Bet you’re all wondering where I’ve been. I really have no excuse, other than the new place I moved into has almost no natural light, which means that taking pictures of food here has been a real problem.

But I’m working on it, and soon we’ll all be happy again. In the meantime, while I figure out what to do with lighting, I wanted to open a discussion on how to end pickiness at the dinner table.

You all know I want my kids to eventually have some degree of sophistication when it comes to eating, and nothing shouts bad manners louder than someone who turns his or her nose up at something served for dinner (Tripe and sweet breads, of course, being the obvious exceptions to this. I believe those and other similar cuisine entitles the one served to get up and run as far away from the dinner table as possible).

My daughter is about as picky as they come. She won’t eat pasta. Ever. This includes noodles of all kinds and in all cuisines.

So here is a list of techniques, suggestions, philosophies, etc. that I try to use. I’m not uber consistent, so maybe by writing it down, I’ll start to be better about the whole thing, and one day my three little lovelies will be as unpicky as I am.

1. Be as consistent as you can. This is sometimes very hard, as life is insane for everyone.   But if at all possible, try to serve meals at the same time every day. My grandmother used to actually serve the same meals every week: spaghetti on Wednesday, franks and beans on Saturday (unless it was summer, then she served crab), some sort of roast on Sunday, etc.

2. Don’t force anything on them. I think this may actually be the reason my 6-year-old still won’t eat pasta. I may or may not have possibly made her eat some once. Maybe. Either way, I learned it isn’t such a good idea. The best thing to do is just put out the meal and say, “This is what I have made. You may choose to eat it, or you may choose not to eat it, but I am not making anything else. Out next meal will be tomorrow morning at 7:00.”

3. Parents decide when and what to serve, children decide if and how much they will eat. That line, or something close to it, came from a book I read in college with a title like How to Keep Your Kid from Getting Fat (I tried finding it on amazon, and couldn’t, but it was something like that). If you consistently follow this rule, the power struggle should eventually go away.

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Life has a way of lurching forward whether we stop to realize it or not.

Brooke and I had been planning this picnic for — oh, I don’t know, a million and one weeks. Amidst our crazy summer, that for some strange reason seemed to be filled with never ending days and weeks, was the hope of something fun and simple and perfect.

But coming up with something beautiful in the midst of chaos is a tall task, one I barely had the creative energy for.

Have you ever had a friend that doesn’t just reach out a hand when you’re struggling, but stops to carry you? In our life right now, we have several such friends, and Brooke is one of them.

She was the reason our picnic was wonderful.   She has a talent of making everything she sees or touches beautiful and full of life.

When we met at the mountains, Brooke’s sense of style and creativity overwhelmed me. Her children looked like they had stepped out of a modern Norman Rockwell painting, and the lunches she prepared were the epitome of old fashioned Americana.

Within each basket was nestled a sandwich to satisfy the most ravenous sweet tooth, a vintage book, confetti corn, and a root beer.

As Brooke and I ate our salads and chatted, the children wandered and played.  They were so content feeding corn on the cob to the lucky fish in the pond, we practically had to chase them down to feed them dessert.

As the afternoon rambled on, she and I shared our hopes and dreams for the future, and I was grateful we took the time to spend one last perfect moment together at the end of a very long summer.

To read more about the lovely and talented Brooke, be sure to click here and read her post of our picnic.

Her post made me cry.

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

When I went up to bed last night, this is what I found.  I ran and grabbed my camera, so thankful I had a tripod and a large aperture.  

You know when you watch your children sleep, and you are just suddenly overwhelmed with joy?  Seeing my youngest two together was so poignant last night, I almost cried.  (My friend Brittany has a wonderful little post on this very subject that I printed off, I liked it so much. Click here to read it.) 

There was a perfect spot in this photo to add text, but how could I?

Now I have a little poll for you.  I usually prefer black and white photographs, but the light was so low in this, and the contrast so low, that I decided to go color, but now I’m not so sure.

Which one do you like better?  Post your answer in the comments, and the winning picture will get to go on top.

Oh . . . my goodness.  I have never been this giddy about a cookbook before.  And I have loved many a cookbook.

Family Meals: Creating Traditions in the Kitchen by Maria Helm Sinskey is not a quick fix meal plan book for busy families.  Instead it encourages families to spend time together in the kitchen by giving detailed instructions and recipes to make from scratch.  Some of the recipes include homemade ricotta cheese and homemade pasta and omelettes stuffed with brie and smoked salmon, crab cakes, bread-n-butter pickles, puffy apple oven pancakes . . . sounding good yet?   Most of those I just listed probably wouldn’t appeal to my picky eaters if I made them by myself, but I am hoping that by establishing a stronger tradition of cooking more together, they will eventually come around.  And if not, more for me!

Family Meals completely captures the life I have often pictured for my family—slow paced, relaxed, simple.   I usually envision living that way on a small pumpkin patch somewhere in New England with a golden retriever running around our huge farm we’ll use mainly for horseback riding.  But since it seems that dream will be shelved for some time, I suppose I can do my best for now with this book.

It is packed with beautiful photography and is printed on high quality matte finish paper.  It’s just gorgeous.

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This picture always makes me so happy.  It was taken a couple years before the following story.

Well, yesterday, I was feeling all joyful, so I took my two younger kids to the local T.J.Maxx and filled up the cart with all kinds of things for a toy drive at a local women’s shelter.  When they both threw major tantrums (akin to the aforementioned fit in the humilimom post), I had no choice but to leave the cart at the store.  The workers had to put everything away, which I am sure was a pleasure after the two screaming kids had finally exited.  Now I will have to go shopping again.  This time, without the children.

This is actually a good thing, since today, I was able to speak with the woman in charge of the toy drive at the shelter.  Apparently they don’t have nearly as many gifts as last year.  Maybe it’s the economy, maybe it’s how amazingly fast Christmas is approaching this year (We haven’t bought a thing yet!), but either way, they need more than a hundred toys, and they currently have about twenty.

So, I thought I’d use my blog to drum up some toys in the area.  If you live near me (that is, if you see me at church on Sundays, or at my writing group), I will be making a toy run on Monday, the 15th.  They said they could use puzzles, card games, DVDs, and classic toys in the $10 range.  All items should be new and unwrapped.  Also, they can use new gifts for the moms, as well.

The top two people who bring the most items to me by early next week (I am trying to get it all together by the 15th, but if you need a day more, just let me know), will receive a large plate of my Christmas cookie assortment, or a batch of your favorite cookie recipe on my blog.

Just leave a comment if you have items to donate and then I will get in touch with you.  Or leave a comment if you just want to say something about the picture.

If you don’t live nearby (If you haven’t met me, then you probably don’t), just give in your own community and tell me about it and I will pick a winner out of those participants.  I will send that winner a box of treats that ships well.  If you wish to remain anonymous, then just give yourself an alias in the comment box.  I will still have your email.

A new reader named Susan made a comment on the “manners don’t matter? excuse me” post.  She gave an example of how she taught her kids manners with a little toy pig at the table.  Go ahead and read her comment.
Then, since it’s been way too long, and since Thanksgiving is around the corner, I think we should start up a little dialogue about manners.  So, here’s the question:

How do you teach your kids manners for the dinner table?

and, another question for good measure:

What are your favorite family traditions for Thanksgiving?

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.

My nieces and nephews call this place Narnia.  Nestled among trees and streams, stand the ruins of an abandoned mill.  We spent a few hours in this lovely place, drinking in the the beauties of a New England fall day.

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.

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