A few months ago, within a week both Glennon and Brene announced that they were doing tours. I, of course, wanted to go to both. While Glennon’s was nearby, Brene was all the way in Seattle. By the time I really wanted to go, her tickets were completely sold out all over the US.
But Glennon’s weren’t.
I emailed my friend Haven and asked if she’d come with me and she said Yes! I bought the tickets within minutes of opening and it was finally time to go this past Tuesday. As it worked out, I had a meeting two hours before the event and by the time it was over traffic would be too bad for me to make it on time. So I left work in the middle of the day and drove down to San Jose with plans to take the meeting down there.
On the way, i was looking at my Google Maps for directions and a police officer pulled me over (for the first time in my life) and gave me a ticket for holding the phone. Which of course ruined my day. Then I rushed to make it to my meeting on time and walked around in 98F heat to buy a phone holder (which I wasn’t able to find.)
By the time I made it to the event site, I was soaked from head to toe and incredibly exhausted and just not in the best mental or emotional state. The program was amazing, of course, but I also realized that since I follow Glennon pretty closely all over the internet, there wasn’t a tremendous amount of “new to me” things. I am still glad I went. I always need reminders and she is one of the few people whose words touch my soul and my mind, so it never hurts to hear her words again and again.
Not to mention I had a wonderful time with my friend Haven.
All in all, it was worth every penny.
Stories from 2017 is a year-long project for 2017. You can read more about my projects for 2017 here.
My sister and I have been living in different countries since I was 17. My senior year in high school, she moved to Canada and London. By the time she moved back to Turkey, I’d left for college and I have been living here ever since. I’ve gone back and she’s come here, of course. But we haven’t spent more than a week or 10 days together since 1991.
Until this year. She came to visit me last week and by the time she leaves next week, she will have been here a little over two weeks. In these last two weeks, we’ve spent many hours together, talking, walking, watching TV, eating salads and more. Even shopping. (which, if you know me, you’d know is a huge deal!)
It’s been the most wonderful time just getting to hang out and talk and be together as adults. She’s been helping me so much, making lunches and dinners for the kids, playing with them for hours. She’s been patient and kind and fun and just overall wonderful.
She’s going to leave next week and I am going to be so sad. I am hoping that now that her kids go to college here, she will decide to come more often and make it a habit to spend some time with me more regularly.
I love you with all my heart Yonuka! Please come back again!
Stories from 2017 is a year-long project for 2017. You can read more about my projects for 2017 here.
I got the best birthday present this year! My sister came to visit. She had a last minute change in plans and ended up coming to San Francisco three weeks earlier than planned. So she showed up late the night before my birthday and we got to go to the city all day for my birthday.
I wanted to make sure to work out so I went to work first and did my Body Pump class. I then came home and we drove to City Lights in the city. I’d never been to the famous book store and, of course, it was amazing. We then went to Spruce and had a delightful lunch. A quick trip to a coffee shop and we were on the way home to pick up the boys from the school bus.
Later at night we had some cake at home as a family, too!
All in all, it was a really wonderful birthday! Here’s to many more together!
Stories from 2017 is a year-long project for 2017. You can read more about my projects for 2017 here.
Jake and I have back-to-back birthdays. We’re exactly one week apart and he comes first. Even though today is mine, last Tuesday was his.
As of a few years ago, we make a point to take both of our birthdays off work and make sure to spend it with each other. (Maybe when the kids are gone we can take the whole week from his day to mine.)
This year was the most unplanned I’ve been and I felt terrible about it. We still managed to get some reservation at a lovely place in the city and had a delicious lunch. We spent most of his special day shopping for me but of course he was completely gracious about it and so, so kind. It was just so lovely being only the two of us. I’ve now been with Jake for 25 years and he’s the best person I’ve ever met.
I am so lucky and so grateful to have his love, and to have him in my day to day life to share my moments with, to raise kids with, to experience life with; he is the very best person to share my life with because he always makes it more colorful, more enjoyable and more full of love.
I love you with all my heart, my love, happy happy birthday. To many, many, many more together.
Stories from 2017 is a year-long project for 2017. You can read more about my projects for 2017 here.
This was the first week of school for my kids. After being at two different schools last year, they are finally again in the same school. Nathaniel started third grade and David started seventh. Holy cow! Seventh!
Nathaniel’s been really brave and transitioning to a new school and new classmates pretty wonderfully. And David’s taken to seventh grade like bread to butter. He’s taking a Forensic Science elective and also a Yearbook one.
They are both doing Cross Country at the moment and MathCounts starts the week after next.
Here’s to a wonderful school year for both of my wonderful boys!
Stories from 2017 is a year-long project for 2017. You can read more about my projects for 2017 here.
We’ve been taking family photos for over 7 years now and I am so very grateful for them. They make my heart swell each time. Lately, I’ve been asking Jake to take photos of me with the kids, too. And these are quickly becoming my favorite because Jake always makes us laugh. There is so much laughter and joy in these photos and the gratitude I feel when I see them is endless.
Thank you my wonderful husband!
Stories from 2017 is a year-long project for 2017. You can read more about my projects for 2017 here.
I posted this on my Instagram a week ago but I wanted to also preserve it here.
When I was younger my mom filled our house with flowers. I liked them but as I grew up I felt they were a waste of money since they die so quickly. But now all I want in my house is more flowers. Here’s some of what I bought this week. As it turns out they are the cheapest solution for feeling happy! And to make sure to honor my mom I got an orchid for my bathroom.
