January - a month of gratitude...

 One of the things I have decided to do on the blog this year is to give each month it's own sub-theme, and that will always be something which will tie in with our main theme for 2024, Joy in the Ordinary. 

Let's begin the month by turning our hearts away from self, and showing gratitude to others.

January is a wonderful month for looking back over the previous year to make decisions about what to eliminate from our lives, and what to give more time to. It is also a good time to remember those who were there for us during the last year and let them know how much that meant to us. 

From childhood, to well into my forties, it was common to send a thank you card to those who had in some way touched our lives for the better. It was common to write real letters by hand. It was normal to send cards on special occasions. It was natural to make time for all kinds of correspondence that required adding a postage stamp and a walk to the red posting box. And wasn't it so lovely to open our own mail boxes and find a card or letter lovingly sent from family or friends? 

Being the first week of January I decided that showing gratitude by mail would be a nice way to begin the month, so I have spent time the past few days creating a set of stationary you might like to download, print up, and use for just such a purpose. It's a free gift from me to you!

There are two sets to choose from and both are included in your free download - a Scriptural set, as well as one without Biblical reference. 

In each set you'll find decorative writing paper, small pocket cards to add in a letter, and greeting cards. 

You could also print up a few and make little gift packs to use as presents during the year. I love things like this because they are easy to post in an envelope and that's rather helpful for those of us who are watching the pennies in 2024. 

I made gift packs with the small cards, greeting cards and envelopes. Some were printed on white heavy weight paper, and others on some lovely lemon paper from a coloured bundle I bought in 2010. Fortunately I found matching lemon envelopes too. 

The sprays of watercolour carnations and forget-me-nots which feature on the stationary items, remind me of Nana. Her wedding ring was a band of gold forget-me-nots, and she grew carnations in the summer. When my husband was at University he did some extra work in the semester breaks to save up and buy me my very own gold forget-me-not ring. It was the most beautiful surprise!!

When we lived in Esperance (Western Australia) back in 2007-9, Blossom and I would often window shop on sunny afternoons before spending a 'girlie' hour at the local tea rooms which overlooked the ocean. One such afternoon we discovered a pretty blue forget-me-not mug in the window of the jewellers, and it was on clearance. Well, my heart skipped a beat and I bought it. To this day, whenever I use it my mind drifts back to the simple days of my childhood with Nana and Pop. 

Forget-me-nots really are the perfect floral embellishment to a gratitude card or letter, I think. Life today moves far too quickly, with social media, television, and even conversations rushing by without much thought of their purpose...which makes us forget a little too easily, the things we should hold close to our hearts, the needs of others in our prayers, and how we could better have used that wasted time. Yes, I do believe gratitude and forget-me-nots go hand in hand. 

Use the links below to download the Gratitude Stationary files... 

DOWNLOAD the A4 size Gratitude file

DOWNLOAD the Letter size Gratitude file

The New Year clean has begun...

The new year has me cleaning the house, one room at a time, to remove what's not needed and move everything else (not bolted down) around to a more purposeful position. I began at the back of the house in our small laundry, which runs directly off the kitchen and opens out to the backyard. It gets the afternoon sun rather fiercely, and needs a curtain to cover the smaller window, but as I am still not sure what fabric from my stash to use for that purpose, I am yet to achieve that goal. However, it was good to clean and scrub the drawers of cleaning items, rags and gloves with vinegar and water, and put things in order once more.

On the other side of the laundry room, I finally went through all the random jars I'd collected and chose to keep only the best jars for filling with jam. It's summer here in Australia and this month is the time for making large batches of plum and vanilla jam (our favourite) to see us through the next year, with a few extra jars as gifts. They were scrubbed exhaustively, dried, and capped ready-and-waiting. 

The remainder of the space was well scrubbed, and things like the tub of Eco Store washing powder topped up and two teaspoons of eucalyptus oil added and shaken through. Eucalyptus is a wonderful antibacterial for the wash. I clean my washing machine with vinegar and water in a spray bottle so that I can scrub the gasket with only a rag before running the machine on an empty cycle. 

The next day I began in the kitchen, pulling everything out of the cupboards and off the shelves, again washing with vinegar and water. It was wonderful having all the surfaces, drawers and shelving done, and a few more things removed from them. I tend to declutter regularly through the year, but do not donate anything unless I am very sure we won't be using it, so a few items find their way to the donation box in my car boot each time I do a deep clean of the kitchen. 

Now I need to wash the front of the cupboards and drawers, clean the windows, wash the curtains, and get the double sink sparkling...but not till Monday. It's Friday afternoon as I write this, and before hubby arrives home from work I plan to make a spanakopita for dinner, and something for dessert - though exactly what I have not yet decided. 

I hope you are doing well in this first week of a new year, and that should you be struggling in any area of your life that you remember to lay your burdens at the feet of Jesus and pray for His help to get you through. He will always be our Rock and an ever present help in times of trouble. Don't hold back, dear ones, call out to Him for all your needs.

But remember too, that He is our provider and gift-giver, so offer your prayers of praise and gratitude to our Lord regularly. 

God bless, and God willing we shall chat in the next post. Let me know what you've been doing around home this past week, and if you have a specific gratitude to share with myself and other readers. You may inspire us. 

Oh, before I go, please receive my gratitude for all your prayers for our Blossom. She's still on antibiotics and not yet recovered from the pneumonia, but she is definitely improving. You ladies are wonderful...

Hugs

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