31 Days of Thankfulness: Love

Today I chose a song that is about something that I am thankful for rather than a song specifically about thankfulness. I have two reasons for doing this. First, there's only so many songs out there about thankfulness, and, secondly, the emphasis of these posts isn't really about thankfulness itself, but more about what I'm thankful for.

I am thankful for...
94. A God who loves me no matter what I do.
95. Beautiful fall weather
96. Knowing that I have so many things to be thankful for
97. A lazy weekend of laying around and relaxing
98. Chocolate Caramel Mocha

31 Days of Thankfulness: Blessings

Another song for you all. The first time I heard this song I was on my way to work, listening to the local Christian Radio station. When I got home, I looked up the lyrics, then promptly forgot about the song. The next Sunday, someone sang this song at church, bringing it back to my mind. I once again looked up the lyrics, but this I time I really looked at them and read them and thought about what they meant. I encourage you t do the same. Although this song isn't directly about thankfulness, it kind of echoes what I've said about being thankful for the trials in our lives.

I'm thankful for...

87. Knowing that Black Friday is only 6 weeks from today!

88. Finding pictures of my great-grandma's 90th birthday party that i thought had been deleted

89. Two of my friends getting married today (Congrats Jon & Bethany!)

90. Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches (yum!)

91., 92., & 93. Coffee, chocolate, and a good book

31 Days of Thankfulness: Thankfulness

I thank God for this day,

For the sun in the sky,

For my mom and my dad,

For my piece of apple pie!

For our home on the ground,

For His love that's all around,

That's why I say thanks every day!

Because a thankful heart is a happy heart!

I'm glad for what I have,

That's an easy way to start!

For the love that He shares,

'Cause He listens to my prayers,

That's why I say thanks every day!

-Thankfulness Song by Veggie Tales

I'm going to post a song about thankfulness every day this week for my 31 Days of Thankfulness series. I will try my best to include a YouTube clip of the song so that you all can hear it, but, unfortunately, I couldn't find a decent video of this song so I just posted the lyrics.

I'm thankful for...

82. Freedom to worship God
83. Praying with my supervisor every day at the beginning of the shift
84. Making plans with my mom for a girls night
85. Finding out what one of my Christmas presents is (no, I didn't peak! I'm just really good at guessing)
86. Knowing that Christmas is only 2 1/2 months away!

31 Days of Thankfulness: Praise You In This Storm

This song is one of my favorites by Casting Crowns, and it fits in so well with the topic of thankfulness. A part of praise is thankfulness, because, after all, things we're thankful for are things that we should be praising God for. As I've mentioned before, we should be thankful even for the trials and storms in our lives, as oftentimes those are the periods in our lives that bring the most blessings and make us even more thankful for what we have.

I'm thankful for...

77. Time spent with friends.

78. Eating some delicious pulled pork, one of my favorite meals which I haven't had since my last visit to NC

79. The Bible training that I was given in college. Though I may not agree with everything I was taught, I am still thankful for the training I received.

80. Being able to watch the Buckeye's game without having to go over to someone's house

81. The Buckeyes winning a Big Ten game for the first time this season!

31 Days of Thankfulness: Unexpected Blessings

"Give thanks for unexpected blessings already on their way." -Native American Saying


Evidently I need to pay a little more attention next time I schedule posts. You see, somehow I scheduled this post for next month, instead of this past Thursday. Same things happened with the posts that were supposed to go up on Friday and Saturday. So, in order to keep from flooding you with four posts in one day, I'm going to put up two posts today (this post & today's post) and just rearrange the rest of the posts to schedule at a later time.

I am thankful for...

72. Getting cable installed so I can watch football and basketball games
73. Getting a big fat paycheck from work overtime last week
74. Being able to leave work early-for-me (same time as everyone else) twice in one week
75. Fulfilled prophecies that show Jesus is truly the Messiah
76. Notes from a friend that make me smile

31 Days of Thankfulness: More Than I Deserve

Source: thegirlwhoworeyellow.tumblr.com via Tammy on Pinterest

I am thankful for...

 67. Forgiveness
68. Payday coming exactly when I need it
69. A God who loves me.
70. A supervisor who encourages me in my walk with the Lord.
71. Breakfast with friends

31 Days of Thankfulness: Richly Blessed

I asked God for strength, that I may achieve,

I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey…

I asked for health, that I might do greater things,

I was given infirmary, that I might do happier things…

I asked for riches, that I might be happy,

I was given poverty, that I might be wise…

I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men,

I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God…

I asked for all things that I may enjoy life,

I was given life, that I may enjoy all things…

I got nothing that I asked for- but everything I had hoped for;

Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.

