20 Days of Gratitude: Day 10

From November 6 until Thanksgiving, I'll be posting everyday, talking about someone or something I'm grateful for. I invite you to participate along with me. If you have a blog and will be participating, send me the link and I'll link back here. If you don't have a blog and there is a blessing you want to talk about, email me and I'll post it along with my daily blessing. I can even post it anonymously, if you'd prefer. There's something very powerful about focusing on what's right in our lives, and I intend to live this way, walking on the path of gratitude.

Day Ten:

Can you believe we're already halfway through our 20 Days of Gratitude?  It's amazing how time flies, especially this time of year.  From the first day you feel a chill in the air to the beginning of January is my favorite time of the year. 

It may seem silly, but today I'm grateful for any amount of time, no matter how small, that I get to create.  I love to craft, decorate and create things for our home or for gifts.  During the school year, my time doing that is very limited, so when I get a chance I enjoy it even more!  Going into my little studio, even as messy as it is now, gets ideas firing, stirs something deep in my chest.  I am grateful that God has given me this particular interest as an outlet.  He knew when He made me just how I needed to be fit together and this is a piece I'm glad He included.

Over the last few weeks, we have made some plans to rearrange some rooms.  We won't be able to implement the plan until Thanksgiving or Christmas break, but the end result is that I will no longer have a room to house all of my craft supplies, but only a small closet.  However, I think this will be better because it will put everything in a much more accessible area and force me to make some decisions about what supplies I will actually use (thus freeing me up to pass some along to others!)  And I'm grateful that I have even a closet!  I know there are women out there (I've read their blogs!) that have to keep everything in a Rubbermaid tub under the dining room table, or shoved under their bed.  I know having an extra closet to do this in is a huge blessing and I am grateful to have even a small space to call my own.  And of course, that means no more pink walls to work in, which I'm thrilled about!

Crafts can get expensive, especially when you start buying machines and cutters and special papers.  But I've been blessed even in that.  I heard about the Silhouette SD cutting machine and wanted one, but wouldn't spend the money ($300!!!)  But then, I won a free Silhouette!  Isn't that amazing?  And  when I was trying to decide on what type of fabric to buy for my living room curtains (but couldn't find anything in the right color or the right price), a friend surprised me and gave me a huge roll of fabric, in the exact shade of blue, I had been wanting!  And she didn't even know I had needed fabric for that project! 

You might think I'm being silly or facetious.  But the truth is, I don't want to take anything for granted.  Anyone living in this country is blessed.  Even the poorest among us have it better than a lot of the people in the world.  And I don't want to forget that.  I don't want to forget the things I have in my life that are luxuries, not necessities.  What I consider a "necessity", other people would consider outrageously luxurious (a new coat for this winter, even though I have an old one; a king-size bed, instead of the queen we had; a pair of boots when I already own more shoes than I wear).  My goal, starting with this 20 Days of Gratitude project and going throughout the year, is to remember.  To remember how blessed I am with and by and through the beautiful people in my life.  To remember those little things I used to take for granted.  To remember.