Our theme for April is nature.
The journaling reads:
In 2003, Jake and I took two months to drive across the United States. It was one of my biggest dreams to do this trip. We went to forty states. Instead of doing all the big cities, we decided it would be more pleasant to visit each of the National Parks so we mapped our trip accordingly. Especially since we planned to camp a lot.
It was more beautiful than I could have imagines it. We visited the White Sands, the Painted Desert, the Great Sand Dunes, the Everglades, Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons, Zion, Bryce among many others. We saw canyons and caverns, sand and lava, swamps and mountains. The beauty of this country is vast and varied. And it’s breathtaking.
What’s even more amazing is that you can buy something called a National Parks pass which, for a small fee, will get you into any of the parks for free, for a whole year. It was the best purchase we made the whole summer. I am so thankful we live in a country that preserves nature.
Lovely.
Today I felt all out of sorts again so I decided it’s finally time to get organized again. More below.
David spent some quality time making Nathaniel laugh today. It’s one of our favorite things to do. He was fake falling from the couch.
And making Nathaniel laugh.
Over and over.
Again and again.
It was such a joy for both of us. And then the little boy quietly went to play.
I made a whole bunch more journal pages. All to come tomorrow. Yey.
Note to Self:
So I decided I am going to make a schedule for my week. For my days too. I have weekly occurrences and daily events. I won’t plan to the minute but I will plan chunks of time. Making sure all the tasks I want to get done professionally and personally are allotted their time. I want to make a list of all my tasks and just kind of put them in zones and then see if it works for a week or two. I meant to do it tonight but Jake ended up needing some help so it’s at the top of my list for tomorrow, so I will tell you more once I do it.
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I took a walk around the neighborhood tonight all by myself. It was great to smell the flowers, listen to a good book, and be alone for just a bit.
2. I am grateful for helpful people at work. I had to ping 20 people for a request today but I finally got someone who was there and generous with their time.
3. I am grateful for good doctors. I needed a prescription and I didn’t even have to go in and my doctor was so kind as she always is.
Two Things David’s Grateful For:
1. Playing with legos. He’s really loving it!
2. Playing with Noah’s whistle at school
I grabbed The Reading Group because I really wanted something light and easy to read. I’ve been feeling tired and overwhelmed lately. I didn’t realize it was a good 800-some pages but I really did enjoy reading this book. I connected with the characters and felt close to their stories. I related to some but not others and I did wish at times that the story would move a bit faster and it did feel like things all ended a bit too happy but honestly, it was the nice, light read I was looking for without being too light and too stupid.
Maybe a nice summer read? Oh well, it did its job if you ask me.
This week’s download is some girl themed journaling cards. The lines are separate so you can add them or not. Here is what they look like:
You can download it here: Girl Themed Journaling Cards download.
You are welcome to play with these as much as you want and use them anywhere you’d like. You are NOT allowed to sell them ever. You don’t have to but I’d appreciate a link back if you do use them.
This is part of a weekly digital download series. They are posted every Thursday. You can find all of the ones that were posted here. If you like my downloads, please click here and give me ideas/requests for 2010. I would like to continue this feature but I am not sure I can come up with enough ideas on my own.
I still remember years and years ago when I was in sixth grade, I took this exam when I was first learning English and there was a reading piece about daisies. One of the few flowers whose name I knew.
Today was a crappy day from the beginning. Nathaniel woke up at 4:30 and would not go back down. I was already feeling overwhelmingly tired and sick and drippy. He didn’t take but a 30 minute morning nap and would not fall asleep until 2pm. It was a LONG day and I didn’t get anything done all day. I just lay here in between sleep and wakefulness. What a waste of a day.
Thankfully David was an angel. He played with Nathaniel for a long time.
And Nathaniel practiced his water drinking skills. He loves that so much he won’t stop drinking all day long.
David brought out all of his legos.
And spent the entire day playing with them. I mean for hours and hours all by himself. He’s incredible.
Nathaniel played for a long time, too. In between nursing which he likes to do 15 times a day.
So an uneventful and long day here. I am tired and worn out and I need to just lie down and read my book and go to sleep.
Note to Self:
There are days when I just need to call it quits and do nothing. I mean literally nothing. Today was one of those days where I felt like I should be doing something the whole time. Instead, I should have just stopped. Lay on the couch, played with my kids, took a nap. Sometimes it’s best to actively take a day off.
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. We watched Glee as a whole family and sat on the couch, held hands, and laughed.
2. Jake came home early tonight and he also went to go out and get groceries and even bought dinner. I am so grateful for him.
3. I am grateful that both kids are in bed now and I can just relax and then go to a blissful sleep (I hope.)
Two Things David’s Grateful For:
1. Because he was such an angle, David got to play 20 mins of Wii tonight again and of course he was super-thankful for it.
2. He said he was very grateful for his lego time!
Catalyst One Hundred and Nine is: What was the best night of your life so far?
Thoughts:
When Jake and I had just started dating, I got to go home with him to a family Christmas party. It was a last minute decision where I convinced him to surprise his family (we were in college, had final exams, etc.) When we showed up his whole family was so excited and his mom even cried. The whole night she introduced me as the girl who brought her son home. Of course I had no idea at the time that I would end up marrying this boy. But it was the best way to be introduced to the family and one of my favorite nights ever because I got to see everyone so happy.
These flowers are called Venka, David tells me. He learned that from his grandmother (Jake’s mom.) They are beautiful aren’t they?
I took a few closeups of Nathaniel today, just facial expressions as he looked up to me trying to get up on the couch.
And he’s checking out the Tivo remote.
I’ve been feeling really exhausted lately. I wake up much more refreshed and less groggy than usual but then I collapse in the middle of the day and cannot pick myself back up. I just sink deeper and deeper and can’t get anything done. I probably should give up and take a nap but I don’t. I keep wishing it away but it doesn’t go. Ugh. Well hopefully tomorrow will be better. Or I will take a day off and sleep when Nathaniel naps.
Note to Self:
So, if you remember, I got a new Macbook Pro about ten days ago or so. This morning I wake up to an ad-email from Apple that tells me they just came out with new Macbook Pros. These are orders of magnitude better with a much nicer processor, more battery life, cheaper(!), and a better graphics card. Ordinarily, I would panic. But, instead, I patiently wait until the store opens, talk to the manager, call back 3 times and get exactly what I had hoped for: I got to exchange my computer for the new one and got to have AppleCare with the price difference. Woot! It’s rare that stores do the exact right thing in the exact right way, in my opinion but, in this case, that’s exactly what happened. Which was incredible and I was so stoked.
But the best part is that I was calm the whole time. Hopeful and occupied, yes, but I did not freak out. I made my peace with the outcome regardless of what it was. And that’s big for me. I still “needed” to take care of it immediately and the issue had to be resolved one way or another Which is something I need to work on. But being peaceful and not freaking out is a step in the right direction.
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. Well, of course, my new laptop!
2. I am grateful for my art journal. It’s still coming together really beautifully and it really makes me happy.
3. I think Nathaniel signed for the first time today!! I am not 100% sure and we’ll see in the next few days if he repeats it but it really looked like he was signing milk. I am so so grateful that he’s learning it!!
Two Things David’s Grateful For:
1. David got to play 20 mins of Wii tonight so he was super-thankful for it.
2. And he got a surprise in the mail. Our accountant mailed him the lego pieces he accidentally left in her office. He was so happy and grateful that he played with his legos for a long time.
Earlier last week, I read this wonderful post on Andrea’s blog. One of the things she mentions is how her son started playing this game where he shares the favorite part of his day at the end of every day. As I’ve mentioned before, I do something like this with my son where I ask him to tell me two things he’s grateful for every day. It’s part of our bedtime ritual. I also pick him up from school every day and when we’re walking to the car, I ask him what his favorite part of school was each day. Sometimes he doesn’t want to play along and just says “no parts” but most days this is how I find out about things he did at school. Today he had 3 favorite things ready for me.
One of the greatest parts of doing this blog is that I get to do it with Lori. It’s something we share. Something we plan. I love reading her posts and I look forward to them. I smile when I see that we’ve used the same topic. I learn and grow when she appreciates something I might not have noticed. Even when we pick the same thing, I love reading her interpretation of it. The words she uses, the photos she shares.
I think, like most things, gratitude is amplified when shared with others. If you have children who can speak, I highly recommend you play this game with them. If they can write, maybe you can keep a gratitude journal with them. I am pretty sure you’ll cherish every single day you do it. And even more so years from now.
If you don’t have kids, but are married, do it with your husband. Significant other. Best friend. Or even neighbor. Imagine how much closer you might get with someone just by sharing one thing you’re grateful for each day. Just pick a person who might be willing to play along with you and start sharing.
Maybe, like Andrea, they will help you see some of your moments through different eyes. At a minimum, you’d be practicing gratitude and that’s gold right there.
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.
More nature. Enjoying playing with these.
Little boy’s been really good at playing by himself lately.
Until I interrupt (Like the click of the shutter) and he remembers I’m there.
More playing. As he was messing with David’s toy, he even figured it out for us.
We had just changed the batteries of this toy my sister sent but we couldn’t get it to work. As it turns out, you need to press it with two fingers and Nathaniel figured it out! So David spent all of his afternoon playing this game. Thank you Yona, he loves it!
Almost as much as Nathaniel loves turning on and off the TV.
So I stayed up until past midnight last night reading in bed while the whole house slept. I finished my book of course and have already begun the next one. I love it when I am on a roll and reading one good book after another.
I even did one page on my journal and plan to do another after I finish writing this up and before I have to go to bed. Here’s to hoping.
Note to Self:
I’ve been thinking about eating lately. Well, my well-being mostly. I don’t eat very well. No, I don’t eat burgers and fries but I do eat a lot more chocolate than I should. Honestly, on most typical days, I drink 3 cups of (large cups) coffee, eat 7 or so graham crackers, maybe half a bar of chocolate and one cheese sandwich (just bread and cheese). Some days I also eat 2 bananas, or a yogurt. Some days I eat a salad (very rarely). But most days it’s just the coffees, banana, chocolate, graham crackers. This isn’t a lot of food but it’s unhealthy. It’s not nutritious in any way and it needs to change. It’s ok to keep drinking the coffee (since the idea of giving that up seems to rise panic in me) but I need more nutrition. If not for me, then for the baby I am still nursing. But honestly, I don’t know where to begin. I feel so lazy most days. Nothing feels tasty. I can’t decide what to eat. Same with exercise. I just can’t get motivated about it. I’m not even thinking about losing weight as much as I am thinking about being healthy, having a good heart, etc. This is something I am very mindful of, especially lately. But not something I’ve figured out how to resolve just yet.
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. Watching David learn his words. He’s been practicing every day and it’s so much fun to see his reading grow.
2. I am grateful that I finally cleaned up the desk next to the couch where I sit. It was one of those things I’d been putting off for months and now it’s all nice and clean.
3. Thankful for Glee coming back on this week. Love that show!
Two Things David’s Grateful For:
1. Playing with the toy Yona sent (the one in photo above)
2. Playing with friends at school where they put stickers and build an underwater world
3. Drawing with mommy
This week’s craft was inspired by this (click image for source):
We only did one but it was really really fun.
I printed the horses.
I traced onto a shoebox.
Cut it out.
David painted it teal (his favorite color is green right now.)
We waited for it to dry and picked our buttons.
Some wire and a white button and the back feet were on.
Here’s our horse constructed.
We then used some fibers I had to glue on to his tail.
And his back.
And here’s David playing with it.
It was actually relatively easy and super-fun. David loves it!
The shades of green in nature never cease to amaze me.
It was another wonderful day. I spent the entire day in my pajamas. Reading. I started Jodi Picoult’s book and could not put it down. I intend to finish it tonight.
While I read, David played.
So did Nathaniel.
And then after Nathaniel’s food was finished, he did his favorite thing which is to go hang out at David’s table.
And touch his stuff, which David is not such a fan of and has started stopping him.
Here’s Nathaniel making a very unhappy face.
And finally he gives up and plays with David’s other toys.
