Gratefulness: Family DIY Activities that Encourage a Heart of Thankfulness

DIY Pallet Project: Infarrantly Creative

Well, hello there again precious peeps! I am oh.so.happy to announce we have happily skipped right on past the doorbell-candy-begging-day and have arrived to the warm cozy season of GRATEFULNESS. I for one could not be happier to see Halloween pass us by. I love the carefree dress up of it all - at the same time the dark side of it is something that is becoming inescapable. So let it BE GONE!

And here we are... finding ourselves seven steps into the month of NOVEMBER already. 

Today's inspiration came to me in a very roundabout way. A friend of mine, who lives in Africa with her littles, was looking for some kid friendly Thanksgiving crafts that would use simple {easy to find in Africa} materials. Not the easiest of feats by any means. I was already bored, confined to my cozie blankie with several sore throat lozenges stuffed down my throat..did I mention BORED???... and who doesn't want to be the perfect craft finding hero for someone living in Africa anyway? So a-hunting I would go...

Simply Vintage Girl

WOWZA - was I blown away by the amount of GRATEFUL ideas for families out there. There are some seriously talented and thoughtful Mama's out there doing some fabulous footwork for you to have a quick, pain-free start. So, as much as I want to show some of the nugget-size, simple, cute crafts I found -  I believe these heart-sized concepts on these links will leave you truly inspired for a larger impact this November and beyond. You can always fill in the down time with cutie pie crafts you find on pinterest.

I LOVE the Thankful Tree by Vintage Girl in the photo above. I can think of several different options for the tree and the adornments. How delightful to have an endless opportunity to keep on adding throughout the month, along with the daily reminder of our blessings. Not to mention it is cute to boot! 

UpsideDown Homeschooling

I am really excited about this printable keepsake journal - it is a prompter of the heart and mind for the kids as well as a keepsake to treasure for decades. There are two options: one for younger primary and one for the olders. It is on sale for $1.99! Check it out over at Upside Down Homeschooling. 

A Grateful Chalk Board for families to write their own items on by the creativemama.com

I love this one for SO MANY Reasons. Mainly because it looks soft and cozy like a beautiful fall season full of gratefulness. It makes me want to snuggle up in the basket with the heart pillows or pull each one out and hug it while wrapping my little pea brain all around the gratitude focus on that one sweet little heart. 

 I also love picturing the precious hands of my family sewing each treasured heart of gratefulness. LOVE IT!!! Like really love - will probably do.... and can use my Aunt's vintage fabrics, Africa fabric scraps we have brought back with us and other scraps we have saved from other projects throughout the years... YES - THIS is a MUST DO!

The Thanks Giving Tree by Ann Voskamp: Simply ADORABLE!

The Thanks Giving Tree:A Holy Experience

These Free Printables are over at A Holy Experience by Ann Voskamp of One Thousand Gifts. There is an easy download to make these ADORABLE leaves full of wisdom, love and gratefulness with a journal area to add your family's precious additions.

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Inspired by Familia

21 Days of Gratitude is already up and running over at Inspired by Familia, heading into it's second week...but.... it is never too late to start being inspired with gratefulness, is it? So why not head on over and check it out. She has several designs of graphics and a great challenge to join in on. 

I love the idea of being prompted to find gratefulness  in a specific area. It can be so easy to find things to appreciate in the direction our eyes naturally focus on. These "prompts" allow us to look into areas that would typically slide right by unnoticed. This is a terrific way to help our children's vision of gratefulness to expand to areas they may not naturally think of. What a wonderful way to help them grow and develop in gratefulness.

These are only about half of the inspiring ideas I found. Yes, half. Now to pick the one I really think will impact our kiddos the most this year. I am thinking the basket of fabric hearts or the Thankfulness Tree. Hmmm.... I really like the journal too. Would three be too much? Hee hee.

I hope that these projects and/or concepts have encouraged you in some small way. I believe that the more we teach our children to look for things to be grateful for, the more they will be generous with their hearts & their lives.  

I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers - Eph. 1:16

-Simply Sublime

Mission Trip Fundraising Ideas using Facebook, Twitter & other Social Media

So our family has been on quite the journey over the last 6 years. We would have never in our wildest of dreams imagined that by 2013 we would have traveled to Africa 6 times, that 4 out of 6 of our family members would have gone multiple times and that we would have forever heartstrings with so many living there.

 And yet, here we are finding ourselves in just such a position. How on earth have we accomplished this? This is something we still frequently try to wrap our brains around. The first trip was a stretch in itself - sending off two of our precious cargo. The following year 3 of us would make the trip. The next trip we would make would have a total of 4 from our family packing our bags. As you can imagine these trips are not cheap, in fact they are VERY expensive. For each team member the cost is about $3,000. YOWZA!

Every step of the way God's fingerprints are ALL over it! I tell you, the impossible is possible if you are willing to step forward in faith. So that is Step #1 - seek God and ask where he wants you to move forward. Then comes the fun of seeing him show off!

Our family has done a variety of fundraising events:

• Garage Sales, Garage Sales & more Garage Sales
• Dance 4) Africa: Dance Lessons, Dessert & Silent Auction
• Coffee Bean & Cocoa Sales from 963 Coffee Project
• Car Washes
• Worship Night & Dessert
• Jewelry
• Handcrafted Bags
• Freezer Meals
• Scrapbooking Night

Recently my friend found this site and used it for her fundraising towards another mission trip. It popped up on my newsfeed on Facebook. Totally intrigued me, so I checked it out today. SO EASY!!!

Our family is down to the wire now - we still need to raise $2,500 in just 10 days (deep breath)  - so we really needed to find a quick and easy method to get the word out. This is perfect. GoFundMe.com created a way for us to share our story and need while they provide an online payment method with a minimal fee. Payment is available real time. You simply set up your account and they will post it to your social media and send it out to the email addresses you enter.

The amount of time it took for me to check it out and research it was more then it took me to set it up and have it posted on my Facebook account. If I had twitter and others that I currently used it would quickly link and promote on those as well.

Here is our account we set up with them: http://www.gofundme.com/3cnk9g

Check it out! And if you want to donate, we will take that too! :)

-Simply Sublime