I stayed up way past bedtime yesterday which meant I woke up groggy and tired this morning and it took me all day to catch up. Slowly I did but I couldn’t shake off the tired feeling all day. After I exercised, I sat with David so we could fix his lego ship as promised.

Then we all listened to music and played and laughed. I’ve been spending a lot of time on my Soul Restoration book. It’s been wonderful. David played with his ship, Nathaniel drew some and played with cars some and we all laughed a bunch. Then Nathaniel napped and I sketched and did my art journal and David played wii. Then when he woke up, it was time for our walk. As I told David he couldn’t have candy, this is the look I got in return.

So I snapped one of Nathaniel instead.

And one more.

When we came back home, we all decided it was a good idea to go out to eat so we went to our favorite place and here’s the shot I got then.

And when we came home, it was play time for a while more. Little one gave me one of his big smiles.

I love how he shows all of his teeth.

Now they are in bed and I am wiped. I plan to go to bed early tonight. No, really, I will!

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful I am finally working on Soul Restoration art. It’s profound as I expected it would be.
2. I am grateful that I’ve now completed 29 art journal pages. I love them all in their own way, too. It’s so wonderful to get to do it.
3. I am grateful that I went out to dinner with my boys. I almost didn’t but it was so wonderful to sit in the sunshine and enjoy each other’s company.

Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful tomorrow is family night. {* his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that we went out to dinner.
3. I am grateful that mommy helped me fix my ship.
4. I am grateful that I played wii.

Happy Thursday. We had a relatively full day here today. We got up and I exercised and then Jake took David to lego camp and I worked and did art and Nathaniel played. When Jake went to pick David up, he took a photo of David and one of his creations. Which made me super-happy even though the quality of the phone picture is not so great.

Then I took a nice photo of David just for me.

In last night’s webinar, someone asked why I don’t scrap my kids’ outdoor photos and why it’s always the ones at home. The sad fact is we’re home way more than we’re out. I work full time at home so most of our days look like this. Pajamas, and relaxing.

playing with David’s books. (and his toes)

or other fun toys. still in PJs.

On a rare day like today, we got all dressed so we could take David to swim class. Here’s Nathaniel, annoyed that he’s in the stroller.

And finally out.

And here’s the big boy, loving every minute of swim class.

And someone here asked about all my books so I took super-quick, lazy shots around my table just to show you, I can do a longer, more detailed post if you’d like. The first photo has two books.

The big blue one is a journal I picked up at Borders and it’s what I am using for Soul Restoration 2. I will show more of it in some other post.

The red one is my daily book. It’s a moleskine with graph(square) paper . I love graph paper. It must be a European thing because I grew up with it and it’s much easier to find in Turkey than it is in the US for some reason. Anyhow this is my main book. Hold my todo lists:

and the daily sketches:

and the daily journaling:

I just started coloring the background with colored pencils, just for fun. so the pages are all filled with happy color. This is my second of these notebooks this year. The first one was painted blue and I just ran out of pages so now I have this one that I painted red.

Here’s another pile:

The book on top there is my daily art journal one I started a few weeks ago. It’s a Moleskine sketchbook and the pages are cream-colored and thick and about 5×8 inches.

The next two books in that pile are the Soul Restoration 1 book which was another random journal that I converted. And below that is the Strathmore Watercolor journal that I started in the beginning of the year for art journaling. It’s also around 5×8 and I just bought the large size of this journal. I’d like to explore watercolor more but for now I am doing a lot as is. I will use this book and the bigger one more soon.

Behind those books is this:

the ATC holder that’s holding my truth cards. And finally:

This is the big A4-sized watercolor moleskine that holds the weeklong daily art journal pages.

And there you go. Those are all my books at the moment.

Tonight’s plan is to work on SR2 homework and possibly go to sleep early. I need to get more rest than I’ve been and maybe even read a bit. Oh, and, you can see a recent layout by me on the Pink Paislee blog today, it’s made using the most awesome, brand-new mistables collection.

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful Jake made is to DC safe and sound.
2. I am grateful that David loves swim class. I was really worried but it worked out great.
3. I am grateful that I got work done today without stressing and I managed to do some art, too.

Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful I played military with Nathaniel. {* his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that I built a car in lego camp.
3. I am grateful that I had swim class.

Another day that flew by here. David’s going to lego camp this week so he’s gone all morning and Nathaniel and I just do all the things we do each day. Then when we pick him up Nathaniel goes for his nap and David does his chores, or activities, or spends some time on the computer. Today when Nathaniel woke up we took a brief trip to the book store and I bought a journal and an art book and David bought a few books and Nathaniel got a sticker book. By the time we got back home, Daddy was home so as he prepared dinner, Nathaniel played with his sticker book:

And Nathaniel yelled at me for bothering him.

