Weekend Recap

Friday:
Light load at work and then at 2p had a half hour chair massage as a "job well done" treat. The massage was nice, my shoulders are still a little tinder as she said they would be.

My original plan was to leave from work to go to a friend's who is about 30/45 min. from work and stay the night. Saturday being an artsy day together. Small catch. The auto repair place called me Fri. morning announcing my car was ready for pick up*. This caused me to have to head back home 30/45 min drive from work to drop off the rental. I chose to stay in my area of town for Fri night and drive out to her place on Sat. which is about an hour from my home.

*Yea! My car is repaired from my minor car accident back on 10.31.07. Why did it take so long you might ask... the car insurance didn't get back to me until it was 2 weeks before Christmas, i was crazy busy and leaving town, no time. January same story except the relatives where coming into town. Then February arrived and i had some time to deal with it. My car looks almost bran new. Now, someday, i might have the money to care enough to fix the dent on the passenger, driver side, door but not now.

Friday Night:
My husband’s plans also fell through. We decided to go to the movies as a moment to escape with each other. Had not been to the movies sense Jan. it was fun. Saw The Spiderwick Chronicles, enjoyed it.

We leave the theater and M gets a text message from his mom. We drive from the theater to M's parent's house. More bad news. M's youngest brother has a suspicious spot/lump/pump in his left shoulder. Youngest Bro had had pain in his left arm for about six months, had six dr. visits in that time, Fri. finally got an MRI and it showed the spot in his shoulders when previous x-rays had not. Needless to say my mother-in-law is beside herself. She even was saying she got hysterical at the hospital and wouldn't leave until they assigned a dr. for a biopsy this week. Being a Friday they have to wait till today to actually make an appointment for it. Everyone is trying to stay calm and keep the thought that this is all how it started with Ernie only a two weeks ago.

Thank you to everyone for your comments regarding prayer for my family, muchly appreciated!

Saturday:
Drive out friend's house for a day of fellowship and block printing. I got to play instructor on how to make a block print. Until yesterday never realized how many steps are involved in the process. She lives in the country and we got to take a walk along the dirt roads in the sun shine. It was a wonderful time!

Sunday:
Nothing actually happened. I read a little more of The Artist Way and did a few exercises. I helped M with his school photography project. By mid afternoon i had a weird listlessness going on. I couldn't figure out what to do to make it go away. I played more Guitar Hero 3, I'm stuck on the last set of songs on Hard and can't get past the 3rd set on Expert. Apparently I can't strum fast enough for the notes, ah well. Playing online against others are fun. Then I watched Martian Child with John Cusak, it was a good story.


How was your weekend?

If only...

M, last night, walking out of the hospital:
"It's times like these that make you wonder what Adam and Eve were thinking."

M's maternal grandfather Ernie, a man he is very close to, has been diagnosed with cancer in his whole body. "Full of cancer" is how Ernie put it. Told only months.

The news is shocking.

A lot is whirling in my mind. Change is here, change is coming...

Cupcake-a-palooza

In excellent timing the ACEO I purchased from Jeannine arrived on Valentines day. Isn't it cute? Plus as a bonus she sent a magnetic button!

This ACEO and all the ones she's made and making for the month of February will be for sale at her Esty shop Boodzoo Studio. The cost of the card goes to the USO Operation Phone Home, they provide phone calling cards to those in the armed services so they can call their loved ones and families from anywhere in the world.

I highly recommend going to her blog Art Play Possibility to find out more about what she's up to for the month of February. Also, she's on a mission to make an Artist Trading Card every day until her husband comes back home from his duties as a marine in a year!

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A few weeks ago I run into my local craft store for a few things. Turns out they were having this craft fair inside the store. There were different projects set up in all the different areas of the store. After making a crafty paper frame for a photo I wondered into the fabric area. They happened to be making cloth cupcakes from felt as the cake part and fabric pulled into yoyos for the icing. They were promoting this little plastic circle that makes it way easy to make the yoyos. I didn't buy it, if I had I would have also purchased a tone of fabric. I love fabric I just don't sow...yet.

Quote Dr. Seuss

"Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You." - Dr. Seuss

Possibility

It was amazing, i actually had time to eat breakfast at home today. While munching on my bagel and sipping my coffee I continued to read the first chapter of The Artist Way by Julia Cameron. Here is the paragraph that I need so much that I marked it in the book with a little sticky and want to share it.

"Many of us find that we have squandered our own creative energies by investing disproportionately in the lives, hopes, dreams and plans of others. Their lives have obscured and detoured our own. As we consolidate a core through our withdrawal process, we become more able to articulate our own boundaries, dreams, and authentic goals. Our personal flexibility increases while our malleability to the whims of others decreases. We experience a heightened sense of autonomy and possibility."

Amen!

I have been doing exactly that, giving disproportionately to others lives! I easy feel obligated and then quickly egotistical that I am the only one able to help. I've been feeling greatly overwhelmed by the things i said "yes" to, things i now feel obligated to continue doing. I once heard the definition of overwhelmed as placing equal important to all tasks. I agree with that definition but it's hard to priorities collaborative projects with different people when those people feel their project is top. I can't say yes to so much and still give it all equal attention.

I am slowly scratching off things on my list of projects to finish. The end of this week will mark the completion of the 3 month freelance project and what was suppose to be a fun personal project. The personal project started out fun but then i stressed my self by being overly ambitious on hand embellishment and it having the same deadline as the freelance project. At the same time work has become extremely busy and stressful. There is a tremendous pressure to meet their crazy deadlines because of upper managements inability to time manage, I actually cried yesterday and to me that's a horrible sign.

I am a little burnt. I feel the way i did at the end of December a little fuzzy in the brain and lacking energy. Not sure what the remedy is yet. If I can just make it to the end of next week then I think I’ll be good.