Jewel

In the past I have not been a total Jewel fan. In fact, my first real experience with her music was when I was 20 and got two of her CDs for Valentine’s Day from the boy I was dating and that same night (Valentine’s Day) I broke up with him. Such bad timing on my part. Now, I feel bad that I kept the CDs he gave me that night.

Anyway, I heard an interview with her on NPR with Scott Simon this past month and I was really impressed with what she said. I thought I would share her wisdom about having a happy and balanced life. I especially like what she said about being a good “parent to her music” and not selling out. I found her words to be very applicable to my life, because like her I too want my “whole like to be a great work of art.” Read the transcript and you’ll know what I mean. I even highlighted my favorite parts for your reading pleasure. Then click here to listen to her new album.

http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=128243945

…JEWEL: Mm-hmm, with "Pieces of You." But I also realized it was a great opportunity to take all the pressure off. Because if I was conservative with money and saved it - I had in one album earned more money than I would probably ever need in my entire life.

The worst thing you can do for your art is be broke and be in a position where you're compromised, where now you have a lifestyle you're trying to support and you have to sell yourself out to have a hit. And my goal was to try and avoid being in that position ever. So I've always been very conservative with my money, simply for the fact that I wanted to try and be a good parent to my music.

SIMON: Let's listen, if we could, to "Satisfy."

(Soundbite of song, "Satisfy")

JEWEL: (Singing) If you love somebody, you better let it out. Don't hold it back while you're trying to figure it out. Don't be timid. Don't be afraid to hurt. Run toward the flame. Run toward the fire and hold on for all your worth. 'Cause the only real pain a heart can ever know is the sorrow of regret when you don't let your feelings show...

SIMON: Would I be wrong to think that this is kind of your song?

JEWEL: Yeah, it's a pretty personal lyric. You know, it's funny. As a kid, I always knew what would make me happy and I always struggled to work toward it. And I realized in my early 30's that I didn’t actually even know what made me happy. It's a lot simpler, things, than I thought.

I don’t know. You know, a lot of heroes were artists and a lot of them did great work. But they often died unhappy or estranged from their family. But -Steinbeck had written "The Grapes of Wrath," but at what cost? And I started looking at that, especially - I got to do a movie with Ang Lee, and I looked at doing a full-time acting career and a music career.

But when I looked at the cost of that, and I had just met my husband at that point, I thought, you know, I want my whole life to be a great work of art, not just my art. And that means paying attention to my entire life and trying to make sure my whole life is balanced.

And so I really stepped away from acting. I turned down work. I quit touring a lot of the world, in Asia and Europe and Australia, because I wanted to make sure I had a balanced life and I wasn’t just going to become some drug-addled, unhappy person that had a great career but had a miserable home life.

And all those thoughts and everything that I put into that is sort of what I put into writing the lyrics for "Satisfied," that it really is the simplest things - making sure you're spending time with the people you love.

SIMON: Boy, you’ve really thought about this, haven't you?

(Soundbite of laughter)

JEWEL: I over-think everything, I guess.

SIMON: Well, Jewel, it's been wonderful talking to you. Thanks so much.

JEWEL: Thank you. I really appreciate it.

SIMON: Jewel's new CD, "Sweet and Wild." Its in stores now. She joined us from NPR West.

Thank you, Jewel.

JEWEL: Thank you. I really appreciate it.

SIMON: Oh, my pleasure.

JEWEL: I’m such a fan. Thanks for having me on the show.

SIMON: Well, our pleasure. You're welcome any time.

JEWEL: Thank you.

What was Old is New

I took and old white linen long sleeved dress shirt my neighbor gave me for free and sewed it into this super cute dress for my girls.

 

I got the idea and instructions here at the blog MADE. Check it out. You too may find a new use for a unused dress shirt in your closet.

Enjoy, Jeana

Homemade Yogurt

In the past there have been three items that would cause me to go grocery shopping: milk, diapers and yogurt. Most other things I could do without for a few days. I am glad to say that I have eliminated yogurt from my list now that I have learned to make it myself. My sister-in-law Sarah inspired me to give yogurt making a try and I am so glad she did. It’s not hard to do, though it does take time, but the time is well worth it. The result is a super cheap, super delicious, healthy food. Here are the instructions. I have also tried this version, but I like the first one better.

The yogurt is super cheap and low-fat because you can use your food storage non-fat powdered milk. I LOVE discovering new uses for my food storage. Not only do I eat it every morning for breakfast, but I’ve used the yogurt in a chocolate ice box cake, batches and batches of mint chocolate chip frozen yogurt, and my favorite, in chicken tikka masala.

Now, I need to work on eliminating diapers from my list and completely potty training Eva. If only that were as easy as making yogurt.

-Enjoy, Jeana

Bear Lake

Our good friends the Henries invited us to stay at their family cabin at Bear Lake for the weekend. We had a great time. We had never been there and were so surprised at how wonderful the lake is. The water is Caribbean blue with soft sandy beaches. It was like being at the ocean (minus the salt). We LOVED it!

Our girls love their boys and couldn’t be happier following them around. The kids very quickly paired off as couples.

Here’s Eva with Garrett and Tyler with Mally. The worst of it was demonstrated at bedtime when the sneaky kids made plans to sneak into each others bedrooms. I won’t share the details here, but it was funny.

We enjoyed good food (Stacy bakes incredible cookies) and gorgeous views.

The happy couple.

The happy girls.

Us from the cabin’s back porch. LOVE the view.

Thanks Henries for letting us play with you. We LOVED it.

Girls’ Camp

I’ll just share a few pictures with captions. I’m not going to write too much about girls’ camp because I’ve been home five days and I am still catching up on sleep, laundry, and dishes.

When we arrived there was animal poo EVERYWHERE! Here’s Pam scooping up poo.

And here’s Meredith showing off the poo that was flung on her.

We didn’t know what kind of animal poo it was until we saw this dead lamb on the side of the trail. That gave us a clue. Another ward named the dead lamb Sam and wrote and performed a whole song about him. It was quite funny.

Here are some of the cute girls. They were great and great to each other. We only had minimal drama between girls.

This photo totally needs explaining. Those are the leaders acting as tempters for a faith hike activity for the girls. They look like they are having a little too much fun with the “cigars and alcohol.”

Here’s a camp fire gone a bit out of control. The fire was burning nicely until Bro. S decided to burn all the cardboard he could find. Leave it to the priesthood to be pyros. Even adult boys have to show off in front of girls.

The fearless and sleepless leaders.

Here I am with Rachel. I bet you can tell our ward’s color was green. I’m glad I went and I’m glad I’m home.

What a Dad!

Stephen is a great dad. He is so willing to play with his girls. This video is just a sampling of his relationship with them. This was taken at our Ward Family Reunion. When Dorothy Ward Koller, 91, the oldest living Ward family member started playing the organ Stephen and the girls couldn't resist dancing. This video is going to be a family classic.

What we’ve been up to

We spent a weekend away in Park City.

The girls did a lot of this in front of the TV.

And we did a lot of this in the bath tub. We had to do it wearing our swimming suits, because we never knew when a little girl would come barging in.

You can see from our laughing faces we had a great weekend.

Mally turned 5.

Eva is still 2, still beautiful and still crazy. Here she is “drinking” her toe.

We began working at This is the Place Heritage Park again. I can’t get enough of seeing my girls dressed in their pioneer clothes. We love it up there. May I suggest if you go this summer to go on a Wednesday. Not only is there a chance you will see us up there, but it's only $2 per person to get in! A total deal.

We went to Lava Hot Springs for a weekend. We went up to go to a Ward Family Reunion. It was the girls’ first time camping. They LOVED it and were great little campers.

Here are some Ward family members at breakfast.

Now on to my next adventure, girls' camp.