It poured cats and dogs here today. I am ready for beautiful California spring. Come on already where is it? I have so many todo list items but they’ve all been put on hold while I read my books. I can’t stop. It’s like a magical world of wonderful stories and I’ve fallen in.
Note to Self:
So I am not such a big fan of Facebook. I am not even sure why but I’ve never really liked using it so much and now I have such a mix of friends. Friends from childhood in Turkey. Friends from work at Google and even from old work at Goldman. Friends from scrapbooking. Friends from CMU. All over the place. I’ve just avoided posting anything. I kept worrying what if I post about scrapbooking and all my non scrappy friends think I’m stupid or boring. Or that I’ll post something about Google Chrome and the scrappy people will be bored to tears. But finally I gave it all up today. I’m me. I have a weird, wide range of interests and if you don’t like to read my comments, just don’t. That’s ok. I won’t be offended. I don’t read everything either. It’s crazy to assume I can make everyone happy. Even crazier to assume I need to be different than who I am. That’s too much work. So from today on my blog posts show up at FB as links. Some might follow and others not. That’s ok. I might change this later I make no promises but for now I am ok with it. I am ok with being me. At least I think I am.
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. Grateful for books this whole weekend. I’d been on a bad lineup lately of only wanting to read light stuff but the last 3 books I read (all of which i read this weekend) are not light and yet I read them without moving and they were all fantastic. (well i haven’t finished this one yet to be fair.)
2. Grateful for a wonderfully quiet day with my family whom I adore.
3. Grateful that it was ok for me to ditch all of my todo list for this weekend. That I don’t feel burdened down or stressed out.
Two Things David’s Grateful For:
1. Watching the They Might Be Giants DVD on science that Jake’s brother got David for his birthday
2. Going to his friend Arielle’s birthday party
Normally, I prefer to put a layout a week so I can stretch the content over weeks and so I don’t overwhelm you with tons of photos. But I wanted to say something today as a follow up to the scrappy related thoughts I put on my diary entries on April 8 and April 9.
I wrote this up at A Million Memories yesterday. It repeats some of what I wrote in the last two days, so apologies for that but I wanted to keep it intact so here it goes.
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Hi everyone.
I got this kit just a few days ago and it is absolutely stunning and even though I had planned to take my time and do a layout a day or so, it turned out I couldn’t resist tearing into it. Most of you already know that I am a simple scrapper and don’t put so much on my pages. I tend to journal a lot and I still spend a ton of time on each page but this time I had several goals. And I wanted to share with you some scrappy stuff I’ve been thinking about lately.
I write in my blog 2-3 times a day. One of the entries every day is a Daily Diary where I share photos I’ve taken, photos of my kids, what we did that day, etc. I also have 3 other sections. One for 3 things I’m grateful for that day, one for 2 things David’s (my son) grateful for that day and one section called “Note to Self” which is where I write about things I am thinking of, things I am being mindful of. I’ve been making an effort to be more mindful of my thoughts, actions, feelings in 2010 so this is the section where I practice that daily.
In yesterday’s diary entry, here’s what I wrote:
I was listening to Paperclipping Roundtable podcast yesterday and I heard a few pithy comments that I was still thinking of today, especially as I scrapbooked. The two guests were a listener, Heather Lord and Stephanie Howell, and they both said something that stuck with me. Stephanie said how years from now when her girls look at her layouts, they will not complain about how it doesn’t have the visual triangle and while I laughed, it’s so true. When I was looking through the layouts with David yesterday, he couldn’t care whether the photos were perfect or laid on the paper perfectly. He just loved that they were there. He wanted to hear the stories. The rest didn’t matter. He won’t care that the paper I used was six months old. He won’t even care if the greens or blues match honestly. He will only focus on the photos and the stories, I am sure of it. This is important to remember for me as I struggle to put my layouts together, especially when I focus so hard on the embellishments and where each should go.
