Thanks, and ready for a long weekend!

Ok, wow. Our Birthday Bash over at JessicaSprague.com was awesome! If you stopped by during the week to pick up the freebies, or to shop, or to register for the free class, THANK YOU! We had so much going on, it was exhausting! I’m looking forward to jetting out of town tonight for a long weekend. Hoping to catch some firework displays and maybe a parade. And a hot dog. Somehow the 4th of July means hot dogs to me.

Of course, the long weekend = getting ready for the photo editing class that starts Monday. Working on that today, but this is another of those classes that will get developed in real-time. Fun and adventure! :D

I hope you have an awesome weekend. Got big plans?

Highlights.

We got back last night from another weekend in the NC mountains. The drive of 3.5 hours is just right for a weekend getaway. And we’ve been spending so much time in that part of the state because we’ve been looking for a little place we could purchase for a weekend getaway. :) We closed on the 12th of June, and slept that night in a completely empty little cabin near Boone. It’ll take awhile to finish everything, but it’s totally fun embarking on a new adventure, spending time together in the mountains.

Just at the base of the hill where the cabin is, we discovered a community park, right across the street, and we climbed down the rocks and put our feet in the Watauga river. It was awesome! The water was really cold, but the river is very shallow right there, so the kids were able to walk around in the water. I went back to the car to grab the kids a change of clothes and get sunscreen, and … hmmm…

that’s funny…

the car door won’t open…

I remembered pushing the lock button on the door before getting out, but I also remembered that I had left my bag (where the key was - we have one of those remote ignition things) on the floor of the passenger seat. Shading my eyes, I could SEE the key peeking out of the pocket in my bag - so close, and yet so far away… isn’t locking yourself out the worst feeling? The backup plans begin to roll through your head - how do I get out of this? What do I do first? Since we were in the mountains, we had only the one car key (WHICH, have I mentioned, I could SEE through the window, ARG.), and we were about 4 miles from the cabin anyway. No cab service, a cell phone with 1/4 of its battery left - this should be one of those personality quizzes like the “what would you do if you were stranded on a desert island?”

But I guess if I had to pick a place to lock us out, a beautiful sunny mountain park with a river running through it is probably as good as it gets, right? :) And it turned our hour-long, pre-lunch adventure into a three-hour extravaganza while we waited for the locksmith to come and prayed that Jared’s cell phone battery wouldn’t die before he found us. He did, and it didn’t. But it was close.

We had a whole day planned, but decided instead to grab some lunch and head back up to the cabin for a rest after so long running and splashing and sunning. I have a massive sunburn on the back of my neck as a souvenir today, and as a reminder to BRING MY KEY WITH ME when I decide the car door needs lockin’. Hehe.

We also ate some really, REALLY good southern barbeque at a place called Pappy’s. WOW. See, normally (maybe because of Better off Dead), I would avoid a place with an actual pig smiling at me from the logo. But I think my life will never be the same again after that smoked pork. Are you from Carolina? Do you favor the vinegar-based sauce? I didn’t even know this existed til we moved here. “Barbeque sauce” was that thick goopy mesquite-y stuff you bought at the grocery store, that had cow horns or something on the label. But THIS. Delicious. And the slaw. Love me some slaw. Especially since I can say “slaw” here because it’s a one-word word instead of “cole slaw” like it is in the west. Like there is another kind of slaw? I don’t know. But wow. We are totally heading back for the 4th of July weekend, and you KNOW I am going to get me some barbeque from Pappy’s.

Do you have plans for the 4th of July weekend?

Spotted..

TWO baby tomatoes growing on my tomato plants in the backyard. In MY backyard! Seriously. If the birds or bugs or squirrels or possums or whatever don’t get them first, I am totally looking forward to amazing BLT sandwiches in a few weeks.

