On the weekends I try to stay off the computer as much as I can so I can spend time with my family. I treasure the more leisurely days of the weekend (theoretically speaking) and am grateful for the time we have to be more playful and enjoy each others company.
With that in mind, I thought I could use Saturdays to give you a quick recap on my second October challenge – #LoveYourLettering with Lisa at Creativlei.com. 🙂
* * *
Day 1
On the first day, we used washi tape to tape two sheets together so the ink wouldn’t bleed through. Then we added a title page.
The second page was affirmations. I have to especially remember that “it’s okay to make mistakes.” I may or may not have already ripped out 2 pages of my notebook because I messed up! Ahem.
* * *
Day 2
Day 3 was practice writing in your natural hand. This was a little tough for me since my writing has changed over the years (except for my longhand, that has pretty much stayed the same.) I have a few different ways I like to write so it’s sometimes hard to know what is my natural hand. Maybe I’m just overthinking it.
* * *
Day 3
Day 3, today, was practicing basic letter forms. I was getting flashbacks of my grammar school days. I purposely made myself sit up straight, placed my book at an angle and with my left hand holding it steady and practiced the strokes like a determined first grader. It was fun and I noticed better control over the pen and it’s movement. 🙂
Well, that’s it for this week. Next Saturday I’ll recap again. Have a great Saturday!
Last night as I feel asleep I could hear the soft patter of rain outside my window. Normally, that has been a soothing, even romantic sound to me. However, when you are living through a drought the sound of rain also brings a big sigh of “Oh, thank God!” Our beautiful but parched land of California desperately needs every drop of rain it can get and I’m grateful for the showers that continued in the morning.
Another reason I love the rain is that it always reminds me of God’s mercy washing over parched hearts. Just as the rain nourishes the flowers that bloom, God’s mercy refreshes the soul and breathes new life.
So today I will be grateful for the rain that sustains the earth and for God’s grace that sustains my soul. Blessed be His name.
I had so much fun doing 31 Days of Gratitude (with photos and words) last year, I decided to do it again.
My inspiration for this year is this quote:
Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessing.” – William Arthur Ward.
I want to remember that all the time, especially when I am complaining about doing something I don’t want to do. By looking at the situation differently, I can always find a reason to be grateful and recognize God’s blessings.
That is what I will be working on the next 31 days – using gratitude to change my ordinary day into an opportunity for joy and blessing. I hope you’ll join me on the journey. 🙂
I’ll be posting each day on the blog but this page will be my landing page with links of each post for easy reference.
Hey guys, I haven’t been around my little online home lately and I thought I’d do a quick catch up on what’s going on here now that September is just about to end. What the what?? Well, I should have known that October was almost here since a number of stores already have Christmas decor (!) but that’s a whole other post. 😉 Right now, I’m just touching base on what I’ll be working on over the next month in case you want to join me before September ends! 🙂
The kids have been back in school for a month now and I’ve been trying to carve out an hour a day to work on some projects that have been sitting on the back burner for the longest time. Here are a few things I will be tacking this October 2015.
31 Days of Writing
Last year I participated in the 31 Days of writing, which is a challenge to bloggers to post 31 days in a row on one topic. Last year I did 31 Days of Gratitudewith photos and (mostly short) posts. It was a good exercise to get me used to writing more, taking more photos and to pause and be thankful for the blessings God has given me or to look at a difficult situation and see the good in it.
The project is difficult enough to challenge me but not so hard that I would fail after the first couple of days.
Are you a blogger? Will you be participating? Even if you aren’t, there are a lot of great topics. Check out the categoriesand I guarantee you’ll find a blogger talking about a topic that is of interest to you.
31 Days to Love Your Letting
One of the bloggers participating in 31 Days is Lisa from Creativlei.com. I first got to know Lisa though her Periscopes. She is one of those ladies that just has a loving, generous and creative spirit. She does lovely hand lettering (which I’d describe as is a broader and more creative form of calligraphy) and she will be teaching an online classon how to love your own handwriting and learn the basics of hand lettering. The classes are short and can be done in 10 – 15 minutes to it is really doable with my busy schedule.
I’ve been wanting to learn how to hand letter for years but never really took the time and effort to go beyond a few doodles. Well, that changes this months since I signed up for the (free!) class. Lisa will be posting on her blog and doing live Periscopes to answer questions and show you samples of what we’re learning. So what do you think? Shall we learn together?
Work the Plan
Okay, well that covers the more creative side to my personality but I am also working on making the time to be creative. I have found that even though I have a little more free time I also have so much on my plate that I don’t know where to start. I’ll spend too much time on things that are secondary and then forget to do the things that are mandatory. The situation has gotten so much better since I’ve been making big goals and breaking them down in to smaller goals but I am ready to take it a step further and streamline my planning so there is less “busy work” and more progress.
