If you must know, it was the middle finger.

I was just sitting here finishing up (wasting time, really) all the little things I had intended to do when I first plopped into the chair in front of the computer.

All at once it seemed really lonely. Everyone has gone to bed except me.

and my tummy is growling.

Sometimes I am super awesome and make my family a really delectable feast.

Not today though. Today I didn't make dinner at all.

I went into the kitchen to search for something to fix this problem and all I could agree on was a boxed mix of blueberry muffins... thank you Betty Crocker.

but then my dramatic side kicked in and I fretted about it being midnight by the time they were done. And how I just DID NOT want to stare at the kitchen timer until midnight. Plus I would probably be dead by then anyway.

on second look it was only 11:19pm, and the box said '17-21 min.' which if I calculate correctly (sucked at math) means it will be done sometime BEFORE midnight.

So whist I waited, I decided to hop on my blog and tell you about how I've been meaning to tell you all about one particular adventure at Lake Powell... The one with the Howard Stern effect.

Do you know what the Howard Stern effect is?

That's ok if you don't. I will surely tell you all about it in my next post.

ahh the magical beeping from the kitchen!

The muffins are done and it turns out my calculation WAS correct! It is 11:49pm which is sometime before midnight. It's possible I forgot to calculate cooling times (not on box!) so it turns out I will be eating at midnight after all.

I think its really crappy of me to not make anyone dinner and then wait until they are all slumbering in their bed to whip out my super gourmet box of Betty Crocker muffin mix. The nice thing to do would be to save them some for breakfast and all... But I'm not making any promises this late at night.

and I feel bad that you read all the way through this semi-pointless blog post, so I have decided to reward you with a wipe-out shot of cousin Ben at Lake Powell.




Lookie at that! Two photos. It's your lucky day.

So what do you think?

not that great?

Yeah well, I burned my finger putting the muffins in the oven so I will blame it on that.

nighty night.

on the very last night.

It was so so hot.

Like drowning in sweat hot, but considering the spider situation I forced the sheet to swaddle itself around my body and occasionally over my head.

and as long as no one so much as touched me in the slightest I was ok.

and besides, the winds were fairly strong.

There was a storm coming.

Not that it mattered, it stormed to some degree every night we were there. Lake Powell.

The next thing we heard after slipping into sweet slumber was the voice of my mother following a loud crack of thunder.

'are you awake now' she said. I can only assume she was standing there trying to wake us minutes before. She was worried about us. We sleep on the top deck of the boat. It's cooler up there and who doesn't like falling asleep under the milky way?!

We had a lightning storm move in right on top of us. It was close. Chad grabbed Lu, and I picked up the bedding and headed down stairs. I went back up to get Kassidy. She was just lying there. I told her she needed to get up and move downstairs.

She argued with me. Can you believe it?

And then the biggest bolt of lightning I ever seen/heard/felt cracked through the sky and suddenly as if by magic she seemed to know what I was talking about. (She claims she was still asleep while I was talking to her, pshhhhah)

Once we were all downstairs safe and sound (well... as safe as you can feel sitting in a metal boat in a pool of water) I pulled out my camera. Chad hung around with me.

The great thing is, I didn't even see this bolt.

I hit the shutter, the sky lit up, hair stood on edge, and me and Chad busted through the screen door as fast as we could. In that exact order.

Funny how we thought we could out run lightning. ha! we're so rad.


Did I mention our rad-ness?

You wanna see something almost as nifty?



Have you ever seen a nose wrinkle up like that? haha!

It looks like a lion's nose.

grawr!

truly.

I took a personality test last week.

Have you ever known something you're whole life, but then someone tells you and its like a whole new discovery? Me to.

I'm an introvert.

So THAT'S why I hate parties so much! right right. makes sense.

Also, you know that weird girl that that won't eat just anything. Annoying isn't she?

That's me.

Those that know me well know that I will not eat ground beef, cows milk, or fast food. And those that know me REAL well know I also won't eat shellfish, cheapo chocolate, margarine or things that say 'light' on it. And then there's a whole nother list of things that bother me greatly and its only a matter of time before I nix. Artificial sweeteners and colors are extremely high on that list!!

All I'm sayin is I'm not the cheapest date in town ;)

But this summer I kicked something else out of my diet and actually out of my whole families diet. I don't usually push my weirdness on my family but after reading about High Fructose Cornsyrup I decided it was time for it to get the boot.

Imagine taking your 5 year old to the store to buy popsicles and then you get to stand there watching her cry for 10 minutes because we can't buy the Popsicle brand popsicles and for what ever reason the Dole pops aren't going to cut it.

Me again!!

Haha. I have to say though that I have no regrets ousting that one. And actually Lucy and Natalie have both been very good at reading labels to see if there is High Fructose Cornsyrup in stuff I buy. I've thrown out whole loaves of bread because I forgot to check for it! The thing we learned is that you really don't have to go without, there is always some brand that doesn't use it, with the exception of snow cones (one of my kids favorites)

But the hardest thing for the majority of my family was the soda! Chad got a little huffy with me on this one because (and he's right to some extent) I already don't drink soda so for me it wasn't giving anything up. I forgot to add soda to the list above. haha. I will occasionally drink rootbeer but on the whole I probably drink less soda in a year than most do in a week, possibly a day depending on the individual.

About a month after getting rid of HFC I took my kids to Miami/Globe, AZ to photograph them and it was hot. I mean really really hot. They were eyeing the public pool big time hot!! So I took them to a convenience mart and let them get any frozen treat they wanted. I didn't restrict anything. It was painful but I watched Lucy pick out a giant rainbow popsicle... 100% HFC! And let me just tell you how my little angel turned into a gigantic monster from the deep! It was then that I decided no matter how good they were being the restriction must always apply! There was one other time after this that couldn't be helped and again angels turned to monsters. noticeable behavior change!

and why am I telling you all this again? oh yeah, I was going to share with you the magical wonders of making your own almond milk at home!

(Don't tell my kids but the plan is to slowly ween them off cow milk and get them on something much more nutritious and natural)

So here's what you need:

1 cup of raw almonds
4 cups of water

If you want to add sweetener you can. I use agave to sweeten. just a tablespoon or 2 depending on how sweet you want it. A little cinnamon or vanilla won't hurt it either!

Soak the almonds in filtered water over night in the refrigerator.

I drain this water and add 4 cups of fresh water, I haven't decided if I prefer draining the water or using the soak water so I drain it for now.

Pour in high powered blender ( I use a vitamix)

Strain through a nut milk bag. I've used cheesecloth before but it leaves too much grain for me so I prefer the nut milk bag which you can make yourself if you sew. I made mine out of a loosely woven fabric I found in one of my many drawers of fabric.


Here we are, we've just poured our blended mixture into the nut milk bag lining a glass bowl.


And now we just grab the string and cinch it up lifting it up so the milk can drain.


We let it continue to seep till it slowed down then we started twisting the bag putting a squeeze on it to get ALL the milk out.


Fresh raw almond milk!

For now I am sweetening my milk so I can get my kids to drink it and hopefully I can slowly back off the sweetness without them noticing. Thats my plan anyway.

If you're interested in macadamia nut milk check THIS out! I tried this, it was delicious. loved the addition of coconut oil!

I take some flack in my family for my somewhat particular views on food. When I say family I mean my mom, dad, sisters and their husbands. Like last month while talking to my dad he told me they think I am snobby when it comes to food. ha! Can we just replace the word snobby with choosy? or careful? or enlightened? or smart? caring? genius? Come on! nutrition isn't a gimmick!

I didn't get an A in most of my classes in culinary school but guess which one I did ace?!

NUTRITION!

I've always been interested in nutrition. And I guess you could say I don't like to live in the middle. When life is good I want it to be incredibly good and when its bad I allow myself to feel it so that when we get back to good it feels OH SO AMAZINGLY GOOD!

Just for fun you should go take the personality test and report back to me what your 4 letter code is.

Mine is ISFP (the I stands for introvert btw)

You can take the test HERE!

no more nothingness.

It is today.

Film loaded.

Children in tow.

all by myself.

There is no looking back.



See you on the flip side.

We gots the feve for the Bieb

Good News! The Bieber-myster is coming out with a new scent.

haha!

Yesterday I took Natalie to the mall with me because sitting around the house for one more second was going to kill us.

We ran into Justin Bieber while we were there. (seriously not really) just in poster form, letting us know all about his upcoming new fragrance.

My girls all claim Justin Bieber means nothing to them. In fact, they kinda hate him. Which we all know is a big fat lie! Have you seen Bieber lately?

I told Natalie she kind of looks like him. She disagreed and acted insulted. But the more I looked at the Bieb, the more I thought I was right. They even both have a beauty mark on their left cheek.

Similar nose.

Similar lips.

see where I'm going with this??

Haha! This is hilarious.

So I requested she squat down next to him and let me get a photo of her face next to his...

She said no way.

*oh re-he-he-he-he-he-he-HEEEEEEEEEEEE-lly*

10 seconds later lookie what I got.




I am such a good mom.

She will thank me later ;) !!!!!!!!

A meager life's work

On day 18 of a 20 day semester I found myself putting in twice the normal days work as I stayed quite late to learn how to tone prints. And as I stepped out of the classroom that day holding my two boxes overflowing with prints, my teacher said to me...

wow, that's like you're whole life's work you're holding there.

I supposed that was true in a way, and as I looked again at the overstuffed boxes, what seemed before to be an enormous amount of work, now seemed meager and deflated.

Though headway has been made, I was reminded that I am only at the very beginning of my journey. With all the discoveries yet to be made I think the beginning is an exciting place to be.

Someday perhaps two arms won't be enough to carry out the life's work of this girl.

Before I show you what I have been working on all of June let me first explain that this is from an ongoing project which is still taking form. Eventually it will include the wholeness of my family, but for now it is mostly consisting of my three little girls. I am in awe of the beauty that can be found within the sincerity of a young person. What they give you in terms of truth and depth is such an amazing gift. Especially so for the mother that has an all access pass to witness these things plainly and often, now to capture them is a treasure.

Again this is not the whole of my project but a small sampling of what was created within the small amount of time that was my summer school class.

note the sequentiality of the photographs as we begin in a public place, and move into more private spaces. The tracing of these moments being under normal circumstances unavailable to you as an outsider, now sit suspended here for indefinite amounts of time for your looking.























Now next time you go to photograph ask yourself this one question...

What does ____________ look like photographed?

and then answer the question with your experimentation.

within reach, if you're willing.

Tomorrow is my last day of summer school. It's bitter-sweet, with a little bit of a lean toward the sweet.

I'm preparing for some much needed sharing on here!

Till then...



oh yes~ Take your children to see Mr. Popper's Penguins, it's great. I laughed and laughed. Abnormally loud in fact.


<3 jill

Lavish yourself in the season of yum-berries

I just got home from Costco where I stocked up on fresh berries! There is no season greater than berry season.

Last Sunday I decided to embark on a crepe making adventure. I can't be sure why I have never desired to make crepes before but I have to think it must in some way be connected to a cruise I went on as a teenager where they served crepes... which were disgusting. So bad.

Stacey do you remember those? We went to the midnight party they were having? Ate a bite of crepe? Swore it off hence forth?!

Anyhoo mine were not disgusting.

They were heavenly :)

I think *not being an expert on crepes* that this is probably not the traditional way to serve crepes. This was more of a fresh berry crepe torte and I want to help you recreate it... if you so desire :)

I'm not going to put the crepe recipe on here because I think probably any crepe recipe will do. Mine was a little long and involved. If you don't have a recipe you like email me and I will be glad to send it. NOTE: remember the words long and involved before emailing. But good yes!

So you'll need to make my special Blueberry Blackberry sauce-a-lopogus. Based off of a Martha Stewart recipe I have. Anytime I have to make more than two changes to a recipe in order for it to be acceptable, I rename it and call it my own.



very simple. You will love it.

You will also want to make some Creme Fraiche. Pronounced { krehm FRESH }

ATTENTION: this needs to be started 24 hours in advance. (just thought I'd give you the heads upon that so you don't get half way through and realize you should have started yesterday) (believe me, I know how that goes!!!!)


(just now noticing my font is making the #1 look semi like the #2. please note : it is 1 cup to 2 tbsp. thx!)

P.S.- they do sell Creme Fraiche at gourmet supermarkets such as A.J.'s Fine Foods. I have full confidence you can make it though considering the directions consist of letting it sit on your counter for a day :)

To the creme fraiche I want you to add 3tbsp. of powdered sugar and 1/2 a tsp. of vanilla. Whisk together.

Oh yes. You can add fresh sliced strawberries to the layers if you want. I mean I did it and it was not regrettable in the least. In fact opposite!

So as torts usually go...

Start with a crepe. Spread your Blueberry Blackberry Sauce-a-lopogus on it. Add another crepe. Spread with your sweetened creme fraiche. Continue layering in this manner till you're torte is about 10 crepes high. Finish with a crepe on top. Add fresh berries for garnish and drizzle with creme fraiche.

Then prepare to die...


of heavenly love.

Have you seen the movie "The Blob" ...it's real, and it's SCARY!

I feel like the blob.

Lately I just kind of roll from one place to another. No real movement required.

So in an effort to remedy this situation, I packed up my Lu in her stroller this morning and went walking. Fastly. With small bouts of jogging involved.

I hated it.

I purposely left my ipod at home so my brain would be free to get its act together and come up with a genius idea. Really any idea would have sufficed. Do you know how hard it is to think when your 4 year old is blabbering on and on, asking you questions you can't begin to answer because honestly, you just don't know who lives in every single house in the neighborhood?!

yep. yep.

There was a few things my brain managed to muster up. 10 to be exact.

Jill's Top Ten

Reasons why walking/jogging stinks the big one, especially when the sun is out.

10. I am out of sunblock.

9. It is better to be flappy and white than wrinkled up like a prune melting on the sidewalk.

8. You know that gipped off feeling you get when you buy a bag of skittles and more than 58% of them are yellow and green? thats how walking/jogging makes me feel.

7. PAAAAAAAAIN!

6. Especially my ears.

5. When I jog I become too keenly aware of the junk in my trunk. (bad for self-esteem)

4. Also I have bad form.

3. and giant feet.

2. with really skinny ankles.

1. Which makes me look ridiculous in 'good' running/walking shoes

proof:


Told you so!

The lady at the shoe store told me how amazingly comfortable these shoes are. Here's the thing... clunky will never equal comfortable! Plus they look like man shoes. Dressing like a man ended for me in the 90's ok people! I can't go back! I won't do it!!!!

I swear I trip over my feet in these. It's embarrassing really. I should stick to walking after the sun goes down.

Anybody want to walk at night with me?

anybody???

Are those crickets I hear?