Ali Edwards's Blog, page 163

For The Love Of Books | April 2017

This post is part of a new monthly series "For The Love Of Books" where I track and share what I've been reading in 2017. I'm also trying to do that on Goodreads as well if you are already into that platform. My hope is to post on or near the first of each month to share what I ended up reading last month and then share what books I'm selecting from Book Of The Month (BOTM) for the next month.

Please Note // This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.

Before I share more about what I've been reading I wanted to share three things I'm loving about being a part of Book Of The Month Club. (1) It's easy, (2) it's motivating, and (3) it's making me read things I might not have chosen otherwise. Here's a little more detail on each of those points: (1) It's easy because I have a limited number of choices - many of you guys know that I love limited choices as a method of simplicity in so many areas. (2) It's motivating because I know that another book or round of books will be coming the next month and my goal is to finish the one's I order before the next round comes. (3) One of the things I really do love that I'm being introduced to new authors, new kinds of stories, and to books that I might not otherwise pick if I was just walking into the store or library or browsing online. This style of reading is currently really making me happy in my life overall. I love how it is encouraging me to simply read more for pleasure. 

In March I read five books. FIVE. You can see those titles in my completed 2017 list below. I can't remember the last time that happened. 

Out of those five I think that Pachinko ended up being my favorite of the ones I read in March probably followed by Exit West. 

In April I finished three books: Good As Gone, American War (BOTM) and Into The Water (BOTM). You can read my longer reviews at the bottom of those post but I ended up loving American War after having a tough time getting into it. After that one I started and finished Into The Water in just a couple days - a fast read where you just want to know how it ends (from the author of Girl On The Train - see promo regarding this book below).

Today is May 1 and that means it's time for current BOTM subscribers to choose books from this month's selections. If you haven't joined yet read below for a cool joining bonus this month. 

For May's Book Of The Month I chose the following books: 

Since We Fell by Dennis Lehane (author of Mystic River and Shutter Island) // Started reading this over the weekend and I've been sucked into it already.   Woman No. 17 by Edan Lepucki The Leavers by Lisa Ko

I'm really excited about all three of these books (all fiction this time). 

Sometimes people ask how I have my books already for May when most people are just choosing? I initially received a gift subscription from Katie for Christmas and started posting about it on Instagram because I was so in love with the idea of getting a book in the mail each month. After that I was contacted by their media team and invited to be part of their Ambassador program where they give me the chance to see the books in advance and they send them to me in exchange for a post when the new books become available each month.

"INTO THE WATER" PROMOTION

And, this is cool: BOTM has an awesome bonus for new subscribers and an add-on option for current subscribers for May -
Into the Water By Paula Hawkins - the brand new book from the author of Girl On The Train. If you are not a member yet you get a copy for free when you sign up for 3 month subscription with Book Of The Month using the promo code WATER. If you are a current member you can pre-order Into The Water on their site for only $9.99 and I believe it will ship with your book selection for May.

Looking for a fun Mother's Day gift idea? Consider
giving the gift of reading. Gift a BOTM membership and get a 1 month free for yourself! Gifts are available in 3, 6 or 12 month plans. This offer starts on April 25th and runs through May 15th. The free month can be redeemed at any time after the gift is purchased.

This is how I first started with BOTM - Katie gifted me a three-month membership and I love it. 

Also, at some point today I'll be opening a giveaway over on my Instagram account for five winners to receive a 3-month subscription to Book Of The Month. 

IN PROGRESS

Currently Reading:

Since We Fell (BOTM)At Home In The World: Reflections On Belonging While Wandering The Globe // A new book from Tsh Oxenreider who runs the site The Art of Simple. This one is a memoir about her family's nine-month traveling adventures. 

Started But Haven't Finished // Sometimes I start a book and get part way through and set it down for one reason or another - lately it's been that I've been more excited to read something else:

Secret Garden // I think I have about 1/4 left of this one.  Present Over Perfect: Leaving Behind The Frantic For A Simpler, More Soulful Way Of Living // Reading this one slowly when I feel like I want/need to read the words.  Born A Crime: Stories From A South African Childhood (Kindle) // Loving this one and picking it up here and there between other books. 
READ IN 2017

NOTE:
(BOTM) means the book came from the Book Of the Month Club. 

JANUARY

You Will Know Me (BOTM) // First book from BOTM. Read it in a day and a half (suspense). Enjoyed.  Lucky You (BOTM) // I remember liking this one as I was reading it but to be honest I can barely remember it now. This is why I'm trying to remember to post some short thoughts on Instagram when I finish each one. 

FEBRUARY

Behind Her Eyes (BOTM) // Suspense. Crazy twist. Enjoyed.  Perfect Little World (BOTM) // Vacation read. Liked the change of pace on this one (had been reading more suspense). This one was a sweet little story with topics of motherhood and family and tribes of people and how things change.  What Alice Forgot (Kindle) // Vacation read. Totally enjoyed this story and imagining what it would be like to experience memory loss in this way. Not suspense.   

MARCH

The Twilight Wife // Aaron picked this one out at Target to read while we were on vacation and I read it when he was done. I thought this one was okay - probably had something to do with the fact that I read What Alice Forgot right before this one and they both deal with memory loss (this one is more suspense). The Stranger In The Woods (BOTM) // Non-fiction. This true story about a man living in the woods of Maine for almost 30 years read like a long-form magazine article. I enjoyed the break from the fiction I've been reading.  Exit West (BOTM) // This one was a lot different from what I've been reading and I appreciated it for that. Different kind of narrator (omniscient) and subject matter (refugees). Glad I read it.  Marlena (BOTM) // Gave this one three stars on Goodreads. I'm going to go with "like" but not "love" on this one. I kinda think, after finishing it, that it might be one that will pop up in my mind as I go about my days (so maybe it should get a better review). I enjoyed the story and she used a few writing techniques that I really liked. Sometimes it felt slow and I just wanted her to get on with the story :). Pachinko (BOTM) // Seriously loved this one and am super glad I picked it up again after putting it down before our Mexico trip. Epic generational tale of Koreans living in Japan (really loved learning more about that). 

APRIL

Good As Gone (Kindle) // Definitely stayed interested and engaged with the story and wanted to know what was going to happen. As others have mentioned, the beginning felt stronger than the end. Felt like the author had a unique voice. Glad I read it. Three stars.  American War (BOTM) // This book took me longer to read than others recently and sometimes I would forget that it was a future US civil war vs. the past civil war and I wondered more than once where in the world the story was actually heading (and was it actually heading anywhere)? There were days where I felt like I was making myself read it - which I don't always don - but for some reason I wanted to keep reading. There was a certain point in this book, probably more than halfway through the story, where I realized that this was an exceptional book. I finished it today and I think it's one of the best books I've read in awhile. I found the author to be an extremely sophisticated writer/storyteller who was very purposeful and deliberate with his prose - I can't remember the last time I really felt that way about the words I was reading on the page.Into The Water (BOTM) // A super fast, page-turning read for me. At first I felt like it was hard to keep up with all the different narrators but as I got more into it I was able to keep all the characters straight (it was one of those where I needed to keep flipping back and forth to remember who was who). Definitely enjoyed for a quick read! 

MAY

Since We Fell (BOTM) // Started this over the weekend and I'm totally into it. 

Week In The Life™ 2017 | Getting The Words Into My Album

If step one in this process of creating a Week In The Life™ album is "just start" then the next step is most likely "do the work."

Yep,
do the work. 

Today I did the work of getting all my journaling printed (prioritizing the words) for each of my days. This year I decided to just printmy journaling for each day all together on one or more "journaling pages" rather than adding words directly to photos. I might still add some handwritten words to my photos when I get to that phase. 

My stories are copied directly from my blog posts last week. One of the reasons I take the time to blog during the documentation portion of Week In The Life™ is to make this next phase of the process that much easier. Copy + paste is my friend and it can be your friend too. 

Here's a run-down of my process (also check out my video below that talks about all of this as well): 

ONE // Create a canvas that is 7 inches x 8.25 inches - this is essentially the size of the outside of the page protectors from edge to edge. If you have extra full size 6x8 pocket page protectors you could totally do your journaling pages at that size - I just decided to go with the full size measurement of the outside of the page protectors. I created my canvas in Illustrator but you can also do it in Photoshop. 

TWO // Set a guide at .75 inches from the left edge and create your text box. Remember that if you are going to be adhering journaling pages back to back that you will need to adjust your guides to the other side of your page (the right side) so as not to have your text box be where the holes are for the rings. 

THREE // Copy and paste the text from my blog posts and add them to my canvases. The font I'm using is Remington Noiseless 9pt type. To accentuate the times on my journaling pages I changed the color the colors each day to be similar to the transparent dividers. 

FOUR // After printing out my journaling pages I measured and then cropped and printed photos to fit in the space that was left at the bottom. I also used my Time Roller Stamp and StazOn to add the time directly onto my photos. I'm planning to do this on all my photos in the album this year - using my journaling pages as a guide for the times. 

One thing that made it easier for me at this stage was measuring each of the spaces where I wanted photos on the journaling pages and making a list for myself. I was then able to just take that list over to my computer to select, crop and print all my photos. 

Remember, there isn't a "perfect" photo for any of these pages or pockets. There are just photos that help move your overall story along. 

Here's a 21-minute video that takes a closer look at my process and the outcome: 

And here's a look at each day's journaling pages: 

MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

SUNDAY

SUPPLIES

Neenah Bright White Cardstock (great for printing journaling + digital products)
We R Memory Keepers Power Punch // A little bit bigger hole than the Crop A Dile which is great for matching the hole size in page protectors. 
AED Time Roller Stamp // I'll be using this to add the times to my photos. 
Canon MG7720 Printer // Using this for both journaling and photos. 
Epson Ultra Premium Photo Paper Glossy // Using this for photos. 

AE Creative Team | March + April Releases

Happy Thursday! 

Today we are sharing projects our Creative Team made using the March 2017 and April 2017 Digital Kits.  You can read more about how we've changed up how we are releasing digital products this year here.

MARCH DIGITAL KIT

APRIL DIGITAL KIT

Be sure to check out our 
Creative Team Gallery where you can go to see how the team is crafting their stories using my products - including additional images from the projects we are sharing below.

Brandi Kincaid

Casie Gutierrez

Ingunn Markiewicz

Jen Carlson

Jen Schow

Jenny Theriault

Jess Forster

Julie Gagen

Kelly Ishmael

Laura Kurz

Laura Wonsik

Mel Blackburn

Melanie Louette

Pam Baldwin

Sarah Zayas

Week In The Life™ 2017 | How I Get Started On My Album

After a full week of documentation for Week In The Life™ I generally like to take a few days off just to take care of other stuff that needs attention and let the week's words and stories settle.

Then I start. 

I just start. 

Starting can totally be the hardest part. What in the world do you do first? There's not a right or wrong answer to this question and the more you embark on projects like this the more comfortable you will become with your own process and flow. Some people like to wait until they've printed all their photos and filled all their pockets to do their title pages, some people like to do it before the documentation phase even begins, and some people like to do it to get them going with their album after the documentation phase. 

This year I decided to begin with my title and reason why pages. They are super simple and I love them. 

Edited // I see that I have the end date wrong on the image above - I will fix that today!

I went with two full-page 6x8 photos each with text (Remington Noiseless font) typed on the photos in Photoshop before printing here at home on my Canon MG7720 printer using Epson Ultra Premium Glossy Photo Paper. 

Here's a look at each page within my album: 

I didn't share this photo that I took last week here on the blog because at first I thought I might use it for an upcoming Story Theme (you can hear me talk more about that in the video below) but as I was looking back through my photos from the week I thought it was the perfect way to start off this album and I love all the white space above the towels. I added our names and the date and then one of the chipboard pieces form the Week In The Life Kit™. 

For my Reason Why page I really wanted to include a photo with all of us and this was the only one I got during my documentation week. It's a super silly selfie of all seven of us and I love it. I did some edits in Photoshop to make the sky taller in order to create a home for my journaling and title and one of the rubber circles from the Week In The Life™ Kit. I use red line super sticky tape to adhere that rubber circle to my photo.  

My journaling for this page says: "A crazy, fun group of seven humans, each with our own thoughts and feelings and opinions and stories. This is our first year all under the same roof and it’s been quite an experience becoming “us.” This project is a look at what was going on and the comings and goings during one week in our house in April of 2017. Bring on the stories."

