random reflections

Reflections on "Choose Joy" and 2017

It’s always interesting to look back at the intentions I set at the beginning of a year, and reflect on how I did with them. Last year’s word(s) was “Choose Joy” with the emphasis on gratitude. I’ll have more to say about that when I post my 2018 One Little Word tomorrow.

In general, “Choose Joy” was a good choice, particularly in a year fraught with so much national conflict, division, and violence. In the face of the daily news, it was good to “choose joy,” leaning in to all the things for which I am so grateful and blessed.

So here are my 2017 intentions with a brief summary of how I did

1. Keep one weekday free of obligations. With few exceptions, I kept Wednesdays free of commitments. When I did put something on the calendar for Wednesday it was a social engagement or an unavoidable meeting. My membership on a variety of committees means I have to be flexible with other members commitments as well.
2. Maintain morning reading time: 1 hour book; 1 hour blogs. Totally kept this one. If I had an early morning appointment, I made sure to find time later in the day to read. It paid off as I read more books this year than I’ve ever read: 54. You can find the list here. Note that I only use 3-5 stars to rate my books. If it’s less than 3 stars, I’ll abandon it by page 50.
3. Continue volunteer commitments: RHR, Spiritual Formation, Dining Room Ministry, Rochester Area Interfaith Hospitality Network, SW Food Cupboard Board, Cameron Community Ministries, Church Leadership Development Day.  Kept this one, too. At one point when I thought I could use some more time at home, I looked at this list, and recognized that each one of these was really important to me. Only two of them are weekly commitments. I volunteer at Refugees Helping Refugees one or two days/week depending on their class schedule, and two afternoons/week during the after-school program at Cameron. Most of the rest are monthly commitments.
4. Sketch: 3/week Didn’t do as well here, but my one accomplishment in this area was completing the 100 Day Project. I did 100 sketches, and filled 1 1/3 sketchbooks.
5. Photography:
   1. CY365
   2. Contemplative Photography practice: read Adventures in Seeing, Photography and the Art of Seeing
   3. Five in Five meme monthly                   
      This was a mixed bag. I completed two online classes with Kim Manley Ort on contemplative photography, and attended a weekend workshop with her in Niagara-on-the-Lake. I kept up with CY365, and completed 11/12 Five in Five memes. I didn’t finish reading either book.
      
6. Blogging Schedule: Monday Memo, Wednesday cards (challenges), Friday contemplations. I never had a blogging schedule. If I had something to post and/or time to write a post, it went up. I was more consistent at the beginning of the year than I was at the end.
7. Make time for creativity: minimum 3 hours/week I didn’t keep track of the time I spent, but I’m pretty sure I came close to meeting this one.
8. Choose one challenge and participate regularly (CASology?) Didn’t happen, although I did participate in different challenges pretty regularly.
9. Exercise: walk, yoga, weights: 3/week Like blogging this was inconsistent. I do well, then fall off the wagon, and hop back on again.
10. One book/month from the following list. This is one of the most interesting ones to me. I didn’t include the list here because, frankly, I only read 7 of the 18 books I listed. For next year, I also have a list but it’s titled “List of Books to Consider.” I know now that as I listen to podcasts, read books, talk to friends, and read book reviews that books I’ve never considered will rise to the top of the list. Ten of the best books I read in 2017 weren’t on my original list.

I’ll be back tomorrow, I hope, with my One Little Word for 2018. I “found” it in November and think it will serve me well.

Chicago Celebrations

As always, we packed up right after Christmas and headed to Chicago. After Erie, PA received nearly 60 inches of snow, we decided to take the route through Canada. We had generally clear roads, and sunny skies for most of the trip, but had a two hour wait to cross the border when we reached Michigan. I guess we weren’t the only ones trying to avoid the mess in Erie.

By the time we got there, both kids were in the pajamas, but Caleb was eager to open gifts.

I had a hard time this visit, capturing good photos of Hannah who is now walking, but here’s one of her with her dad. She has a variety of these little animal pacifiers which she loves.

We not only celebrated Christmas, but on the 30^th we celebrated Hannah’s first birthday, and Caleb’s sixth birthday. The night before we blew up about 100 balloons and tossed them into Caleb’s room. Much to my surprise, he slept through it all.

