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October 1st, 2012 | by Jessie | My man made our weekend unforgettable.
Last week Josh asked me to pick a weekend evening that would work in our schedule that he could cook a meal for me.
While I prepare most of the meals, Josh has had very good results when he sets out to make a specific food or recipe. I was all on-board with finding a day and marking our calendar because… duh. I found that Saturday would be the only really good time in the next several weeks that would work, so we went ahead and planned it.
And then Josh had a really hard day at work that day, working his not-so-favorite Saturday morning schedule and nothing went as planned. But still, he headed straight for the grocery store after work and picked up all the ingredients that he would need to make our dinner that night and insisted he still wanted to go through with it.
So, around 7 pm that night, I headed upstairs to get ready while he began cooking.
About an hour or so later, he came knocking on our bedroom door to pick me up for our date.
He was wearing a shirt and tie, dress pants and dress shoes! Which made me feel really good that I decided to dress up, too – we hadn’t talked about attire.
Josh escorted me downstairs to our candlelit table, where he had prepared our plates with his scrumptious food.
And get this: he made stuffed salmon, garlic infused asparagus and wild rice AND paired it with a nice pinot to savor.
It. Was. Delicious!
Like, the stuffing with the salmon was made of crab, celery, breadcrumbs, cayenne, among other things, I’m sure. I had never tasted asparagus with such a beautiful flavor! So, so impressive.
We had a lovely conversation that will stay between us, but let’s just say that I had two Kleenex nearby that I continually used to dab my eyes. It was just a beautiful evening and I can’t remember when I’ve felt THAT special.
In case you were wondering about the kids, my mom had Jace for the weekend and the older boys were playing peacefully in the basement while all of this was happening. They did come up once – they were ready for bed and searching for the old iPhone to play games on. Even they {who aren’t the most perceptive children in the world} stopped dead in their tracks and Jude said, “Are you having a date at home?!”
We asked them to take a few pictures of us and when not a one of them turned out, we auto-timed our own photos, just to help preserve the magical evening.
When we were done with our meal, we sat at the table and played Rummikub and listened to a few new albums. No phones, no kids, no TV. It was perfect.
Thank you Josh for taking the time and making the effort to make such a beautiful memory for us on an otherwise ordinary Saturday night. I’m blessed every day by you!
September 26th, 2012 | by Jessie | Jett insisted that he write Jude’s lunch note today. Every time that Jude or Jett eats “home lunch” – their name for when I pack their lunch (vs. school lunch), I write a note for them and stick it in their lunch box. For Jude that is every.single.day since about halfway through his kindergarten year when we discovered school lunches majorly stress him out. Jett will eat school lunch about 25% of the time. He used to decide whether he would have school lunch based on if they were serving a dessert that day. This year, the district has cut way back on any sweets (which I think is a good thing, by the way), and so Jett mostly eats what I pack him.
Back to this morning: We had plenty of time before we had to leave for school, so I let Jett write his note to his brother. He was very secretive as he slipped the note into Jude’s lunch box.
And as soon as he left the room… of course I opened the note.
Poetry, my friends. A love language among brothers. [And no, I don’t know what Juderrrb! means.]
September 25th, 2012 | by Jessie | I reacquainted you with my sons yesterday, now meet another very important component of the Zeigler household as of late:
It’s my latest weakness. I’m known for taking good things and making them into very dangerous things by enjoying them too frequently. Take this snack: it’s not THAT bad for a person, but daily? Daily might start catching up with me soon. But until then, I’m going to share it with you.
I’ll call it Slices of Yum:
1 apple sliced (Honey Crisps are SO GOOD right now, pricey but good)
sprinkle with ground cinnamon (1 tsp or to your taste preference)
In a small bowl or cup add 1 TBSP of peanut (or almond) butter and 1 TBSP of honey and microwave for about 20 seconds. Add a tiny splash of vanilla extract and stir.
Drizzle peanut butter mixture over the apple slices.
Add a serving of mixed nuts (1 oz) sprinkled over the top
Add some dark chocolate chips to top it off (1 TBSP)
Microwave the whole thing for about 30-35 seconds.