The "we are" word art is very similar to one you can find in the I, We, You digital package. 

A couple notes about what I'm using: 

PRINTER // Canon MG7720 // This is a really affordable printer that has been great both for printing photos and for printing digital products. 
PHOTO PAPER // Epson Ultra Premium Glossy Photo Paper 8.5x11 // I use this paper both in my Canon printer as well as my oversize Epson printer when I print larger pages (Epson SureColor P400).Week In The Life™ Kit

Here's a video overview about my starting place for bringing my words and photos together into this album: 

In the video you'll hear me mention both my Lens Of Joy workshop and my Hybrid workshop for getting significantly more details on my overall memory keeping process. Lens Of Joy is great for learning more about looking through the lens of your camera, establishing your story, uploading, editing, printing, etc. Hybrid is great for learning the basics of working with digital scrapbooking products on traditional memory keeping projects. 

Next up for me will be formatting my stories. I'm going to do something similar to what I did last year and take all my stories for the day and bring them into one block of text vs. adding words to each photo (which I've also done in the past). Remember, don't make it more complicated than it needs to be - and what's simple for me might be complicated for you. 

After I format my stories I'll move on to dealing with my photos for each day. I like to work one day at a time so I'll most likely start with Monday and whatever I do for that day (in terms of design) will be repeated for the other six days. I don't reinvent the wheel each day - I create a design formula for myself and I repeat it for each day. This makes the whole process a lot smoother. 

Two issues that often come up for people at the start of this phase of the project include: (1) attempting to choose which photos to include in the album and having a hard time making those decisions (usually meaning you have more than could ever fit into an album) or (2) feeling like you don't have enough photos and you're not sure how to go about this next phase if you don't have enough photos even to fill the pockets that come with the album.

Both are valid challenges, but don't let them stop you from moving forward. 

Remember, and this is super important, you don't have to use every single photo you took during the week for this project. Did you take five different shots of one activity? Pick and use just one photo to tell the story of that part of your day. Look for the photo that is most in alignment with the story you want to tell. It might be the setting (the environment) or it might be the subject (person, pet, etc) or it might simply be the feeling you get when you look at the photo. I generally pick photos that work together to tell an overview story of our day. Something from the morning, something from mid-day, and something from the evening with a few others thrown in. I like to have a mix of close up shots and far away shots (not usually of the same scene because space is limited) to tell the story of my day.

Also super important, you could totally do this project with one photo per day and just a whole lot of words documenting your day. Maybe that's what you end up doing with what you were able to collect this year and then next year you try to get more photos. You don't have to throw the whole project out just because you don't have enough photos for every single day. Think about the overall story you want to tell about your week and make that the focus of your album. 

Have fun and let me know if you have any questions about my starting place!

Project Life® 2017 | Week Fourteen

I'm starting the process of working on my Week In The Life™ album and while that happens behind the scenes I wanted to share a look at my Week Fourteen in Project Life®: 

On all my photos this week I added a few handwritten words - most with a heart followed by the words - using one of my Precision Pens (.03) and I also added one of the Week Days Craft Die words. I use an Evolution machine along with my craft dies to create those designs. And I love the ease of simply just writing on my printed photos. 

If you aren't interested in craft dies but like the look of those days of the week you can also find that same design on these stamps (Days Of The Week Flags) and they are available digitally here (Thick Days). 

My title card this week is one of the gold foil OLW Inspiration Cards. Those are sold out but we do have them available digitally. 

"Less Stuff More Life" is from the Stuff Story Kit™ and "the story of this meal" is from the Eat Story Kit™. 

See that pink-tint to the bottom black and white photo? Ha. That's all because when I took the photo I was wearing all pink: sweatpants, t-shirt, and sweatshirt. 

I've been trying to add a few more work-related Instagram stories of projects in process and last week when I was working on this spread I showed a video of how I use these craft dies with the Evolution machine. After cutting out the week days using white cardstock I just used rolling adhesive to adhere them to my photos.

"Gratitude For This Story" card comes from my Gratitude Journal Card set. Love this project for documenting the simple things in life I'm thankful for on a weekly basis. 

Hope you are having a great week!

