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.
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!
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
So we’ve been having quieter and more relaxed days here where things are consistently moving forward and getting done. Nathaniel is learning to communicate more.
He looks up to his brother with awe.
And is still super-cute.
In the afternoon, once all the math and walking and reading and napping was done, I put on another movie for them.
I love how focused he is (only for a few minutes though, he has no patience for these movies.) I love the way David’s sitting with is hand on his chin, too.
Here’s the only shot David let me have today.
We get to go out on date night again tonight. I am so excited. I love going to the movies.
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am still grateful for our quiet, calm, productive days.
2. I am grateful that I will hopefully get my hair dyed soon.
3. I am grateful for another date night.
Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I watched a movie * {his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that I am building a lego project.
3. I am grateful that I got extra computer time today.
This weeklong page was originally inspired by this lovely painting. I created the tree with book pages and then did the leaves and painted the whole thing.
here it is the right way:
I wanted to keep this low key so all I did was to add writing and the dates.
here’s the left page:
And the right side:
And here’s the filled page:
I love this one too.
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.
A few months ago, I taught a class at Big Picture Classes called Finding Your Way. I had created this class because, last year May, I found my way of scrapbooking and it has changed my hobby so much that I wanted to share that feeling and possibility with others. I figured if I could help a few people experience the joy of creating in a way that felt completely authentic to them, it would be worth the world to me.
So I wrote a proposal. I wrote the class. And I taught the class.
It was a wonderful experience to teach it. The class was incredibly supportive and the students were so kind and helpful to each other. It was one of the best experiences of my life. I felt grateful to be a part of it. To get to experience it.
As if that wasn’t amazing enough, last week I received this present in the mail:
it was a minibook made of thank you cards from several of my students. The very best part was that each card had a photo of the creator. I love putting faces to the people whom I only knew by username.
Every single one of these cards was unique and amazing and touching and lifted my soul so much. I tried to only take photos of the outside to preserve the privacy of each person but some of them have photos on top so I am posting as is. If you’re one of the ladies and would prefer I take your photo down just let me know and I will do it immediately.
Aren’t they amazing?
I have never, ever received such a thoughtful gift from any student or any friend. I felt so touched, so grateful, so full of genuine awe.
I wanted to share the book because Cindy told me not all the ladies who were in it got to see the full thing and I wanted to make sure everyone saw this wonderful, generous, amazing gift. Thank you Cindy for organizing it. Thank you to everyone who took the time to contribute. You have made me feel eternally grateful.
I cannot even put it into words. I am truly grateful.
Here’s the check-in for July. You can see the original goals for 2011 here.
Family
I have still been reading regularly to David and loving it so much. I’m still keeping up with weekly family shoots, daily diary, and gratitudes. We haven’t done so well on family night in July but we did take several full-day family trips and mini-vacations instead. Nathaniel and I are still in music class together but my attendance has been super-blotchy mostly because I really really do not like being there. Jake and I have done better on date nights for July and it’s been wonderful.
Health
Going strong on the running and walking. Did 3.12 miles a day every day in July and did 50 leg lifts and 20 crunches a day. The food has been so-so but I am planning on fixing that for August. Sleep’s been a consistent 7 hours or so. I’m getting up several times a night to make sure David goes to the bathroom but other than that I am enjoying the summer rule of not having to set the alarm. We’re also taking daily walks still and averaging more than 75,000 steps a week. So far, so good. The one area that I think needs more work is the food. That’s going to be my focus in August.
Art + Photography
Still Sketching daily every day, it’s been doing for a long time now, I am quite proud of myself for it. And also still doing weeklong art journaling. I still love this project. I have not grown bored of it one bit. I’ve continued with the daily art journaling in July and came up with a plan to continue it without the pressure of having to do it daily. No movement on photo excursions or etsy shop however.
Scrapbooking
July was also full of scrapbooking. Lots of projects for the show. Once I mailed off my projects, things have been quiet. I have a few commitments coming up in August, but otherwise, all is moving here. Steady and quiet.
Reading
Still reading my weekly book regularly. Reading to David, too. We didn’t have book club this month.
Writing
I seem to be neglecting the thoughts-posts. I still think about them all the time and also about classes but everything is on hold for now. I am just being quiet and resting. Newsletters are all the writing that I’ve been doing for now. And July was weak in journaling but towards the end of the month I picked it back up and it’s going full-force now.
Learning
July was the end of Soul Restoration 2 and I didn’t sign up for anything new until the very end of the month when I succumbed and bought 21 Secrets. I also signed up for Christy’s class which starts August 1. Nothing on the iPad front yet or the stop motion movie.
Community (This is a particularly hard one for me.)
Mom’s group was quiet this month but we did have quests over and I also had breakfast and went to the movies with a friend. I also went to work for lunch. This area is moving slowly but it is moving.
And that’s it for July. Overall, I think I did okay. Lots of good goals met. Let’s bring on August!
