I will admit that I am shocked I haven’t gained more weight with the way and kind of food I’ve been eating. While I haven’t eaten a ton, I’ve just been tired and not making the best choices. I’ve also had a lot of chocolate in the last few weeks. As well as coffee. All of which sucks. But I am too tired and too sick to deal with it at the moment so I am just grateful that the weight is not coming back on just yet. I plan to get the eating under control, I swear.
I ran 2.1 miles all week. Still watching movies as I run. I sort of gave up on the reading while I exercise for now. Partly because I’ve been so sick that I need the extra motivation to run. Or maybe it’s distraction. It’s also cause the books I’m reading currently are for book club and they are less escapist and more literary. So they need more focus. Anyhow, the good news is I am keeping up with the exercise, even through being sick.
My goal in the next two weeks is to actually find some help so I can solidify a plan for exercise next year and also to get my eating habits back to healthy and consistent. Let’s hope it works.
and here’s this week’s card:
Healthy for Life is a weekly project for 2011. You can read more about it here.
After two weeks of battling allergies on and off, I woke up this morning feeling considerably sicker. So much so that I decided to take the day off. All my bones and most of my muscles were hurting. I was shivering and other details I won’t delight you with.
I think this was my body’s way of telling me that it needed time off.
So besides the run in the morning, I did nothing all day. I lay on the couch, I watched TV, napped, did a tiny bit of art, and read a book. I took care of the boys but I will admit I did a minimal job there, too. Thankfully, I had already taken tomorrow off (because both boys will be home) so I have a few more days to rest.
But I am not a fan of being sick. I’ve been lucky enough not to be sick almost all of 2011. I managed to work out every day and I have no intention of breaking my record this late into the year. So I won’t tolerate getting sick at this point.
Just sayin’.
Other than being sick and grumpy and moody (which is all I’ve written about this week), I’ve also been thinking about next year. About my plans and which projects I want to continue and which ones I want to stop and what new things I might want to do. I’ve also been thinking about my kids and what projects I want to do with them. My plan for this longer weekend is to pamper myself silly by spending a lot of couch-time and also to think more about 2012.
I am behind in comment responding and emails again. Perpetually, it seems. Sorry to not be more uplifting this week. I promise to make up for it next week.
Oh and, you still have a few hours on the giveaway here, and the one at write.click.scrapbook. And there’s one at paperclipping, too.
And here’s the next Komtrak page:
The full text reads: Stars shine more in the dark.
I used acrylics on this page but it didn’t turn out how I had hoped. I wanted the sentiment that sometimes the dark is good. It’s when you can see the stars. But alas the page is a mess.
And here’s the next Komtrak page:
The full text reads: choose free, it is always a choice.
I used new Maya Road stamps and acrylics on this page.
And here’s the next Komtrak page:
The full text reads: Choose to be happy and free.
I used acrylics on this page and the Maya Road stamps.
And here’s the next Komtrak page:
The full text reads: It starts with you, be kind to yourself.
I used pan pastels and some paint and a photo of me for a change.
I am creating multiple art journaling pages a week for now. You can read more about it and the book I am using for these pages at the top of this blog post.
Sorry for the delay. Here are the sketches from last week. All of these use Fabel Castell Pitt Pens and watercolors. Most of the ones this week aren’t so great but I just keep doing anyway.
Sunday:
Monday:
Tuesday:
Wednesday:
Thursday:
this one has some gold shine that doesn’t show up:
Friday:
And Saturday:
I get some of my ideas randomly, others from other people’s photos, some from my photos, and some from pinterest. So far, so good.
Daily Sketching is a weekly project for 2011. You can see a detailed post on my steps here.
I wanted to read Friendship Bread as soon as I saw it on the Goodreads newsletter as well. It took me a while to get to it and, as you know, I haven’t read a grown-up book in a while. I must admit that this book took longer to read than usual but that’s mostly because it came right in the middle of many of my mixed media classes and I spent most of my treadmill time watching videos instead of reading.
