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This is using the A Million Memories September Kit. Journaling Reads: Details:
edited: somehow the text for this got mixed up with another book i mentioned. please forgive me. i fixed it. I was reluctant to pickup The Girl Who Played with Fire after having mixed feelings about the first book. I found the first one to be interesting but long at places and the subject matter was deeply disturbing to me. I wasn’t sure I wanted to read more. But thanks to my friend Mike’s recommendations I picked up the second one and I am glad I did. This book is SIGNIFICANTLY better than the first one. While the subject and the content is still deeply disturbing, I found the pace to be much better and the character development deeper and more interesting. This one felt more personal. I read it much more quickly and with great interest and anticipation. And I will read the third one at some point. I’m glad I didn’t give up after the first book.
So the little boy woke up at 4:20am this morning, crying and burning up and coughing and miserable. I was exhausted but also a little at my wit’s end. I almost took him to the urgent care. After I gave him some medicine, he was better but still very lethargic. He couldn’t hold his head up so I put him back down in bed where he slept for a tiny bit and then woke up coughing. We even drove over to the hospital but then thought better of it. At this point, he was much more himself so I knew it was better to be calmer and more organized. Jake took David to the bus, I came home for the cleaning lady and waited for the doctor’s office to open. They were awesome and gave me an appointment quickly. We rushed over there and yes he has something like croup. Throat is sore and inflamed. Poor little boy. We came back home and he was so tired so I put him down.
We had a lot of these sad faces today.
But he was much better as the day wore on. I decided to take a personal day from work and rest, too. I did end up working more than planned but it was still good to stress less. We picked up David who’d had a good day at school and came home to rest and eat dinner.
I snapped this odd photo of Nathaniel that’s blurry but it’s the only non-crying photo I have from today so I want to put it here so I can remember that it wasn’t all crying.
By the evening, he was in better moods and even played outside a bit. I am overwhelmingly exhausted and behind in so many tasks but just hiding behind my book. It will all sort itself out soon. Three Things I’m Grateful For: Three Things David’s Grateful For: I spent a while thinking about expectations today. I’ve noticed lately that happiness and gratitude are very strongly related to expectations. If something you didn’t expect (but is good) happens, you’re thrilled beyond belief and feel a strong sense of gratitude. And yet if you’re anticipating it, the same event feels deserved and comes with a sense of entitlement. However small. So when something exceeds expectations, that’s when we feel glee and gratitude. And when something fails to meet what we hoped or even if it just meets our hopes, we tend to feel let down. What does this mean about gratitude? The first instinct might be to think it’s best to lower expectations. After all, the lower they are, the easier it is to exceed them, right? The more I think about this, the more I feel that’s not the right path. I think the trick is to find gratitude even in those situations. I’m all about focusing in the now and trying to have realistic expectations, etc. But at the end of the day, each of us will be disappointed at some point in our lives and the trick is knowing what to do then. What happened to me today was relatively small. I was frustrated for a while because something that I expected turned out completely different than my vision. I whined and pouted for a while. Then I gave myself a good mental slap. It was my fault for having baseless expectations and what happened instead was still amazing and wonderful and I had much to be thankful for. So instead of changing them, I threw my expectations out the window and told myself to take a good look at what was right in front of me. What I did have. And, honestly, I had much to be grateful for right there. I just had to look at it with my bare eyes and not through the colorful lenses of my expectations. So next time this happens to you, I hope you take a moment to step back and pay attention to how your expectations might be blurring your vision of the situation and how you might actually have a lot to be thankful for right in front of you. 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 still in this odd funk. It shall pass. They always do. But sadly, the little boy is sick. He’s got a low grade fever and definitely something off with this chest. Nurse said it might be croup. What a bummer for him. He’s losing his voice and you can hear his throat when he breathes. He’s lethargic too. But he still has some happy moments in the day. He loves doing this pillow game where he throws the pillow on the carpet and falls on it. He likes doing it again and again.
