Today went by too fast. This whole summer is going too fast. How come we’re in the middle of July already? No no no. I wish it would slow down, I am really enjoying our summer. Not rushing, no schedules. Enjoying moments of life.
I love watching the kids play.
Sit on the couch and read lego magazines.
Some photos of my little boy. Weird light, but still.
love those smiles.
What? his look says.
He is still obsessed with the bottles and putting their caps on.
He’s pretty good at it, too.
And my favorite. The wonderful, wonderful smile that lights up both his and my faces.
I love my life. I have deep frustrations some times. I yearn for things I don’t have (not items as much as friendships, talent, etc.) and I find myself comparing, feeling inadequate, being frustrated way too often. But I am also very grateful. Very very grateful. For what I have. Because I know it’s a lot.
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful today that our bedtime routine is smooth and easy. David makes a little bowl of legos and he grabs his pull up, puts his jammies on, pees, brushes teeth, and is off to bed with a hug and a “good night my love.” That’s it. No crying, no whining. Nothing. He plays until his time is up (he has a clock in his room that he can read) and then he’s off to sleep. I know this is a miracle and I am not taking it for granted for a second.
2. I am grateful that my kids are homebodies like me and can play with legos for hours without getting bored. I am grateful that they don’t need me to run around and take them from activity to activity. I am also grateful that despite this, they are also social and make friends easily. I am deeply grateful for what a lucky person this makes me.
3. I am grateful for that besides my family, a good book and a warm drink are all I need from life. This makes life quite simple and easy to live. And I am thankful for that.
Two Things David’s Grateful For:
1. watching TV with mommy.
2. my legos.
3. daddy.
Good day! Mostly because I decided to take it easy today. David woke me up in the middle of the night last night, saying he had a headache. After the second time, I got worried so I got up to see if he had a temperature and just as we walked into the bathroom, he threw up on me.
Thankfully, it was the only time and he seems to be totally alright today. But it made for a rough night so I woke up tired and worn out. Not Nathaniel, though. He was all happy.
I love watching him play and explore and have fun.
In the afternoon, we finally went for that walk and one of David’s friends from the neighborhood joined us. We played I Spy all the way. I snapped photos of them.
They waited for me while I snapped photos. (not always so patiently, I love David’s stance here.)
I wanted them to smile but they both gave me fake smiles so I told them to tickle each other.
And snapped one of the little boy, too.
And one more of David, I don’t photograph him enough these days.
And Nathaniel getting a bit fed up.
It was really really hot so we rushed back home. I did some more work and then Jake got home so I could rush and get my blood tests done (just for yearly checkup.) And now it’s time to put the kids down and then I am off to my reading group. I am feeling good today. Rested. I hope you are, too.
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. Book club tonight, I always look forward to it.
2. Grateful that I gave myself permission to rest. I am not always good with that.
3. Grateful that despite the insane tiredness I felt, I still exercised. Go me.
Two Things David’s Grateful For:
1. His new robot bug (in our house the tooth fairy brings little toys for now so that was his little toy this time, it’s quite awesome, I’ll have to photograph it.)
2. Still grateful for yesterday’s legos.
3. daddy.
Believe it or not, I still haven’t managed to go shooting. Tomorrow I will take a long walk (ahem, I know i’ve said this before!) and take photos.
After yesterday’s disastrous ending to my day, today was absolutely wonderful!! It seems we all wake up a little cranky and tired in the mornings. Here’s Nathaniel when I tell him he can’t have something. The face, the pose, the kick, and then finally calming down and giving up on being whiny.
We all got to work relatively early today. The kids played while I worked and then we took a break to talk to Jake’s mom on Skype. In the middle of the talk, David was showing his grandpa how his top tooth fell off and just as he was talking, his bottom one fell, too. It was amazing and we both laughed out loud. No pain at all and it came off clean without any blood. I tried to snap a photo right away.
You can’t see it that well from there so I tried to get him to make just the right face but he couldn’t. Here he is fake-laughing but you can see it better.
David spent some of his day digging up legos for Nathaniel. He loves teaching his brother how to play with them and he even said “I love Nathaniel so much.” which of course made me cry.