However, it was a wonderful book. I liked the characters and enjoyed reading the story even if I found it a bit predictable. It wasn’t a super-clean ending but it was one of those “everything’s going to be alright so you can stop reading and be happy.” kinds of books which I must admit I much prefer these days. Enough with the sad books already.
It also made me want to bake and if I weren’t seriously watching what I ate, I totally might have done this bread just to see how it tasted. Sweet novel and worth my time.
I’ve been feeling off for quite a few days now. Nothing huge, just a quiet discontent. But still frustrating and I do wish it would go away already. I have been looking for the source of the issue but have come up empty. Or at least I don’t seem to have this one thing to point at.
For a while it was my uprooted schedule, then it was hormones, and then it was the allergies. Alas, the allergies are still with me but everything else has passed and the feeling continues. I do know that some of it was coming from having to possibly go to jury duty tomorrow and all the unknowns that comes with. (It turns out I don’t have to go.) Some of the frustration was because I went out on a limb and sent some emails yesterday and they weren’t returned and that brought back a lot of my personal issues. Although, almost all of them wrote back today. I’ve been tired and somewhat craving chocolate. Neither of those help.
The fact is, there was no one thing wrong. Just a bunch of little things that gnawed at me and put me in a somewhat crappy mood.
Around midday, I got really mad at myself. I decided I had done enough moping and it was time to get up. I took a little walk, did a little art, and then got my work done.
The thing is, life doesn’t wait for my moodiness to pass. It doesn’t wait for anything. Life is happening around me constantly. Minutes are passing, days are ending. And it’s stupid of me to waste any of this very precious time by focusing on the little, inconsequential things. I may not have control over whether people write back to me or if I have to report to jury duty.
But I do have control over my mood.
I can choose not to pout and whine. My plan from now on is to try to change things up each time I feel this way. Maybe I take a walk. Or I call a friend. Or listen to music really loudly. Take another shower. Read a book. Nap. Set the alarm and work super-fast for 30 minutes.
Whatever it is, I just don’t want to waste precious minutes being moody. Life’s too short for that. It really, truly is. Maybe this is related to yesterday’s post about appreciating life. But, to me, it’s one thing to not take a pause to notice something. But it’s considerably worse to just choose to waste the moments with moodiness.
Here’s the thing about wasted moments: you never get them back.
for this week, i started with sailboats:
And I added slowly little bits here and there.
here is the left:
here is the right:
And here’s the filled page:
It ended up pretty simple but I like it.
Weekly Art Journal is a weekly project for 2011. You can read more about it here. And you can find out more about the weeklong daily journaling here.
Now that my schedule is sort of back to normal (even if temporarily) I’ve been trying to catch up on all the reading, blogs, links, etc. that have accumulated. I saw this article on 7 Ways to Change Your Life in 7 Days. I will admit that I usually do not like articles like these. I am not entirely sure why. I do read them and often they are valuable or interesting but they just feel like snippets to me. This is all good stuff but I won’t be able to do it in 7 days. Each of these things is hard and requires a change in attitude and frame of mind. I guess what I mind is how easy the article makes it seem. So then, when I can’t actually change my life in 7 days, I feel like a failure.
Anyway. Not even the point of my post.
The part that resonated the most with me was this quote:
If while washing dishes, we think only of the cup of tea that awaits us, thus hurrying to get the dishes out of the way as if they were a nuisance, then we are not “washing the dishes to wash the dishes.” What’s more, we are not alive during the time we are washing the dishes. In fact, we are completely incapable of realizing the miracle of life while standing at the sink. If we can’t wash the dishes, the chances are we won’t be able to drink our tea either. While drinking the cup of tea, we will only be thinking of other things, barely aware of the cup in our hands. Thus we are sucked away into the future and we are incapable of actually living one minute of life.
I think of this often. Since I am a schedule based person and I multi-task often, I find myself disengaged more frequently than I’d like. I also find that just by changing my perspective I can actually enjoy life more.