When he woke up in the morning, he found one package on the dining room table, and a clue for the next. One clue required popping balloons until he found the six with the words to the next clue. It extended the birthday celebration through most of the morning.

One of our gifts to Hannah, was a water table. Even without water, it proved to be a popular gift with both kids.

Adam has made a poster to commemorate Caleb’s birthday every year since he turned two. Caleb remembers every one of them, reminding his dad the night before of the images he’d drawn on last year’s poster. Here are this year’s. Caleb received quite a wonderful camera for Christmas, and was eagerly taking photos of everything he could.

And Hannah’s for her nickname “Hannah the Banana”---who knows where that came from?

 

Sharing your birthday with a one-year-old isn't too bad. I think it might become a bit more challenging as Hannah gets older and has some opinions about how things get done. And one last photo of Adam, Sarah, and Caleb at dinner one night---one of my faves from the trip.

Thanks to Laura Bassen, Caleb got one of my more involved birthday cards. I pinned it as soon as I saw it on Laura’s blog, and recreating it wasn’t as difficult as I expected. It opened and closed perfectly at home, but required a bit of adjusting once it was opened in Chicago. Looks great, though, in his bedroom which is decorated with a space theme.

The card required just two sets of dies: "Space Journey," and "You're a Star," both from Simon Says as well as some Dark Indigo cardstock and a bunch of scraps (all Papertrey Ink.)

I’ve learned the hard way, not to give toddlers a shaker card. Ella took hers apart the minute she opened it on her second birthday. But I figured I’d go for it for the first birthday since Hannah was unlikely to want to play with it. I found a shaker kit I purchased quite awhile ago which made it easier to assemble, and frankly, quite a bit sturdier as well.

I've had the Mama Elephant "Carnival Cupcakes" stamp set for quite a few years. The little bunny and the cupcake both come from that set. I colored them with Copic markers and fussy cut them, adding some Distress Glitter to one layer of the cupcake. The sentiment is from Papertrey's "Birthday Bash" set--also an oldie. The balloon and strings are dies from Papertrey and the number one is from the "Typewriter Numbers" by Memory Box. I added a few Nuevo glitter drops as a final embellishment. 

That wraps up December! Now on to finishing up my reflections on 2017, and putting the final touches on the One Little Word for 2018. I'm pretty sure the number of blog posts in January will double (triple?) the number in December. 

 

 

December Highlights

Between the holidays and traveling, my blogging took a rather unexpected hiatus. It wasn’t intentional, but I have a few events to record here after the fact. Because the Christmas in Chicago also included two birthdays, I’ll save that for the next post.

The George Eastman Museum hosts an evening with Santa each year, and for the third year in a row, we’ve taken the girls. This year we missed seeing Santa come down the grand staircase (no fault of our own), but we still had a good time. None of the girls is quite sure about an individual chat with Santa so we forego the long line, but Ella expressed an interest as we were leaving, so next year may be the year Grandma hops in line to save their places.

Skylar has enjoyed the Gingerbread House Scavenger Hunt for both of the last two years.

My favorite gingerbread house this year was fashioned after a real home in Canandaigua, New York. The facsimile was remarkable close to the photograph that accompanied it.

Upstairs in the Discovery Room, there are always fun things to explore.

And although, they’re reluctant to visit Santa themselves, both Skylar and Ella enjoy watching Santa talking with other children. This year Skylar had a list for Santa, and the kind volunteer took her list and put it in Santa’s bag for her.

The following weekend, we went to Buffalo with friends to visit the Teddy Roosevelt Inaugural Site, followed by a visit to the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. It was a wonderful visit and we really enjoyed the current exhibit: “Out of Sight! Art of the Senses.” You can see a video on the website here of some of the interactive installations. We had tea in the tea room, listened to music, and had a particularly good time in the room of mirrors. We were lucky that the museum was not crowded the day we visited. Here are some of my favorite photos from the art gallery:

A house made of green fabric.

The room of mirrors; love the second one. I had no idea what I'd captured until I uploaded it!

Light and shadows

We celebrate Christmas three times; twice in Rocheter and once in Chicago. First with Matt, Betsy, and the girls. Although they come for the early part of the Walker Christmas on Christmas Day, the event is too late for the three little girls. This year, Betsy’s family joined us. Karen, her sister, arrived from Boston just in time, and Pam, Nadia, and Betsy’s dad also joined us. These photos are courtesy of Pam, who records every family event faithfully.

