karenika

Reading with David – The City of Ember

David says:
I gave this story five stars because I liked the story was an adventure and we kept hoping Lina and Doon would find the other city and they did.

I thought it was sad that Ember was so dark all the time. And that they were running out of food. I didn’t like that the mayor was stealing from his people and hiding things in the room. It was also sad that the lights flickered so often.

I thought it was nice that Lina took Poppy along in the end. I liked how she was clever enough to run away from the Mayor. I liked Doon’s bug book. I liked that Doon cared about the city and wanted to find a way to save everyone. I thought it was great that they together found the way out. I think because they found a clever way to get the instructions to Ember and Ms. Murdo found them, they will get to get out.

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.

Daily Diary – August 6 2011

Our day started with exercise and then family shots.

The little boy wasn’t looking at the camera.

Then he was obsessed with my watch.

even when I got him off that, he still wouldn’t look.

so we just gave up and called it tickle time.

during which no one looks at the camera.

Then there was naps, art journaling, wii, sketching, and when Nathaniel woke up, I tried to get him to let me take a photo. This is what he did.

I told him there was a bird behind me and snapped one more.

His older brother was much more accommodating.

We made a trip to the grocery store and filled the fridge with fruits and salads and protein. Then the kids took their baths and now I am off to read to Nathaniel and then it’s Jake and Karen cuddle time. Yey for lovely Saturdays.

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I made an art journal page.
2. I am grateful for Bones which is what I watch when I sketch and do art journaling.
3. I am grateful for cuddle time with my awesome hubby.

Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I Lego Star Wars, Clone Wars on my Wii * {his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that it was Wii day.
3. I am grateful that I got a candy at the store.

Us Right Now – August 6

jake
Jake had a great week. Some important meetings and big potential possibilities. It’s amazing how resourceful and bold he can be. I am so awed by him and so proud of him. I pray every day that his business becomes exactly what he wishes it to be because I truly do not know anyone more deserving. This is truly his passion and he puts his all into it. He spent a day in Marin and one in Berkeley and a lot of time down here with the interns. He even worked at home one morning so I could go have breakfast at work. I love him so.

karen
It was a relatively uneventful week for me. I did a lot of work and some art journaling and sketching. I’ve made some changes in my food intake and routine. I read a book from start to finish. I took Christy’s Color Inspiration class and watched all of her videos while I exercised. I did a bunch of journaling (though not as much as I would have liked to.) and I spent time practicing multiplication tables with David and reading to him. We read a lovely book called The World According to Humphrey. All in all, a peaceful and wonderful week.

david
David has been playing with legos. I think they give him more joy than anything. Even more than the Wii or the computer. When he’s on the computer, he looks at galleries of what others have built with legos and gets ideas for his own creations. He’s doing excellent at the multiplication tables. He has also changed his handwriting so it’s super-tidy and really a joy to look at. His swimming and soccer are both improving. Last week we checked out a few books from the library and he’s already finished several including Alvin Ho. I love that boy madly.

nathaniel
Nathaniel is completely obsessed with a library book called Dig. He asks me to read it to him every time he goes for a nap or down for the night. It’s his very favorite thing. I read and he points at the photos and tells me the name of things. It’s one of my very favorite moments of the day. I might have to end up buying the book.

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

Daily Diary – August 5 2011

Today, all I got is smiling photos.

of my wonderful kids.

with their funny smiles.

and sweet faces.

Oh how I adore them. All is well here. Quiet. I am playing with my kids, watching movies together, walking, art journaling, reading. All around wonderful days. I wish you a super-awesome weekend.

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful for smiley-face photos.
2. I am grateful for a lovely book.
3. I am grateful for a quiet weekend.

Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I had a private soccer class * {his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that I watched a movie.
3. I am grateful that I played with my legos.

Healthy For Life – Week 31

So here we are with another week of weight gain with no real reason. I have been trying to figure out what’s going on and I will admit that I am at a loss. I know there were comments that I should change up my exercise but that’s not feasible at the moment and to be honest, I am eating well enough that I should just be losing weight on food alone.

So not-losing is one thing and gaining weight is altogether another thing. I am truly flabbergasted and not sure what’s going on but I am not ready to give up. I have noticed that when I feel angry about this, it becomes counter-productive and I start going to the bad place where I eat cookies or bad food because it doesn’t matter any way.

But it does. It does matter. I have been trying to make more changes here. I am still doing sit-ups and leg lifts. I’ve added a slight incline for one of the three miles I workout daily. I’ve also made some changes in my food to have more protein and less processed food. I have been ravishingly hungry lately so that’s not helping but honestly, there’s absolutely no reason for this weight gain. So for now, I chug along. I will give these changes a few weeks and see if they pay off.

and here’s this week’s card:

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

You are Proof that Boys Can be Sweet and Quiet Too

This layout was for Maya Road CHA Summer show.

Journaling Reads:
You are proof that boys can be sweet and quiet too: I know little boys and even big boys can be super loud and you make your share of noise in the house, but you two also can be really quiet when you look out the window together or color together and I love watching you even more during those quieter moments. My boys can be so very sweet!

Daily Diary – August 4 2011

There’s nothing like having these treasures in the house.

Playing legos.

wearing hats (backwards of course).

sticking things in his mouth.

And then this other treasure

who can easily melt me with one look.

I cannot tell you how aware I am these days of how lucky and blessed I am that I get to be with these boys all day. That I am married to my best friend. That I have this wonderful job I adore. I really really feel blessed and while that comes hand in hand with a huge fear of losing it all, I am trying to keep that in check and just live in the gratitude of it all. I am trying to fully be in the moment and appreciate its gifts.

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful for breakfast at work.
2. I am grateful for a lot of videos to watch on my ipad while I exercise.
3. I am grateful for fun TV, fun books, and fun music. They always put me in the best mood.

Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I played with my legos * {his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that I had a popsicle.
3. I am grateful that I wrote perfectly in my journal today.

Daily Sketching – Week 17

Here are the sketches from this week.

Wednesday, I made this woman.

the next day, I did this hugging couple mostly because i thought there was no way I could do it:

Friday I did this girl which reminds me so very very much of my childhood. I encourage you to click through the pin and read the blog post of the artist:

on Saturday I wanted to do something more time-consuming so I tried this amazing piece but I got my proportions wrong and got frustrated with myself:

on Sunday, I did another girl by the same artist from earlier this week.

Monday was these cute birds.

Tuesday was back to the same artist and her girls. I love this artist and want to continue exploring her style and seeing what I like and what calls me.

and here we are. as always some are ok others not so great. let’s see what next week brings.

Daily Diary – August 3 2011

I must admit that legos are one of my all-time favorite toys. My six year old loves playing with them.

My two-year-old loves to join in.

And even steal his creations.

Which leaves him with “It’s not fair!!” face.

The little boy runs away and makes faces of his own. There’s crying and yelling and sometimes even a bit of shoving (which I get seriously mad about and shut down right away.)

But then within minutes they are playing together and laughing again.

Showing me their stickers, which they lovingly put on all their clothes.

And they are so cute. So edible. I think my lucky lucky stars that I get to spend my days, my minutes, my life with them.

Jake’s making dinner for the kids right now and I am relaxing and organizing a bit. I have some ideas brewing for tonight but many of them involve watching TV and being on the couch!

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful for no more gray hairs. Woot!
2. I am grateful for feeling calm. I rarely ever feel calm. I’m hanging on to this as long as I can.
3. I am grateful for a difficult decision I made today. I don’t mean to be cryptic, it wasn’t important what it was, just that I walked away from something I’ve been struggling with. I am a people-pleaser and have a really hard time disappointing anyone and I am very loyal to keeping my commitments so it’s hard for me to walk away from things but today I did and I am grateful I did it.

Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I played legos with my brother * {his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that I watched some lego comic books .
3. I am grateful that I played cars with my brother.

A Book a Week – Elsewhere

I heard about Elsewhere a long time ago but just didn’t feel like reading it. I thought it would be morose. I figured it is about death and all. Except that it isn’t really. And it really wasn’t morose at all.

In fact, it was quite sweet. Not super upbeat but gentle and interesting and so very unique. I am glad I read it even though I can’t say I loved it. Mostly, I found it charming and unusual.

It’s not really about death as much as it’s about the afterlife or the author’s version of it and all the detail in the book makes it a worthwhile read.

Your First Real Egg Hunt

This is one of the projects I did for Authentique Paper for CHA Summer.

Journaling Reads:
Nathaniel even though this was not your first egg hunt, for the last tow years you didn’t really get what it’s about. This time, you collected all the eggs and enjoyed it so much. You get it now my boy.

Details: