Our family has never been known for our stellar thank-you note etiquette. Instead, thank you notes typically make my boys want to actually return their presents.

“Skylanders, YES!!!!!”

“THANK YOU NOTES??? Oh, um, oh, uh. Moaaaannnnnn….Groannnnn….”

Look, it’s not that they are ungrateful. They SAID thank-you 100 times, jumped up and down, and gave the giver a hug. We are thankful, okay. But sitting down in an actual chair and WRITING out thank you notes??? Apparently some people don’t love that idea.

And many of you know that even after they write them their mother may lose them, forget to mail them, or stick them into a drawer and find and mail them a year later.

Not me, of course. Ahem. Never, no. I’m just so organized and careful. That would never happen to me…. (Ha!!!!! Right.)

But we do want to do the right thing and teach our children to show gratitude to others. We’ve been blessed so much.

The Solution

So Lil’ Miss Gratitude, over at….well…..Lilmissgratitude.com invented something that’s pretty awesome. This is what I used for my son’s birthday this year. He took one look at how it was basically already written and all he has to do is fill in the blanks, and he calmed down.

“Oh. I just fill in these blanks?
“Yep. So easy.”

“OKay. Sure. Do you have more of these? Because I got a LOT of presents.”

“No, but I have some “Hello” cards with blanks too. You could make those work for thank you notes.”
“Let me see. Yeah, okay, I got it. THANKS, MOM! Thank you so much. Phew.”

And look how cute:

I actually colored this one myself. It was fun.

a filled in “thank you” note

He’s too cool to color them, of course, so we sent some out uncolored, and I colored some of the others.

My son also decided that his friends don’t want thank-you notes, so he only delivered them to his grandparents and aunts and uncles. Well, all right, this is me we are talking about. He wrote them 2 weeks ago, and they are sitting right beside me because I can’t remember anyone’s exact address, and I haven’t found the time to look them all up.  Hey, I may be a slacker mail handler, but at least I got him to write the notes! Right?

I love Laura’s slogan for these cards: “We said thank you notes; they heard root canal.”

So if this sounds like a story you can relate to, here’s where you can order your own. I can’t recommend these highly enough:

Go here to order them.

Click here to learn more or place an order.

Believe it or not, this is not a sponsored post, but these fabulous products were provided by Lil’ Miss Gratitude.  Check them out! 

The post Do your kids love writing thank you notes???…..So here’s a solution. appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

This weekend I have ridden a horse, eaten delicious food cooked by other people, and listened to an inspiring speaker, Denise Cunningham. I have grown closer to God and closer to other ladies from my church.

Guess what! Our speaker this weekend has a blog too! I’ll give you a link at the bottom of this post. First, you have to read mine.  😉

This retreat was at Wolf Mountain, near Sacramento, California.

I want to share a few lessons I have received from my time on Wolf Mountain.

Alan and me…..not at Wolf Mountain. That’s Yosemite. Alan was at home being Super Dad this weekend.

#1 My very first ministry is actually my husband. When I married him, I promised many things. One day, the boys will all grow up and move away. They will promise their hearts to younger, prettier women. But Alan will still be there.

I can’t wait to get home and focus on being a better wife!!

#2. Do TELL others what God has done for you, and don’t try to take credit for that. Look what God has done in my life! God has guided and protected me through ALL of my years. He provided a way for me to go to college for FREE. He led me to Alan. God kept Alan safe through several tours in combat zones. God has given me these four adorable boys. HE has answered so many prayers and allowed us to live all over the country and see so many beautiful places and meet inspiring people.

I stand in awe of what God has done for us.

Now is the time of life for ME to give thanks and praise to God. What a life that I am living! I have everything. There is no good thing that I do not have.

Yes, I have a bad back. Yes, I have children to train and plenty of work to do. Yes, I have another cross-country move looming in my near future.

But I have a relationship with God in heaven who will carry me through all of these duties.

8Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. 9And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.”

2 Corinthians 12:9

I’m not going to pretend like I have something to do with God’s blessings in my life. To God be the glory!

I cannot take credit. GOD gave me all of this.

We hiked to this cross at the top of the mountain this morning. It was an exhilarating start to the day!

Look for a post soon about the answered prayers we have seen just in the past week! God does not promise us a life without problems. He promises that we will never walk alone. He is always there.

#3. Don’t let the devil steal your joy. Never believe things will not change. Never believe that you aren’t good enough to belong to God. Never believe the lies! “I will just always be like____.” “I just can’t win.” “I’m not as good as they are.” And so on and so forth! Those are lies. Do not buy it.

#4. Be thankful!!

“Oh give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endures forever.” Psalm 107:1

a few friends climbing the steep mountain

What did I like about retreat? Rest, fun, God’s word, and fellowship! Did I mention I also got to ride horses? Wow, can we go to retreat again next week???

I am so thankful for my life and the people in it. “To God be the glory. Great things he has done, so loved he the world that He gave us his son.”

view from the top

And here’s a great new blog for you to check out/read/follow. Someone asked me this weekend what it means to follow a blog. It just means to subscribe via email or social media. Blog subscriptions are free. Just type your email address in, and you’re done. That way you never miss a post. My “subscribe via email” option is in my sidebar.

Denise is a darling and inspiring speaker. She is a woman who knows the Lord well, and she has a kind and loving heart that comes through when she teaches. Plus, she’s downright adorable. Here’s her blog, where she writes about a wide variety of topics. I was most struck by her object lessons and her beautiful home decorating skills: www.refreshher.com

Have you ever gone on a retreat? What did you learn?

The post 4 Powerful Lessons From My Very First Women’s Retreat appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.