How many tomatoes usually grow on a plant, anyway? I have just these two teeny ones so far. :)

We’re also growing herbs, as I mentioned - some cilantro, thyme, parsley, basil, etc. Ele has taken a shine to the cilantro and its long, leafy stems. I told him he could eat one, and after getting used to the taste, he’s been mixing some leaves up with mud for a little fake stew to serve around. And he enunciates each syllable, “Cil-LAAHN-tro”.

So we went to Subway yesterday for lunch, and I ordered each kid a plain ham and cheese sandwich, since neither of them will eat veggies on sandwiches. But as the worker was wrapping them up, Ele stood up on tiptoes, just able to peek over the counter and through the glass, and said,

“Excuse me! Do you have any cil-laahn-tro?”

He got a look of complete confusion in return from the sandwich maker, who didn’t (alas) have cilantro, and I thought I would die from the cuteness. :)

And then, ele wanted some juice yesterday, so I got out the big pitcher with the Crystal Light in it, and he said, “I want to pour it!” Well, even though it’s bigger than he is, almost, it wasn’t very full, so I said ok

I held his cup while he poured it, and he did it perfectly. I said, “Great job, Ele!” and he set the pitcher down, and looked at me proudly, and said “Bow chicka wow wow!”

That of course, is a reference to our collective new favorite YouTube video, Kittens Inspired by Kittens:

FREE Registration is Open!

Registration for my FREE Photo Editing: Frame-ups and Special Effects class is officially open! Run over and get in the class, ok?

All you have to do is:

Copy this code (just highlight over it with your mouse and type Ctrl-c):

FREECLASS062009

Then click here and enter it in the Access Code field (you need to be logged in to the site)

How is that for easy and fun?

Come join us at JessicaSprague.com for daily freebies and lots of cool features as we party the week away for our 2nd birthday! :)

Tweetsie Weekend

We got back yesterday afternoon from a long weekend in the mountains of NC. Refreshed, relaxed, and excited to get our birthday celebration underway! :D

We spent Saturday at the Tweetsie Railroad. We rode Thomas the Tank, who was attached to the regular locomotive, and since our ride time was 9 a.m. we were there WAY before any crowds, and spent almost 2 hours just hopping on anything we wanted to ride. (is it me, or is the ferris wheel there REALLY SCARY? I thought I was going to pass out, whizzing through the air on this spindly little thing. *shudder*).

Tweetsie is built around one of the last remaining steam locomotives from the East Tennessee and Western North Carolina railroad, and the engine that pulled us was built in 1917. It was so cool. The park is small enough that we could just relax and take our time exploring.

The kids loved it. We loved it, all except for the part where (wait for it) I forgot my camera. So the only pictures we have of our first visit to Tweetsie are the ones we took on our cell phones (the one above is from their web site). On the plus side, I didn’t lug a camera around. So there’s that. Trying to stay positive. :)

We have loved our visits to the mountains over the past couple months - something about getting away, even just a couple hours away, helps me refocus on what’s most important to me.

I hope you had an awesome weekend, and you’re looking forward to celebrating with us next week!

Free Photo Editing Class! Register June 22

Okay. This one deserves a post all its own. So excited about this!

So by now you know that JessicaSprague.com is turning TWO YEARS OLD. That’s right - it’s hard to believe that we have come so far, and that we’ve been going for two years!

In celebration of this, and frankly because I just wanna share the cool stuff, I’m offering a FREE two-week photo editing class, starting July 6!

This class is technically the second in the series of Photo Editing classes I’m planning, but you are not required to have taken the Photo Editing: Good-to-Great Workflow class beforehand. I recommend it, because starting with a well-exposed, beautifully contrasted, bright photo just makes all the techniques in this second class even better, but it’s not necessary. :)

I think that this class is PERFECT for anyone who takes digital photos. Not only digital scrapbookers, certainly - paper scrapbookers will especially love learning how to put frames and brushes on their photos, and anyone who takes digital pictures will love the simple enhancements they can make to give their photos specific looks - dreamy, soft focus, urban, cross-processed and more.

Now, I could use your help.

