JemJam

Journal for Five

The five year old is now journaling and still showing great love for calendars since discovering one.

 

She updates this calendar every morning, I seriously have not touched it once since hanging it. One day, Jimmy thought that it would be funny to change the date to Jan 31 from the 5th, the next time that she walked by the calendar, she noticed, complained, told me about it, and corrected it.

 

 

Back to journaling...

In 2011, she insisted on putting the year on everything that she put on paper. I felt that it was time to show her how to date entries, once was all she needed...

 

I want to share her first few entries, I hope that she doesn't mind...

 

She received a "special camera" from a special bird, this was her first day to use it.

 

Yes, a MERMAID house (not a mermaid's house), mermaid cats, and snow.

 

A princess waiting to paint.

 

Each page in the notebook has the brand on it & my little lady crosses it out on every page. I love that so much.

 

You guys, five is magical.

Five

I do not want you to stay little.

I want you to grow and be the confident and independent little lady that you have been since your first days.

Go ahead, eat the frosting off of your cupcake first.

Keep updating calendars & making your bed each morning.

Continue to draw and write random things daily, especially in the morning, it will make your day even better.

Wear a skirt and play soccer. And win, or just have fun.

Love journals and pencils forever.

Don't give names to toys if you do not want.

Love Darth Vader, zombies, unicorns, & cats and own one pair of pants if you'd like.

Yes, if you see someone doing it wrong, show them how to use a knife, even if they are 8+ years older than you...

Keep drawing zombie Rapunzels.

Continue to question people, especially when they tell you "girls can't marry to a girl."

Yes, you can dance all day and night in that party dress. Who cares if someone thinks it is uncomfortable.

Continue to be selective. I see what it can do to people when they lower their worth.

We love you, little stinker! And yes, you can have an alarm clock now.

A Review of 2010, part 2 of 2

I'm going to jump right in and finish showing you some of what I did in 2010!

 

July:

Yeah, so I made this dress with my favorite dot fabric.  The frock is long and should get over a year's wear.  

It will get a lot of play because there are 16 panels that I sewed together there...

 

July was getting hot so, instead of working in the garden, I did more sewing than normally during the summer.

I made a little tote for my best bird, I may have started that embroidery in January, I do not remember. 

And a little zipper pouch to go with the tote was very necessary.

 

She loves the bag!  Hooray!  

Oh and I embellished my tee.

 

August:

I *think* that it was August 1 when we made our birds.  She will soon get a post of her own.

 

 

September:

Hmm mmm, all four in five days.

 

Ooh, yes!  Lamb kabobs!  We made some delicious tzatziki that day as well.  Mmm.  Happy Labor Day to us.

 

 

October:

Not going to lie to you right now, I may be ready to throw down with Bobby Flay, does he can jalapeños?

 

I like when I leave the room, some little person leaves there mark.

 

You already know about this...

 

For Halloween, I made Dorothy come true for mine. 

 

November:

Suz needed an apron--who am I to decline?

and who am I to not accessorize?

 

As you may have noticed a small person lives here, she cannot reach the hanging towel in the bathroom, so, she has her own that rest on the countertop for her, and since 2010 was the year of embroidery, I had an obligation to meet.

 

December:

What else was I going to do with this fabric, I mean, besides eat it.

 

A teen bird gets a messenger bag

 

and I had so much time on my hands, I thought that I would start making these:

 

 

 

and these: 

 

 

 and this:

 

Yes, December 2010 lead the way for 2011, which will be the year of the bag.  

You just wait.

A Review of 2010, part 1 of 2

It is really nice to reflect on the year's past through pictures, I am going to show some things that I made in 2010 in 2 posts as I am doing individual .jpgs.  Yes, this post is the best kind of heavy...

 

January:

 A birthday dress for our 3 year old

 

I loved it so much, I started another after our guests left that evening.

 

February:

Oh, this little thing?  It was a class with a Holly that I know. 

 

Of course, French General is on the list

 

March: 

Bibs for aforementioned Holly's baby boy

 

April: 

A Gilded Life meets Kaari Meng

 

Yes, again with the French General.  This bracelet was sold to aid Haiti after the earthquake last year.

 

May:

I made a lot of trips to the zoo

 

June:

A tiny necklace for a friend's Stella

 

Yep, okra's in the garden

 

E & I started morning glories with an eggshell garden, look at how much they've grown!

 

Basil, we can't get enough of this herb, E would pick it right out of the garden and snack on it.

 

This month, I am working on a birthday dress for a girl who's soon to be 4, my Cosmo bag, and a quilt.

 

 

Let's Make Guacamole!

One food that never gets any rest at this home is guacamole--all three of us love it! Our families love it, too. I treat any person unwilling to try it as suspect (I don't understand people that do not love food and I don't care for those people). On this particular day, we made my outstanding chicken enchiladas, which will one day have a post of its own. While the enchiladas are in the oven, we get the guac going. First, get 4 ripe avocados--cut in half.

Remove pits and have the cutest kid in your home throw them in the garbage (we do not compost food scraps).

Next, slice avocados INSIDE THE SKIN. (At one time, I assumed that this was common knowledge, but I have seen a person scoop first, then cut, what a mess!)

Scoop avocado into a bowl w/a metal spoon.

Juice 3 limes, add to bowl use your favorite masher and mash until you have reached your desired consistency, we prefer chunky. Add 1 large minced garlic clove, 1/2 of a chopped red onion, a handful of coarsely chopped cilantro, some salt (I only cook with kosher, ever).

Stir everything together, drizzle a little bit of olive oil on top.

Test the product.

Add more salt if necessary. At this point, I portion the kiddo's guacamole. Now, we dice 2 jalapeños (from our garden) and add to the best guacamole ever on Earth. Yeah, I said it.

No final product picture, boo!

Chicken Pot Pie

I have loved chicken pot pie since I was a little girl, I am not sure that I know a person who doesn't like it. Do these people exist in our country??  

I started making CPP a few years back, I used Joy of Cooking's recipe but, it was a bit labor intensive for me to make often with an infant under one arm. This past Xmas, my husband's mother gave me the Pioneer Woman Cooks, I had not heard of her but, there's lots of pictures in there, so I felt that I would give her recipe a try. I omitted peas because that is on the no travel list of my digestive system and teeth, and throat. Eww. Anyhow, I used fennel (started from seed in our garden!) instead and it gave such a great flavor to the filling.

 

It takes longest to cut all of the veggies than it does to cook the filling. I used chicken thighs (from a local farm), I boil them and I use that water for stock--$3.50 saved, which will be used for a future fennel purchase. Here is the filling complete with me adding thyme (also our home grown) last.

 

For topping, I no longer make a pie crust, I use a biscuit recipe. I never make the biscuits, I nab the closest, most unsuspecting person that is able to read and measure ingredients--they never see it coming. Thanks red-haired brother!

 

While the pot pie is in the oven, I call on my best spoon cleaner under 48 inches...

She approves and all is well and eaten ferociously.

 

Our Toddler

Is one year older! On her birthday, she got another haircut, wore a new dress and the three of us sat at her table and celebrated. 

 We sang to her

   

she opened her gifts from us (she would shake this everyday for 2 weeks, she thought that this was chocolate candy):

   

we ate cupcakes 

   

and most importantly, she received a train set!

 

 

This special moment lasted less than 15 minutes but, it was worth every second. It was so important to us to be able to do this with our daughter because we may never get the chance again to have such an intimate moment with her.

The Crucial Part of a Dinner Party

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, we are hosting it. Husband is smoking a turkey that is bathing in brine for a day. I will make everything but dessert. I should be making cornbread for stuffing right now, but, I needed to write a post.

Our toddler will be sporting this simple number tomorrow for lunch:

Yes, I started with the shoes, then decided on fabric.

You can look under, really, it's okay...

Baby E, I've always got your back.

xoxo.

I will pick up on Silver Bella this weekend.

Summertime

and the livin's easy...

   

Finish the lyrics... 

New stuff

On Memorial Day, I decided that it was time to hang some new panels, which required ironing and dedication to complete the project. E decided that I needed to spruce up my laptop, you know, for spring.   

 

Sorry kid, you are the Elmo fan here, not me, especially not 2 Elmo stickers! I am loving the new brand. So, now, Jimmy is a PC, I am a Banana. Well, I took no more pictures of the laptop, seeing that clicks of the camera would encourage such behavior, which did not matter, she put about 5 more stickers on my Banana. This is why dads should call home before buying stuff for kids, most likely, it will be vetoed. 

 

Here is E deciding if she should just dump over the pot of soil all in one motion or slowly disperse it among the concrete...she chose the latter.  Again, clicks are encouragement.

 

A new cheese that we loved 

 

A new recipe for me 

 

Another new recipe 

  

And a new hairstyle 

 

Our baby no longer looks weird with a ponytail.