For example, we live relatively close to a train station. On the way to David’s school each morning, I cross the tracks. Sometimes, I have to stop because a train is coming. Ordinarily, this would annoy me. Sitting there, waiting for the train to pass is taking precious minutes away from my life. Minutes I won’t get back.
But here’s the thing: Nathaniel loves the train. As we get close to the tracks, he always watches for the warning lights and if they are on he will exclaim with joy. “Choo choo” he will yell. And just in case we weren’t clear he will name each of us and do it again. “Mommy, Choo choo. Didi choo choo!” he’ll say. His excitement is intoxicating.
So now when I get close to the tracks, I find myself hoping for the train to come. I know it will bring joy to my boy and it’s infectious. The funny thing is, even when Nathaniel is not in the car, seeing the train pass will make me think of his happy cheering and I will smile. He has completely transformed this particular experience for me.
While doing the dishes might be an inapplicable example for me, I have been thinking more and more about paying attention, being present, changing perspective. Enjoying life as it happens, regardless of whether I have control or not. (Because more often than not, I don’t.)
Especially when it comes to my family. Letting myself bask in their small joys. Sharing tiny and huge moments of laughter. Taking the time to listen. To kiss a boo-boo. To give a hug. To not feel like my time is too precious for the ones I love. For the ones who bring me the most joy in life.
I’ve been thinking about all this. Every moment of every day is really what life is about. Enjoying this very moment as it happens is what life is all about. Enjoying the train. Enjoying the dishes. Enjoying the small moments.
Because there are a lot more of those than the big ones.
This layout is for Write.Click.Scrapbook’s November Gallery. The theme is to scrap “I Remember When…”.
I just love these photos so much I had to scrap them!
Journaling Reads:
I remember the day your dad and I finally decided to have another baby. We were both working hard and unsure it was the best time but we knew David would like a brother and that we didn’t have too much time left to put it off. As I look at these photos of the two of you playing together, laughing and crying I am reminded again that it was the best decision we ever made.
Details:
David says:
I gave this story five stars because I liked how the fiery eye was mysterious and cool.
I liked that there was trick with the statues and even after they figured out the right statue, it was still not in there. I liked that the real one was buried.
I liked the part where Jupe broke the chair to be able to get out and save his friends. And I also really liked that Jupiter buried a coin so that he could find the spot with a metal detector when they came back at night. He’s so clever!
The best part was how the guy from the temple paid Gus a lot of money for the eye and how Gus gave some of it to the investigators and some of it to the car company so they could keep using the Rolls Royce.
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.
jake
I’d say a quieter week for Jake. Though he still went into the city several times to have meetings. We also went to David’s school for Nathaniel’s interview (for next year) and went out to a social even in David’s school. So overall, I’d say it’s still been a busy week. Running around, getting work done, having a few date nights and getting a lot of work done.
karen
This was a long week for me. Besides my parents being here and my wanting to spend a lot of time with them, I felt really ill all week between my allergies and jaw aches. I just didn’t feel right all week. I ended up going to bed around 7:30 almost every single night. Even the 10-hours of sleep didn’t make me feel better. I’ve also been way off my schedule which often stressed me out so I am assuming all of that together didn’t help. However it was wonderful to have my parents here and I am really really sad that they are already gone.
david
David had an excellent week at school and at home. He got to have a wonderful Halloween where he got to be venom (black Spiderman). He played a lot with my parents and got to eat out way more than usual. He got new legos, books, toys, and even a new desk for his room which he’s very excited about. He’s been doing great at school and reading every single night like a champ. We’ve already started thinking about our 2012 project together, too. I am so excited for us to do something crafty together.
nathaniel
Nathaniel also had a wonderful week. He had his first Halloween at school and he was a dinosaur. He got to go on a little parade with his class and loved going trick or treating in the neighborhood. He did ok during his interview, too. At first he was all shy but then he opened up and I am hoping it went well for him. He really got attached to both my parents and I am not sure how he’ll handle it tomorrow when he realizes they’re gone.
Here are some of my favorite captured moments from this week:
There was a lot of reading in our house all week:
and Nathaniel made sure to be a part of it too:
the boys loved sitting with my dad and doing their thing.
