karenika

52 Things – Do a WIL project

This week’s project was made last week. I needed a full week for it so here it is:

47. Do a week-in-the-life project.

I’ve attempted to make this project several times before but I was never successful. I realized there were two things that held me back:
1. I felt my life wasn’t interesting enough. I was worried all my days were the same. I was worried I was going to have to spice it up for the week which killed the whole point. I decided that my boring life now would be so interesting to me years from now and would be worth preserving.

2. I felt like I had to keep track of every minute of everything. I’m anal and I always worried I wouldn’t have enough time for that. So I decided to just focus on a few activities each day. One day, our meals, routines. Another day, our play, etc. I didn’t stress. I just decided to go with the flow.

There are a lot (A LOT) of photos here so you’re warned. Feel free to skip.

I pre-made most this book in two days over a weekend. I picked all of my favorite things that I’d been saving. I sewed the stuff on, put almost all of the embellishments on ahead of time, too. During the actual week, all I did was print photos and glue them and do some manual journaling. I did add some final touches to each page but 85% of the work was done ahead of time. I promised myself I would hand journal the whole thing. I also wanted to print my photos small. I added a few large ones throughout and I love my whole book.

Here’s the overall look. Detail on each page to follow:

Here’s the cover:

and a little detail:

This is the inside of the front cover. In that little pouch is the embroidery sampler I did that week in Teresa’s class. Photo of that:

Monday: No big theme for Monday, just sentiments.

Tuesday: our routine, our walk, my grandmother, david’s ladybug.

Wednesday: Nathaniel’s recent milestones, kids playing, headshots of each boy.

Thursday: David’s 100 day celebration at school, goings on around the house – nathaniel playing, david coloring and watching pink panther, me embroidering and the cleaning lady.

Friday: chat with mom, more embroidering, david highlighting, my kids together, our trip to the park

Saturday: David and I did crafts, the directions for the craft are in the pouch, time with Daddy, haircut, Wii, and then a photo of Jake with Nathaniel and one of me with the boys.

Sunday: a trip to the craft store for beads (receipt in the little envelope) David playing with them, and Nathaniel playing, too.

Back cover inside: sorry for the blur. Just a recap of how much I cherished doing this project.

And finally the back cover:

I HIGHLY recommend doing this. Loved every minute of it.

Daily Diary – February 26 2010

I love streets with the same name that cross.

Sunday is Purim and David’s school decided to celebrate today so all the kids got to wear costumes and had a little parade and a carnival with games. David had a blast.

Nathaniel was cranky most of the day and I finally realized he was so hot and took his temperature. My little boy had a 102 temperature. Poor thing. Now he’s peacefully sleeping.

Today went too fast. Before I knew it, it was all over. I still have so much to do! Happy weekend.

Note to Self:
Today as I was driving to David’s school, I was running much later than usual and I go caught in a construction which made me even later and I could feel the anxiety build up inside me. I talked to myself the whole time and calmed myself down. It took a while but just being aware and more present helped a lot. I feel like I’ve really gotten better with this. I have a long way to go but I am getting a bit better.

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. Jake took David to school this morning which meant that my morning was less broken up than usual and I love those days.
2. I am still really enjoying the embroidery class and it’s so good for my soul.
3. Jake and I get to go see a movie tonight (I think and hope) and that’s a big treat for me.

David’s started doing a grateful list to so I will list his here, too. He only has to pick two things.

Two Things David’s Grateful For:
1. He got a little snack pack at school today and got to play some carnival games (it was Purim) so he won little knickknacks and he is so happy about that.
2. David’s grandparents are here and they brought him a lego helicopter.

Weekly Gratitude – Crafting and Art

The journaling reads:
I love scrapbooking. I know that different people have different opinions about it and I don’t care to change anyone’s beliefs or stereotypes. I just know that, for me, it’s a wonderful way to spend my time. I love taking pictures, I love preserving our memories, and I love playing with pretty paper and embellishments. I’m pretty sure I will do this forever.

Recently, I’ve also begun playing around with fabric and stitching and doing collages. It’s not as much for memory-preservation and I don’t really have a good “excuse” for doing it but I’ve realized that it makes me happy. Sitting at my table and touching all the different textures, creating with needle and thread, using my sewing machine, and just enjoying the process gives me a lot of peace. It makes me happy. It calms me. I can do it for hours on end without noticing the passage of time. I’ve realized this is not for memory-keeping but it’s for something just as important: my soul.

Creating art makes me happy and brings my soul the peace and calm it needs so very much.

Daily Diary – February 25 2010

Today was such a nice day that I decided we should all go out to lunch. David was beyond thrilled, especially since it meant he didn’t have to eat his vegetables for lunch.

He had a bagel and I had a chicken sandwich and Nathaniel munched on a banana. We all shared water and an orange juice. David and I played “I spy” and it was a great time. Sorry, I missed your call, Mom, but we were out!

Nathaniel is getting more and more into his walking toy. I wonder if he’ll walk soon. He’s still way more into crawling than anything but he does like standing up. Let’s see…

Good, full week here. Still not getting too much reading done but everything else is progressing nicely. Did some more art in the morning. Loving that I get to do it. Some stitching tonight (though now my arm is hurting like crazy.)

And we all played some Wii tonight too. An all around perfect day.

Note to Self:
I don’t know if you remember but in the beginning of this year, I started driving David to school more slowly and with less stress. I used to always worry about being late, Nathaniel falling asleep in the car and getting stuck having to sit there. Magically Nathaniel did not fall asleep once since I started this. Until today. As I was driving back from having dropped off David at school this morning, I realized that Nathaniel was being really quiet. He normally looks out the window but likes to babble, too. When I first realized he fell asleep, I panicked. Then I calmed myself down. Drove home slowly and then when I unbuckled him, he woke up. I took him upstairs, nursed him a bunch, and put him in his bed. He fussed for a while, sat there for a while, and then rolled over and slept. Until it was time to pick David back up. (He was really grouchy when I put him back in the car to get David but that’s neither here nor there.) The fact is, I just had to be patient. If I gave him a bit of time, he fell asleep in his bed and I was able to do my work. Lesson for Karen: the world doesn’t end when Nathaniel falls asleep in the car.

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. Lunch out with my kids. How luxurious.
2. Playing Wii with Jake. I am not a big video game person and suck at all the games, but I still love playing with my husband.
3. I called the embassy today and I am grateful that all my paperwork is done and soon to be on its way. That’s something I put off for 6 years. Big frog that I finally finished eating!

David’s started doing a grateful list to so I will list his here, too. He only has to pick two things.

Two Things David’s Grateful For:
1. He got to make some goodie bags to give away to this class tomorrow for Purim so he said making those bags was one of his.
2. Getting to go out for lunch with Mommy and Nathaniel and eating a bagel and orange juice.

A Book A Week – Committed

Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat Pray Love was one of my favorite books at the time. So when I heard she came out with another nonfiction, I knew I had to get my hands on it.

Committed is exploring marriage. I must admit that I am nothing like Elizabeth in that I am not a skeptic at all. I believe in marriage. Maybe that’s because I haven’t been through the harrowing divorce she has. Or maybe we were different people from the beginning. Who knows. All I know is that she is a good writer and I was interested in reading it.

Except that the first three chapters sucked. I found them boring and my interest wandered and wandered. I almost decided to give up on the whole book.

But, of course, that exactly when it got interesting.

Once I made it through the first several chapters, I couldn’t stop reading and underlining and thinking. There were several quite interesting sections and when I have the patience, I will even write them down. In my opinion, what makes Elizabeth special is her voice, her way of telling a story. So when she’s telling her personal story, it’s so much more interesting to read. It’s touching, personal, easy to relate to.

In the end, to me, it wasn’t as magical as Eat, Pray, Love but of course that’s nearly impossible. But it was still a beautiful read and I hope they have a long and lasting marriage together.

Daily Diary – February 24 2010

Much better day today. And we’re already almost on the weekend. I am still enjoying Teresa’s class a lot and I love learning new stitches. I am not that worried about my sampler turning out magnificent, I am just focusing on practicing my stitches and having fun. I’ve already had to cut out my sampler from last week since it had to go on a different section (for last week’s project.)

I love these photos of Nathaniel. Pensive and quiet. It’s so breathtaking to me.

