Brought to you in partnership with Fujifilm Instax.
Hey mama. I want to tell you something. You are doing an amazing job.
I was at an appointment yesterday {at the hospital for Lacey’s ADHD} and the receptionist looked a bit frazzled. I asked how she was, and while she’s normally really reserved and quiet, she opened up, “I’m just so tired. I don’t know when was the last time I was by myself, I am struggling to juggle work and parenting, as well as helping the kids with learning remotely and I think I might get some time to myself on Thursday night at about 8pm, but I’m just not sure. I’m tired.”
I wanted to reach over and hug her, but the sneeze guard was in the way, and well… it’s not lawful to be hugging. Guys, these are weird times. And they’re hard. I know there are people doing it tougher than we probably are {hello essential workers, thank you!} but it’s more than okay for us to also acknowledge that this isn’t easy either. It’s hard.
One thing that I always fall back to when things are challenging, for myself and my kids, is practicing gratitude. Among all that chaos and head noise, gratitude seems to make things calmer, and creates that nice silver lining effect on life. My kids actually have a daily gratitude journal as part of their remote learning. Each day they write and/or draw about what they’re grateful for.
In the past few days we’ve been taking photos. Lacey and Lulu have been using the Fujifilm Instax mini 11 to capture photos of things they’re grateful for. I mentioned this on my Instagram, but in case you missed it I’ll mention here too; I get asked a lot which of my Instax cameras are best for which purpose. I have every camera there is {or that I know of! I collect them} and quite often I get asked which is best for kids or tweens. Any of the Instax minis are my pick for kids, but this newest version {the mini 11} is super cool {hello, purple!} and it has little customisable shutter buttons which I’m obsessed with! The customisable button also makes it easier for little hands to press the shutter button. Perfecto!
I love daily gratitude, so I wanted to help others practice a little gratitude too, and make life a little sweeter. I’ve created three printables which I think you’ll love. They’re great for getting creative, using textas, pencils, stickers and your instax photos too. Let me share them with you.
First up, a gratitude book! Print these out, cut them and create a little booklet. These work well if you do a week to a book and let the kids {or you!} end the day by asking, “What am I grateful for?”
Next up, gratitude postcards. While we might not be able to hug and kiss our loved ones, we’re loving sending out happy mail, or even just dropping postcards around to friends we miss hanging out with.
And lastly, this simple gratitude printable. If you don’t want to commit to daily updates, but just want to do a spur of the moment gratitude project, this one is for you!
I hope these are a fun way to find gratitude and joy during these weird days, or any days really. Enjoy!
