karenika

Healthy For Life – Week 42

I bought a new pair of jeans this week. I’d like to have waited for a little more weight loss but my older ones were way too big and it was starting to look a bit terrible. In fairness, they are super-stretchy but still what I bought is 5 sizes smaller than what I went into the store with. So even if the stretch adds 1-2 sizes, I am certainly moving in the right direction. So that makes me happy.

So this week’s weigh-in was a bit off. The Wii Fit broke and then worked again the next day so I am not sure how much to trust the results and I am not relying on them. I finally bought a digital scale so I will use that from now on when it comes. It does appear that I am not losing weight as much. Which is ok except that I am struggling with the snacks. My meals are ok but the snacks are hard for me. I eat peanuts and fruit at the moment. And I need a wider variety.

I plan to focus on that for the next few weeks and also integrate chicken back into my diet too. It disappeared in the last few weeks and I think I need more protein in general. So there we are; another week of moving things forward.

and here’s this week’s card:

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

Life List

Another one of the assignments we did in Karen’s Pathfinder class was to put together a Life List. I’d seen this on Karen’s blog before and on Mighty Girl’s too and for some reason I was never tempted to create one.

Not even during the class.

But remember how I said I am a good student and I do my homework.

So I did it.

I came up with a list of 75 items so far and they are not in any order:

Ride a hot air balloon
Photograph all public parks and beaches in California
Photograph top ten beaches in the world
Visit the Galapagos
Visit Antarctica
Have one of my books for sale on Amazon
Learn Hebrew
Learn Russian
Rent a house in Italy for a month
Have an art show in a gallery
Have my art in a book
Visit New Zealand
Get a Ph.D.
Learn to make stop motion movies
Learn to grow tulips
Make bread from scratch
Write 1,000 thank-you letters
Throw a big birthday party for Jake
Take a surprise trip
Learn to sail
Complete a marathon
Attend the Oscar Ceremonies
Go back to Seychelles with Jake
Drink 500 blends of tea
Visit all 50 states
Photograph the Northern Lights
See the fjords in Norway
Learn to change a tire by myself
Learn about all the planets + stars
Visit the Sagrada Familia
Visit Easter Island
Renovate an old house
Hire a professional clothing (stylist?)
Get a small tattoo
Rent a house over a lake for a month
Experience zero gravity
Go on a Safari in Africa
Attend Feast of St. Francis of Assisi (http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/us/st-francis-assisi-feast)
Learn to ride a bike
Be conversational in 9 languages
Taste 1,000 fruits
Attend the lantern festival in Thailand
Give a talk to more than 500 people
Take a memorable trip with just David and me
Take a memorable trip with just Nathaniel and me
Visit all the National Parks in the US
Photograph 250 species of butterflies
Read 5 greatest novels of British, French, Russian, Italian literature
Visit the Uffizi Gallery in Italy
Read all of Shakespeare’s works
Read 2,000 books to my kids
Rent an RV
Go to burning man
Jump out of a plane
Eat a super-fancy meal with Jake
Donate one paycheck to a nonprofit
Sell a piece of art I created
Take 5 physics classes
Cut my hair super-short
Pull an all-nighter with Jake
Work on a farm for a day
Plant and grow a small fruit tree
Learn to read music
Learn to start a fire without matches
Quilt a blanket for me
Take the Eurorail across Europe
Own a bookstore
Start a nonprofit
write a book
learn to paint my nails and toes properly
stay at the ten best hotels in the US
Volunteer to hold babies at the hospital
Read Modern Library’s top 100 books
Read the Modern Library’s readers top 100 books
Read Radcliffe’s top 100 books
Drive comfortably on the freeway

I even made a list of my list items that are lists so I could check them off as I went along.

I don’t look at this as a bucket list or even a list that must get done at any moment. Just a list of fun things that bring me joy. So the idea of having them in one list makes me happy. The items might change over time. I will likely add more. I might remove some. And I might alter some. I borrowed some items from all the different lists I browsed in case any of them look familiar to you.

But for now, I consider this assignment done and I am actually glad I did it.

Do you have a list too?

Art Journaling – Fabriano Roma – Set 5

And here’s the next Roma paper page:

The full text reads: Lean on your real friends, that’s why they are there.

