This is one of my favorite times of the year- The weather is getting cooler and I can wear my cute scarves and boots, the leaves on the trees are changing to beautiful yellows, reds and oranges, and there is magic in the air. It is the time of year where there is a new kind of bustle, one of energy and excitement for what is just around the corner. Halloween has come and gone and has left us with WAY too much candy, more memories to add to the photo album, or our Instagram feed, and more costumes to crowd the closet with. But, now we look ahead to Thanksgiving and Christmas!
While I love Christmas just as much as everyone else, and want to put up my Christmas tree so badly and start listening to all my Christmas favorites, I also love November and Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving gets overshadowed by Christmas and many times gets forgotten as we go through our Novembers and push forward towards Christmas. I know that it maybe isn’t as big of a Holiday as Christmas, but instead of thinking about it as one day, maybe we could begin to think of it as a mindset for November??!!
For the last couple years, I have enjoyed taking time every day of November to think about things I am Thankful for and It has been a wonderful time to reflect on all that God has done in my life and all that he has allowed me to have. A Thankful heart is great medicine and allows us to see all the amazing blessings we have that many times we take for granted. I have so much to be thankful and grateful for in my life and I want to Thank God for these blessings. It is day 6 of the #30daysofgratitude and I am loving seeing everyone’s thankful posts on social media, as well as, taking part in this challenge myself.
Here are the things I have shared thus far:
Day 1- I am so incredibly thankful that I have a personal relationship with my Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. That I have the opportunity to know Him in a personal way and have someone on my side, comforting me, leading me, and helping me become the person He has set me out to be.
Day 2- I am thankful for my amazing job and for all the opportunities I have been given over the years. God has blessed me with an incredible job in which I get to be a positive influence in so many young lives, give them a love of music, and help them be better everyday. He has also allowed me to have so many playing and performing opportunities with musicians around Springfield and elsewhere throughout the U.S. and Europe. I have had the opportunity to perform with The Transiberian Orchestra 2 times, Michael Buble, The Celtic Women, and numerous orchestras!
(These are some of my awesome kiddos helping out at the fall festival a couple weeks ago)
Getting to perform at Designed for Life Conference in Springfield 2017! It was an honor to get to worship with the 15,000 women over both weekends!
Last September I got o perform with the Texas Tenors and this August I saw our PBS broadcast, which will also be airing on Netflix for 5 years coming soon!
Europe in 2009 
Day 3- I am so thankful for my husband, Dave, who is a hardworking, loving, caring, funny, generous, handsome, man of God. He is a continual help and support to me in my crazy life and he works so hard to help me out with all I am doing, as well as now working on pursuing a certificate to help with our future. Also- he is an amazing cook… something I prayed for!
Day 4- I am thankful that I live in a place where I get to experience all the different seasons and their beauty. I am loving fall here in Springfield right now.. all the beautiful colors of the trees.
Day 5- I am thankful for my freedoms! I am thankful that I have the freedom to be able to worship my God anytime I want to and to be able to congregate with all my fellow believers at church to be strengthened by the word and fellowship.
Day 6- I am thankful for a day off from school! It has been a crazy couple of months and I am super thankful to have today as a wellness for my mind and soul, and to get things done that I have been pushing aside for months.
Follow my thankful and grateful posts everyday on Instagram or Facebook, and make sure to come back and read the follow up blog post for all the things I am thankful for.
Want to join?!!! Start posting what you are thankful for and use the hashtag #30daysofgratitude
Can not wait to see all the things you are thankful for… Let’s make this our November mindset!
Til next time,
Choose to be thankful, Erin Ruscel
Hi Erin, I can’t agree with more about being thankful bringing u more things to be thankful for. Since practicing gratitude my life gets better and better every day!
Thanks Ciara! I have loved thinking about all i am thankful for and practicing gratitude for it all! It totally does make life so much better… It makes you appreciate so much!
This post was so lovely! I definitely love this time of year!
Thank you so much! I am so glad you stopped by and enjoyed the post!
Very nice and motivational way how to express it ❤
Blog de la Licorne
Thank you so much! Glad you loved it!
First, I love that you are doing this gratitude challenge. We all should really sit down, reflect and see what all of our blessings are. Two, I love how inspirational you always are. Your positive outlook and wanting to make others happy always makes me smile. Third, you and Dave make such a cute couple!
Thank you so much! You should join me and the others doing this challenge… i have loved it! It is really good to sit down and think about all our blessings and what we have! I love getting to make others happy and in turn it makes me happy… Thanks for the nice comments! You are the best!
Congrats on all these great accomplishments, I learned alot about you through this post. It’s amazing that you sat down and wrote about what you’re thankful for and will continue to do so for the remainder of the 30 days. Lately I’ve been feeling a little down maybe I should take part in this challenge.
Thanks girl! It has truly been amazing and everything has been such a blessing from God! I have really enjoyed having to think about all I am thankful for and will enjoy writing the post with all of my days!