karenika

January 2016 – Fashion Girls – 11

Here’s girl eleven:

Fashion Girls in a Monthly Project for January 2016. You can read more about my projects for 2016 here.

Weekly Reflection – 02

Three Choices I made this week:

One: I chose to let everything besides work go this week. I knew it was going to be a long/tough week and decided to just not fight it.
Two: I chose to still exercise whenever I could.
Three: I chose to do the best I could every day this week, knowing it was going to be a busy week.

I read/learned: I am reading The Dog Stars and I am almost done with it. I’ve learned a tremendous amount about work this week but not much else.
I celebrate: I am so very thrilled to have had all the visitors from Zurich. I celebrate all the time I’ve had with them.
I am grateful for: My husband. He did everything this whole week. I am so grateful for his kindness, his generosity and his love.
I focused on my health by:

Walked nearly 10K steps every day (my weekly average is still 10K)
Did my extra exercise three days this week
Ate as well as I could, had no Diet Coke or lattes

I made art: No art this week. Just writing. I will do some this weekend, I hope.
I let go of: I really was worried about how to balance work and home and sleep and health this week. But I just decided on Monday that I had to let it go. I had to be present at work and not worry about the others too much. I did the best I could but I also let it go.
Core Desire Check-in:

Kind: I was very kind to my visitors for work. Drove everyone around.
Strong: I was scared to drive but I did it. I worked out, too.
True: I stayed true to my opinions and feelings all week.
Generous: I was generous with my time at work this week. I did a lot at work to sort out issues.
Brave: I drove. I went to social events. I did so much more than I usually do.

No major photos from this week sadly. I will do better this weekend 🙂

Weekly Reflection is a year-long project for 2016. You can read more about my projects for 2016 here.

January 2016 – Fashion Girls – 10

Here’s girl ten:

Fashion Girls in a Monthly Project for January 2016. You can read more about my projects for 2016 here.

Here’s week two in my sketchbook. I drew the left side back when I was going to a local coffeeshop on the weekends to sit alone with my coffee, croissant, and just enjoy a bit of quiet time each weekend. I decided I wanted to see if I could draw it. What I love best about this is that when I look at it now, I think of that moment. Just like photos, these drawings are parts of my life story. The one on the right was my drawing of a tea I drank with my sister in Bodrum, Turkey and the coffee cups I used to be able to be found with (before I quit drinking lattes) all the time.

I like thinking about the choices I’ve made each day. What they mean, which I’d like to revisit, etc. This is my way of living intentionally. At least trying to.

Here are closer shots of each side:

Today I Choose is a year-long project for 2016. You can read more about my projects for 2016 here.

January 2016 – Fashion Girls – 09

Here’s girl nine:

Fashion Girls in a Monthly Project for January 2016. You can read more about my projects for 2016 here.

A Book a Week – A Spool of Blue Thread

I read A Spool of Blue Thread because I love Anne Tyler. Love love love love her. Her way of storytelling speaks to me. Her characters are always lovely and stay with me long after I finish her books. There was no way I wouldn’t love this one.

And I wasn’t wrong.

I loved it. It was so typical Anne Tyler.

If you love her as much as I do, it will not disappoint.

January 2016 – Fashion Girls – 08

Here’s girl eight:

Fashion Girls in a Monthly Project for January 2016. You can read more about my projects for 2016 here.

2016 Stories – 02 – The Sinking Snowman

The day after Christmas, I was sitting with Jake, trying to decide what we should do for the following week. We hadn’t really had too many adventures over the holidays and I wanted to see if we wanted one last hurrah. Nathaniel mentioned he wanted to play with snow so I asked Jake if he knew of a place relatively closeby that had snow. After some searching we found this farm which was about a hour and 20 minutes away.

Nathaniel really wanted to build a snowman and David wanted to ice skate. I wanted to see the lights. We decided a Tuesday afternoon would be considerably better than New Year’s Day so we got on the road around 2pm. As it worked out, between construction and traffic, it took us much longer than 75 minutes. But we persevered. When we got there, the little mountain of snow the farm owner mentioned ended up being really hard, fake snow. Not ideal for making snowmen.

We tried and tried and tried but then after realizing how hard it was going to be, I told Nathaniel that maybe we should just aim to make a sinking snowman instead. So we finished off his head, gave him a nose, eyes, some buttons and called it a day.

