Count your blessings, an exercise in thankfulness

Today we had some clothes shopping and errand running to do. Miss E. still had some birthday money to spend and wanted to get some outfits for her doll (clearance preemie clothes make GREAT inexpensive baby doll clothes). Mr. R needed some new dress shirts for church (yes, he's growing all too fast, well, they all are). Jared needed some new dress shirts for work. The younger two didn't need anything and I would rather shop for myself when I can do it by myself or with just Jared.

You know how it goes as a parent, when one kids gets a few things the others complain and that was true for today's shopping. Finally after the last store, Jared decided it was time to focus on thankfulness. So we started a simple exercise. As we drove the last 10 minutes, we went from oldest to youngest (yes, even Miss S at age 2 named participated) and had each person name something that they were thankful for in life. We did a few rounds of this and it seemed to help cure the complaining for today. So when you're kids are having a case of the "mopies" tell them to count their blessings, name them one. by. one. It works for adults, too. :)