Thankful...

That is the topic for this weekend.

For us here in Canada, this is our Thanksgiving weekend! We celebrate it with friends and family. It is a time to reflect and realize the abundance that we are so blessed to have around us! From food, shelter, material things to family and friends, we are truly so blessed. Its a time to give gratitude and love.

“Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.” — William Arthur Ward

“Give thanks for a little and you will find a lot.” — The Hausa of Nigeria

“God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say “thank you?” — William A. Ward

Some great quotes on being thankful!

What does thanksgiving mean to you? Is it a time to celebrate with family and friends for what you are truly thankful for? Is it just a time together? Do you take the time to realize how blessed we really all are?


I leave you with a poem that sums it all up!

Be Thankful

Be thankful that you don’t already have everything you desire,
If you did, what would there be to look forward to?

Be thankful when you don’t know something
For it gives you the opportunity to learn.

Be thankful for the difficult times.
During those times you grow.

Be thankful for your limitations
Because they give you opportunities for improvement.

Be thankful for each new challenge
Because it will build your strength and character.

Be thankful for your mistakes
They will teach you valuable lessons.

Be thankful when you’re tired and weary
Because it means you’ve made a difference.

It is easy to be thankful for the good things.
A life of rich fulfillment comes to those who are
also thankful for the setbacks.

GRATITUDE can turn a negative into a positive.
Find a way to be thankful for your troubles
and they can become your blessings.

Author Unknown

Grocery Shopping Bags

So let's talk about some of the things we do our use to "go green" or reduce our "carbon footprint"

By now I would assume that everyone has purchased one or two of your favorite grocery store "eco-bags". I am a Sobey's shopper myself so I have the bright green bags with large photos of Artichokes, blueberries and oranges on them. Not to discriminate I also have a couple from Zehr's, Chapters, my local butcher shop, drug stores and some that I have won as prizes.

But Shannon you ask, How many bags to you have? Too many! probably 20, that's just crazy talk. Unless you are Kate Gosselin shopping for a months worth of groceries you can't possibly need 20 bags!

The truth is...I can't remember to put them back in my car... and when I do, I have forgotten to take them into the store. Unbelievable. So with approximately 20 bags I have managed to mantain a routine of cycling them through the purchase, unpacking, storage and eventually ending up back in the car to get used at the grocery store again.

I do have shopping bag envy though..... and it looks like this.

Blue Avocado is probably the chicest, cutest supplier of eco friendly shopping bags. They have bags for everything, shopping, produce, insulated. EVERYTHING. And they fold up into a cute adorable pouch that can fit in your purse.

So if I'm on anyone's Christmas list this year. This is what you can get me.

How many grocery shopping bags do you have?

Shannon

:)

quote

Whether you think that you can, or that you can't, you are usually right.
~ Henry Ford


How true is that? Again it all goes back to attitude!!! We love quotes! All kinds of quotes and we send them out daily! If you would like to be added to our daily list, please either email us your address or leave a message in the comments! Nothing a like a little daily does of positivity directly to your in box every morning!

YES! Attitude Winner

For some reason I am technically inept and cannot get the print screen of the image to show so y'all will just have to trust me.The randomly generated choice of Random.org was Comment #8 submitted by MINDY.

MINDY send us your info at abalancedlifestyle@gmail.com and we will send you out your copy of Jeffery Gitomer's Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude.

Thank you so much everyone for all your inspiring comments about how you stay positive.

More about Attitude

I know, I know, we talk a lot about attitude don’t we! Well it is because its one of the most important choices we have in our life. There are a number of things that are out of our control, but our attitude is not one of them. We have FREE choice on how we deal with our attitude. We choose to have a good or not. Yes I realize when we are grumpy and it feels like everything is going wrong around us it is easy to just say "screw it", but again that is our choice to think that way.

I know as I type this I’m waiting for someone to show up. A good friend I’m meeting up with. She is late at the moment and I could get all pissed off that she is late (it is one of my pet peeves), but instead I choose a different attitude. I grabbed my laptop and I’m working on this blog post.

Ever heard that saying, “it is all in the attitude”? Well they are absolutely right. Attitude is everything. Good or bad, the choice is yours, but it is everything. It is your outlook on life. We can get mad when we are sitting in bumper to bumper traffic or chose to use that time to listen something on the CD, or be thankful we’re not in the accident ahead of us, count our blessings, that sort of thing.

Have you noticed that when you are around someone with a pleasant attitude, yours can change that way and vice versa, if you with someone that is very negative you can change that way or you feel drained, tired and irritated.

You choose in every situation how your attitude is going to be. Even when someone is making you angry you can choose to have a good attitude and trust me I KNOW that is not easy, but it can be done.

A friend asked me recently how do you get to a point where you are so positive on most things. Truth is I'm not always, but I have a GREAT network of support around me that I text, blackberry, email, call whatever when I'm feeling negative. They know how to get me back and I do the same for them. I have to admit its been years in working towards trying to keep a positive attitude and I know there is always room for improvement. One of the biggest things that has helped me on this journey is reading books on positive attitudes! When I say reading them, I mean every day!! That said don't forget to go our book review post here and enter to win a copy of Jeffrey's Yes!Attitude. You have till tomorrow to enter!!!! In the coming posts we will talk about how to get your attitude on the right track, but reading all kinds of books on the subject is a great way to start!

Sunday quote...

There's nothing more important in life,
than the people you meet along the way.

I was sent that quote a while back and its so true. :) Another post on attitude coming your way tonight! Stay tuned.

More Positive Attitude

I came here today to right a more comprehensive review of this book and how it has changed my life. However, when I started going through the book to pull out some of my favorite parts, I for the life of me could not choose.

So being the Type A person that I am I created a criteria for choosing the things I liked most. I decided that if the page was folded down or the corner was clean tore off that would be a good place to start.

53 pages! to choose from, still too many parameters. So this time I decided to chuck the Type A approach and just write from my heart.

I have always been a pretty positive person. I have had many challenges in my life, some I have created and some blessed upon me by others. It is now that I am able to view these as opportunities vs getting down and depressed about the amount of CRAP I have to deal with.

Jenn had received this book from a dear friend. She blogged about it and I read the blog post about it. I headed out that day for lunch and thought I would check at Chapters to see if they had it. They did. I started reading it right there in the store. An hour later I realized I was still reading and now late for work. I scurried back to work and placed the book on my desk. For a few weeks it traveled back and forth with me to and from work. Finally I decided it was so valuable in both places I bought a second copy.

This book is about seeing my life as MY choice, MY responsibility.

One of my most favorite parts is in Chapter 5 in this chapter he talks about problems and how to work with them. "Start thinking by reading and writing. Everyone has problems, issues, challenges, and drama in their lives. The difference between positive resolve and negative resolve is the thought process that goes into figuring out the solution."

How many of us can say they spent as much time thinking about the possible solutions as we do complaining or worrying about the problem, issues, what have you.

This concept changed my life and how I view everything. I was there already, but this book helped cement this solution oriented living in my consciousness. I have the power.

This summer and fall as our family has seen several changes in our therapy care partners and school education partners for our son with Cerebral Palsy, it would be easy to be upset by the changes to rail against them. To beg and plead with the "powers that be" not to change things -- We have had too much change. To demand that others figure out away to continue with status quo.

Instead, we are choosing to view this as an opportunity to learn to survive change, deal with change and adapt with change. After all is this not a powerful gift to our son who will surely experience changes in his care providers for the rest of his life.

There are few things I know for certain in this life, but I do know everything will CHANGE.

You can wallow around and have yourself a pity party forever, or you can get with the program and be active in creating desirable solutions.

Don't forget to leave your comment on our book review post to receive a copy of this powerful book.

Be the Change you want to see - Shannon