Remembering Our Blessings

A Gift for Mom! 🤍

Last year while celebrating New Year’s with our children, we introduced a new tradition, The Gratitude Jar. We each started the night off by writing something we were grateful for on a notepad and placing it in the jar. Throughout the year we continued with this habit. Periodically, if we were feeling discouraged or just needed to smile, we could pull out a few gratitude notes and be reminded of the blessings in our lives. I loved hearing the “clink” of the lid being placed on the jar, a sweet reminder that my children are aware of their blessings.

We sat together as a family after attending Mass on New Year’s Day and read the notes together. It was fun to dump them out of the jar, dig through the pile and read them. Some were adorable, many presented a common theme, some reminded us of particular events we went through during the year, a few were odd and there were many that brought me to tears.

It is reassuring as a parent to read notes from your children that state they are grateful for their siblings, their teachers and priests and for YOU as a parent! Every day of my life I thank God for blessing me with my husband and these children and knowing that the daily lessons we are teaching them are sinking in.

There are far too many to list each one, but I would like to share some of our favorites with you. (I am writing these exactly like they were written, spelling errors and all.)

I am grateful for Father Abraham & his wonderful sense

of humor!

Thankful for: being able to go to a safe place during the

day & come home to a safe place at night.

I am thankful for life and Jesus and my family!

I’m thankful for PETE! (We call our daughter Payton, Pete.)

I am thankful for shelter!

My family

I am thankful for school!

Friends Dane Alec Alex. (The cutest part about this is that

these are our oldest son’s friends, but this was written by

our youngest son.)

The Bishop & him taking the time and saying Mass at KCHS.

My beautiful family

I am thankful for the bibble! (Adorable)

I am grateful for Betty Streff

My mom!

I’m tankful for food and drinks and my house! 😉

Karla Jensen – for being my support system away from home.

For my parents love and support

Snow days w/my family! P.S. Any day off work is a great day!

I am thankful for Klotheing (Keeping these FOREVER!)

St. Cecelia’s Cathedral

For mom

PANDAS Duh

I’m thankful for Pete! <3 Jackson (Complete with artwork)

A beautiful wife who has my best interests in mind!

The four Gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke & John

KCHS XC (Kearney Catholic Cross Country)

My professors (past, present & future) especially Mr. Moore

My mom

My inhaler

I am thankful for Pete and Weedum (A.K.A. Payton & Liam)

Catholic Schools Week! We Believe!

I am grateful for Sunshine

Goerg Washingtin (Personal favorite)

I am thenkfol for everything

I am thankful for praying.

Endless supplies of books!

Great kids!

I ttankful for God! (six year olds are adorable!)

Liam – inside & out he is one of the best people I know (written by a sibling, proud mama moment!)

For the opportunity to be involved with Invisible Children (GREAT organization, check it out HERE!)

I am grateful for my SendOutCards team & family! <3

The Sharps

Troy Potthoff and his nurse Ashley

I am grateful for the loving people my children have to teach them.

To have an awesome life

Im thankfull for Jackson as my Best friend.

Lots of food.

I thankful for my family

For being able to run with my family

Dr Bibler and Deb Quinn

I am grateful for fun times with my kids.

Dr McNeil and the support/encouragement he provides for me

For dad

The staff at the Cancer Center

I am thankful for punishment

Father Paul & the way God has blessed my family! He always takes care of us!

I am blessed for all the teachers that take their time and help prepare us for our future <3

Rachel Pokora for always being there for me & having faith in me

I am grateful for Kody & Jodi Bateman

To constantly be inspired by Jason Russel & Jedidiah Jenkins

God giving me six healthy children & my best friend for my husband!

For witnessing true love at Brad & Erica’s wedding

Carl Stevens, Mercy Southam & Angwech Collines

This is just a sampling of the notes in our Gratitude Jar this year, I wish I could list them all! What I learned about this was that my children take time without being prompted to be grateful for even the littlest things in their lives. They love one another, they love their schools, their friends, their parents, (even punishment!) & their God. Our family is abundantly blessed, not merely with material possessions, but with a true deep down positive spirit, with Faith and Gratitude.

