diy {thankful tree}

what?
a diy post?
i'm a big time fan of doing it yourself if at all possible. handmade is just so great. and great for your kids. at least my kids always enjoy it.

this idea was taken from a sweet friend i met at the flourish retreat a few weekends ago. during the retreat we talked a lot about gratefulness and practicing giving thanks to the Lord in all things. one of the things that discourages me most in mothering is when i see a lack of gratefulness in my children. and then i was encouraged to look at myself and how often i model thankfulness in front of them. do i speak out loud the things that i am thankful for? do i practice seeing and acknowledging His goodness?
frankly, not a lot.
i have been putting that to practice much more in my walk with Him these past few weeks, and to encourage it in the kids as well, we made ourselves a thankful tree.
i find that my days with the kids are so much smoother if i give them structure. i still need to be flexible, because let's face it, you have to be with kids. but if i have ideas of things that we can do together, or things they can do on their own, throughout the day, there is less fighting/whining/mommy getting upset/time-outs, etc.
this is a fun one for everyone, and virtually free (if you already have the card stock on hand).
first, go on a walk in search for the perfect branches for your thankful tree. the girls loved this process, and we came home with an abundance of branches.

dependent on what kind of vase you want to use, you'll need to break off some smaller branches to fit right and then just arrange them in your vase so they are varying heights and fit your space well.
find a free leaf template online, or just freehand if you're good at that. (my friend had some small paper leaves that she offered me to trace as we were walking home with our branches). i just made outlined them larger. i did the cutting when the kids were asleep. although i could have let them do some cutting. dependent on your kids ages, they can cut them out or you.

grab some cardstock to trace and cut your leaves out. i used autumn colored card stock. although you can really just do whatever you want here. i figured i'd choose the color scheme on the paper and let them have at it with their words on the leaves.
punch small holes in the tips of your leaves and string some twine through so you can hang them like ornaments.
leave a stack of your leaves and some pencils in a bowl under your thankful tree.

we've talked about thankfulness, and i remind them every day or so if they haven't written anything down to be thinking of some things they are thankful for to put on our tree.

i'm thinking this is a tradition that we will want to continue for awhile.
God is good. all the time. create in me a clean heart, o God, and renew a right Spirit within me. help me to be grateful. teach me to have a heart that speaks thankfulness and models it to my children.