SUPPLIES USED REGULARLY IN PROJECT LIFE® 2017
Project Life Design A Page Protectors Project 52 Fresh Core Kit (anything with rounded corners) Past Story Kits™ Rolling Date Stamp 12x12 Project Life® / Heidi Swapp / Black & White Album Week By Week Word Art Gratitude 3x4 NotepadLOOKING FOR MORE PROJECT LIFE® STORYTELLING INSPIRATION? 

[image error]

Check out my
Storytelling With Project Life® workshop that is now available as a self-paced workshop. 

Topics include: 

Lesson One | A look back at many of my past Project Life® albums (2010-2015) with individual video walk-throughs. The take-away from this lesson is the opportunity to learn from the past and reflect on what's worked and what's not worked to create a plan for right now. Lesson Two | Process exploration. Setting expectations, creating a plan for yourself (key word here being "YOU") and setting yourself up for success by establishing a storytelling mindset. This content will be specific to telling stories in Project Life®.   Lesson Three | Specific storytelling ideas, encouragement, and inspiration to spark stories.   Lesson Four | Working with products in Project Life®.

Week In The Life™ 2017 | Sunday Words + Photos

Thank you so much for joining me for the documenting portion of Week In The Life™. I have loved seeing your photos and reading your stories both here in the comments and within the Week In The Life™ Facebook Group. 

Today I'm sharing my Sunday words + photos as I wrap up this part of the project and get ready to begin the second half of the project: bringing all these words and photos into an actual album. I'll be sharing more about that process either later this week or early next week.  

Here's a look at my Sunday: 

8:44am // Working on a blog post from Saturday stories. Coffee and cat nearby.

9:25am // Showed up for yoga this morning - wasn't sure I was going to make it because I wanted to finish up that blog post before I left the house. I'm so glad I was able to make it because I loved the message of a strong, stable inside and a fluid outside. I love, love going.

10:40am // Soccer Chocolate Kittens (Anna's soccer team) play again today and I'm in charge of snacks.Today was so much about food: shopping, prepping and eating. 

One of my favorite go-to meals: vegetable sushi rolls. Eaten in the car as I went about my morning shopping errands after yoga. 

11:39am // Next stop is to my favorite Asian grocery store for Shabu Shabu supplies for our dinner tonight. I shared a bunch about this process in my Instastory yesterday on Instagram. Shabu Shabu is basically thinly sliced meat + vegetables cooked in a very hot broth (essentially it's a Japanese hot pot - I cook it in a Cuisinart Fondue Pot) and then dipped into two different sauces before eating. The name means "swish swish" because you are "swishing" the thinly sliced meat in the hot water and it cooks super fast. My family has been eating this meal since I was a kid and it's one of my favorite things to cook when we have friends over. Tonight I decided to do it just for me and Aaron. Here are a couple links to learn more: Just One Cookbook and Japanese Cooking 101. These are the sauces we use (or you can use recipes to make your own): sesame sauce + ponzu sauce. 

To take this photo I set my iPhone vertically on a shelf that was pointing into the aisle. 

A couple people asked me on Instagram yesterday if I feel self-conscious when I take photos like this in stores. I really don't. I don't do it all the time and when I do it it's usually because I'm doing a project like this where I really want to have these kinds of shots of me out in the world included in my project. I usually look for opportunities when there aren't a lot of people around, but if people are there I just smile at them. 

12:54pm // Back home to unload and clean out the fridge and prep soccer snacks and start chopping vegetables for dinner and think about menu items for later this week when the kids will be back.

1:19pm // Oranges prep for the soccer game - cutting and bagging. Probably going to be a very muddy, rainy soccer game today. 

Washing the baby bok choy. 

Everything all chopped up: baby bok choy, shiitake mushrooms, green onions, and sliced sweet onions. These will all be cooked in my Cuisinart Fondue Pot while we sit at the table. 

Aaron getting another coat of paint on the stair trim and spindles. He found a great Pinterest tip to use a sock to paint the spindles vs. using a brush which is hard to get around those spindles. He's getting to listen to a lot of his favorite podcasts while he paints. 

Soccer sometimes includes dancing too. 

3:49pm // Soccer Chocolate Kittens always keep trying (that's their motto). Simon's manning the big camera today and might be a little too close to Chris.

