I’ve been thinking a lot about gratitude lately. About appreciating what I have and not yearning for what I don’t have. I’ve been reading about happiness and one of the things I learned is that the old adage of “don’t go to bed angry” isn’t always true. Sometimes it’s better to leave things unsaid. To not argue every detail and just let things go. It turns out, it’s better to focus on the good. (Not really a surprise when you think about it, is it?)
Another thing I’ve read about happiness is that it’s just as much about reducing the things that make you feel bad as it is about increasing the things that make you feel good. This might be bad to admit but there are certain blogs that make me feel bad when I read them. This is not because of the blogger but because of things that I already feel that I’m lacking. I might see someone’s beautiful decor and yearn for the same furniture. Or the cooking. Or maybe I read about all their success in an area where I am struggling right now. And while I never ever wish anyone ill, I do notice that some blogs skew my perspective of my own life more than others.
I know blogging is one of those mediums where people only share what they choose to. Most people prefer to only share the good and I understand that. Having read what I have about happiness, I even welcome that. And I know their life isn’t all good. Just like the neighbor next door who might look perfect, but is struggling with an eating disorder, the blogger might have lost a parent. Might have a cheating husband. Or maybe a chronic disease. A sick child. Ongoing career struggles. Who knows? No one’s life is perfect. And everyone has struggles of their own, some bigger than others but we all do. And I know this. I know that even things that look perfect on the outside aren’t really perfect. But it still doesn’t always stop me from feeling bad about myself. I’ve noticed that this feeling is heightened when I am in a weaker place than usual. If I am struggling, then I take things more personally than usual. I make it all about myself. (and how I am lacking.)
So, a few weeks ago, I decided to take a break from reading some of these blogs. Just until I felt stronger and could stop making it personal. And while I am sad about some of the inspiration I’m missing, I must admit it works. Avoiding these blogs gives me room to focus on what I have and appreciate it and be in a more positive space.
Maybe it’s denial. Maybe it’s being weak. I don’t know. I just know it works. Just like it’s important to surround yourself with people who bring out the best in you, I think it’s important to spend my time reading sites that make me feel better, regardless of the reason.
Eventually I will have to work on my issues (or maybe they will just go away) but for now, denial is perfectly okay with me.
I swear I don’t like sketches. They always stress me out. But for some reason, two months in a row now, the My Mind’s Eye Sketch Challenge immediately inspires me. I look at the sketch and I have ideas right away. Last month it was the punched background and this month, I looked at the sketch and I saw empty circles. Right away! I don’t even scrap circles, I have no idea what’s up with that.
Since I had some My mind’s eye goodies in my A Million Memories July Kit that were sitting right on my table, I decided it was serendipity.
I love this photo of my two kids together cause they look like they are laughing at an inside joke. They look like they are conspiring. And I deeply hope that they continue to be such good good friends forever.
Details:
I took the opportunity to finally use that 3-d glue by Helmar, too!
I spent most of today resting. I woke up, rested, exercised, and then while I was showering, David did a tiny bit of the Wii Fit, too. I am always amazed by how kind he is. Look at this photo where Nathaniel is literally covering a part of his TV, yet David says nothing and just ducks to see around him.
He’s really into these computers lately. I like watching him but I cannot stand the crazy amount of noise they make. Whoever makes toys without off and low volume should be kicked.
I love this photo. Seeing David’s hands on Nathaniel.
And this one where Nathaniel is watching his brother play in the backyard.
And despite the blur, I am so glad to have caught this shot. I was on the landing in the stairs, taking shots of my CHA layouts before I send them off and Nathaniel’s looking at me and this is his “I am so frustrated” face and he makes his little hands into fists and shakes his whole body in frustration. My little boy.
Jake came home early and I got a bunch of work done so all in all I consider this day a success. Except that I lost something important tonight and it’s driving me crazy and I hate that I let it get to me so so much. I hate how I react to things sometimes. Makes me feel so immature and out of control. Ugh.
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful for my husband. My love. My helper. My calmer-downer. I adore him.
2. I am grateful for my kind, understanding kid. I had promised David he would watch some TV before bedtime but when I found out I lost this item and went all insane, I told him he had to just pick some legos and go to his room to play. My little boy didn’t even object for a second. When I went up there now to tell him it was sleep time he said i am really enjoying playing with the legos can I please play a little longer? Of course I said yes. He’s an angel so much of the time, this boy.
3. I am grateful for another day of exercise. It’s hard but I am doing it.
Two Things David’s Grateful For:
1. building things with legos.
2. mommy.
3. daddy.
Since David and I haven’t been crafting all that much lately, I thought it might be interesting to post some of our pages from the studying we’ve been doing lately. Apologies for the terrible quality photos.
For math, so far, we’ve been talking about places, comparing numbers, addition and subtraction:
for writing, we’re using lines from a stamp I have to practice upper and lowercase letters. So far, we’ve done a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, and k.
and we’ve been doing reading with 3 or 4-letter words. So far we’ve done b, c, d, f, g, and h.
At the end of each session, he gets a mini-quiz and if he gets it all right, he gets a gold star, a little wrong is green star and then silver. We have yet to go below silver.
So far, so good.
I am actually on top of my project but I thought it might be boring to update daily. Not sure how to do this on the blog. I have a Google Spreadsheet that I am using to keep track daily, so it’s easy to do these blog posts in batch.
David:
1. Try one new food every day – He tried snap pea crisps and loved them. Then he tried spinach quiche. He wasn’t a fan. We didn’t try anything today but I have plans for tomorrow.
2. Do 30 minutes of work daily – We did reading with 3 and 4-letter words that start with d and f. He’s getting really good at reading, I am so glad. We also did some writing letters g, h, i, j, and k. Upper and lowercase. And today we did more math. Addition with two digit numbers (no carryover though) and began subtraction. David’s really doing well with all of our work together. I need to buy some books so I know how to teach him some things. Going to do some research on this tomorrow.
Art:
1. Draw 100 faces – I did one face a day. Friday was super-rushed since I did it literally 4 minutes before the baby sitter showed up. And I hate today’s but here it is. I am not sure these are getting better but there are 91 more to go so we’ll see.
2. Make one art journal page daily – I did so some embroidery today and I am loving it so far. I love using this sampler.
Health:
1. Exercise for 15-20 minutes 3 times a week -32 minutes on the Wii yesterday. I’ve been doing well with one day on and one day off. I hope to do a little even on my off days this week, let’s see. I generally wake up with lots of pain so I don’t want to say for sure.
2. Eat one fruit and one vegetable every day – Lots of watermelon, some grapes and a banana. Still doing bad on the veggies but I had some tomatoes today and I have broccoli and zucchini and carrots for this week.
Productivity:
1. Do one nagging task daily – I started on a task for my friend’s webpage but waiting on her. I sent a photo to a friend I’d promised almost a month ago. And I finally backed up all my photos and files so I can reboot which I will do as soon as I am done here.
2. Start and End each day better – For the most part I am doing great here. Some days I take off but really very good.
Soul:
1. Write a thank you email every day – I caught up and I sent one to Wendela, too. I have Margie and Monika to write tonight. I will do so after the reboot.
That’s it. Honestly, the things that matter the most are working with David and exercising and I am doing relatively good on those so I promised myself I won’t beat myself up for anything else. Happy happy.
I had a really hard time sleeping last night. I kept having nightmares, Nathaniel kept crying and my heart just wouldn’t stop racing. So in the middle of the night, I decided that today was going to be a quiet day. I was going to do my last layout for CHA and then I would take it easy for the rest of the day.
And that’s exactly what I did.
I woke up, finished my layout and then just took it easy. Meanwhile, Nathaniel started storing his toys in David’s drawers.
He carried them, stuck them in there.
And then congratulated himself by clapping for himself. We always clap when he does something good like doesn’t put something in his mouth but places in the trash instead, or when he cleans up. So he was congratulating himself for cleaning up. A for effort my son.
My beautiful little boy. Growing up all too quickly.
Around 11 or so, we started watching this morning’s Tour de France. We then took a break to watch the World Cup finale and were sourly disappointed (we tend to root for the underdog) and then went back to the Tour and that was an even bigger disappointment. What a terrible terrible letdown. I am not even sure I want to keep watching the Tour if Lance is giving up.
Around 3pm, Nathaniel started his grouchy time. So Jake held him while he hung on for dear life.
David tried to make him laugh.
And even succeeded for a while.
But we ended up with this.
A little food, a short amount more of playing and now he’s already deep in sleep. And david’s upstairs playing with his legos. Time for me to get a few tasks done and I think I will likely go to sleep early, too. I’m sad the weekend passed so quickly but it was a good one. Some great family time. Some productive accomplishments. And a lot of rest. What more can I ask of a weekend?
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful for audio books today. For getting to listen while I do embroidery or while I scrap. Wonderful companion.
2. I am grateful for an all-around great weekend. Simple but wonderful, just the way I like it.
3. I am grateful for my new embroidery sample, it’s making me very very happy today.
Two Things David’s Grateful For:
1. getting two gold stars while doing math with mommy.
2. wii time (he got to play a tiny bit today).
3. daddy.
This is done with the January A Million Memories Kit.
Journaling Reads:
One of my favorite parts of David’s first year was
the Moms’ group that I was a part of and I was worried that we would never get to have this with you because I have to work and we have David.
As it turned out, we got lucky. Our new house is in a complex with a lot of other new moms and we decided it would be fun to meet weekly.
So for the last three weeks, we’ve been meeting and you’ve been playing with a bunch of other little boys your age and I am so thankful that you get to have one little hour a week just for you.
As the years pass, it will be wonderful to see you grow up with all these friends in your neighborhood.
I love you, my boy, and I am glad we get to have this.
Not a fan of this photo but I need to go shooting and I don’t have a lot of choices.
Good day! I got up and did a layout and then exercised and then rested some while I snapped a photo of the little boy.
After that, David and I worked for a bit and then I went up to shower while David played Wii and Jake came out to sit with them. When I came down Nathaniel was sitting cradled in his dad’s arm and happy as a clam.
I did another layout while listening to my book which I am almost finished with and Nathaniel walked around and chewed on things. When I went up to take photos of my layout, he looked up at me as he always does.
One more.
I tried to make sure to grab one of David, too. Didn’t come out all that great.
I was going a bit stir-crazy by now so Jake wonderfully agreed to take us all out to my favorite little cafe in Palo Alto. Some yummy food later we came home to watch the Tour and now it’s time to put the kids down and I will likely end the night with another layout. All in all, wonderful day.
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. Making two layouts I love.
2. Quick but delicious lunch.
3. Grateful for some simple but wonderful family time.
Two Things David’s Grateful For:
1. playing wii.
2. getting to eat a chocolate croissant.
3. daddy.
Here’s one I didn’t think I would tackle until December but here we are:
38. Make a wreath
I wanted to make an indoor wreath since I already have one on my house door that I love. I searched and searched for a long time and finally settled on this one that I love love loved.
Mine’s a bit different cause I stuck to mostly cone shapes. Not sure why, it spoke to me the most:
I did it mostly as I watched TV, just tore, folded and glued without too much thought.
here’s a bit of a closeup.
I love looking at it on my wall. It makes me happy which I guess means project accomplished.
I snapped this while we were driving through San Fran to go to our camping trip. It was very foggy and I took it from inside the car.
Good day. We woke up too early and I took it easy most of the day but I felt much less cranky than usual. Nathaniel pointed to this toy when I grabbed him out of bed today. We’ve had this since David was a little kid. He never cared for it but Nathaniel loves it. He can’t get it to sing so he keeps brining it to me to press the buttons.
He often takes my breath away.
David’s been teaching him to play legos so he picks the biggest of his small pieces and they sit and play together. I love watching them.
That’s all I really have for today. I haven’t really been as diligent in taking photos. Mostly cause we’ve been lazying around and not doing anything special. Also cause I was cranky. But I am working on getting better at it.
I got my box from Margie today for The Girls’ Paperie Summer CHA and it’s so beautiful and I’ve already completed one layout. It made me so happy just to see the papers. We’re now getting the kids ready for bed so we can go out for date night.
Love date night.
Happy weekend!!
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am so grateful for the weekend. I need this one.
2. I am grateful for all the yummy goodies I received in the mail. It’s wonderful to design for someone whose product I love so much.
3. I am grateful for a relatively smooth release today especially after yesterday’s nightmare.
Two Things David’s Grateful For:
1. my lego book.
2. building legos with nathaniel.
3. daddy.
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.
|
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
|
