How to Cut Fennel

Just in case you decided to make my grapefruit and fennel salad, or you've just seen this furry-topped veggie and wondered "how on earth do I cut that"?

1. Keep the top on (you can use it later, it has an anise (licorice) flavor to it). 

2. Slice in half.

3. Cut out the center using a triangular cut.

4. Using the top as a "handle", slice as usual.

I also added the fennel to my Meatball and White Bean soup (instead of the chard), added a bit of ginger, and voila, a spring-ier meatball soup!

Jessica

Hiding my "monthly supplies"

Just warning you, this is a post about how to contain those "monthly" supplies, not sure you (DAD), really need to keep on reading.

Just saying...

 sanitary supplies runneth over...

This "before" is not pretty. It's like a walk down the sanitary products aisle at your local drugstore.

Needless to say, my husband was not so happy to see this on the back of our toilet tank once a month:)

Enter, a lovely box from West Elm (not available anymore, but similar to these).

Everything is neatly corraled, including the tampons and pads,

a place for everything, everything in it's place, and *hidden* from view!

Problem solved!

Jessica

Baking as an Art not a Science (Banana Almond Cookies)

In my SkinnyGirl Margarita Cake post, I shared a little bit about this new idea that you can treat baking more like cooking. Instead of thinking of it as chemistry, a perfect science, think of it more as an art. If you add together fat, sweet, and a binder (butter, sugar, flour), then you will get either a dough or a batter.

We had some old bananas and I wanted to try a cookie again, so I just decided to experiment. In this recipe there is no binder (or flour). I think the egg and almond butter are so sticky that it all holds together that way.

This is a riff on my flourless peanut butter cookie recipe.

Flourless Banana Almond Chocolate Chip Cookies:

2 mashed bananas
1 cup almond butter
1 egg
1/2 cup chocolate chip cookies
optional- sugar to taste, between 1 tablespoon and 1/2 cup

Mix all ingredients together (gratuitous shot of baby),

scoop onto baking sheet,





and bake at 350 for 12 minutes.

So yummy!

Jessica

I made these for Passover along with the fluffy matzoh balls and chopped liver. Such a good dessert choice.

Spending Money on What I Value

Recently I heard someone I greatly respect say that kids won't listen to what you say, they will do what you do.

Part of that involves actually doing what you want them to do. You know, exercising instead of watching TV and telling them to exercise. Reading instead of surfing the internet and telling them to read. Giving money away instead of shopping and telling them the importance of charity...

And an even trickier part is spending your money on what you value, so your kids can see it in action.

My kids are filling a box for my daughter to bring back to school for charity. LOVE that school!

The other day, May 6th to be precise, I asked my 5 year old what she thought we spend our money on. Here are her answers:

1. Charity (tzedakah in Hebrew)
2. Her School
3. Her Brother's School

So, I give us an A for conveying our values of giving to charity and education to our kids. Hooray!


Just for fun, here is where we actually spend our money:

1. Housing
2. Education
3. Charity
4. Food
5. Exercise, Recreation, etc. (gym, pool, skiing, biking...)

Not too shabby, given that we are trained as architects and our built environment is incredibly important to us:)

What would your priorities look like? Real life versus ideal? Or what would your kids think? Ask them and let me know!

Jessica

Easy Hostess Gift

My dear friend Ellie (who can be seen in this post about my daughter's rainbow birthday party), recently invited us over for a kid-free dinner, yay!

She has lovely, eclectic taste, so I just popped a few flowers together in a rinsed-out can, and attached a small paper tag. So simple, and yet bright and colorful, and totally her:)

I wish I could say that I picked these from my garden, but my attempts at gardening just aren't that far along yet!

Jessica

Stacking Books on the Coffee Table

You all know that I'm not really one for styling spaces, but even I couldn't help but notice that my gorgeous, giant burlwood coffee table in my living room, just wasn't living up to expectations. I do believe that a room without books is a little soul-less, so enter a happy accident when I discovered this post from Oh Happy Day.

The thing is a massive 6 feet long, and the one little tray (that I got from Joss and Main), just wasn't filling the space, or making it feel homey. You can check out my new art additions here.

Thankfully, by adding four neat stacks of books to the table, the space is filled, and I'm actually encouraged to look at these coffee table books!

My favorite books can be found in this post of the gifts I bought myself.

Better, right?

Plus, with 3 kids under 6, there is no way I'm styling this sucker with anything breakable or precious:) Even those flowers were only a there-for-the-photos kind of thing.

Jessica

Gardening on a Deck

This year, my attempts at gardening are more realistic. Last year, we brought up 2 enormous blue planters and planted bright pink bougainvillea,

built our own DIY planter (for the never-to-bloom veggie garden, this year you can see herbs and flowers),



and overall spruced up our deck.

This year, I just wanted to add some color to the bougainvillea pots (amazingly we didn't kill it over the winter!), and let the kids have a place to "garden" on their own. This year we are testing out a theory I found on Pinterest, that if you put a raw egg in the hole with the flowers, they will grow better!




You can see what happens when I let a 3 year old boy garden here:)





Oh, plus I grabbed a few $2 green pots at Ikea and filled them with this super soft grassy stuff that I picked up at Home Depot. The goal was to keep it alive long enough to use as centerpieces at my daughter's school gala, mission accomplished:)







Anything else you are craving this spring? It feels like each year I downsize my resolutions, and try to focus on what really matters. This spring planting season, that just means I want a few hits of color, and to be able to relax with my family.

Jessica

Using Groovebook to take my photos off the iphone

Like most of us, I take a ton of photos on my iPhone and then just leave them there to rot. Or be deleted by an overly tech-savvy 18 month old:)

Not anymore! I downloaded the Groovebook app (free), and now I order a little photo book each month with up to 100 picture sin it, all right from my phone!

Wait, now I sound like an infomercial, but I wanted to share how I get the photos *out*, so i can add them to our photo albums or give them out to others. The photos are perforated, so you can easily tear them out, and they even say when and where you took the photo, score!

It's $2.99 a month for a book for 100, which is a great deal, since 30 cents a photo including shipping totally rocks, and it's easy, with no annoying transferring of photos.


If you want to download the Groovebook app, put in my promo code GROOVEISTA and you'll get your first book free!

You can get the app from the apple app store, by going to groovebook.com. Plus you can check out this video for a quick demo.

Let me know what you think, it's my favorite thing, and if for some inexplicable reason I don't take 100 photos one month, then I plan on making cute little books for family members!

Jessica

If you enter my code, I'll get a small amount back, but you'll be getting a free book of photos, so I think it's a win-win! Plus, I won't ever endorse something I don't already use (and love)!

Dishwashing the Tub Toys

Did you now you could do this?

I mean, I'm pretty sure I've read it in a bout a zillion magazines, and I think I hand-washed each toy after a bath when our first was a baby, but with three kids, somethings have to slide.

And, apparently, washing out bath toys was just one of those things:)

Until...

We were giving all three kiddos a bath in *our* tub, when the baby decided she had yet to make use of a tub as a giant diaper. You know what I mean?

Yep, so, so, so disgusting!

Not helped by the screams of the older two, "DISGUSTING"!

So after actually cleaning the kids (in the shower), and cleaning the tub itself, it was time to seriously disinfect the tub toys.

Man, this was easy. Pop in upper rack of dishwasher on "sanitize". Done.

If I had adventurous resolutions (which I do not, I like do-able resolutions) I'd resolve to wash the tub toys each week. Instead, I'm settling for every few months, or when we have hazmat level conditions:)

Jessica

A Sleep Number Pillow

Some mornings I wake up with a crik in my neck.

Or a "crick"? Creek?

Anyway, you know that feeling that you just haven't slept well, but you know for sure you aren't pregnant so there isn't something obvious to blame it on? (Also, no small children in my bed, so *no* good excuse).

After a few too many nights of this, I received an email from Sleep Number asking if I'd like a free pillow to try out. Heck ya! Who doesn't want a free pillow?

Especially if I get to take a special quiz to find just the right pillow for me! I mean, a quiz? It's like my birthday all over again.- Yes, I know, I'm a total nerd. But that nerdiness did take me to Harvard where I met my husband, so I'm allowed to get over excited about a pillow quiz:)

So, I went online, took the quiz and was sent the perfect pillow for me. Or for the me that took the quiz.

Turns out that while I am very good at knowing that I get hot (so I need a cool comfort pillow), that I like memory foam (that mattress saved me when pregnant with #2), and that I sleep in a Cal King bed, I don't actually know what position I sleep in.

I *thought* I was a back and side sleeper. So the pillow I received is perfect for that! It's all contoured and lovely and cradles your neck and head and when I'm laying on my back in bed it's super relaxing and lovely. Except- and this is the part where you know I'm telling you like it really is- I apparently sleep on my stomach. All those years of side-sleeping due to pregnancy and nursing while I sleep are over, and now I start on my side, then slip onto my stomach. So the lovely contoured pillow that is supposed to cradle the back of my neck winds up half-choking me by hitting my throat.

So... I'm keeping the pillow for my attempts at meditating, full-body relaxing and maybe my guest room:) And when I need a new pillow for actual sleeping, I know who to go to (plus I'll get to take the quiz all over again, yipee)!

Jessica

I was offered a free pillow from Sleep Number for me to try, but my opinions and words are all my own.

Cherry Blossom Flowers: an Egg Carton Craft

Sometimes my kids are begging for a quick and easy craft. Something they can do in the 30 minutes between finishing breakfast and leaving for school. (You can check out my morning launch pad that helps smooth this process, and my tricks to save 10 hours a week, so I actually have time for crafting with the kiddos.)

Yesterday, my almost-4-year-old, wanted a "special" craft, so I looked into my craft box (my craft supplies are not as organized as they once were, but I still have a to-do box), found an egg carton, and looked on Pinterest to find inspiration.




Enter this pin, originally from Snapguide. It's an easy to follow picture tutorial, but the basic rundown is: cut out the egg "cups", slice each one 4 times and trim to create "petals", paint.

We chose pink, orange and red, so at least the colors go together well.

I might have time for another baby food jar craft, like last year's mother's day vases, or teacher appreciation pencil vases.

Jessica

Linking up to the Spring Pinterest Challenge with Young House Love, Bower Power, Sparkle Meets Pop and Red Bird Blue

New Living Room Art

To start at the end- I'm in love with Joss and Main, and my new artwork, tada!!!

Now, back to the beginning:)

First, there was this.

Then, we added this art.

So it looked like this...

Pretty, but then zoom out to the entire room.

Not so balanced, right?

Even though I love the texture and raised feel of the art (which we got from Crate and Barrel), I thought the other side was too dark and needed something else light, and white.

Enter, my beloved flash sale site, Joss and Main.

I adore a ton of their things, but this art print, by a California surfer artist  had all the right colors, and looks just right in the room!

Any other home decor sites you are loving?

Jessica

Linking up this week:

Crayons plus Craft Paper equals a Kid-friendly Tablecloth

Easiest table setting I ever did.

Who knew I had so many different types of crayons?

Run a stripe of brown paper down the center of the table.

Add crayons and children.

Done!

I also (later) added candles, food, other people, dishes, etc. 

Oh! And my 5 year old wrote people's names above their place settings so it worked as a place card too!

The kids loved getting to draw on the "tablecloth" during dinner, and it certainly kept them occupied longer than usual so we could have a wee bit more adult conversation before they needed our help.

Jessica