My Cook Book

Last year I was reading a blog that recommended preserving family recipes.  The more I thought about it, the more I really liked the idea.  I liked the idea of passing on a printed copy of every recipe our family has ever loved to each of my children some day, and I liked the idea of having all my favorite recipes in one place.  It took a lot more time and dedication than I had previously thought - some from this book or that book, some from this blog or that blog, some from recipe sites, some from my mom, some from Justin's, some from China, and some from loose papers around my kitchen given to me by friends or neighbors.  I finally finished it!  I put the pages in sheet protectors in a binder and I have been loving it!  I'll add to it as we find new favorites and hopefully end up with a large index of family favorites to choose from regularly.  I find typos now and then, so it's not perfect, but I would like to pass it on to you.

I have a digital copy available to all interested, HERE.

Here are some of my favorites if you'd like to give something a try:

• Stuffed Bell Peppers - 2 different kinds, both good
• Tomato Sauce and it's accompanying Tomato Soup (same basic recipe, but one under Main Dishes and one under Soups)
• Pollo Peruano (Peruvian Chicken)
• Potato Soup
• Roasted Red Bell Pepper Soup - for when red bell peppers go on sale because it uses 8!
• Roasted Eggplant Soup
• Coconut Curry Rice
• Whole Grain Waffles - my kids are obsessed with this healthy waffle/pancake recipe
• Squash Cinnamon Rolls - make with caution, you will eat too many
• "Healthy" Cookies - surprisingly good! although I struggle with getting the consistency right

Happy cooking!

Update: The Banana Walnut Granola should be baked at 300 degrees.  I seem to have omitted that.

Growing so Fast

 

It seems that suddenly, my baby isn't a baby anymore.  I didn't even see it coming.  She seems positively grown up these days in her toddler bed, running around with her big sister and even talking!  She only says one word at a time, but her vocabulary is impressive and growing daily.

 

She's still super sweet and loves to cuddle, which I love.  Last night she had trouble going to sleep and I got to rock her until she fell asleep on my shoulder.  I love moments like those.

 

Sometimes she thinks she's a grown up and insists on doing things by herself, and other moments she relaxes limp into my arms and lets me hold her for a long time. 

 

I make up nicknames for her all the time, usually variations of her name - "little V" "Veeda" "Vida voo" - but then Jaime repeats them replacing the "V" sound with a "B" sound and I repeat those nicknames too - "little B" or just "B" "Bida" "Bida boo."  I wonder if she knows which one is actually her name.

New to her repertoire is throwing fits.  Not my favorite, and discipline at her age is tricky since we still seem to have a language barrier :)

 

She still loves food.  It almost doesn't matter what's for dinner, you can bet Vida will dig in and chow down.  The other day we could not stop from cracking up at the dinner table when we cut open the chicken pot pie and Jaime erupted with "Vegetables?!  There's vegetables in the PIE?!  Mom, why did you put vegetables in the pie?!" all while Vida insisted on seconds and thirds of the cauliflower.  She eats almost everything I make and I really hope it continues.  She is growing like a weed.

 

We still say she has her dad's personality - easy going, adventurous, and fun loving.  The other day at the park she was scaling obstacles even the older kids struggled with, without a care in the world.  That's how she approaches life - she assumes everything is safe and doesn't worry about hurt and injury.  Justin can always make her laugh more than I can.  I think she enjoys the rough play (which often produces tears with Jaime), and yet she is still a girly girl.  She loves nail polish and hair bows and insists on them whenever Jaime is getting prettied up.

 

I think this may be the first time ever I've felt sad my kids are growing up.  I think of Vida as my baby, just born, and so cute and little.  Not so, it seems.  Okay, so maybe I'll just keep thinking of her as my little baby?  For a month or two more?  Okay, sounds good to me.

My Thinker

 

Every night we put Jaime to bed with a story, song and prayer.  Tonight I sang the following song:

Three little ducks went out one day,

Over the hills and far away,

Mommy duck went "quack, quack, quack"

Two little ducks came running back.

Two little ducks went out one day,

Over the hills and far away,

Mommy duck went "quack, quack, quack"

One little duck came running back.

One little duck went out one day,

Over the hills and far away,

Mommy duck went "quack, quack, quack"

No little ducks came running back.

No little ducks went out one day,

Over the hills and far away,

Daddy duck went "QUACK! QUACK! QUACK!"

Three little ducks came running back.

I finished the song and said "Okay, now let's say a prayer" and she immediately stopped me and asked me to repeat what the mommy and daddy duck said.  I did and then she said "But Mommy, shouldn't the mommy duck tell the daddy duck to be nice?"  We talked about it and went over the song again and then she said "Okay, let's start from the end [of the song]" to talk about it again.

Hmmm... I wonder where she gets that obsessive need to talk things over and make sure the details are right in her head.

No comment.

Schedule

 

After thinking long and hard about some of the difficulties we've been dealing with in our family, we decided to put Jaime, and therefore the rest of us, on a schedule.  I didn't expect that she would love it so much.  She does.  She loves asking me what's on the schedule and doing what it says. The schedule includes things like school time, creative time, craft time, game time, freeplay, and chores.  The first day went really well but I felt completely burnt out by the end.  We've settled into some place between following it strictly and "freeplay" all the time like we used to.

She loves school time.  We have different workbooks for letters, colors and numbers and she gets to choose which subject we learn about on the 3 days a week we do school time.

 

She gets creative time to color, do playdough, or make bead necklaces.

 

We've instituted a craft time twice a week that she loves.

 

For perhaps both of us, our favorite part is the chores.  I had no idea she would love them so much.  Each day she is supposed to help me with the dishes, set the dinner table, and clean up the front room, living room, her room and Vida's room.  Usually I'm right there with her and we do them together, so it's good bonding time as well.  Her incentive is 25¢ a day if she completes all of her chores.  She then gets to spend that on our weekly grocery trip or at the dollar store.

Every Monday night Family Home Evening is on the schedule and Jaime always has a responsibility that we help her fulfill.  On this particular night we did a lesson about tithing because she is earning money now.  Vida got to play the part of Heavenly Father - which meant accepting one orange slice and one quarter as part of the object lesson.  Afterward, she demanded all orange slices and we gave them to her.  So much for the object lesson :)

We still do a weekly play date with their cousins which has been part of our routine for over two years.

All in all, I think it is helping us.  We're learning together what works for us, and working to enjoy everyday and not just survive through the day.  To me, that means learning to be more accepting of my own faults and to value and be content with what we do do, and not worry so much about what we don't do.

Unicorns and Zebras

When Enrique R. Falabella said during General Conference that "a child who sings is a happy child," it made me think of Jaime.  She sings, a lot.  Sometimes they are songs we've taught her or that she learned in primary, and other times they are completely made up.  Oftentimes they are about whatever we are currently doing, and other times your guess is as good as mine.  Monday morning we were eating breakfast around the table.  I was reviewing finances on my iPad while she colored and sang.  I sneakily turned on the video camera and lifted my iPad slightly while continuing to jot down notes like nothing was up and captured a couple of her songs and subsequent conversations. She had no idea I was video taping and I preserved one of my daily joys.  I get to hear songs like these every day.  And we have conversations like these every day, multiple times a day.  Enjoy a song about unicorns without wings and one about zebras, horses, crocodiles and willa-beeses.

Lucky me.

CA Trip

 

We traveled to California last weekend for a friend's wedding (bride and groom are on either side of the stake president in the center of the picture above).  I knew the bride from my home ward and the groom from the singles ward I used to go to.  I didn't even know they knew each other and suddenly learned they were getting married.  It warranted a road trip.  Justin wanted to take the kids to the beach so we made a family vacation out of it.

After lots and lots of driving and a hotel stay, we arrived at my best friend's mother's house and got busy visiting the beach with my sister, attending the wedding reception (with Star Wars themed cakes), visiting all the places from my past (there is a picture of the girls in a kids' truck right outside where I used to go for ice cream), and enjoying lots and lots of fresh citrus from the backyard.

It just so happened that it was over Easter weekend, so we did an Easter egg hunt with my sister and her family at my old elementary school's playground.  We did a zero candy Easter this year which was really great.  The eggs had small toys and dried fruit in them and the baskets had larger toys and fruit leather.  There wasn't a single complaint from any of the kids.  New tradition.

Without question, the best part of the trip was getting in touch with my family and many of my old friends.  At the wedding reception I talked with so many people from my home ward and stake and it was so good to see them!  One of the couples introduced themselves to Justin by saying "Hi, we're the Carrs.  We helped raise Jodi" and that's exactly how I felt - that these people had such a big hand in my growing up, and it made me so happy for Justin to meet them and them to meet him.  I saw more people I know and love at church the next day, and spent the next couple of days stopping by people's houses. It was very special to me.  Justin's dad happened to be on a business trip in L.A. so we had dinner with him and walked on the beach.

Two of my good friends and I stayed up way too late talking and catching up, and even recreated a picture we took in highschool.  It was a complete coincidence that we all ended up wearing the same exact color as that night 7 years ago.

On the way back we stopped at my Dad's and had a fun-filled day at the natural hot springs, getting ice cream, chasing chickens, finding eggs and feeding goats.  My girls were in heaven and Jaime keeps asking me if we can go back.

It felt really good to reconnect with all the people and places from my youth and left me feeling rejuvenated.  It was sad to leave but good to come home.

Hello California

Fresh off my morning jog.

Yesterday, we arrived in California.  We are lucky enough to be staying at my friend's house and I feel right at home next to my old neighborhood.
This morning I headed out for a jog and was drawn to the places of my past.  I circled the elementary school at which I pretended to be a bird, learned how to play handball and rocked my friends at volleyball.  I passed houses of dear friends, houses I took prom pictures at and had felt all those rushes of teenage emotions.  I jogged the path I once did with my high school friends.  My endurance was higher than it had ever been while I lived here, but my body was keenly aware of the fact that I've had two kids since then.  I picked a fallen orange for Justin to taste the sweet and flavorful oranges that grow in backyards here, and a puffy red flower that reminds me of walking down these streets as a kid.  I came back sweaty and nostalgic.  I've already roped my friend Estelle into joining me on my Monday run, the destination of which will be my old middle school.  The richness of memory lane fills my soul somehow, and I am happy to be here.