a LITTLE background on the LITTLE things

hi friend! it makes my day that you are here and i can’t wait for you create a life & home with as much room as possible for gratitude and the things that bring you joy!

living my most grateful life has definitely been a process, with new {sometimes hard-learned} lessons along the way. what you see here on this LITTLE blog actually started back in 2002. i was in college {eek! i do NOT feel as old as that sounds!}. also, i thought i was busy. it’s ok to laugh. by college standards, i guess i was – school, work, volunteering, social life.

but the truth was, as an admitted type-A perfectionist, i had a feeling my “busy” day was causing me to miss out on a lot of the joy.

as the Christian season of Lent approached, i knew i needed a better way to focus on the things that really mattered, you know, the things you swear you will pay attention to and smile at later when you have less to do.

the problem? i wasn’t really sure how to make that change. it’s one thing to think…

today i am going to be better at pausing during my million to-do’s to enjoy more of life’s LITTLE things.

it’s another thing to actually remember to do it all. day. long.

so i decided i would just start small. i’ve always loved lists so for Lent, i decided i would make a daily list of 10 LITTLE blessings.

10 things that made me smile and feel more grateful in the moment.

as i noticed my LITTLE things, i wanted to express my thanks and appreciation to God, and invite Him more often into my ordinary day. my one rule for myself was the things on my list had to be LITTLE things – small moments i could only notice if i paused alongside the busy to look.

to hold myself accountable, each night i emailed my list to close friends and family. {picture a black computer screen the size of a dinosaur, with neon green text and a blinking curser. yep. now you’re with me.}

when i wrote my first email, i explained my project and titled my list the LITTLE things. at first, it was really hard to come up with 10. i spent a lot of time at my computer, mentally reviewing my day to churn out the final 5.

but a week into the project, i found myself noticing the LITTLE things as they happened throughout the day, writing them down, and then easily cranking out my nightly list. 10 was definitely a good number to make me look beyond the obvious LITTLE things and dig deeper for ones that were more meaningful.

and here’s what really surprised me.

the people i was emailing started to reply with their own daily LITTLE things lists! i started to look forward to my lists even more, knowing i would get to read so many happy moments from others.

the LITTLE things, it seemed, were contagious. 

i didn’t really understand this at first. i’d set out with a selfish goal – to focus on my own blessings and prayerfully express more gratitude for my day. but what resulted was much bigger than that. my tiny daily gratitude habit completely changed what i {and others} saw when we looked back on our days.

instead of busy we saw blessings. 

and that feeling of gratitude was, well, PRETTY AMAZING! so i kept up the LITTLE things lists…far past Lent, past college, past grad school, and eventually elevated the lists into a blog. and little did i know how well this gratitude habit would serve me {and now you} as a mom!!

these days, as a work-at-home mom of three, i think i can stake a greater claim on BUSY,  and i am sure YOU can relate!

in what now feels like a lifelong study of gratitude, living my most grateful life still centers around a daily gratitude practice. and as a mom now, it has also grown to mean:

• being able to routinely see and thank God for the small blessings on the good days, yes, but also on the hard days, the messy-house days, the jam-packed schedule days, and the nothing-is-going-right days.
• intentionally simplifying our home life with well-thought out systems and routines that give us more time and space for the things we WANT to do in a day {the things that bring us the most joy}.
• creative home projects that contribute to a home that is comfortable, meaningful, and a reflection of the things that make us feel happy and most grateful in our space.

if you’ve found yourself nodding along with these GRATITUDE GOALS…i can’t wait to have you along for the journey!

notice the LITTLE things is FULL of favorite and helpful content, resources, and products to make building a mindset of gratitude within your home as easy and FUN as possible.

so let’s get started!

if you haven’t done so yet…you can grab the FREE Grateful Home Starter Kit full of resources to help you and your family practice gratitude, simplify home, and love the space you’re in!

just click HERE and i’ll send it straight to your inbox. you will also be the first to know about new blog content and product sales. yay! 

and to learn more about notice the LITTLE things, check out these next right steps…