I honestly can’t even remember this week passing by. I must have been more jetlagged than I thought and next thing I knew it was already Friday. I feel like this whole year has been passing by at an usually fast speed. I just can’t seem to get a hold of my days. I also feel like I still haven’t found my new normal so I am struggling with sticking to any type of rhythm which also means I am not eating well or drinking enough water or getting any exercise. Which just accumulates to a lot of back pain, feeling tired all the time, and just general grumpiness/weepiness. But most days I find myself pushing through. Which, of course, is the wrong thing to do. Life most negative cycles, I have to purposefully take a step back and get myself reset. Just can’t seem to find the trick to making it happen.

Here are a few more photos from the last week:

We only took family photos this week.

But we took them in the backyard.

there was much laughter as always.

pouting faces.

angry faces.

surprised faces.

and laughter.

so much joy in these photos. I love them so.

and here we are. Another full week. I am so grateful for my life.

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Weekly Diary is a project for 2015. You can read more about it here.

This week went fast. Apparently they are all going to do that now. The school benefit is in a few weeks and honestly between work and that and all the work I do with the kids. I’ve made my peace with what this means until May. The benefit and tech challenge will both be over then and I expect things to be considerably calmer. At least for a while. Let’s hope 🙂

Here are a few more photos from the last week:

Jake and I were away last weekend which is why I didn’t do a weekend update. We went away just the two of us for the first time since the kids were born. The kids got to spend the weekend with Jake’s parents and they had a wonderful time.

But most importantly, Nathaniel lost a tooth. Actually it had to be pulled since the one below is coming out and apparently it was making everything go wonky.

And here’s a shot of us during our cruise up and down highway one.

while we were gone, the kids and my mother in law created some vegetable beds in the backyard.

they have lettuce, radishes, carrots, peas, beans and tomatoes.

The lettuce looks yummy to me!

and they are in charge of watering them everyday.

we didn’t take many photos this week but we did take the family photos.

with silly faces.

and sad faces.

where jake couldn’t help but laugh.

and so did the rest of us.

and here we are. Another full week. I am so grateful for my life.

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Weekly Diary is a project for 2015. You can read more about it here.

This year seems to be going by in a blur. If I thought January was like that, February showed me how much more blurry the days can get. So much for feeling more settled. I would say March might do the trick but I am going to Zurich in the middle of March for a week and I am not sure what that will do to my schedule and ability to get back to being organized.

I am finding myself spinning my wheels a lot this year so far. I feel quite out of sorts. I am doing many things I am proud of but I am also not doing some things that I really really want to focus on and that’s making me feel frustrated with myself. I wish there was some trick that could help me get back on some type of routine.

In the spirit of keeping tabs on my priorities and goals weekly, here’s some of what worked and didn’t work this week so far:

Worked Well:

• I feel like I am staying on top of my art/projects for the most part.
• I am trying to go back on the exercise plan.
• I still love teaching math to the boys.
• I’m still spending a lot of time with David and Nathaniel, working and playing.
• We started a daily 30-min reading time together where all 3 of us sit and read quietly.
• I am co-organizing a mother-son book club for David’s class.
• Took David to Orlando!
• We had a lot of fun in Santa Cruz together.
• I did a tiny bit more journaling
• I spent some time getting organized, let’s see if it pays off

Here are a few more photos from the last two weeks:

Two weeks ago was David’s 10th birthday. I wanted to do something special for him so I surprised him by pulling him out of school on the Friday before his birthday and the two of us flew to Orlando to visit Universal Studios so he could see Harry Potter land. Our flight there was delayed by quite a few hours due to high winds at SFO so we sat at the airport for several hours while he listened to music and I listened to my book.

By the time we got in and checked into the hotel, it was 2am. We woke up just a few hours later to make sure we could be there right when the park opened. Here’s David reading the brochure on the shuttle.

My camera was dead on the first day so I took most of our photos on the phone and posted on my instagram account. We started with Diagon Alley.

and then took the train

to Hogsmeade.

the next day, my camera was working so I made him pose by the door.

and everywhere else.

after we were done with harry potter, we went to some of the other fun locations

he liked the comicbook town.

after two days filled with fun and adventure, we got back home and had to return back to life. But only for four days because the kids started their winter break that friday. We were originally going to go to Los Angeles, but I felt wiped from Orlando and really wasn’t ready to go anywhere. So, instead, we decided to have fun locally. We went to Santa Cruz and bowled.

i did quite badly.

the big boys played video games.

they had a minigolf with a section with black light, it was really fun.

it was a really sunny and beautiful day

on Tuesday, we went to see an IMAX movie at the Tech Museum and walked around Santana Row. And then Wednesday we went to see the SpongeBob movie. It was a low key but also fun week. Then it was time to take family photos.