Heather also said something pithy. She said her phrase of the year is “It’s better finished than perfect.” (I apologize, I am paraphrasing, since I am writing from memory.) But it’s so true! Years from now, the only layouts I will have are the ones I finished. The stories I did tell. Even without photos. Even with crappy photos. Or even with just photos. (As much as I like telling the story I think it’s still better to have a layout with photos that tell a story than no layout at all.) Maybe it was at some point, but scrapbooking is not art for me anymore. For art, I do the art journaling, the tags, etc. Scrapbooking is for telling my stories. It’s for keeping our memories. So a layout done, however imperfect, is MUCH better than a layout that is never done. So this is a good mantra for me. Something I need to remember as I get frustrated with how far from perfect my page looks. Better done than perfect! (Btw, as a commenter kindly reminded me, Heather’s phrase was “Done is better than perfect.”)
The reason I wanted to copy this here is to remind all of you who pile up the kits and don’t use them that the only memories you end up preserving are the layouts you complete. So tear into those beautiful kits and get to work. They don’t have to be perfect. They are there for you to remember.
I’ve been working on my son Nathaniel’s baby book for the last year. He will turn one in two weeks (holy cow!) and the way I designed his book is that I preserve each week. A two-page spread in my binder has six photos on one side and a layout on the other. Together, they represent a week’s worth of photos of my son. (I’ve taken photos of him everyday he’s been alive.) So this means I will have 52 layouts of him when he hits his birthday. (Actually a few more cause I’ve done a few extras here and there.) Anyhow, so I’ve been doing these layouts with every kit for the last few months. Over this time, I had certain photos I skipped for several reasons. Either there was no story, or the colors in the photo bugged me and didn’t inspire me, or who knows. This month, I pulled all of those photos and decided I was going to scrap every single one of them and I also pulled the 4 recent photos I hadn’t scrapped and I got down to business.
To add to the crazy combination of photos (most of which I was finding uninspiring), I didn’t feel like journaling this time around. (very rare for me!) I didn’t want to sit at the computer and measure things and write words and etc. I wanted to do it all by hand (and I HATE my handwriting and can’t write straight to save my life) So here I was without the two things that inspire me the most when I scrap: photos and words.
But I was determined to make it work. I reminded myself that the only stories that get told are the ones I scrap. So with my photos in hand, I got down to business.
And I did ten layouts. TEN. And I have enough leftover to probably do at least 4 more. (Yes, I am a simple scrapper, which helps.) You will notice that the layouts are very different which shows the versatility of this kit. They cover Halloween, Easter, Christmas. 8.5×11, 12×12, 17×11, 24×12. Lots of photos and single photos. Lots of journaling and almost no journaling. They are all imperfect. I genuinely did the best I could with each but I kept the mantra in mind that “done is better than perfect.”
I’m only telling all this because I really hope that it will encourage you to sit and scrap your stories. Your life. Even if you don’t share it with us. Open that beautiful kit and create some pages with it. I hope you will.
Here are mine:
(This is a direct lift of Suzy Plantamura’s magnificent layout. )
(inspired by this beautiful layout)
And I wanted to leave you with a gratitude entry I put on my blog for April 8 (the day I got my kit and did the first layout.)
I made a layout about Nathaniel’s first Christmas today. David liked it so much that he got upset when he found out it was going in Nathaniel’s album. (which I am working feverishly to complete). I explained to him that this was Nathaniel’s first. He said he didn’t have a page for his first Christmas (of course he does; he’s the whole reason I started this madness.) so out came his baby album where we looked at his first Christmas which then led into looking at four years of layouts. David’s whole childhood right there in front of our eyes. He begged to stay up extra minutes just to look at the pages. (He had asked to stay up late and play legos but he said he much preferred looking at the layouts.) I am so grateful that I have this hobby. I didn’t care one bit about which page wasn’t perfect, I drank in all of our memories. He asked me to read all of the journaling and I enjoyed our hour together so much. I am so so grateful for these moments with my son. Maybe one day he will grow up and not care about these pages but for now he loves them and I love them deeply and I am so grateful for them. Each time I am caught up in the craziness of it all, I just have to remember tonight and remember that, for me, it’s not the product, it’s not the team I am on or the comments I got. It’s that these are my stories. Our stories. And we will get to live them again and again. Forever.
I hope this inspires you to sit down and create at least one layout today.
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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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