Please tell people. This content is just TOO GOOD to keep to ourselves! :D

Here’s a blog badge:

Post about it on message boards, or put this badge on your blog - invite friends and family to join you in this class, which can change the way you edit pictures forever. I CAN’T WAIT to show you this cool stuff, and I want to be able to share it with as many people as I can. Will you help me spread the love? :D

Gremlins. Oh, and a great recipe. :)

I swear I have tried to post for two nights, and have been foiled by gremlins.

Monday night we decided to make a new dessert, which I saw Giada making as I glanced through the channels on the way to Noggin on Monday afternoon. It was SO GOOD. I changed it up just a bit, but here’s the lo-down:

Toasted Pound Cake with Citrus Cream

(adapted)

• 1 pound cake, sliced (she recommends a loaf-shaped one, but we got a round one and just sliced it across)
• 2 Tbs melted butter
• Honey for drizzling

• 8 oz. mascarpone cheese (my grocery store didn’t have it - I chose whipped cream cheese instead)
• 1/2 c. whipping cream
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 lime
• 1 lemon
• 2 oranges
• Blueberries

Heat the oven to 350. Slice the pound cake so it lays flat on a baking sheet. Brush each slice with butter, then drizzle it with honey. Bake for 7-8 minutes.

Citrus cream: Add the cheese, cream, sugar, and vanilla to a large bowl. Zest and juice the lime and the lemon, and one of the oranges and add to the mixture. Mix the ingredients together with a hand mixer until it forms stiff peaks.

Cut the peel off of the remaining orange and cut out the orange segments (do this like you would slice a peach - cut inward so you get just the orange segments without the extra pithy stuff.

To Assemble: Lay a slice of cooled cake on a plate, and top with the citrus cream. Add 2-3 orange segments, and sprinkle with washed blueberries.

IT WAS SO GOOD. Seriously. Go right now and make some.

Ok, we had major weirdness on Tuesday night - a HUGE thunderstorm abruptly shut our power down - TWICE, so we were scrambling to unplug all our equipment. Def. don’t want a repeat of last year’s lightning strike incident that fried the cable modem. So gremlins, but lightning ones.

Last night we went out with the kids for Cold Stone ice cream. And ate it while we walked across the parking lot to the kids’ favorite store - Borders (training them well, right? hehe). By the way, chocolate with peanut butter and some extra fudge is AWESOME. Wow I’m all about the dessert this week. On the way out of Borders I noticed these rashes up the insides of both my arms. Great. So I have a big poison ivy blister on my right forearm and now I’m covered in a red rash, too? So I came home and did something I RARELY do - I took a Benadryl. This stuff knocks me out cold for 12 hours.

And wouldn’t you know it? Almost exactly 12 hours later, I woke up. So chalk this one up to the medicine gremlins.

But that brings us to today. Another post.

What I was GOING to say... but in fewer words

Since it appears that I may not get more than bullet points tonight, let me sum up:

• Went to the museum on Saturday for the Rest of Elliott’s birthday (celebrated in stages through the week)
• Between us, I think Jared and I and his parents got Ele the last two remaining planet books on earth that he doesn’t already own.
• Jared decorated an amazing planet cake with ping-pong ball planets. Genius. And delish.
• Saturday evening I planted a bunch of new plants in our yard, turning into the most amateur of gardeners, and it’s fun! Ele can even remember the names of his favorite: larkspur.
• Except that I think I found some poison ivy somewhere - I have a welty, blistery rash on my forearm that itches like a sweet motha. Also a lesser one under my chin (perhaps wiping sweat away?) that isn’t as big and blistery and doesn’t itch quite as bad, but is still QUITE enough itchy for tonight.
• Cortisone cream seems to be helping some. Til I went and washed the cakey stuff off to reapply. YOW.
• We are getting ready to announce the plans for the big 2nd birthday celebration over at JessicaSprague.com. LOTS of cool stuff going on. Mark your calendar for June 22-28, and plan to stop by each day to pick up special goodies and see the news! This is gonna be awesome!

