Thankful Every Day // A Thanksgiving Challenge!!

Thanksgiving is TOMORROW, guys!!! How did this happen???

It's kind of interesting, because I feel like back around September, I was really excited for Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up this year, complete with all the "holiday vibes", ya know? But now it's like they have suddenly just snuck up on me... has this happened to you?

Well anywho, basically, I feel like I'm once again not quite prepared for the upcoming holidays that are going to be upon us, and even now are. However, me not being ready for them won't stop them from coming, so I'd better start getting prepared, "holiday vibes" or no.

So, again... Thanksgiving is TOMORROW! But how to get in a true "Thanksgiving mood"? Hmmm.... OH! Maybe by dishing out a little Thanksgiving challenge to you all!! How about it? :D

Some of you may remember the Thankful Thursday posts I did around Thanksgiving last fall. I challenged myself, starting around the middle of October to the end of November, to write down at least one thing to be thankful for every day. So, I followed through on this challenge and posted the things I wrote down here on my blog on the Thankful Thursdays posts. (It was really quite fun! :) )

So then, November 30th was over. I looked over the things I had written down in my notebook the past how-many-ever-days I ended up doing it for, and was quite proud of myself, to be honest. I challenged myself to do a thing, and I stuck with it. Good job, Faith. But then on the first day of December, I wondered... Should I stop writing things down every day? Or should I keep going with this for a little while longer? It had started becoming a habit -- a good habit -- so I ended up deciding... How about we just keep going for now! So, I kept on writing down in my notebook at least one thing to be thankful for every day.

And you know what the best part is? I haven't stopped yet!

(Though I have missed a few days here and there writing something down, it really hasn't been many, and I've actually kept up with it pretty consistently which I'm quite happy about :) )

Now it's been over a year since I started doing this, and it's been amazing how many things I've discovered that I can be grateful for! Of course, I'm sure I've repeated writing down the same things several times on different days, but it's been quite interesting to challenge myself to try to think of new things to be thankful for that God has blessed me with that I may have not even thought much about before.

I also usually write down something at the end of the day right before going to bed, so no matter if it was a fabulous or terrible day, it helps me to look back at the good parts of the day instead of the bad, and gets me into a more grateful attitude before going to sleep, which is always a good thing. :)

So now... I'm challenging YOU! Write down in a notebook, journal, on slips of paper to put in a jar, or whatever place you would like at least one thing that you can be thankful for every day for 30 days. And then afterwards, examine yourself... You might just find yourself in a more grateful and pleasant mood, looking more for the good in situations, and maybe even a little less complaining about things -- who knows! ;) These are a few things that I've personally found that have changed some in my attitude since I started writing these things down. Of course, doing this hasn't magically transformed everything about my life, but I have discovered that I've started being more aware of and grateful for the little things in life, as well as the big ones. So, for me it's been a great habit to form, especially in this season of my life right now.

SO... will you be trying this challenge?? Let me know in the comments if you are! (But you don't even have to do it for 30 days; you can do it for less, or more like I did, or whatever you'd like!)

I hope all of you have an absolutely wonderful Thanksgiving!! 
God bless! I'll write to ya later!
~Faith

P.S. Also, just a quick reminder about the Q&A I'll be doing this month to celebrate my blog's 3rd year blogiversary -- If any of you still have any questions that you would like me to answer, be sure to head on over to this post, and ask away in the comments! It's gonna be a fun time! :)

Reams of Rereads Blog Event // How did I do?

Well, my friends, the Reams of Rereads blog event has come to a close. How did I do on my reading? Well, here was my original list:

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- Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher

- Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter

- By the Great Horn Spoon! by Sid Fleishman

- Heidi by Johanna Spyri

- Toliver's Secret by Esther Wood Brady

- Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate Dicamillo

- Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

- The American Girl Kirsten book series by Janet Shaw

- Nim's Island by Wendy Orr

- 12 Empowerment Truths about Two Sons in Want by Terry Tripp

- More Than Conquerors by Terry Mize
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So.

