Journaling Reads:
I was lucky enough to spend six months in Japan in 1999 for a business trip. Most of that time was in Tokyo but I made two trips away. One was for skiing and the other to Kamakura.
While I would have loved to have visited Kyoto, I didn’t get the opportunity and Kamakura was the closest I got to experiencing the magic of all the temples and the nature.
I remember most of my time in Japan with joy and gratitude. I loved every moment of it. The uniqueness, the foreignness and all the kindness of strangers have still stayed with me.
I loved the cherry blossoms and the fish market and all the parts of Tokyo I visited. Each unique, each more amazing than the other. But Kamakura was much more magical than any others. It was peaceful and quiet. Even though, at the time, I was really sad that our one occasion to visit was “ruined” by rain, I can now see that it only added to the mood and solitude of being there. Maybe next time I visit Japan I will get to visit Kyoto, but until then, I am grateful that I got to visit Kamakura and experience some of the beauty.
I went to bed last night promising myself that I would be calm, quiet and patient today. And I am happy to say that I think I was. I’ve had my moments and work was very stressful but I kept my cool. I talked to David a lot to explain the situation so all I had to do was remind and I didn’t yell one single time. Nathaniel had me stressed a bit because just when I was having manual production problems and had to do a lot of typing, he’d come over to the computer and type and I had to move his hand and he’d melt down. But he did eventually calm down and play.
I worked all through until the moment I had to leave to get David. Then I worked a bunch more while David did his gratitude journal, etc. And then I asked if could snap a photo and I got this gem.
Then since he was so great when I worked, we played some cards together. He won.
And then it was bed time. There was a little bit of a meltdown but it all happened with relatively low fanfare and I just kept reminding myself that I needed to breathe and relax. Then I got a bunch of crafty stuff done and now I have more todo list items to get through. But I feel good about the work, the exercise, the fun time, the craft time, and even a long wonderful conversation with my mother in law.
Having said that I am so so so tired. Please hope that my little one sleeps past 5am ok? Pretty please?
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I finished some of the loose ends on projects I wanted to completely finish.
2. I am grateful that I have tomorrow off. 3-day weekend, here I come.
3. I am grateful that I got a wonderfully kind recognition at work today. It was completely unexpected and I felt so surprised and grateful.
Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. making snowflakes in art class {* his pick for the journal}
2. playing cards with mommy
3. playing with my math toy
A few months ago, I made some handmade tags for Julie’s handmade for the holidays series. There were six tags and one set of downloads. I will post all of them one at a time during this week.
For all my tags I used manila tags I bought at Office Depot. You can always cut your own tag from cardstock and punch a hole as well.
Here are the steps to this simple tag:
1. For this tag, I wanted to play with fabric. I covered the background with polka-dot red fabric that I love. I glued it down and then stitched around the edges of the tag.
2. I then added the felt reindeer with the baker’s twine around his neck.
3. I put a bling on his eye and one on his nose.
4. I added the word stickers and stitched through them to make sure they stayed in place.
5. I added two border stickers on top and bottom and put the sentiment sticker in the middle of the two.
6. I stitched through the whole thing a few times to make sure the sticker would stay in place.
Supplies used: The Girls’ Paperie Tinsel and Twig sticker market, fabric, bling, felt reindeer, and baker’s twine.
This was originally posted at Julie Fei-Fan Balzer‘s blog as part of handmade for the holidays series.
I made this layout a long while ago but it looks like I never posted it.
Journaling Reads:
Dead David, you don’t know now but you’ve been so very lucky for the last three years. You’ve had the very best teachers. You started with teacher Lana and Mary (whom you loved so very much) and then the next year you had even more luck with teachers Melissa, Cody, and Kathleen. They cared for you so very much. And this year you finished your preschool with teacher Joel who’s known you for so long and loved you so much. As you start kindergarten this year, my biggest wish for you is that you get another amazing teacher. It makes all the difference. June 2010.
Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters was recommended to me by my friend Kathy. I generally trust her taste in books and the premise of this one seemed wonderful. Here’s the description from amazon:
Ella Minnow Pea is a girl living happily on the fictional island of Nollop off the coast of South Carolina. Nollop was named after Nevin Nollop, author of the immortal pangram,* “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” Now Ella finds herself acting to save her friends, family, and fellow citizens from the encroaching totalitarianism of the island’s Council, which has banned the use of certain letters of the alphabet as they fall from a memorial statue of Nevin Nollop. As the letters progressively drop from the statue they also disappear from the novel. The result is both a hilarious and moving story of one girl’s fight for freedom of expression, as well as a linguistic tour de force sure to delight word lovers everywhere.
And while the premise was cute, the book was so-so. I felt like it never really went beyond the premise and I just didn’t care for it even though I cannot exactly put my finger on exactly why. Now you know why I don’t write longer book reviews. I am clearly not good at them.
Today we went to David’s school for the Winter Sing. The photos are not good but I still love them. Here he’s dancing with his teacher’s son. They are good friends.
Nathaniel loves watching them.
And David was so happy.
i must be honest, I’ve been so grouchy that I dreaded going there and I am really glad I did. It was wonderful to be there with David and see all of K-2 sing. Tonight I get to go to book club and then I have a list of things I want to do when I come home but the chances are I will be way too tired. I spose that’s what tomorrow is for, right? Thank you for all your kind comments from yesterday. I feel so much better knowing I am not alone. Thank you, thank you.
Also thank you for signing up for my newsletter. I appreciate that, too! I promise you will be glad you did!
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I went to David’s school and watched him sing.
2. I am grateful that I have book club tonight. Even though I feel tired and worn out, I know I will enjoy it.
3. I am grateful that I get to have most of the next two days off. I need downtime. Mentally more than anything else but still, I need it.
Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. singing at school today {* his pick for the journal}
2. having mommy and nathaniel come to school
3. cleaning up for mommy
I know it’s not the end of the day yet but I knew what I wanted to do today so I just sat and made these pages that capture where my kids are at right now. Just a few things.
you are able to nod yes and no
you scream too often to express what you want
you give David many hugs each day
you are becoming a pickier eater
you are obsessed with having the TV on
you understand so much but say only a few words
you love playing and you are a happy happy boy
I am so thankful you are in our lives. We love you.
you are reading like a champ
you can write so well
you keep a daily gratitude journal
you still love to color
you are a super-picky eater
you are so loving and kind to everyone
you make all of us so very very proud
I am so thankful you are in our lives. We love you.
A few months ago, I made some handmade tags for Julie’s handmade for the holidays series. There were six tags and one set of downloads. I will post all of them one at a time during this week.
For all my tags I used manila tags I bought at Office Depot. You can always cut your own tag from cardstock and punch a hole as well.
Here are the steps to this simple tag:
1. For this tag, I wanted to experiment with embossing. I stamped some snowflakes into my background with embossing ink.
2. I embossed using sparkly clear embossing powder.
3. I then inked the tag using blues and greens. The embossed sections resisted the ink.
4. I added the big snowflake and changed the button with a bigger, more ornamental one.
5. I glued on ribbon on the bottom and added a sticker with Season
Supplies used: The Girls’ Paperie Tinsel and Twig vintage buttons, sticker market, trims, and flower market crepe paper. Broken China and Shabby Shutters distress ink.
And here’s a movie where I demonstrate how I made the tag:
This was originally posted at Julie Fei-Fan Balzer‘s blog as part of handmade for the holidays series.
I know we’re smack in the middle of Christmastime but I have this Halloween layout I made because I knew that if I didn’t make it, I would never make it since I am not a fan of Halloween at ALL.
Journaling Reads:
Despite the fact that I am not a fan of Halloween I do like seeing you guys dressed up and specifically seeing Nathaniel wear David’s old costumes. Seeing two different chickens makes me so happy and it makes the rest of this holiday worthwhile for me.
All products are from The Girls’ Paperie Toil and Trouble (except for the green button which is from Tinsel and Twig)
As you can glean from the previous post I’m still cranky today. And yet I’ve had wonderful moments today, too. I love Nathaniel.
Especially his sense of humor. (the cut on his eyelid is from the computer he dropped yesterday.)
And I love David and how much he loves to read.
And how interested Nathaniel is in his brother. How much they love each other. Nathaniel gives him like a million hugs a day.
I love that despite my inexplicable grouchiness they are perfect, wonderful, kind, generous and loving. To me and each other. I love that my husband is so kind with me. HE helped me accomplish two huge tasks today. I am so thankful for the kindness of friends. I am just feeling full of bliss and joy amidst the grouchiness. And I am holding on to that feeling as hard as I can.
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I got tickets for CHA! I am going alone this time. Thank you Yona for showing me it’s ok to travel without my family. That I can survive it and so can they. Let’s hope it’s true in January too. So grateful for the kindness of Caroline. And that everything came together so smoothly. Knock on wood.
2. I am grateful that Christmas presents are done! Ok I still have Jake but the rest are done done done.
3. I learned something new at work today. I love learning new things. I love doing them however small. I am grateful for the help of coworkers so I could learn and grow.
Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. getting a piece of chocolate at school (Hannukah geld) {* his pick for the journal}
2. playing a game in PE class
3. reading my library book
There’s a bad place where all your thoughts are negative. The place where you’re mean to yourself an everyone around you. You wallow in self-pity or resentment or anger or frustration. You take everything from the worst possible angle. You make mistakes and then get angrier. You snarl at the people you love and then feel disappointed in yourself. And the cycle goes on and on.
Please tell me I’m not the only one who goes to that bad place.
I’ve been living in that place for the last couple of days. I am not entirely sure how I got there or why I’m stuck there but here I am. I’ve been grouchy and mean and having major meltdowns over the smallest things. It has not been fun and I go to bed each day determined to snap out of it and wake up each morning back in that place.
But here’s the thing: even during these dark days, I’ve had amazing moments of gratitude and joy.
People have been kind and understanding and generous with me. I’ve had moments of laughter. I’ve felt good about accomplishing a task and finishing some todo item. Even if they were fewer and far in between, they were there.
So if your week or day is going like mine have been, I urge you to pause and pay attention to the moments of gratitude you have in the middle of darkness. To me, those are little bits of hope seeping in to remind you that life is not nearly as bleak as it seems right now.
That’s what practicing gratitude is all about: paying attention to the good. Because some good is always there.
