Lately I was reminded of the importance of thankfulness and choosing to focus on the good rather than the negative.  Recently, my girls and I decided to check out a local petting zoo at a farm near by. We were so excited, especially when the rain cleared and we finally reached our destination.  As we went to park the car and visit the cute animals, a man (possibly the owner of the farm) came and told us that the parking area had been closed due to the earlier rain causing too much mud, and we would have to park quite a way down the road and walk through some farm land to get back to view the animals.

We parked down the road and started walking through the farm land, only to realise that the land was boggy and us silly townies had not worn the right clothes (think jandals, nice shoes etc).  Our shoes were covered in mud, it started to rain and our pants had mud flicked up the back of them.  One of the girls got an electric shock off the fence, we were struggling to dodge the cow pats and half way through the paddock we nearly turned around, but then decided to keep going.

To cut a long and muddy story short, we persisted and ended up having some awesome moments with some gorgeous animals, including miniature pony rides and even a bowl of Affogato for me!  At the end of the day as I was sitting down with my youngest and we were chatting, I reminded her that if we looked at the negatives, what a horrible day we had had... yet if we chose to focus on the good stuff, what a wonderful day we had.   I don't want to live my life focusing on the negative things - I want to live a thankful life, despite the downs, cherishing the ups.

So here is some of the good stuff from the last few weeks from our world...

Some sweet moments from our farm visit...

Loving spending special time with the kiddos these holidays.  They went back to school today, and it's rather nice to be back into routine again, but those lazy holiday vibes are so nice for a few weeks every so often!

Loving this guy who has recovered enough from his knee surgery to start ripping out our kitchen! The place is a shambles at the moment, but I'm trying hard to keep my eyes on the goal.  Even though it's dusty and messy, the end target is what I'm holding out for and it's going to be so worth it! p.s. this is his going home to renovate face...

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