And David laughed a bit. Then we read our book and he wrote his journal and now they are both upstairs in bed.

I’ve been taking Alisa Burke’s watercolor class but I hadn’t done any homework. Last night, I decided to do something quick and simple so I did last week’s homework which was to limit the number of colors to use on a page. This page uses only the primary colors, yellow, blue, red and mixtures of them.

My first time drawing poppies. It’s not amazing art or anything but it’s ok. I feel like all the sketching and art journaling has given me more confidence. I can start a project now without too much fear which is more than I can say for the past.

I took tomorrow off, just to relax a bit and spend some time with Nathaniel and read a bit and do some of my Soul Restoration homework and art. I am looking forward to it.

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I bought a journal for Soul Restoration, I was trying to use the same one from the first class but it wasn’t working, now I have something just for this class.
2. I am grateful that I am giving myself room and space to figure some things out. I feel like my mind’s going in 11 directions.
3. I am grateful that I have the day off tomorrow.

Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful I got new books. {* his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that I have some chapter books to read now.
3. I am grateful that I spent some time playing connect four with daddy.

Happy Father’s Day!! We woke up quite early this morning, thanks to Nathaniel. I immediately exercised so we could go out to breakfast. We had a lovely meal at a local cafe and then came back home and took some photos. As I was setting things up the boys were screaming for fun.

Nathaniel took a few extra seconds to figure out what was going on but then he joined in, too.

We took photos, we did tickle time.

And laughed a lot.

when the kids both took off, I snapped a few more of just the two of us.

we don’t have that many photos of just us.

I love him so much. My sweet, wonderful husband.

just as I got up to take the camera down, the kids ran to their dad and hugged him and I was lucky enough to catch it.

then Nathaniel got to watch a little Thomas.

here he is smiling to Daddy for putting it on.

He then went to nap and we all worked on our own stuff for a while. He took a long nap and woke up happy.

The boys went to play Atari for a bit as I took my walk around the block and then it was dinner time. I snapped a photo of David as he laughed at me.

After dinner was family night and David picked Monopoloy Jr. And a few rounds of connect-four with daddy.

now I have to do my todo list items for the weekend. I think I only completed one so far and we’re quickly running out of weekend time. I hope your weekend was as wonderful as ours has been!

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I finished one of my big tasks for CHA, Just a few more left.
2. I am grateful that I am getting better at being kind and at letting things go. They are both constant work for me.
3. I am grateful that I learned how to draw a tulip today.

Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful it is father’s day. {* his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that we played Monopoly Jr.
3. I am grateful that I played Atari with Daddy.

Lovely day here today. We worked, played, bought new stuff, did art, and had good conversations. David spent some time outside, using his watercolor set.

And the little boy was very jealous.

then he gave up and looked through magazines where he found a commercial for the upcoming cars 2 movie.

Then I worked, Nathaniel napped, David played, then there was lunch, quick trip to the store, and more work and then some art and it was bath time for the little one.

I snapped a few more photos.

I love how the blue shirt reflects off of David’s eyes.

more superman!

he was super-hyper and super-happy.

and then they were off. I finished my layout and went up to read a book to Nathaniel and sat and talked to David for a while. And now I am trying to put the last touches of my night so I can sleep. I only managed 4 hours of sleep last night so I don’t think I can stay up much longer. I am very much looking forward to this relaxing weekend.

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I finished another layout for CHA with some new beautiful product that had me playing with so much color.
2. I am grateful that I bought a lot of fun stuff for David today, I love making him happy.
3. I am grateful that it’s the weekend!

Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful I got some legos. {* his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that mommy got me a pokeman set.
3. I am grateful that I got a lego sticker book.

I could tell you about today and about having four shots on my head at the doctor’s (jaw pain) or losing Nathaniel’s blankie and the resulting screaming, meltdown, tears and then finally finding it hours later. Or I could tell you about the six Advils I’ve taken in the last few hours. Or the poop explosion we had during dinner time.

But I will just tell you that I spent some time watching the little one play.

Making sounds and being happy.

Which always puts me in a good mood.

And then going to pickup David from his bus on his very last day of kindergarten. Looking at his reportcard and seeing how well he’s doing academically and socially.

and how he’s such a goofball and sweetheart and a kindhearted little boy who’s learning his way through life and social interactions.

all of those were part of my day. The headache seems to continue as if Advils are nothing but candy. Alas, it will dissipate eventually. I am going to take it easy tonight and do some art and a lot of resting. I might even take the day off tomorrow if this head-pounding continues.

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I found Nathaniel’s blanket. So, so grateful.
2. I am grateful that I got a few more items off my todo list despite the rough day.
3. I am grateful that my husband’s home tonight. I love him so much.

Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful I got some lego sets. {* his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that summer started!
3. I am grateful that I ate a lollipop.