Hummus.

Hummus, hummus, hummus, we all love hummus! Here's a website with a dictionary of hummus recipes, including "Hummus with Tahini" and "Hummus without Tahini."  Good stuff!

Click Here for recipes!

Focus.

So today was overcast, and beautiful, but as I prepared for an the engagement shoot of a very cute couple, my baby was dying for my attention.  I have to make sure everything is working and ready to go, so I figure I'll give her attention from behind the camera, and make her be my model (again).  I'm working with my flash on slave mode, and I'm so absorbed in trying to decide if I should even TRY to use the flash today, off, on, off, on, off, on.  Not paying a bit of attention to the beautiful and perfect girl in front of the camera, besides studying how the flash treats her skin tone.  Im in the zone.  And then I see the most hilarious and sad image pop up on my LCD screen.

Snap... snap.... snap.... AH!

Don't worry.  I rescued her.  hehe.

Solids.

Solid food.  It has begun.

At two days old my precious little girl was holding up her head, to everyones' surprise and pleasure.  Two months old she was sitting up with assistance.  Four months old, she began sitting up on her own. Yes, I got my Christmas wish!  But... somewhere in there, somewhere along and between all these beautiful and exciting accomplishments, those adorable, itty bitty little hands began to get grabby.  Oh the mischievousness that happens when little hands learn to grab.  

Thanksgiving day, I sat at what used to be the kid table, until all the kids grew up.  I had my little girl in my lap.  The experience of sitting among young people with a child is new.  There's all of a sudden a new perspective, as I leave the table to change a diaper, miss out on pie because I simply forgot, or realize I'm the only one that's no longer a student.  Knowing that a few months ago I was in the young-person boat of worrying about rent, and getting hours at my job... and now I consider the life of a child in my arms, and her eternal destination is entirely on my head.  How quickly priorities change.  

As everyone laughs and coos at this little girl, whom I hold with one hand, I am waving my mashed potato laden fork through an obstacle of what seems like hundreds of flailing baby hands, to my mouth.  This is also new.  I read all around to introduce food, "When she starts to show interest," and I wondered (as all new parents wonder and worry) how I would know if she was showing interest.  Today was that day.  There was no doubt of this little baby's new interest in food, as I looked down and discovered her tiny fingers covered in the contents of my paper plate.  

At that time she was only three months old, so we waited the proper amount of time, and the day she turned 4 months, we pulled out a jar of apple sauce.  This little girl was bred to ingest.  She was so in love with that apple sauce, not a drop hit her bib.  For the next week I spent a small amount of time each day allowing her to taste, and practice with the spoon.  By day two she was grasping the spoon and bringing it to her own mouth.  I thought, "Wow!  I have a little eating prodigy on my hands!  She's doing everything perfect!"  So then we moved on to different types of foods.  Peaches, Pears, Peas, Potatoes, Prunes, everything she could reach, she would eat.  Amazing!

Then somewhere along the line, the bib started to get a little messier.  And the baby started getting a little wigglier, until not only would the bib, the burp rag, and my hand towel be dripping with goodies, but so would I be.  So we stopped the food for a while, and started shopping for high chairs.  This was when I realized my completely vulnerable, tiny baby was not so helpless anymore, and definitely not so tiny.  We shopped around, and looked for sales, and compared website prices, and blah blah blah, until I decided I wanted to feed my baby foods again!  She was so sweet and perfect when she ate, and I just wanted to have that back.  So I went out and bought a high chair!  No sale, no coupon, straight out, paid with cash, completely committed I went home, strapped her in, got her apple sauce and.... 

We now start each meal with three spoons, and the dogs sit, waiting beneath the table.  As soon as this rainy weather has passed, I will be investing in suction-bottom bowls.  We have already invested in a few more bibs.  My little eating-angel appears sometimes, but the majority of the time, there is a little beast, who though she cannot reach beyond the tray, somehow still manages to get the spoon out of my sight, and somewhere... somewhere.... somewhere on the floor.  

And did I mention that she's been learning to cry for what she wants?  

To say the least eating solids is great!

Meat.

I went through this weird stage about a year ago... two years ago...?  (I've recently grown and born a child, don't judge.)  Where my uncle declared that my family lineage is not Mexican as we always thought, but that we're actually Jewish.  Some smarty-pants DNA study threw off everything I ever knew!  Of course, as a child, growing up in South Tucson, I always wondered why I didn't look like all my little Mexican friends.  They had thick black hair, and mine was fine and brown.  They had beautiful brown skin, and I was white, but with patience I could tan to a beautiful olive.  Even though, I was never the same color.  I had these circles under my eyes that I've fought since I learned what foundation was.  Oh, and did I mention they all had BEAUTIFUL, envy invoking eyebrows?  Yeah, mine are straight, and wimpy, and the shape is just over all wrong. Oh yes, let's not forget that bump on my nose.  Thank my Irish mother that at least my nose is small!  So you can imagine, that the moment my dad said, "Jew," I suddenly looked in the mirror and my cosmetic world made sense.

