Dirt Road Mama: Teaching Thankfulness

I am so excited for November this year. I love LOVE Thanksgiving, I always have (it was the one holiday we always hosted at our house, and that makes it have such a special place in my heart and memory). But this year we have Baby coming this month, and seem to have started Christmas spirit in our house earlier than ever! Which is really just joyful, if you ask me. It's never too early. I think having a 3 year old in the house brings Christmas celebrations extra early. She doesn't know the adult-logic of "you have to wait until after Thanksgiving to start getting excited for Christmas". So she has asked to watch the movies (some of which have been watched all year long!), asking about the decorations, about Santa. Which has lead us to talk about the Baby who was born that day.

But before we dive head first into Christmas (who are we kidding, we tagged our tree yesterday ;)), I am focusing the girls a little more on Thanksgiving first. Not so much the pilgrims-and-indians story, but more so the idea of reflection and thanking God in all circumstances, for all things. I try to have the girls pray as often as possible, always focusing on thankfulness (because I think it's an easier concept for their little brains to focus on in prayer, rather than asking for things they "want"). We try to pray in the mornings, at night, at meals, and whenever we get in trouble (to ask God for help to do better next time).

(Sidenote about the pumpkin carving...Reilly was TERRIFIED of what was inside the pumpkin, before she even saw it. She kept running down the hallway and squealing when Hubby would open it up. It was so funny.)

We started a Thankful Book this month, where we are thanking God for one specific things each day. Whatever Reilly picks goes in the book for that day! It could get interesting. :)

This morning, before the beans woke up, Reilly was laying in bed with me and I asked if she wanted to pray. She said no. Ha. So I prayed, and she listened. I thanked God for all different things, and asked him to bless our day and to help us today. Then, she started talking too.

"Thank you God for my dolls. Thank you for my father. Thank you for everything and everything and always being with us. Thank you for our new fans and our lights. (We recently got new ceiling fans and ceiling lights in the bedrooms. She loves them.) Thank you for not making me scared of school anymore. And please make sure that after Thanksgiving, it's always Christmas."

(I am thankful for moments like this one.)

Their sweet faces when they saw our Jack-o-Lantern all lit up for the first time.

There isn't instructions on how to instill these concepts into kids, or how to teach them. We are trying our best to teach what we were taught, and are still learning. I know the best I could do is pray every day for them and their guidance.