Now if the evil Tuesday night gremlins inside my blog will allow me to post pics, I will do so shortly. If you don’t hear from me, assume I’ve been the Tuesday night snack, and they’re coming for you!

GAH!

Thanks a lot for eating my post, internets. I will retype.

So what do you get a 4-year-old...

Four years ago yesterday, at 9:45 p.m., this sweet fella entered our life. He was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, and we moved to North Carolina about 9 months later. About 6 months after that, he discovered Baby Einstein’s Baby Galileo DVD. And it has all been ALL SPACE ALL THE TIME for him ever since then. I’m told that kids go through obsession phases. I’ve seen it with Rowen. But this particular one has extended into more of a life’s ambition I think.

Well, what do you get a 4-year-old who owns every planet book, owns two solar system models, space PJ’s, everything? Who knew that there are NO stuffed replicas of Neptune to be found anywhere? And I looked. Oh yes I did.

So I called on the help of a friend I met through Etsy while shopping for Christmas presents last year, and commissioned a custom set of stuffed planets. Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus. And Kathrina from The Freckled Elephant did a GENIUS job. She has space fans in her house (something I didn’t know, but feel incredibly lucky for), so Saturn has his rings, Earth has land masses AND polar ice caps, Mars has ice caps on the north and south poles (appliqued in white felt!), and Elliott’s favorite part: Jupiter has his Great Red Spot. YES. Beautifully stitched, with loops for hanging if we ever want to do that.

Now look at him, snuggling his birthday present:

It was the BEST present he could have dreamed of. He jumped on them, squashed them, squeezed them, then piled them all back in the huge box she packed them in, and jumped in after them. So did Rowen.

At bedtime, we brought the box o’ planets upstairs, and he put on one of his two astronaut helmets and hung out with his planets in his new spaceship (of course the box is as good a toy as the toys, right?). And the best part, when he was finally ready for sleep, he piled all the planets around himself, and snuggled them as he fell asleep.

We didn’t get to the present-opening until about 8 p.m. last night, when the light was failing. And apparently, my camera was feeling funky last night, because I couldn’t get a nice shot FOR THE LIFE OF ME. Very frustrating. But, such is life, right? So here are the not-very-decent-but-still-precious pics of Ele and his new one-of-a-kind planets:

You can see a bit of Jupiter’s spot there, and Neptune is off to the right. She interspersed the fabric with a spotted velour she calls “minky”, which I thought would be great for putting his cheek on at night. He loves the texture, and it makes the planets look so cool. :)

Lovin’ on the earth.

Coolest part? He recognized each of them right away. Can you? ;)

Every kid dreams of jumping in his own pile of planets, right?

This is a rocketship, complete with minky fire coming out the back!

Rocketship in foreground, kids playing in the “spaceship” in the background. :)

Piloting his craft. Looks like he’s already arrived at Jupiter. ;)

This boy. Ah. I will need another post or two about him. Let this one be about him and his planets. It is a beautiful relationship. :)

A Garden! That's right!

On Friday morning, after we had run a bunch of errands, I had a random, wild thought while driving past the Lowe’s hardware. Why don’t we plant a garden?

Oh sure, why not? :)

Sure, I’ve never been able to get anything to grow, ever. But these new plants might not know that, AND we’ll get sprouted plants so they have a fighting chance. :)

So we stopped in at Lowe’s and bought some garden soil, and about 15 plants to put in our dirt.

I don’t have a huge backyard - far from it, and it gets quite a bit of shade, so I chose the sunniest spot back by the sandbox, and the kids and I spent the early afternoon digging holes, mixing in garden soil, and planting our tomatoes and herbs (thyme, oregano, cilantro, basil, parsley, and bee balm). And by “the kids and I”, I mean I). It was hot and sweaty, but I felt pretty darned good. :) And they look so pretty! And it’s not cheating to plant plants that are already plants, is it? I just figure this is probably the best way to keep something alive. :)

I know nothing about gardening whatsoever. So I don’t even know where this idea even came from. But I do know that impatience for plants has paid off - we actually had some of our fresh basil leaves in our dinner last night. Delish!