I use a spoon to eat because it gets kind of gooey.
The contrast of crisp, tart apple to the saltiness of the nuts, the creamy texture and sweetness of the peanut butter mixture and chocolate chips? Well, it’s pretty satisfying.
Here’s the damage: Calories: 541, Carbs: 72, Fat: 28, Protein: 9 The nuts really jack up the calorie & fat content, but all in moderation, right? I mean moderation for you, not me. I will say it is very filling and eats almost like a meal. You’ve been warned. Enjoy!
I saw a picture of this concoction on a fitness page that I subscribe to on Facebook called Bodyrock.tv. It didn’t have a name and someone added the ingredients in the comments so what I wrote above is how I’ve been making it lately, feel free to modify or make substitutions.
September 24th, 2012 | by Jessie | I’ve been missing my blog. Not the upkeep of the site, not the time that goes into the writing and posting – not even picture taking and editing – but, I do miss having the pictures and stories and the record of our days.
I’m not making any promises, but I am making an attempt to get back to writing in a way that makes sense for me. Honestly, it can be a big time sucker.
I think the best way to jump into this again, is just to start somewhere. So, I’ve looked through pictures taken on my iPhone this summer and found this one.
Holy smokes! That’s Jett. Even this picture surprises me because of how old he looks in it. It was taken in August. I could talk about this kid for about 2.5 days straight. He’s something, alright!
Jett and Jude are back in school and Jace and I have settled into a daily routine. He’s my constant companion and a pretty great one at that. This is us sharing coffee in the morning:
Here’s another photo we took in July so I can show you what Jude looks these days:
Are we caught up? Nope, and we probably won’t be in full, and that’s the problem: I can’t remember some of the fun and crazy things that have happened in and out of the house over the last several months. That’s ok, it serves as a reminder that even when I don’t think there is much good to remember – THERE TOTALLY IS – and even the not-so-shining moments are worth reflection. It’s part of our story: where we’ve been, where we’re going.
June 19th, 2012 | by Jessie | It was a teensy weensy bittersweet to take our Father’s Day picture this year in front of a new tree. The tree at our old house was planted on Josh’s first Father’s Day a few months after Jude was born. The year was 2005. If anything, that tree is the only thing we miss at the old house.
It’s always fun for me to take a look back throughout the years to see how much we’ve grown and changed as a family.
Here’s this year’s picture:
2011:
2010:
2009:
2008:
2007:
2006:
2005:
March 26th, 2012 | by Jessie | 
Here is an entry for The Naughty Files, just for old times’ sake.
Today I was heading down to our basement to work in my quilting room while the older boys were in school and Jace was napping. I was snacking on a string cheese stick and at the bottom of the stairs I tossed its wrapper into a small trash can. It was then I noticed the frightening contents of said trash can:
That is what it looks like: copious amounts of broken glass.
No one had informed me of any broken glass and I had to find out why not. Josh was home from work so I asked him if he knew about it. He said no, but he had noticed a picture frame that was off its wall hook in the basement.
Upon further investigation, I found that two pictures had been taken off the wall. One frame had its glass removed – and was intact – on the table next to where the pictures previously hung. The other frame was on the floor and had no glass, save for tiny particles sparkling under the artificial basement light.
Instead of a bare wall where the pictures used to be, I found this, one very important clue:
If you’re having a hard time making out the writing, it reads “Do not open until 2015”. A time capsule of sorts? Oh, now would be a good time to mention that we’ve recently introduced the kids to Back to the Future. I’ll assume that you remember the part in the movie when Marty writes a letter to Doc Brown warning him that he’s going to be shot by terrorists in the mall parking lot. On the envelope containing the letter he writes “Do not open until 1985”. Yeah. I’m guessing that was the motivation behind this little project.
A few problems: I believe they meant for this to be secret. I believe they were trying to hide the note in a picture frame and when they couldn’t get one frame back together they tried the other one. When that one broke, I think they became distracted, quietly picked up the glass and forgot about their big, secret note. Another problem was the envelope was precariously hanging from the wall with tape holding one edge. AND the bottom of the envelope was completely open. I’m thinking this wouldn’t have lasted on the wall for a week, much less 3 years. Here’s a view from the floor looking up:
The big, secret, important note!!
What – oh what! – could it possibly say?!?
Oh wait, what is this? Jude and Jett’s name with (what I’m told is) a trophy! Huzzah!
Maybe this will all make sense in 2015.
Thankfully no one was hurt, although Josh remembered seeing a little cut on Jett’s finger a few days ago and wonders if it was from this incident. How Jett summoned enough courage to go on without making a big deal out of getting a Band-Aid is beyond me, perhaps the task at hand was far too great to worry about his personal safety. Anyway, the frames have been removed and extra vacuuming has been done to make sure they are safe, so crisis averted…
for today, at least.
February 14th, 2012 | by Jessie | Happy birthday, Mom! Happy birthday to our nephew Jackson!
Happy Valentime’s Day to the rest of us. Yes, I know it’s really Valentine, but it’s always Valentime in our house. Just to remind us of how funny it is when people say it wromg. I mean wrong. See how easy it is to comfuse n’s and m’s? It’s the hardest job I have.
Yesterday the older boys were both honored at school for being Star Students. Spoiler alert: every child gets to be Star Student at one point in the school year. But, it’s the biggest deal to the kids and gives us a chance to show our love and support for them. It’s a fun thing. My mom came to watch the assembly and both of Josh’s parents took off work to come. The boys were so excited! Jude was announced first but he got the biggest delight out of seeing his brother also receive the Star Student award. Very sweet stuff.
Today Jett and Jude got to take the valentines “we” made for their classmates to school. I pulled the idea from Pinterest… it’s a good one:
Those are foam paper lips for the ladies and (of course) mustaches for the gents. They were pretty fun to make; I hope the kids have fun with them.
The boys in their new valentines (shirts) from Abba. Angry Birds kind of rules in our house these days, but Jace is a fan of “Icky Mouse”.
Oh, one last thing… here’s a little video of Jace rocking and rolling:
Don’t mind the other voices in the background, they are just reacting to the basketball game that was on last night. =)
February 13th, 2012 | by Jessie | In December, I was having a hard time getting the older boys to behave in the car ride to school in the mornings and as a result I implemented a “Gold Stars for Gold Fish” program. If the boys did a great job getting ready in the morning and behaved their little selves on the car ride to school, I awarded a gold star for the day. If they reached 11 stars (it was as many gold star stickers as I had), they would be rewarded with goldfish. They had been anxious to become pet owners and having goldfish was my idea of taking the cheapest, easiest way out.
Or so I thought.
It took a month (or maybe a little longer) to accumulate 11 gold stars, but they did it. Last Friday we went to the pet store as a family. I peeped the price of the gold fish: 13 cents each. Yes, this plan is going to work perfectly. Since we were completely new to the fish world, we needed to get a tank (or a bowl). Well, we talked to an employee who informed us that the goldfish we were interested in would get big and they recommended a 20-gallon tank. The 20-gallon tank kit was nearly $100. No thanks!
We did settle for a smaller tank kit, but had to add a few other add-ons like gravel for the bottom of the tank and a heater. Yes, a heater. Oh, and they wouldn’t actually let us buy a fish that day (after dropping $60+ on supplies). No, we had to get the tank set up and cycle the water for 24 hours through the filter after a water conditioner was added. For real! For fish!
The boys went back yesterday to pick out the fish and came home with 2 orange-ish red ones and 2 black and white ones. I don’t know the species. The boys named them Fishel Grievous, Angry Fish, Mc Donalds, and Hot Dog.
And a mere 19 hours after they came to live with us, their ability to survive was tested. Big time.
The orange parts of the tank is fish food. Jace thought they needed to be fed for a second time this morning, pushed a chair over to the tank, opened the hatch and dumped half of the new container of fish food in.
I knew that it probably wasn’t good for the fish to be overfed, but a quick google search showed that it was definitely toxic (the food when it dissolves releases too much ammonia or some such thing into the water). So, I had to do an emergency cleaning. At one point as I was scooping the fish to and from the emergency holding bowl, one of the orange fish jumped straight out of the bowl and was flopping around on the counter top. I swear a part of its fin rubbed off on the counter, but it didn’t seem to affect its swimming ability, so I’m not sure if that was what happened or if I imagined it.
The fish are still alive at the time of this posting. I’m really hoping they’ll pull through in their unconditioned, not-previously-filtered tap water. But it is warm, I’m not heartless. And the fish food has been moved to an undisclosed location so as not to tempt the littlest care-taker.
November 14th, 2011 | by Jessie | Since it has been awhile since I’ve written about my kids, here is installment #2 of catching up with the Zeigler boys.
Jett is now 5 1/2 years old. He is in kindergarten. He likes school. A little too much, I fear. I don’t know if he’s completely into the learning aspect, but socially speaking, he’s “all in”.
After fall conferences, we came away with the mental picture that Jett is the stereotypical class clown.
He’s the kid who when sitting on the carpet at story time will be poking the other students around him, making goofy faces, trying to get a laugh.
Jett loves Cars 2 – with an undying passion. When I came back from our local coffee shop/bookstore with an armload of used books, he literally burst out in tears that there were no Cars 2 books. Oh, I should also mention that at home, he’s displaying bursts of intense emotion – a phase that is already fizzling out – but, oh boy! Spare me, son.
While we’re on the Cars 2 subject, here is good sampling of books he’s written at school this year:
All about Cars 2!
At home, I can’t avoid the fact that he’s my middle child. Jude naturally (for reasons I may explain in more detail later) requires more attention on a regular basis. It’s inevitable. Jace relies on us for so much, too, being the “baby” of the family. We have to be very intentional about spending one-on-one time with Jett. It’s good for all of us. Besides that, he’s a fun kid to share quality time with!
I wanted to get a current picture of Jett for this post and to further illustrate his personality right now, I’ll show you everything that unfolded over the course of 2 minutes and 15 clicks of the camera. With absolutely no creative input from me, I might add. This is just Jett.
Class clown? You don’t say!
I should have seen this coming, this photo was taken just before Jett turned 2 and it remains a family favorite:
November 9th, 2011 | by Jessie | Jace turned two in August which makes him… just over two years old. Math was never my strong suit. But I do know cute when I see it!
Jace is getting really good at being two years old; the ladies at Fareway could attest to that today. When we first arrived, he discovered that it was not the grocery store with the small carts for kids and had… a moment. After that, he was fine.
Jace loves the Cars guitar that he got for his 2nd birthday and plays it regularly. In fact, just before he got his tummy virus a few weeks ago right before our move, he’d developed a fever. This was a goofy fever, though. It made him very playful and NOT tired. After being put to bed at the regular 8 pm time, he woke up around 1:30 am wanting to play. I stayed up with him for an hour or so and finally got him back to sleep. That didn’t last too long and by about 3:30 am, Josh and I decided that we’d just let him watch tv in the living room so I could come back to bed. At about 4 am, he slipped into our bedroom, grabbed his guitar and slipped back out again. Around 4:30 am, I went out to check on him and sure enough, he was watching tv and jamming away on his guitar. It was the funniest little thing!
I love how he tilts his leg up to support that thing. On his own, he took the strap off one of the Rock Band guitars and attached it to his guitar. His daddy’s guitar has a strap so he knows all about such things.
Another trick he has is opening Mommy’s guitar case to swipe a pick for himself. He’s very resourceful. And he uses it correctly.
Emerging independence: perfect buzz words for a two year old. He has recently starting putting on his socks and shoes BY HIMSELF, thankyouverymuch! And here’s the thing, I have not once witnessed him putting these shoes on the wrong feet. He has got the world pretty much figured out by now.
Except talking. The boy can’t articulate many words. He’s got maybe 10 words that are on heavy rotation. Mostly it’s “uh” with accompanying pointer finger. We try, but honestly, I don’t think he even knows where to begin. Sometimes I clap the syllables of words to break them down for him. He’ll just smile politely and clap along, but at this time he just.can’t.do.it.
He is so much fun and my #1 helper.
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