karenika

Daily Diary – October 2 2011

Another day that I decided to keep things low. And it worked great. I spent most of today reading and watching TV and resting. We did take some family shots:

even though the light was bad:

so we kept it to a minium and went right into tickle time:

which was, of course, super-fun:

but we kept that short, too.

Then Nathaniel showed David where to put the tripod back:

and watched as he did it.

then it was nap time for him, sketch time for me. I sketched, wrote my weeklong journal and then redid the blog. So now you have a new schedule:

Mondays – Scrapbook pages/minis/posts
Tuesdays – Weeklong Art Journal
Wednesdays – Sketches + books I read
Thursdays – Art Journaling pages
Fridays – Healthy for Life
Saturdays – Us Right Now
Sundays – Reading to David

So I will attempt to fold the Daily Diary into the Us Right now Posts which means those will get really big with photos from the whole week. I don’t know if I will like this new format or not so I might go back. I still want to give it a try. I have created a new sideblog for the gratitude journal cause I do want to continue that. You can now find it on the left side of the blog under my badge.

I am hoping to do more, longer posts daily or at least a few times a week talking about some of my thoughts, some details about my process, etc. This blog used to have a lot more of my thoughts and I liked that so I want to bring it back. We’ll try this for a while and see how it works. Feel free to comment on what you think, too.

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I took this weekend to rest. It did me a lot of good and I need to do it more often.
2. I am grateful for my new sketches. I love the way they are turning out.
3. I am grateful that we spent some fun time with the kids today.

Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I went to Fall Carnival at school * {his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that I got to play a little wii.
3. I am grateful that we got some take-out for dinner.

Reading with David – Pee Wee’s Tale

David says:
I gave this story five stars because I liked that Pee-Wee was free in the park and made friends with Lexi and found the sweet apple.

I liked the part where the bird took him but he was clever enough to bite him just when he was over the water. And how he read the story in the paper and was able to warn all the other animals in time so they could escape. I loved that he started reading to all the other animals and how much they liked it. And how he became friends with all the other animals so they watched out for him and looked for Robbie for him.

I also really liked the ending how Pee-Wee actually realized he was so free now and had a good friend like Lexi and was living a better life and how he saw that Robbie, too, had gotten his wish and had a puppy now so it was happy for both of them.

Another recommendation from our librarian. What a sweet little tale. I know there are sequals to this one and I think we will likely check those out, too since it was so delightful.

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 – Every Journey

And here’s the next Roma paper page:

The full text reads: Every journey requires faith.

I used acrylics, Maya Road chipboard (cage and bird) and zipper trim, a bunch of stamps and a crafter’s workshop template on this one.

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 – October 1 2011

The plan for today was to do absolutely nothing. Only the exercise but none of the other regular tasks I do. And nothing else on my todo list either. Welll…. I started out well. I watched TV, read my books, and just did nothing. But then as the day wore on I got itchy. I saw a photo I loved and I had to sketch it. Then I wrote my weeklong journal while David played Wii. The little one woke up and they played together.

even though the light is terrible, I just love the photo.

I then decided to run to the art store and bought some paper and a tiny gouache set. And I started to do another sketch. As I sketched, Nathaniel sat and played with his legos.

David did the same, too, but up in his room.

Jake was at the doctor’s getting his eyes checked and Nathaniel kept waiting for him.

he gave me a quick smile.

and went back on his daddy-watch.

and there we go. I didn’t do an art journal page but I did make a tag for a project so I am not sure this counts as a full day off but I did watch a lot of TV (watching some now) and felt a lot less self-pressure. So I guess it counts!

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that Jake did so much pitching in today so I could rest and have time off.
2. I am grateful that I got some new art goodies. Love this new paper.
3. I am grateful that I did a 2-mile run today. My 365th consecutive day of exercise. I am amazed I did it. And now I just get to do more and more.

Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I played star wars on the Wii * {his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that I played with my legos.
3. I am grateful that I got my new school shirts.

Us Right Now – October 1

jake
Jake’s still ramping back up from being away. This week was several trips to the city and Berkeley and a few other meetings. I honestly don’t know how he can so consistently do that. I have a lot of respect for his persistence. As of last week, Jake’s started wearing contacts. It’s just a few hours a day and it’s been challenging but he’s been persistent and doing a fantastic job.

karen
I wish I could say this week wasn’t as hectic as the previous few but that was not the case. I still had a huge amount of work and on top of that it was performance review time so I also had to do a ton of those to do in the middle of everything else. And there even was an extra chaos on Friday. I did get some down time in the middle of all of this, which was nice. And today I get to celebrate my 365th day of consecutive exercise which is also very nice.

david
David had a great week. He had photo day so he was in full uniform. He had a playdate. He met his school family. He was happy for most of this week which made me very happy. He’s still enjoying his new school very much and making new friends. I am just grateful that he loves it there and looks forward to going to school. He’s also loving his legos and spending a lot of time with them.

nathaniel
Nathaniel is enjoying every moment of school as well. He gets really sad on Tuesdays and Thursday because he knows that he doesn’t get to go to school on those days. He gets sad when I go to pick him up. He really enjoys every minute of it. One of the teachers there has an especially close relationship with him and that makes me even happier. I just love that both my kids are loved and appreciated even when they are not with me. What else could I ask for?