Nathaniel was on a roll.

always smiling.

silly face time.

nonstop fun for the little boy.

and a crazy attempt at tickle time.

and here we are. Another full week. I am so grateful for my life.

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Weekly Diary is a project for 2015. You can read more about it here.

I didn’t get to post these last week and I wanted to go back and make up for that.

Here are a few more photos from this week:

I found these little gems from New Year’s Day.

the four of us.

the boys went biking.

i love watching them bike.

reading on the computer with daddy.

we went to tahoe for the weekend, which is a long story for another time. but we got to take this one shot.

and one in the car.

we were back home for Sunday and got our photos in.

my wonderful family.

silly faces.

nathaniel’s “we love” that david wasn’t fond of.

and david’s “we love” time.

and my favorite: tickle time.

and here we are. A busy but productive and amazing week. I am so grateful for my life.

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Weekly Diary is a project for 2015. You can read more about it here.

I don’t know if this is because I take so many photos during December as part of December Daily, but I realized that I didn’t really take any photos in the first week of the year. I had nothing to weed through when doing this week’s update.

This was a long and busy week. The boys and I had to work on going back to our routines of getting up early, preparing lunches, doing daily chores, etc. I am cochairing their school Benefit so work for that ramped up starting this week, too. And over the course of this week we’ve also committed to a big project David’s going to work on that will be taking up a good chunk of his time during the week with regular trips over the weekend. And, as if that wasn’t enough, I also committed to doing math with David and one other boy every week for an hour. All this happened in a span of two days, making my life a bit more frenzied than I like. And all this will make for a very busy winter and spring.

Not to mention my actual work. Which is all new to me and I waver between being really excited and really scared.

On top of all this, Nathaniel woke up with a fever of 102.7 Thursday night which then climbed up to 103.4 by the time he made it to the doctor. This meant that our plans for going skiing this weekend had to be canceled at the very last minute. The little boy is all better now, thankfully. And, as it worked out, this weekend was a good one to be in town. The universe always works in magical ways.

I also thought it might be interesting to keep an ongoing tab of what worked well each week and what might need a bit more shifting so I can keep myself more aware of my priorities and goals and not evaluate them only at the end of the year. Here’s some of what worked and didn’t work this week so far:

Worked Well:

• I managed to sketch almost every morning.
• I started a monthly project and worked on it daily.
• I managed to complete all my weekly projects relatively painlessly.
• I’ve been putting skin cream on almost every single night and morning.
• I’ve managed the 5-2 this week without pain.
• Every weekday I ate at least one if not two servings of vegetables.
• I took my required vitamins almost every day.
• I’ve been really good at saying yes to my boys.

Here are a few more photos from this week:

Little sick boy who’s such a good sport even when he’s sick.

My three wonderful boys, giggling and having a fun time.

They always know how to have fun.

And how to make me laugh.

and smile.

This week’s we loves were: We love the Patriots, we love the tech challenge, we love plants vs zombies 2.

and my very favorite: tickle time!

and here we are. A crazy but lovely week. I am so grateful for my life.

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Weekly Diary is a project for 2015. You can read more about it here.

It’s been over 4 months since I last posted photos of us. I have no excuse. It’s mostly due to laziness. I will probably eventually backfill but who knows when. I figured in the meantime I can at least start again.

Here are my boys in halloween gear.

David was Boba Fett.

my wonderful boy.

and Nathaniel was a storm trooper.

Nathaniel just got a new bed. It’s one of those beds that has a sliding ben under it so Halloween night David spent the night in his room. Here they are playing games with Daddy.

that Sunday morning, we ended up in the ER. Nathaniel had an ear infection.

Here he’s playing something really quietly.

Monday night my good friend Rebi whom I haven’t seen in years and years calls to tell me she’s in town so she came down to spend the day with me on Tuesday and it was awesome. We also didn’t forget to vote.

On Thursday I was invited to an all day event with several other moms from my kids’ school so I took the day off and it was quite lovely. And then Friday was my last day on the Chrome team. Coincidentally, we had an offsite at Great America. This is me with two of my coworkers.

On Saturday, David got his breaststroke ribbon which means he only has one more stroke to learn: butterfly.

Daddy and Nathaniel playing with magnets.

as David practices his guitar.

little boy coloring with watercolors.

and my three awesome men. The light has been awful so there’s a lot of noise.

but i don’t care.

because i cherish these photos no matter what.

we still have tickle time.

but we’ve recently begun making funny faces, too.

the kids really get into it.

and here we go. so grateful for my life. i hope your week was lovely, too.

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Weekly Diary is a project for 2014. You can read more about it here.