She bonked bodies/heads with a player on the other team and stayed super strong until the game was over. 

5:53pm // Time to enjoy our dinner. Love this meal so much - love social eating like this. After dinner we took a bath and then watched a couple more episodes of Fargo. A great ending to this week. 

Just a quick reminder that I'll be working on my album over the course of the next week and will share my process at certain points here on my blog. Thanks again for being a part of this project and this community!

SHARE A LINK TO YOUR BLOG IN THE COMMENTS

In the past I've offered a linking widget here to collect links to people who wanted to share their Sunday post of words + photos. For some reason I can't get it to work again so if you would like to share a link to your SUNDAY words and photos please post in the comment section below. Please link directly to your post vs. a general blog link. Thank you!

Week In The Life™ 2017 | Saturday Words + Photos

For many of us today will be the last day of photo taking for this week and for some of you, as I've read in the Facebook Group, you are just getting started. Either way, whenever you attempt this project and whatever sort of memory keeping you do, I'm super proud of you for valuing your story. 

A couple reflections on my own documenting day (Saturday): 

I took more vertical photos than I typically do with my phone (no right or wrong, just an observation - historically I've taken almost 99% horizontal and then cropped vertical if I needed). I only used my DSLR once so one of my goals for the last day is to pick that one up more again (again, no right or wrong just something I want to do today). I love a quiet life. 

Here's a look at my Saturday:

8:03am // Always looking for opportunities to read. Hoping to finish up 

Week In The Life™ 2017 | Friday Words + Photos

Ah, Friday. Love this day of transition into the weekend. 

We are getting closer to the end of this documenting project and like most years I'm taking fewer photos. I'm totally fine with that. 

Keep going my friends and get what you can get. Enjoy the last couple of days of more consistent photo taking. 

Here's a look at my Friday: 

7:53am // Giving thanks for a little later wake-up today. It's pretty cozy but coffee sounds so good. Time to get up.

9:03am // Giving thanks for washing machines + getting loads started that I can move around over the course of the day. I have a wonderful cleaning person that comes on Thursdays so I often wash all the sheets on Fridays. I totally give thanks for her work for our family too. (And, I like bags

Week In The Life™ 2017 | Thursday Words + Photos

I love this project. That's all. 

That's how I feel about it tonight as I look back over my photos for this day. I'm so thankful for the "push" to take more photos, something I feel like I do less of overall these days, especially with my bigger camera. Time and life and love and story and even the hard parts are so very precious. Let's be the people that are thankful every day.

Here's a look at my Thursday: 

5:58am // Woke up this morning and found this photo that Aaron texted me at 8:53pm last night. I didn't even make it to 9pm.

8:02am // Fell back asleep for a bit after my first wake up then showered and fed the animals and filled the dishwasher and then walked outside to pick these. Thank you Floret for selling the best bulbs - I believe these are called "sensual touch." I seriously can not recommend their products enough - the dahlias I ordered from there last year were so awesome. I can't wait to see how the ones I ordered for this summer turn out. 

8:16am // Repeating a photo I took the other day because this is truly a daily thing. Photo taken with my iPhone propped up against a flower vase using the timer.

8:36am // We have a visitor! Stomach bug for Anna = no school. Chris had meetings this morning so she's hanging out here with some Gatorade for awhile.

8:55am // Morning social media check-in for Facebook Groups and classroom forums. Some days I like to sit at the dining table vs. my desk for a change of perspective. I took this one with my iPhone propped up against a flower vase. 

9:52am // More meetings. It's what we do.

11:54am // Lunch. Burrito. Same as yesterday = simple and easy.

After lunch I went back up to my office to continue going down my list for the day. 

When I'm here by myself in the office I usually listen to podcasts. Three of my current favorites include: 

Pantsuit Politics // This is a new-to-me political podcast that features a woman from the left (Sarah Stewart Holland) and a woman from the right (Beth Silvers) and I love their super-civil, educated discussions about current political and world events. And PS, Sarah is a memory keeper and has participated in Week In The Life™ and December Daily®.  The Daily // From The New York Times.  The Simple Show // From Tsh Oxenreider of The Art Of Simple (a blog I've been a fan of for years now). General simple living + family life + travel stuff. Tsh has a new book out that I posted about on Instagram earlier this week called At Home In The World - a memoir about how they took their kids on an around-the-world trip for nine months.

That flower painting is a recent purchase from artist Erin Gregory. 

1:11pm // Working on Project Life® from last week this afternoon. Printing photos at least.

Currently Aaron's desk is set up in our bedroom while he remodels the space at the back of the garage (I have a really long garage) into his music room/office. I love that we both do most of our work from home.

As usual, this guy isn't far from the action. He's either in his basket in my office or on our bed near where Aaron is working on his computer. Our bed is from Target (Nail Button Wingback). 

1:51pm // I like it when he comes in my office to plan out the rest of our day. Especially because he's just not hard to look at.

4:26pm // Shopping with Aaron for some boys clothes at Old Navy and this is coming home with me.

He makes me laugh every single day. 

4:45pm // After Old Navy we headed over to one of our favorite local restaurants called Sabai. It's always busy there so we loved going early. 

They have the best drinks. I had a Rangoon Gimlet (tanqueray gin, basil, lemongrass, lime) and he had The Confession (jameson whiskey, cucumber, st germain, lemon). 

Usually when we go here it's dark so it was so fun to have awesome light for photos. I was so happy that I brought along my big camera. 

Green Green Avocado Curry for him + Pineapple Fried Rice with shrimp for me. 

6:20pm // When we got home Aaron had a meeting with our contractor friend who is advising and helping him on the music room renovations in the garage and I dropped off a couple purchases in the girls room (wishful thinking for flip-flop coming soon weather + these cute little shorts jumpers from Old Navy) on my way up to my office to upload the photos from our outing. These dressers have been in my family for a long time - at least when I was a young child + probably longer if I remember correctly. This is the first time in many, many years that they have been in the same room. Right now there is also a tv in the girls room that's hooked up to an Apple TV and is only used when they watch a movie together on Saturday mornings or sleepover nights with friends. When we merged houses we seemed to have an excess number of TV's (none of which are hooked up to "regular" TV).

I'm going to wrap up posting at this point for today. When I put my actual album together I might have a few more photos for the evening. 

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Week In The Life™ 2017 | Wednesday Words + Photos

Every other Wednesday around here is the transition day for Simon and Anna when they head to Chris' house after school for the rest of the week (they are with me for ten days and then with Chris for five). It's a schedule that has worked well for our family overall. This is one of those Wednesdays. The other kids will also be with their Mom from this evening through the weekend and they will all be back here again on Monday after school (they have their own schedule that these days, as a result of everyone working together, often overlaps with our schedule). 

I vividly remember how challenging and heartbreaking it was adjusting to this new reality of life without kids all the time. It was so, so hard in the beginning to let them go. Eventually the story evolved and I learned to embrace it for what it was: my reality. Now this time represents an opportunity for me to rest, to work so I have more time available when they are back again, to hang out with Aaron or other friends, to travel, to clean up, or to go to yoga anytime I want. 

People make it through things. 

Here's a look at how my Wednesday unfolded: 

6:52am // The morning pet-feeding rush.

7:02am // Waking up seemed to be a bit more challenging this morning.

7:33am // Miraculous recovery. Ha. Actually it was a pretty okay morning minus the reminders to keep doing what they are supposed to be doing to get ready. Anna has Easter Mass at school today and she's actually wearing the dress I wore when I was baptized + received First Communion. Thanks for saving that Mom.

Silly hugs between the girls before heading off in different directions for the rest of the week.

Isaac + Elliott have been sharing this room since they moved in and they are both looking forward to having their own space. Once they get their morning jobs done they are able to have some screen time before it's time to leave for school. 

On Wednesday's, because Simon has a late start, I get to walk Anna into school and to her classroom vs. just dropping her off and continuing on with Simon. It's a fun ritual that we both like and she loves the chance to be exclusively in charge of the music on the way to school. 

8:32am // On Wednesday's Simon's late start means I take Anna to school first and then come back to get him. I love that I get some time with each one individually as they start their day (and he loves to sleep in). There's hot cocoa in that mug there and a breakfast sandwich wrapped in the paper towel. Aaron drives the other three to their school and we wave as we pass each other coming + going on the highway. 

9:07am //