karenika

Layout a Day in May – First Steps

And here’s day five, inspired by Kimmi’s wonderful layout.

No butterflies. Can you believe it?

And here are some details:

Catalyst 111 – Predictable and Boring

Catalyst One Hundred and Eleven is: Did you ever get into trouble?

Thoughts:
I have always been the girl who follows the rules. Predictable and boring and never really did anything to get myself in trouble. Sometimes I wonder how it would have been if I weren’t but in the end I love the predictable, the safe, the reliable. Those are me.

Daily Diary – May 4 2010

Good day here today but wish I could be a bit more productive, mostly at work. I still feel like I have so much to learn and I wish I could do so faster and more efficiently. But such is life. I do love and adore my work.

Nathaniel’s been playing more and more by himself. When he feels hungry or thirsty (or alone) he’ll come over to my side of the couch and give me a face.

And then will start screaming if I don’t pay attention.

He does walk and stand up more and more lately.

And plays with his toys for a long time.

And when David’s playing at the table, he reaches up and tries to get him to include Nathaniel, too. (But David isn’t really interested.)

Days seem to be passing too fast lately. I feel like I am perpetually behind. But I am trying to not stress about it. Just doing the best I can each day. Getting my layouts done, reading, drawing faces, playing with the kids, relaxing, and working. Things will get super productive soon again, I am sure of it. For now, I am trying to enjoy the slower pace.

Note to Self:
I am trying to slow down lately. I noticed that when several things are happening at the same time and I don’t feel like I have one under control, I tend to freak and react badly. I immediately get frustrated. So I am trying to slow down. I am also trying not to overthink. I am a lot less planned than usual lately and I think that’s actually a bad thing but since I don’t seem to be in the mood to plan, I am trying to go with it and instead slow down. Only think of one day at a time. Only worry about the next thing. I make lists still but tiny little ones. For tasks for the next hour and I leave it at that. For now, that’s as good as it gets. I am trying to accept it instead of fight it. It turns out things work much more smoothly this way.

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. Taking a little time to walk down the street with the kids and get some ice cream. I need to get out more each day especially now that the sun is out. So I am thankful I did today.
2. I’m grateful for the 4 layouts I’ve done so far. I love them all and even if I get no more done, I am already thankful for this project. But I intend to keep going, I promise.
3. I am grateful for everyone who comes here and takes the time to comment. I am a practical stranger to almost all of you and yet you come, you read, you take the time to say kind things. I cannot tell you how much it means to me, thank you so much.

Two Things David’s Grateful For:
1. Going to eat some ice cream with mommy.
2. Listening to songs (sung by his friends) at school.

Layout a Day in May – My Strong Handsome Little Man

And here’s day four.

Yes, I am addicted to butterflies. What can I say?

And here are some details:

Weekly Gratitude – Facing my Face

This month’s theme, body, is a hard one for me. I have so many issues with my body and I often find it hard to see anything to be grateful about. Which I guess makes it a good theme for me. Today, I wanted to share a blog post I wrote back in 2001 which I think still applies.

I was always the ugliest child among my friends.

The girls in my group were nothing short of drop dead gorgeous and they’d make sure to remind me of the difference in the quality of our looks. Ever since the time I heard a guy mention how I was the only ugly person they hung out with, I couldn’t look myself in the mirror without the word ‘ugly’ sprinting to my mind.

About two years ago, I cut my hair. I’d been growing it since the fifth grade and it was weak and difficult to manage. Since then, I cut my hair maybe twenty times. I dyed it to dark brown, auburn, orangish red, dirty blonde, deep red and now I’m once again trying to become blonde. And I’ve decided to start a peace process between my face and me.

Now I stare at the mirror for a while and try to see what my face tells me. My eyes remind me of my dad. They are a light brown with darker tones on the edges, a sign of my middle eastern heritage. The little lines on the corner of my eyes are getting deeper: a sign of my increasing happiness. I see lines across my forehead, a sign of my continuous worrying. When I smile, thick lines form around my nose and a tiny dimple appears on the left side of my face.

I have nice teeth. I never had to wear braces and they’ve always been straight. My face has somewhat grown into my large ears and my haircut mostly hides how much they stick out. Even my nose says something important. It’s a symbol of more of my roots, Jewish ones. The purple marks under my eyes insist that I don’t get any sleep no matter how many hours I may lay in bed. When I’m sad, my eyebrows curl up in the weirdest of arches. My hair reminds me that I’m learning to let go.

I’m learning to look at myself and see something besides ‘ugly’. I see my family, my background, signs of my happiness and characteristics. And I smile.

I think I’ll keep this face, even if it is ‘ugly’. It’s mine.

What does your face tell you about yourself?

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.

Daily Diary – May 3 2010

Well I threw out my back today and my jaw is still really overwhelmingly painful but other than that, happy day here. I am feeling good on the inside.

I love watching Nathaniel walk around. He’s like Frankenstein and he’s so funny and so cute.

David got these glasses at the birthday party he was at and I couldn’t resist those lips.

And that smiley face of course.

Then we asked the big boy to wear them and he made a funny face of course.

And finally my three boys. The true joys of my heart.

Relatively uneventful day here. We went to school, wired money from the bank, did a layout, got some legos, got a new TV, and played a lot with Daddy. That’s about it.

Note to Self:
One of the biggest plot points of last night’s movie (City Island) was about lying. A tiny spoiler, but really not one, is that the mom, the dad, and the kids each smoke and yet they are all hiding it from the other three. It’s all a bit ridiculous and I am sure purposefully done so, but it’s not that far from the truth that so many people have so many secrets from their loved ones for a multitude of reasons. I am a big believer that secrets can ruin a relationship. I also believe they almost always come out anyway and it’s so much more work trying to keep it up all the time. I also think it almost always leads to more secrets, getting things more wound up and messier. I feel like it’s best to be honest as much as humanly possible. If you can’t trust your loved one to have an open mind and to assume the best of you, there are deeper issues there anyway. If you’re doing something your loved one would really really be sad to know, well then should you really be doing it? I am not naive enough to think people aren’t lying to me but I do wish and hope that people who are really close to me know that they can always tell me the truth and I will do my best to keep an open mind and a trusting heart. And I hope this goes for my close friends too. That I can be honest with them and trust that it’s kept safe. It’s hard though, isn’t it? Telling the truth….

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. We saw City Island last night and it was amazing. I laughed and laughed. I am so thankful for good and funny movies. I think they are very rare.
2. Our much-larger-and-so-nice TV arrived today and it’s so pretty. It’s making me a bit overwhelmed but also so very happy.
3. I have been taking it really easy with layout a day so far and I’m using all these super-happy colors and I am really enjoying the process so much. I am thankful for this relaxed and positive attitude and I hope it stays around.

Two Things David’s Grateful For:
1. Playing with lego men. I bought David a box of just lego men and he was thrilled to bits.
2. I’m grateful for my school, Mom, he told me.

Layout a Day in May – Daddy Love

And here’s day three.

Today’s was completely inspired by this amazing one by Jennifer Johner.

And here are some details:

Crafting with David – Sight Words

This week’s craft was a project for David more than one with David.

Since I didn’t grow up in the US, I never learned English until I was much older and I learned things much more differently than a 5-year-old might so I had no idea how to teach David to read. And I know he’s interested cause now that he knows all of his letters, he reads things everywhere, all the time. So I asked my friend Lori how one learns to read. She told me that in her kid’s school, they make kids memorize sight words. Words that are very common and ones where the letters don’t make their “typical” sounds so they are hard to sound-out.

So I googled “sight words” and found this link with all the words broken by grade. I printed the pre-K and K words. We picked two colored papers to glue in the back:

I can’t glue to save my life so I stitched them instead.

Then I cut them all up.

And using my Bind-It-All, I made a little book of all the pre-K ones. (I’ll do the K ones later once we know if this is useful.) Here’s our little book:

Now we get to learn them and have fun together!

Daily Diary – May 2 2010

Happy Sunday! Tonight’s date night so I’m doing the diary in the middle of the day today. This morning I was dead tired so honestly, I have no idea what I did until 10am or so. Around 11 Jake and David went to David’s friend’s birthday party so I took a nap while Nathaniel was napping. Then I woke up and did my layout and fed the boy etc. When David came, he had a little party bag and had a little toy that you blow in (no idea what they are called) and he and Nathaniel played and played, laughing the whole time.

There’s nothing like watching your kids laugh.

And then David watched some Batman while Nathaniel moved anything that moves so he can practice pushing things around.

Now we’re waiting for my friend Manu, his wife Hana, and their little daughter Anika to come by and then it’s going to be bedtime and then date night! Haven’t accomplished a huge amount this weekend but feeling great! Hope your weekend was good.

Note to Self:
It’s funny to note that my productivity hasn’t increased at all in the last three days and yet I am feeling happier and way less weighed down. I am even still in pain but it doesn’t seem to bother me as much. I wonder how that works. Mood is such an odd thing. Did the good weather help? I have no idea. But I am so glad I am feeling better and I will not take it for granted one little bit.

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. Date night!
2. Doing a layout a day so far has been super-fun. Let’s see if I can keep it up once the week starts.
3. It’s amazing the power of a nap and the power of a nice bath. I am so thankful for both today.

Two Things David’s Grateful For:
1. A little bit of extra Wii today.
2. Going to Joseph’s birthday and having a lot of fun.
3. Playing with a frog that slips down the wall that he got at the birthday party.

Layout a Day in May – The Unworn Hat

This is a lift of an AMM member. See the original layout here.

Journaling Reads:
I bought this hat years ago for your brother’s first birthday but he didn’t want to wear it either. It must not be as comfy as it looks. But it’s so cute.

More details:

One thing I wanted to note is that I’ve used blue and orange two days in a row now and I’ve decided I now love bold colors. Bright yellows, oranges, reds, greens, and blues. It might be my new obsession.

Weekly Layouts – Bliss

This is with the A Million Memories February Kit.

Every single day with you is full of bliss.
Thank you for being a part of our lives.

Layout a Day in May – Proof I can Knit a Hat

Ok, I am going to try creating a layout every day in May. It might not work but I am ok with that, let’s just see how many I can do.

Today’s was completely inspired by this amazing one by Maggie Holmes.

Journaling Reads:
One of the things I wanted to learn to do in 2010 was to knit a hat. It’s not that we need or use hats where we live but I still wanted to know how to be able to knit in the round. I’d never done it before and it looked very difficult to me. So I grabbed a skein of yarn I had lying around and went on YouTube to find some movies. IT took me a few days but I must admit it was super easy to do it. Just goes to show you how things you don’t know always seem so very hard. Now we have this cute hat we can both wear! Feb 2010.

And here are some details: