random reflections

The Last Pages of the Christmas Journal

The day after Christmas, we loaded everything into the van and headed off to Chicago. Much to our surprise we were there for dinner, and were able to celebrate Christmas with Sarah, Adam, and Caleb after dinner.

I got this crazy idea in my head that I wanted a car with a Christmas tree on top to embellish the journaling card. I didn't have any dies or stamps that worked, so I went to the Silhouette shop and quickly found this cute car. It had been so long since I used the Silhouette, that the software had changed (and the whole interface), so getting this cute car on the journaling card turned out to be quite the time-consuming process. I was happy with it, although the state of my workspace was pretty awful by the end of the process. Lesson learned: use your tools regularly!

Nothing much happened on the next two days. Everyone was tired, and happy just to hang out together. On the 29th, though, Tracy and I decided to take Caleb to the Chicago Botanic Garden to see Wonderland Express. We'd gone last year, and loved it, and were lucky to get early morning tickets this year so it was a lot less crowded. This year Caleb was able to find all the items on the scavenger hunt which we all enjoyed.

Caleb celebrated his fourth birthday on the 30th. His first "friends' party" was on the 2nd of January so that will go into my Project Life album. We kept this day pretty low key, opening a few presents off and on during the day. The photo of Caleb on the bottom left is on the annual poster that Adam makes each year. When Caleb wakes up the poster is there to greet him. This year each of us wrote a message to him. There was enough snow that Caleb was anxious to go outside, and he and Adam had a fine time in the front yard.

I guess one advantage to being behind in the process is seeing what other people do in their Christmas albums. One thing I've always liked, and saw repeatedly this year, was an end of the year review. I've never taken the time to print out all the photos for one before, but I loved going through all the photos from 2015 and trying to decide which ones to include. It also made me aware of some I wish we'd taken! In the end, I could have filled another page easily. I love that you can see in just two pages how much my grandchildren grew during the year.

Now, once I get the Valentine Day's projects completed, I need to get back to last year's Project Life pages. I promised myself I'd never get this far behind again, but we're just too busy for me to keep up, and it's not going to improve any in the next couple of months. I'll just keep snapping the photos, and keeping my daily journal, and eventually I'll be caught up again. Thanks for hanging in there with me!

 

SNAP: RED

In honor of Valentine's Day this coming weekend, I thought I'd do a collection of red items. The cyclamen is sitting on our coffee table, and the red throw and pillow are on the red chair in my studio. The other red flowers were photos taken earlier.

Red is my favorite color, and as I sit and write this post, I'm sipping tea from a red cup. I could have photographed my red kitchen chairs, the red carpet on our stairs, or one of my red sweaters, or even the new red heart charm I purchased this week in anticipation of Valentine's Day. I'm surrounded with red hearts and valentine stamps as I try to get ready for the weekend. Valentine's Day was my father's favorite holiday, and I try to honor his memory by making sure my kids and grandchildren get a special card on Valentine's Day. I'll be back on Monday with a look at this year's projects. 

What's your favorite color? Linking up with Helena and off to see what other collections have been posted this week.

 

Christmas Journal: 19-25

Last Tuesday, I finally finished my Christmas Journal, but I've been waiting for time and sunshine to merge in order to take decent photos of it. Over the next day or two, I'll post the rest of the pages. Every time I finish one of these, I'm so glad I put the time and effort into it. Every year is different, and yet some things remain the same. Capturing those traditions and special events are my reason why.

This year Skylar was old enough and very interested in helping bake Christmas cookies. She came on Saturday to bake, and again on Sunday to help decorate the sugar cookies. She caught on very quickly, and was quite efficient in using the rolling pin to roll out dough. 

I used a photo for the Dec. 21 layout that I had taken earlier in the week from our neighbor's back patio. They live at the top of the hill, and have this amazing view of downtown Rochester. I took this day to type up a list of all the social events of the month. (Tracy found a small typo in the list, but I wasn't upset enough by it, to redo the page. It's the first time I've ever managed to create a page with all digital elements without struggling through the process!)

Betsy and her sisters planned a wonderful Christmas party for family and friends on the 22nd. I used one of Cathy Z's 6X8 templates for this page.

We celebrate Christmas with Matt, Betsy and the girls early since the Walker family Christmas starts so late, and goes so long. It's a bit overwhelming as well, so it's nice to have a quiet dinner and Christmas with just family.

Christmas Eve Day has traditionally been a quiet one for us, and a good chance to rest up before Christmas and the travel right afterwards. The story of the necklace is one of those stories I want to capture so I can remember exactly when it happened. Looking back over earlier Christmas Journals, I was surprised at how much I had forgotten.

My goal on Christmas Day is to try and get a photo of everyone who is here that year. This year there were 18 of us, and I think I did it, although I didn't have close-up photos of everyone. Thanks to my sister-in-law, Jill, there's even a photo of me this year!

And the last, and favorite spread, with these cute photos of  Skylar and Ella "playing" the piano with Sonora. Sonora, of course, is playing Christmas carols, while the girls are accompanying her. 

Back soon, with the rest . . .

 

Memorandum Monday

It's Monday already, and I'm joining in with Sian (and waving to her and everyone there) with Memorandum Monday. Sian's started a new Monday meme that asks that we "tell us something [we] did over the weekend FOR THE FIRST TIME." I don't have much in the way of photos because photos weren't appropriate in either setting.

As part of the exploration of my One Little Word, MINDFUL, I've been doing a lot of reading and thinking about mindfulness and meditation. Specifically, both of those in relationship to the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh. Two weeks ago, I attended an evening workshop at the Assisi Institute on Mindfulness and Meditation, but the practices there didn't seem to be a perfect fit. This week I was talking to a friend from church about other matters. I knew she had a long history in practicing meditation, and she offered to take me to the Newcomer's Orientation and Sangha at the Zen Center. (Although they meet at the Zen Center, this group does not practice Zen meditation which I am learning is quite different. They follow the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh.) After a warm and welcoming introduction to the practice, the Sangha began. There is a 20 minute guided meditation followed by a 10 minute walking meditation, another 20 minute meditation session in quiet, and ending with another 10 minute walking meditation. For someone who has barely practiced at all, I thought I'd be in over my head, but not so. It was peaceful, relaxing, and I was pleased that I could keep myself centered on the breath for far longer than I anticipated. They only meet once a week, and it will be a couple of weeks before my schedule allows me to return, but I'm quite sure I will. The most important thing, however, is I now know a daily practice at home should be easier to establish than I imagined.

I've been wanting to attend the Compline Service on Sunday evening for a long time. There is a concert preceding it on the first Sunday of every month, and instead of watching the Super Bowl, my friend and I went to Christ Church. The organ recital was lovely, but the compline service sung by a group of highly talented voices was simply divine. No other word for it. Everything is performed in total darkness except for the alter which is bathed in candlelight. It was beautiful, moving, and totally refreshing. What a wonderful way to end a weekend! 

We're in the midst of having all the galvanized pipes replaced to our bathrooms. Our house was built in 1930, and the water pressure upstairs is poor to horrible. The contractor has finished the new plumbing in our powder room off the kitchen, and the new fixtures are in place. The old ceramic tile floor in my bathroom is gone (YAH!), and the plumbing there is complete. This week the new floor and fixtures should go in there, and then we'll be down to the last and, and very difficult, job of replacing the pipes to the small bathroom in the back of the house. That bathroom will need to be completely gutted, and the pipes go up the wall of the living room. (And that's another first for this week. We've lived here for 30 years, and I've never had to take a shower in that tiny shower before. Must admit, I'll be glad to be back in mine in a week or so.) 

Happy Monday to everyone! I hope it's a great week!

Winter Scavenger Hunt: Part 3

In addition to finding items on the Winter Scavenger Hunt hosted by Joy and Eileen on our trip, I've found a few around town as well.  I think I have just five to find, and all of them are doable for sure. The hardest one has been the robin. I have a photo to share from our walk through the park earlier this week, but all I had with me was my iPhone so he's pretty tiny. If it warms up again (the temperature is headed down for a few days), I'll go back with the DSL-R and try sitting quietly on a bench and see if I have more luck. I'd love to get one anywhere near as wonderful as the bird photos Miriam posts, but I don't have much hope of that!