And he still likes to collect things and randomly distribute them in the house.
A few weeks ago, I ordered some gelaskins of my favorite image from this year. One for my laptop.
and one for the kindle.
you don’t even see the back since it’s in a cover, but i still love it.
And here’s a wide, happy smile from the big big boy.
Not feeling motivated at all. Maybe cause I am so tired. But I am enjoying my book and my kids and hugging Nathaniel a lot hoping he will get well. Those keep me busy enough… Three Things I’m Grateful For: Three Things David’s Grateful For: 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: Details:
This morning, we drove David to the school bus and then after a brief stop at home, we drove over to his school to volunteer for an art project. I helped and took photos of the kids (I am also helping with yearbook photos for the class.) Nathaniel was well behaved almost the whole time and it was fun to see the variety of art projects in the class. While we were there, a woman came to assess each of the kids on their math skills one by one. She was amazed by David’s interest, excitement, and knowledge. She said he was the best she’s assessed in all of kindergarten. And she loved that he was having so much fun with it. Yey for David! We then rushed home and I put the little boy down. He slept for a short time and woke up all cranky. It took a long time but he did finally relax. I got a bunch of work done and watched him play a bit.
Then we went to get David. Since I showed you some Nathaniel faces a while ago, I thought it would be fun to do some David faces, too. Like this one.
And this one.
Thinking hard.
Nathaniel wasn’t sure how he felt about the whole thing.
But David started making funny faces.
And funnier faces.
And won the little boy over, of course.
I am still indescribably exhausted. Besides work, David’s school and some reading I did not do one thing all day. And my plan for tonight is sleep and then some more sleep. Maybe a tiny bit of reading squeezed in there. Three Things I’m Grateful For: Three Things David’s Grateful For:
I’m not exactly sure what went wrong but I woke up feeling really tired and almost sick. So was Nathaniel. So instead of accomplishing more and going out, I stayed at home all day and lay on the couch feeling sorry for myself. Little boy was sad and whiny in the morning, too.
But seemed to get his bearings back later in the day.
And the big boy was as awesome as ever.
He even gave me some deep smiles all the way in the eyes.
In the afternoon, we gave Nathaniel some crayons and paper and he went to town. It was his first time but he scribbled like an old pro.
Some short backyard time, some lounging on the couch and it was time for the little ones to go down. I am planning on sitting with my book a bit more (almost 300-pages in) and then hoping that tonight’s rest will make me more useful tomorrow. I volunteer at David’s class tomorrow so I will need to be solid. Hope your weekend was great! Three Things I’m Grateful For: Three Things David’s Grateful For: I did this one a few months ago, using a Crate Paper sketch.
Journaling Reads:
I don’t have a huge todo list for this weekend. I had a few things I wanted to make sure to get done and I finished the most time consuming one. Or at least the one I was most worried about. I can now relax and read the rest of the weekend. We started the morning with a bunch of reading exercises. We’re on lesson 76 and it’s amazing the amount and kind of progress he’s made. He really can pretty much read at this point. It’s stunning. In the middle of the day, David decided he wanted to stop playing Wii and play soccer outside. Of course it only took Nathaniel seconds to join him. So I took the chance to grab my camera and snap photos.
Nathaniel took a while to get the hang of it but he enjoyed himself the whole time.
We kept cheering him to take the ball to David. Go, Nathaniel go. To David.
He totally got it.
But then David would throw it back out and he’d get so upset.
And then there were two balls and he got even more confused. He sat down and thought for a long time, and then picked them both up at the same time. Cutie pie that he is! I snapped my closeup of course.