Oh, how I embraced it.  I embraced it with such excitement, that my perfect Mexican Spanish accent flew out the window in about a second.  All my aspirations to speak the perfect fluid Spanish dissipated.  I regret that now, of course.  I had sat through two years of college Spanish in my desperation to prove my Mexican lineage, that I had never been able to properly connect with.  And all of a sudden, I was free.  Also, I stopped caking cover-up under my eyes, and embraced my new-found lineage.  (After all this spiritual-soul-searching-where-did-I-come-from-who-am-I business, my baby was born with a specific Hispanic birth mark.  So my daughter proves to me there's a little Mexican in there somewhere.)

So why do I bring this up now?  BECAUSE I JUST MADE MACHACA AND ITS SO STINKING YUMMY I FINALLY FELT MEXICAN FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIIIIIIIIFE!

Granted, the recipe came from SkinnyMs.com, so that tells you right there that it's far from truly Mexican.  BUT MAN IS IT GOOD!  Click here for the recipe.  Just a note, I changed a couple of things to work from my 10pm kitchen.  I used Shallots instead of a small onion.  I don't even know the difference, but Shallots are cuter, and sound fancier, so I had some.  I used powdered Garlic, instead of cloves.  I was going to risk the whole operation and attempt it without Jalapenos, when I discovered a can of Jalapenos in my pantry!  Thank you Mother in Law for planning to attempt a Mexican recipe who knows how long ago.  The canned Jalapenos are teensy, so I used a whole bunch, instead of one (Though my husband would tell you that I just like to suffer).  Also, for my canned tomato sauce, I buy low sodium.  Since the pregnancy, any significant amount of sodium easily removes my wedding ring from my finger, so I eat to avoid sausage fingers.  Even with less salt, the seasonings in the recipe (including my absolute favorite, Cumin) are so devine, you'll never miss it.  But I imagine if you follow this recipe to the T, you'll get a nice, strong punch in the face.  It's that good.

Presents.

So my husband and I have been so poor since we've been married.  We got married young, and we have expected and embraced poverty.  Every Christmas since we've been married, we bring cookies or jello to family gatherings and call that our gift.  We're young and poor, everyone understands.  But I love giving gifts.  I can honestly say that I love giving gifts more than I love receiving them.  I usually make stuff, because it's fun.  I enjoy so much, the trick of figuring out what is the perfect gift for each person, and then waiting to see them open it up and declare that it is actually awesome.  Love it!

So this year, thanks to our beautiful, perfect baby, we're even more poor than usual!  But also, this year I wanted so badly to give EVERYONE a gift.  So I started searching Pinterest for ideas.  I'd made salt dough before, for my Primary children at church, so when I saw blog after blog about baby hand and footprints, I knew this was something easy and inexpensive, that everyone would love!

Salt Dough Recipe

1 Cup Salt
1 Cup Flour
1/2 Cup Warm Water

Knead it until it is stretchy, so it won't break and crumble.  Super easy!

I didn't have cookie cutters the right size, so I used a glass to cut out the circles.  Juliet loved putting in her handprints.  4 1/2 months old, everything is fun to touch.  She was only mad she couldn't put it in her mouth.

After the handprints, I used small alphabet stamps to stamp in her name along the side.  Use a straw to punch out the hole.

Bake in the oven (preheated to 100 degrees F) for 3 hours.  We didn't hear the timer, and baked them for who knows how long, but they came out great!

We painted them red, used a fine point sharpie to fill in the name.

Then I got Juliet's Christmas portrait printed (making sure it would fit the ornaments).  I used a smaller glass to trace a circle, a hole punch, and then used modge podge to add the pictures.

I couldn't find my red ribbon, but I think it looks so classy with black!

Sorry about the cruddy photography.  Too sick to pull out the Canon = Cell phone pictures.

Christmas!

It's a photography day!

There are so many things that I love about this time of year, namely, Christmas, and every sub-category that follows.  I love the crisp air (because in Tucson it never gets cold, just crisp).  I love the lights (I ignore that we have to pay so much for them!).  I love Christmas trees, ornaments, and I stinking love an excuse to get glitter on every surface of my existence.  I love racking my brain to come up with the perfect gift for those I love.  That, I think, is my favorite part of the monetary side of Christmas.  It's like a game for me.  After Thanksgiving, I spend the majority of my free time pondering those I love, thinking about our conversations, thinking about recent events in their lives, their recent fashion statements and trends, their likes, and for the perfect gag gifts, their dislikes.   Then I get the perfect idea, rarely is it a purchasable gift.  Often, my brain comes up with those perfect one-of-a-kind gifts that literally has the receiver's name on it, in my handwriting.  I have an urge to share, but I also have a faulty hope that anyone in my family actually reads this blog.

Then there's the proper side of Christmas.  There's the root of Christmas, the entire purpose it was ever brought about.  The reason, tempting as it may be, I will never replace the star atop my tree with that stinking cute owl topper from Target.  Jesus Christ.  He is incredible.  He is perfect.  He is our Savior.  And what a perfect, beautiful time of year to commemorate his birth, than December.  Because in December we get to snuggle up warm, and drink hot cocoa, and read Christmas stories, always reminding us of why we give things to each other.  Because when Christ was born, He was God's greatest gift to us.  That is why it is the season of giving.  Nothing invites the spirit into our homes more, than choosing to serve others.

I have a current experience that is brimming my heart with joy.  Our ward (which we are brand new to, and know almost no one) does a giving tree.  There's a teensy Christmas tree in the church, covered with ornaments, that say something like, "Boy, 7, anything to do with Iron Man," and "Girl, 14, skirts."  As Juliet was unyielding that we continue to pace the halls during Sunday School, I stopped and began to view the ornaments, with a desire to give.  Of course, we have no money, and these were gift requests that it would be hard to make for free, but my heart yearned to participate.  So I continued to skim, every now and then a request from a child would make me laugh.  And then I held up one ornament, a teenage girl's request for art supplies, namely such for pencil drawing.  If there's one thing that inspires me, it's a youth who loves to imagine, and create.  My heart leapt, because, though I am completely poor, I have a stock pile of art supplies, for my own enjoyment, and the fact that my husband was forced against his will to study art for one semester.  His poor soul.  I'm not sure how he survived.  But it just so happened that I had a giant drawing pad I got for a penny, my husband's hardly touched sketch pad from his class, and an entire pack of pencils, with kneaded eraser, rubber eraser, pencil sharpener and nub all untouched!  I was so excited.  I found something I could give.  I have no idea who this girl is, but I pulled a color pencil sketch of a flower from my own sketch pad, and I wrote her a letter, because she inspired me by her request.  Then I wrapped all of the things together, tied it with red ribbon, and next week it will go to the clerk's office and await delivery.  What a beautiful feeling to give so much.  I could have chosen to see those items as the amount of money I spent on them, but the joy of giving fills my heart, and there is no room left for what my mind might choose to think.

I love Christmas!

And didn't I say it's a photo day!  We spent our Sabbath setting up my little in-home studio and creating props for this Christmas time baby photo shoot!  Juliet was amazed by the lights, and mesmerized by her glittering shoes.

Garden.

So we've all seen the cinderblock garden on Pinterest (originally from Apartment Therapy).  I have been unfathomably obsessed with this idea for one main reason: I have two children, with floppy ears, wagging tails and sloppy tongues (oh and did I mention GIANT paws) which love to destroy all things beautful, mediocre or ugly.  We nicknamed the younger of the two DOT (Destroyer of Things), and she lives up to her name with gusto.

Of course the root of this problem, as with all problems with dogs, started with us.  In our search for assets in our life, we discovered that Indiana was the most efficient weed puller.  We got to the point where all we had to do was wiggle each weed, and in seconds it was out of the ground and onto the pile, and we didn't even sweat a drop.  Unfortunately, the habit was much too fun to keep within the realm of garden chores, and suddenly every strip of pipe from the watering system was torn from the ground, every daisy was uprooted, and several beautiful bushes... aren't so beautiful anymore.   We doomed ourselves to having a horrid yard because we were lazy, and Indiana was just having so much fun!

So here I am, in a new house, in a much more urban area, with a cute little yard which I am entirely in charge of, and by all means, it will be able to welcome more than a Mars Rover when I am done with it.

Now that I've shared a little bit of background, I hope it becomes evident why the cinder block garden idea was the perfect project for me, and my only slightly ridiculous family issues.  First, it is the perfect garden for a small space!  It builds upwards, instead of outwards, and only requires a little bit of soil and water.   Second, the majority of the garden is off of the ground, and away from where my cute little Destroyers can reach it.  Third, the idea is entirely customizable.  If you can play Tetris, you can build this garden, and even better, if you love aerosol art, nothing couples that love better than plain cinder block.

So, here's the beginning of my project, obviously it has some major touching up, and planting that needs to go down, but you get the idea.

Finally we finished painting and stacking the blocks.  When you put the wall together, make sure to put Liquid Nails on the tops and bottoms of the blocks, but also the sides.  We didn't start out putting the glue between the touching sides of the blocks, and when we decided to use more glue it became ten times sturdier.  My husband keeps making sure I'm willing to leave this behind when we move someday, because it is a strong piece of thing!

On Apartment Therapy, they suggested to cut down block and use Liquid Nails to stop up the bottoms. Many other bloggers have said they just used wire mesh.  Because of the artwork we added to the idea, I wanted to be sure the dirt would not leak out the bottom and soil (no pun intended) the underlying bricks.  Cutting wood is easier, so we did that.  Just a couple of the scrap boards from Home Depot.  If you buy their culled wood it's only 51 cents a piece.

For the stenciling, I simply cut a few doilies out of paper, just like you would make a paper snow flake. I first sprayed down the blue, then used spray adhesive on the doily.  I stuck the doily onto the blue spot after the paint dried, then sprayed over it with red, making sure not to let the paint pool.  When stenciling, make sure to spray strait on, so you don't get mist under the stencil.  I got a little bit.

Here's the almost finished project, after the boards set in, the glue tried, I touched up some sections of paint, and filled the holes with soil!

Since I'm planting succulents, I'm debating on using some of the gravel from my yard, to ad that deserty feeling, and also to tie the planter into the already existing design.

Will post more photographs when I finally strap up the baby and go on a plant purchasing trip!