Nathaniel and I have been going to Trader Joe’s and the farmer’s market each week just to experiment with different flowers. I have yet to find anything that beats the ranunculus but we’ll keep looking!
Stories from 2017 is a year-long project for 2017. You can read more about my projects for 2017 here.
Early this year, I took Stephanie’s Wholehearted Artist class. I loved it but didn’t do the journaling each week. She then decided to offer MapMaker which is the same course but with Art journaling prompts added. I knew I wanted it and I am so grateful I did it. For whatever reason, I am working much harder this time and have done the first assignment (above) which was about setting my own vision. And then the second assignment (below) which is more about the spaces where I live and how I want to feel there.
This class has given me so much to think about and has changed the way I spend my time, the choices I make and has helped me move though my life with more awareness and sense of self. Love it so so much!
Stories from 2017 is a year-long project for 2017. You can read more about my projects for 2017 here.
I never talked about the boys’ camps so I figured before they are all over, I can note them here. This year, we got only 3weeks of camps since we were in Sydney for 3 weeks and that leaves us with 3 weeks of summer left. For the first week, Nathaniel did a Destination Science camp while David stayed home and took an online Physics class. Last week they both did a rock climbing camp together and then this week Nathaniel will do a fun camp while David goes to Rowing camp.
I try to keep our camps either educational or sportsy since my kids don’t do a lot of sports during the school year. Once camps are over, we will likely take one more short vacation to say goodbye to the summer of 2017.
Stories from 2017 is a year-long project for 2017. You can read more about my projects for 2017 here.
The night before The 100 Day Project started, I knew I wanted to participate. But I also knew that in the next 100 days I would be traveling internationally, and working super hard, and I just couldn’t commit to doing anything difficult.
Right before I gave up, I got this brilliant idea: I would post a photo on my instagram one photo of a moment of joy in my day, every day, for 100 days.
And that’s exactly what I did.
Best project ever!!
Stories from 2017 is a year-long project for 2017. You can read more about my projects for 2017 here.
I’m a fan of Karen Walrond and have taken classes from her over the years. When she announced she was offering a class called Glow:The 21-day course on claiming your light I decided it was a sign I had to take it. My word for 2017 is Shine after all and actually Glow sounds even nicer but either way it was just another word for my word and so I decided universe was telling me to take it.
Sometimes when you take a class from someone you’ve already taken a class from, you see a lot repeated and you don’t get a lot of value the second time. I worried this might happen with Karen’s class. But I signed up anyway.
I am so glad I did.
This class profoundly changed my life. It asked the right questions at the right time. It made me realize I had patterns in my life that I sort of knew but wasn’t embracing.
I realized for example that I am always in a pattern of GROW : REFLECT : SHARE. As in I like to learn things, think about my learning and then share it with others by teaching or in other ways.
I also realized that the parts of my life I am so proud of are always when I live life on my own terms. I decide I will do something and I just do it. I am so proud of how often I’ve done this. How my life is so catered to what I want it to be. I am so proud of that, too. It also makes me feel strong, which I love. It allowed me to realize this about myself which I can remind myself every time I feel small and forget.
There’s so much more in this class. It’s wonderful, thoughtful and, for me, life changing.
Stories from 2017 is a year-long project for 2017. You can read more about my projects for 2017 here.
Since our kids were born, all the vacations we took have either been to Jake’s family’s home or my family’s home. We’re lucky enough to have beautiful homes in beautiful locations like Bodrum, Istanbul, Martha’s Vineyard and Boston so we’re not deprived in any way. And we’ve taken a lot of smaller vacations up and down the California coast and to Idaho or New York, etc. But we’ve not traveled internationally with the kids, except to go to Turkey.
So when I realized mid-year that I could combine a work-trip to Sydney with a family trip, I suggested we visit Australia this summer. Jake didn’t turn the idea down 🙂 So despite it being winter there and despite being a bit (ok a lot) anxious about it, I hemmed and hawed and then finally booked us all tickets. Thanks to Quantas’ reduced fares for kids, our tickets were cheaper than going to Europe.
We wanted to make sure we went to one more place while we were there but we were told New Zealand would have too little sunlight so we decided to go to Cairns instead where the Great Barrier Reef is. We were also advised to do AirBnB instead of Hotels since it was four of us and not two. Here are the instagram shots I took while there.
Above is my first week when I was there for work. I worked pretty long days but got a lot done.
This set is the kids and Jake coming over and all of us in Cairns.
This set (and the very top set) are both from Sydney.
Except for the first two which are in Sydney, the others are all at Blue Mountains which were stunning.
Most of these are from the Taronga Zoo!
And finally Manly Beach and us on our way back. The first AirBnb was a hit, the second was a miss. The car rentals all worked out. The flights were smooth and on time. We lost no luggage and no jackets. We got to snorkel in the great barrier reef, we got to feed kangaroos and hold koalas. We got to touch and watch crocodiles and feed birds. We saw magnificent butterflies, a Tazmanian devil, a ton of other marsupials. We went to countless beaches and had more scenic views than one can enjoy in such a short amount of time. We took buses, trains, cars, trams, ferries and planes. We walked for hours and hours. We ate a lot of toast and didn’t try vegemite. All in all, it was a fantastic vacation and I am looking forward to more adventures with this amazing family!
Stories from 2017 is a year-long project for 2017. You can read more about my projects for 2017 here.
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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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