?

Invitation to join my project

It's been hard going since my brother and his family returned back to the UK. We'd spent two fabulous weeks all together, and the return to work life and normality have taken a bit of a toll on my soul.... Surely life is too short to not be spending every precious moment with those you love!?

But if I continue down that path, then this post will become about priorities and the whole work/life balance, which would lead me to acknowledge and admit that mine is pretty out of whack. And I'm not ready to deal with the fall out from that just yet.

So to help me find my inner happy place again, I'm going to restart my Gratitude Project for the month of April (and beyond!) - and I would love for you to join along!

It's simple. Once a day, I'd like for you to sit quietly and think about three things that you are most grateful for in that day and write it down.

Personally this works best for me at bedtime, when I have a few quiet minutes to reflect without distraction. But if you find that it works for you first thing in the morning, or lunchtime, or whilst driving to the office, then go with what feels best!

{Photo credit}

I will be using my blog as my gratitude journal, and writing my gratitudes here - I usually add a little snippet of my day too... Not only does it give you all a peek into my life and who I am, but also for the days I struggle to find something to be grateful for; I like to look back for reminders or inspiration, and I find that leaving a small record of my day helps to jog my memory.

Maybe you have a journal or a diary, or even a post-it note that you stick on a door - just make sure you write it down. I find that the act of writing down the things I am thankful for solidify them in my mind. They might start off as something that feels a bit silly thinking of as a gratitude, but once it is written down it will become real and you will feel truly thankful for it.


And if you feel so inclined, please feel free to share your gratitude with me, I would love to see what makes you happy!... and to find inspiration from you - sometimes a gratitude can be hard to find.

I also will be taking pictures for my Mum's the Word Instagram page to visually share my world with you. I will be using the hashtag #MTWGratitudeProject. I hope to see you there :)

Here's to a month of being thankful!