Journaling Reads:
My sister and I haven’t always gotten along.
As a child, I am pretty sure I was not what she had in mind when she found out she was getting a sibling. She liked climbing trees and I liked playing with dolls. She was popular and happy and I was not. We had a lot of differences and she was often quite mean to me. I wasn’t a fan.
Then she went away. I was still in high school and she was in Canada. That’s when we realized how much we really loved each other. We wrote letters, sent cards, and really enjoyed each other’s company.
Unfortunately for us, we never really got to be in the same country again. She went from Canada to London and by the time she came back to Turkey, I was leaving for the United States. We never really got to enjoy each other’s company in person. But thanks to the internet and Skype, we get to talk often and our kids get to see each other and know each other and they get to see how much we love each other. I am so grateful for how much she loves my kids and they love her. And I am so grateful that we finally realized how good we had it all along.
Ok, I did do a bit of catch up. I am still not 100% on schedule and decided this is too much. I might go back to doing all of them but for now I need to pare down. So here’s the update.
David:
1. Try one new food every day – He tried salami (he liked) and soy burgers (he did NOT like. more like really disliked).
2. Do 30 minutes of work daily – We did math again. We reviewed the places 1s, 10s, 100s. And then we compared two numbers, two digit ones and 3 digit ones. He circled the bigger of the two numbers. We then talked about addition. He can do addition with his fingers but I wanted him to get out of that habit so now he can mentally add pretty much any two single-digit numbers. We also talked about the Commutative Property of Addition (without mentioning the title) so he could look at two numbers and add them whichever way is easier for him. We also talked about adding zero and adding one as super simple cases. That was it for today.
3. Read 20 minutes a day from a book – This is on hold until my jaw-pain disappears. Might be on hold for a long while.
Art:
1. Draw 100 faces – I did three faces today.
2. Make one art journal page daily – I think this is going to go on hold, too until I am done with my layouts. I still have 3 to do for AMM and I have The Girls’ Paperie CHA stuff on the way and they will need to be turned around quickly. So until mid-month or so, this is on hold.
Health:
1. Exercise for 15-20 minutes 3 times a week -32 minutes on the Wii today.
2. Eat one fruit and one vegetable every day – Watermelon. No veggies. I have veggies at home but I’ve been too tired, sick, or frustrated to take the time to cook them. Gotta work on this one.
Productivity:
1. Do one nagging task daily – I bought stuff for jake that I’d meant to months ago, bought some ink for my printer, scheduled doctor and gynie appointments, checked my sons’ dentist and checkup appointments and added them to my calendar and same with my upcoming hair appointments, and I did one more big nagging task today. Doing ok on this one.
2. Start and End each day better – I’m all over this one. Doing it like a champ.
Soul:
1. Journal for 15 minutes a day – This, too, is going on hold, not feeling it and too tired. Won’t feel guilty about it any more.
2. Mediate for 5 minutes a day – I’ve sort of incorporated this into my morning workout. So far, so good.
3. Write a thank you email every day – Need to catch up on these. I have ones to send to Kayce, Stacy, and Melody. I plan to get on top of this asap. I am not worried though cause I love doing these.
And that’s that. Not doing perfectly but it’s been a rough-ish month so far and this was a lot more stuff than it first looked like.
Well today started out much better. I went to bed early and so wasn’t really worn out when Nathaniel cried at 3:30am. He then went back to sleep (and so did I) until 6:30am. I was tired but not overwhelmingly. I rested a while and then did my exercise and I was feeling so good. Watching the boys play. (I bought this toy years ago for David at a yard sale and he loved loved it, too.)
And he loves David’s legos more than his own, of course.
And anything in any drawer he can get to.
And then he comes up to me with these eyes. I cannot resist them.
And poor David has to clean up after him like ten times a day.
My day got super-stressful and included a lot of screaming and lot of freaking out and stressing. All cause of work. Actually all cause I felt out of my element and I do not like feeling out of my element. I did not handle it well. I am still really hormonal and the two don’t mix well. It was a long, tough day that ended ok but man I have jaw and head and even chest ache now. And feel a collection of regrets of course.
Thankfully, tomorrow is another day.
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am thankful that my husband is an angel and lets me complain and my kids are angels, too and they all forgive me every single day. I am so blessed to have them.
2. I am thankful that things ended up relatively ok. We’ll see in the morning for sure but for now it looks ok.
3. I am grateful there’s only one more day until the weekend.
Two Things David’s Grateful For:
1. playing legos with Nathaniel. Teaching him how to play with legos.
2. playing some wii! (he got to do wii fit after I was finished).
3. daddy. (this is a standing item now.)
We picked When You Reach Me for my book club. It was on my list for 2010 and I am really glad I read it. It is a young adult book or even maybe a kid’s book and I rarely read those but I loved this one. It was a simple and easy read with some interesting bits and a few surprises. For those of you who enjoy novels of this type, it’s highly recommended.
Good news is that my jaw is much better. Bad news is that it’s not all better. And I am grouchy and not motivated to do anything. So I am skipping my Happiness Project for now. It’s probably one of those self-fulfilling prophecies but there we are. I promised myself that I’d get back on the horse tomorrow.
Nathaniel sat down for the first time today and David saw it first and exclaimed and yelled for me to capture it.
And then I took a shot of him. Those eyes.
I love watching my kids play.
Especially when they look up to me with a wide smile.
And I love when they tickle each other and giggle and giggle.
And then quietly play some more.
Life is good. I need to work on being less grouchy. Life is good.
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that despite my crabbiness, I got a lot of work done today.
2. I’ve been scrapping a lot lately. Just for fun even. I love that. I am grateful for it even more than usual.
3. I am grateful for good audiobooks again today. Been listening to Lonesome Dove as I scrap and I love it.
Two Things David’s Grateful For:
1. my legos.
2. playing with Yona’s toy.
3. daddy. (this is a standing item now.)
Catalyst One Hundred and Fifteen is: What was the saddest moment of your life?
Thoughts:
I thought about this one for a long long time. I know I’ve written about this before but (besides the deaths in my family) the saddest moment in my life was when I walked away from my commitment to Teach For America. I really believe in following my commitments to the end and quitting this one was the hardest, saddest thing I ever did. It’s something I still think of all the time and feel bad about, despite knowing it was the right thing to do. Quitting is not what I do.
I woke up this morning at 5am to excruciating pain. My jaw was in so much pain I could barely see. And all day I’ve been taking as much Advil as it’s safe to take just to keep the pain down. This seems to happen to me about once a month for a few days lately. I think the camping exacerbated it. It’s been hell so I’ve been lying on the couch, feeling sorry for my poor self, listening to my book and scrapping.
David has been quiet and helpful and kind.
for the most part. Nathaniel, too. Playing and going through everything.
Coming over to visit me.
Bothering David.
And playing with everything inside all the drawers in the kitchen. I’ve already had to move everything glass from anywhere he can reach.
I wonder if all this is conspiring against my happiness project. Then I tell myself, it’s ok. Take another day off, it’s no big deal. Your body and mind need the rest. And so does my jaw, apparently. So I am resting.
And telling myself it’s ok.
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful for Advil today. It’s working its magic.
2. I am grateful that for the most part my kids are amazing, kind and understanding.
3. I am grateful for scrapbooking and for the two awesome packages I got in the mail today. Happy mail!
Two Things David’s Grateful For:
1. Legos.
2. playing with my toys.
It’s amazing how many people come in and out of our lives every single day. People we don’t always pay attention to. The mailman who delivers your mail every day, rain or shine. The FedEx guy and the UPS one. The garbage and recycling collectors. The people who clean the streets you walk down. And the ones who keep the city you live in safe.
I read a short story collection recently called Let the Great World Spin and it’s about several interconnected stories that are taking place at the same time. And there’s a person or two that’s connected in each of them, some more visibly than others. That made me realize that if we were to zoom way way out and look down upon our lives, we’d discover that so many of us come in and out of each other’s lives daily. The woman you pay at the grocery store and the neighbor who’s walking his dog. The waitress who brings your sandwich or the one who prepares your coffee. We touch each other’s lives in small and big ways, often without even realizing it.
Who knows what’s happening in their lives. What tragedies they might be facing. What sickness. Or anticipation of something big. Fear. Even joy.
So, I thought, today we should take a moment to express some gratitude to the people in the edges of our life. The people that otherwise recede to the background. Maybe with a wide smile. Or a little note in the mailbox. A big tip.
You never know, it might be the highlight of their day. What you do know is that it’s guaranteed to be one of yours.
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 decided to combine day 4 and 5 since both of them were mostly days off for us.
David:
1. Try one new food every day – He tried lychee which he wasn’t a fan of. Neither was I and nor was Jake. We didn’t make Nathaniel try.
2. Do 30 minutes of work daily – We skipped this.
3. Read 20 minutes a day from a book – Skipped this, too.
Art:
1. Draw 100 faces – No faces but maybe I’ll do one tonight.
2. Make one art journal page daily – I did a big zentangle and colored with my copics.
Health:
1. Exercise for 15-20 minutes 3 times a week – I think a lot of the camping work I did counts but I didn’t do Wii.
2. Eat one fruit and one vegetable every day – Banana and strawberries. No veggies.
Productivity:
1. Do one nagging task daily – I registered for a 5K, woot!
2. Start and End each day better – I’m all over this one. Doing it like a champ.
Soul:
1. Journal for 15 minutes a day – none of this. I know I’ve been slacking on it.
2. Mediate for 5 minutes a day – I think the very quiet time this morning counts.
3. Write a thank you email every day – Not one yet but I will send one to Katie and one to Opal today.
And that’s that.
So after last night’s craziness, at 3am or so I finally passed out again until around 6:30 when it was light enough out that I walked out and finally got to go to the bathroom and take 3 Advils. I tried to take a few photos but I was in too much pain so I sat on my chair and tried to read a bit until the Advils kicked in.
When the rest of the family woke up, we broke down the tent and I snapped the above shot of our site. This below is David coming back from the bathroom with Jake.
While we packed, we had to put Nathaniel in the car for a while and he wasn’t all that happy about it.
And here’s me trying to snap a happy photo of David. He truly enjoyed every moment of this experience.
And my partner in crime. Our fearless reader. On the way home, we stopped at a small cafe and had a delicious breakfast which is where I snapped this shot.
We got home late morning and I put Nathaniel down as Jake unloaded the car. Everything was put away and we all needed some relaxing downtime. I’m now about to put the kids down and relax some more. Maybe even scrap some.
I hope your 4th of July was great.
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am so grateful I get to have one more day off. My work is closed tomorrow. Another day of rest for me.
2. I am grateful that we’re home safe and sound.
3. I am grateful for Tour de France. I love watching every moment of this race.
Two Things David’s Grateful For:
1. camping
2. daddy. (i’m going to have to remove this as an option just cause it’s making him not think as hard.)
We left home early Sunday to go camping at Samuel P Taylor State Park which is about 90 minutes north of where we live. We decided to camp for one night since it was Nathaniel’s first time and we had no idea how he would do.
The only slot they had open was #18. By the little stream but also relatively close to the road so we could hear cars driving by. Still, it was a beautiful slot. I loved being near the water. I think water always makes me happy.
And among the redwood trees. The magnificent trees which always make my troubles seem small.
When we got there, we immediately got to setting up the tent and the kids had to wait in the car to make sure we could do it quickly and efficiently. They were quiet and nice for a while but then got cranky.
When we were finally done, we got them out and Nathaniel took a while to get acclimated, especially to his shoes. (Actually those were David’s old old shoes, too big for Nathaniel, but I couldn’t find his shoes somehow.).
So Daddy held him most of the time. (Neither was complaining about the setup.)
We then sat to have some food. Most of what we are was cheese (and salami) sandwiches, grapes, strawberries, nilla wafers, etc. Simple, easy things.
Then we took a little walk up one of the trails. A very short one before we turned around cause all of us were tired.
Here’s my single most favorite photo from the trip.
Some of those yummy wafers.
Nathaniel liked them just as much as David. (which was a lot)
Daddy loved playing with both of the kids.
I was worried about Nathaniel going to sleep but he was a champ. We brought his pack’n’play which fit inside the tent easily and he slept on a sleeping bag, covered with lots of blankets. He only cried for a few seconds before he lay down and went to a deep sleep. We ended the day with some delicious s’mores.
After the food, it was getting cold and I was way too tired. So around 7:30pm or so, we all got inside the tent, and I think I was sleeping within minutes. Which is probably why I woke up at midnight and I was in excruciating pain. Which never went away. David then peed through his clothes and had to be changed, Nathaniel woke up a few times and whined but nothing so extreme. I think the night was hardest on me.
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am so grateful that we live so close to such a magnificent state park. It’s such a luxury.
2. I am grateful that both of the kids had a blast camping. They were so happy and neither whined for one second.
3. I am grateful for a wonderful fourth of july day with my family, in the middle of such beauty and peace.
Two Things David’s Grateful For:
1. daydreaming (he dreamt about a nice raccoon, he said.).
2. daddy.
This was one of the June layouts I did. It is for the Creative Imaginations sketch challenge for June. I turned the sketch sideways and used paper instead of extra photos.
Since Jake and I have almost been together 16 years, I thought it was a great topic to celebrate the man who makes me happy every single moment of every single day.
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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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