so here’s a mix of what i did on vacation and when i got back:
June 2:
June 3:
Thursday:
Friday:
Saturday:
that’s it for this week.
Daily Sketching is a weekly project for 2012. You can see a detailed post on my steps here.
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I am finally back from Turkey and trying get back into the groove of things. I have to admit that while I worried endlessly about the flight, the trip, the time difference, the jet lag, etc. none of them were an issue. We did get jetlag in Istanbul but since we were on vacation, it was easy to work around it. The kids got along wonderfully and it was absolutely magical to see the whole family together, laughing, hugging, and truly enjoying each other’s company. Thank you, Yonuka, for creating the best excuse to have us finally be together. I am hoping this is the beginning of many future trips home. I had intended to write these posts while I was away, but as it worked out, I barely had time to check my mail. I did only two sketches while I was there and no art journal pages. The only thing I kept up with was my 31 Things prompts. Early on, I gave myself permission to let my schedule go and enjoy being there. I did exercise every single day but it was my only requirement. Even though we’ve been back for over five days, I still feel all over the place. I spent most of the weekend doing personal catch up things like sketching, doing two weeks worth of the savor project, a collage page, homework for 31 Things, journaling for Your Living Canvas, my pages for both OLW and MMEW and processing hundreds of photos. I have a lot of thoughts, feelings and worries and hopes and wishes and goals in my head lately and I feel like I need to journal but I can’t seem to get myself motivated enough to do it. One of these is figuring out more specific plans for the summer. I know Ali’s done a manifesto but what I really want to do is two-fold. The first is to come up with a schedule for me and the kids. Now that school’s closed and kids are around, I need to come up with a way to occupy them and make them stimulated without getting in the way of work. And I need to shift my schedule around so I can still do the things I want to do and still be present with my kids and accomplish things at work. Balancing it all looks different in the summer than the fall. The second one is more about taking a breath and looking back at the year so far. Summer happens to come right in the middle of the calendar year. I’ve now been doing my projects for six months. This has been a rough year for me in some ways and I’d like to be able to sit back and assess what’s working and what’s not. How and if I’d like to change anything. This requires a lot of time and thinking. And I really feel a pull to do it. I am hoping this week is the week when I finally sit and give it the time it deserves. In the meantime, I’ve decided on an overall tone for the summer. My personal goal this summer is to make this the summer of calm. Today’s prompt for the 31 Things class was “covet” so the goal was to write about things you covet. I don’t shop much and I am blessed to have everything I need. The one thing I covet above all else is peace. It’s tranquility. Not as much a quiet house (though that makes me happy, too) but really a quiet soul, heart and mind. I want to feel the quiet contentment and gratitude that I remember feeling last year. I want to calm my mind. I want to change my tone and attitude so I am kinder to everyone around me. So I am open to the world and receive things in a positive manner. I want to be quiet. Positive. Optimistic. Assume the best. I want to be calm with my kids. I want to react quietly to them and at work. I want to pause, take a breath and just act and not react. This will be hard for me. But it will also be rewarding. It will be good for my soul. More than that, I think, at this point, it’s crucial that I do this. I need it. And I am determined to make it happen. So it shall be. Here’s to the summer of calm. ps: to those of you who receive these by email, do you prefer to get the whole content (like you do now) or a short preview which will mean you have to click to read the whole post but it will probably make your mail smaller. Let me know what you prefer. I always prefer whole content which is why I had it set this way but I figured i should ask just in case you feel differently. This is a layout I made for My Mind’s Eye for March.
And the journaling says: details:
As I mentioned, I plan to keep this project simple and fun for both of us. So, I did the same thing with this letter as I did for letter A and all the others. I cut them all up and then, Nathaniel and I glued them down together to create this simple page:
Like each time, we talked about each of the words and then differentiated between capitals and lowercase. Then we colored all the letters. Here he is gluing:
and coloring
Yey! Nathaniel is still loving this project! Letters with Nathaniel is a weekly project for 2012. You can read more about it here.
as might be expected, there are a LOT of photos this week. I just wanted them all, feel free to skip, I won’t be offended. Here they are: we spent some time by the pool and I finally got to sit and sketch. nathaniel is pouting cause he can’t use my watercolors.
but then they got their own art supplies (thanks Yona!)
daddy took this one on his cell phone (the other two, too)
my dad and nathaniel on the ipad.
mom. i love you mom.
miss her already.
my sister wanted photos of all the kids so we sat them down and tried to get them to behave.
we started with tickle time.
which the kids loved.
but nathaniel was pouty and didn’t really want smiley photos.
he kept pouting and pouting.
my sister and her two wonderful boys.
isn’t that magnificent?
nathaniel is still unwilling to cooperate.
but i snagged one without a pout.
then it was tickle time again so he perked up
and all was well.
laughter and laughter.
and the little boy finally gives me a smile.
not the best photo but still me and my boys!
every morning, we sat outside to have our breakfast and this little dog came to visit us.
there was much ipad time.
for each of the boys.
my sister and her hubby.