Skylar and her beloved cousin, Nadia

Christmas Day is always fun with the Walker crowd. Here are a few faves from that gathering. The first two photos were taken by Skylar who wanted to try out my camera. She captured the only one of me for the day, and one of her dad with his Uncle Greg.

Matt, Ella, and Maddy

When Skylar and Ella came to bake cookies the week before Christmas, Skylar wondered if "the piano lady" was coming this year. We missed Sonora last year, but she was here this year, and entertaining the girls as always.

From the right, my niece Jasmine; her brother Mason; his girlfriend, Molly; Jasmine's husband, Hollis; and Tracy. Jasmine and Hollis had exciting news---they'll be parents
in early May!

And last, my favorite photo of the day: Miss Ella on the stairs before the party began.

If you got to the bottom of this post, thanks for hanging in there! Still frigid weather here; hoping for warmer temperatures tomorrow when I do have to go out. 

 

Five in Five on the 5th

Last night I thought I'd type up this post using some photos we took at the Albright-Knox Museum last month, and then realized that they were not taken within five minutes. When I woke up this morning, I immediately saw the beautiful patterns the ice had made on some of our windows, so decided to take five photos from five different windows. It was 0° when we woke up, with a wind chill of -20°.  Last night, all the county schools closed for today in anticipation of unsafe wind chill numbers. The high is only forecasted to be 4°.

When we arrived home from Chicago on Wednesday night, our furnace was not working. We know it was working earlier in the day because we can change the thermostat from afar, and did so before we left Chicago. It wasn't nearly as cold that night (22°), and the house was still a little warm, but by 10:00 when the repairman appeared, the house was getting really cold. We needed a new motor, and fortunately, there was one in the truck! We still need another repair, one that will require the furnace to be off for six hours. It's scheduled for tomorrow, but Tracy is calling to reschedule for the middle of the week when it's supposed to be in the high 30's. This cold snap will last through tomorrow night. 

All these photos were taken about 7:00 this morning with my iPhone.

The last photo was taken from one of our kitchen windows. They are new windows, and better insulated so they don't frost up often. Nonetheless, while I was having breakfast sitting near them, it was much colder than in the living room! You can see that we've had a bit of snow, and if you look closely, you can see the red ribbon from the evergreen ball blowing in the wind. I'm intending to stick close to home today despite the fact that I badly need a workout at the gym.

I'm joining in with Sandie for her monthly 5 in 5. Yesterday I discovered that I never did a 5 in 5 in December, but managed every other month last year. Hope to be here every month this year.

Fusion Card Challenge: Mail Call

I'm excited to be the guest of Michelle Leon for the first Fusion Card Challenge of 2018: Mail Call. The inspiration piece at Fusion always has two parts:  a photograph and a sketch. You can opt to use one or both. The Design Team has lots of inspiration for you right here. Each designer has invited a friend as a guest so there's twice the inspiration this time around. Be sure to check it out!

I decided to use both the photograph and the sketch. Looking at the photo, I took three elements:  the wooden boards, the color combination of turquoise, gray, and white and the keys.

I scored the gray portion of the card to represent the gray boards in the photograph, and added two shades of turquoise to the right side of the card following the sketch. The key (Papertrey Ink "Lock and Key") was die cut three times from silver paper and layered for another bit of dimension. I didn't have any stamped sentiments that worked well, so went to my digital files and found this circle. It was filed without any reference to the designer. I resized it, added two words to the center to create a sentiment with the key filling in for the last "word," and die cut it with Simon Says "Stitched Circles." Finally I adhered the focal piece to a white card base, and then decided to add the three silver hearts that fell out of the key die.

Join in with the Fusion DT and be sure to check out the gallery in a few days.

Becca Cruger

Michelle Leon

Betty J

Carol Mayne

Jeanne Jachna

Karren Johnson

Linda Callahan

Lyndal Higgins

Michelle Lupton

Michelle Williams

To play along:

1. Play with just the sketch challenge.
2. Play with just the inspiration photo challenge.
3. Or you can create FUSION by combining BOTH challenges into one card.
4. Use the challenge graphic and link back to Fusion in your post.