Jake went to get us some light lunch and we all ate together. Then he played Wii with David while I worked on my minibook. Nathaniel walked around and made a huge mess and gave his dad regular hugs. Dinner, bath, hugs, milk and it was bedtime for the little ones. I finished my mini and after this I plan to spent some hubby time and then bed with my book. I’m only on page 103 of a 975 page book. Long long long time to go. My goal was to finish it this weekend but I am thinking it’s not likely. All in all, wonderful day. Three Things I’m Grateful For: Three Things David’s Grateful For: Ok this one I did a long time ago and already posted but since I am trying to keep track of my items, I am reposting, apologies if it annoys you. I did this for a creative therapy prompt. It’s funny to see how different our days are already since I made this. but i guess that’s exactly the point. I’ll have to redo it again some time…
Journaling Reads: 6:30am: David comes down sometime between 5:30 and 6am and by 6:30, I am fully awake and lately I’ve begun regularly working on some sort of creative project so I get the kids set up with breakfast and sit at my table. Nathaniel eats some bread, cereal, or graham crackers with cheese and a banana. David eats oatmeal and sometimes a fruit, too. I might be scrapping, sewing, crocheting, or painting. I work at this feverishly for about an hour or hour and a half, taking a break to get Nathaniel down from his high chair so he can walk around and play with duplos or David’s toys. 8am: When David had school, this is when he’d start getting ready but school’s over now and Kindergarten hasn’t started yet so they just keep playing until I’m done with my project or until Nathaniel is whining cause he’s really tired. I then put Nathaniel down and clean up around the kitchen a bit while I make my coffee. When it’s ready, it’s officially quiet time. David plays legos quietly while I drink my Cafe Francais and eat my graham crackers. I might check more mail, read blogs, message boards, or read my book. 9am: I officially start work. I check my mail, start triaging issues and go back and forth between tasks until Nathaniel wakes up. Once he’s awake, we hug a little and make sure he’s calm and then he plays alone or with David while I work some more. 12pm: Time for lunch. Nathaniel eats veggies mixed with yogurt, and cereal. David has his green beans and maybe meatballs. I might or might not eat lunch. Generally I at least grab a banana. After lunch we play together for a bit and then I clean up and get back to work. The kids play together, laugh, and make a lot of noise. I might or might not put Nathaniel down for a second nap depending on what time he woke up from his morning nap. 4pm: Time to start dinner for the kids. David eats a cinnamon raisin bagel and yogurt. Nathaniel has more veggies, fruit, oatmeal or bread and some cheese or yogurt. For now, he’s more interested in trying new foods than David is. Tonight we tried beets and he liked them. After dinner it’s bathtime, books, getting dressed, and nursing. David is there, too, and makes noises and entertains Nathaniel and they peek behind the curtain together. 6pm: The kids are in bed. Nathaniel is likely sleeping and David’s playing with legos in his room. He tells me his two things he’s grateful for and then I give him a hug and a kiss. He goes to sleep somewhere between 6:30 and 8pm. 6:30pm: I put another cup of coffee, grab some snack on the go and it’s time to process my photos from the day. I then post my Daily Diary entry and write about my day on my blog. I write 3 things I’m grateful for and 2 things David’s grateful for. Then it’s time for the second art project of the day. Right now I am making all the catalysts that are scheduled to come up for the rest of the year. 8pm: Once the art is done, I generally surf a bit, read a bit and then it’s time to go to bed. I go upstairs and kiss David and fix his covers. I turn of Nathaniel’s video monitor and go to bed. Jake might or might not join me depending on when he’s getting up the next day. I struggle to fall asleep and then I wake up and do the whole thing over again. Gratefully and lovingly.
These photos were actually taken last night as Jake put together the soccer goal he bought for the kids.
They had almost as much fun putting it together as they did playing.
But playing was a lot of fun for both, I foresee many happy days in our future.
I have some closeup shots of the boys today. Those are always my favorite.
Those piercing eyes.
The hugs and love.
Crying for food.
Laughing.
Looking angelic.
And cleaning up. There’s a lot of cleaning up all day thanks to the little boy.
We spent our night doing the moonlight walk. More on this soon. In the meantime I am wiped and off to bed. Three Things I’m Grateful For: Three Things David’s Grateful For: |
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