A few weeks ago I decided I missed scrapbooking. Not the 12×12 layouts or even the ever involved pages but more the playing with some product and telling our stories part. So I looked at the upcoming Ali’s Story Kit themes and decided the next six were perfect for me. So I finally subscribed.
The first one was adventure, which was a perfect way to document our recent trip all over Europe, so that’s exactly what I did. I didn’t have an album either, so I bought one of her December Daily albums from last year because they are super thick and come with a lot of pages which is exactly what I wanted.
I love the way this turned out and I only used a few letters, dots, and some washi outside of the kit. This is 30 pages and all of it came from the kit. It was an absolutely perfect fit.
Super grateful for this and hoping next month is just as awesome.
On My Mind is a year-long project for 2018. You can read more about my projects for 2018 here.
After our day and a half in Rome, we rented a car and drove north to this little town called Forte dei Marmi where we met up with my family to celebrate my dad’s 75th birthday.
My amazing sister had done an incredible amount of work to make the day special for my dad. We call him opapa so she made custom shirts so we all had shirts that said who we were in relation to my dad.
and then the back said 75th birthday.
the three of us.
my mom and dad with all the grandkids.
she had setup games for us to play on the beach.
there was much laughing
and joy
my parents were super game to play along.
afterwards she got us all white shirts and a whole bunch of props to take photos with.
and everyone was happy to play along.
here’s my special sister and her amazing family.
without whom none of this would be possible. She also got custom towels made, custom chocolates, hazelnuts and many other small and big touches. It was a wonderful few days with the people who are most special in my life.
Stories from 2018 is a year-long project for 2018. You can read more about my projects for 2018here.
Weekly Intention: This week has a lot of meetings too but my intention this week is to leave space in my schedule so I can work or breathe, Ideally both. My goal this week is to move some of the work I am working on forward. Clarify other things. And then really be present at home. I did a good job last week of disconnecting when I get home and I want to do more of that. I’d like to also spend some time focusing on journaling and more meditation where possible. And maybe spend a bit of time on the things I usually would do as part of my evening routine and see if I can find new homes for them in my day.
This month’s intention is: Mentally Strong: Time to learn some new things. How can you grow intellectually? What classes do you want to take? What do you want to teach the kids? Oh this one is interesting. I am actually deciding not to do this. Instead I will focus on some personal goals. I will teach kids stuff, and that’s definitely one of the intentions. Nathaniel and I will work on math and writing together. David and I will work on Physics and Computer Science. For me, though, I am focusing on three things: health (exercise+food+meditation), art (drawing and watercolors), and stories (journaling and simple scrapbooking.) That’s my focus for July. I did poorly on the art last week, I’d love to spend a bit more time on it this week. Let’s see.
One way I will stretch this week: I’m going to be doing some new work, we’ll see how it works out.
One boundary I will set this week: i will make sure home-time is my time this week, too. at least in the evenings.
This week, I will focus on pleasing: my husband.
One new thing I will learn this week: still more meditation and getting back into scrapping.
One area where I will go deeper this week: journaling since i didn’t last week either :/.
What do I need to sit with this week? how to make my schedule friendly to getting work done
I am looking forward to: some time getting new work done and a little less insane week.
This week’s challenges: just juggling work and meetings. also i will still be sore :/
Top Goals:
- Work: the onboarding doc v1, initial thoughts on metrics and accessibility, schedule the meetings on my todo
- Personal: couch 2 5K, exercise, good nutrition, meditate, journal, do art, scrap
- Family: cook for jake, math and physics with david and math, vocab and comp sci with Nathaniel
I will focus on my values:
- Love: love for my mom every day
- Learn: how do draw + remember how to scrap
- Peace: peace with the soreness, it’s a sign of progress
- Service: to myself figuring out next phase of my work
- Gratitude: for living in beautiful California.
This week, I want to remember: that i can do anything i set my mind to.
Stronger Than Before is a year-long project for 2018. You can read more about my projects for 2018 here.
How I got Stronger this week: This week was really tough. I worked out a lot and pretty consistently even though I didn’t fully sleep through the night any night this week. I had a lot of meetings, and got a lot of work done. I also saw a friend from high school and spent time with my kids working. Made dinner each night. I feel like I worked at being the strongest version of myself along several verticals this week.
Top Goals Review: i had my talk at work, I did couch 2 5K and exercised ate well, meditated, didn’t journal enough and didn’t do enough art. I cooked for jake, did math and physics with david and did math, vocab and comp sci with Nathaniel. Pretty solid.
