He's the Juan!

Well, I haven't kept up with adding to my blog at all like I had hoped to - LOL! That's the challenge of having so many kids and a new baby in the house though, I guess. I think I'll do better at keeping up with this once our daily routine gets a little more established and I don't feel so overwhelmed like I have been lately. Baby Juan Steven turned three months old just yesterday, December 12th, and it's amazing how quickly he is growing. I just love how chubby his soft little arms and legs are getting! He has an adorable smile and a giggle that will just melt your heart . He hasn't been sleeping as much as he used to at the beginning, so I find that he is awake and I am playing with him a lot during the day, and therefore can't get much else done around here (but who would want to? - he's just so much fun!)

I finally finished and mailed off all of my birth announcements and thank you cards last week! It was a project I had worked on very gradually (off and on for over a month) and I am just so thrilled to have finally finished them (even if he is three months old already now LOL!) I'm very proud of how they turned out, so I guess I'd better share them here with you as well. I hope you like our birth announcement as much as we do!

P.S. - If you click on the photo, you can see the details up close!

Why Jen's Jewel Box?

It's my very first post (yeaaay!!), so I guess I should explain why I chose "Jen's Jewel Box" as the name of my blog. My grandmother loved to read and collect poems. When I was a teenager, she gave me a beautiful book of her favorite poems, all written in her very own handwriting. It is one of my most loved treasures, as I can consider it a little "piece of her" that is still with me (she passed away in 1997). The very first poem in her poem collection book is titled "My Jewel Box" and this poem means the world to me. Its sentiment and meaning is very dear to my heart, as it reminds me that I now feel just as my grandmother did as a young mother.

I have done quite a bit of research on this poem, trying to find out if there is an author out there somewhere and I am thinking that my grandmother might have even written this poem herself. I can only wish it wasn't too late to ask her about the poems origin. If this poem is familiar to anyone else who reads this and you do know who wrote it, please let me know. I would like to go on believing my grandmother wrote it, but would also really appreciate knowing for sure where it came from, if it wasn't her own words. Either way, I know that this poem was very important to her because it is the very first poem written in her beautiful penmanship within the collection of poems she gave me.

My Jewel Box

Some ladies have fine jewel boxes
of ivory and jade;
Some have theirs of platinum
With diamonds all inlaid.
Within these lovely boxes
They carefully hide from sight
Their costly rings and bracelets:
They're locked in the safe at night.

Now I have lovely jewels too,
Priceless and very rare.
My jewel box is a baby's bed,
How sweet to see them there -
Two sapphire eyes, two ruby lips,
Four tiny gleaming pearls,
The sun strikes lovely golden glints
From wispy silken curls.

I carry my jewels all around
For everyone to see,
Gazing at the gems I have
No doubt they envy me.
At night when heavy eyelids droop
And my darling is undressed,
I lay my treasure carefully
In my jewel box to rest.