weekly update no. 1

picture: russ rolling cord. we recorded a few songs tonight, which was really fun. we don't have space to leave the stuff out all the time, so russ cleaned up after.

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this week went really well. i found the fasting from the internet to be really healthy for me. i didn't necessarily make a lot of art this past week, but i felt better about myself and more emotionally honest.

doing the yoga daily was refreshing and i actually felt like time was passing at a reasonable pace, rather than the blur it had become. i was able to breathe. to hear myself think. to be inspired.

and i baked! i didn't take pictures, but i made chocolate chip banana bread this week, which was so yummy! and peach cobbler last night. i feel like myself again. i hadn't cooked with pleasure in months.

i also listened to two podcasts this week that were really enlightening and inspiring to me:

krista tippett talking to rachel naomi remen

and

grace and peace - a talk by rob bell

both of these targeted issues of identity and purpose, things with which i often struggle. they were both encouraging and both brought a sense of clarity. so i thought i'd share. they're really both worth listening to.

i also posted some new pictures online. i made a new painting recently that i hadn't photographed, and some around the house shots too.

hope everyone's well. i'll be back next weekend!
namaste,
sam

for my own good....

my husband and i got rid of our tv when we moved from texas a few years ago and were really happy with our choice. we had more time for our hobbies (music and art/crafts) and more time with each other.

however, as my husband has been working on grad school so much lately, i've found that i spend more and more time on the internet during the week. i come home and he is spread out on our sofa with his laptop, so i sit in the only available seat at my drafting table, where my computer is.

then i become some sort of internet zombie. i've realized that i spend at least an hour or two every day looking at blogs, shopping websites, flickr, facebook, the news, and other random sites i end up at.

at the same time, i have felt a decrease in the amount and quality of time i spend on reading, making art and meditating/praying. after losing my dad last september, i've had a hard time dealing with my emotions. i spend a greater part of every week suppressing my feelings and slipping into an ever-deepening numbness that has made me feel isolated and lonely. i haven't struggled with depression in this way in a long time.

so... this weekend, after a refreshing cry and long talk with russ, i've decided to try some changes in my schedule.

first is to commit to doing a 30 minute yoga and 30 minute devotional/bible/praying time every day when i get home from work.

second is to move my computer from my desk to a small side table and unplug it. i will only be turning it on during the weekends. the hope is that through this discipline i will find more time to grieve and let my emotions surface and also get in touch with the things i love doing and have missed in the past few months, like reading, drawing, sewing, etc.

as a result, i will only be checking email on the weekends, so please know that if you have a more pressing need, you should probably call my cell phone or try emailing russ. i will also be processing all my etsy sales on the weekends, which will slow it down a bit, but hopefully will mean that i am actually making more things to sell, so i think it is a good thing in the end.

i will also try to post on this blog on the weekends, with more pictures of what i'm making and more of my writings and maybe some of the songs russ and i have written, if we can figure out how to stream them. :)

next week i'll post pics of the new living room and my desk.

cheers to all of you! see you next weekend!
sam