karenika

Daily Diary – September 26 2011

Well the day was hectic but uneventful, thankfully. When I went to pickup Nathaniel from school, he was wearing a tail so I had to take a photo.

When David comes home from school he always likes to tell me stories:

and i like to snap photos while he does.

Nathaniel gets jealous so I try him next:

entertain him with the lens cap.

which he loves.

and he puts it on his head and says “hat”

plans for tonight are sparse. A little art and a lot of sleep. How about you?

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I talked on the phone with a good friend from my childhood.
2. I am grateful that work went mostly uneventfully today, here’s to hoping it’s the same tonight.
3. I am grateful that despite being super-tired, I still made it through all my tasks today including the 5K.

Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that it was Anthony’s birthday (and I had some muffins!). * {his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that we practiced for the fitness challenge at school.
3. I am grateful that I’m reading my Turkish folktales book.

I Love and Adore you Forever

I had the honor of being the September guest designer Jenni Bowlin’s kit club. Here’s the last of the layouts I made:

Journaling Reads:
no matter what you do and how many times you mess up and how much I might get angry or yell at you or punish you, I will always, always always love you and give you more chances. You are my everything and I will love you forever. And I will make sure you know that I love you for just who you are and just the way you are. You deserve to be loved and I want you to know that even if I mess up everything else, I love you.

And some details:

Daily Diary – September 25 2011

Happy Sunday! I started this morning with exercise and then had a client shoot. The family is my old manager and I’ve been taking pictures of them for a few years now and it’s lovely to see how the kids are growing up over the years.

When the shoot was over, I came home and worked hard to make up for yesterday. I made two art journal pages, a layout, and a sketch. Then I took just a few shots of the kids. The big boy:

and the little boy:

who’s smiling at Daddy, here.

then we played bingo and blokus for family night and now I am trying to catch up on some blog posts. Then maybe a bit of reading and we’re done with this week. Here’s to hoping next week is calm and quiet.

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I felt productive and calm and peaceful today.
2. I am grateful that we had some family time. I love family night.
3. I am grateful that I did a backup of my computer. I don’t do it nearly frequently enough.

Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I watched some batman movies. * {his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that I played chess with daddy.
3. I am grateful that we played Blokus.

Reading with David – Owls in the Family

David says:
I gave this story five stars because I thought it was really cool that they had owls as part of their family. I really liked that the owls walked and liked people and sitting on people’s shoulders.

I liked how Wol was protective of the boys and scared the bullies away when they were hitting the boys. I also like how Billy rescued Weeps and how Wol protected him and took care of him immediately. I also like how Wol scared the crows and Billy’s daddy shot them for being mean. I thought it was funny that Billy’s mom had to feed them breakfast so they wouldn’t follow Billy to school. And I really liked how the owls were allowed in the house and time and how gentle they were.

I was happy that the owls got a new home even though Billy had to move away, he found a good and happy home for the owls.

Reading a book a week with my six-year-old son David is a weekly project for 2011. You can read more about it here.

Art Journaling – Fabriano Roma – Something Wrong

And here’s the next Roma paper page:

The full text reads: Give up that there’s something wrong.

I used acrylics and pastels mostly on this page.

Here are some details from the page:

Jake said all my pages were starting to look similar so I wanted to do something different.

I am creating multiple art journaling pages a week for July and August (and maybe longer). You can read more about it and the book I am using for these pages at the top of this blog post.

Daily Diary – September 24 2011

We had a rough night so it started the day on a tough note. But I still got up and exercised. Then we took our family photos. It wasn’t a great set this time but we got some fun ones from tickle-time.

David was tickling daddy again.

Then David and Nathaniel played.

David was in a super-happy mood so he talked nicely to Nathaniel, who of course adored it since he worships his brother.

David was so happy to play with him that he brought down all of his legos and said that he loved his brother so much and loved playing with him and that he didn’t want to do anything but play with his brother all day. He said he might even rather do that than play wii. he said it was the happiest day of his life. I am not exactly sure what prompted it but it was so so wonderful and lovely to watch them both play and hug and kiss. I will hang on to this one so I can recall it when they start fighting nonstop.

Then Nathaniel went to nap and David played wii and I sketched. I also started my art journal page but didn’t get to finish yet. When Nathaniel woke up we all went to the doctor to get Jake’s birthday present (finally!) so we were there for over 2 hours while Jake tried to put on his contacts. Then we went grocery shopping and by the time we got home and now that both the kids are sleeping, I am completely wiped. I have a photo shoot tomorrow so I will have to wake up early to exercise before I go there so I plan to just rest tonight and only do more art if I feel super-inspired. Otherwise, the couch and I will hang out as we watch TV.

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I got some sketch time in today. I was so tired, I thought I would get absolutely nothing done but I took my time and slowly sketched.
2. I am grateful that I finally got Jake’s present, it was making me sad to have put it off so long.
3. I am grateful that I feel better today than yesterday, last night was challenging for me.

Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I played with my brother. * {his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that I got a new lego set.
3. I am grateful that I got a little travel fish set.