I celebrate: I celebrate making it to the end of this week. I am sore all over.
I am grateful for: having some work to do now that I am excited to do.
Karen’s Points: I did couch 2 5K all 3 days this week, I also did 4 Body Pump classes and one HIIT class. IT was a lot, I am sore all over. I meditated 3 days, I am still caffeine, sugar and grain and dairy free. I drink soy decaf cappuccinos now because I drank milk last week and had a reaction. Still a bit too high on nuts and fruit but overall I’d say I’m pretty solid here. I’ve noticed that the morning routine is no problem but the evening routine doesn’t exist for me so I need to incorporate those things into my day better.
A Change I embraced: mostly having a really crazy week this week.
I let go of: doing any actual work this week, i worked over the weekend instead.
Core Desired Feelings Check-in:
- Fresh: I have a few fresh new projects I am excited about.
- Magical: I saw my highschool friend Ebru and her family on Friday and that was awesome.
- Lighter: not so light this week. though the meditation is helping.
- True: truth is i am frustrated with having to build up my strength so slowly. but it’s the only way.
Where I chose Joy: the meetings, while a lot of them, have actually been joyful.
I showed up for: my friend. my husband. and at work this week.
A Mistake I made this week: i put too many meetings on cal this week. i won’t do that again.
What I tolerated this week: a lot of soreness, tiredness, i need to see how i can make it better.
My mood this week was: tired.
I forgive myself for: how long this whole thing takes.
What I love right now: my family. i love love love them so much.
Weekly Reflection is a year-long project for 2018. You can read more about my projects for 2018 here.
This week is full of leftover photos since we were in Europe this week and I had so many leftover ones from the previous weeks.
Some are still from Boston and from our flight.
and others are from work and our adventures around home.
Moments from this Week 2018 is a year-long project for 2018. You can read more about my projects for 2018 here.
      
I thought I hadn’t read all that much this week but it turns out i read a decent amount.
Mr. Right-Swipe was terrible. i didn’t like the characters or the plot or really anything about it. I was worried that it’s that i am too old or that I don’t like romance but then I read The Kiss Quotient which was wonderful. I loved it. So there are lovely romance books out there.
Tell the Machine Goodnight was wonderful. I really enjoyed reading it and that even though it was scifi, it was also so real and interesting. I loved the characters and the story.
The Last Time I Lied was meh. I am so done with mystery I think.
Clock Dance was wonderful because i love Anne Tyler. Is it the best one of hers? No but i don’t care. I love her.
Left was a quick read but i loved it too.
The Summer List was meh. I have read too many like this I think so it wasn’t all that great for me.
Here we go. A good week overall.
Books I Read this Week 2018 is a year-long project for 2018. You can read more about my projects for 2018 here.
I figured I will share some photos from our trip, little bits at a time but these will still be photo-heavy.
Our airbnb in Rome was lovely.
not huge but clean and nice.
and right in the middle of rome.
we had only one day there so we had to see everything in one day.
i walked them to fontana di trevi first.
and then we walked slowly on the way to the Colosseum and saw things along the way.
This tower was super-meaningful to David cause he knew all about it. Trajan’s Column.
they all loved the ancient ruins everywhere in rome.
and all the mentions of SPQR.
And finally we were there.
We then went to the Pantheon.
which was magnificent.
and the Spanish Steps.
we took more than 30,000 steps in one day while in Rome. We saw so much. We went to Trastevere at night, too.
But we didn’t get to see Vatican City and the Sistine Chapel. That will have to be saved for next time. Rome was everyone’s favorite so I imagine we will go back.
Stories from 2018 is a year-long project for 2018. You can read more about my projects for 2018here.
Weekly Intention: This week is going to be a tough week with a lot of back to back meetings. I have 53 meetings on my calendar for the week at the moment. Plus I run 3 times a week and exercise all 5 days. I am trying to cook dinner each night and spend time with one kid alternating each evening. That doesn’t leave for a lot of extra room in my life this week. So my intentions this week will be more about how I show up. I want to be listening a lot this week. Pay attention to what’s working and what’s not. Pay attention to where I can be of service. Let others speak and listen. That’s my intention this week.
This month’s intention is: Mentally Strong: Time to learn some new things. How can you grow intellectually? What classes do you want to take? What do you want to teach the kids? Oh this one is interesting. I am actually deciding not to do this. Instead I will focus on some personal goals. I will teach kids stuff, and that’s definitely one of the intentions. Nathaniel and I will work on math and writing together. David and I will work on Physics and Computer Science. For me, though, I am focusing on three things: health (exercise+food+meditation), art (drawing and watercolors), and stories (journaling and simple scrapbooking.) That’s my focus for July. I did poorly on the art last week, I’d love to spend a bit more time on it this week. Let’s see.
One way I will stretch this week: I’m going to attempt to have a conversation with my manager. let’s see.
One boundary I will set this week: i will make sure home-time is my time this week and try hard not to do work then.
This week, I will focus on pleasing: i am going to see if i can get some of my questions/worries answered.
One new thing I will learn this week: i’m going to try to spend a bit more time meditating than i did last week.
One area where I will go deeper this week: journaling since i didn’t last week.
What do I need to sit with this week? how to think about my exercise and food routine longer term.
I am looking forward to: my 1-1’s this week. learning more, listening more.
This week’s challenges: just a lot of meetings, my bet is also more soreness and tiredness.
Top Goals:
- Work: have a talk.
- Personal: couch 2 5K, exercise, good nutrition, meditate, journal, do art
- Family: cook for jake, math and physics with david and math, vocab and comp sci with Nathaniel
I will focus on my values:
- Love: love for myself. how can i be kinder? give myself grace.
- Learn: how do draw
- Peace: peace with the discipline the nutrition and exercise requires and faith that it will all help
- Service: to my husband by feeding him well when i can.
- Gratitude: for the gym at work and for healthy food at work.
This week, I want to remember:that things are always worse in my head.
Stronger Than Before is a year-long project for 2018. You can read more about my projects for 2018 here.
How I got Stronger this week: This was my first full week back since vacation and it felt like the week would never end. I am not sure why I was so desperately waiting for Friday but the week felt like it dragged. I worked on my physical strength a lot this week. Though my emotional strength was a bit out of whack. Overall, though I feel I put in the work to show up for my kids, my husband, my work, exercise, and nutrition this week. The main thing I didn’t do that I would have liked to do more was to spend time doing art and journaling. I had intended to be more intentional this week and I think I did that reasonably well.
Top Goals Review: i setup a lot of 1-1s and did a little bit of thinking about both September and December. I continued on the couch 2 5k even though it kicked my ass. i did other exercise too and i continue to eat well. i didn’t journal much and i did very little art. I did physics and math with david and vocab and programming with nathaniel.
I celebrate: I celebrate sticking with both good nutrition and exercise hygiene. It’s hard but I am doing it.
I am grateful for: long summer days that make it easier to be outside running at 6am.
Karen’s Points: I Body Pump on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. I did HIIT on Thursday and went running on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I’ve also been meditating a little bit at a time. I’ve been eating caffeine free, sugar free, grain free and dairy free. I’d say it’s whole30 cause i don’t eat legumes either but some of the eggs i have are cooked with rice bran oil so i think that disqualifies whole 30. net-net i am eating healthy with possibly a little too much fruit.
A Change I embraced: being back at work in full and couch25k are the two biggest changes this week.
I let go of: doing anything at night this week. i worked with my kids, cooked and then rested. i was too tired.
Core Desired Feelings Check-in:
- Fresh: nathaniel and i started a new programming class, david and i started calc 2. i hope those count 🙂
- Magical: processing all the photos from our vacation has been magical for me.
- Lighter: i feel slower, lighter, and calmer now that i am back.
- True: truth is i am constantly a work in progress. i get hung up on so many things and would much rather be able to shed all my worries that aren’t serving me.
Where I chose Joy: I chose to spend a little bit of time with my friend this week and it was really special.
I showed up for: my husband this week, cooking him dinner every night. i don’t usually do that but we’ve both been trying to eat much better and avoid certain foods we have sensitivities towards.
A Mistake I made this week: i am worried a bunch about things that i am not sure are worth it, as in i am not sure if there’s a there there but i can’t seem to stop spinning.
What I tolerated this week: a lot of soreness still, so much hardship with cardio in both running and HIIT.
My mood this week was: calm.
I forgive myself for: worrying a lot, spinning, and trying so very hard. and also for craving sugar so much!
What I love right now: the long summer days even though they are getting shorter, i love them so.
Weekly Reflection is a year-long project for 2018. You can read more about my projects for 2018 here.
I didn’t realize that I had done one week extra before we left so now I am too far into the future because I used 3 weeks for our holiday. Oh well.
