How to use Pinterest to create more than just great casseroles

Pinning for perfection

I decided to do an experiment on Pinterest this month. I mean, I do experiments every month, but this time a true experiment in that I chose my topic, put it in the search box, and decided that whatever the first pin said was my topic this month.

Since we are coming up on Thanksgiving, in the search box I wrote “thankful,” and what I discovered was a gathering of sayings to remind us how lucky we are in life and to have an attitude of gratitude.

The great thing about Pinterest is not only can you find great recipes and maybe not so great do it yourself projects, you can also find things to inspire you, and then create your own board about being thankful – just like I did.

The winner for first pin under “thankful?” A lyrical post that read, “When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy” by Rumi. Beautiful! I know I’m typically burning appliances or stuffing my face with some kind of dessert, but that Sufi mystic hit me right. I decided to go through the month and really pay attention to what makes me thankful – but take it even further and look at the things that are a bonus to the regular stuff. You know, regular stuff like my wonderful husband, my beautiful daughter, my friends and extended family, my job (thanks to my editor, Lydia!) – all the things that make my world go round. I wanted to see how far the thankful stretched in my life – and boy, when you look at it up close it is a truly powerful thing.

I wish I could write about every single thing I found to be grateful for this month, but I wouldn’t have enough space in this entire magazine to get everything down. I decided I was going to have to pick one thing, but even then I couldn’t.

So I picked seven; seven wonderful individuals that have come into my life and made a difference. The first three are my mom and dad, Jack and Sharon, and my mother-in-law, Jean. The three of them stepped up when I decided to go back into the classroom and are getting my daughter Gracie to and from school every single day. I know they don’t mind all the extra snuggles (from Gracie, not me), but I couldn’t have gone back to teaching without them, or functioned too well before that if I’m being honest. I am so lucky to have such amazing role models and Gracie hit the jackpot in the grandparents’ department.

You know when you meet someone and you feel it in your bones that they’re just exactly who is supposed to be with you? That’s what happened when I met Carol Cameron, Gracie’s former speech therapist. Carol is the person who helped Gracie come out of her babbling shell. Our girl has a speech delay, and when Carol first came to see us on a weekly basis, we were struggling. Any time your child has delays (or even if they don’t), you spend nights worrying about what it all means and what needs to be done. Carol came along with her amazing heart and made everything OK. When we first started seeing her, Gracie would just make her noises and her occasional “Gracie” word – things we understood but no one else would. After eight months with Carol, Gracie was reading and her vocabulary had grown tremendously. Carol could only work with her until she was three, and when that last session in May came along, we were sad to see her go. OK, I’ll be honest, I cried as she walked to her car. Carol will always be a part of our family, and I will be forever grateful to the magic she did with our Gracie.

Which brings me to the grand finale of thankfulness for the month, saved especially for Gracie’s teachers – Debbie May, Tiffany Hines and Brenda Smith. Gracie graduated from private sessions with Carol to a speech therapy pre-K program in Caddo Parish. These wonderful women have been so good to Gracie, and she just adores all of them. Her speech has taken another huge jump in the right direction, and we are only two months in. What Carol started, they have continued, and we couldn’t be more proud of Gracie’s progress. It is such a relief to know that when you aren’t with your child that she’s not only okay, she’s loved and learning. I know these ladies have their hands full, but I also know for a fact that teaching these children is a calling for them – not just a paycheck. I am beyond grateful to these wonderful women and the love they share with my child.

A few pins down from my inspirational Rumi quote was another saying, “Not every day is good, but there’s good in every day.” I think that sums up my life right now. In just searching the word thankful, I have been shown how easy it is to find the good in every day. It definitely is a river of joy.

Mandy Byrd is a stay-at-home mom originally from Colorado.

She is mother to Gracie and wife to her handsome devil-of-aman, Eric. Send Pinterest ideas and comments to Mandy at [email protected].