Our Family Joy Project
What is my word for the year? That's the question I ask myself around New Year's every year. Yup, I'm one of those people. The word that rose to the top for me was "Joy". I love that word and I love the idea that we can choose joy and we can create joy. This is a choice and what a beautiful opportunity in this one life we get to live. I want to do that!!
I'm a wife of a fabulous, sweet and funny man. I also get to be mom to 4 boys who fill my heart with so much joy. Yes, you can have joy and still want to hide in the closet occasionally just to find a little quiet. So, as CEO of our house, JOY is also their word for the year.
It has kind of morphed into our "Family Joy Project". It's our way of looking for and making joy, on purpose.
It's been one month since we've talked about making this a priority and I've seen 2 main things grow out of this so far. The first part is simply gratitude. The ever popular (for good reason) list of things we are thankful for and in this case "things that bring us joy". I could ramble about this forever but just remember, the happiest, most resilient and most successful people consider gratitude a very important part of their lives. We are asking the kids to think of things that bring them joy in their day and I'm trying to decide on an effective way to write these lists down, as a family. I'll probably start it here on the blog as well. If you have any ideas that have worked for you, let us know!
The second part is how we can create joy for ourselves and for others and how that usually works together. Just for the past couple of weeks now, we have each chosen just one thing that we plan to do within the next 7 days, to bring joy to someone else. Talk about bringing joy. Hearing your kids come up with sweet ideas and in one case doing it for their momma, is a real treat. One of our boys decided to make sugar cookies for his whole class. Another had his mom lie down on the couch, put on relaxing music, and rubbed her back (JOY!). We had a picture made by one brother for another and then they just started doing nice things and saying "that's for the Joy Project". Actually after this month now they just walk around, do something and say "Joy Project". It's just so much fun! Also fun, when I picked up the boys from school that day, a little girl said to me "Those cookies really brought me joy!". Good stuff.
So I encourage you to think of one thing you can do to bring someone else some joy today. Even if, especially if, you don't feel like it.
What is my word for the year? That's the question I ask myself around New Year's every year. Yup, I'm one of those people. The word that rose to the top for me was "Joy". I love that word and I love the idea that we can choose joy and we can create joy. This is a choice and what a beautiful opportunity in this one life we get to live. I want to do that!!
I'm a wife of a fabulous, sweet and funny man. I also get to be mom to 4 boys who fill my heart with so much joy. Yes, you can have joy and still want to hide in the closet occasionally just to find a little quiet. So, as CEO of our house, JOY is also their word for the year. It has kind of morphed into our "Family Joy Project". It's our way of looking for and making joy, on purpose.
It's been one month since we've talked about making this a priority and I've seen 2 main things grow out of this so far. The first part is simply gratitude. The ever popular (for good reason) list of things we are thankful for and in this case "things that bring us joy". I could ramble about this forever but just remember, the happiest, most resilient and most successful people consider gratitude a very important part of their lives. We are asking the kids to think of things that bring them joy in their day and I'm trying to decide on an effective way to write these lists down, as a family. I'll probably start it here on the blog as well. If you have any ideas that have worked for you, let us know!
The second part is how we can create joy for ourselves and for others and how that usually works together. Just for the past couple of weeks now, we have each chosen just one thing that we plan to do within the next 7 days, to bring joy to someone else. Talk about bringing joy. Hearing your kids come up with sweet ideas and in one case doing it for their momma, is a real treat. One of our boys decided to make sugar cookies for his whole class. Another had his mom lie down on the couch, put on relaxing music, and rubbed her back (JOY!). We had a picture made by one brother for another and then they just started doing nice things and saying "that's for the Joy Project". Actually after this month now they just walk around, do something and say "Joy Project". It's just so much fun! Also fun, when I picked up the boys from school that day, a little girl said to me "Those cookies really brought me joy!". Good stuff.
So I encourage you to think of one thing you can do to bring someone else some joy today. Even if, especially if, you don't feel like it.
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Vicki