I must say that while he has his moments, he is generally such an easy going kid. Two of those? How did I get so blessed?

Since last week’s project worked so well, I decided to do a catalyst a night this week so that I could get ahead on some of my upcoming creative therapy catalysts and so far, I’ve done magnificently. Two on Monday, and one each yesterday and today. So far, so good. Today, like yesterday, I got up, nursed the baby, showered and got down to work on my art. These pages are small and quick but they still make me happy. This system of doing one thing every night for a week is working quite well for me so far. (This is my third round since I did the sew every day for a week two weeks ago, too.) I think I might pick something next week, too. Though, it has prevented me from getting as much reading done as I’d like so maybe next week I’ll just read every day. I also expect a rough week at work so we’ll see.

How’s your week going?

Note to Self
Jake and I instituted one night a week where for one hour we “get stuff done.” We make a list of a bunch of stuff we’ve been meaning to do but postponing for many reasons. (Like eat the frog kind of stuff where it’s stuff you dread but will make you feel awesome when it’s done.) And then we just do each item on the list. Some weeks it takes a little longer and it’s usually painful but it always feels magnificent afterwards.

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I’m grateful that I’ve been able to do art in the morning, two days in a row now because it’s really a perfect way to start my day.
2. Good friends like Katie and Chris. It brightens my day to talk to them even when the subjects are hard and sad. Or good and happy.
3. My mom and dad. It’s so fun getting to video chat with them everyday as I feed my kids lunch. It’s almost like they are in the room with us and it’s really one of the highlights of my day.

Catalyst 102 – The Good Girl

Catalyst One Hundred and Two is: What was the worst thing you ever did?

Thoughts:
I spent quite a lot of time thinking about this one. In the end, besides lying to a good friend years ago (which I already created a catalyst around), I couldn’t think of something big. I’ve done many many small but bad things in my life. I’m sure I’ve hurt people and lied and made them feel bad. But I can honestly say that none of it was maliciously done. I don’t ever try to hurt someone knowingly. I’ve been hurt a lot in my life so I work hard to be a good person and not hurt others.

Digital Downloads – Rectangle Journaling Spots

This week’s download is some rectangle journaling spots. Here is what they look like:

You can download it here: rectangle journaling spots 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.

Daily Diary – February 23 2010

Today started out great. Most mornings the baby wakes up at 6 or so and I get up with him but I can’t mentally wake up until hours later so the first few hours of the day are dead hours I waste. This morning, I decided to take a shower after I nursed him. Awake or not. And then I came down and did some art. Made me feel good right away. And I was on a high from that all day so even the dreadfully depressing weather didn’t upset me.

But then the day went sour sometime in the afternoon and I could not recover. So I am planning to go to sleep early tonight and rest and see if I can tackle tomorrow more optimistically.

Here are the boys. Nathaniel is still a big fan of visiting David and his DVD player and eating off of his table.

David’s not such a fan of Nathaniel touching his player, though.

Note to Self:
I’ve been thinking a lot about being me lately. I was reading Gretchen’s post about her first commandment: Be Gretchen. And I think I struggle with this a lot. Being happy with me. Letting myself be me. Being comfortable in my skin. I think these are important for my happiness and for me to be a good model to my kids. It’s something I really need to work on.

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. My friend Lori. Thank you Lori for talking to me for so long tonight. And being there.
2. My husband who listens to me when I want to talk and respects me when I don’t. He’s a better man than I on any day.
3. Kindness. I am grateful today for all the kind people around me. Kindness is a quality I’ve come to cherish more than most others.

Weekly Gratitude – Gratitude and Grief

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.

Last week, I lost my grandmother.

She was 91 and she lived a long, healthy and full life. When I learned of her passing, I wrote a few words about our memories and how much she meant to me. As I was writing the post, I realized how much stronger “Weekly Gratitude” has already made me.

I am the melodramatic kind. I tend to over-analyze everything and feel emotions deeply. I worry too much and have a lot of hopes and wishes. While I love living in the United States, one of my greatest fears is not being near my family when something happens to them. For the longest time, my dad used to smoke a lot (he went from 3 packs a day to nothing, bless his soul) and he didn’t eat all that well and slept even less. I had these fears that we would lose him and I wouldn’t even be there to hold his hand. I had this long list of things that I never got to do with him. I felt that I would never forgive myself.

And yet, I am still terrible about visiting home. I dread flying with the kids and my life is pretty hard to uproot. So I haven’t been home in a long time. Thankfully my parents visit me and I’ve had the opportunity to see them. (Not nearly as frequently as I would like of course but they are so kind to take the long trip when I won’t.) But I hadn’t seen my grandmother since 2006. And now I will never see her again. When Nathaniel (my 10-month-old) was born, my parents asked me to visit so my grandmother could meet him. But I didn’t. I was too worried about flying with a baby and a 5-year-old.

So you would think that now that she’s gone forever, I would be wallowing in remorse. And I think the old-me would have. But this project has helped me see the positive side of so many things this year. I’ve noted 3 things that I’m grateful for every single day. That makes 159 things this year so far. (That’s quite a lot isn’t it? And we’re only in February.) It has shifted my focus from the bad to the good. To the “glass is half full” perspective.

And it has allowed me to move past regret into appreciation. Into being thankful for all the times I did have with my grandmother. For having had the luxury of meeting my grandmother and sharing so much with her. And on and on. I know that if it weren’t for this project I would be feeling sorry for myself so much more. Which is, of course, taking the focus off of her and making this all about me. Instead, I can celebrate her and make this all about how amazing she was. And will always be.

Which also brings me peace about my parents. Peace about my life. About living it daily. Living in the moment. Living with gratitude. And choosing joy.

This project has already changed my life more than I ever thought it could.

I will miss you, Omama, may you rest in peace.

Daily Diary – February 22 2010

Today started out well but then went downhill really fast. I was all together and getting stuff done in the morning and then as the afternoon came, Nathaniel didn’t take his nap long enough but then he was so whiny and unhappy. He would play for a little while and then whine.

But, of course he is so cute.

And David kept practicing his karate moves. He said he needed to practice them until he was tired.

Those little balls are Bakugan balls that magically open with cards. He loves them. He loves all of David’s toys. Way more than his.

So at 4pm, I had this really important video conference with my manager and teammates. The baby was melting down, David was bored silly and I had to keep them all quiet. I tried everything with Nathaniel. I gave him snacks, I fed him, I held him, I even nursed him but nothing was doing the trick.

So finally I put him down and asked David to see if he could entertain him. I swear I talked to my team for about 6 minutes before I turned around and saw that Nathaniel had swiftly removed his diaper and also managed to poop at the same time. No one at my meeting knew what was going on of course and I couldn’t abruptly leave since they were answering one of the issues I bought up. So I picked up the baby, cleaned him as best I could, put on a new diaper, and held him for the rest of the meeting. Once the meeting was over, I put him in the tub and washed him all over.

Yep, that’s me, Mother-of-the-Year!

ugh.

Note to Self:
I’ve noticed that while I am in general calmer, I tend to flare up more easily lately. I get defensive, I take things personally, I am frustrated and impatient. These are not things that I would like to be. I am trying to be more mindful this year. Slower. More deliberate and flaring up for no reason does not factor into that. I need to go with the flow a bit more. I start every morning telling myself I won’t get flustered, I won’t yell, I won’t do things I regret. Yet I still do them. Over and over again. I want to stop the cycle. I want to learn to take a breath. Learn to let it go. Learn to teach the lessons patiently and deliberately. I want my kids not to do something because they understand why it’s bad and respect it. Not because they’re scared I’ll fly off the handle. I want to learn to be calm. Calm. Peaceful. I crave this.

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. Today, I’m grateful that videoconferences have mute and that I can choose what the other side sees. (And doesn’t see.)
2. I’m grateful that I’m taking to do a little bit of art each night. Something that makes me happy.
3. I’m grateful that David and I took the time to craft today. I cherish our projects. I cherish our 1-1 time.

Crafting with David – Carton Truck

This week’s craft was inspired by this (click photo for source):

We don’t normally have cartons in the house because I don’t like them and we tend to buy a gallon of milk. But as it turned out, we bought some orange juice for Christmas so I saved the carton.

We gathered all of our supplies: