I didn’t realize until tonight that I started my blog exactly one year ago Sunday! It may not be that significant a milestone for many people who keep blogs, but for me, it has been a huge milestone.

Bear with me a moment as I get a bit personal without spilling too much (I imagine I will be spilling a bit more in the coming months).

A year ago, I started this blog as a way to express some of my interests and talents, hoping I would one day be able to see it grow into something more. Any of my expectations for readership were far surpassed in my first few months of blogging, and I was thrilled to see my stats on Google Analytics sky rocket in such a short time. It was in those beginning weeks I gained some of my most loyal readers.

Then in early October, my personal life was turned upside down (sorry I can’t really elaborate at this point, I can be more open about it in a future post), and blogging became very difficult. I want to say to all my loyal readers, who bore with me through the fall and winter, THANK YOU. I know there were weeks when I didn’t have much to share, but you came anyway, and I really appreciate that.

In the spring, I guess I got my second wind, because I was able to post more. That was also when my brother and I started to come up with the new look and feel of the blog, and the rest, of course, you can see before you.

I have grown in so many ways in the last year. Amidst my darkest days, I have felt the true love of friends, which has helped me carry on. Though I don’t know most of you, my readers, personally, your comments have helped keep me afloat in the most challenging time of my life. And because of that, this year has also been one of the most rewarding.

So, thank you! To everyone. I hope we have many more wonderful years to come, as we share with each other ideas on how to make our families well-read, well-bred, and well-fed.

big smooches,
Jaime

Hey. How is everyone?  I have been dying to post this picture for ages now.  A couple years ago, this HUGE butterfly landed on the lilac bush in our back yard.  It let us hold it, pass it between the kids, and take pictures of it.  After about ten minutes, it reluctantly flew away.  Pretty amazing.  There you go, now you can see my picture.

Alright, so last night, as I was feeling sorry for myself, I stopped by cJane.

Of course, I came away feeling grateful for my own life and how it’s going, when she talked about Carol Decker. She is a beautiful young mom who, during an emergency Caesarian section, which caused an infection that led to more complications, lost her legs, left arm, and her eyesight.  

Reading her story sure made me stop whining.  When I started to blog last year I thought, “Oh, la-dee-dah, this will be fun, I’ll put up pictures of food and kids and stuff, and try to make my life look interesting.”  It has been that, quite a bit — it’s been very fun. But on the other hand, it has taken me to the depths of some people’s lives on such a personal level, I don’t know if I’ll ever be the same.  I’m sure many of you are familiar with Nie-Nie, and how she survived a small plane crash with her husband last year.  I can only read her blog every week or two, because I just end up sobbing.  She is so brave, so filled with love.  She never lets herself get down for too long, when to me it seems she has every right to.  After reading each post, I am inspired to cherish my own life, and the trials I have that teach me to be a better person

It has been about a year since Carol’s terrible ordeal, and caring individuals are hosting an online silent auction to raise money for the overwhelming medical bills.

The auction will start on the 14th, so get ready.  If you click on that link above, it will let you know how you can bid, or donate items and money. 

Store & Style, a hip new online magazine, created by the fabulous Christine Vick and Rebecca Wallace, recently asked me to write an article for them, and they just published it.  Yeah, I feel cool.

Go check it out!

Not very.  The kids are eating Spaghetti-o’s (Pixar Cars edition–Charlie’s really into Lightning McQueen these days), and I am eating chips and Guacamole (both from Costco).  I have a winter squash soup that I’ll post soon, I promise.

I want briefly to create a buzz about two of my friends who blog.

Some of you may already know Brooke—just about everyone I know knows her.  We crossed paths when we were teenagers (same youth conferences at BYU), and then again in college.   But we never knew each other until her daughter and my son were in kindergarten and their desks were separated when they were talking too much.  Anyway, her blog is called Conversations With a Cupcake.  It’s zany and fun and displays Brooke’s tireless energy and creativity.  Go check it out!

Also, my friend Theresa, who is the sister of my best friend from college, just put up a cool post on how to make edible play dough for your kids.  Never would I have thought of that, nor would I ever have the energy to do something like that since having my second kid, but for all of you supermoms (i.e. Brooke), it looks like a lot of fun!

That’s a picture of my daughter from awhile ago.  I didn’t have any recent pictures I felt like posting, so there it is.

Tasha Tudor passed away this summer.  You may recognize her work from the covers of The Secret Garden and A Little Princess (when published by HarperFestival).  Having lived a full and fascinating life based on the styles and habits of the 19th Century, she was the Thoreau of her time.  Her book, Pumpkin Moonshine, has always been the book that comes to mind when I think of the fall. It is the story of a little girl and a runaway pumpkin.  It is sweet and simple—reminiscent of an era gone by.

Here are some of the books you all listed for our harvest of great books dialogue:
The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams
Max’s Halloween (Max and Ruby) by Rosemary Wells
I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie (Picture Puffins) by Alison Jackson and Judy Schachner
The Stranger by Chris Van Allsburg (my favorite of his after The Polar Express)
A Plump and Perky Turkey by Teresa Bateman and Jeff Shelly
Four Scary Stories by Tony Johnston
The Hallo-wienerby Dav Pilkey

Thank you everyone for all your other marvelous suggestions.  If you haven’t had a chance yet, you can peruse them all in the comments section.

A special thanks to Erin who reminded me of the name of the book I rambled about on that post.  It was called  Pumpkins: A Story for a Field by Mary Lyn Ray and Barry Root

I have one more suggestion.  Jerry Seinfeld Halloween.  My husband and I laugh over this until we almost cry.  We were both the kids who had to go trick-or-treating with our winter coats on . . .  you’ll see what I mean when you read the book.  We bought the book for ourselves, but the kids love it, too.  I must warn you, though, it is a little rude in some parts (he uses the words shut-up and stupid, and is ungrateful to a nice old lady), at which points I will either switch in another word, or say things like, “We don’t say shut-up.  We don’t treat people like that.”  Then I just laugh on the inside so the kids can’t see.

My husband just emailed me a YouTube link where you can see the pictures, and hear Jerry perform the stand-up routine that goes with it.

Emphasis should be placed on the word lucky. I never get to do stuff like that.
And unlucky you—I don’t have the recipe for those gorgeous things.

My sister lives in Western Massachusetts, and she’s been telling me about this unbelievable chocolate shop for years.  This weekend, while we were enjoying the Berkshires in all its fall splendor, we took the kids to Chocolate Springs which was worthy of every cry of praise I’ve heard.

After our trip to chocolate utopia, we stopped at Guido’s, the local gourmet shop, and bought what we needed to make a cheese platter.  You probably can’t tell at first glance, but some of the pears are only a little bigger than the grapes.  The two varieties are called Seckel and Forelle.
We took the platter to my sister’s friend’s house for a fall party.  The word party is a huge understatement, though.  How do you put into one word the epitome of a New England autumn celebration?  There was a huge inflated slide for the kids, a square dance in the barn, a fire ring with s’mores, old fashioned jars full of candy, and crates of freshly picked apples.  It was perfect.

While we were there, I saw a friend from college, and met Gabrielle Blair.  Most of you know her as DesignMom.

Read the rest of this entry »

Hillary, a cook on another food blog called Chew on That, put up a post today that shows how she made the butternut squash risotto with saffron and sage.  She made it for Rosh Hashanah, which starts tonight, and modified the recipe so she could serve it along with a meat dish and keep it kosher (she just took away all the dairy.)  She did a great job, and I think you should all take a look at it and give her a comment for a job well done.

Pinch My Salt put up a scrumptious post of a pumpkin cream cheese spread.  Yum!  That’s like my pumpkin cookies and the frosting all mixed into one!  So if you liked those, you’ll love this post!

Thank you to Pinch My Salt and Chew on That for linking sophistimom from their sites!