Us Right Now – September 24

jake
This week was all about getting back to the groove of things for Jake. He came back from Vermont late Sunday night and spent the rest of the week catching up, returning emails, helping me, making appointments, etc. But I think he’s almost there. Getting back into the rhythm of the work and the schedules. Work, travel and school all came together to create a bit of temporary chaos but it will slowly go back to normal.

karen
It was another hectic week for me at work and home. I am almost in the groove of our new schedule and I have the 5:30am wake up time down. I am loving doing the exercise so early and getting it out of the way. I am loving journaling while the house is quiet and I am loving feeling like maybe I am finally finding a new routine. I still have a few kinks I need to work out but I am feeling more optimistic than before.

david
David had another good week at school. He had back to school night last week and the teachers seem to like him and we love his school. I feel very much at peace with having moved him and I am hoping he will enjoy his time there so much. His teachers seem truly wonderful and caring and dedicated and kind. He has been reading like a fiend and I love watching him dive deep into books and truly enjoy reading. It was certainly my very favorite thing at his age so I love seeing how much he appreciates it, too.

nathaniel
Nathaniel is also loving school and he also had back to school night last week. His school is tiny and he really enjoys being there. On the days he is not scheduled to go, he cries when he sees me pulling into the driveway instead of the school. He has begun using his name a lot so he’ll say Nei-nei eat or sleep or no. Closer and closer to making full sentences all the time. He’s so cute and jovial that it’s fun to be around him even as he gets more and more demanding and dramatic.

Us Right Now is a weekly project for 2011. You can read more about it here.

Daily Diary – September 23 2011

Today was one of those days that just fly and you find yourself at the end of it and you’re unsure how you got here. But here we are.I snapped a shot of David right around dinner:

and I got this lucky shot of a face he makes when he tells stories to me:

Nathaniel was feeling coy. He smiled but wouldn’t look up.

he’s been really interested in books lately.

even more so than usual. I am guessing that has to do with how much David’s reading. Great influence on the little one.

The one and only shot I got of his face wasn’t a smile. But I like to preserve all expressions so I was happy to have it nonetheless.

And now I am too tired to art journal but I will likely get up and do it anyway because isn’t that what it’s about? Doing it anyway.

happy weekend everyone.

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I got some more stencils. I officially have an unreasonable amount of stencils and need to stop buying them.
2. I am grateful that I got work done without feeling super-overwhelmed or stressed.
3. I am grateful that there’s some good TV on the Tivo waiting for me to watch it.

Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I played with bugs on board my friend Clayton. * {his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that I finished Big Nate.
3. I am grateful that I played Masshole with Clayton and Wyatt.

Healthy For Life – Week 38

Still working on everything here. I will admit that a few chocolate bars got in the way this week but I finally ate the last one yesterday and I refuse to buy any more chocolates. It’s obvious that I am unable to resist them when they are in the house and too lazy to buy them when they are not. So there shall be no more in the house and that’s that. Other than that I’ve been doing ok. Not as good as I would like but it’s been a rough week here so I am trying to cut myself some slack.

I am still getting up and exercising every morning at 5:30 and while it’s not super-easy, I am doing ok with it and it’s not tiring me as much as I worried it might. I like doing it while everyone’s sleeping and I have some good videos to watch and books to read so I am ok for now. I still don’t love the exercise of course. But I do it.

I’ve been thinking a bunch about next year and what I will do but I keep forcing my focus to come back to this year since I still have a few months in this year and I haven’t met my goal yet. I need to work on that first. Once I do, then I can worry about 2012. It’s best to focus on the now and be present so I can really meet my goal.

and here’s this week’s card:

Healthy for Life is a weekly project for 2011. You can read more about it here.

Art Journaling – Fabriano Roma – Give It Your All

And here’s the next Roma paper page:

The full text reads: Always give it your all.

I used the acrylic ink!s for this mostly.

Here are some details from the page:

I am creating multiple art journaling pages a week for July and August (and maybe longer). You can read more about it and the book I am using for these pages at the top of this blog post.

Daily Diary – September 22 2011

Happy almost-Friday. Last night was one of those huge shame-spiral nights for me. I got more and more and more upset and finally just went to bed cause I couldn’t stand it. Didn’t wake up much better this morning but slowly I started to snap out of it. Still got a ways to go but I am doing better.

Nathaniel was home today but I still got no shots until Jake held him in the evening.

even then he moved back and forth. blurring everything.

then he started heading David’s books so I snapped one more.

and as soon as I asked David to pose, Nathaniel threw himself at me and cried.

but I got some of David anyway.

Nathaniel now calls himself Nay-nay and basically says it all day long. “Nay nay food. nay nay no nap.” on and on. It’s so cute and fun to watch. Tonight’s David’s back to school and we finally get to meet his teacher. I am looking forward to it. And looking forward to the weekend even more.

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that beta channel is live.
2. I am grateful that I had a good meeting today.
3. I am grateful that the weekend is almost here.

Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that for my math class today. * {his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that I found a Big Nate book at the library.
3. I am grateful that I played on the computer.