Finding Joy - Week 1

I didn't find much joy in the last year.  I know it was there right in front of me, but I wasn't looking for it.  

I choose to let other things cloud the joy that was surrounding me.

One of my goals for this year, I want to be more intentional about seeing the joys that surround me.  As a reminder of the joys I am going to document them each week here.  There may be joys that overlap each week, there may be joys that seem obvious, and there may be weeks where the list is short but I will celebrate each week, each day, and each joy.  This is part of a journey to live a better story.

The joys:

* mauryn has a hard time opening the cupboard where we store our school supplies and often needs someone to open it for her.  Landon took a rope and tied it to the door handle so she could open the door on her own.

* the check came in the mail from the insurance company to fix our hardwood floor after lance's accidental flooding of our laundry room which spilled into the kitchen.

* watching my kids play just dance 2 on the wii ... laughing and delighting in each other

* the teens/college kids who fill our home on sunday nights... loving on our kids and growing in relationship with God and each other.  this week two of our college kids are going back to school after break so we had a game night consisting of some mario kart, football, and just dance on the wii as well as some made games of angry birds on the ipad.

* mauryn is starting to show an interest in letters and writing. just like her mama she is a list maker.

* saying yes.  allowing landon and mauryn time to play on the rope swing in the gym

  * opening a package and finding bubble wrap and the delight of little feet popping the bubbles

* a brother and sister snuggling on the floor after baths

* mauryn's drawing of me

* morgan had a friend who stayed with us this weekend while her parents were out of town.  on saturday we had planned to go to an indoor arcade type place with games, mini golf, laser tag, etc.. for the afternoon.  landon and morgan each had some free tickets to use there.  as we were getting ready to leave a friend called to have mauryn over to play {joy!}  while landon, morgan, and morgan's friend played for hours, i sat in the cafeteria and read {joy!} i was even able to finish my book!

* saying yes to mauryn wearing morgan's old tap shoes while out running errands. yes they were loud and she couldn't walk very fast but she loved it! 

what were some of your joys this week?