365 Days of Blessings, Appreciation, and Gratitude

My first thought here is that I'd better learn to spell "gratitude" properly on command.  I just attempted it twice, and then the little red squiggly "haha you suck at spelling" line still appeared.

My second thought is that I never used to get into the New Years resolution thing.  I thought it was phony.  My biggest New Years resolution was to write the date correctly by January 5th.  I never vowed to lose weight, quit smoking, exercise more, or stop cracking my knuckles.

I hear people say, "No, no, my New Years resolution is to never have dessert," (ever again?!) and I go into Michael Scott mode when he's talking to Toby (from The Office, of course).

Never having dessert.  Not cracking your knuckles.  "I vow to try to make it work with my deadbeat spouse."  "I resolve to read the newspaper every day."  (How are some of these even measurable goals?)

You know what all of these things have in common?  They all suck.  They aren't fun.  They don't make you look forward to the next day.

So, here's what I'm doing.  I grabbed a flower vase and decorated it similarly to how a first-grader would, and every day, I'm putting in a little note of thanks for something about that day.  That way, each day, I'm just waiting for a reason to write a note; I'm going to wake up each day anticipating a slap in the face from something awesome.  On New Years Eve 2015, I'm going to empty the jar and read them again, just to sit back and be like, "Yeah, this year was tight."

What used to be a flower vase is now a blessing jar.

However, "a little note of thanks" doesn't tell the whole story.  This blog will tell you the "behind the scenes" of each note, and I hope they're entertaining.  I have a couple days' worth of retroactive posts, but in the meantime, stay tuned.