Cue the lovely Mystie Winckler. Mystie has created a new online course called Work the Plan that “is a streamlined productivity class for moms that will walk you through setting up a system with synergy and the habits to keep it going.” The classes are broken down in short videos that walk you through creating a plan (if you don’t already have one) or streamlining your plan to make it more doable. It is a good introductory class before jumping into the more in-depth Simplified Organization course. You can follow the course at your own pace so 15 minutes a day has been doable for me.
Technically the course doen not start until January 2016 BUT you can join early by September 30th (tomorrow!) at a reduced rate. ($32 instead of $49.)
Well, those are the projects I have set up for next month. It should easily fit into one hour a day, unless I do a longer gratitude post.
The month of October is either going to push me to reach higher than I thought possible or drive me to drown my sorrows in chocolate chip cookies. Here’s to working towards a win! (I just watching Lord of the Ring with my son Andrew, who had never seen it before, and I am pumped to go on this journey and face my own fires of Mordor by putting in the effort to persevere, rather than giving up when it gets too tough. Wish me luck. 🙂
I feel like it has been forever since last posting. Life has been busy. Here is a quick Online Daybook to catch you up. 🙂
~ 1 ~
Grateful for…
Having a school for my kids that I trust.
More time to myself to get things done.
Support of friends.
The love of my family.
A visit from my parents last week.
A phone call from my mom this morning.
Running water. (Ours was out on Saturday.)
Praying for..
The intentions of many friends.
Those who have lost loved ones.
Immigrants and victims of war.
Victims of abuse and domestic violence.
The conversion of hearts back to God.
An end to the fires burning in CA (especially the local fire here) and WA.
People to disagree respectfully without feeling the need to tear others down with hurtful words and actions.
All pregnant moms, those trying to get pregnant, those who have lost their babies and for moms contemplating an abortion.
The souls in purgatory, especially family, friend and those most forgotten.
Pondering…
I’m thinking about miscarriages. It seems like lately so many of my friends are suffering the loss of a child, whether early on or well into their pregnancies. For those who are new here, Brian and I were married in ’99 and it took a year to conceive our daughter Bella in 2001. In the years following we dealt with secondary infertility and the two times I was able to get pregnant, we lost both babies. Even though we lost them early, it hit me hard. Harder than anything else I had experienced prior. We prayed and felt our babies were boys so we named them Victor (my husband’s middle name) and Joseph (my husband’s patron saint.)
Every morning we pray a litany to our family saints (all our namesakes) and it’s only recently that I felt we should add saints Baby Victor and Baby Joseph to our litany. I explained to the kids who they were and that they have two more siblings in heaven praying for them each day. (As an aside, we were able to correct my fertility problems after my second miscarriage and we had three little guys in a row.)
It has been almost a decade now and while I am at peace with our babies being in heaven, every once in awhile (when a loved one has a miscarriage) the pain sweeps over me all over again. But I don’t mind now since it reminds me of how close they are to my heart despite our distance from one another.
If you have lost a baby, even if it was very early, don’t feel bad about grieving for your baby. Name your child (or call them “Baby Your Last Name.” Ask them to pray for you each day so that one day you can be reunited with them in God’s kingdom.
~ 2 ~
Around the House…
The house is much more picked up these days since we have set times in the day when the kids have to do a 5-minute clean up of the key messy areas of the house. There will always be the stray legos to plague my feet and the endless plastic superheroes lurking in the corners but it is much better than it was before. Baby steps, my friends. Baby steps.
Family Chit Chat…
It has been an eventful week! Last week my parents came up for a visit just in time for Grandparents Day at the kids’ school. They were so excited to recite their poems, sing their songs, dance their moves and show off their work. I’m not a huge fan of school performances in general but it was nice to see my parents just as excited as the kids to share it with them. Of course, I relished having time with my family. We are close and it sometimes hurts to be separated from them after living so many years under one crazy and loud roof. But luckily 400 miles is no more than a 7 hour drive (with bathroom breaks.)
Well, not to get too spoiled, this weekend we were given the opportunity to really appreciate things we take for granted – like running water! A city water main broke and we were without water for a day. It may not seem like long but the logistics of 6 people in a house without a flushing toilet can get rough. Note to self – Fill up some empty gallon bottles with tap water for flushing emergencies! Thankfully this morning we are all showered and have properly flushed.
~ 3 ~
In the Kitchen…
I’m going back to trying one new recipe each week in hopes to build up our sometimes boring meal rotation. This week I made chicken quesadillas (a no-brainer) with a salad that had Creamy Lime Dressing.
~ 4 ~
Watching…
(At the Movies)
I haven’t been to the movies in awhile but Brian said I should take the night off and go see something. Well, you don’t have t twist my arm…so I am thinking Mission Impossible or The Visit. Any thoughts?
(On Youtube)
Have you ever given your kids your phone so they can make a movie on it? Then as they show it to you, you think that it is absurd yet kinda funny and you love it anyway because of who made it. That’s what I felt about these Downton Abbey and Star Wars mashups. (I know, right!?) The second one is worth watching just to catch all the Downton Abbey character cameos. Hilarious. (Thanks to Emmy for the heads up.)
Listening to …
I recently found the band Silversun Pickups. I love their older music and look forward to their upcoming release Better Nature (9/25) that includes this song – Circadian Rhythm (Last Dance).
Reading…
These are on my nightstand now.
I’m embarrassed to admit that these are still sitting on my nightstand getting lonely since I read before bedtime and average about 1/2 a page before knocking out.
I’m also trying to finish all the half read books on my night stand, which includes Jennifer Fulwilers book Something Other Than God.
~ 5 ~
Here are my posts since the last Daybook. (It’s been a slow month.)
I haven’t had time to read many of my favorite blogs but there has been a lot of talk lately about a certain blog and forum where people “hate read” blogs and then bash them. There are numerous categories, including “annoying Catholics.” Some of my friends and fellow bloggers were listed and ridiculed. I spent about 20 minutes on the site and had more than my fill.
I usually always try to see both sides of a story and while I understand why people may not like certain bloggers, how they write, what they believe or how they live their lives, what I don’t understand is this obsessive need to live out the “mean girl” attitude and spewing out hateful words with so much anger. If you don’t like it, don’t read it. Life is too damn short to waste your hours on that kind of negativity.
And it’s not just on this website but you see this nastiness all over – online and in real life, and from both sides. (I get just as sick to hear Christians bashing “non-believers” and spewing their own brand of hatred.) Instead of disagreeing and making a logical point, people feel the need to use snark and hateful words to tear a person down.
I know we don’t live in a big Kumbaya world and our beliefs will make us targets for those that hate the Church, but for my part, I am all for a sisterhood of building each other up rather than tearing each other down. We don’t have to agree with one another but I hope that I will always be respectful of you and vice versa.
This blog is too small and insignificant to affect anyone outside of my family and circle of friends but if you are reading this and you hate this blog, it’s content, me, my family, my beliefs and you don’t want to agree to disagree, then I’m truly sorry…but don’t let me waste anymore of your time. Just click the little X or the little red button at the top corner and I won’t bother you anymore.
~ 7 ~
The latest on Instagram (since my mom’s not on there and she wants to see.) 😉
1 – I woke up to smoke in the air from a fire in a nearby town. Offering prayers for our firefighters and the victims of all the CA (and elsewhere) fires.
2 – #projectblessed – Perfect. It’s a perfect day for a lunch date with my honey.
3 – #projectblessed -colors. I originally was going to just print a copy of the Holy Spirit prayer but then I started playing with colors, fonts and clip art and made this printable instead.
4 – #projectblessed – Dark. Thank God I am feeling much better now and was able to go to Target for some medicine (and Force Friday.) Matthew and I took a quick photo with Chewie. Our family will always be fighting the dark side.
5 – #projectblessed -Blue. Yesterday I was feeling blue because I had no energy to do my chores, let alone read, go online or work on my traveler’s notebook. I just wanted to sleep. I hate being sick.
6 – While Matthew was at school I showered, washed my hair and wore it down to pick him up at noon. After getting him he does a double take and says, “What the heck is going on with your hair?” Hahaha! I guess he’s only used to me wearing it up.
7 – WIDN – Tagged by @ordinarylovely and @betweenthebobseins. I have the next hour completely to myself so I want to put some of my bday gifts to use. Should I write a letter to a friend, paint my nails, pretty my planner or go to Target and then lunch. Decisions, decisions!!
8 – Tagged by @callherhappy for WIDN. I’m making fajitas, guacamole and salsa to eat with the yummiest chips! They are new at our Whole Foods. They are from a local company, non-GMO, and delicioso!
9 – The photo came out a little dark but here’s a bottle of Cholula on my kitchen window sill. I don’t use it but it reminds me of my dad and 5 brothers. (The flowers remind me of my mom and sisters.)
So that’s what I’ve been up to lately! What about you? What’s currently happening in your life? Do share.
The 31 Day of Writing Challenge continues. It’s Day 3 of my 31 Days of Gratitude 2015.
With that in mind, I thought I could use Saturdays to give you a quick recap on my second October challenge – #LoveYourLettering with Lisa at Creativlei.com. 🙂
On the first day, we used washi tape to tape two sheets together so the ink wouldn’t bleed through. Then we added a title page.
Day 3 was practice writing in your natural hand. This was a little tough for me since my writing has changed over the years (except for my longhand, that has pretty much stayed the same.) I have a few different ways I like to write so it’s sometimes hard to know what is my natural hand. Maybe I’m just overthinking it.
Day 3, today, was practicing basic letter forms. I was getting flashbacks of my grammar school days. I purposely made myself sit up straight, placed my book at an angle and with my left hand holding it steady and practiced the strokes like a determined first grader. It was fun and I noticed better control over the pen and it’s movement. 🙂
These are on my nightstand now.
