Being Thankful

In our constant desire to "give our daughter what we didn't have", I often stop and wonder if we are actually doing a disservice to her.  She is a very kind and sweet girl, but sometimes, she can act very spoiled and unappreciative.  We are trying to cut back on what we buy her, and we have discussed how she is lucky to have so much.  This year, for her birthday, instead of showering her with gifts, she knows that she is only getting one gift from us.  She is still astonished by this, and I sometimes wonder how I myself am going to stick to that, but that's the way it is going to be.  We are buying two gifts and she can pick one for herself and one she will donate to a child in need.  We are hoping this will help teach her graciousness and appreciation.

On our journey towards being thankful, I came up with this thankfulness board.  I know it sounds a little Thanksgiving-ish, but giving thanks should be a daily routine, not a once a year one.  I made this chart so that Cecelia, me, and Daddy could display what we were each thankful for that day and make sure we let each other know.  (The words are all individual magnets, so each day we can move them around and choose a new thing to be thankful for.)

It was a pretty easy project, but it took a while to get everything perfect.  I started out with a boring frame - it was an ugly pine-ish color, so I painted a solid brown with an espresso acrylic paint.  Then, I cut a piece of sheet metal the same size as the glass.  I modpodged pretty paper onto the sheet metal (I used a sheet from Sweet Blooms by ColorBok) and then put the frame back together.  I tucked the glass behind the metal just in case I ever wanted to use it as a frame again.

Then, I created the text in Word.  I just put each word in a text box and made a thick border for each in coordinating colors.  For the things we are thankful for, I added pictures since Cecelia can't read all of the words yet.  I printed it, cut it out (how I wish I had a silhouette to do that for me!), stuck it to adhesive magnet paper, and then cut it out again... and here's what you are left with after you finish all of that and add a little embellishing:

My camera really sucks (time for a new one!) so the pictures don't do it justice.  It is really beautiful and I think it will help us remember to take time and be thankful each and every day.