And here are a few shots of the little boy.
Just cause they make me happy.
He has so much personality. He loves playing with empty bottles, putting their top on. He brings me water bottles and his sippy cup to tell me to fill it several times a day. When he’s hungry he points to my box of graham crackers. When he’s tired, he comes and puts his head on my lap or asks to nurse. Lately, he chews on his lip. He loves playing football with my fabric ball.He is emptying all the drawers in the kitchen. When I say “pis” (means dirty in Turkish) he puts whatever he’s holding in the trash and then claps to congratulate himself. He claps every time I say “good job.” He loves cream cheese in anything. If I give him a cream cheese sandwich, he splits it open and eats the cheese. He loves when Daddy comes home and runs to him saying “dada” and he loves David, too. When I sit in the bathroom, he takes his toys and comes to play in there with me. If we leave the bathroom door open, he will touch the water in the toilet or throw things in it. He will also go in the pantry and touch everything. He loves looking through books, playing with musical toys, and legos. He loves music and will immediately dance when some is on. When you look at him, he smiles. He loves hugging his brother and will do so several times a day. He is the delight of our days.
Right around dinner time, David got his box of legos (that I had ordered last week) in the mail and he’s been ecstatically putting it together. He’s so happy and so overjoyed. He’s thanked me 100 times already and is truly, deeply so happy. I love seeing him like this. I love that he’s so kind and so appreciative. I love that he loves legos so much and his imagination is amazing. I am so thankful for this boy, the little one has big big shoes to fill.
I found the thing I lost yesterday. It was part of my checkbook. Made me stress out way way too much and all along it was sitting in a quiet little spot. Some days are just like that. And then I got some more amazing news. I often say things happen for a reason and I got to experience that first hand today. Just feeling grateful for everything today.
And for those of you who come here often and read my life, there are two things I want to tell you:
1. Thank you. For taking the time to read, and share wise, kind, generous comments with me. I truly cherish each. Truly.
2. I know it might look like I do a lot, and I do, but I want you to know that there’s a lot (A LOT) I don’t do. A lot. I don’t clean my house. I don’t go to the grocery store. I rarely run errands. Laundry has been sitting in my room for days, unfolded. Beds are unmade. Dishes need to be put away. I don’t cook. I can go on and on. There are millions of things I don’t accomplish in my day. Some days, I sit and watch TV for hours. Hours. And do nothing. So please don’t think that I am some super-over-achiever. Don’t ever compare your life to mine in a negative light. I do that all the time and I wanted to make sure that in case you’re doing it, too, you should know things aren’t what they seem. I fight with my husband, too. I yell at my kids. My kids drive me insane. I do things I am not proud of. I struggle. I try hard to make it through the day sometimes. I am just working a little bit harder than usual to focus on doing the things that bring joy into my life and capture the good moments so on tougher days I can come back to them and draw strength from them. Just so you know.
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful for finding my checks! woohoo!
2. I am grateful for a great opportunity that came my way, unexpectedly but so happy for it.
3. I am grateful for my July project. It’s proven to be tough and it’s kicking me in the butt most days and it’s like that quiet annoying voice in the back of my head, telling me all the things I need to do but every day that I exercise or draw or eat veggies, I am actually happier so I really am grateful for it.
Two Things David’s Grateful For:
1. mommy for getting me legos
2. putting together my new legos!
3. daddy.
I spent most of today resting. I woke up, rested, exercised, and then while I was showering, David did a tiny bit of the Wii Fit, too. I am always amazed by how kind he is. Look at this photo where Nathaniel is literally covering a part of his TV, yet David says nothing and just ducks to see around him.
He’s really into these computers lately. I like watching him but I cannot stand the crazy amount of noise they make. Whoever makes toys without off and low volume should be kicked.
I love this photo. Seeing David’s hands on Nathaniel.
And this one where Nathaniel is watching his brother play in the backyard.
And despite the blur, I am so glad to have caught this shot. I was on the landing in the stairs, taking shots of my CHA layouts before I send them off and Nathaniel’s looking at me and this is his “I am so frustrated” face and he makes his little hands into fists and shakes his whole body in frustration. My little boy.
Jake came home early and I got a bunch of work done so all in all I consider this day a success. Except that I lost something important tonight and it’s driving me crazy and I hate that I let it get to me so so much. I hate how I react to things sometimes. Makes me feel so immature and out of control. Ugh.
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful for my husband. My love. My helper. My calmer-downer. I adore him.
2. I am grateful for my kind, understanding kid. I had promised David he would watch some TV before bedtime but when I found out I lost this item and went all insane, I told him he had to just pick some legos and go to his room to play. My little boy didn’t even object for a second. When I went up there now to tell him it was sleep time he said i am really enjoying playing with the legos can I please play a little longer? Of course I said yes. He’s an angel so much of the time, this boy.
3. I am grateful for another day of exercise. It’s hard but I am doing it.
Two Things David’s Grateful For:
1. building things with legos.
2. mommy.
3. daddy.
I had a really hard time sleeping last night. I kept having nightmares, Nathaniel kept crying and my heart just wouldn’t stop racing. So in the middle of the night, I decided that today was going to be a quiet day. I was going to do my last layout for CHA and then I would take it easy for the rest of the day.
And that’s exactly what I did.
I woke up, finished my layout and then just took it easy. Meanwhile, Nathaniel started storing his toys in David’s drawers.
He carried them, stuck them in there.
And then congratulated himself by clapping for himself. We always clap when he does something good like doesn’t put something in his mouth but places in the trash instead, or when he cleans up. So he was congratulating himself for cleaning up. A for effort my son.
My beautiful little boy. Growing up all too quickly.
Around 11 or so, we started watching this morning’s Tour de France. We then took a break to watch the World Cup finale and were sourly disappointed (we tend to root for the underdog) and then went back to the Tour and that was an even bigger disappointment. What a terrible terrible letdown. I am not even sure I want to keep watching the Tour if Lance is giving up.
Around 3pm, Nathaniel started his grouchy time. So Jake held him while he hung on for dear life.
David tried to make him laugh.
And even succeeded for a while.
But we ended up with this.
A little food, a short amount more of playing and now he’s already deep in sleep. And david’s upstairs playing with his legos. Time for me to get a few tasks done and I think I will likely go to sleep early, too. I’m sad the weekend passed so quickly but it was a good one. Some great family time. Some productive accomplishments. And a lot of rest. What more can I ask of a weekend?
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful for audio books today. For getting to listen while I do embroidery or while I scrap. Wonderful companion.
2. I am grateful for an all-around great weekend. Simple but wonderful, just the way I like it.
3. I am grateful for my new embroidery sample, it’s making me very very happy today.
Two Things David’s Grateful For:
1. getting two gold stars while doing math with mommy.
2. wii time (he got to play a tiny bit today).
3. daddy.
Not a fan of this photo but I need to go shooting and I don’t have a lot of choices.
Good day! I got up and did a layout and then exercised and then rested some while I snapped a photo of the little boy.
After that, David and I worked for a bit and then I went up to shower while David played Wii and Jake came out to sit with them. When I came down Nathaniel was sitting cradled in his dad’s arm and happy as a clam.
I did another layout while listening to my book which I am almost finished with and Nathaniel walked around and chewed on things. When I went up to take photos of my layout, he looked up at me as he always does.
One more.
I tried to make sure to grab one of David, too. Didn’t come out all that great.
I was going a bit stir-crazy by now so Jake wonderfully agreed to take us all out to my favorite little cafe in Palo Alto. Some yummy food later we came home to watch the Tour and now it’s time to put the kids down and I will likely end the night with another layout. All in all, wonderful day.
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. Making two layouts I love.
2. Quick but delicious lunch.
3. Grateful for some simple but wonderful family time.
Two Things David’s Grateful For:
1. playing wii.
2. getting to eat a chocolate croissant.
3. daddy.
I snapped this while we were driving through San Fran to go to our camping trip. It was very foggy and I took it from inside the car.
Good day. We woke up too early and I took it easy most of the day but I felt much less cranky than usual. Nathaniel pointed to this toy when I grabbed him out of bed today. We’ve had this since David was a little kid. He never cared for it but Nathaniel loves it. He can’t get it to sing so he keeps brining it to me to press the buttons.
He often takes my breath away.
David’s been teaching him to play legos so he picks the biggest of his small pieces and they sit and play together. I love watching them.
That’s all I really have for today. I haven’t really been as diligent in taking photos. Mostly cause we’ve been lazying around and not doing anything special. Also cause I was cranky. But I am working on getting better at it.
I got my box from Margie today for The Girls’ Paperie Summer CHA and it’s so beautiful and I’ve already completed one layout. It made me so happy just to see the papers. We’re now getting the kids ready for bed so we can go out for date night.
Love date night.
Happy weekend!!
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am so grateful for the weekend. I need this one.
2. I am grateful for all the yummy goodies I received in the mail. It’s wonderful to design for someone whose product I love so much.
3. I am grateful for a relatively smooth release today especially after yesterday’s nightmare.
Two Things David’s Grateful For:
1. my lego book.
2. building legos with nathaniel.
3. daddy.
Well today started out much better. I went to bed early and so wasn’t really worn out when Nathaniel cried at 3:30am. He then went back to sleep (and so did I) until 6:30am. I was tired but not overwhelmingly. I rested a while and then did my exercise and I was feeling so good. Watching the boys play. (I bought this toy years ago for David at a yard sale and he loved loved it, too.)
And he loves David’s legos more than his own, of course.
And anything in any drawer he can get to.
And then he comes up to me with these eyes. I cannot resist them.
And poor David has to clean up after him like ten times a day.
My day got super-stressful and included a lot of screaming and lot of freaking out and stressing. All cause of work. Actually all cause I felt out of my element and I do not like feeling out of my element. I did not handle it well. I am still really hormonal and the two don’t mix well. It was a long, tough day that ended ok but man I have jaw and head and even chest ache now. And feel a collection of regrets of course.
Thankfully, tomorrow is another day.
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am thankful that my husband is an angel and lets me complain and my kids are angels, too and they all forgive me every single day. I am so blessed to have them.
2. I am thankful that things ended up relatively ok. We’ll see in the morning for sure but for now it looks ok.
3. I am grateful there’s only one more day until the weekend.
Two Things David’s Grateful For:
1. playing legos with Nathaniel. Teaching him how to play with legos.
2. playing some wii! (he got to do wii fit after I was finished).
3. daddy. (this is a standing item now.)
Good news is that my jaw is much better. Bad news is that it’s not all better. And I am grouchy and not motivated to do anything. So I am skipping my Happiness Project for now. It’s probably one of those self-fulfilling prophecies but there we are. I promised myself that I’d get back on the horse tomorrow.
Nathaniel sat down for the first time today and David saw it first and exclaimed and yelled for me to capture it.
And then I took a shot of him. Those eyes.
I love watching my kids play.
Especially when they look up to me with a wide smile.
And I love when they tickle each other and giggle and giggle.
And then quietly play some more.
Life is good. I need to work on being less grouchy. Life is good.
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that despite my crabbiness, I got a lot of work done today.
2. I’ve been scrapping a lot lately. Just for fun even. I love that. I am grateful for it even more than usual.
3. I am grateful for good audiobooks again today. Been listening to Lonesome Dove as I scrap and I love it.
Two Things David’s Grateful For:
1. my legos.
2. playing with Yona’s toy.
3. daddy. (this is a standing item now.)
I woke up this morning at 5am to excruciating pain. My jaw was in so much pain I could barely see. And all day I’ve been taking as much Advil as it’s safe to take just to keep the pain down. This seems to happen to me about once a month for a few days lately. I think the camping exacerbated it. It’s been hell so I’ve been lying on the couch, feeling sorry for my poor self, listening to my book and scrapping.
David has been quiet and helpful and kind.
for the most part. Nathaniel, too. Playing and going through everything.
Coming over to visit me.
Bothering David.
And playing with everything inside all the drawers in the kitchen. I’ve already had to move everything glass from anywhere he can reach.
