This week’s page just contains one sketch. I saw this beautiful, colorful house in San Francisco and immediately knew I wanted to sketch it. We were driving by, so I asked Jake to stop so I can take a photo of it and then I sketched it many days later when I was home.
Even though it has a lot of mistakes, I like how it turned out. Overall, it has the feeling of a colorful house even though I clearly took some artistic license in many places.
And there we are.
Everyday Brave is a project for 2015. You can read more about it here.
Still not taking any photos. Let’s see if I can rectify that starting this week. I’d like to say week two was all about getting back into routine but I’d so totally be lying. This week was possibly busier than last week. Meetings, teaching, middle school trips, personal projects and of course lots and lots of work.
And in a continuing saga, Nathaniel now has a double-ear infection. Yum.
All in all, everything ended okay and we’re still chugging along here but I can’t say we’re in any kind of a consistent, reliable routine yet. Here’s to hoping we make it there before the end of the month.
In the spirit of keeping tabs on my priorities and goals weekly, here’s some of what worked and didn’t work this week so far:
Worked Well:
- I am still sketching my daily girls.
- I worked on all my My Mind’s Eye work for February.
- I managed to complete all my weekly projects relatively painlessly.
- Still doing well with the skin cream.
- I’ve managed the 5-2 this week without pain, too.
- Didn’t do as well on veggies but still eating a bunch.
- I spent a lot of time with David and Nathaniel, working and playing.
- Started teaching math weekly to David and a classmate
- Started Nathaniel’s gratitude journal
- Took Nathaniel to the movies with a bunch of his friends.
- Went to two middle schools this week to kickoff our research/process.
- I’ve been really good at saying yes to my boys.
Needs more Work:
- I only journaled one time all week.
- I still didn’t start Mommy reading to Nathaniel.
- I only exercised once this week.
- I didn’t drink enough water or take my vitamins.
- Still lacking on the sleep.
- I want to be more organized about how I spend my time.
So for this upcoming week, the two i want to focus on changing the most are the same two I had last week: blocking my times and exercising. I still think both are crucial and will help me get the other ones on my list done more effectively. Until I get those rolling, I don’t want to pick others.
Here are a few more photos from this week:
Nathaniel working on his gratitude journal.
Family photos.
I love looking at these photos.
silly faces all around.
and lots of laughter.
we loved percy jackson this week. and had to keep reminding nathaniel to look at the camera.
and my very favorite: tickle time!
and here we are. A busy but productive and amazing week. I am so grateful for my life.
Weekly Diary is a project for 2015. You can read more about it here.
Here’s this week’s offering from David:
He has his breaststroke ribbon and a fortuneteller he made and an origami Admiral Ackbar.
And one from Nathaniel:
He has his checklist from when we visited his classroom and his swimming ribbon.
David and Nathaniel’s Books of Happy Memories is a two projects I’m doing with my kids for 2015. You can read more about it here.
Here’s this week’s story:
Title: River Bear Sitter
Story:
In Nathaniel’s Kindergarten class, each of the students gets to have a job for two weeks. Nathaniel’s first job was Electrician. He said it meant that he had to turn the lights on and off throughout the day. He wasn’t crazy about being the Electrician.
For his second job, he got to be the River Bear Sitter. This meant that he was responsible for River Bear for two whole weeks. He could choose to take River Bear home each night and bring him back to school. Or not.
For the first week, he didn’t bring River Bear home at all. I had no idea what his plans were but he told me that he wasn’t required to bring him home and I didn’t push him.
But then on the second week, we were off for Thanksgiving so River Bear got to come home with us all day long for a whole week. Along with River Bear, we also got a little picture book which we were apparently supposed to fill (not that Nathaniel told me anything) with photos of him with River Bear.
So throughout this week, our goal is to get as many fun shots with River Bear as possible. Even though Nathaniel doesn’t seem to have a grand plan, he did insist that I take a photo of him and the bear in front of the Christmas tree. And he also said that we had to make sure to take a photo of him at our Thanksgiving dinner ( which was quite funny to me because no one, except Jake, is all that into Thanksgiving in this family. ) It seems he has a few plans for the bear after all.
I have found this whole process quite interesting. I had thought he would be super-into hanging out with River Bear and getting his photo taken as much as possible. But he seems to be quite laissez-faire about the whole thing. Which, I suppose, is a much easier way to go through life. Maybe he’s trying to teach me a lesson…
We shall see how the rest of the week unfolds, but for now, I’m enjoying all the photos he’s asking me to take and the relaxed attitude he seems to have towards the whole experience.
Stories of Twenty Fifteen is a project for 2015. You can read more about it here.
This week’s pick says “be open to whatever comes next.” I loved this the moment I saw it. It has one of my desired feelings “open” and it’s a reminder to be willing to receive. To let go of the need to control. To be open to possibilities. To be open to the wonders of the universe. To be present.
here are some closeups:
here’s to being able to stay open.
You Choose is a project for 2015. You can read more about it here.
I promised David I would read the whole Harry Potter series when we went home for the holidays (back in June) and I kept my promise. I had read number 1 years ago when it first came out. So I read 2-7 all back to back.
And they were fabulous.
After I read them all, we watched all the movies, and then we made a Harry Potter-themed food party. It was really fun and I am so glad to have shared this with him.
I am now much better prepared for Nathaniel.
After my word of the year, the next four words I planned to care were my Core Desired Feelings for 2015. I figured this way, I could use them on my art projects for the year. or stamp them on my daily planner so I would remember how I want to feel.
So, the first one I decided to tackle was “alive.”
(Now you know what the next three weeks will be, too.)
This one didn’t feel very hard to make but it turned out to be a bit more square than I intended it to be.
Just looking at it makes me connect with the feeling of being alive!
Fifty-two stamps is a project for 2015. You can read more about it here.
I’ve been taking Ali’s One Little Word class for as long as she’s offered it and this year is no exception. The January prompt is usually my favorite one as it sets the intentions and tone for the whole year and then I find myself referring to it all year long so I take it pretty seriously.
Here are my January pages:
The front is a print out of the text I wrote here about why I picked this word.
The back is beautiful graphed paper from Margie’s beautiful The Girls’ Paperie.
The next page is a 2×3 pocket page. It has a definition and a quotation:
The definition is from the blog post too. It’s what brave means to me. The quote is from the wonderful A. A. Milne: “You are braver than you seem, stronger than you think, and loved more than you’ll ever know.”
And here’s the back with let go, invitation and reason why:
Let go says: I want to let go that things always have to be the way they are. That things can’t change. in fact the only thing we are guaranteed in life is change. I want to let go that this person I am is concrete. I am fluid like life. I can be whatever I wish to be. I can feel however I wish to. I get to choose. I can define every part of my life and how I live my days.
Invitation: This word is an invitation to question everything. It’s an invitation to get out of my comfort zone and look at all the things that come my way with a new filter. A Beginner’s Mind. Anything is possible. I want to be alive. This is an invitation to learn what that means for me. What makes me come alive? What does it mean to be brave? Where in my life can I use more of it?
Reason-why: I chose this word because I realized that brave begets more brave. It gives me energy. It shows me that I must question everything. Assume nothing. Take nothing for granted. I want to fully live all the days of my life. To do that I must be brave and bold.
And here’s the next page which has more sections:
I’ve already talked about what I’ve done so far so I won’t rewrite that section but here’s what I have for more and less:
- More kindness, less yelling.
- More generosity, less worrying.
- More responding, less reacting.
- More doing, less procrastinating.
- More exercise, less sedentary.
- More healthy food, less garbage.
- More self-care, less postponing.
- More daring, less settling.
- More celebrating, less bashing.
- More time, less rushing.
- More thinking, less talking.
- More new things, less fear.
- More open, less unwilling.
- More alive, less “the same.”
- More love, less impatience.
- More joy. More joy. More joy.
- More taking chances.
- More vegetables.
What do I fear the most:
- I fear not changing, not trying the new.
- I fear not speaking up when I need to.
- I fear not asking for help.
- I fear failing.
- I fear disappointing the people i love.
- I fear yelling.
- I fear regret.
The back of the form is all about my intentions:
I made sections for health, serene, abundance, open, and alive. Here’s the snippet of what I wrote:
- Health: Exercise daily, eat fresh veggies daily, feel stronger, take care of skin, teeth, hair. drink water.
- Serene: daily journaling, beauty around me: flowers, declutter, read, down time, nature, respond not react
- Abundance: be generous, give more time, attention, money, volunteer. spend weekly dates with each kid + jake, say yes. there’s enough of everything.
- Open: receive, say yes, assume people’s intentions are good, let others take care of me. go visit people.
- Alive: do something brave daily, go out daily, talk to people i see, walk with the kids, going on adventures.
And if you’ve read this far and aren’t totally sick of me, I have two more things. Ali asked two questions to keep in mind all month:
- What are you filling your world with? I thought about this one a lot. Wasn’t really sure what the answer was here but finally here’s what I settled on. Drawing: i’ve been sketching daily and loving it. Vanilla: I’ve burned a french vanilla candle almost daily and my table smells like dessert 24/7 now. And, finally, my kids: I’ve been giving a lot of my time to David lately.
- Where are you going? I am going in the direction of prioritizing my kids and my husband. This is what I’ve wanted to do for a long time. I’ve been balancing it better this year so far. I can do even more here. I’m going in the direction of courage. Trying new things. Saying yes. Stepping up. Having faith.
- What one little thing can you do? Well, I did one big thing. At least big for me. I’ve said yes to my son’s project. Yes to spending a lot more time working with him and helping him. So I did that. One thing I did for Nathaniel is get him a gratitude journal so he can write a sentence daily like David did back then. One little thing I can do for my little one is read more with him one on one. One little thing I can do for Jake is be more patient. Kinder. I can always be kinder.
So there we are. Not all months will be this huge but I wanted to make sure to preserve January since I know I will refer to it a lot.
