Thanksgiving Tree, Mindfulness & Mr. W

Thanksgiving Tree in 2013

 























Hi lovelies, I just wanted to take a moment over here and just breath...you know how it gets between work, small children running all over, budgets and stressful family stuff? I know we all could add to this list... and simply pause... and breath... and hold a moment of space for gratitude and thankfulness in our lives.  If you've been outside the house in the last month you've probably noticed the plethora of Halloween candy, big spooky blowups and now Christmas decorations, lights and big boxed toys in just about every retail store. Huge displays and aisles dedicated to both of these celebrations while Thanksgiving is barely offered a couple of turkey napkins in the corner of a display crowded with Santa and his Reindeer.  I love Christmas and my almost 3 year-old can hardly wait to dress up as a pilot for Halloween and collect as much candy as he can, but this season before we become trapped in the vortex of commercialism let's "count our blessings" "find something to be thankful for" and "look outside ourselves". 

​Almost three years ago and a couple weeks before Thanksgiving, I was 9 months pregnant, a few days before my "due date" and hanging out with my sister who had flown in from Chicago to support me and my husband in the birth of our son. My sister had read THIS article by Ann Voskamp and described her beautiful and simplistic idea of a Thanksgiving Tree with barren sticks, twigs and little cut out paper leaves with words of thanks you write and hang on your tree each day.  Ready to do anything that might help the baby come sooner than later we jumped (rather she jumped, I waddled) to the car and drove to a nearby park amassing ourselves a nice stick collection.

Over the next few days each of us would write something down we were thankful for. In that time of first-time pregnancy questions and concerns regularly racing through my mind the Thanksgiving tree encouraged me to take a couple minutes each day to pause, have a minute of mindfulness, pray, give thanks, speak truth to myself and simply breath.

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So... pregnant...somehow my sister and I thought building snowman would encourage labor...10 days before Mr. W would make his appearance. Pretty sure the neighbors thought I was crazy. 

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A couple hours after Mr. W was born 9lb 2oz  a mess of dark hair that would later turn bleach blond, exhausted but so in love with this precious little human. 

Mr. W and Daddy. 3 week old. 

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With my beautiful sisters.