What is MOST important to ME in my daily life is that I am a positive example to my children. If I were gone tomorrow, would I have taught them what TRULY matters in life?!? What I noticed about this was that they didn’t say they were grateful for a gaming system or a fancy car, designer jeans or an iPhone, they are grateful for the PEOPLE in their lives and for simple blessings and for their Faith!

We have already got a nice little pile of notes building up for this year, I am looking forward to reading them again together with my favorite people! I hope you will be inspired to begin a Gratitude Jar in YOUR home and remember to ALWAYS thank God for the blessings in your life!

Happy New Year and may God’s BLESSINGS upon you be abundant!

So God Made a Grandmother book by Leslie Means

If you liked this, you'll love our book, SO GOD MADE A GRANDMA

Order Now!

Traci Runge

Traci was born and raised in San Diego and has called Kearney, Nebraska home for the past 18 years. She is married to Darby Runge and together they have 6 children. They own and operate Pro-Tint, a window tinting business. Along with being a full-time mom, Traci is also a Manager and Certified Trainer with SendOutCards, she works with businesses and individuals to build relationships and grow their income through Relationship Marketing. Traci works hard to balance her roles of mother, wife and business owner. She strives to help make the world a better place through kindness and love and leading by example. Traci is committed to her family, church and community and can often be found volunteering in some capacity. www.sendoutcards.com/tracirunge

I Lost My Sight at 16—But It Wasn’t the End of My Vision

In: Faith

After my father shot me, I lay in a hospital bed, and my world went dark. I was 16 years old. The injury left me completely blind. But the darkness didn’t stop there. As my physical sight disappeared, something else came into focus—the depth of the wounds I had carried long before that moment, wounds I had never fully allowed myself to see. For years, I had learned how to survive without asking too many questions. I had learned how to minimize what hurt, how to explain things away, how to keep moving forward as if everything were normal. But...

Keep Reading

Ministry Starts Inside Your Own Four Walls

In: Faith

When people hear the word ministry, they often think of missionaries, or the pastor who preaches every Sunday, but in our home, ministry belongs to all of us—even our kids. Growing up, I didn’t think of myself as a ministry kid. Still, when my dad packed our old Astro for the summer and we all piled in, we were on mission. Each kid had a part to play in my dad’s evangelical magic shows (yes, you read that right!). My brother would juggle, my older sister sang, my middle sister flipped the projector slides that shone pictures of Jesus on...

Keep Reading

These Holy Small Things

In: Faith, Motherhood

My 8-year-old-daughter has recently taken up sewing, to my simultaneous delight and chagrin. My delight because I too love sewing; my chagrin because her enthusiasm often outpaces my own abilities, namely, in the undertaking of tedious projects with no pattern. Take, for example, the cloth doll diaper we designed and stitched up together. Granted, the design was fairly basic to draw up and scale. But the minuscule nature of the work, both for my hands and head, was enough to throw me into existential questioning. It was one of those moments when you wonder how the sum of your life...

Keep Reading

Life Lessons from My Grown Children

In: Faith, Motherhood

“Don’t limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time.” – Rabindranath Tagore Quietly communing with a loved one in the early morning hours is such an intimate and precious time. Visiting with one’s grown child when all is dark and still is one of life’s purest pleasures. I remember the conversation clearly. My daughter’s husband, small children, and father were all asleep as we whispered and chatted. She and I are both fidgeters by nature, unable to be still for long. This inner restlessness must be remedied, and we are compelled by biology to...

Keep Reading

My Prayer Is Simple Now: “I Believe; Help My Unbelief.”

In: Faith

I have spent most of my life in faith. Not circling it or analyzing it from a distance, but inside it—learning its language before I even realized I was learning it, shaping myself around it in ways that felt as natural as breathing. I was raised in Christian Science, which is a very particular kind of faith. It’s not really about “believing” in the way most people think. It’s about understanding. Aligning your thoughts with what is ultimately true about God and reality. If you can understand rightly, you can be well. If you can see clearly, healing follows. So...