Here's the "little" robin in Highland Park. Not very clear because I cropped it so much so you could actually see that it was a robin.

As I was driving into the library parking lot the other day, I followed this truck. I pulled alongside and hopped out with my iPhone. The driver was very personable, and wanted to know all about this scavenger hunt. He was fascinated that people in Europe as well as across Canada and the United States were playing along with it. Here are three ladders in one shot.

The driver really wanted me to take a photo of the other side of the truck, so here it is, but not so well composed due to the angle at which he needed to park. I think there were six ladders in total, and he offered to open up the back end where evidently there were even more. I assured him all I needed was one!

I'm still looking for a more interesting chimney, but this one is quite nice on a home that borders the path Debbie and I walk each week on the canal.

And lastly, for today, some outside lights. I took this the second week of January as we pulled out of my MIL's housing development. I was afraid, even then, that most people would have already taken down their Christmas lights. These were particularly nice. You can see my shadow caused by the lights of our car.

I haven't gotten around to creating an album in SmugMug for this hunt, but you can see the earlier collections here and here.

SNAP 5: A Walk Through the Park

Our unseasonably warm weather has continued. Today is supposed to break all the records, but then winter will be returning again. While it's been warm, we've been walking outside nearly every day. Yesterday we walked through Highland Park. Not much in the way of signs of spring, but we always enjoy walking through the Poet's Garden. It was first planted in 1916 to honor the 300th anniversary of Shakespeare's death. We found a bench inscribed with that date as we walked along the path. The original plants were among those mentioned by Shakespeare in his writings. Many of those plants did not survive, so over the years new plants, trees, and shrubs have been planted. Later in the spring, I'll take another walk through do another collection.

The quote by Shakespeare on the plaque reads:

                                                                                                                      And this our life exempt from public haunt
                                                                                               Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
                                                                                               Sermons in stones and good in everything.
                                                                                                                                                                               from As You Like It

It's already been a lot of fun checking out the collections for SNAP linked to Helena's blog, and this week is sure to be interesting as well.

  

The January Edition of the Christmas Journal

Unfortunately, there's also going to be a couple of February Editions as well. Despite my best intentions, the Christmas Journal still has some pages to go. On a positive note, they are all planned out, so it's just a matter of printing photos, journaling, and embellishing. (Well, that is quite a lot!) The following pages were actually completed in December, and I thought I had posted them but have recently discovered that was not the case. So here is the next installment.

Most amazing of all, is that we're in the midst of another warm spell right now. Yesterday I went to the store without a coat!

In order to accommodate the spread for December 13, I needed a filler page.The top is a piece of gold dotted acrylic with some Thickers added. For the bottom slot, I used a piece of Papertrey Ink's "Stars Scribbled" paper and added some letter stickers, then adhered it to a piece of gold foil paper.

On the 13th, we heard Poulenc's Gloria in church, sung by our amazing choir, led by an equally amazing director of music, as well as our "new" assistant organist who is uber-talented. (It helps to live in the same city as the Eastman School of Music!) That afternoon we went to see "Brooklyn," which I loved, and I used the journaling spot to record a list of the many movies we saw from Thanksgiving on.

At this point I was still committed to a page for every day (I later gave that up!) and chose to write about my intention to capture photos of my day out with my friends, but it just didn't happen. My niece, Grace, did seem to like her scarf.

The next day I was out on the canal with another group of friends. We make it look like it was very cold, but actually it was just really windy.

This will go down as one of my favorite spreads. Betsy is sitting on a board for a charitable organization, and a group of them meeting once a month for an early morning meeting. I get to be there to play with the girls when they get up, get them breakfast (if they want it) and just enjoy a laid-back morning. Skylar and Ella get along so well together, it just a pleasure to babysit. The selfie was Skylar's idea and it might be one of the first I've ever taken that I thought was pretty good!

I've got way too many "irons in the fire" right now, but finishing the Christmas Journal is at the top of the list! Hope to be back soon with more.