Not the best but sometimes you have to make do with what you have.

We then ice skated for a while, the kids raced some cars, got some cupcakes, and I got to have my light tour. The drive back home was considerably less painful and we all enjoyed our lovely little adventure. Here’s to more adventures.

Stories from 2016 is a year-long project for 2016. You can read more about my projects for 2016 here.

January 2016 – Fashion Girls – 07

Here’s girl seven:

Fashion Girls in a Monthly Project for January 2016. You can read more about my projects for 2016 here.

Living Intentionally – 02

Weekly Intention: This week is a full, full week and even though I usually spend time Sunday evenings planning for the week ahead, as it worked out, we decided to take a last minute skiing trip this Sunday so we just got home and it’s 10pm so I am choosing to go to bed instead of doing my planning. Which means the week might start of even more shakily than usual. But I am grateful for the wonderful day and maybe this was a sign that my intention for this week should just be to be more present and in the moment instead of worrying about planning this week out.
Choices I want to make:

One: I want to choose to eat well and do my exercises despite the very full days.
Two: I want to choose to spend my moments at home with my family instead of working since I will be at work a lot this week.
Three: I want to spend the rest of my time getting as much rest as possible.

I am looking forward to: Seeing some of my coworkers from Zurich who will be here for the week!
This week’s challenges: This week I have two back to back summits at work which means I will be going to the office every day. And there will be two social events at night and all day meetings for 4 days. This means a lot of other work will need to be caught up on afterwards. It means I will be home very little. It means I will need time to fill up my energy since I’m introverted and need the quiet time to fill up.
Top Goals:

Work: Get a lot of productive work done while all the visitors are in town. Use face to face time well.
Personal: Keep health a priority for the week. Be kind to everyone even if you are stressed/tired.
Family: Spend as much time with my kids and husband as possible.

I will focus on my core desires (kind, strong, true, generous, brave) by:

Being really present at work and at home this week.
I will be kind to myself and others during this hectic time.
I will be generous with my time and effort.
I will put aside anything that’s not urgent so this full week can have all my attention.

This week, I want to remember to: I want to remember that it might be a long week but it’s just one week and it’s transient and it’s wonderful to have the summits here for a change. And that since I do have to be in the office so much, I would like to use that time wisely. I want to make the most of it.

Here’s to a wonderful week!

Living Intentionally is a year-long project for 2016. You can read more about my projects for 2016 here.

January 2016 – Fashion Girls – 06

Here’s girl six:

Fashion Girls in a Monthly Project for January 2016. You can read more about my projects for 2016 here.

Weekly Reflection – 01

Three Choices I made this week:

One: I chose to not do art this week. It meant I could go to bed earlier and help myself transition back to my early morning routine.
Two: I chose to work from bed which helped me rest and helped me eat better.
Three: Made doctor’s appointment for my husband and took care of him after his surgery

I read/learned: I finished reading Ann Patchett’s Bel Canto. It had been on my list for a long time. Looking for a new book to read, would love some ideas. I learned some important steps around Emotional Intelligence from a parent education session by Marc from Yale’s Center for Emotional Intelligence. It gave me a lot of food for thought and I want to work on this since I think it will really help support my core desired feelings for 2016. More on this as I digest it a bit further.
I celebrate: I was on Paperclipping Roundtable this week and it was so much fun.
I am grateful for: A quiet start to January that allowed me to have a bit of a routine. I am also very grateful my husband’s surgery went well.
I focused on my health by:

Walked 10K steps every day (still working on today)
Did my extra exercise daily, too
Slept 8+ hours every night.
Ate well all week, had no Diet Coke or lattes

I made art: No art this week. Just writing. But I did just do my OLW assignment on Sunday.
I let go of: I really wanted to disengage and not work at the end of the day so I worked hard to let the work go by the afternoon and be with my kids instead.
Core Desire Check-in:

Kind: I rested a lot and tried to be kinder to others.
Strong: I worked out a lot more and got a lot of work done at work!
True: I gave myself time to not engage this week. I needed the quiet time.
Generous: I completed a chapter of Algebra with David (does that count?)
Brave: I asked for help for an upcoming social event.

And finally here are some photos from the week: