jump up and down

what's for breakfast: banana carrot muffins

We have some very early mornings (well, very early for what I have been used to in the more recent past) around here lately.  We are up and out the door by 7:30 or 7:45 every weekday.  That means that there's not much time for breakfast and since my kids are grazers, especially in the morning, I have been trying to have some to go foods that I can pack to go to the babysitter or that they can eat in the car on the way to preschool.  For us, that means muffins.  My boys love muffins, or "uffins" as they like to call them.  No matter how hard I try, I cannot get them to say the "m".  Oh well, it certainly is adorable.

We have a few favorite recipes for muffins.  One of them is this Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffin over at Angry Chicken.  Another is a Sweet Potato Muffin that uses shredded sweet potatoes and is super delish.  It's from a vegetarian cookbook that I have - I will share that the next time we make it.  And this one, I got off of the internet somewhere.  I've modified it a bit to make it healthier.  It called for Crisco originally and I don't believe in trans fat (well, I do believe in it - I believe it will kill me if I eat it and I ate plenty of it in my childhood before we knew it was bad, so I have to lay off now), so I substituted a combination of oil and applesauce. 

Banana Carrot Muffins

1 cup sugar
4 large eggs
5 bananas
1/3 c. orange juice
2 cups grated carrots
2 cups white flour
2 cups wheat flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 c. canola or vegetable oil
1/2 c. applesauce

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

In a medium bowl, combine flours, soda and salt.  In a large bowl, mix oil, applesauce, and sugar.  Mix in eggs and juice.  Using a fork or potato masher, mash bananas thoroughly.  Mix the carrots and bananas into the egg-sugar mixture.  Stir the dry ingredients into the wet until just moistened.  Spoon batter into lined muffin tins, filling each cup 2/3 full.  Bake for 20-25 minutes, until light golden.  Makes 24 muffins.

This last time I made them, I tried making them even more healthy by reducing the oil to 1/4 cup and increasing the applesauce to 3/4 cup.  I also cut the sugar to 1/2 cup.  It was really hard to get the paper off when they first came out of the oven, but after a day or two in a plastic bag getting moist, I can peel the paper off fairly easily.  And more important, the boys will still eat them in their ultra healthy state.  I'm not sure what I will do next time I make them - perhaps somewhere inbetween - 1/3 c. oil and 2/3 c. applesauce?  We'll see...Enjoy!

red mittens

I am such a lucky girl.  My dearest friend from college, Cayenne, is the most wonderful and talented knitter.  I think I've mentioned her before and shown off her mad  knitting skills.  She knitted me the most fabulous mittens for Christmas.  We weren't able to meet up at Christmas, so I didn't get these lovelies until recently.  They are so intricate and beautiful.  I love their scarlet red color.   I just think they are amazing and I'm so so glad they are mine.  I actually gasped audibly when I saw them on her blog (I saw them there before I had seen them in person.).  They are just the essence of why handmade is so wonderful - everytime I see and wear them, I will think of her and all of the great times we have had together.  And they are perfect right now  - it has been so cold here!!  Someday I am going to have Cayenne teach me how to knit, but in the meantime, we often do a sewing/knitting exchange which works out just great!

wip: living room update 2

No, I haven't forgotten about the living room projects I have going - next to the kitchen, the living room is where I spend most of my time.  We have to pass through it to get anywhere in the house and since I took all the pillows of the couch and the quilt off of the wall, I think about my plans for them every day.  I've just been in the collecting stage of this project - collecting fabrics.  I have something with a very patchwork feel in mind.  Some of these are from my stash, but I have also collected a fair number of new, but small, pieces for this little project.  Most are 1/8 and 1/4 yard cuts - perfect for patchwork!  I hope to get a chunk of time this weekend to get a good start on the actual sewing of these pillows - hopefully I will have more to show next week. 

And here's an interesting page from my latest Better Homes and Gardens magazine - all of my colors on one page.  This came a week or two after I had decided on the colors.  I'm just using a little lighter hue of the blue and not really using any brown, although all of the furniture in our living room is brown, so I suppose that will count for the brown. 

I can't wait for this to all come together.  I've been wanting to do new pillows for about a year now, but for the longest time could decide what I wanted to do.  I'm glad I waited because I'm really excited for these colors and how this all going to come together.

another year older

Yes, today is my birthday.  And here is my birthday present to you - a few self portraits.  There are far too few shots of actual bloggers on blogs.  So, this is what I look like today - I even did my hair. 

I'm 32 today and I am totally OK with it.  I have had a good year overall.  I don't think I have ever overtly said this, but last year around this same time I was struggling with some fairly serious depression.  I'd been dealing with it for about a year before that and had figured out at that point that it wasn't going to go away on its own.  So, I set some goals, I got some counseling , I decided I would go back to school, and I accomplished the biggest one of those goals.  I know I've never mentioned getting counseling before, but I wanted to be honest here and let people know how much it helped.  If you've ever thought that it might be helpful to you, I would recommend it.  I've had some longstanding issues from my childhood and I resisted going  for a long time because I think I can do everything by myself, but really a third party perspective was so helpful.   I'm happy to report that the depression has lifted - I still fight it occasionally, but it's not a daily battle anymore.  I'm so glad that I'm enjoying the journey more and I have hope that it's just going to keep getting better.

 And my big goal to tackle this next year is my eating habits - up until about a week ago they had gotten progressively worse.  I'm not feeling guilty about it - truthfully, it's just been in the last few weeks that I have finally felt well enough emotionally to feel like I had a fighting chance at changing my eating habits.  And so far, it's going fairly well and here is the proof - a cut grapefruit.  The last two years I have bought two grapefruits when they go on sale in the winter.  They come home and go in the fridge and stay there until about June when I decide to finally throw them out.  In the last week, I have eaten, yes, count them, FOUR, grapefruits.  Here's to more...

UPDATE:  I want to thank Karen for a) remembering my birthday (she has dial-up right now and understandably hadn't checked my blog yet) and b) bringing me this delicious little cake.  I feel so loved!  Plus, I needed a birthday treat as I have been a little too good at getting the food I shouldn't be eating out of the house! 

And to Kellie for organizing a little GNO tomorrow night (yeah, I didn't mention that I have lab tonight - oh well, it gives me a good excuse to extend the celebration) - if you're here in town and want to come, let me know and I'll give you the details.

we have a winner

Thanks to all those who entered the dress giveaway!  It's so fun to see those comments roll in - and yes, I do read every single one.  I will freely admit to being a comment junkie. 

And onto the winner -  it's Disco Mom! 

For those of you who didn't win, I think I've decided that I really like giving things away, so stayed tuned for more in the next little bit!  In the meantime, I'm hoping the sun comes out.  I have lots of things to blog, just no pictures - come on sun!

P.S.  I just found out about another great giveway - Candace has a great blog, Sparkle Power, that I've been reading for a little while.  She is giving a way a poster and set of vintage map wooden blocks - enter here.

what's for dinner: lemon spaghetti

Ahh...I must be getting back on track here with the return of the "what's for dinner" post.  I actually have to give credit to Leslie for helping me find this recipe.  Many of you might read her great style blog, a room somewhere, but perhaps you didn't know that she also has a little recipe blog too.  And she's actually a friend of a friend of mine.  I had been reading Leslie's blog for a little while before I discovered this.  The bloggin world is a small place, apparently.  Anyway, here is the link to the recipe.  It looks like it is actually a Giada DeLaurentis recipe - maybe I would have seen it myself if we still had cable.  Sometimes I am tempted to get it, just for the Food Network.

This recipe is great for our family - the kids love spaghetti, but Ryan is not a big fan of tomato sauces (or tomato anythign for that matter), so this gets us the pasta without the tomato.  I love its slightly tangy zing and unexpected flavor (for pasta that is).  I also love that it is so easy to add things to the recipe - this time we added grilled chicken breast bites.  I've also added peas, white beans, and brocolli at other times.  Yum....I think I'm going to go eat some of the leftovers right now. 

And maybe I did have a little fun playing with the lemons before I cut and zested them...

P.S.  Don't forget to enter my dress giveaway before 5 pm tomorrow!

thoughts

I should be studying and not blogging right now, but the day's events have got me thinking thoughts that need to get out.

First the funny...this morning Ned and I were watching the Inauguration (Peter was already at preschool) and as the former presidents came out, I was telling Ned who they were.  At one point, he said, "NO!  prez-den Neddy!"  Well, that's about right around here. 

And then the amazing...Did anyone else love looking at this hat as much as I did?  I really want a closer look to see how it was constructed - wow!

And now for the serious matters...I loved President Obama's speech - the call for unity, the call to be a better you, the call to dig deep and the call to serve.  Indulge me please, here are a couple of my favorite bits:

One of my favorite lines  - "We will restore science to its rightful place."  This affects my family enormously as I am married to a scientist (who currently works for the federal government), have a science degree, and work myself for over 5 years in science.  I'll stop there...I have many more thoughts on this subject, but I've erased a few versions of them already as they seem far too political for this blog.

And OK, this isn't really a bit, but it was definitely my favorite paragraph: 

"Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends -- hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism -- these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility -- a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world; duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task."

It's so nice to feel hopeful, especially when I look at my two little guys and want the best for them.

won't you sit down?

Another project that my Mom and I tackled while she was here was putting together this table and chair set from IKEA (this is the part I did), staining it, lacquering it, and making chair pads for it (my mom did all of this with a little help from Peter on the staining).  We are missing one chair pad still because we ran out of ribbon to finish it, but it should be done soon.  The boys have been in love with little tables for a while and so when my Mom asked what they wanted for Christmas, I knew just what to have her get.  

I moved all of the toys up to the boys' bedroom just before Christmas hoping that the downstairs would stay a little neater and that the boys might spend more time being creative as I still kept all of the paper, craysons, markers and such downstairs in the kitchen.  I'm not sure if it's all working out as I pictured it, but Ned, especially, loves to sit down with the crayons and color for a bit and then get his car and pretend the car is crashing into the crayons and scatter them over the floor.  Such a boy!  Oh, and he likes to just sit on top of it to eat - this time to eat an apple.

Maybe we will pull the table into the living room today and sit at it while we watch some inaguration coverage.  I'm fairly sure neither of my boys will remember this day, but I know it will so much affect their lives, for the good, I hope.  I am excited to witness such a historic event!

eight dresses and a giveaway

I'm so glad that we have a long weekend - I've had a crazy couple of weeks with the start of school.  One of my classes (the continuation of the Anatomy class I took last semester, so I had to take it) got canceled last minute and I ended up having to take it during the day which meant finding a babysitter about four days before I needed her to start.  And now we have to  get out of the house by 7:30 on M,W,F for my class and 7:45 on T, Th for Peter's preschool.  Yes - every day of the week we are up and at 'em.  I was so happy the boys let us sleep in this morning.  And I'm not happy about the whole school schedule situation, but I'll survive it - it's only for four months. 

Last weekend we had a nice long weekend too.  Ryan went to San Diego for a conference (do I wish I had gone with him?  yes, but my classes started while he was gone.) and my Mom came to visit and help out while he was gone.  And, of course, in true crafty mom and daughter fashion, we had to have a couple of projects to keep us busy.  One of those projects was making eight dresses!  I needed a birthday present for one of Peter and Ned's little friends and suddenly it turned into making a dress for every girl I knew who was having a birthday or being born (I'm getting a new niece here any day now - can't wait to see her!) in the next few months.  This will be great as I'm sure when the time comes, I'll be busy with school and not have much time for making things and I'll just be able to pull out the dress I made last weekend.  Hooray for planning and making ahead!

This was also my first chance to use Sandi's Claire Pattern.  Everything went together pretty smoothly - thanks for a great pattern Sandi!  My mom had brought her serger down, so that was a big part of why we were able to whip this out so quickly.  We used cookie trays during the sewing process to keep the pieces of the different sizes together.     I did the ruffling and the rolled hems.  My mom put the pieces together and did the elastic.  And suddenly, in less than 12 hours total, we had eight dresses.  Like I said, I hadn't planned on making eight - I went to the fabric store without the pattern and found a piece of fabric I thought would work.  It was on a really great sale ($1.50 a yard), so I bought extra, "just in case".  I bought a little bit of some other pieces to go with it and when we were cutting out, we were able to get eight dresses out of them.  I did have to find a few pieces in my stash for sleeves and ruffles, but not much. 

So, this brings me to the giveaway.  All of the dresses have a home, except for this one.  Help me give it a home by signing up for the giveaway.   This one was made in the size four, but it would really probably fit a girl up to a size 6 or so.  Just leave a comment and you're entered.  International entries are welcome.  Also, if you mention the giveaway on your blog, I will enter you a second time - just send me an e-mail to jjumpupanddown at gmail dot com (yes that is two j's at the beginning -think (j)essi (j)umpupanddown) with the link where you mentioned the giveaway.  Feel free to use my not so great photo in your post (I thought about having the only 4 year old I have handy modeling it for me, but I don't think he would've gone for it.  Remember all the trouble I had getting him to wear his apron the first time?)  I'll leave this open until next Friday, January 23 at 5 pm or so my time.  Good luck!

wip: living room update

The pictures are hung in my thrifted and painted frames.  All but the one around the family picture are from the thrift store - that one is from TJ Maxx, on clearance for $3, and actually gets to have the credit for inspiring this whole living room transformation.  I've been wanting to make some changes in the living room for a while now, but wasn't quite sure what.  When I saw this picture frame, it all came together for me!  Sorry about the low light -  it's snowing today and we have a really dark living room. I hope our next place has more light coming into the living room!

 And when I got home, I realized I was going to finally be able to use this painting I thrifted last summer (for $2) that I love!  When I first put it in the living room, it didn't quite seem to go with all of the golden hues that were in there previously, but it fits perfectly now.

Now, I just need to put the pillows and a wall quilt together.  I've made some progress on one of the pillows in the form of a ton of french knots.  I got this idea from the Purl Bee blog here.  And I have a good idea of what I want to do for the pillows and wall quilt.  And if I get really ambitious, I have an idea for a embroidery sampler sort of thing to hang on the other wall.  School does start next Monday, so that might be a bit too ambitious.  We'll see...