For this first page, I used Carissa Paige’s lesson from Life Book 2014. The subject was about home and I thought a lot about what home means to me and what I consider to be my home.
I grew up in Istanbul, Turkey and my sister and parents are still there. A lot of what I consider to be my home is all the way there. I now live in the Bay Area and am married with my own family here. So my heart is always split. Some days I feel like both are my home and other days I feel like neither might be. And the truth probably lies somewhere in between as it always does.
So for this page, I collages some pieces to represent my childhood on one side, and some from my adulthood on the other. I then drew the globe (if I had planned it better, I would have put my sister and I on the right side, closer to Turkey and my boys and me on the left, closer to the US but alas I didn’t plan it.) in the middle and painted all over it.
Then I wrote: Home is where the people you love are.
isn’t that the truth.
here’s a closeup of the left side:
and right side:
this one has a lot of texture:
So, next time I find myself wondering where I belong, I remember: I belong with the people I love.
Note to Self is a project for 2015. You can read more about it here.
This week’s page’s photo doesn’t do it justice because the diet coke can is actually glimmering. I used gold guache paint on it. Continuing on the theme of sketching whatever’s around, I went for my pink sneakers on the left side.
The right side is my diet coke, i pad with headphones (can you tell what book I was listening to?) And, of course, nutella!
And there we are.
Everyday Brave is a project for 2015. You can read more about it here.
I don’t know if this is because I take so many photos during December as part of December Daily, but I realized that I didn’t really take any photos in the first week of the year. I had nothing to weed through when doing this week’s update.
This was a long and busy week. The boys and I had to work on going back to our routines of getting up early, preparing lunches, doing daily chores, etc. I am cochairing their school Benefit so work for that ramped up starting this week, too. And over the course of this week we’ve also committed to a big project David’s going to work on that will be taking up a good chunk of his time during the week with regular trips over the weekend. And, as if that wasn’t enough, I also committed to doing math with David and one other boy every week for an hour. All this happened in a span of two days, making my life a bit more frenzied than I like. And all this will make for a very busy winter and spring.
Not to mention my actual work. Which is all new to me and I waver between being really excited and really scared.
On top of all this, Nathaniel woke up with a fever of 102.7 Thursday night which then climbed up to 103.4 by the time he made it to the doctor. This meant that our plans for going skiing this weekend had to be canceled at the very last minute. The little boy is all better now, thankfully. And, as it worked out, this weekend was a good one to be in town. The universe always works in magical ways.
I also thought it might be interesting to keep an ongoing tab of what worked well each week and what might need a bit more shifting so I can keep myself more aware of my priorities and goals and not evaluate them only at the end of the year. Here’s some of what worked and didn’t work this week so far:
Worked Well:
- I managed to sketch almost every morning.
- I started a monthly project and worked on it daily.
- I managed to complete all my weekly projects relatively painlessly.
- I’ve been putting skin cream on almost every single night and morning.
- I’ve managed the 5-2 this week without pain.
- Every weekday I ate at least one if not two servings of vegetables.
- I took my required vitamins almost every day.
- I’ve been really good at saying yes to my boys.
Needs more Work:
- I only journaled one time all week.
- I didn’t read to Nathaniel.
- I did no exercise all week. I need to come up with a plan and execute it.
- I didn’t drink enough water.
- I did okay on the sleep but need to get more consistent with it.
- Now that I am overly committed, the weekly blocking is even more crucial.
So for this upcoming week, the two i want to focus on changing the most are blocking my times and exercising. I think both are crucial and will help me get the other ones on my list done more effectively. Then, the next week I can work on journaling and water, etc.
Here are a few more photos from this week:
Little sick boy who’s such a good sport even when he’s sick.
My three wonderful boys, giggling and having a fun time.
They always know how to have fun.
And how to make me laugh.
and smile.
This week’s we loves were: We love the Patriots, we love the tech challenge, we love plants vs zombies 2.
and my very favorite: tickle time!
and here we are. A crazy but lovely week. I am so grateful for my life.
Weekly Diary is a project for 2015. You can read more about it here.
In 2012, David and I did a project called “David’s Book of Good Memories.” Even though he whined about it often when we did it, he really loves looking through the book. He still looks through it regularly. And it makes him happy.
So when we were trying to decide what project to do in 2015, both of the kids said they wanted to do another Book of Happy Memories. Nathaniel wanted to do one of his own, too. And it’s David’s last year at this school this year so I thought it would be good timing.
Each of the boys got a Moleskine lego notebook. Blue one for Nathaniel and white one for David. David’s is lined and Nathaniel’s is plain.
The idea is to collect all their lovely memorabilia from school in one place and then to write a little bit about what’s special about each thing.
I am really looking forward to doing this project again. It was really fun for us last time.
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projects for twenty twenty-five
projects for twenty twenty-four
projects for twenty twenty-three
projects for twenty twenty-two
projects for twenty twenty-one
projects for twenty nineteen
projects for twenty eighteen
projects from twenty seventeen
monthly projects from previous years
some of my previous projects
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