We Have A Winner!!!!

The substance in the jar is commonly referred to as Kimchi. A fermented Korean side. Yum Yum.

The Jar of Kimchi goes to Mr. Justin Bajema otherwise know as "the brewer." Justin you know where I live come pick it up, it will be ready for eating soon:)

To the rest of you homies better luck next time!!

Here's wikipedias explanation for this science experiment....
Kimchi, also spelled gimchi, kimchee, or kim chee, is a traditional fermented Korean dish made of vegetables with varied seasonings.[1][2][3] There are hundreds of varieties of kimchi made with a main vegetable ingredient such as napa cabbage, radish, green onions or cucumber.[4] It is the most common banchan, or side dish, in Korean cuisine. Kimchi is also a main ingredient for many popular Korean dishes such as kimchi stew , kimchi soup, and kimchi fried rice.

Thank You Becky VanDyk!

Becky VanDyk is a good friend of ours and she also happens to be a photographer among other things. So naturally we asked her to take our family pictures this fall.

I cannot tell you how badly we needed to have our photographs taken. The last time we had a professional picture taken of the 4 of us Grace was two....yeah its been to long.

Thankfully we got quite a few that I like so I thought I would share them with you and promote Becky a bit, because she is fabulous!

My kids are not super cooperative in getting their pictures taken, they are more interested in being silly and driving their poor mother insane but I think this actually got us a more natural photo in some cases so I am happy with that!

Click here to see the pictures whole.


I pretty much love all of them!!

What the Future Holds.

I have been stressing lately. Stressing about what the future holds. There are things and circumstances that have fueled this anxiety, however I would be lying if I said that I don't find my mind worrying about this often or at least regularly.

Oh how easy it is to let your mind wander to even what the next day will be like. Last night I fell asleep thinking about how tired I was going to be after my day today. Really, are you kidding.? I can't be doing this anymore. Because worry leads to doubt and doubt leads to a less faithful heart and a less faithful heart leads to a bad attitude and bad attitude leads to burnout. And burnout is not acceptable if all that I do is really for Gods glory:)

I have also been anxiously anticipating a big change for this family that may unfold in the next few months. I am waiting for some things to snowball and that freaks me out. However I know that it was God that called us to look at the things I am anticipating. He is the one that created the opportunity and he was the one that prompted the prayer in order for us to pursue it.

When I think through the situations of the future in that way the anxiety quickly subsides with the knowledge that my God is in control of every little corner of my life. He is ultimately my future, and in the mean time I need to turn to him to give me peace to give me comfort to give me rest.

In the meantimes I am trying to simplify...for me this means something probably totally different than it would mean for each of you. For me it means duck taping my arms to my side when I enter a room, I can not let myself be the first one to raise there hands to take on new responsibilities or projects. Nope this girl has got plenty. I need to feel comfortable saying that and I am working on it. It means saying no. It means letting myself have free time so that I have time to just sit. The sitting creates more time for me to hear Gods voice and focus on what is totally important. It means trying to have all my "work" done when my kids get home from school so I can feel free to sit and enjoy them. It means focusing on my top 3, God then my husband then my kids, everything else is secondary and can wait. It means letting myself rest.

The common theme seems to be God, sitting and resting. I need to do this more. I need to let myself have a blank day on my calendar to make this happen. Who ever thought it would take so much work to rest. Eventually I hope this is not true!

So my hope to claim simplicity is hopefully going to aid in my peace with what the future holds. Because at the end of the day I know where my eternity will be spent and when I lay my head down at night that has got to be enough.

Welcome to Fermentation Homies!

I am currently fermenting something on my countertop...actually five jars of something. First person to guess whats in the jar...gets one (if you want one that is).

All persons named Lea are permanently disqualified from participation.

I will tell you what it is on Friday and announce the winner if there is one:)

And in addition to this Lea and I are giving a fifteen minute informational at coffee break tomorrow all on the subject of fermentation. Should be riveting. We will demonstrating the creation of Sauerkraut. Now you know that that isn't what is in the jar...consider that your only hint.

No-Poo.

No-Poo became a movement that ran wild throught the internets long before I even looked into jumping on board. No-Poo means no shampoo. Thats right chickas I have traded in my shampoo....you are reading it here in writing. And although I think it brings me a lot closer to my hippie insides that wasn't what led me to make the decision. I was actually experiencing a very bad bout of psoriasis on my scalp and I couldn't get it to go away. It was painful and annoying and my sister called it gross and I couldn't take it anymore so I went in search of a new hair frontier and I found something that just might work.

So I traded in my fancy overpriced yummy smelling hair elixirs and opted for water bottles fashioned into shampoo dispensers and I now make my own form of bath tub gin shampoo. Actually it is a slurry of baking soda and old fashioned H2O chased by an apple cider vinegar rinse. And i must say after 4 days my scalp already feels better. My hair seems a bit flat but not greasy. And word on the street says that my hair should bounce back in a week or two after all of the build up dissipates and my follicles readjust to the new routine.

Brians first comment was oh man now you are going to smell like a hippie:) Oh man hes so romantic.....Actually there is no smell at all and my hair is perfectly clean.

In reading I have read some pretty yucky things about conventional shampoo (which you can read about anything) and I am pretty excited to rid my body of the extra chemicals. In all actuality I avoid other packaged goods like the plague so why would I depend on a packaged shampoo?

I'll let you know how it goes....I may run back to Biolage or Redken like a pregnant woman running to the Krispy Kreme but only time will tell.

Anyone want to join me in the No-Poo Revolution. . . . . . .didn't think so.

Oh sassy princess.

We call Grace sassy princess and heres just reason why......

In leaving the dinner table tonight this is what she says, and I should mention the proper thing for her to say and she knows this is, "Thanks for dinner mom may I be excused?"

This is however what she really said, "I am not going to be clearing the table tonight...peace(as in peace out)."

Uhhhhh...really....really????

Yeah she cleared the table(which she didn't even fight me on) and she remains the reigning sassy princess in this house.



Can't blame a girl for trying I guess.?

Jager Grown Up Date Night

The Jager grown-ups are attempting to have a date night once a week. This is something that is not always easy for a number of reasons, there is a lot to schedule in order to make it work. Also during the school year I feel like our time together as a family is limited to evenings and weekends which is a hard adjustment for me. So we have decided to try to go on dates on Friday or Saturday night at 7pm which means we get a sitter to come and do bedtime...which works well. I will let you know how this works out over the next couple months. I know that it is so important for us to make this commitment to each other apart from our little cherubs.

So first date night was a trip to The Fork at Agate Bay, which is on the far side of Lake Whatcom off of North Shore drive. It is locally owned which makes it a wonderful choice from the get go, it is not a chain and everything is made fresh to order. I also like that they have a seasonal menu that changes as local ingredients change, this is something that hits close to home for me because the Angry Blueberry strives for this in her business as well;)

So you should know first off I didn't take any picture....shame on me I know.

To cut to the chase I will tell you what we ordered.

We started out with Pork Belly Sliders. Their Pork Belly is House Smoked, and it is topped with pickled red onion a bit of house made aioli (which is basically a spicy mayo with an acid added to it, typically vinegar or lemon juice), arugula and a housemade potato chip. Get out of town these were good. The appetizer came with two which was a perfect start to our meal.

I then went on to order a salad that had marinated stone fruit and fresh green salad complete with arugula and a light vinaigrette...yum. For dinner I ordered a seasonal vegetable risotto. If you want to see if a restaurant knows what they are doing, ordering what they offer for vegetarians is a good place to start. And The Fork did not disappoint. THe risotta was velvetty, and creamy and everything it should be, it was filed with fava beans, asparagus and scattered with house smoked local mushrooms, finished with the appropriate amount of fresh squeezed lemon, this really was the best part of the dish it left me wanting more. But I was stuffed at this point and was craving dessert:)

Brian ordered the Bourbon Pork RIbs served on top of a Jicama Slaw....the ribs were cooked perfectly tender and had an amazing flavor.

Prices are not cheap but you definitely get what you pay for. With normal sized helpings, awesome service and a great environment you really can't go wrong in my opinion. I would have to say it was one of the best meals I have had out in some time and Brian and I try lots of new restaurants every year. They just really had it all together it was very much enjoyable.

Oh dessert , I can't forget that. We shared a fig creme brulee served with a fig sauce on the side.....yeah it was heaven with the perfect amount of crack when you took the first dip.

More to come on Jager Grown Up Date Night. ANd I will have to add that eating dinner at 8pm is always quite lovely for some reason.

Haven't Told You Where To Eat In Awhile....

I have been dieing to try this donut shop in Bellingham. It is right across the street from Bellingham High in a little shack that housed my grandfathers barber when I was a kid and a taco shop when my mom was in high school at Bellingham High.

The people just recently opened up the shop again but this is not their first go around at the fried loveliness we call doughnuts.

This was the first thing that welcomed me as I pulled in.


And this is what I got.

Oh yes you better believe I got two items not just one and I ate them both at the same sitting...well driving really. And before you start judging and making comments about how of course you can eat two doughnuts...yep so can you just not everyday:) This place doesn't have much for seating its a shack. I ordered the chocolate cake doughnut it did not disappoint and the apple fritter which was not grossly over-sized or grossly covered in glaze. It had nice sized chunks of recognizable real apple (insert happy tummy here).

I noticed there sign as I pulled away.

It really was a bite of Happyness:)

Speaking of....bet you haven't seen this guy in awhile.

This was during a very serious conversation of,"who's the cutest best most awesome baby in the world?"Ummmm yeah no contest:)
I love me some Joshy time!

Random What Not

So my girl Rah sent me this photo on my first day of school on Monday. With the text get your teach on. She works in the school system as well and so she was feeling my anxiety and decided to cheer me up.

I replied with this pic...

which happens to be a very strange picture of me.

I bought a crimper for Grace(remember those). The only problem is the girl has so much thick hair it takes forever but she is patient and it is fun.


I made home made mac and cheese with homemade rosemary breadcrumbs for dinner last night because it felt like fall. My kids put ketchup on it, whats new.


We are in the process of redoing our bedroom. I may have sold all of our bedroom furniture before we had a backup. This made for an interesting living situation for a week or so. Just picture mountains of underwear, pajamas and tshirts. Yep it was pretty special. We now have one new dresser and two side tables. I got the side tables at a garage sale for $2 each....thats not what the dresser cost. My mother in law gifted me two bedside lamps I have been coveting..so check there. I purchased some sweet drapes on etsy, vintage of course. I will show them to you when they come, but if you hate them be kind enough not to tell me I think they are the bomb. I am still on the hunt for one more dresser which means there are still piles"o" crap all over the place. Artwork is also on the list. More on this to come.


Grace thinks she is a reporter lately. She carries her little ghostwriter set around her neck and pretend cursive writes on it. She asks you questions and then repeats your answers like...What are you doing Mom?....I'm cooking Grace....Oh so you say your cooking. Its adorable. She decided to take it to school today I am sure she will have some great stories.

Why are all of those Legos in my living room you ask. Ohhhh yeah the E Man lost all legoing privileges last week. It happens. He gets them back tomorrow.

Okay and a couple of you asked about more info in the teaching department. I am teaching two classes through MP3 this school year. MP3 is a parent partnership program through the Meridian School District and offers homeschool kids classes they can take on campus to help them in some areas as well as offer them interesting elective courses....thats where I come in. No I am not a teacher by trade, I did not go to college and receive a teaching degree. They call be a CBI...a community based instructor. I am registered and proved capable:)

I also started Bible Study yesterday... the class is called, Becoming a Woman of Simplicity....more on that later. I am happy to report with a few tears a purchased a new Bible this week. Its big and heavy with lots of study info.

So theres some random what not for you. Happy Thursday!

Get your teach on.....

I started teaching yesterday. Yay for feeding kids weird things and them telling me yum:) 7 new lovers of zucchini and eggplant and chocolate tomatoes:) Part of the curriculum is all about food introductions. So once a month we will have a tasting that includes trying new foods and learning where they come from. We talk about how they grow and what food group they belong to:) Sounds exciting right. The kids were super receptive and very brave!

I am also teaching a class called science through art. We made streamlined gliders out of cardboard and flexie straws and then flew them around the playground. Really I get paid for this? The big learning concept for this lesson was the idea of something being built to be streamline for speed and accuracy.

I have to say that I will probably learn a lot this school year as well while I teach these little ones.

I have seven kids in my School of Yum Class(thats what my curriculum is called) they are in K -1st grade. And I have 10 kids in my Science through Art class ranging from K-3rd grade. So far they all seem very sweet.....I must add I have a whippersnapper very much like my little E man at home and although someone tried to "warn" me about him, I think we will manage just fine.

The only difficult part so far has been that I can't use God in my teaching at all seeing as I am teaching in a public school environment...but I know that God is stil using me in this environment still. I didn't realize how hard that would be for, I mean I grew up in public school where that wasn't aloud to be part of my learning picture. However in my mothering and teaching at church everything is surrounded around and his care and love for us. It has been an interesting revelation for me for sure!

So there you have it my first day was pretty great...can't wait until my second day tomorrow.

Its not all fancy meats and cheeses folks...

Sometimes the veggies steal the show.....

And they look like this.

This is Romanesco. It is a type of broccoli. Isn't it amazing.

I also get my salad greens by the garbage bag now;) A tall garbage can bag can hold anywhere from 3 to 4 lbs of salad. 1 lb feeds about 20 people. And my farmer chick makes it for me. Its filled all sorts of green purple and red goodness. It goes straight form her farm to my clients table. 100% certified organic too. Most of my veggies right now come from farms not more than 5-10miles form my front door. Its the bomb (yep I said it).


Get your eggplant, get your zucchini, get your beans, get your carrots, get your heirloom tomatoes, get your garlic and please do not leave out that beautiful head of cauliflower.


This is what I mean when i say food with integrity. Food with integrity has to start with ingredients with integrity. I know where each farm is that the veggies are grown on. I know most of the farmers and they know me. They are never processed or picked before they are ripe. Its food how God intended.

The Angry Blueberry makes a promise to be as local as possible when picking ingredients as well as organic as possible. We strive to know exactly where the ingredients come from. We also make everything from scratch. I cook for my clients the same way that I cook for my family.

The Angry Blueberry has been especially busy so the veggie farmers and the AB have been tight lately. My other friends include the veggie farmers dealer, the cheese chick, the meat people, and don't forget the boys down at the rental place yep they been watching for me on the weekends(they always laugh at how much I try to fit in my van).

My new office of choice lately has been in Semiahmoo and boy do I love it. Sometimes the decks are so close to the water I could spit in it(I don't though ladies don't spit ask my Grandma) and sometimes its practically on the golf course. In my spare time I try to memorize gate codes and fancy dog names. My new clients are all wonderful. And I think the next year is going to hold lots of new things for the AB, travel, a magazine article and a lot more, so stay tuned.

I am saying it out loud!!!

Okay so I lost my Bible. It has been nothing short of devastating for me. I think I left it in our volvo before we traded it in. I haven't seen it since. I have looked everywhere at least 12 times.

I feel shame, sadness and sadness (did I say that).

Brian gave me that Bible our first Christmas as a married couple, with my new ame inscribed on the front. I have graffitied the margins until some pages have no more room, scrawled hymns and psalms in places that have none, underlined, and higlighted verses and chapters. Written my childrens names in special pages. Some of the pages were becoming tattered from excessive use. In my opinion it was the most beautiful material item I owned and something that was so personal to me. Its gone and it breaks my heart.

Not mentioning it out loud meant it wasn't really lost. For some reason I felt like I had committed a great sin for losing it. I also lost my copy of the message because in that last month before I lost it I was reading them both at the same time. My girl Rah told me it is like any other material item just because it meant the world to me doesn't mean I couldn't lose it.

Thankfully we live in a Bible rich household with many copies. So don't think I haven't been reading..I just don't have mine.

I decided last night that I just need to walk my buns down to the Christian Bookstore and buy myself a new one. We are blessed and spoiled to live in a culture in which we can do so. And I will just start over filling the margins and underlining text and writing names and psalms and hymns to remind me of things.

Now you know...its important to be transparent.

Happy 30th Birthday Mr. Husband!

The love of my life turned 30 years old yesterday. I sent him a text that said I am so glad you were born! It was the only thing I could think of saying. Its seems so simple to say but really I can't imagine if his mom had not birthed a 11lb 12oz baby boy 30 years ago...by the way my MIL is a rockstar you should tell her that. My life would not be the same without him.

As you know we had a surprise party a little over a week ago but I think it is important to celebrate on your real birthday as well or it seems as it was forgotten so we celebrated with these two last night. Because birthdays should be celebrated with friends.