I am among the most richly blessed.

- An Unknown Confederate Solider

This poem isn't necessarily about thankfulness in that the words thankful and grateful aren't mentioned in it, but this poem reminds of something very important. It reminds us that we are richly blessed, and that is something to be thankful for. It also reminds us that although we may not get everything we ask God for, He gives us what He knows we need, and for that we should be grateful.

I am thankful for...

67. Being able to work with other believers

68. Finding out today that one of our new supervisors is a Christian.

69. Seeing the excitement and zeal of a friend for Christ.

70. The encouragement of knowing that unbelievers see something different about me & want to know what it is.

71. Seeing direct answers to specific prayers.

31 Days of Thankfulness: The Greatest Virtue

A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all the other virtues. -Marcus Tullius Cicero\

I am thankful for...

61. Allergy medication (my allergies have been driving me nuts the past few days!)

62. Homemade brownies

63. Crazy coworkers who make the night more exciting

64. No overtime this week, which means a 3 day weekend!

65. Facebook posts by friends that seem to be just what we needed to hear.

66. Friends who remind you to be careful what you say about others.

Note: This was supposed to post yesterday afternoon, but I messed up when I scheduled it, so here's yesterday's post today.

31 Days of Thankfulness: In Everything

In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. I Thessalonians 5:18

I'm thankful for...

56. A wonderful church service
57. A good (although short) chat with my mom
58. Extra sleep
59. Afternoon naps
60. Time spent in the Word, both at church and on my own

31 Days of Thankfulness: Thorns & Rosess

Some people are always grumbling because roses have thorns; I am thankful that thorns have roses. - Alphonse Karr

So many times we think of only the good things, the roses, in our life when we're counting what we're thankful for. That's only natural, of course, as those are the first things that pop into our minds when we think of thankfulness. However, we should also be thankful for the bad things, the thorns, in our lives. After all, every thorn has a rose. Every bad thing that happens in our lives happens for a reason. Many times that bad things bring blessings that we never would have experienced otherwise. So next time you're tempted to complain about all the "thorns" in your life, think of the "roses" that those thorns have, and be thankful for them.

I'm thankful for...

69. Weekend that allow for catching up on sleep

70. Finding some cute fall shirts for work

71. Chocolate!

72. Blogs that let me keep up on the lives of friends and family who live far away.

73. Discovering some new Christian bands.

74. Knowing that this the last Saturday I have to miss a Buckeye game because of not having cable

75. Gas prices going down

31 Days of Thankfulness: Without Thankfulness

"Life without thankfulness is devoid of love and passion. Hope without thankfulness is lacking in fine perception. Faith without thankfulness lacks strength and fortitude. Every virtue divorced from thankfulness is maimed and limps along the spiritual road." -John Henry Jowett

The quote that I shared with you all today really made me stop and think. Maybe one of the things we should be thankful for is thankfulness itself. Without thankfulness, what would we have? If we went through life without ever be thankful, it would be a pretty sad and miserable life. We would never realize just how blessed we are to have all that we have. Next time you're having trouble being thankful, think back to this quote, and realize just how much thankfulness brings to your life. 

I'm thankful for...

56. Fall candles that make my apartment smell amazing

57. A good chat over the phone with my dad on the way home this morning

58. Getting off on time!

59. News that more overtime is coming up

60. Waking up to a nice text message

61. A good book (and time to read it!)

62. the weekend!

63. Sleeping in

64. Friends blowing up my phone with goofy texts that make me laugh till I'm crying

65. A cold snap which killed off a lot of allergens, which means I can now open my windows!

66. Knowing that a friend is spending her birthday in heaven even though we miss her here on earth.

67. An opportunity for one of my friends to witness to one of the security guards at work.

68. A new manager at work who means business about putting a stop to some problems that are going on.

31 Days of Thankfulness: "Thankful"

Today in addition to sharing what I'm thankful for, I thought I'd share this song about thankfulness. Josh Groban is one of my favorite artists, his song "Thankful" really sums up what I've realized in just the few days that I've been posting about thankfulness. There really is so much to be thankful for.


I'm thankful for..

47. Running into a friend I hadn't seen in a while.
48. Overtime at work
49. Payday!!!
50. A nice, encouraging talk with my supervisor after work
51. God's forgiveness
52. A change in my job duties which results in me working closely with only my Christian co-workers.
53. Goofy friends that make me laugh
54. Listening to my favorite songs while on my way home from work.
55. Rice Krispies and bananas (one of my all-time favorite breakfasts)

31 Days of Thankfulness: A Definition

“Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.” — William Arthur Ward

Today is Day 5 of the 31 Days challenge. So far, so good. I've been able to have a post every day, and I realize each time I write a blog post how very much I have to be thankful for. You may have noticed that I don't start counting at one every day. Instead, I pick up where I left off the previous day. I thought that it would be neat to do this so that at the end of the month I could look back and see just how much there is to be thankful for.

I realized today that I have yet to give a definition of what thankfulness is. Here I am, counting all that I have to be thankful for, and I haven't even looked at what it means to be thankful. Well, let's remedy that.

Thankful-conscious of benefit received; expressive of thanks; well pleased

Seeing as the definition mentions the words thanks, let's go ahead and look at the definition for that, too.

Thanks-kindly or grateful thoughts; an expression of gratitude

And, since grateful is often used interchangeably with thankful, let's go ahead and look that up as well.

Grateful-appreciative of benefits received; expressing gratitude; affording pleasure or contentment; pleasing by way of comfort supplied or discomfort alleviated.

I think that the definition of grateful is the one that best expresses it. "Appreciative of benefits received." After all, isn't that what we're doing when we count what we're thankful for, expressing appreciation for what we've received? I think so.

Looking at these definitions has definitely made me look at thankfulness in a new way, as strange as that may sound. I shouldn't just be listing off things that I have just to list them; they're things that I should be grateful and appreciative of. I need to make sure that during this month I don't just put down something because I need more items to list on here to make it look good. I should be appreciative of and grateful for every single thing that I list here. With that in mind, let's take a look at my list for today.

I'm thankful for...

37. Encouraging words from a friend.

38. Finding a note from a friend left on my desk meant to make me smile.

39. Hugs. (I just love hugs, don't you?)

40. Back rubs that help me relax and help lessen the pain from a migraine.

41. Rainy days that are wonderful for sleeping.

42. Finally getting my appetite back after over a month with no appetite.

43. Making plans with friends for the weekend.

44. Cell phone and unlimited texting.

45. Discovering new Christian artists and bands via facebook.

46. Knowing that God hears and answers our prayers.

What are you thankful for today?

31 Days of Thankfulness: A Gift

"God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say "thank you?" ~William A. Ward

I'm thankful for...

27. The ability to write posts ahead of time and schedule them to post at a later date.

28. Overtime at work, which means extra money for me!

29. The beautiful color on the trees as their leaves change color

30. Discovering new music on Facebook

31. Walmart clearance!

32. Caramel apples and apple cider-two of my favorite things about Fall!

33. Hulu, which allows me to watch episodes of my favorite shows that I can't see because I don't have cable...yet.

34. Scheduling a date for my cable installation

35. Getting a text that makes me smile.

36. Encouraging talks with my supervisor at work, and knowing that both she and her mom pray for me every day.

What are you thankful for today?

Tasty Tuesday: Spinach Salad with Roasted Pecans

I know that you probably already have a ton of salad recipes, but I wanted to share this one with you. You're probably looking at the title and thinking, "Eww, spinach is disgusting!" I thought so too, until my aunt made a salad similar to this one, and then I loved it. So give it a try. You never know, you may like it.

1 package baby spinach
1 package romaine lettuce hearts
1/2 c. pecan halves
1 tbsp. sugar or brown sugar (depends on which you prefer. I usually use brown sugar)
1 tbsp. butter or margarine

In a frying pan, melt butter over low heat. Add pecans and sugar and cook for 2-3 minutes or until caramalized, stirring constantly. (Note: You can also get a bag of pecans that are already caramalized. They're usually by the other nuts in the baking section) Remove from heat and let cool for a few minutes. Meanwhile, toss together lettuce and spinach in a salad bowl. Once pecans have cooled, toss those in with the lettuce and spinach. Serve with dressing of your choice.

Note: You can also add in other items such as apples, raspberries, cheese, etc.

31 Days of Thankfulness: Always Something

There is always, always, always something to be thankful for.


I'm thankful for...

8. Grocery shopping at 3am (the best time to go; there's no lines!)
9. Time spent studying and reading the Word.
10. A phone call from a friend that I haven't talked to in awhile.
11. Fall weather
12.Coffee!!
13. Getting music for free
14. Spending a Saturday afternoon with my dad watching football.
15. Friends that make me smile, even when I don't want to.
16. Answered prayer

Happy Sunday everyone!! What are YOU thankful for today?

31 Days of Thankfulness: Day 1

"What if you woke up today with only the things you thanked God for yesterday?"


