There were so many titles I could have given this journal! I sat down and brainstormed things that came to mind about our family: favourites, reputations, personality traits, food, faith, fun, alliteration for our surname, interests... honestly, I feel the creativity being celebrated just in choosing a name. But then, I tend to choose any kind of name for its meaning and sound and poetic qualities! Whether it's the name of a child, a nickname, a children's group, a favourite location or family tradition or, when I get around to it... a scrapbook page!:)

Jellybeans are like the multi-coloured aspects of life. There's a variety, a sweetness to life that I want to capture in my journal. Jellybeans will encourage me to show all of life's colours so that the record of my memories will be real, not just rose-coloured!

Jellybeans are also chewy, or you can just slowly enjoy them; I want to remember moments and ideas like morsels to chew on and meditate on.

Jellybeans are just slightly(!) onomatopaeic (not sure if that's correct spelling, Mum). Declan bounces so much and Chloe loves the (what she used to call the jumpoline) trampoline so much, that I needed to include this to remind me of our jumping rhyme:
"Jumping, jumping, jumping jellybeans
Jumping, jumping, Jack;
Jumping, jumping jumping jellybeans
Jumping, jumping Jack."

And, of course, no explanation would be complete without acknowledging how popular jellybeans are with Gary :)

The Gingerbread part, for me, evokes images of family rituals and traditions, decorated with all the details of daily life. I'm thinking initiallyof the gingerbread houses we do each year at Christmas; the way the designs in architecture and decorations are changing from year to year, depending on the children's ages (and choice of favourite lolly!) just like the changes that show up in the year by year and month by month records of growth.

Cooking gingerbread men has also been a favourite childhood pasttime for both me and our children. After five years of reading my sister's copy of The Gingerbread Man, where you pass a cardboard cutout through the pages, it finally fell off it's stringa couple of weeks ago - it has been loved so much!

Gingerbread always smells so nice. It reminds me of "the spice of life" -the things that transform life from the mundane to the memorable! It also reminds me to keep an acronym in mind as we raise our family (from a Heritage Builders course we did a long time ago): A.R.O.M.A:

A Affection
R Respect
O Order
M Merriment
A Affirmation

So there you have it... the poetic reasoning (so far) behind a rather unusual title...well, it makes me smile!