Out of all of these wonderful books, how many of them did I actually end up reading?

Yep. Just two. Well... okay so, I guess if you want to be really technical about it, it was more like I read part of two books....

Sooo..... I actually didn't end up reading all the way through any of the books listed above. I reread part of Understood Betsy and Nim's Island, and that's all I got to. (Oh yeah, and I just remembered that I did read a little bit of More Than Conquerors one day as well, so I guess that's technically three that I read some of.) But yeah, I know. It's kinda sad.

HOWEVER, there actually was one reread that I did read all of again this month though (so I didn't entirely fail, you see!) I reread the classic, The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner which was fun. :) (But.... that wasn't even one of the ones I had on my list up there, so I guess that didn't really even count...)

So, in short... I didn't do so well.

I suppose I could make up a bunch of excuses as to why I didn't get very far into this list. Like life happening and stuff. But, I actually don't have a very valid excuse honestly. It's true, I've been pretty busy this past month, but I've also had quite a bit of free time as well. The problem was that I ended up using that free time doing other things besides rereading the books on this list. I didn't make reading them a priority.

And isn't it like that with so many other things in life? Take spending time reading the Bible and praying, for instance.

(So apparently I just decided now that I'm going to turn this over into a spiritual lesson, how about it?? ;D)

I'm sure all of us at one point or another have tried to make excuses for not spending enough time with God, listening to what He has to say to us and wants us to do. We look back over the past week or month or however long it's been and realize how much we haven't spent time in God's Word and with Him. We scrounge for excuses like, "Well, I was just so busy with work/school/everything..." "I was too tired..." "I just haven't been 'feeling' God lately..." and on and on we go, trying to justify ourselves for putting off doing the right thing.

But instead of making excuses, why don't we just fess up? We messed up. It wasn't anyone else's fault but ours that we didn't get to spend more time with God. The reason we didn't get to it wasn't because of all this other stuff going on in our life... it's because we didn't make spending time with God a priority. We didn't make time for it.

We need to look back, realize what we've done wrong, and ask God to forgive us. Then we need to move on and make a better effort. We shouldn't go back and wallow in our past mistakes, regretting not doing better at life before. Trust me, it isn't worth it. I've done this WAY too many times. Like I said a while back in my No Condemnation post, we need to let ourselves be convicted, but not condemned. We need to learn from our past mistakes, but not focus on them. Learn from them and then use that knowledge to make better choices in the future.

We make time for a lot of things. We make time for reading, watching movies and shows, sports, birthday parties, hanging out with friends, etc. etc... So this really goes to show that we indeed CAN make time for things. We DO have extra time. Or if we don't, we MAKE extra time to do these things, because they're important to us. We don't want to miss out on doing them.

Well then, as God's very own children, we don't want to miss out spending time with our loving Father, do we??

If you really want to do something, you've got to make it a priority. It needs to be first above other things in life. And that's how our relationship with our Heavenly Father should be. He needs to be number one in our lives. We need to make our relationship with Him our very, very top priority! Think about it... God has done SO MUCH for us. He's the very one who created us and the entire world, and is the very reason why we're living and breathing right here and now!!! We have SUCH a privilege -- we can come BOLDLY to the Creator of the universe's throne of grace to talk to our Father and receive help ANYTIME we want or need to! (Hebrews 4:16) How amazing is that?! How terrible would it be to ignore such a privilege? To put off spending time with such an amazingly loving Father as we have?

I challenge you, as well as myself today to take special time out to express to your Daddy how much you love and appreciate Him and His goodness toward you!

So, there you go. There was my little spiritual turn-around to that reading predicament I had up there. ;) I basically didn't get to reading very much of the books on my list because I didn't make reading them a priority.

But, on another note, *enter Faith's ramble about reading* even if I DID make reading them a priority, I'm not really sure that I actually could have gotten to reading every book on my list. Maybe if I was some sort of reading ninja I could have. But I've heard that many people have indeed read that many books and more in a month, so... I guess there are a lot of reading ninjas out there.

