Starting a Cookbook - The How To

This has been a summer long process and I just finished this past weekend. Back in 2009 for my mom's birthday and Christmas present, I had made a cookbook out of all of her recipe cards that were bent out of shape and falling out of her recipe box. I typed it up and printed it off and put it into a binder. At the time I didn't really know what I was doing and have since learned my lesson. This summer however, was spent adding new recipe's that she had found from magazines and Pinterest as well as fixing old recipes.

When I started this back in 2009, I had put it in an excel file. Not really sure why but I did it that way and would definitely recommend not doing it that way, but hey I was only freshman in high school who didn't know any better. Now I would say Microsoft Word is probably the better choice.



I modeled the pages after another cookbook mom had and remembered her telling me that she liked the design. On the left is the ingredients, and on the right is the directions. But what makes this one different is that there are breaks in between, linking the ingredients with only a certain section of the directions.


For the page numbers I abbreviated whatever the category was for the particular page and used the number key that is in Microsoft Excel. This was so that I could add more pages later on.



Once printed, I put them in page protectors and then in a binder. I had made a table of contents as well as an index. We discovered that because the pages were in the page protectors that the tabs we had gotten were too small and would not stick out. So I printed out a page for each section with different fonts and then a box around it. On the edge I used permanent markers and colored about 1/2 inch on the right side.

Because I had used a binder with a front pocket I was able to find a nice front off of Bing pictures. And made my own spine that had the name of mom's cookbook "Holly's Family Cookbook." Even though it took me most of my summer. I think my DIY cookbook turned out to be a success.

The Sibling's take on loosing a baby

Last night as I was getting ready for bed, I got on to facebook and found that my mom had posted the article "Why We Should Talk about our Children who have Passed", written by Washington Post. I opened it up and read it, realizing that I have a hard time when it comes to telling people how many siblings I have that I have one alive and that one was miscarried and the other lived for eight days before passing. I am one that doesn't like the pity response of, "I'm so sorry." For me it happened and that's the way of life. But yet when those that I do tell, and are understanding and are willing to listen, it means a lot and I feel that they genuinely care. Many times have I heard of other parents talking about their young and knowing that they went through some of the same things that my parents went through. But I rarely hear from those who were siblings and went through the process with their parents.

As a sibling it is hard not only to watch your parents go through the heartache and it is also hard to not think about the what ifs. Like what if they made it, what if they were still alive. When my parents lost the baby, I lost the chance of growing up with a brother. My life could have been way different if he would have survived. On July 27, of this year would have been his 16th birthday. I would have had a sibling just taking their driving test for the first time. Instead of there being two of us kids, there would have been three. Maybe he would have helped me to become more interested in sports when I was younger. Thinking about how my sister and I would have had to share a bedroom, while he got his own. But maybe we wouldn't be living in the house we are in now. I would have had a sibling closer in age to me than the six years apart between my sister and I. There is always those thoughts about what could have happened.



Yes, I am sad that the chance to have grown up with a brother did not happen, but I am so thankful for the eight short days that I had him. As Christians who have lost loved ones, we can look forward to the one day that we will see them again. There are these things that happen for a reason even though we may not understand at the time, but through the years, I have been able to relate to those who have lost loved ones and been there to be a comfort.

As a sibling going through this time of losing their sibling, I am very grateful for the involvement I was able to have while Josiah was alive. Even while mom was scrap booking, she let me help and even let me do one page by myself. I am still very grateful for the support that our family has received before, during and after he was born.