Us Right Now – February 5

jake
Jake had a big week at work this week. Many big and small changes coming our way. I must admit that I am quite scared but also very excited and happy for him. He’s been happy and relaxed all week, despite having to go to bed quite late and wake up at 3:30am every single day. He’s so amazing. I can never understand how he does it. We’ve been getting quite a lot of us-time this week, too, which I love.

karen
I’m tired. That’s the most appropriate sentence this week I think. CHA was wonderful but emotionally and physically tiring. So I need to rest. But work’s been hectic and Jake’s parent are visiting and so I just continue to feel behind and tired and worn out. Things will improve, I am sure. In the meantime I am proud that I continue to chug through and do my art, exercise and read to my kid. I just try to take it one day at a time.

david
David had a pretty good week at school this week. He came home happy every day and got a lot of “I like you” instagrams from his classmates. He is going to be six next week. I cannot believe how quickly time is passing. He is a champion reader now and spells amazingly well as well. At least when he’s with me. I think we need to focus on math for a while so he can be completely comfortable with that as well. I am just thankful that he’s doing well, being good and kind to others, and in general trying his best. I am so proud of him.

nathaniel
Nathaniel is still all about the choo-choo but now he’s more demanding and wants a specific one. He’s speaking like a champ. Repeats so many words. I am not sure how great the concept comprehension is but his vocabulary and ability to speak is already way above and beyond anything David did at his age. Which hopefully means he will not have the same speech issues David did. He still continues to be super-cute and giggles and smiles all the time. And his voice is like an angel. Makes you want to hug him pretty much all day long.

and here’s the card version:

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

February 5, 2011 | Us Right Now | 5 comments

Daily Diary – February 4 2011

Another rushed day. I seem to have too many of them lately. But that’s ok. Life goes on and life’s wonderful so I am not really complaining. I got very few photos today.

Here’s Nathaniel digging into the raisins while he plays and I work.

And here’s another one of the boy with the blue eyes.

I tried to get more shots of Nathaniel but by the time we came back from the school interview, all the light was gone so I snapped several, all of which were blurry.

So here we are. At the end of another day. The exercise this week has been hard so I am extra proud that I kept with it. I haven’t done a huge amount of creating but I did do several projects and I’ve journaled almost every single day. Stephanie’s class is over as of today so I am hoping I will just continue journaling anyway. It’s been incredible and I really really want to keep it up. Thankfully, Melody’s class is on a few more weeks so she will encourage me to keep journaling for now. And my class starts next week too. I’m really excited about that!

We’re off to another date night tonight. We’ll be driving to the city to meet with a friend of Jake’s from high school and his wife. I am excited for a good night with good conversation.

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that it’s the weekend. I plan to do a lot of creating this weekend. Just want to play play play.
2. I am grateful that Alisa’s class starts on Monday. I am hoping she’ll get me started on my sketching journey.
3. I am grateful that I don’t really have any plans this weekend and we get to have another date night tomorrow. Yey for both.

Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that it was the 100th day of school {* his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that I played on papi’s computer.
3. I am grateful that Hassen gave me a silly ring (ice cream shaped)

February 4, 2011 | Daily Diary - 2011, DPGallery | 2 comments

Healthy For Life – Week 5

Well here we are. Another week. Another month even. I can’t believe January is over and I managed to do 2.6 miles every day. I can’t believe I survived the hotel room and CHA and 6am and still made it through. I am really tired this week. 2.7 is hard and has been a challenge. But honestly. I think even 2.6 would be right now. I am just trying to be kind to myself but also keep going. That’s the only trick here: to keep going. To do it anyway.

I’ve been hungrier than usual, too. I imagine that’s cause I was twice as active as usual during CHA. I’ve been trying to eat without overeating and not binge on candy or anything else bad. But I do let myself eat a few extra graham crackers if it will do the trick. And it often does.

