This morning I scrapped! It’s been a long time since I scrapped and even though I have two assignments on my list, I did something completely different. I am not sure if I like the page I made, it’s a bit unusual for me, but it was so nice to scrap again. Between that and the art journaling my table is a complete mess.
Nathaniel is growing up by leaps and bounds lately. Still no words but a lot of opinions and anger and frustration. And reaching where he can’t.
But he still continues to be super-sweet sometimes.
Exploring everything. But not the trash, thankfully.
He loves his brother so much and he randomly walked up to him and rubbed his leg. It was such a loving gesture, we were both touched.
And then he sat next to David and listened while David read.
David really liked reading to him.
And Nathaniel must have, too, because he gave David a big hug.
And then we played some more, ate some, read a bunch more and it was bedtime. It’s amazing how tired one can be by 6:31pm. I know for some people that’s when their energy starts coming and they stay up until 2am but those days are long gone for me. It’s rare I make it past 10pm.
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that thanks to my meeting yesterday I managed to do better at work today.
2. I am grateful that I scrapped a bit. Nothing like preserving memories.
3. I am so grateful for my kids, even during those super-crazy moments. I love them so deeply.
Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. working on my mini book – coloring and drawing
2. watching a movie at school – lifecycle of plants
3. doing the workbook with mommy
Here’s today’s page.
I’ve been working on being calmer and calmer. I’ve been making a point not to yell at the kids or at anyone else. I am trying to let go of the urgency of my todo items and do them slowly and in general being calmer. Calmer is better.
I had these dictionary pages in my journal and I stuck them all together using some Pink Pasilee tape and then colored it using the water-soluble crayons. I made a layout this morning using this crate paper so I had all these punched hearts and wanted to put them to use. Simple but i do like it. I think….
detail:
When I walked away for a second, I found this little boy looking at my page. (It was on the floor cause I was taking the photo.)
When I was in high school, three of us did a report on Somerset Maugham. At the time, I read The Moon and Sixpence by him and loved it. Since that I hadn’t read anything else by him so when my book club picked Of Human Bondage, I was excited to read it.
As it turned out, I didn’t really enjoy this very long and very slow book nearly as much. There were several interesting bits and some good characters. But overall, I didn’t care for the main character which often ruins the book for me right there. And then to have it go on and on and on with more characters that were just as unappealing was just more depressing.
So if you’re thinking of reading Maugham, I recommend The Moon and Sixpence. A much better read.
This is made with the October kit from A Million Memories. I could not for the life of me get a non-crooked or even normal quality photo with this one. I am so sorry. I swear it looks much cuter in person.
Journaling Reads:
Little boy, you’re always so funny. You have such a strong personality. You dig through my things and find whatever you like and try it on and walk around with things and make funny faces. The headphones are among your favorites. You put them on and walk around dragging the cord with you and then you take them off. I love watching how you are so much of who you are already.
Details:
This morning I woke up, I posted the catalyst, I snuggled up with my kid, I had my coffee. I was blissful and happy. I just decided this was it, I was going to relax. And i ended up getting much more than usual done and I am still relaxed.
Nathaniel is getting harder and more demanding but he also plays with his toys occasionally.
And he’s so wonderful so I cannot imagine doing anything else with my time. I cannot imagine leaving this one at home and going to work. I love him so.
And then I had to go to work so Jake came home and went to pick up David while I went to work. I was there for a little over two hours and it was incredibly useful and also great to get out a bit. I don’t get out much. While I was gone, Jake snapped this for me.
And now I am back, kids are tucked in and I am planning on doing more relaxing. Taking care of me day! I hope you make one too!!
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I went to work. I learned a lot.
2. I am grateful that I did actually take the time to relax today. I rarely let myself off the hook, so I am glad I did.
3. I am grateful that I feel calm now. That I am still walking and eating better and working on things. One day at a time….
4. Oh and i got this amazing email today. A reply I had long stopped expecting.
Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. making my Y puppet
2. watching movies with daddy
3. playing roll and recorder at school ( no idea what this is!! )
Here’s today’s page.
If I had 20 minutes yesterday, I only had 10 today. I went to work for a meeting and didn’t get home until 5:15 and light was almost completely gone. I was going to give up but then i saw this butterfly. And I grabbed my water-soluble crayons and i just decided to have fun quickly. I did red to light orange on the back ground. Added a fabric house, the butterfly and some text. That’s it. Super quick. Look how crooked my letters are. I really had no time. It was do this or do nothing.
As for the words, today was the first day in a good two weeks i relaxed. I slowly did some to-do items and I got a bunch of work done but I didn’t feel unbelievably stressed and worried and I remembered that life is good. It *is* good. I need to remember it more and let go of anxiety more.
detail:
Catalyst One Hundred and Fifteen is: Create a postcard. Who’s it going to?