Keep Reading

Your Worth Is Not Someone Else’s To Measure

In: Faith, Living

Insecurity is something we all carry in one form or another. For me, it has probably always looked confident and outgoing from the outside. But internally, it can feel heavy, complicated, and exhausting at times. And when someone comes along whose behavior reinforces those insecurities, it amplifies what was already there. There was someone I had hoped to genuinely connect with, but it was clear from the start that the feeling wasn’t mutual. From the beginning, their wall was up. No matter how kind I tried to be or how carefully I showed up, it never came down. Their distance...

Keep Reading

Lord, Give Me Faith Like Hannah

In: Faith

Woman walking in field with hand in wheat

Hannah knew what it was like to feel forgotten. She often clutched her empty womb and thought Surely the Lord has forgotten me. She knew the bitter sting of feeling isolated and alone. She knew the anguish of praying day after day after day and seeing no fruit, not even a bud, from her faithfulness. Hannah knew what it was like to feel like the weight of the world was on her, and her hope may have dwindled. Even those around her did not offer encouragement. Quite the opposite—they did their best to sow seeds of discouragement. Yet Hannah pressed...

Keep Reading

God Carries Me Through the Deep Waters of Change

In: Faith, Living, Motherhood

“Ahhh!” My underwater scream garbled in my snorkel tube as the manta ray’s cavernous mouth swept a hand’s distance from my face. My fingers tightened around the surfboard until my knuckles ached. My arms trembled. I jerked my head side to side, searching for my daughters, Mia and Megan. Recent college graduates, they had joined me on one last mother-daughter vacation before launching their adult lives. They floated easily on the vibrant Hawaiian water, relaxed, trusting. I wanted to borrow their calm. Earlier, our guide had explained that the LED lights built into the surfboard attracted plankton the way college...

Keep Reading

Faith After a Rare Disease Diagnosis

In: Faith, Motherhood

My pastor frequently speaks of “kid pain” and acknowledges there’s nothing like it. I can testify to that. After nine months of uncertainty and unexplained issues following the birth of our now 4-year-old daughter, Harlow, we finally received her diagnosis of Pyruvate Dehydrogenase Complex Deficiency (PDCD), a life-limiting mitochondrial disease with no cure and no FDA-approved treatments. It was heartbreaking. In moments like these, a parent can fall into complete desperation. You go through a range of emotions almost too fast to name: fear for your child’s life; anxiousness about how much time you’ll get with them; overwhelming grief. And...

Keep Reading

What If I Don’t Hear God’s Voice?

In: Faith

There have been many times over the years when I’ve heard others share stories of how the Lord spoke to them or gave them a sign. Seashells scattered along a sandy beach, numbered to represent how many children they would have. A quiet walk in the park, followed by a clear sense that another little one was coming. What a blessing, I think, when I hear and read their stories. I often wonder how much more faith they must have than I do—to know with such certainty that what they heard was truly God speaking. I listen, I smile, and...

Keep Reading

Yeeee Haaaaw!

Faith

Yeeee Haaaaw!

Cherish Every New Day

Faith

If you liked this, you'll love our book, SO GOD MADE A GRANDMA

Traci Runge

I Lost My Sight at 16—But It Wasn’t the End of My Vision

Ministry Starts Inside Your Own Four Walls

These Holy Small Things

Life Lessons from My Grown Children

My Prayer Is Simple Now: “I Believe; Help My Unbelief.”

Your Worth Is Not Someone Else’s To Measure

Lord, Give Me Faith Like Hannah

God Carries Me Through the Deep Waters of Change

Faith After a Rare Disease Diagnosis

What If I Don’t Hear God’s Voice?

Get It Now

So God Made a Mother

Remembering Our Blessings

If you liked this, you'll love our book, SO GOD MADE A GRANDMA

I Lost My Sight at 16—But It Wasn’t the End of My Vision

Ministry Starts Inside Your Own Four Walls

These Holy Small Things

Life Lessons from My Grown Children

My Prayer Is Simple Now: “I Believe; Help My Unbelief.”

Your Worth Is Not Someone Else’s To Measure

Lord, Give Me Faith Like Hannah

God Carries Me Through the Deep Waters of Change

Faith After a Rare Disease Diagnosis

What If I Don’t Hear God’s Voice?

Previous Post

Next Post

You May Also Like