Yesterday I told myself I’d finally stop drinking all the coffee but today I woke up and all I wanted was quiet time with my coffee and crackers. I think at this moment in time, it brings me too much comfort and does not do enough damage to warrant such a drastic change in my comfort level. So I am going to keep drinking it for now. Even if it means I lose weight more slowly. Slow and steady is ok with me.

and here’s this week’s card:

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

February 4, 2011 | Health, Healthy for Life | 4 comments

You Always Make me Laugh with Joy

This is one of the Pink Paislee layouts I made for CHA. Everything on it is from the Hometown Summer collection.

Journaling Reads:
Little boy, you have such an awesome sense of humor. You imitate your brother often and do anything he thinks is funny. You will do it over and over just to make us all laugh. And you will laugh along with us. Thank you so much.

Details:

February 4, 2011 | Layouts, Pink Paislee, Scrapbooking | 6 comments

Daily Diary – February 3 2011

I think I should go track the cycles I seem to have on my blog. I get the sense that I get depressed and tired and whiny every six weeks or so. I don’t know if it’s biological or just feeling worn out after living a go-go-go life for a while. Either way, I seem to be on the down spiral right now but I know from experience that the pendulum will swing the other way soon. I am trying to wait patiently while I still continue to live my life.

I got these photos of David today that I love.

Especially this one. My stunning, stunning, boy.

Nathaniel was watching TV.

He’s gotten really demanding lately and wants me to put on a specific thomas and then changes his mind and gets super cranky and I cannot deal with it since I am working so now he gets no TV.

Which of course means breakdowns. and weeping. Thankfully, my mother in law got him a Thomas book so they read that together.

And then he read it a bunch on his own.

And then he had several more breakdowns at which point I decided he was ready for bed and now he’s lying in his bed playing of course. Ugh. I have a long list of things to do tonight and I sent everyone out of the house. But my hunch is I will end up just lying on the couch, watching TV, drawing, and maybe doing some art. That’s about it.

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I made it through my 2.7 miles today. It was even harder today. I truly didn’t think I’d make it. But deeply grateful that I did.
2. I am grateful it’s Friday tomorrow. I really really need some more downtime.
3. I am grateful that I finally started the big art journal I wanted to do a la Judy wise. It’s been fun so far and I will show pictures at the end of the week. I am just so happy to play with watercolor, stamps, and just have fun.

Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I get to be the star of the day for tomorrow which is 100th day {* his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that I played on papi’s computer.
3. I am grateful that i get to play legos in bed tonight

February 3, 2011 | Daily Diary - 2011, DPGallery | 4 comments

Exercising – What I am doing

Last week, my friend Kristen asked me what exactly I do when I exercise so I thought it might be a good idea to write it for all of you. Please bear in mind these important facts:

1. I am not a doctor. It is highly recommended that you go see a doctor before you start an exercise regimen.
2. You are not me and our bodies are not the same, nor are our schedules, backgrounds, fitness levels, etc. Please just make sure you’re doing what’s right for you.
3. It took me a while to find what works for me, and I am still open to changing it so know that it’s important to adjust as you go.
4. I’ve never done this before. I am no expert. I don’t secretly know what I’m doing or any of those things. I am just doing it and seeing how it goes.

Ok so with those caveats, we begin. I decided to start exercising on the evening of October 1, 2010. I had already bought nike plus many months before when I’d read about it on Cathy’s site and I’d bought the pouch too. So I just went outside and walked. For all of October, I walked outside, whatever time of day I could and I walked for as long as I could. I experimented with running and walking. I took Nathaniel along most of the time (sometimes Jake was home so I went by myself.) One or two days, Nathaniel was sick so I just walked in my tiny backyard back and forth about 65 times. There was no rhyme or reason. I just did as much as I could every day. The goal was to go out there daily even if for just 15 minutes a day. Here’s the chart from October, you can see I was totally inconsistent.

Towards the end of October, my mom bought me a treadmill, which was the greatest present. Since the day it arrived, I have used the treadmill every single day. I might choose to go out again when the weather is great but honestly I love the treadmill so I have no problem just using it every day. You can see that November was a hard month for me. Most days, I went as fast as I could. Some days I tried to go as far as I could. My knees hurt and I had to go to the doctor who told me I had runners’ knee. I bought a knee thing to wear on the treadmill but it didn’t help that much. Then I finally bought new sneakers and that made all the difference in the world. Happy sneakers meant no knee pain which meant happy Karen. Here’s the chart for November.

for some reason nike’s site won’t show November 30 when I show it in monthly mode. I tried using several browsers and many times so I just give up. In case you think I am hiding something, here’s the entry from November 30. You can also see here that I was pretty slow.

I was pretty frustrated by this point. I couldn’t decide if it was better to go longer or go faster (I still don’t know.) but I knew that I wanted and needed to be consistent. For me, consistency is continually the key to success. So I decided that for December I would walk 2.5 miles every day. That was 2 miles of walking and .5 miles of running. I generally do my walking at 3.8 which is pretty reasonable and my running at 4.5 which is slow. But I am still sweaty at the end and it’s a rate I can maintain day after day which is what matters to me. So for December there was one day when I couldn’t do more than 2.3 and I made up for it the next day by doing 2.7 but every other day, I just did my 2.5 miles.

For January, I upped it to 2.6 miles. 2 miles of walking and .6 miles of running. I did it every single day. Even during CHA, I woke up at went to the treadmill at the hotel. It sucked but I did it. That’s the thing with doing it every day, it makes it that much harder to give up.

And here’s February. Now I’m doing 2.7 miles a day. 2 walking .7 running. I didn’t change my speed at all. Just the distance.

And my plan is to increase it monthly until 3.12 (which will be June going at this rate) at which point, I will be doing a 5k daily. The plan for the second half of the year is to increase the walk to run ratio slowly. In June I will be doing 2+1.1 so I will do 1.9+1.2 in July etc. until the end of the year. I might even just do 2+1.1 for two months. We’ll see when I get there.

So here’s the chart so far:

124 consecutive days so far. 58 hours and 40 minutes. About 258 miles. I don’t care about the calories cause it’s almost always wrong since it means I have to adjust my weight constantly.

You should know:
1. I do this every single day because I know that if I stop, I will just stop. I hate exercising and I am doing it so I will not let myself stop. Even if I am tired. Even if I don’t feel like it (I never feel like it!). I am lucky that I haven’t been injured or really ill so far. If I do get there, we’ll figure it out. Until there’s a really really important reason, every single day it shall be.

2. I don’t work out too hard. I am not trying to push my body so that it doesn’t need too much time to heal so that I can do it every single day.

3. I do it around 11-12 most days. It’s the only time that seems to work well for me. I am awake and it’s early enough in the day that I feel a sense of accomplishment for the rest of the day. It’s also officially lunch hour so I don’t feel bad about work.

4. I generally read on my ipad while I walk which is the only time I read in my day and then put my ipod on for the running part. I listen to one song over twice right now and then the running part is over.

5. I’ve been doing this for 124 days and it’s still really really hard. Really hard. It’s hard to get myself to get up and do it. It’s hard to do it. It’s hard to make sure I am reaching my daily goal (2.7 right now). It’s just all hard. But I do it anyway. I just do it. I don’t give myself permission not to. That’s the only way it works for me.

That’s it. I hope that was clear and it helps with any questions you might have had (probably more than you ever wanted to know.) Feel free to ask more.

Please remember this is something I made up for me. Do what’s right for you. (Also, I kindly ask that you do not tell me to not do it daily. I appreciate your kindness and respect your knowledge, but I am not going to consider this option and it doesn’t help me to keep hearing it. So I respectfully ask you to please not say it.)

February 3, 2011 | Health | 8 comments

Six Portraits a Week – 5

I must admit that I am enjoying drawing these way more now that I am not painting.

I am quite surprised with how different each of them are.

And how each time I think I took a step forward, I also see that I took two steps backward. I spose that’s how it feels to learn.

But I am still enjoying the process. I am still trusting that things will get better, even if slowly. I am trying to take my time. Give myself permission to mess up. My other journal is on its last page so I bought a new journal for February and cannot wait to fill it all up with faces.

Six Portraits a Week is a weekly project for 2011. You can read more about it here.

February 3, 2011 | Art, Six Portraits a Week | Leave a comment

Daily Diary – February 2 2011

I woke up in a better mood today thankfully. Things are still a bit fragile but I feel like doing some art last night really helped a lot. I got up and did pages of journaling, I exercised, Nathaniel didn’t nap and then napped and then was cranky. I worked, I read to David. So I did most of what I do in a day. I feel a little frazzled and disorganized still but I am feeling less depressed and less fragile which is wonderful.

Little boy having fun while watching choo-choo.

A good smile from my big boy.

And one from my little boy.

That’s all I got today. I still have to feed dinner, do some more work, post two more posts, draw my portrait and get ready to go out to date night so I will say good night and let you know that I will respond to comments ASAP and I am not ignoring you and I am deeply grateful for all your kind comments and thank you for visiting me day after day. thank you thank you thank you.

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I made it through my 2.7 miles today. It was really hard and I didn’t think I was going to make it but I did.
2. I am grateful for another date night.
3. I am grateful that I journaled and made some art. Each time I journal more and more issues come up and get resolved, it’s truly like magic lately.

Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that it’s groundhog day {* his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that I played star wars with julian at school.
3. I am grateful that i started my dalmatian (named spot!)

February 2, 2011 | Daily Diary - 2011, DPGallery | 4 comments

The Adventure of Being a Little Boy is All about Appreciating the Simple Joys

Now that CHA is passed, I wanted to share some of my The Girls’ Paperie work I made for the show.

Journaling Reads:
One of the greatest things about having a little boy is seeing the joy that spreads over his face at the simplest things. I made this fabric ball in about five minutes and Nathaniel has gotten hours and hours of joy out of it. What more can I ask for in life?

All products are from The Girls’ Paperie Jubilee or Mix and Match lines.

Details:

February 2, 2011 | Layouts, Scrapbooking, The Girls' Paperie | 6 comments

A Book a Week – Flying Lessons

I’m a huge Kelly Rae Roberts fan. Not only do I love her art but I also love her words, her spirit and the way she shares herself so much. I’ve never met her in person but she comes off like a kind, generous soul who is full of life. When she taught a class last year, I was too busy and knew I wouldn’t be able to dedicate my time to it. Not to mention I had no intention of starting a creative business.

The class came and went and I was a little sad but overall I knew I wasn’t the audience for it.

But then she went off and created an ebook called Flying Lessons. All about how to make your creative business dreams soar. I really really really wanted to get it.

Except I had no creative business dreams.

I did have some creative dreams but none that I planned to start a business around. So I couldn’t justify the cost of this book.

But I couldn’t stop thinking about it anyway.

So I asked for it for Christmas. And my dad was kind enough to get it for me. I read it cover to cover and I plan to read it a few more times. I still don’t have creative dreams but I love reading Kelly Rae’s words. I think she’s wise, talented, hard working and fully obsessed with art. In the most beautiful way. I can completely see why she’s so successful. And she totally deserves all of it. And more.

If you happen to have any creative business dreams (especially arts and crafts related and/or ones that might involve etsy, licensing etc.) this book is very very worthwhile. It’s detailed, inspirational and very specific.

I loved reading it.

And who knows maybe next year I will have creative business ambitions….

February 2, 2011 | Books Read in 2011, Literature | 2 comments

Daily Diary – February 1 2011

I’ll start by telling you that I am still in a really grouchy mood. I can’t seem to snap out of it so I am just going to let myself off the hook and just let it get better when it needs to and in the meantime i will try to minimize the damage around me. Thankfully the boys are being amazing for the most part.

Excited when toys make noise.

David told me could he smile while he played please?

I explained that I needed a full on smile with the eyes.

And Nathaniel laughing while watching choo-choo.

Tonight’s plans are a bit in the air. I don’t want to do anything but have seventeen things to do. So let’s see which one I end up with. My inlaws just arrived so we have more options than usual for our evening.

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I had a new lesson in four of my classes. Despite feeling overwhelmed, I love getting the new lessons and feeling inspired.
2. I am grateful that I got a lot of sleep in the last two nights. I needed the rest badly.
3. I am grateful that I was able to do my increased exercise today. More coming about this soon.

Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that meme and papi are coming to visit {* his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that I read my book box at school.
3. I am grateful that mommy and I read our book

February 1, 2011 | Daily Diary - 2011, DPGallery | Leave a comment

Weekly Art Journal – The Two Karens

Today’s page was week three’s homework for the Soul Restoration class.

This week’s theme is about the strong and weak selves. I don’t want to talk a lot about the details of the content since it’s Melody and Kathy’s content but I’ll talk some about my personal thoughts and things that came up for me.

The art is a two-pager in my album. Just fabric I cut up and then the images and text on the right side are by Melody and the text on the left is also by her. The image on the left is a norman rockwell painting which I cut up. Nothing extraordinary.

I have always believed that the things that make me strong and weak are one and the same. The same traits help me succeed and excel and they also cause me to fail and to break. For example, I tend to be loyal to a fault. When it comes to positive people and situations, loyalty is a great trait. It makes you a great employee, a wonderful wife, and a desirable friend. But in the wrong hands, this can easily crush you. I follow through and work hard and do not give up easily. This, too, is wonderful when it comes to solid jobs and relationships. But when I am in a situation like TFA where I was drowning and I still wouldn’t let go, well it’s just stupid. This great trait doesn’t serve me well. I love deeply and endlessly and this causes me to be paranoid during the weak times. My self-doubt makes me work harder and try more and be grateful more often and feel less entitlement. All of which are good. And yet self-doubt is not so great.

The self doubt also makes me want to say yes to everyone and everything because who am I to turn anything down? And yet then I get stressed and frustrated and I don’t treat the people I love as kindly as I should. So I am learning to say no. Even when it hurts. Even as I am scared the person will hate me, will think i am a diva, will never offer me any other opportunities. Even with that, I am learning to turn down things that will stress me out or set me up to fail.

So my strengths and my weaknesses come from the same core and the same traits. When I am in a bad place, they come out in extremes and spiral downward. When I am in a good place, they help me get better and excel more. So the lesson here is to:

1. embrace who i am. the good and the bad since one cannot exist without the other
2. try to keep myself in a good place for as long as i can since success and good mood definitely builds on itself

Since this is true of me, it’s also true of everyone around me. My husband, children, parents, friends…The things that make them the people I love are the same things that cause their weaknesses. David’s carefreeness and laughter are why he sometimes doesn’t pay attention or focus as much as I’d like him to. Yes, I wish he could be better at that but if I force him to focus better, will I lose the carefreeness too? Am I willing to give up the good, just to not have to put up with the bad? I ask myself this all the time and the answer is no for all of my personal traits. And the answer is no for the people I love. So each time they “mess up” I remind myself that it’s the other side of the token I love and I will endure it because I love this person and this is how they are.

Knowing how I am in a spiral and how my traits manifest themselves in a weak spot is beneficial for me so I can recognize the signs. So I can tell the people I love to watch out for them and so I can ask for help when they’re coming. Also so I can do some preventative work to try to keep myself in the “good” place more often. But things happen. Life’s very cyclical. So there will be bad days. That’s inevitable.

And there we are. There’s more of course. About not comparing, setting achievable goals, being ok at being mediocre, looking for supportive people, shedding the bad. Learning to walk away. I can go on and on.

Details:

Weekly Art Journal is a weekly project for 2011. You can read more about it here.

February 1, 2011 | Weekly Art Journal | 5 comments

« Newer Entries  
  Older Entries »