I finally snapped a shot of Nathaniel right before he went to school:
I snapped a few shots of the boys in the backyard on halloween.
david was the black spiderman (venom) and Nathaniel was a dinosaur (david’s costume from when he was 2.5).
Nathaniel wasn’t a huge fan of the hat and did a lot of this all night.
but he was super-cute with it on:
all the kids in our complex met up at the part to go trick or treating. My two boys took a moment to sit and hug each other.
David even gave Nathaniel a kiss.
Nathaniel spent playing a lot this week while I worked.
he has this new thing where he puts his hands together behind him. He’s so cute.
He’s been super-happy lately, too.
David, too.
Lots of posing.
and laughing.
and a ton of sitting together with the grandparents which was definitely my favorite moments.
and I’ll end with a tickle-time shot from today.
And those are some of the moments from our week. All in all, a truly wonderful week. Hope yours was, too. Thank you for your patience with me this week. I hope to be more responsive and post more this week.
Us Right Now is a weekly project for 2011. You can read more about it here.
Sorry to be inundating you with giveaways and random talk about things to buy. However I know many of you who read here have found me through Big Picture Classes and so I wanted to let you know that I have a new workshop that’s opening on December 1.
This is a workshop I wrote and taught in 2009. When I wrote Finding Your Way last year, it was as a response to the Layout a Day I did and how it changed my life. I wrote the course after my scrapbooking process was transformed. This class was the other way around. Writing this class actually changed my life. It made me take a good, hard look at how I am spending my time and what I want to be doing with my rare and precious minutes in my day.
Here’s part of what I wrote in the description for the class:
“You will never find time for anything. If you want time, you must make it.”
On the surface, this workshop is about time. Specifically, about how you spend your time. But, in reality, it’s about so much more than that: reclaiming time to use it as you WANT to live your life.
If you ask me, time is the great equalizer. We each get 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. That’s 1,440 minutes, every single day. Let’s say you sleep a generous 8 hours a day; that still leaves you with 960 precious minutes every day. How you spend those minutes adds up to how you spend your life. Don’t you want to spend those 960 minutes doing the things you most love doing?
“Realize that now, in this moment of time, you are creating. You are creating your next moment. That is what’s real.”
This is an unusual class for a few reasons:
- There are 4 week’s worth of lessons but they will be spread over December and January to give you time to observe the holidays, take a break, and still be able to go through the lessons.
- I think it’s important to do this class in December-January time-frame because it’s a common time to make resolutions and I think this class will transform how you make resolutions.
- The class is mostly exercises that involve tracking, thinking and brainstorming. And then making resolutions/plans. There is a minibook but if you don’t have time to create that, in my opinion, the biggest value of the class is doing the work, not the minibook.
- This class will be open all of 2012 with monthly check-ins from me to ensure you (and I) stay on track and can address issues that creep up throughout the year.
I can promise you that if you do the work, this class will change your life.
Here is the sign up link: Click here
If you’re on the fence and waiting, I urge you to take it because I may never teach it again. I often have people email me after the deadline passes and I feel terrible telling people that it’s too late. I don’t want to offend anyone and you certainly don’t have to sign up but I wanted to be upfront about my schedule.
If you have questions about the class, don’t hesitate to leave me a comment or email me. I will gladly answer any questions. I try to only teach classes that I feel strongly about so I have no problem giving as much information as you need to decide one way or another.
I am giving away one seat in my class today. Like last week, I will ask for suggestions for other classes you might like me to teach so I can decide what and if I will plan classes for 2012. So just leave a comment. I will leave comments open for a week and announce the recipient next Friday (November 11). If you’ve already signed up for the class, you can still be eligible to win and you’ll just get a refund so don’t worry.
You should know all the links to my class are affiliate links and I might get a tiny cut if you click through my site to sign up. And before I leave, I also wanted to mention that I participated in the 12 Days of Christmas class as a teacher. I will tell you more about that and do a giveaway in a few weeks.
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projects for twenty twenty-six
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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