Again the double date was a complete surprise because I didn't want him to tell me not to go to the trouble. I told him after dinner there would be a babysitter coming in an hour. When the babysitter got here I drove to the Bajemas and told him we were picking them up. I am pretty sure that Justin and BJ could talk for hours and never get bored.

I love my 30year old man. He's pretty much the best husband in the world. Everything about him makes me want to be better. The way he treats people the way he responds to others, the way he advocates for and loves his children, the way he tells me I am "his best" everyday, the way he gives of himself over and over again without expecting anything in return. He's a good man the kind of man you pray for, I know I am blessed.

I watched him help a random stranger on a ferry boat a month ago with her phone. He simply overheard her telling her husband that her service was crappy. He turned around and said is it a Verizon phone can I help you with it. The woman was thrilled and surprised by his willingness to help. I watched him genuinely go out of his way to help her and he enjoyed it..it was beyond. I am sure this seems like a simple thing, but I thought it was neat in fact I was darn right proud to be that mans wife right at that moment. Later on we were walking back to the ferry and we heard people yelling," Hey Brian." It was the couple from the boat yelling from way up on top of a balcony of a building...hahaha we laughed so hard, it was totally random.

I realize more and more all the time how important it is to keep your eyes open for the little things that make you love your spouse. That way there are constant reminders...it keeps things fresh. God is so good to give us small things to delight in every day.

Not sure what this face is...but it makes me laugh.



Happy birthday babe, you are the love of my life and I am so glad you were born!! Three fist pumps for 30 more:)

You should know.....

You mess with Grace and Elliot's going to teach you a lesson.

So Elliot and Grace(mostly Grace) had their first week of school meltdown after getting off the bus today. It was rotten for everyone involved.

But to be expected for sure!!

In this it comes out that there is a bully on the bus who has been bugging Grace. I told her it was important that she tell the bus driver so she could handle it. Their bus drivers name is Miss Femmie by the way...adorable I know. Anyway in saying this Elliot catches wind and says, "Don't worry Gracie you just point him out to me on Monday and I will teach him a lesson."

So we had a talk about what that meant to him....he had something else in mind, much different from what I had in mind. So we settled on him asking the kid to stop if he experienced anything happening. Brian once told him the only time it is okay to punch someone first is if they hit your sister or your mom....yep these are the conversations that go on in the Jager house. Elliot was sure to remind me of the rules.

I love how much these two love each other. I love how Elliot is the first to make sure Grace is okay if she is upset. And how Grace can't sleep upstairs if Elliot isn't home. They are so sweetly attached to one another. Oh how I wish I could have had a protective older brother to teach people a lesson.

So I will be adding bus prayers to my long list:)

1st and 3rd Grade....woot woot!

Oh man Both of my kids are in school full time. Not sure how this happened.

oh those dimples kill me!

Grace has Ms. Morris this year. And I know I have told this story before but Ms. Morris mom was my first grade teacher as well as my moms so I think its pretty neat that my kids have her for a teacher. I also think she herself is pretty great! Grace got to choose her own seat for the first day...what would you know that all the girls sat in the back two rows together. I have a strange suspicion that will change by way of their teacher very soon:)

Elliot has Mrs. De Ruyter and to tell you honestly I have been really looking forward to him having her as a teacher for 3rd Grade. Her personality has always seemed like a perfect fit for my Elliot. In our before bed debriefing of the first day he reported that he thought she was his favorite teacher yet. My guess is she is sweet, but doesn't mess around. Elliot totally thrives in this environment...its going to be a good year!

We prayed on our way to school yesterday, as we do every morning on the way to school. I was caught up in first day of school mom emotions. I can not explain the feeling of feeling completely blessed in the ability to have my kids in an environment where I know no matter what teacher they have they will be loved for who God is creating them to be and they will be encouraged to reach their heavenly potential. This is overwhelming for me as a mom! So as I was praying over my children, for their day, for their friends, for their teachers, for their year, for their school, for their safety on the way home form school I cried and next thing I know I hear the little voice behind me in the car (Elliot) say,"Mom I think its my turn." So I stopped, I listened to the hearts of my little cherubs and we walked into school once again with smiles on our faces and love in our hearts because I am convinced that we are making the best choice we can for our children at this point and I know God is with us in that. And in that my kids feel confident as well!