Today I am thankful for...

1. My family-God has given me an amazing family, and I wouldn't trade them for anything in the world. I have parents who love and support me, a sister who is also one of my friends, and a brother-in-law who is amazing with computers. I have one set of grandparents that is still alive, Granny and PawPaw, and they live close enough that I am able to see them regularly. I also have several aunts and uncles and cousins who, although most of them live far away, I'm able to keep up with on Facebook.

2. Facebook-I know this seems like an odd and frivolous thing to be thankful for, but Facebook is really a great tool when used properly. I'm able to keep in contact with friends and family who live far away. I've also discovered many great things through Facebook that I never would have otherwise, such as the 180 movie that I shared with you all here.

3. My job-The Lord has blessed me with an amazing job. Though a lot of times it gets busy and crazy and stressful, and I don't always get along with everyone that I work with, I absolutely love it. I've made some great friends during the time that I've worked there, and I've also had the opportunity to share Jesus with several people. I have Christian supervisor, which is a huge blessing and encouragement. I'm so very thankful to have a stable job in this economy. I know several people who are without a job right now. Every time I start to get frustrated or upset about something that happens at work, I just have to think of all those that would give anything to have a job right now.

4. My friends-I have some awesome friends. They're always there for me when I need them.I know that whenever I need them they're just a phone call of text away. I love that I have friends that I can text when something comes up and I need prayer and I know they'll pray for me. Some of my friends are pretty crazy, but that's okay, that just makes them fun to be around! I'm blessed to be good friends with my supervisor at work as well. It greatly helps to have a good relationship with her, because I know that whenever I need anything I can count on her.

5. My apartment-If you had told me this time last year that I would be sitting in my own apartment right now typing this, I wouldn't have believed you. Getting my own place was just a distant dream at that time. I had no idea that it would become a reality as quickly as it did. God really provided; I was able to find a cute little apartment in a nice neighborhood for a good price. It's a bit on the small side, but since it's just me it doesn't matter. I have a landlord who is here at least once a week, talking to the tenants and checking up on everything. I've also been blessed to have quiet neighbors so it makes it easy for me to sleep during the day.

6. My salvation-I have been so blessed to grow up in a Christian home and to have been saved at a young age. I was only three years old when I trusted Christ as my Savior. Although during the past couple of years I have struggled with my face, and even went through a period not all that long ago where I was sick of everything God and wanted nothing to do with Him, He never gave up on me. When I finally repented and turned back to Him, He blessed me in ways that I never could have imagined. Because of my salvation, I can have a personal relationship with Him and I know for certain that I will spend eternity in Heaven with Him when I die.

7. My health-This is a big one for me. For a couple of years, mainly while I was down at college, I struggled with my health. I was having severe asthma attacks nearly every week, constant allergy problems, I was sick all the time, and I had no energy. Although we're still not quite sure what caused all of that, we suspect it may have been the environment and such down where I attended college in combination with the stress of being in college, my health has greatly improved over the past year and a half since I've graduated. I was without a job for nearly four months after I graduated, which although a source of frustration and discouragement at the time, enabled me to get plenty of rest and gave my body some time to recover from everything it had been through.

What have you thanked God for today?

31 Days of Thankfulness

One of the blogs that I read, The Mom Creative, along with seven other blogs, are hosting a 31 Days series in which they do one post every day of this month about one topic. They also have invited other bloggers to link up with them. This is the second year they've done it, and this year I've decided to link up with them. I'm very excited about it.

The topic that I have chosen to blog about is thankfulness. It's something that I struggle with, as I'm sure many of you do, too. It's so easy to go around complaining about things that many times we forget how to be thankful. I plan to list at least five things each day that I am thankful for. I'll also share thoughts and quotes about thankfulness. I hope that by the end of the month I'll have gotten into a habit of being thankful for everything. I still plan on doing other blog posts too, as time allows.

If you have a blog, then, please, feel free to join up with all of us over at The Mom Creative! Just add your blog to the linky, and it will automatically show up on the other seven blogs as well.

The American Holocaust

You're probably looking at the title of this blog post and thinking, "What? The 'American Holocaust?' This girl must be crazy!" Let me reassure you I am not crazy!

We have an ongoing Holocaust of our own right here in America. A Holocaust where millions of innocent people are being murdered, just as they were in Germany before and during World War II. You are probably now thinking,"Impossible! We would have heard of such a thing! The media would be all over this if it were true!" Well, that's not exactly true. You see, this Holocaust is something that I'm sure nearly every American knows about. It's called abortion.

Now before you completely shut me out, let me explain. Or rather, let this video explain.

Now that you've watched the video, what do you think? Did any of you change your minds about abortion by watching this video? I hope so. This video was made by an evangelist, Ray Comfort, in an effort to open people's eyes to what abortion really is, which is murder. If you'd like more information about the video, click here to go to the website. They also have a Facebook fanpage. If this movie changed your mind, or if you'd like to help spread the word, go to their website and share the video with your friends on Facebook, or go to their fanpage and like it. Help get the word out! By sharing this video you could end up saving a life.

Favorite Friday - 5 Favorite Websites

It's Friday again already...where did this week go?! It seems like it just flew by! Of course, that is by no means a bad thing. I like it when my weeks fly by, especially when the work week flies by!

This week for Favorite Friday I want to share five of my favorite websites with y'all. These five websites are ones that I use all the times and don't know how I ever lived without them.

At the top of the list is Swagbucks. Swagbucks is an awesome website where you can earn points for searching the web. You can then redeem those points for gift cards, movies, music, electronics, and a whole bunch of other stuff. I usually redeem my points for Amazon.com gift cards. You sign up for an account (there's no fees, credit car required, or phone number or address requested), and then use their website's search engine to search the web. You'll be rewarded with 30 swagbucks just for signing up! You can earn an average of 10-20 swagbucks a day by searching the web. It's that simple. The best part is that if you tell friends about it, and they sign up through your referral link, you'll earn swagbucks from them too!

Swagbucks.com Homepage

Next on the list is Pinterest. Pinterest is a virtual pinboard that allows you to "pin" images from your computer, the web, or on the pinterest website itself and store and organize them on your boards. You can find everything from quotes, fashion ideas, and hairstyles to crafts, decorating ideas, and recipes. Say you find a recipe that you want to pin, like the Chocolate Strawberry Trifle that I posted on here the other day. You would go up to your toolbar, where the "pin it" button is installed, and click on the button. It will then allow you to pin it to a specific board. Pinterest allows you to have an unlimited number of pins (as far as I can tell) and organize them unto an unlimited number of boards. You can also "follow" other people's boards so that you can see whenever they pin a new item. It's a wonderful site for getting new ideas. It become addicting after awhile, though, so be prepared to spend lots of time on there! For some reason, Pinterest is by invitation only, at least for now. If you're interested and you want an invitation, use the Contact Me form (you can find the tab at the top of the page, right next to about me) to send me a message, and I will send you an invite.

Example of a Pinterest profile

Another website that I use frequently is Wishpot. It's a gift registry/wish list that allows you to add anything you want to your registry. You can install their button in your toolbar and add items from any retail website on the web or you can manually enter items that you want. You can then share your list or registry with your family and friends. It's an easy way to share your Christmas list with your whole family without having to send out a bunch of emails.

The fourth website on my favorites list is Dropbox. This website allows you to backup and sync your files between multiple computers. You download it your computer, and it automatically creates a folder for you to save your files to. It then automatically syncs it with your other devices that you have installed it on. I use it a lot at work as I use a shared computer. After a couple of bad experiences of other people deleting my documents (not just any documents, but spreadsheets that took several hours of work), I decided to save them to Dropbox. This way, no matter which computer I use, or who uses my computer, I'll always have a copy of what I need and I won't have to spend hours re-figuring formulas. I also use it a lot at home to back up my files and also to sync some files between my computer and my iPod. When you first sign up for an account, you get 2GB of space. You can earn 250MB of more space for each friend that you invite who signs up, with a limit of 8GB.

Last, but not least, on my list of favorite websites is Mint. It's a free personal finance and budget software. You don't even have to download anything to your computer. It's all online, and it's all secure. It's from the makers of Quicken, so you know that it's good. It allows you to set budget limits in various areas such as entertainment, shopping, food, etc. It automatically pulls your spending information from your bank accounts, so you don't have to worry about entering any data or keeping track of all those receipts  There's also an app for your Ipod/Iphone or Android, so you can keep track of your spending even when your away from the computer. And remember, it's all FREE. You don't have to purchase any expensive software, which you then have to update every year.

Well, there you have it. These are my top 5 favorite websites. What are some of your favorite websites? Have you ever used any of these websites? If so, what do you think of them? Leave a comment and let me know!!

Disclaimer: I was not paid or perked in any way for posting about these. However, if you click on my Swagbucks link it will take you to my referral link and I will receive Swagbucks if you sign up through it. Also, if you sign up using my link to dropbox, I'll receive 250MB of free space.

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