I'd like to think of myself as a bookish person, but to be honest, I've gone back and forth between reading lows and highs many times. One month I'll be all like, "AWW YEAH LET'S READ ALL THE BOOKS!" and then the next month like, "Yeah....... I have time to read that, buuut... I'd rather do this other thing right now." But even in my times of reading like the wind, I might read only about five books in a month or something. That's what really amazes me. You reading ninjas. How all you other bookish people out there can read so many books at one time. I applaud you. For instance, I just recently saw that my blogging friend, Faith read fifteen books this past October... and that's not counting the six short stories she also read......

HOW.

HOW DOES ONE DO THIS?

I need to up my game, I guess.

But really, depending on the story, I usually don't want to finish a book in just a couple days. I guess I like to drag it out more and be able to spend more time in the story and with the characters.

"When she finished [the book], she felt happy and sad at the same time, because the ending was warm and smiley but she didn't want to say good-bye to the people in the book." ~Nim's Island

^^ Yep. :)

But then, of course, there are those long drawn out stories that you just want to be able to get through and finish as quickly as possible before you get to the point where you're just like...

Anywho. Sorry, now I'm just rambling.

I think that's really all for now. Wow, this post was all over the place... :P Did it even make sense all together? Well, however it turned out, I hope it wasn't too rambly and that you enjoyed it and all the random gifs and such anyway! ;)

Did you participate in the Reams of Rereads event? If so, how did you do? Did anyone out there not get to reading any of the books on their list either? Did you read ALL the ones on your list? What do you plan on reading this month? I'd love to hear how your reading has gone and is going lately! :D

I hope all of you are having a lovely day! Write to ya later, and God bless! :)
~Faith

3rd Blogiversary!!! // Q & A?!

On this day, three years ago... I started this blog!!!!!!

It's just amazing. How did it get to be three years already?!? I was just doing a post for my 2nd blogiversary, wasn't I?

Getting to meet and talk with so many of you lovely people has been one of the biggest blessings of blogging. Thank you all SO MUCH for reading and following this here blog of mine! You all are awesome, you really are. :) I want you to know how much I love and appreciate each and every one of you guys! And more importantly, never forget how much God loves and appreciates you, too!! It's been such a fun journey so far, and I look forward to what God has in store for me and this blog in the next year!

So. I think that's all I wanted to say...

...........

........

I think....

Alright, well................

So, I have been trying to figure out something special to do for this here blogiversary. I mean, it's a special one; three is an important number! I wanted to post SOMETHING on my actual blogiversary day though, so... this is what I finally came up with.

I've thought and thought and thought about doing this, and so....... I just decided this very moment I'm typing this right now that.... why not just go for it??

*Cue epic drumroll*

I'm going to do a what bloggery people call... a Q & A!

In a special post I shall answer any questions you guys may have about me and/or my blog here! (Well, except for really personal questions like my full name or what street I live on or something equally creepy... :P). So, if you have any questions you would like to ask me, ask them in the comments below of THIS POST, and sometime (hopefully) this month I'll get to answering them! 

(And no, of course I didn't steal this Q&A idea from anywhere.... especially not from Olivia or anything......... Where would you get such a thought.......?? :P) Thanks so much, Olivia for inspiring me with this idea. ^_^

Well, I believe that's all I have to say for now. I hope all of you have an absolutely wonderful week, and I'll write to ya later! God bless you guys!! :)
~Faith

P.S.
Soooooo.... I was checking back to make sure that the day I actually started my blog was indeed today, November 5th. Well, it turns out that last year I posted on November 5th, but somewhere on my blog thing it says I joined November 6th....... so. I'm honestly not exactly sure. Maybe I messed up last year with the date. Oh well. It's somewhere around November 5th, so we're just going to go with it. ;P

**The picture used in the graphic at the beginning of the post is my own**