And here’s day four.
Yes, I am addicted to butterflies. What can I say?
And here are some details:
|
|
||
|
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.
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: Three Things I’m Grateful For: Two Things David’s Grateful For: And here’s day three. Today’s was completely inspired by this amazing one by Jennifer Johner.
And here are some details:
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!
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: Three Things I’m Grateful For: Two Things David’s Grateful For: This is a lift of an AMM member. See the original layout here.
Journaling Reads: 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. This is with the A Million Memories February Kit.
Every single day with you is full of bliss.
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: And here are some details:
Ok I have to admit that today passed and I absolutely have no idea what I did all day. I did take Nathaniel for his one-year appointment and I did do one layout but I think that might be it for the whole day. Ouch. Today was David’s Wii day so he played and played.
Nathaniel ate his legos.
Walked around and watched David play. Occasionally turned off the TV which drove David insane, of course.
And then he picked through the trash which drove Mommy insane.
But then he smiled at us and all was forgiven.
Life with kids is an ongoing craziness. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. Note to Self: Three Things I’m Grateful For: Two Things David’s Grateful For: This week’s project was made last week. And it’s second time I’m doing it this year. Here’s the first one. I think it’s funny that I’ve tried to do this for years and never did one and this year isn’t even halfway over and yet I did two already. This one was drastically different than the other. The other was all product, and fun, and mini, etc. This one is all photos and words. It’s fully digital, no product. I haven’t even printed it out yet and I am not sure if I will. I’ve used patterned papers from Kenner Road and The Queen of Quirk and Cottage Arts. You can download the templates I used here. There are a lot (A LOT) of photos here so you’re warned. Feel free to skip. Front and Back Covers Monday:
Tuesday:
Wednesday:
Thursday:
Friday:
Saturday:
Sunday:
Roses. Beautiful roses. This is the kind of stuff that happens around here when I am working. Little boy walks around with his toy and laughs at me.
And then plays with his legos.
And then hears my voice, and smiles again.
My older boy will not look at the camera without making a silly face.
And then smiles after a lot of begging.
But the best part of today was that Nathaniel is finally walking around. I mean more than one or two steps here and there. He’s really walking for a few seconds. And trying it again and again.
I tried really hard to capture it but I cannot do a good job. The joy of watching your kid walk for the first time is indescribable.
I still remember David’s first walk. And it still brings tears to my eyes. I feel extra blessed today. Just remembering the value of everyday little moments. Note to Self: Ps: Oh and I meant to mention that we’re having a weekend long crop at AMM this weekend. BIg prizes! Come join us. Three Things I’m Grateful For: Two Things David’s Grateful For: |
|
|
|
Copyright © 2026 karenika - All Rights Reserved Powered by WordPress & Atahualpa |
||
