We got to work really early this morning so we got to play outside for a bit and I tried to snap a photo quickly before David changed his mind about playing on the swings.
Another long, eventful day but now we’re halfway through the week so I am feeling more optimistic. I hope your week is going well.
Happy St. Patty’s Day to those of you who celebrate. I don’t really but I do enjoy seeing others who do. Here’s a branch that I photographed at work this morning. I love seeing spring finally arrive at our door. I am ready for the warm sunshine and blooming flowers everywhere. It always makes me feel rejuvenated.
A long day today even though it wasn’t Monday. As my last few days are coming at work before I leave for maternity, and as the baby gets coser, there are just lots of odds and ends to do for both. So today was meetings and presentations and then trip to Stanford Hospital to learn more about their birth center and process.
My BPS class starts on Thursday so I am really excited about that and a week into the class, I will be leaving for maternity so I will have extra time and attention to give to the class which makes me even happier. I just hope the students like all the work I’ve put into it.
I will leave you with a photo of David from school cause I can’t ever have enough of those:
I had a rough night last night because during my sixth wakeup for the night – which was at 3am – my spine just decided it didn’t want me to lie down anymore so no matter which way I turned, I just couldn’t get my body to let me sleep. So, when David woke up this morning, Jake must have told him that Mommy needed some more sleep cause when I finally got up, I saw him sitting in the living room, on the beanbag, with covers and quietly reading a book.
On the other hand, David’s been considerably more difficult lately. Not like he’s terrible or anything; he’s still the sweetest boy. But he shows signs of complaining and pushing back more often. I don’t know if that’s really just natural part of growing up or something is up but I am hoping it will pass. Honestly, on the little sleep any little thing gets on my nerves so it could also be mostly me, who knows?
I had quite a lot of contractions today. I really can’t imagine getting a lot bigger but I know I will. Oh well, as long as the little one is happy and healthy.
David bought these Spiderman tatoos and cannot get enough of them.
Today was a quiet day. My brother and sister in laws are still here. They spent the morning playing with David while I took a nap and then they all went to have lunch with a friend while David and I attempted to take a nap but he wouldn’t take one which meant I couldh’t have one either. And now we’re all watching Wall-e.
Here’s Leila and David, playing with the tatoos.
And here are some beauitful tulips my friends Manu and Hana brought yesterday:
Happy Sunday.
This week’s catalyst is Create a piece of art around a memory or occasion that has no photos.
Here’s my text:
When we were planning our wedding, the one thing we spent the most amount of money on was our photographer. We figured the photos were the best way to preserve our memories of the special day. We found this person who looked really professional, had great albums, etc and decided to go with him. He did show up and take a bunch of photos and he even delivered us our proofs and album. The deal was that a year later he would give us the negatives. Except that when the year passed, he went completely awol. We couldn’t get him to answer the phone or email. We were never able to get in touch with him again and, to the day, don’t have one negative from our wedding day. We still have the album we bought but if you come to our house, you won’t see any wedding photos on our tables because we have none.
Happy Pi Day!
My beautiful sister-in-law threw me a baby shower today. It was a wonderful, relaxed one and good friends came. We didn’t have a lot of people but it was really nice to have one nonetheless. I am reall thankful that they came all this way just for us and played with David so much too. She bought some yummmy food and did some traditions from each family member.
Here’s my brother in law, Danny, and David.
Here’s a tradition my other sister in law, Andee, does: we gave candles to everyone so they could light them when I am in labor.
One from Lelia herself: she bought stickers and got the guests to pick the ones they liked and write some words on a picture frame so when the baby comes we can put the photo in it with everyone’s sentiments around it.
And finally one from my sister: a sheet torn by everyone and then candy wrapped in it.
And that’s it. I hope your day was as nice as mine.
Did you know there will be Friday the 13ths this year? We’ve already had one in January and here’s the second one and we will have another one November. So if you believe it’s unlucky, you’re in for a long year.
I hadn’t had tulips in a week or so, I missed them. Look at all the colors. It’s just so stunning to me. Even though it doesn’t even smell, I love it nonetheless.
Not feeling up to saying much today, so I will leave you with a lego shot I took at David’s school. Happy Friday.
This week’s question was “name 5 movies that inspire you creatively…”
I’ve had to think about this one for a long long time for some reason. At first, I thought about my favorite movies but then I reread the question and it talks about creative inspiration. Then, the first thing that came to my mind were these set of three movies made by a Polish director called Red, White, and Blue. So I decided instead of choosing five, I’ll just stick to this trilogy.
This week’s technique was fragments. I honestly had no idea what to do with them so it was an interesting challenge for me. I went through all my scraps and picked all the red, white, and blue paper I had and glued them to the back of the fragments and then just had fun with it. I painted the tag with denim distress ink and then embossed it with clear, shiny embossing powder. The fragments I had were the ones with the holes so I tried to align them interestingly. I am not sure how I feel about the outcome but it was fun. I am sorry the photo didn’t turn out that well, especially the butterfly.
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I am combining Emily Falconbridge’s art journal questions with trying a new technique each week. You can see the full list: here
I love this smile. I spent some time with David at school this morning. I love watching him work his way through the class, seeing the activities he chooses, the way he interacts with the kids. It’s nice to get to see how he’s with his peers as opposed to us.
Started on the tag last night. Finally picked the theme and the technique but I am not finished yet. Not sure if I love it, but the point is to experiment and I certainly have been experimenting.
One week left to my Big Picture Scrapbooking course, Telling Stories Deeply. I am really excited and nervous. You can get more detail here and of course you can ask me questions as much as you need. I hope to see you in my class!
Another school shot today. I love watching David at school. Many days I am loathe to leave him and go to a meeting.
We’re halfway through the week already and I feel like I’ve accomplished too little. My wonderful brother in law is coming to town tomorrow so I am excited to see him and his wife is coming on Friday. I haven’t seen her in so long and she’s so wonderful that I can’t wait to see them. They’re flying across the country just to throw me a baby shower, aren’t they the nicest people in the world?
I’ve been thinking about my tenth tag but I haven’t decided exactly what to do yet and even what technique to use. We’ll see when and if inspiration strikes. It doesn’t strike very often laltely.
Hope your week is going well.
Lately, I’ve been thinking about the power of expectations. Or more like the downside of having too many of them. I’ve decided that one of the biggest contributors to unhappiness is when expectations don’t align with reality.
When I was pregnant with David, Jake and I took a baby prep class and a month after our kids were due, we all came back to the same hospital to meet and talk about our babies and how things went, etc. We noticed, at the time, that the couples who had an unexpected problem (however small it was) felt like their hospital/birth experience was terrible and in the cases where everything went smootly, the parents thought the hospital was amazing. There might have been some cases where the staff varied enough to cause this, but I really think it had more to do with the alignment of expectations vs reality. If you go into it thinking you’ll have a one night stay at the hospital and end up having to stay 3 days, suddenly it’s the hospital’s fault or something went wrong. Instead of focusing on the good, like how your baby is healthy, you focus on how things didn’t go as planned.
This is true in the smallest things in life like getting caught in a red light when you expect to be somewhere at some particular time. It’s also true in the biggest things like career, love, home, etc.
I’ve been trying to figure out what this means to me. Do I lower my expectations? Do I purposefully not set expectations? But aren’t expectations also a bit of a driving-force behind acheivement? How are they different from goals? I am not entirely sure of the answers. But I did decide that I will spend more time thinking about the crux of the issue and try to figure out what matters most to me and hope that, that particular thing goes well and try to refrain from having any more expectations than that. So, for example, concentrate on having a healthy and happy baby and let go of getting to control the timinig, location, and other, smaller issues.Or focus on getting somewhere safely even if it means I have to be a few minutes late. Cause safety matters more. Spend the extra few seconds to hug or calm David down even if it means I get that much less sleep.
I guess it’s a way of learning that you can’t have it all and you should stop expecting it. And it’s also taking your expectations, especially the subconscious ones where you just take things for granted, and living each day more aware of them and making sure you’re not expecting more than what’s realistic and, more significantly, more than what matters.
Today’s the Purim celebration at David’s school so all the kids and the teachers were dressed up in costume. Being the great mom that I am, I completely forgot. So I was really thankful when the teachers put together this quickie for David. He even had a crown and all. But he said he’s not “king David” he’s a prince.
I’ve also been meaning to write this little story that happened between us last week. It was one of those nights Jake was working late so I had put David to bed and he was being whiny and I was almost at the end of my patience and took a deep breath to make sure I wouldn’t blow up at him and changed course. So I slowed down and said “I’m so happy you’re my son, David. I love you. Thank you for being my son.” There were a few moments of quiet and then he said “You’re welcome.” and then he said “I’m so happy you’re my Mommy.” It made me feel so much better and it made me realize the importance of taking a breath and stepping back every now and then.
On another note, today’s my best friend Levent’s birthday! Happy Birthday my wonderful friend, I love you!!
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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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