Small and Simple Things Photography Launch Party

Tonight I am having a launch party to celebrate the official opening of my for-charity photography business.  I wish you could all be there (really really wish), but since you can’t, here is the video I will be showing to introduce Small and Simple Things Photography. 
I have been planning this little business in my head for months.  Now that I have finally made it happen I am a mess of mixed emotions: grateful, sheepish, nervous, and pretty exhausted.  I have a big day coming up tomorrow too.  Stay tuned.  It might not be pretty, but it will be fun. 

Music is Hourglass by Mindy Gledhill

Click below to find out more:

Keepin' it real Instagrams

Oliver’s Turn!

I am doing reading lessons with Oliver now, just like I did with Colin and Gabe.  He recently finished 25 reading lessons, so he got to choose where he wanted to go on a date with me.  Oliver immediately said Chuck E. Cheese and then a couple of days before he changed his mind to Discovery Place.  We got all packed up to go, and I thought, “Hmmm, I should make sure our pass hasn’t expired.”  Sure enough, it had.  So I (easily) talked him back into Chuck E. Cheese. 

Carina fell asleep on the way there and I was able to just put her carseat straight in the stroller so she stayed asleep for the first hour or so that we were there.  We had the place to ourselves, and had a great time.  Oliver surprised me with his baseball throwing skills, loved playing air hockey, and did NOT love the rollercoaster.  He also conquered his fear of people in huge animal costumes and gave Chuck E.  a high five and a tentative hug. Carina was so not cool with that.

 

In case you are wondering about the reading lessons, I use the book, “Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.”  I taught Colin and Gabe how to read using the same book.  I like it because it requires NO prep work and each lesson is short enough that even the youngest wiggler can usually manage to last through it.  I keep a chart with 25 spots.  Each day they get a sticker and at the end of 25, 50, and 75, they get to go on a date with me.  Sometimes I have a daily incentive too, like they get to play the Wii for 20 minutes after they finish a lesson.

Oliver is a little sick of the lessons right now.  He was really motivated by the Wii and stickers in the beginning but by around number 19 or 20 I he didn’t care about that anymore.  I had to convince him that he was super close to the date to get him to do a lesson every day.  I am not too surprised by this.  He is still  young and has a very hard time sitting still and focusing when its something that doesn’t excite him.  He doesn’t see where all of this is going, reading-wise.  With each of the boys I have seen a point where the concept of reading really “clicks” and they get much more excited after that.  He has not reached that point yet, the novelty has worn off, and he is now 23 more lessons away from a date, so we will see how often I can convince him to do a lesson.

I hope it doesn’t sound like something horrible that we are trudging through.  Doing these lessons has been one of my favorite things to do with the boys.  In the end, they are really happy to have accomplished the monumental task of learning to read before kindergarten.  It is a great bonding experience for us, and I love sharing the learning process with them.

My Mother’s Day

My Mother’s Day started out yesterday morning when I slept in and Chad took the boys to the Farmer’s Market and brought home the most beautiful bouquet of flowers (and some donuts).  We went to the gym and a soccer game, and then I spent THREE hours in the afternoon, by myself, at Target. HEAVEN.  After the kids went to bed, Chad watched The Vow with me.

All the boys sang very sweetly to me at church and gave me homemade cards. 

I have to share what Gabe wrote.  First, the front is a picture of a cloud “raining flowers” down for me.  Then read the inside:

He is such a sweetie.  A fearful sweetie. 

I told Chad that I would like to have my mom over for dinner, but that I didn’t want to make dinner so he called my Dad to plan it out with him, which resulted in my Dad cooking dinner for all of us at his house.  He very sweetly made a delicious all vegan meal!  Thanks Dad!  I wish I had brought my camera over to get some pictures of my mom and me.  As often happens, we wore matching colors to church without any planning.  I love you Mom!  Happy Mother’s Day

After dinner, we went home and the boys played some baseball in the house while Miss toddled around.  I requested a picture of the four of them together, and this is what I got.

I love those kiddos!  I am very lucky to be their mom.  When I put Carina to sleep tonight she gave me lots of open-mouthed, slobbery kisses.

1000th post, and some thoughts on blogging

Well, can you believe it?  This is post number 1,000 for me. 

I have thought a lot about blogging lately.  For one thing, I have to try and talk myself into doing it a lot of times.   Why do I keep doing it, then?  Because I never regret doing it.  I love looking back at my blog posts, even the simplest ones, ones that were just about what we were up to.  Sometimes those posts mean the most to me, looking back. 

So, I keep doing it.  Gone are the days though, when I blog about things that can now go directly on facebook – deals, coupons, little observations.  I think to myself, “Do I need a permanent record of this?” and if I don’t, it goes on facebook.  And sometimes even things that I would rather blog about go on facebook because it is easier and it reaches people more quickly.  I am the only one left in my immediate family who blogs on a regular basis, and facebook is where we all talk now, rather than through comments on blogs, like the “ ‘ol” days.

Speaking of comments, I also have to talk myself into commenting a lot of times too.  I still read blogs, I just get lazy about commenting.  Why is that?  I don’t know.  I do know I am not the only one though – I think comments are much harder to come by these days for the average blogger.  Again, I think everyone got lazy because of the like button.  Sometimes even liking something on facebook seems like work….forget commenting on a blog.

Speaking of the “average blogger”, something occurred recently on a not-so-average blogger’s blog.  She apologized for some past posts she had written.  You may know who I am talking about.  I never felt like this blogger owed anyone an apology…she was always just voicing her opinions and feelings and was always respectful, in my opinion.  I don’t always agree with her, and that is okay.  Some of the comments in response made me sick to my stomach.  Comments like, “Thank you for the apology.  You really owed me one because I am a perfect human being and so intellectually superior to you.  Now I will read your blog again, aren’t you lucky?” (How did they read her apology if they had quit reading when she offended them all so greatly?)

These comments got me so worked up and blog weary that I made myself stop checking certain blogs regularly.  I get sick of it all sometimes, and I know I am not the only one.  You see posts all the time now about being sick of blogs that make the bloggers lives look perfect….posts about remembering to stop all the blogging/facebooking/pinning in order to actually pay attention to your family and the wonderful life you are blogging/facebooking about. 

I have a million blog posts rolling around in my head these days….lots of things I would love to seriously write about.  My thoughts on body image/weight loss/diet, some of my struggles with parenting, the blessings I have received from trying to be closer to the Holy Ghost, weaknesses I have that, things that my mom taught me.  It is hard to get worked up enough to write them though, for a few reasons.  One, I really am pretty busy.  Two, I don’t want to come off the wrong way.  I don’t want to be that blogger…the one that you roll your eyes at and think, “yeah, you think you are so deep, huh?”  Okay, maybe you are nicer than me, and you don’t do that. Three,  it is hard to be that vulnerable, (because there are eye-rollers like me out there.)

So, I am not sure where that leaves me as a blogger.  Probably just doing what I am doing now, huh?

What about you?   Have you noticed any changes in blogging?  Are you a little sick of it all? 

Blogs that I still enjoy, that are very active:

Gnome Sweet Gnome, by my dear cousin Olivia. 

Emilisq, by my blog friend Em, who always keeps it real.

Lizzy Writes, by NieNie’s sister-in-law Elizabeth.  You may see her perfect looking home and food and think she is one of those blogs, but she isn’t.  She is always herself and seems like she can’t help being very sweet and classy.

Every Day I Write the Book, by Kacy Faulconer.  Kacy is genuine, funny, unique and intelligent.  She is a little like Tina Fey to me.

Run4Papa.com

As you all know, my mom suffers Primary Progressive Aphasia.  This disease is rare enough that I have never met anyone else who has it, or even anyone who has heard of it prior to knowing her.  So I was really excited to hear about a fundraiser raising money for PPA research.  Jason from Run4papa.com has been training to run the Great Wall of China marathon, and has been holding 5K runs all around Charlotte to raise money and awareness for PPA, in honor of his Papa.  He has a goal of raising $50,000 and he is almost there. 

I knew right away that our whole family needed to go to one of his runs.  I told my parents about it and they were immediately just as excited as me.  We were able to go to one tonight, in uptown Charlotte.  It was good to meet Jason and see his enthusiasm.  The younger kids were pretty tired and grumpy so we only managed about a mile, but it felt good to do something about this disease that has made us all feel so helpless.  I also found out that Gabe is a total runner – that kid was zooming down the sidewalks of Charlotte.  He made me really proud.

There is only one run left – it is at the Whitewater Center.  If you looking for a nice, outdoorsy family activity, please consider going in honor of my mom.  If you can’t make it and you have a few dollars to spare, please donate to Jason’s fundraiser. I would love you forever.  You know I am willing to grovel for my mom!!!

For more information and to make a donation, visit Run4papa.com!  Keep up the good work, Jason!

For more about my mom’s struggle with PPA, click here.

Updated:  There are some awesome pictures of our family on Jason’s facebook page and his website.  Check them out and see how close he is getting to $50,000!

Meatless Mondays–Hawaiian Chickpea Teriyaki

 

Hawaiian Chickpea Teriyaki with an Easy Pineapple Salsa

I made this recipe last week and my kids went crazy for it. I served the chickpeas over basmati brown rice with the salsa on top for Chad and I, and fresh pineapple on the side for the kids.  The next time I make it I think I will add a side of spring rolls.

I went just as crazy for this recipe because it is just about as easy as it gets.  THREE INGREDIENTS!  Teriyaki Sauce, chickpeas, and raw sugar, which I actually usually have around, but I was out, so I used brown sugar.  You can buy raw sugar at SprawlMart, FYI.  I also found thisVeri Veri Teriyaki sauce there, which is super yummy and has only ingredients you can pronounce.

So here it is, from The Happy Herbivore:

• 1 15 ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed – I used dried beans that I had soaked and cooked – go ME!
• 1/4 cup teriyaki sauce
• 1 tbsp Szechuan sauce or hot sauce (optional – I obviously didn’t use it)
• 1 tbsp raw sugar (optional)
• 2 cups cooked brown rice (or cooked greens)
• pineapple and/or mango salsa – I just chopped up some red onion, cilantro and pineapple.  I think this really made the dish!

1. Combine chickpeas, teriyaki sauce, Szechuan sauce, and sugar in a large frying pan.

2. Allow to marinate for at least 5 minutes.

3. Cook over medium heat, stirring regularly, until most of the liquid has absorbed, about 10 minutes.

4.  Spoon over cooked rice and top with salsa.

The next time I make this I think I might add a layer of steamed kale between the rice and chickpeas – and I will definitely be making it soon!

Oliver’s masks

Oliver has made a different mask every day this week.  Superhero, pumpkin, kitty-cat, and a bird.

He colors while Carina sleeps and I clean the kitchen.  Then I cut it out, put some yarn on it, and he giggles while he runs into the bathroom to see the big reveal.

“Mom!  Come and see me!”

“I did see you!”

“No Mom, come see me in the mirror!”

On Tuesday he wore his pumpkin mask to pick the boys up from school.  Unless I have him play games on my phone during carpool, he falls asleep.  Sometimes even that doesn’t work.  I realized that it was really quiet back there and called his name.  No answer.  The pumpkin mask had slipped over his eyes and I couldn’t be sure that he was asleep until his head slumped to one side.   Chad laughed when I told him about that – picturing the little toddler sleeping in his pumpkin mask.

Meatless Mondays–Quinoa Tacos

This was our baby-steps recipe. It is easy to make and has familiar tastes and textures.  You can eat it as a main dish, side dish, or on tortillas. 

The first time we made it, on tortillas, we loaded sour cream, cheese and/or ranch on top.  Our kids ate it up without complaint and it was declared a “make again” recipe.

After four or five months, I stopped buying sour cream.

After a couple more months, I stopped buying cheese.

Now we all eat these tacos with lettuce, tomatoes, maybe olives or onions, salsa, but no cheese or sour cream.  It is still just as satisfying and well received.  It is also good as leftovers.  If you make this as tacos and you don’t care how naughty your tortillas are, try buying the uncooked ones and cook them in a hot pan with no oil.  Sooooo good.  If you do care, try corn tortillas or whole wheat ones, if you can manage to find some that don’t have a million ingredients.

So, here it is, from allrecipes.com, Quinoa and Black Beans

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil 
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
• 3/4 cup uncooked quinoa  - I buy our quinoa at Costco. 
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper – I put way less than this because I want Carina and Ollie to be able to eat it easily
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 cup frozen corn kernels – do use frozen instead of canned for a fresher taste
• 2 (15 ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the onion and garlic, and saute until lightly browned.
2. Mix quinoa into the saucepan and cover with vegetable broth. Season with cumin, cayenne pepper, salt, and pepper. Bring the mixture to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes,
3. Stir frozen corn into the saucepan, and continue to simmer about 5 minutes until heated through. Mix in the black beans and cilantro.

Also, I don’t use the oil at the beginning anymore.  You can just put a little bit of water in instead. 

Oh, and did I mention that this recipe takes around a half hour to cook?  I think that is the best part. 

Do The Right Thing

Gabe was recently honored at his school with a “Do The Right Thing” award.  This is a program sponsored by the Charlotte Police and Fire Departments to recognize students who try on a regular basis to act with integrity.  Ollie, Carina and I went to the school to watch Gabe receive his award on the school-wide newscast.  Gabe was so quietly and bashfully proud to receive his award. He introduced himself on the newscast with his little kindergartener voice and I was so proud of him too.This is what Gabe’s teacher wrote about him when she nominated him:

Gabriel is working hard in class everyday.  He follows directions from teachers and always makes his best effort on his academic tasks.  Gabriel is very responsible for his assignments.  He is a good listener and he actively in class activities in all subject areas.  Gabriel also holds great manners while interacting with peers.  He patiently waits for his turn and never acts mean to others.  Gabriel is an excellent role model for all kindergarteners to make wise decisions and to do the right thing!

  He received a certificate, a magnet for my car, a pin that is now on his backpack, and a t-shirt.  He wore the shirt as soon as he could.

 

I was so grateful that Gabe’s teacher took the time to nominate him and let him and us know that his hard work and diligence is noticed. 

Meatless Mondays

Since we are now mostly meatless, I thought I would share a recipe or two every Monday (or every other, or every Monday I feel like it :) that doesn’t meat. Even if you have no intention of giving meat up, it is always good to eat more whole grains, fruits, and vegetables, right?  I think I will start next Monday with a recipe. Before I do that though, let me answer some questions from my post about going vegan.

What do you eat?

When I first read The China Study and felt like I wanted to go vegan, I thought the same thing – what the heck do vegans eat all day?  At the time we considered ourselves pretty healthy eaters – we hardly ever ate thing like bacon and sausage,  and I never kept cookies, chips, or fruit snacks in the house.  But we ate dairy or meat in some form for every single meal and a lot of snacks, as I think most people do – cheese, eggs, milk, lunch meat, string cheese, yogurt, chicken, hamburger…..we ate it all.  Weaning the kids off of it was not easy, and we really did it slowly because there is only so much whining I can take in one day :) Here are some examples of vegan foods I can now get everyone in my family to eat.

• Breakfast: vegan whole-wheat pancakes with maple syrup, healthy vegan muffins, smoothies, hashbrowns cooked with no oil, breakfast burritos made with those hashbrowns and black beans on whole-wheat tortillas (no cheese, of course), fruit, steel cut oats with almond milk and fruit, and when we are in a hurry, some whole-grain cereal with almond milk
• Lunch: This has been the toughest one because it has to be something I can make quickly and it has to transport well in the kids’ lunches for school.  I make pasta salads with lots of veggies and a light Italian dressing, bean and brown rice burritos, natural peanut butter and honey (which is technically not vegan, but….yeah) sandwiches.  For the side I always pack at least one helping of fruit, and sometimes some nuts.
• Dinner: Quinoa tacos is the favorite vegan meal of the family.  Black bean burgers, chili and vegan cornbread, pasta with marinara or pesto, salads, soups, sweet potato fries, curries, tostadas, meatless and cheeseless enchiladas, stir-fry.  Every couple of weeks I will cook either salmon or shrimp. All of this with lots of veggie side dishes.
• Snacks: FRUIT and lots of it.  Ollie and are both big hummus fans so we also eat that with just about everything.  Nuts.

The main thing I have tried to remember is that I don’t want this lifestyle to just be about abstaining from animal protein.  It’s not just about what we don’t eat, it is also about all the good things we do eat instead. 

How do you get enough protein?

Let me just quote directly from Rip Esselstyn of the Engine 2 Diet:

 Ample amounts of protein are thriving in whole, natural plant-based foods. For example, spinach is 51 percent protein; mushrooms, 35 percent; beans, 26 percent; oatmeal, 16 percent; whole wheat pasta, 15 percent; corn, 12 percent; and potatoes, 11 percent.

What’s more, our body needs less protein than you may think. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the average 150-pound male requires only 22.5 grams of protein daily based on a 2,000 calorie a day diet, which means about 4.5 percent of calories should come from protein. (WHO recommends pregnant women get 6 percent of calories from protein.) Other nutritional organizations recommend as little as 2.5 percent of daily calories come from protein while the U.S. Food and Nutrition Board’s recommended daily allowance is 6 percent after a built-in safety margin; most Americans, however, are taking in 20 percent or more.

Once I gave up meat I started paying attention to how much protein could be found in plants and I was surprised.  Lots of plants are full of it.

If you want to know anything else, again, feel free to ask.  There are also some very interesting books and documentaries out there.  I would start with this film Forks Over Knives, which is on Netflix :

You can also watch it here on Hulu.

You have already heard me mention the book The China Study  – I also highly recommend it.  If you are local, you can even borrow my copy.

Easter and Happy 60th Birthday to my Dad!

Easter began with all the kids snuggling in our bed at 6:30 am.  Carina was happy to wake up once she realized all her “Bah-Bahs”  were there.  Colin in particular has been a real favorite of hers lately, and after she gave them all hugs and smiles, Colin picked her up to take her downstairs.  I reached for her and she shrieked at me, making it quite clear that she was sticking with him.

The kids went downstairs to find their baskets, candy, and all the eggs we dyed the evening before.  Pretty much your traditional Easter morning. 

We planned to get pictures of all the kids in their Easter outfits, but barely even managed to make it to church on time (and it is at 1!)

Easter was also my Dad’s 60th birthday!  We have an old tradition in the Jeppson family of having “egg fights” with all the empty plastic Easter eggs.  So for his birthday, I gave him a basket with 60 eggs, all full of pictures and notes from his kids, and told him to bring them over for her birthday dinner.  After dinner we had a nice little fight in the backyard.

Do you like the boys’ outfits?  We are going to have to have some matching lessons before they become teenagers. 

When it was cake time, Carina seemed to think it was her birthday again.  Grandpa was happy to let her be a part of the fun.

Oh, and my brother Levi came down from the mountains with his mountain man beard and totally spoiled my kids.  He has always been such a good uncle.

Spring Break

We had a wonderful spring break.  The weather was gorgeous and the kids got to spend a lot of time outside with their friends.  One of the best things about it was a vacation from our obligations – no school of course, but also no piano, soccer, mutual….I am not saying I don’t love those things, but it was nice to just spend most of our time together as a family for the week.  We mostly just relaxed but one day, we got to go to Discovery Place and we met Chad for a lunch at Tin Tin.

One of the nights, I put the tent up in the backyard for the kids and we had a fire.  We told the kids they could sleep out there, knowing that they would end up in their beds very quickly(which they did).  I stayed out there with them while Chad put Carina to sleep, looking at the stars.  I downloaded a constellation app on my phone, which the kids loved.  It was just a tiny bit chilly, and the moon was almost full.  The kids were goofy and so happy, and it was an evening to remember.  It reminded so much of all the evenings when I was a kid when we would lay a blanket out on the lawn and wrestle and laugh until the stars came out.  That was one of the best things about a small town – always an abundance of stars in the sky. 

I love having those kids home with me, and I can’t wait for summer.

Keepin’ It Real Wednesday

This is one of those womanly posts.  You have been warned.

I am a lucky woman.

I am one of those women you love to hate.

No, it’s not my perfectly flat butt.  (My mom didn’t like the word butt growing up, so she would always say, “Jeppsons don’t have butts!” And it’s true.)

No, it’s not my acne at age 31.

Seriously, you are going to hate me when you hear this.

After giving birth, I usually go over a year without any visits from….you know….our dreaded Aunt Flo. 

Yes indeed….11 months with Colin, 15 with Gabe, 15 with Oliver, and we have yet to find out with Carina.

Is that a weird thing to talk about on my blog?  I kind of think it is, but then when I think about it more, it is no less personal than a birth story, and I want women out there to know that this is a possible benefit of breastfeeding.

NO PERIOD FOR 2 YEARS! SPREAD THE WORD!!!!

Notice I said possible. Don’t be a total dummy and rely on it, and don’t be all jeal if you don’t get this benefit, hater.

So anyway, once my babies hit one year, I am a ticking time-bomb. 

When I find myself literally pulling my hair when my kids scream….

or every thing Chad says seems annoyingly condescending….

or my back has a little ache…….

or my stomach seems to poke out even more than usual…..

I think, OH NO!  This is it!  It is back!

And then a week passes with nothing and I realize, nope, it is just me……irritable me with the creaky body and belly pouch.  Just me. 

And then I  remember that once a month I am going to be irritable me times ten.

Tick tock. Tick tock.

Hanging with Mom and Dad

Last week when we went to Olive Garden for Colin’s birthday, Carina fell asleep in the car on the way home, ruining her bedtime.  She was up quite late with us, a very rare event in her life.  She had our full attention and loved it.  Chad doesn’t get to see her nearly enough during the week, so he loved it too.

Carina already knows to to fit into our family – she teases us like crazy.

Lately, while I prepare everything for a diaper change, she swipes the diaper real fast and then takes off running and laughing.  She always thinks it is hilarious to stand on the edge of the couch or the stairs and act like she is going to walk off.  It drives Ollie crazy and he runs over, grabs her to protect her from falling, and yells for me every time, all while she lets out her belly laughs.  That evening she was pulling that stunt with Chad, going so far as to step over the edge, knowing he would grab her.  Notice her little sunburn from the park that morning.

Here is a little video of Chad teasing Carina back.  She is blurry, but you can tell by her face that she gets a little freaked out for half of a second.