I wonder if all this is conspiring against my happiness project. Then I tell myself, it’s ok. Take another day off, it’s no big deal. Your body and mind need the rest. And so does my jaw, apparently. So I am resting.
And telling myself it’s ok.
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful for Advil today. It’s working its magic.
2. I am grateful that for the most part my kids are amazing, kind and understanding.
3. I am grateful for scrapbooking and for the two awesome packages I got in the mail today. Happy mail!
Two Things David’s Grateful For:
1. Legos.
2. playing with my toys.
So after last night’s craziness, at 3am or so I finally passed out again until around 6:30 when it was light enough out that I walked out and finally got to go to the bathroom and take 3 Advils. I tried to take a few photos but I was in too much pain so I sat on my chair and tried to read a bit until the Advils kicked in.
When the rest of the family woke up, we broke down the tent and I snapped the above shot of our site. This below is David coming back from the bathroom with Jake.
While we packed, we had to put Nathaniel in the car for a while and he wasn’t all that happy about it.
And here’s me trying to snap a happy photo of David. He truly enjoyed every moment of this experience.
And my partner in crime. Our fearless reader. On the way home, we stopped at a small cafe and had a delicious breakfast which is where I snapped this shot.
We got home late morning and I put Nathaniel down as Jake unloaded the car. Everything was put away and we all needed some relaxing downtime. I’m now about to put the kids down and relax some more. Maybe even scrap some.
I hope your 4th of July was great.
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am so grateful I get to have one more day off. My work is closed tomorrow. Another day of rest for me.
2. I am grateful that we’re home safe and sound.
3. I am grateful for Tour de France. I love watching every moment of this race.
Two Things David’s Grateful For:
1. camping
2. daddy. (i’m going to have to remove this as an option just cause it’s making him not think as hard.)
We left home early Sunday to go camping at Samuel P Taylor State Park which is about 90 minutes north of where we live. We decided to camp for one night since it was Nathaniel’s first time and we had no idea how he would do.
The only slot they had open was #18. By the little stream but also relatively close to the road so we could hear cars driving by. Still, it was a beautiful slot. I loved being near the water. I think water always makes me happy.
And among the redwood trees. The magnificent trees which always make my troubles seem small.
When we got there, we immediately got to setting up the tent and the kids had to wait in the car to make sure we could do it quickly and efficiently. They were quiet and nice for a while but then got cranky.
When we were finally done, we got them out and Nathaniel took a while to get acclimated, especially to his shoes. (Actually those were David’s old old shoes, too big for Nathaniel, but I couldn’t find his shoes somehow.).
So Daddy held him most of the time. (Neither was complaining about the setup.)
We then sat to have some food. Most of what we are was cheese (and salami) sandwiches, grapes, strawberries, nilla wafers, etc. Simple, easy things.
Then we took a little walk up one of the trails. A very short one before we turned around cause all of us were tired.
Here’s my single most favorite photo from the trip.
Some of those yummy wafers.
Nathaniel liked them just as much as David. (which was a lot)
Daddy loved playing with both of the kids.
I was worried about Nathaniel going to sleep but he was a champ. We brought his pack’n’play which fit inside the tent easily and he slept on a sleeping bag, covered with lots of blankets. He only cried for a few seconds before he lay down and went to a deep sleep. We ended the day with some delicious s’mores.
After the food, it was getting cold and I was way too tired. So around 7:30pm or so, we all got inside the tent, and I think I was sleeping within minutes. Which is probably why I woke up at midnight and I was in excruciating pain. Which never went away. David then peed through his clothes and had to be changed, Nathaniel woke up a few times and whined but nothing so extreme. I think the night was hardest on me.
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am so grateful that we live so close to such a magnificent state park. It’s such a luxury.
2. I am grateful that both of the kids had a blast camping. They were so happy and neither whined for one second.
3. I am grateful for a wonderful fourth of july day with my family, in the middle of such beauty and peace.
Two Things David’s Grateful For:
1. daydreaming (he dreamt about a nice raccoon, he said.).
2. daddy.
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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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