At the start of 2016, inspired by a friend, I started a daily gratitude challenge – posting one thing that I was thankful for each day on Instagram. I enjoyed it so much that when I reached the end of that year, I carried on and have kept going ever since. Finding one little thing to be thankful for each day has now become part of my daily routine and I’ve loved seeing friends joining in along the way too.
Finding little things to be grateful for isn’t always easy, especially when living through scary and uncertain times. I have found though that trying to find something, however small and trivial, to be grateful for has helped me through some of the hardest days of my life.
My eldest daughter Jessica, who died in April 2018, was an inspiration to me throughout her short life. She had so much strength and such a wonderful zest for life. Her godmother described her once as a “joy carrier” and it was the perfect description for her. She was a little ray of sunshine, full of smiles and gave joy to all who knew her. I am, and will always be, grateful to be her mummy. She taught me to enjoy the little moments and to make the most of everyday because tomorrow is never promised. And even though having to live life without Jessica is by far the hardest thing I have ever had to do, I will continue to look for those little things to be thankful for, and keep going with this challenge in honour of my beautiful brave girl.
Here are my grateful moments from the past week:
Day 299 – I am grateful for Sophie’s lovely new apron and chef’s hat that my friend made for her, and her joy at getting to help make her rainbow cake ready for her birthday.
Day 300 – I am grateful for all the fabulous scarecrows we spotted while doing a scarecrow hunt.
Day 301 – I am grateful for seven years of Sophie.
Day 302 – I am grateful for simple moments of outdoor fun.
Day 303 – I am grateful that mud washes off!
Day 304 – I am grateful for a fun morning making a scarecrow with Sophie having been inspired by our scarecrow hunting this week.
Day 305 – I am grateful that Sophie enjoyed doing her half-term home learning project.
What fun for Sophie to help make the cake. Happy birthday to her. I hope she had a wonderful day!
It looks like you had a fun week x
Thank you Kim. She loved helping making her cake and had a lovely day x
Hope Sophie had a lovely 7th birthday. I think I’d go a bit nuts trying to do a rainbow cake!
She had a lovely day, thank you. The rainbow cake is quite an easy one to make but it does result in a lot of washing up afterwards!
Love scarecrow trails, they had one in a local village but sadly not over half term when we could have seen it #366
Ah that’s a shame. I’m glad this one gave us something to do over half-term.
I think many of us are glad that mud washes off.
Happy belated birthday to Sophie.
How lovely she made her own scarecrow.
Thank you Elaine. I loved that the scarecrow trail inspired her to want to make her own.
Happy birthday to Sophie! That hat and apron is lovely….so nice of your friend to make it.
I keep debating whether to try a rainbow cake!
Thank you. I quite like doing rainbow cake – it’s quite an easy one to make 🙂
The scarecrows look a lot of fun, think I’ll try my hand at making one next year
We had fun making ours 🙂
The rainbow cake looks amazing, hope she had a lovely day. Haha, I am also grateful that mud washes off! Love the idea of making a scarecrow I think I am going to do this with the boys in the Spring to mind our veg patch
Thank you, she had a lovely day. We had fun making the scarecrow 🙂
Aww what a fabulous week ! The scarecrow hunt is a great idea and even better, as it inspired Sophie to make her own. I had a good giggle at your little mud monster – I remember those days ! What a fabulous cake. I hope Sophie had a very happy birthday – she certainly seemed to ! 🙂
We had such a lovely half-term – it was so nice to get out and about (even with the mud!) and have Sophie’s birthday to celebrate in the middle of it.
Happy Birthday Sophie, I cannot believe she is 7!!!!
Thank you Kara 🙂
Wow look at those colours of the sponge for the birthday cake. Lovely effort their Sophie. A scarecrow hunt sounds like lots of fun, wish they had done something like that around here. Hope Sophie had a fabulous birthday! x
Thank you Karen, she had a lovely birthday 🙂
Was the scarecrow hunt for Halloween? Great idea if so! Belated happy birthday to Sophie, cake looks fab! #project366
Yes, there were quite a few scarecrows that were Halloween-themed.
That is a cool apron and am so excited for that rainbow cake. The cake looks awesome with the cute egg toppings. Cool scarecrow, and that’s a cool project
The cake tasted awesome as well! 🙂