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

Daily Diary – September 30 2011

I had planned for today to be a super-restful and super-productive day. But you know what happens when you make plans, right…?

It started out just fine but quietly went downhill. The best part was this boy who was super-excited about his playdate:

and this boy who found a fork and decided to jab it in his brother.

So he could eat him. He jabbed gently, then brought the fork to his mouth and made eating sounds.

which made both of them laugh so much. He did it to me and to David again and again.

and then he asked for the lens cap.

which also made him laugh and laugh and laugh.

the joys of my life.

Tonight I learned again that I should be careful when I agree to do things. For some reason I seem to have to relearn this lesson again and again and again. Sigh.

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that Jake took care of David and took him to his playdate and picked him back up and was so amazing.
2. I am grateful that despite some small chaos, everything worked out at work.
3. I am grateful that it’s the weekend and I intend to take this whole weekend off. No daily nothing (except exercise of course). If i do it great but I will not pressure myself. I will read, draw, write only when I feel like it. That’s the plan!

Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I met with my school family today * {his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that I had a playdate (and it was super-fun!).
3. I am grateful that I chatted with mommy for a long time.

Healthy For Life – Week 39

It appears I am still (very) slowly losing weight. Thankfully. I will admit that it fluctuates up and down all week and I know not to trust the Wii when the numbers are low. But I will still take what I can get. I understand that the last 10 lbs will take a long time and may never even come off. At least not without taking things up a few notches which I am not prepared to do at the moment. So there we go.

Tomorrow is the last day of my one year of exercise. I started on October 2, 2010 and if you told me then that I would be able to achieve this, I would have been very skeptical. I had absolutely no track record of bring able to keep up with any exercise routine at all. So even putting the weight-loss aside, I consider this to be a huge success for me. Life-altering success.

I’ve been thinking bout the exercise from here on out and I think I will try a few new things in the next few weeks. Maybe running for 2 miles which will keep calorie-burn similar but time will go down by half so it’s worth at least exploring. Though I will admit that the idea scares me a lot. I still feel dreadfully out of shape.

and here’s this week’s card:

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

I Carry Your Heart With Me

This is a minibook I made for Maya Road for CHA-Summer 2011. This canvas minibook is brand new and I adore canvas minibooks.

The journaling is the famous e. e. cummings poem:
i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

Here are all the other pages:

My best gift to you was to teach you to practice gratitude daily

This is one of the projects I did for Pink Paislee for September. It was inspired by the bouquet below.

isn’t this bouquet amazing?

It inspired me to create my own circle of butterflies.

Journaling Reads:
My sweet boy, I really hope that you continue writing one thing you’re grateful for every day for the rest of your life.

Details:

Art Journaling – Fabriano Roma – Where You Need to Be

And here’s the next Roma paper page:

The full text reads: You are exactly where you need to be.

I used acrylics and oil pastels one this one.

Here are some details from the page:

can’t get enough of the butterflies.

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 29 2011

and here we are. almost the end of the week and almost the end of the month. I still haven’t written the newsletter which is rare for me. but i’ve been so overwhelmed and busy lately that things are definitely reaching the edges of their due date lately.

i took Nathaniel back to the doctor today but he’s all good thankfully and he played happily most of the day.

David came home from school in a good mood. He has a playdate tomorrow.

David spent some time on the computer. Maybe it’s because I am a computer programmer but I love seeing him on the computer. How he uses it and the dexterity of his fingers.

Nathaniel read for a while

and then joined his brother.

I loved how they snuggled up together. The plan for tonight is to do nothing. I am tired. I will just watch TV. That’s that. And maybe I can write the newsletter tomorrow. Let’s hope.

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I pushed another Beta and got organized and finished performance reviews.
2. I am grateful that I will just take some downtime.
3. I am grateful that I am working on restructuring my day/week and blog. I think I will move to doing one post a week per subject so instead of inundating you with 4 art journal posts a week, i will do one a week with one pages. like i do for the sketches. same with daily diary i think. make it a weekly diary…..

Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I got a Star Wars book from the library at school * {his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that I have a play date tomorrow.
3. I am grateful that I watched some movies on the computer.
4. I am grateful that I am going to read my book to my legos.

Daily Sketching – Week 25

Here are the sketches from this week. I am proud to say all the sketches this week are from photos I’ve taken. This was something I’d been wanting to do but finally got around to it:

Wednesday: