At the New Year, I told you about the #365Grateful project I committed to doing this year. The idea is to be aware of the things around you and find one thing each day to take a photo of, tag that photo with #365Grateful, and post it to a social media site. I’ve been posting mine to Instagram.

I haven’t succeeded in doing it every day, but I feel that this project has been very successful for me in a delightful, unexpected way. I have adult nieces who are some of the most amazing people I know. They are all moms, and they are on Instagram. Because of the #365Grateful project, I am seeing parts of their lives I wouldn’t get to see otherwise. None of them are doing this specific project. They're just posting photos of my great nieces and nephews, themselves, their dogs, their day-to-day family life, and the things that inspire them.

Because I’m on Instagram regularly now, I get to see these photos and get to see snippets of my family’s lives that I wouldn’t get to otherwise. And they’re getting to see the things that inspire me and get a glimpse of what’s going on with their cousins and me.

As I look back at my #365Grateful photos over the past three months, it’s interesting to see the eclectic collection. Here are just a few of them.

January 7 (The day we were all introduced to the term Polar Vortex)

#365grateful for beauty in nature

(The photo is of the ice on the inside of my dining room window.)

January 19

#365grateful for theater

January 30

#365grateful for a couple of tie racks, some hidden wall space and no more tangled necklaces

February 5

#365grateful for feeling like it's okay to take time to just play around. Tonight, it's hair. Working on the sock bun.

March 2

#365grateful for beauty found everywhere

March 15

#365grateful I live in a community that doesn't think this will drive down property values

Have you been doing the #365Grateful project this year? How successful do you feel?

Also on MNN

Robin Shreeves ( @rshreeves ) focuses on food from a family perspective from her home base in New Jersey.

Related topics: Photography
The #365Grateful project progress report
After almost three months of practicing creative gratitude, success is measured in an unexpected way.