I used acrylics on this. I like the colors and softness.

And here’s the next Roma paper page:

The full text reads: Take a break and let your soul rest.

The little bird is from Little Yellow Bicycle. The rest is crafter’s workshop, acrylics, stamps, stitching.

And here’s the last Roma paper page:

The full text reads: Art saves, again and again and again.

I used a little yellow bicycle frame and some Tim Holtz wings. The rest is same as always. I love the colors on this page. Art has been saving me and my soul so much recently.

and with that the set of Roma papers are gone. I loved loved, loved working with these papers. It might be my all-time favorite so far. I will have to get my hands on some more of it. I also loved the size which was 8.5×9.5. Good size for me.

Here are all the pages:

and

I like how, like my layouts, they are similar but different. How you can sense an emerging style. I am still exploring but, over all, I really like these. Here’s a little video with the finished book:

And now, time to move on to the next journal. My next one is a Komtrack journal with Canson Watercolor paper. These books are specially made to take the spiral bound pages out, work on them, and put them back. So no binding issues. You can also buy the pages loose. More on this on the next post.

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

Thoughts on Taking Classes

I’ve had a friend email me today to ask me about how she can stay involved and learn from all the classes she’s taking. She mentioned how I take classes and still manage to do my daily projects. Coincidentally, I was already thinking this morning about the different kinds of online classes and what I like and why, etc. So I thought it might be interesting to do a post about my thoughts. Just remember that we’re all different and these are my thoughts. I will highlight things that I think are important to consider when signing up for a class and then I will tell you my preferences. If you’re different, listen to the former and ignore the latter and make your own answers instead.

These are not in order cause I am a bit too tired to do that so please know they are not in any order of importance.

Types of Classes
I’ve learned, over time, that, like in real life, there are two types of classes online: lecture-based and discussion-based. The way I differentiate the two is the amount of teacher involvement there is in the class. All classes in this day and age have at least some way for the students to comment on and participate in the class. But in some of the classes I took, the teacher rarely comments and then only to resolve technical issues, questions, etc. And in the others, the teacher was really involved, a big part of instigating and moving the discussion.

Neither type is bad. You just need to know what you prefer and what your goals for the class are. If you are taking this class to learn a new skill, for example, you might be ok just watching the videos or reading the content and not interacting too much. Whereas in a different kind of class you might really want to have some involved discussion and expect participation from the teacher.

If you know for sure that you like classes that are one way or another, I encourage you to pay attention to this when you sign up. I feel it’s important to know this ahead of time because you can adjust your expectations accordingly.

Here’s what I realized for me: I love to teach discussion-based classes because my goal is for each student to take the material and customize it into their own life. For me to be able to achieve that I need active hand-holding and encouragement and explanations on how to customize the material. Those are the classes that I feel are most impactful for me. I really encourage people to share so I can make sure the class was useful to every single student and I firmly believe we can all learn more if we share more.

However when I am the student, it depends more on why I am taking the class. If it’s deep soul work, I don’t mind doing most of that completely on my own. I will read the discussion boards but I will rarely participate. If it’s a technique class, I will only participate if I need extra help. I know this is the opposite of what I like my students to do but I’ll be honest I have very rarely had active teachers in a class and with most classes even if the discussion is lively at first, it dissipates quickly because the teacher doesn’t encourage it. (Just in my opinion.)

Discussions
For me, I have found that often times the discussions in the classes I’ve taken haven’t helped enough to be worth the time they take away from actual work. So I’d rather be journaling or doing art than being a part of the discussion. But that’s mostly been because very very few of the classes I took have active teacher participation and while I appreciated the other students a lot, there wasn’t an instance where I felt I needed the extra help. So each time I have some downtime, I’d read the discussions so I can learn/grow but I didn’t participate that much. Discussions where the teacher really encouraged sharing and learning have been helpful and in that case I do participate.

I also tend to prefer to do the work first because I like to go through it without influence from others around me. So when I am done, I feel ok participating because I feel like I’ve already done the work. I prioritize doing the assignment over any discussion almost every single time.

Motivation
I think it’s important to know why you’re taking a class. Most of the time, I sign up for a class because the content really speaks to me. I like either journaling/soulwork classes or very specific technique classes. There have been a few times I took a class cause I admired the teacher and thought taking the class would get me closer to the teacher and give me an opportunity to interact with her. In each of those instances I was disappointed. It might be my bad luck but I have learned my lesson and I never do this anymore. I sign up for content and content only.

Pace
I find, for me, classes that are fast-paced are what I like. I like to be kept on my toes and feel the pressure of work to do. This doesn’t mean there has to be dense content each week. With soul work classes I’ve found sometimes I need more time to digest or more chewable portions than the teacher gives. But for me time and again the issue is bigger if I feel the class is moving too slowly or is not meaty enough. So I try to pay attention to that when I sign up. If the class is slow, I am likely to lose interest and not complete the work.

Follow up Work
I also lose interest if there’s no clear homework and examples. I want to know the assignment and I want to know what the teacher did or thought on that assignment. So, immediately after listening/reading/watching I can do my homework. This is what motivates me so I need it and I need it to be clear. And it needs to be reasonable sized.

Timing
I don’t do well with “download and do at your pace” classes. Mostly because I feel like I can put them off forever since there’s no specific time they’re due. So I can postpone and deprioritize those over “going on right now” classes. And I often tend to do just that. I downloaded two classes in June and still haven’t finished them. That’s pretty much unheard of for me.

So pay attention to that. Do you like homework? Do you respond better to “do on your own pace” or to scheduled dates and times?

Integrating
I tend to only take classes that integrate into the life and work I am doing now. So I will use my journaling time to do the soul work class assignments. For example I am taking a class on shame-resilience right now and it involves a lot of thinking and journaling. I do mine during the morning journaling time. One or two days a week my journaling is the assignment from that week and the rest of the time it’s the free form journaling I do regularly. When I took Stephanie’s class back in January, every single day’s journaling was content from her class. I integrate the homework into my daily life.

Same goes for art journaling. When I took Christy’s classes, I used up my art journaling time to do her homework. I changed it to adapt to my own life. I even did one of my Pink Paislee blog assignments as her homework. I try to work it into my schedule as it stands.

For example at the moment I am taking three classes and here’s how I integrate them into my existing schedule:
1. Ordinary Courage: I read the classes while I exercise. I listen to the audio while I sketch. I do the homework during my journaling time.

2. Watercolor Pencils Miniclass Classes come to me once a week, I read them when I have downtime at night, I watch the videos as I exercise and I do the exercises as part of my daily sketching.

3. One Little Word This class has been a bit odd. In the beginning, I did the assignments as part of my art journaling. But then I mostly just watched the videos as I exercise and I thought about my word a lot and journaled and created some projects because of it but I haven’t actually done the album. I never really intended to do it so I am ok with that. For me this class was to keep my word at the forefront of my mind and its achieved its goal so I am happy with it.

Last month was two classes, one got integrated into my journaling time and the other to art journaling time. Next month is two classes, one will be art journaling and the other will be sketching or art journaling.

I do also take classes for a specific reason sometimes. For example I downloaded Remains of the Day a few months ago because I decided I was going to use the technique for my December Daily album. I wanted to buy that class for over a year but I didn’t want to do so unless I knew exactly what I was going to do with it so once I had the idea to use it for December Daily, I had no problem buying it because I knew I could put it into use.

I hope this makes sense. There isn’t one class in the twenty-one classes I have on my list this year that doesn’t integrate into either sketching, journaling or art journaling. So I think that’s why I am able to keep up with my classes. If my goal was to do a layout a day for example, I could take a sketch class that would give me daily sketches and I could easily integrate that into my daily layout time.

I think about my daily schedule and personal goals when I sign up for a class now. Is there a way I will immediately be able to put this class into use? If so, I look at the other points about pacing, homework, teacher participation and then if I am still happy, I sign up. If not, I pass. I still get disappointed sometimes but it’s getting rarer and rarer.

If you have any more questions please don’t hesitate to ask, as long as you remember it’s just my opinion, I am always happy to share it.

A Book a Week – Flipped

I picked up Flipped because several people said it was great and looked cute.

This novel was for younger adults than even I usually read for so it felt a bit elementary but I really liked how the voices of the two characters were so distinct and so different and it was a wonderful example of how the same events can mean different things to different people. There were some wonderful little bits about middle school, too.

All in all, I enjoyed this story and am glad I read it.

But it, too, won’t make the top of my list for 2011.

Daily Sketching – Week 28

Here are the sketches from last week. All of these use Fabel Castell Pitt Pens and watercolors. A wide range of subjects this time.

Sunday:

Monday:

Tuesday:

Wednesday:

Thursday:

Friday:

And Saturday:

I am still enjoying this so, I am playing around, mixing colors, trying new brushes, seeing what I like, etc.

Daily Sketching is a weekly project for 2011. You can see a detailed post on my steps here.

Fragile and Ephemeral

One of my favorite poems as a teenager was Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost. I can almost recite it from memory. Here’s how it goes:

Nothing Gold Can Stay (by Robert Frost)
Nature’s first green is gold
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

When I was younger, I always thought this was a terribly sad poem. Everything dies, life sucks. That’s pretty much how I interpreted it.

As I grow older, I am looking at it differently.

Yesterday was a frustrating day for me. I got upset about some small detail that went wrong in my day and as it tends to do, it threw off my mood for the day. Then, at night, I visited a friend who was sad. His reason was a lot more legitimate than mine (trust me.) I came home feeling sad for him and mad at me. This morning I woke up and while I was journaling I kept thinking about life and this poem.

The thing about life is that everything is ephemeral. Life changes. Constantly. With and without warning. Sometimes you’re the one instigating the change. Sometimes someone else is. Sometimes it’s a completely outside force. Sometimes it’s even bigger than that. And then there are things that change regularly. Days end. Months, years. Kids grow up. People get old. Seasons end. Change is around us constantly. Things that seem set in stone, never are.

I think that’s the reason some big, unexpected change throws us off course so much, it’s a reminder that the ground you’re on is not as solid as you might think it is. The life you built isn’t indestructible.

And while this feels scary on some scale, to me it’s also a relief. If there’s one thing I know for sure, it’s that things will change. And I know that I can’t even begin to predict the extent and size of these changes.

The other thing I know is that life is pretty great now. I am very blessed in big ways. I have a wonderful husband and kids who are nothing short of miracles. I have a job I am proud of and a home I love. All of us are healthy. Including me, and I am getting healthier each day.

Of course, there are a million little things that go wrong all the time and things I want, wish for, desire, etc. But most of life is amazing. Right at this moment. And it might all change tomorrow. Let me correct that, it will all change tomorrow. It might be better or worse or just different.

But this poem is a reminder that things will change. Things will end. And at the same time, right now things are gold. There are wonderful things happening in my life. As life is so ephemeral and fragile, I need to pay more attention to those things. I need to be in this moment more. I need to be really aware and present. This very moment is here right now and it’s great.

If you noticed in my vision board from yesterday, I have a quote there that says “If you’re always racing to the next moment, what happens to the one you’re in?” And this is something I need to work on again and again.

Being present and being grateful.

The thing is nothing gold does stay. But if we take it for granted and don’t appreciate the gold while it’s here, we’re missing out on the best moments of our life. And when the going gets tough, which it invariably will at some time, we will need these gold moments to get us through those not-so-great ones.

As I journaled about my bad day, I realized how much can change in just 24 hours. How my perspective changed and the specific problem that frustrated me actually went away. I wasted an entire golden day on some stupid frustration. The talk with my friend was a wake-up call that things are ephemeral and these golden days are not guaranteed so I cannot waste them with idle frustration. My goal is to remember this more. And make a point of basking in the glory of the golden moments while they are here.

Here’s to being more present and being more grateful.

Weekly Art Journal – Weeklong for September 19

for this week, i just used some simple birdcages:

I kept it simple all week as it was a long week and i was busy.

here is the left:

here is the right:

And here’s the filled page:

Simple but still nice.

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.

Vision Board

I mentioned some of the work I did in Karen’s Pathfinder class a few weeks ago. I’ve been meaning to come back and tell you more about some of the other things we did.

One of the assignments was to create a vision board. She talks about her process in this post. The idea was to create a similar one in the class. On canvas, etc.

I will admit that I resisted doing this assignment. I don’t have any magazines. Literally, not one. And last time I went through magazines to tear images (for Melody Ross’ class) I didn’t find it enjoyable. I don’t like to make canvases because I have nowhere to put them in my house. I don’t want to create more clutter. I don’t like dealing with glue if I can avoid it (I know this is crazy.) I didn’t have any ideas. Honestly, I just did not want to do this.

But because I am one of those students who has to do all the homework assigned, I couldn’t let it go. I borrowed magazines from neighbors. I thought about it for a few days. I even tore a few images. I just couldn’t get into it no matter what. So then, I tried to tell myself it was ok not to do it.

But I just couldn’t let it go without at least trying.

I finally decided to try a different route. I opened up my inspiration board on pinterest. And picked images and sayings that spoke to me. Since these were images I’d already pinned I knew that they were all meaningful to me so I couldn’t go wrong.

I saved them all on my computer and then opened them in photoshop to create a collage:

Once I was done, it made me really really happy. I also added my word right on the butterfly. And I was done.

I picked images that are inspirational, peaceful, and happy for me. Mental notes I try to remember. There are a lot of images of nature because nature makes me happy. Creates a wide sense of peace in me. I also chose books, music, birds, butterflies. Color. Flowers. Exercise. And some good messages about being in the present moment and appreciating myself. I love all of these images and having them together is really powerful for me.

So once I was done, I printed it out and taped it into my current notebook (more on this notebook coming soon).

Now, I get to look at it anytime I want. It didn’t involve any magazines, cutting, or modge podge but I still did my own version of a vision board.

And it was so worth it.

If you’ve never done this exercise, I recommend it. I am glad that the good student in me didn’t give up. If you’ve done it, I’d love to see your vision board so please do leave me a comment with it.

And So It Begins

This is one of the projects I did for Pink Paislee for October.

Journaling Reads:
y sweet boy, for the last few weeks i’ve been so worried that school is about to start and you’re going to be the new kid in class and how that might be for you. i;ve tried to hide my worry by telling you how very awesome this new school is and how you will love it there wchich is all true but I was still worried. Not you, though, Youve been excited and happy abut this next step and I love you so much for that and you’re right it will be great.

Details:

Reading with David – Akimbo and the Elephants

David says:
I gave this story five stars because there are a lot of elephants in the book and I find them interesting and I liked that he lived in Africa.

I liked the part where Akimbo ran into the ranger camp in the middle of the night so he could get his dad and the rangers to catch the poachers. His plan was sneaky. I like that he stole the ivory because with it he was able to trick the bad guy into joining their gang.

I liked his plan of joining in with them so he could follow exactly where they went. It was scary that the rhino almost charged at him and the lion roared at him. It was very brave of him to scare the elephants so he could make sure to save them.

The best part was in the end when he saw that the little elephant was taken care of and when all the poachers were caught.

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.

Us Right Now & Weekly Update – October 15

jake
This is going to come as a surprise but, yes, it was another week full of meetings for Jake. He’s been working hard and working a lot. This week was also doing the company taxes, moving the Roth accounts around and a bunch of paperwork in general. He also took both the cars in because one was due for maintenance and the other needed a recall fix. He’s been playing video games a bit which makes me happy. And he’s been helping out so much more with the kids and the house, too and I am so happy to have him around a bit more.

karen
A lot going on for me this week. I had a lot of work at work but felt like I was being productive and useful. I got my hair straightened and dyed again finally. I went out to a mom’s night out with David’s class and it was lovely. I also met a friend for coffee which was lovely, too. I finally bought a new pair of jeans and I am ready to clean up my closet of all the excess. This next week will be stressful, too but hopefully less busy.

david
David has a short week this week because he had no school on Friday. He’s been playing hockey during PE and recess lately and enjoying that. He also seems to be making friends at a good pace and still really liking his school. We went for his first teacher’s conference on Friday and everything we heard was great. He’s adjusting well socially and doing great academically. He’s above level on almost everything but still loves to learn and looks forward to going to school every day. I couldn’t ask for more.

nathaniel
Nathaniel is enjoying school very much, too. On days when he’s home, he’s bored more easily than he used to be and misses David a lot. He’s getting better and better at numbers and can count from one to ten (except six and seven which he can’t pronounce and likes to skip over.) He is still super-cute and mischievous. He loves sitting right next to me and leaning in to see what I am doing on the computer and eating peanuts with me.