BYU-Idaho Graduation 2014

Let's be honest... both mine and Michael's college graduation was a long time in the making. But, we did it! We finally graduated and are pretty darn proud of ourselves. We are so grateful for all of our family and friends who cheered us on along the way and for those who came to celebrate with us. Instead of writing about graduation I decided I would do a photo story of the day.

 

                                     

                          

                                          

(Photo credits: Amy Worthington)

#jdills100daysofgratitude....

Several months ago I found myself in a little bit of a rut. I recognized that I wasn't really myself and I felt really down. I decided that I wanted to re-find myself, my happy heart and grateful attitude. I thought about what I could possible do that wouldn't be to difficult or time consuming, but would help me recognize all I have to be grateful for. I decided that I would try and look for the good in my day and recognize how many blessings I have in my life. Now, in the past I've tried this before and after 5 or 6 days felt ok and forgot about it. I decided that this time was going to be different. I wanted my goal of being grateful to have a lasting effect and help me re-establish my habit of recognizing blessings.

So, I decided that every day for 100 days I would post a picture of something I was grateful for on Instagram. This way I would be (hopefully) held accountable by myself and by others.

I began. One day at a time, for 100 hundred days, I looked for something to be grateful for. Some days it was REALLY hard, some days it was all I could do to come up with one thing to be grateful for. Some days it was really easy, I had so many things I felt grateful for that I was overwhelmed.  It became something I looked forward to every single day. I found that as the days passed by the things I was grateful for went beyond the surface and became deep meaningful things. I found myself full of gratitude and happiness. By the end of the 100 days I had accomplished what I set out to do. I was out of my rut. My heart was happy and I was happy to be alive.

For day 100 I knew exactly what I wanted to post, but I first wanted to write a short blog about what I was grateful for on day 100.  (So day 100 was actually weeks ago... whoops!)

#jdills100daysofgratitude #day100
Today I am grateful for myself. I'm grateful for the life I've been given and I hope that I can live it in a way that will not only make my parents, husband, and Heavenly Father proud, but in a way that I am proud of it too. I am beautiful. I can do easy things. I can do hard things. I can face my fears, live my dreams, have hope in the future. I am a wife, a daughter, a sister. I am a creator, a giver, a lover.  I can say with 100% certainty that today and every day I am grateful for me. I am me and that is EXACTLY who I want to be!