how to finish what we’ve begun
One of my favorite things, lately, has been turning “draft posts” into published posts! For some reason I just LOVE to begin things and then NEVER finis
Okay, okay, my “finishing things once I’ve begun them” change is not going to happen over night but where better to begin than SMALL with my little finishing-blog-posts-by-editing-and-publishing-once-I’ve-begun’them ain’t a shabby place to begin!
Originally, I wanted to make them posts a sort-of-reader-of-my-0blog-working-encyclopedia-of-my-office but then I thought: “How boring” … So I have turned a collection of random coworkers into more of a little-things-in-life-tutorial.
Isn’t it crazy that February 2012 is, nearly, finished! My parents will arrive from Africa on March 6th and I have not seen them, in person, for over three years, now. It’s surprising to think about when I actually chat within and write to them and have more interaction with them than I do with other folks.
And the more I sort-of reminisce over how much I have learned, how challenging the year has been so far and how I’d like things to “look up,” I realize that 2012 is going to be a pretty swell year, after all, no matter what my life weathers.
Look at all these happy and smiling faces at my work…I mean it’s a nice place to work and all it just always gets me thinking….I am behind the camera so often and hear comments like “THAT BETTER BE A GOOD PICTURE”…but everyone covers their face when I try to snap a shot (how am I suppose to ensure “A GOOD PICTURE” when you are doing everything possible to make yourself look wretched…sorry folks, don’t send me hate mail 
)
But somewhere, deep inside everyone, is this desire to smile. To really smile. One day I will learn more and more of the endless depth to the human soul and spirit, I believe, through snapping photos and portraits.
For today, I’ll let others be the teachers while I am, still, very much, the student.
Sorry I have been MIA for a couple of days! Hopefully I’ll have some good posts coming up here soon! Happy Tuesday for now!!!!!!!!!! much love – Jasper
how to play with your food
With a title like this, you know it’s gonna be a fun post!
Who doesn’t love noodles? I dont know! Noodles, noodles — can’t get enough noodles!
That’s right! I used the microwave as a lovely mirror!
To begin playing with your food:
My aunt Sharon and I like to sautee: Ginger, tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, fresh spinach, herbs and spices in a skillet…
We keep such staples in the refrigerator in case of dinner emergencies! 
This one featured chick peas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Assemble ingredients for instant dinner fun and nutrition! … check out this amateur photography! ALL manual focusing take practice but I refuse to use auto focus…
And if anyone can please explain to me this new BLASTED “text enhance” … is it a virus on my computer or is everyone else seeing “text enhance” randomly while reading blog and websites…is it a good chrome thing!!?…then that’d be great!
Do yourself a favor: go play with your food! hehe…Happy Friday!
how what people say impacts us…
Yesterday, I realized that I allow what people say really impact my behavior. It’s sad, really. But what’s hopeful is that I am beginning to recognize my unhealthy tendencies and not let me behavior, like eating my feelings or shaming myself, carry me away with others’ comments as a lousy excuse.
So here’s the deal…for the last two week, or more, I’ve allowed this lady at my office to affect, more or less, the way I behave. This lady does not know me well and I have tried to be kind to her despite her aloof behavior and eye-rolling my way. Really, I am not sure that I ever did anything to both her besides leaving crumbs in the hall or water drips in the breakroom floor. Three weeks ago, today, she stopped me in the hall with what appeared this cheeky grin to say “You’ve put on a lot of weight.” As she examined my frame, up and down, up and down again, her nods were confirming…”Oh YEAH, you have put on a lot of weight.” Smiling, trying to appear cheerful and unaffected I relied “Thanks!” and skipped off to grab my bag and head for my after-work appointment.
Despite my hopeful success of not giving this woman any inclination that her comments had affected me – positively-negatively-or-WHATSOEVER- for that matter –I could care less about her at that point: I was CRUSHED. How is this hurting little girl in my soul going to cope with the women’s comment?
Despite-of (NOT in spite-of) people’s comments, this lady want to live a new way! So the workouts and meals after such a comment were closely monitored…that is, I had to make EXTRA sure that a healthy perspective was the voice that BEAT OUT the nasty haunting voice of others’ comments. The truth it, I HAVE gained weight but no matter what other’s think, I have to live life and be grateful or else I’ll have nothing to offer others down the road. And THAT’s what I really want…to offer something special to someone else and not remain so focused on ME and what others think of ME. Who CARES how much I weigh!!!??! I can only hope that one day, I really will not care how much I weigh if I know what’s, truly, good for my soul.
Yes, there is a time and place for making sure I feed my body the proper nutrition for it’s needs, not over indulging or depriving my cells of the fuel they require, but I am talking about releasing myself from the deadly grips of feeling that my weight is = to my worth.
More importantly, if there’s something I have said to contradict what I mean, then remember: I certainly do not “know it all.” Don’t listen to me, listen to Him! You’re beautiful.
Happy Wednesday to you all! Love, Jasper
grandmama’s apple pie!
There might be nothing more fun than to spend an afternoon with Grandma and her little movable kitchen island. The sweet cutting-board-pastry-platform would come in handy in ay home or kitchen, mind you!
Now just because I am calling this apple pie “Grandma’s,” does NOT mean that it has not or cannot be adapted…every pie reserves its maker the right to “spice” it up a little…and for this pie, the story’s no different!
Begin with:
6 medium-sized Granny smith apples
1 c. sugar
1/4 t. salt
1 t. Jamaican Island Spice seasoning (cinnamon, clove, allspice and nutmeg combo)
instructions: peel and slice apples…toss around in sugar + spices + salt…set aside.
for the crust:
2 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 t. salt
10 T. butter cut into small piece
4 T. + more ice-cold water
instructions: cut butter pieces into flour with pastry cutter. slowly add T. by T. of ice cold water to mixture, working dough together with hands until just combined. Be careful to not overwork the dough…roll dough out onto floured surface after dividing dough ball into two separate pieces.
instructions continued: after gently placing bottom crust into pie pan (or pottery pie dish) empty apple mixture into pie crust and then finish the job with the other pie crust…decorate or sculpt pie crust to desired appearance. Bake for 1 hour at 375 degree oven. Cool before serving….or…
…you could also serve the pie as our family does…
…and THAT’s warm/hot with vanilla ice cream!
It’s a funny thing, really…this pie was for my cousin Sara’s birthday celebration…after which I attended this youth leaders meeting with a sort-of cute guy leading a I looked like such a slop…oh well!
At LEAST the pie was perdy today
jasper’s journey preface, part ii
**Warning: The following post includes content not suitable for younger audiences. Viewer discretion advised:
For those of you interested in how my marathon training is going: It’s going “ok.” My Garmin 405 is not running and I would really like to figure out how to work it! It beeped once when I plugged it in and, since that time, no lights have come on at all 
Nor is there any indication that the battery is actually charging. If you’ve got any suggestions, please let me know!
Right now I am sort-of overwhelmed with the availability of training schedule PDFs…when I think of it too much, I get freaked out over social medias impact on the world…yikesabee! Here is the actual training schedule that I have been following for the past five days since I began training on Tuesday !
If you’ve got suggestions for how to mix it up (this training schedule is actually pretty mix-it-up-like )
For the “Unhealthy Half-Marathon” Story…well here you have it:
There I am, fourth from the left, and “beaming” with enthusiasm. Despite the big smile, I was very unhappy. I was at one of my highest weights, mostly looking forward to my night binges as the only “relief,” “enjoyment” and “pleasure” in life, and utterly lost. My days consisted of facebook, phone calls to new “friends” in Reno, trying to hold a job at Starbucks and feeling completely disgusted with myself and others. Feeling caught in a disgusting a viscous cycle is no fun if you’ve been there.
During January-April 2010, especially, I mainly focused my attention on trying to find a boyfriend (#fail) and trying to look attractive (##fail) … Around early January, I came up with the brilliant notion that I should “{eat as little as possible and, on occasion, eat as much as I please then rid myself of the calories through self-induced vomiting}”
By May 2010, I had lost nearly 50-60 pounds by starving myself throughout most of the days, painting them, sporadically, with large binges using pastries and Frappacinos from work.
I “thought” I was so happy but behind closed doors, I was vomiting my feelings and completely “ok” with my behavior. The bulimia was “working” for me because physical appearance were all that “mattered” to me. Sadly, my feelings of rejection and hopeless self-centered-ness, couple with loneliness and confusion kept me trapped.
This was the day before I ran my first (and only) half marathon. Looking at this pictures, now, I remember thinking “HOW FAT” I [was] when I saw the photo later that week. All along, I let “friends” and acquaintances ask why I “[had] lost so much weight” in a four month time frame…only to quickly change the subject or allow them to believe such a weight loss attributed to my half-marathon training. Really, I was starving my body of the nutrients it required and doing NO physical activity.
It does make me sad to think that I actually “thought” I was happy or that weight was the only part of me that “mattered.”
On the morning of the San Francisco Half Marathon, I’d not run more than 7 miles in my entire life (and that 7-miler had taken place in 1999!!) but I had to “pretend” like I had been training. After 2:05:00, I finished the race and felt “perfectly fine.” Looking back, I realize that it was all part of my delusional thinking in 2010. It did not matter how much or how little I ran, I was being unfair and cruel to my body and soul.
It’s not a very pretty story! But there you have it I really do hope that one day I can enjoy exercise (like I do, very much, today) as a healthy way of getting in touch with the blessing of moving my body!
And that’s what April 7th 2012 can and will be a celebration of!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Have a happy Saturday!
Zebra Cereal Dessert Bars
There’s nothing, quite, like getting all excited about completing my taxes under the impression the refund will be grand! — And then finding out that I actually owe enough to keep me in the black by $39. Yipee skippee! {sarcasm}
Perhaps these bars (not the recipe, mind you, but the experience) was a bit of a let down, too! I was so excited, thinking, ah yeah, foodgawker’s gunna like this one but when I began to try and style the finished product I came up short. Very short. Oh well, it’s just not my week! They . keep. rejecting. me. but. that’s. ok. a . little . #fail. here. or. there. AIN’T. gunna. stop. this. lady
I was using Ashley’s awesome tips only to realize that part of my problem was that my tripod was resting on a wicker deck chair which does not make for anything less than a trampoline-like effect on the foundations for the tripod’s feet. The photos were turning out so blurry that I wonder if me jumping on a mini-trampoline on the back deck would have helped the photos to expose more clearly 
But enough with my sarcasm! The week’s almost over and what I’ve lacked in blogging, others’ like Chelsey, Teri, Kathleen, Katie, Ashley, etc., etc., etc... have certainly made up for it. I have just loved reading this week and will soon release my much anticipated {I promise, that’s the last of the sarcasm} “eleven Q&A” about crunchylittlebites!
For now, though, …. don’t forget now, this is my entry for the Cooking Creations contest courtesy of Appliances Online and Clean Eating Chelsey …ladie’s and gentlemen, I give you: Zebra Honey Cranberry Chocolate Cereal Bar recipe:
for the crust:
8 c. Cheerios cereal
1 c. light brown sugar
4 t. cinnamon
2 t. salt
1 1/2 unsalted sweet cream butter, melted
for the filling:
1 c. semi-sweet chocolate morsels
1 c. dried cranberries
2/3 c. honey
1 t. salt
1/2 c. organic shortening, melted
for the chocolate-coconut drizzle:
1/2 c. semi-sweet chocolate morsels (melted using double boiler)
2 T. coconut butter
pinch of salt
Instructions:
For the crust: In standard food processor combine 2 c. dried cereal + 1/4 c. light brown sugar + 1 t. cinnamon + 1/4 t. salt until well blended. Repeat this process for the remaining similar quantities of respective ingredients. After completing this process, add melted butter to dry ingredients, mix with spoon and then press into 9 in. x 13 in. x 0.5 in. baking pan. Set crust aside
For the filling: In food processor chop semi-sweet morsels to a fine, crumb-size and then add dried cranberries to food processor. Process chocolate and cranberries together until well blended (looks like a crumbly cocoa mixture). Add honey to food processor and blend chocolate, dried cranberries and honey until honey is evenly distributed throughout mixture. Pour melted shortening into mixture and process until smooth. Then add the salt and blend mixture once more. Spoon mixture onto crust and gently distribute filling over and around entire crust in baking pan. Set crust and filling to chill in refrigerator.
For the drizzle: After melting semi-sweet chocolate morsels over a double boiler, whisk in coconut butter and pinch of salt. Drizzle the mixture over, already, cooled and square or diamond (or whatever shape, really!) bars.
Attempt to style bars or just eat them with tea and loving family and friends! It was getting dark outside because I was at work all day…wondering if I would/wouldn’t get home in time for enough natural light with which try and shoot!
Again, I really really really really wanna win the $100 Amazon giftcard courtesy of Chelsey & Appliances Online so don’t forget!… This is my entry for the Cooking Creations contest courtesy of Appliances Online and Clean Eating Chelsey
Happy Friday yous guys <3 jasper naomi
P.S. Does anyone remember those “cereal and milk bars?” Those creeped me out so much, hehe!
[source]
you may call it “gross!”…I call it “lunch!”
And for fear that I might make you all a bit nauseated with any more photos…I’ll just tell you that my poor little iPhone cannot keep up with me and the silly photos of lunches, breakfasts and snacks!
yummy curried hummus
As I focus on BEING IN THE PRESENT today, I shall, not, let the glowingly yellow color of my hands stop me from tasting this recipe…nor would it stop me from sharing the recipe with you!
The other night I wanted to make a little appetizer to preface a WONDERFULLY delicious meal by Auntie Sharon…so I though “curried hummus!” Oh yes, indeed!
The Line-Up:
1 15 oz. can garbanzo beans (chick peas)
1/4 c. tahini paste (pulverized sesame seed)
3 T. white vinegar
2 T. Rajah (da good stuff!) curry powder
1/2 lemon’s worth freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 pinch of salt
Directions: blend all ingredients in food-processor (any sort of food processor will do! – Jasper uses her Hamilton Beach for smoothies to create hummus!)
There, you’ve got some delicious curried hummus!
Serve as appetizer to complement wonderful meal! –perfect for holidays, too!
Make sure to garnish with something pretty!
Have a Happy Monday all!
discovering new facts about ourselves…discovering new facts about…ME
It has been an old practice of mine to cringe at comments others make about me. Some sort of hopeless and egocentric spirit stirring around in my soul makes it impossible for my brain to interpret peoples’ comments as anything other than NEGATIVE. Lately, I have REALLY wanted to BEGIN living in a different want. I want to plant NEW and better seed. I want OTHERS to feel comfortable (as I hope they, already, do) to make comments about me without inhibition.
I used to be so fun-loving and did not SEEM to care, at least, what others “thought” of me…but inside I was tormented. Really, I sought to reject others before they could “reject” me…when I ACTUALLY had NO IDEA what THEY were thinking. Operating as if I had some “super-power” that told me what others actually told me, I drove my seem deep into seemingly rootless depression and binge-eating, coupled with manic behavior that further isolated me from my peers. I feel sad to look back on how things were and to wonder “how things could have been…” Nonetheless, we all know that what’s done is done, eh?! It’s time for some new seeds!
As silly as THIS photo may seem, I felt “sillier” being the one behind the lense…
Sometimes I would get SO hyper that I felt out of control. Others with “normal” behavior noticed my out-of-control behavior and would make comments. I put “normal” in quotations, as this was my interpretation of the world around me: “Jasper=freak” … “everyone else=normal.” To an extent, much of my behavior did stem from abnormal and distorted perceptions I had, over time, developed about this world and it’s people. So years of painful work has helped me understand that I can discover who Jasper is and just because that might not be normal, I don’t need to experience PAIN every day just because I am me.
This photo was taking while I was stuck in this shameful (for me) yo-yo dieting, binge-eating, restricting, diet-failing, weird-exercising, etc. catch-22 hell…and I thought that I “had” to put on some happy face in order to be “accepted.” The truth is, people loved me – all the while – I kept myself trapped in a prison that was me judging others for “what they thought of me” and “how or what or why I [did] what I [did] or [needed to do]” in order to get them to “like/accept” me. Sounds miserable and futile, eh!?