the two drivers who took us everywhere all week. the one on the right has known me since i was teeny tiny.
on our last day, we went to a transportation museum.
more ipad time.
on my last night, we were at my sister’s and i snapped a bunch of last minute photos.
my love.
my wonderful mom.
more of my sister and her hubby.
yona played with nathaniel and made him laugh laugh laugh.
he just loved it.
then it was david’s turn.
who also enjoyed every minute of it.
then the boys finally got home so I could take their photos.
they, too, did some tickle time.
there’s nothing like tickle time.
i love this 1-1 time they had.
and the hugs.
but mostly the laughter.
it was miraculously hard to get them all together.
and even harder when yona tried to get them to pose a certain way.
i didn’t have a 1-1 with aksel and david so I snapped that, too.
and then we were on our way home. after a long, long flight, running through the airport with a lot of luggage, missing flights, and rearranging stuff, we made it home safe and sound. and i snapped a few more photos.
my boys colored while i rested and unpacked.
and then Friday I had work. nathaniel woke up at 2:45 am and so did I, so it was a long long day. But we took our family photo with love.
and laughter.
and here we go. i hope your week was lovely, too. Weekly Diary is a project for 2012. You can read more about it here. Page twenty-three:
I covered my background with tissue paper from 7 gypsies. Added some circles. Some of the grungeboard from Tim with gold paint and this page was done. The quote says: Give your dreams flight. Choose, choose, choose to soar. Here are some more shots of it:
Journey into Collage is a project for 2012. You can read more about it here. Here are some more pages I did:
The full text reads: stand tall and show yourself to the world. you are magnificent. And here’s the next page:
The full text reads: to love others, start by loving yourself more. Well here we go. More coming next week. I am creating multiple art journaling pages a week for now. You can read more about this project here. This set uses the Fabriano Roma papers. And here’s the spread for week twenty:
here’s a closer up of the left side:
The first story here just how much i love my kids. I have to do these regularly 🙂 Next one is advice to David and then the last one is David drawing science. What he’s learned so far. And here’s the right side:
The first one here is book club. The second one is thoughts about Nathaniel. Then about packing to leave for Turkey. And finally about the 31 Things class. My art and our family photo along the bottom as usual. So there we go. So far, so good. Still enjoying this project a lot. Happy Savoring. The Savor Project was supposed to be a weekly project for 2012. You can read about my setup here.
After a lovely, literary book like Angle of Repose, I had to move to something light and fun so I read about Variant in Stephanie Howell’s blog and got it and read it pretty much in two days. I was really really mad at the end because I didn’t know it was part of a series and it left with a pretty big cliffhanger. Books like that make me mad. But alas it was a great read and I really enjoyed it. So now I have to wait for number two. Argh. This layout is for Write.Click.Scrapbook’s June Gallery. The theme is to scraplift another member. I chose this wonderful layout from Marnie Flores.
Journaling Reads: Here is the next spread from our book:
This page is a photo from the same playdate. David had so much fun that we wanted to make sure we remembered it. more next time. David’s Book of Good Memories is a bi-weekly project for 2012 with my seven-year-old son David. You can read more about it here.
we have been home with my family and I haven’t been able to write daily. I ended up not having as much free time as I originally thought I might have while I’m here. Haven’t even managed to do a single sketch. Alas, here are some great moments from this week: My sister’s son Jeff with Nathaniel (who was trying on clothes for the barmitzvah)
Her other son Aksel with Nathaniel.
Nathaniel wouldn’t look at the camera.
my mom, on the phone, as she often is.
Jeff with David.
being goofy.
the kids have not eaten much of the food here but my sister’s muffins are super-popular.
Nathaniel wouldn’t stop eating even for the photo.
the ipad has been a good friend to the kids during the more “boring” family conversations.
my sister’s husband, Isaac, and Nathaniel have become fast friends. Here he was “skiing” on him and laughing and laughing.
they played for hours together.
there’s a playground where we’re staying and the kids loved it.
david claimed he didn’t but it’s clear to me he did too.
my dad pushing Nathaniel.
and David trying to figure out how to get himself started.
he figured it out.
Nathaniel kept saying “higher”.
higher.
the next morning was the barmitzvah ceremony so the kids dressed up.
not too much, just dressy shirts and pants.
that night, Jake and I went out to dinner to celebrate our tenth wedding anniversary (which was last Sunday) and the kids hung out with my mom, dad, sister, etc at my sister’s house.
there was much roughhousing of course.
at one point my sister’s twins piled on top of their dad and then David on top of them and then they put Nathaniel at the very top. They fell over more from laughter than pain.
and then there was only Nathaniel left and he told Isaac he had a “secret” to tell him. (His secret, which he whispered very loudly, was that we were going to go on a plane!)
we took our family photo at my mom’s today and it was sort of late so there wasn’t a lot of good light. but we did it anyway. And we had tickle time too of course.
afterwards the whole family ate dinner together at my mom’s. it was loud and noisy and absolutely wonderful.
and here we go. i hope your week was lovely, too. Weekly Diary is a project for 2012. You can read more about it here. |
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