Here’s piece thirteen:
love the watermelon 🙂
Watercolor Food is a Monthly Project for June 2016. You can read more about my projects for 2016Â here.
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These are my nephews. They are fraternal twins and they are seventeen. They are about to be Seniors in high school and will be applying to college in the United States next year. Much of my time in Istanbul this time was spent helping these boys. Sorting our college essays, helping figure out homework, making sure their college lists were completed, etc. We spent many nights discussing what to write about. Many hours going over their homework and teaching HTML or CSS or FileMaker or other pieces of their homework. I even got to go to their school for the first time and attend a college preparation event. It was quite interesting to see that while a lot changes, so much is still the same. I cannot wait until my nephews are in the US. I cannot wait to share my awesome experience of being in college here with them. I cannot wait to get to talk to them every day without worrying too much about time zones. I cannot wait. I know that they have a tough 4 months ahead of them until the application process is over and I will help them every step along the way because I know how hard and how important it all is. And, for once, I can be really helpful. Or at least I can try. Clothes, social decisions, and other daily events are not my thing. I can’t gossip or chitchat. But I can work. And I can help others work. So I am so happy to finally be able to be useful doing what is easiest for me to do! Stories from 2016 is a year-long project for 2016. You can read more about my projects for 2016 here. Here’s piece twelve:
i worked hard on this one but i really don’t like how it turned out. Watercolor Food is a Monthly Project for June 2016. You can read more about my projects for 2016Â here.
Hello again. I haven’t been doing my Friday reflection posts as religiously so these posts are going to have to take the place of both reflection and planning. Last week was a crazy week, I left for Seattle at 4am on Wednesday and worked for two days and woke up at 4am to come back on Friday. My plane was delayed due to some weather in SFO so I barely made it home in time to go pick up David from school and then we ended up getting Nathaniel from his camp. I pretty much passed out when we got back home. I spent the whole Friday night watching the news. It’s been terrifying to see what’s happening to my home. The news in general has just been so incredibly, indescribably traumatizing to me. In the last four days alone, there has been Nice, the coup in Turkey, and Baton Rouge. I just can’t take it anymore. I feel like I am worrying nonstop. I just hope hope hope we get a break. Anyhow, on Saturday morning, I woke up at 5am to get ready for the ROC Race I’d signed up for over four months ago. I did this awesome 5K with 14 other moms from Nathaniel’s class. It’s something I would have never ever ever done on my own. But they encouraged me and I decided to be brave and social and I am so so glad I did! It ended up being really really fun and I am very proud of myself for doing it. All of this meant that I spent most of today resting. I’ve shredded a lot of paperwork, cleaned up my house quite a bit more and took Nathaniel to a birthday party. But otherwise, most of my moments were spent on the couch. I’d say it was a long week but it’s nothing compared to how the next two weeks promise to be. On the upside, I’ve been so busy and so tired that I haven’t had a chance to feel anything but discombobulated. I’ve been living it minute by minute and doing the next thing that needs to be done without worrying too much about the future.
Here’s to a wonderful week!
Here’s piece eleven:
love this little one 🙂 Watercolor Food is a Monthly Project for June 2016. You can read more about my projects for 2016 here. Here’s piece ten:
another piece from turkey vacation and thus with peerless. I like this because it’s so simple. Watercolor Food is a Monthly Project for June 2016. You can read more about my projects for 2016Â here.
I read Speak because it’s just awesome. I saw a friend have it on her goodreads and decided i might like it. I loved it. It was unlike anything, anything i’ve read in a long long long time. It’s not for everyone. It’s weird. It’s unusual. But it’s also very interesting. Really different from other books. And I loved this small little book. Not to mention, how awesome is that cover? Here’s piece nine:
a little piece of yum today. Watercolor Food is a Monthly Project for June 2016. You can read more about my projects for 2016Â here. Here’s piece eight:
another one from the airplane. meh. Watercolor Food is a Monthly Project for June 2016. You can read more about my projects for 2016Â here.
A week after school closed, we headed home to Istanbul. We usually go to Bodrum when we visit Turkey because it’s down south where the kids can spend time on the beach and we can all relax. But this year I wanted to go to Istanbul instead. Istanbul means I can run errands that I often do at home. Like fixing my jewelry, buying clothes for the kids and me, borrowing clothes from my mom, etc. It also means seeing my childhood friends. Since we weren’t going to the South, we also decided to spend two days in Burgaz, which is a small island where I spent most of my summers as a child. This island has no cars. It’s tiny and what was amazing is that 30 years later, all the staff was still the same everywhere. The same ice cream store, the same doner shop, the same pastry shop, the same grocery store, etc. I love how it all was so much of the same. I love the idea of going back somewhere and having it be the same after all this time. The kids loved Burgaz too. They swam in the pool, they ran around and had the best ice cream in the world. All in all, being in Istanbul (instead of Bodrum) was a mixed blessing. It meant we got to spend time with my friends and we got to go to Burgaz. But it also meant the kids were indoors most of the time because it was excruciatingly hot. Next year we’ll have to figure out a different plan. Stories from 2016 is a year-long project for 2016. You can read more about my projects for 2016 here.  Hello again. On one side, I’ve gotten so much done in the last two weeks and I am feeling pretty proud of myself. On the other side, I feel quite a bit lost lately. Right now, things at work are in a bit of a transition phase so I have some odds and ends of free time but I can’t predict when and where things will change and I know for sure change is coming, so I can’t settle into a routine yet. So I am in this in between place. Which isn’t usually my happy place. But I am trying to make the most of it and do some of the tasks I’ve been putting off forever. Like I cleaned up the whole garage, the kids’ closets, all my scrabooking stuff, and corners of my house that haven’t really been touched in 7 years. I have a bunch more on my list but I’ve donated at least 40 bags of stuff and thrown away another 20 bags worth. My hope is that by the end of the summer, I will have cleared out most of the clutter. Here’s to hoping. I can do these and other small tasks (orthodontist, getting a new car) in the meantime. And then when the new schedule unveils, I will figure it out all over again. Isn’t that the story of life? I am also itching to pick my word for 2017 for some reason. A few months ago, I had a pretty strong idea of what it was going to be but now I am doubting my choice. (he hee.) I’ve liked having “choose” as my word this year but “brave” was so so good to me last year and I find myself still connecting with it very strongly. So I want to find something like that for next year. Something that beckons action and something that helps push me forward in a positive way. And finally, I usually don’t watch the news. I find that it’s almost always depressing. For the last many many years, I used to get my news from the Daily Show. And then I recently started reading the Skimm and thanks to the election, I’ve been watching a lot of CNN. Which has come to mean that I watch a lot of news now. And I’ve noticed I am back to being constantly worried and stressed. Even before this last week’s terrible events, I would find myself waking up every morning and my first thought was wondering if there was another terror event in the world. Knowing we were in Istanbul at the airport exactly a week before the bomb went off, seems to have really messed with my head. And then last week was a terrible, horrible week. I am just so sad about what’s going on all over the world at this moment. I am hoping that all this hate can be countered with equal and more love. I am doing my best to be kinder and gentler with everyone around me. Showing up in the world in the best way I know how.
Here’s to a wonderful week! Here’s piece seven:
i made these pancakes on the airplane to turkey and using peerless watercolors. not a huge fan of the result but it’s ok. Watercolor Food is a Monthly Project for June 2016. You can read more about my projects for 2016Â here. |
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