THANKFULLY! The story is only the BEGINNING of a more healthy and fulfilled life that could be the story of “Jasper’s journey” … In fact, we’ll call this “the preface…of… ‘jasper’s journey’”
could this be why my hands are STILL orange?!
My aunt Sharon tells me that one mango contains TONS of beta-carotene as well as Vitamin A (for which beta-carotene is a precursor, making the MOSt of the mango-contained Vitamin A), enough, to last 6 months! Wowee! Too bad I’ve got this weird intolerance for mangoes! Nonetheless, I think I have WAY TOO MANY sweet potatoes, pumpkins, carrots and beta-carotene, in general, back in October and November so my awfully-orange hands are paying the price it takes to be considered, most beautifully, orange now! oh well!
The photo above reveals some of that BRIGHT orange hue from the very-much fat soluble Vitamin A and beta-carotene, now, contained in my hands! All that to say, this post is more like a confession of one of my favorite afternoon snacks of late! – Steamed Kale snack-sammiches! English muffin, bread, whatever it takes to sammich that kale, I’m a happy camper (camping out in my cubicle at work!)
These two photos were taken nearly 1.5 months apart and I think my hand are looking a LOT less orange in the more recent photo above!
What do you think? Apparently, kale is pretty beta-carotene rich so I might just be continuing the problemo! Oh well!
Have a happy Thursday!
postcard writing and making for dummies!
Do you appreciate receiving or sending a hand-written letter? I LOVE to write letter, perhaps, even more than I love receiving hand-written letters! And, yes, this post is being categorized as “penship” not “penmanship” as I have decided to create a new word, entirely, for a new category
Back to post-card making! Collecting old scraps of paper and magazine clippings can be especially useful for penship … Now I am not ENTIRELY sure that all of my letter-recipients appreciate, what I feel are, my awesomely recycled materials-made postcards or letter, I know that I think they’re so much fun to send! Hopefully, the folks that receive my letters appreciate getting a letter in the mail…whether my crafting skills are stinky or not.
To begin with the letter-writing process, I like to get inspired! It doesn’t take much to get me wanting to write letters, but Pinterest can be a fun place for post-card, letter or package sending ideas…
Believe it or not, when my iPhone lost ALL contacts I said “eh, anyone important can just give me a call, no need to freak out…” but I cried after thinking “I just lost all of those home addresses to which I enjoy writing and sending letter! ” Boo-hoo’d for a while over that thought! Not to worry, though I had JUSt backed up the iPhone to a desktop and system-restored that babay!
See my set-up, here, found above…Just take some time out of your day to sit down and try writing a letter to an old friend, a dear friend or even one who lives in the very same town as you! It’s fun to get the post man to deliver a letter for you, even if it is locally delivered! Also, find fun random craft accents for your letters – I LOVE to use baker’s twine for decorating mine!
My friend Hannah from New Zealand and I have been writing to each other for nearly 20 years (in August of this year, it will be twenty!) ever since my grandparents met up with her grandparents while traveling in Hannah’s home country in the Pourakino Valley (correct me if I am wrong, Hannah!
iPhone and cute plants are fun company for letter writing too…I’d better back up all of my addresses on hard-copy though in case my phone crashes, once, again!
So get out those pens and scrap paper and find addresses for friends while stamps are only $0.45! Yikes, I might have to resort to all email once the postage rates continue to REALLY rise!
On another note, Ashley’s post really got me excited about lots of random things, but Medjool dates and the date palm tree, especially! So fascinating! – check it out on some Wikipedia love!
And I might have cried like a little baby when I saw this video story from Twitter.
Have a happy Wednesday…it’s nearly 5 am here and I am sick in bed with fever…about to fall back to sleep….
rubber band balls for dummies
So my home gym consists of Netflix-stremed exercise videos, a jump rope, running shoes and an indoor poor + slide plus 2.5 lb free weights. Right now, though, I m in the process of making one new addition to the home gym! A medicine ball!
Don’t mind the iPhone and nail polish, they’re just for good measure. Literally! The rubber-band ball continues to grow as I continue to add pound after pound of rubber-bands to the ball!
YOU get a vote, too! How many pounds, more, of rubber-bands shall I add to my rubber-band ball for making my home-gym-medicine-ball? 1? 2? 3? 10lbs more?
All it takes is more and more bags of rubber-bands to add to the ball!
For tomorrow! “Postcard writing/making for Dummies!”
tips and tricks for making flower balls
1. buy push pins…LOTs of push pins
2. find little scraps of paper or cardstock and cut little flowers. cut LOTS of little flowers …
3. purchase Styrofoam balls from craft store. LOTS of Styrofoam (or oasis for floral arrangements)
4. fasten paper/cardstock flowers onto Styrofoam balls using push pins
5. find ribbon…LOTs of ribbon
6. using push pins to fasten ribbon to flower ball, find yourself in flower ball heaven!
healthy flax inside-out blondie recipe
ok so don’t tell Wendy, but these are vegan brownies! yum yum yum!
the line-up:
1/2 c. flour
1 c. sugar
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1 t. salt
4 T. flax seed (milled or self-milled in food-processor)
12 T. water (for mixxing with flax seed to set aside and let gel)
1 c. water
1 1/2 c. almond butter
3/4 c. cocoa powder
1/4 raw cacao nibs
directions: smush all ingredients up together until beaten into pulverized yummy mess!
keep your kitchen clean … he … he …
pour mixture into baking dish …
then pair with raspberries and sunshine! and milk, of course
happy early friday all of you!
a lesson on growing up
This morning I thought to myself “well I am just ready to quit!” … “Quit what?” I asked myself. “Well I don’t know! just QUIT something!” my self answered back in protest. “But you’ve only just begun.”
In my office cubicle, I’ve got this little line who’s growth progress I am trying to track.
Once, already now, I thought the little vine was going to give out and die on me…apparently two tablespoons instead of the 1/2 tsp. suggestion or Miracle Gro can be a threat to little plants’ life expectancy. The leaves turned yellow and fell out after one day of fertilizer shock!
Still though, the little vine did not die, it grew back little leaves to replace the others! At first, I was so discouraged and frustrated with my stupidity in try to force the vine to GROW. I push and push and push the vine to grow, some days nearly drowning it by overwatering it and dehydrating it on others while I attempt to figure out if too-much-watering is the vines’ problem.
As one might be able to understand from this smaller-than-life illustration, nature will take it’s course no matter how much or little I race about trying to figure out a way to change or manipulate the situation.
The same is true for my body and soul.
There she is, a sort of happy little tot with a big personality. And she was happy. It wasn’t that “life was not fair” to her or that she “lived a charmed one.” Life simply happened the way the creator intended. Silly as it may seem, I’d like to paraphrase from Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield. “My meaning simply is, that whatever I have tried to do in life, I have tried with all my heart to do well; that whatever I have devoted myself to, I have devoted myself to completely; that in great aims and in small, I have always been thoroughly in earnest.” (Dickens, Ch. 42) It’s not that my life reaches near or even to the slightest extent close to these words from Dickens, but I would very much like my life, one day, to near such a summary. One might argue that David Copperfield lived the most undesirably unfortunate existence and that, in doing so, his life was ill spent. Through Copperfield’s misfortune’s, he gained insight on the inherent futility of superficial beauty, simple, fluffy “love,” and worldly accomplishment. Although I want those things and each are not-at-all-bad in and of themselves, like Copperfield, I can know that life’s trials and fires are where STRENGTH is gained.
It may appear that I am even more broken than ever, today, but I can tell you that I have heard this: “Things have to get worse before they get better!” One more lesson I can gain from monitoring my little plant’s progress is this: life should not be filled with my fussing over whether “I am ok … [or whether] … I am fixed or not fixed,” rather life should be whether or not I am treating myself and others with gentleness, love, generosity and grace.
Here’s to a kind of growth in all of our lives that lead us into all truth and understanding! and i’ll post a less serious post soon