This layout is mostly Italy. Starts with Rome ad then Forte dei Marmi.
Oh and also Pisa!
Moments from this Week 2018 is a year-long project for 2018. You can read more about my projects for 2018 here.
                
Ok so clearly I read a lot of books in 3 weeks especially since most of it was vacation.
The Chalk Man was creepy and interesting and well written. Such a refreshing change from all the not-too-great mystery books out there lately.
I’m Just Happy to Be Here was a quick read and i will say that while I liked some of it, it wasn’t as much my cup of tea.
Am I There Yet? was wonderful. I follow her on instagram and love her drawings.
On Turpentine Lane was mediocre.
The Book of Essie was interesting and not too bad. i was glad to read it.
Something in the Water was actually quite contrived and in the end I didn’t like it.
I read Driving by Starlight for book club. It was a book I wouldn’t have picked up and I really liked it.
The Color of Bee Larkham’s Murder was lovely and a bit slow moving in the beginning and totally worth it in the end.
Number One Chinese Restaurant was fun and funny and interesting and I liked reading it.
I just recently watched Love, Simon so I thought it would be fun to read Leah on the Offbeat and I am glad i did, it was lovely to be back in that world again.
The Sun Does Shine was a tough read and some of it was slow but it was an important read for me and I am glad i did.
Bring Me Back was another mystery that was dragged out and a stupid twist that made me think why i even bothered to read it.
All We Ever Wanted was my first Emily Griffin in years and years. I really loved this one despite totally hating the last one I’d read by her.
Amateur Hour was a good read. Some of it was so right on that it was almost painful.
The Happiness Curve was an interesting read and made me hopeful for my 50s and 60s.
And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer was different, weird and amazing. I love this author.
Unfuck Your Brain was not worth my time. I didn’t learn anything new and while I curse a lot and don’t mind it at all when others do it, much of the cursing in this book felt wildly unnecessary to me and I don’t like it when authors do it as a gimmick.
That’s where I am now. Reading book #160 which is not a great one.
Books I Read this Week 2018 is a year-long project for 2018. You can read more about my projects for 2018 here.
Weekly Intention: This is the first official week of Summer as far as I am concerned because this week we are all back from vacation, Nathaniel starts camp, it’s a full week of work for me and David will be alone managing his work schedule at home, and Jake will be working at home or office with David. This is how we plan to spend the next six weeks with the exception of one week where Nathaniel has no camp. While I was on vacation, I set some intentions for myself and my work with the rest of my family. My hope this week is to get started on all of that so that I can make sure to start a positive cycle and take advantage of the more relaxed schedules during summer to establish some routines and habits for myself. So my intention this week is to start being more intentional and focused about both my work and my personal life.
This month’s intention is: Mentally Strong: Time to learn some new things. How can you grow intellectually? What classes do you want to take? What do you want to teach the kids? Oh this one is interesting. I am actually deciding not to do this. Instead I will focus on some personal goals. I will teach kids stuff, and that’s definitely one of the intentions. Nathaniel and I will work on math and writing together. David and I will work on Physics and Computer Science. For me, though, I am focusing on three things: health (exercise+food+meditation), art (drawing and watercolors), and stories (journaling and simple scrapbooking.) That’s my focus for July.
One way I will stretch this week: i started doing the couch 2 5K and that’s definitely stretching me.
One boundary I will set this week: i will set clear boundaries at work so I can come home and take the time I need to do the things I want.
This week, I will focus on pleasing: i am going to give this week to me to get myself started.
One new thing I will learn this week: i’m going to go back to learning to to draw.
One area where I will go deeper this week: journaling
What do I need to sit with this week? how to create a schedule where I can do all I want to do.
I am looking forward to: having a bit of a routine, i crave routine
This week’s challenges: i think i will mostly struggle with soreness and jet lag
Top Goals:
- Work: setup 1-1s, get started on both Sept and Dec.
- Personal: couch 2 5K, exercise, good nutrition, journal, do art
- Family: physics with david and math with Nathaniel
I will focus on my values:
- Love: love for the adjustment period and settling into a routine
- Learn: how do draw
- Peace: peace with the soreness, it will go away
- Service: to myself this week.
- Gratitude: for having the time and space to try new things.
This week, I want to remember: that things take time, not days or weeks but months or years. be patient.
Stronger Than Before is a year-long project for 2018. You can read more about my projects for 2018 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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