Thoughts:
I took this photo a while ago and I loved it. I love so many things about it that I cannot even begin to explain. But I wanted to take this photo, make a card of it and send it myself to remind myself that each day is ephemeral and that I need to live it with full emotion and passion and suck everything out of each of my days. To make the very best of them.
I hate Halloween.
There I’ve said it. I really, truly hate it. I don’t like pumpkins or pumpkin pie. I do not enjoy costumes. Most importantly, I hate anything scary. And Halloween’s built on scary. Maybe if I were a kid, I might enjoy the candy but, at my age, I know it’s best to stay away from it. So, in my opinion there’s nothing redeemable about this day.
Maybe it’s because I haven’t grown up with the tradition of celebrating it. Where I come from, we don’t have Halloween or anything like it. For the first few years I moved here, I ignored it. Then for a brief period I made my peace with and even embraced giving candy to the kids who came to our door.
Then we had kids and it was time to go trick or treating, and I hated it all over again. The haunted houses, the horror movies on TV, the candy I had to tell my son he couldn’t have. (One or two or three but certainly not the whole bucket.) I just didn’t understand what was so great about this holiday.
A few years ago, my husband bought a pumpkin carving kit. A $5 one at wal-mart. It came with pictures you taped on the pumpkin and then cut out. This little thing was the first step to changing my feelings about this holiday. I now really enjoy the process of picking the pattern and carving the pumpkin with my kids. (Even though I do all the work.) I also enjoy our yearly trips to the pumpkin patch. I love that it’s something we do as a family.
So while I am still not at peace with Halloween, I did manage to create some small sub-traditions around this holiday that I look forward to. This way, I can make sure that I share my kids’ enthusiasm about one of their favorite days of the year.
Maybe that’s the trick for dealing with something you cannot stand: creating a small portion inside it that you love.
The following is cross-posted from the Weekly Gratitude Blog. I will post there every Tuesday and decided to post those posts here, too. For those of you who read both blogs, I apologize in advance. Some weeks the content might be different and other weeks, exactly the same.
I’m so close to the very end, I can almost see it. Working working working like mad. While i work the little boy explores in the house.
Sometimes quietly and sometimes with a lot of noise. Especially if he’s hungry. I waited too late to take photos today, too so they came out much more blurry than usual.
And here’s Nathaniel looking up to his brother. Look at that love in his eyes.
I know this photo is super blurry but I love the look he has here. It reminds me so much of me. Eerie.
And here we are at the end of another day. October 18. I can’t believe we’re past the halfway point of this month. I plan to plow through very hard in the next two days and then be totally done with my lists. Or at least ready to take a break. I am ready to relax more and scrap some. Mmmm. scrapping. yes!
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I wrote three more lessons today. Off to record some audio.
2. I am grateful that things at work seem to be moving along well. Slowly, but well.
3. I am grateful that I spent another day drinking only one cup of coffee. So far, so good.
Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. helping Daddy take the training wheels of his bike
2. watching mommy do her art journal page
3. reading mommy my stories
4. doing my X puppet (xavier the fox!)
Here’s today’s page. I am still enjoying the watercolors.
Completely different thing today. I’ve been thinking about Christmas a lot lately. I cannot wait to have the holiday season begin. I love it so much.
I wanted to use copics but i waited until it was really really late in the day so i rushed through the whole thing and made several mistakes. And you can see how much i rushed. But i was losing daylight and wasn’t going to be able to take photos. So there we are, something odd and weird and very imperfect today. Here’s to doing better tomorrow.
Thought I forgot?
11 was the lucky number so the winner is:
Stephanie
October 11th, 2010 at 9:48 am
Awesome giveaway – Karen. Thanks for the chance to win.
Stephanie, email me your address at karen AT karenika DOT com and i will send this awesome product your way!
More giveaways coming soon!
A few weeks ago Margie emailed me and asked me if I could do a few samples with one of her kits that were scheduled to sell on the Home Shopping Network (HSN). The kit had the Girls’ Paperie Paper Girl papers, ribbons, stamps, and die cuts. No alphabets! Can you imagine me doing a layout without alphabets? Well, I went off and bought the letter punch from MS and decided to step up to the challenge. I will post the 4 layouts I made in two days, over the next few weeks.
Journaling Reads:
If someone has told me that I would be lucky enough to get another happy, beautiful and sweet baby after David, I would have told them that the changes are low I get so lucky twice in a row. But here you are smiling and magical. I love you so much.
Details:
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projects for twenty twenty-six
projects for twenty twenty-five
projects for twenty twenty-four
projects for twenty twenty-three
projects for twenty twenty-two
projects for twenty twenty-one
projects for twenty nineteen
projects for twenty eighteen
projects from twenty seventeen
monthly projects from previous years
some of my previous projects
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