Happy Fifth Birthday to The Secret Is Gratitude Blog

I can't believe I have been writing this blog for five straight years now. Many times, I think I should quit but the girls say they like seeing what is going on in our lives since they aren't all at home. With five years behind me, I thought I could post my favorite all time posts but I did that post a few years ago, click here for that post. I then thought I would share this post about the girls singing which is one of my favorites. Click here for that.  What I really should do is have my girls sing "Happy Birthday" in parts and really do it right for my fifth birthday.... Maybe I do that for ten years if I make it that long..... I figured a good "In God We Trust" post would be fitting for a birthday as I do trust in Him daily and He has taken such good care of me. I am truly blessed.

In October 2013, I counted up all the "found" money since I started collecting coins off the ground in November 2010. Click here to see my first post about picking up coins and why I want to keep them off the ground. It is called "In God We Trust."

Just a year later, in November 2011, you can see Princess One counting up the money we found in the first year here in this post.

Early in 2012, I share this post about "found" money sometimes being sent to me in the mail. I always add that money to the money jar as it wasn't money I expected or earned. Here is that post.

So, October 2013 I had $72.84 in money that I found over the past four plus years. In December of 2014, I counted up all the coins in my found jar since they year before in October and it added to just over $14 in just over a year. That is quite a bit of money to find. Here is a post about where I stash my "found" money before I count it up.

I counted up the funds I have found since December and with the $5 I found in this post (Click here) I had $6.90. Not bad "found" money total in 4 months.

My total for the five years of doing this is just under $100. How amazing is that? I am suprized that I have been able to collect that amount of money just by picking up pennies and other coins off the street, sidewalk and floors.

There are the other amounts of "found" money but still, look at the bags of coins, it amazes me that just picking up money can add up like that. I have kept those coins with God's name on them off the ground and hope to find a good cause to put it toward some day.

I also enjoyed strolling through memory lane looking at those old posts and being reminded of all the times I have been so blessed. It was cute to see Princess Five grow over the posts seeing her count the money in the posts and she helped me a bit today and I should have gotten a picture of her with the funds. She has grown so much over the past five years.

Just yesterday, she told me, "My life is all documented." I was taking a picture of her for another post and she wasn't happy with the picture I was taking and I told her how great it is to have her life documented in picture and post. I shared it was like a journal of sorts. With that, she seemed a bit more happy about it and I know she enjoys my posts about her but she just didn't want me taking "that" picture. I will share it in another post this week most likely.

I am so grateful for the times I have found coins during times of stress to remind me to trust in God. I am so blessed.