Ele and I went out yesterday and watered the new plants - this was his favorite part, and he did great, for about 10 minutes.

Then he got distracted:

And even more distracted:

Then he remembered I was sitting on the back steps watching him, and he started to get funny ideas…

That’s when I ran for it.

Good times. :)

I don’t think I’ve mentioned that I have a super-power also? I happen to be a Mosquito Magnet. Jared is almost completely unaffected by mosquitos, but if I step ONE FOOT outside the door, I am covered in bites. In the extra time I’ve been spending outside this weekend, Super Hero Mosquito Magnet is now sporting like 40 bites from head to toe. Itchy. But many mosquitos are laying around my backyard all fat and happy tonight. That has to count for something.

Have you found a really good, reliable mosquito remedy for outdoors? I’d love to hear it.

SO DANG LUCKY.

Ok, now I’m starting to get emails - where the heck are you?

I’m here, I’m safe. I’m sound. I’m well. I’m whole.

And I’m sorry for the absence.

Here’s a funny from Monday that I thought of putting up and then somehow the week whirled away from me like a leaf on the wind, and it’s almost Friday!

On Monday afternoon we took advantage of Jared being home for the Memorial Day holiday, and we went over to the Yates Mill pond. Walked on the trails, threw rocks in the pond, had a great time. We definitely weren’t dressed for our split-second decision to walk all the way around the one-mile pond trail, but it was good times anyway:

The humidity rose and rose, and then it kept flashing rain on and off. I’ve never lived in a place that turned rain on and off like a light switch - one of the many things that makes North Carolina so interesting :).

I met some very interesting mushroomy-looking fungus on a tree, that reminded me of beautiful swirling skirts.

I love the stripes on each one - I assume these are growth patterns, but the imagery and texture was stunning. Luckily nobody else was on the trail, to see me crouching on the ground for 10 minutes taking shots of the foot of a tree - my family already knows that sometimes mama just wanders off with her camera, so they just pushed ahead.

I caught back up with them just as the clouds were breaking and we left the depth of the woods. Got really lucky with this shot, which stuns me, and frightens me a bit - look how big this girl is! She is an amazing person, a real person with tons of thoughts and intentions and a true desire to do good and make others happy. My heart squeezes a bit looking at this, though - for the fleeting nature of time. My little-big girl is 5 years old!

And this one - we were heading back over to the bridge that crosses the pond, and it had started sprinkling again. Ele stopped on the trail just like this, head tilted back, and stood in silence, feeling the rain falling on his face. I couldn’t back up fast enough to try for this shot!

And of course it wouldn’t be a Sprague family outing without someone saying something hilarious (or having a pee-pee accident, but luckily for us, it was the first): On the way out to the parking lot, we stopped to look at the map of the pond and the grounds, and we were showing Rowen where we had walked. Elliott looked at the map (Jared had him in his arms) and said, “Where is Disney World on the map?”

“Well, we’re not really anywhere NEAR Disney World, Ele.”

“But where is it on the map?”

So check your map and see if you see Disney - it’s missing from ours.

I’ve been working on a few things over the past couple of weeks, trying to get past a few other things, and generally muddling around. But I came to a decision tonight that I feel really good about, and I can’t wait to share it as the time gets closer. It’ll be awesome! (oh, and FREE! hehe).

And be sure to mark your calendar- JessicaSprague.com is turning TWO YEARS OLD, and we are having a week-long celebration from the 22-27th of June. Oh man, is it going to be GOOD. :D

I hope you had a great Memorial Day weekend, and I’m glad to be back blogging again. :D I feel SO DANG LUCKY. AND SO DANG BLESSED.

More Words about Food...

I will begin this post by mentioning that I am not Pioneer Woman. My talk about food here is more the triumph of a complete and somewhat-disinterested novice, rather than the patient explanation of secrets by a loving enthusiast.

I had a speech teacher say, “Never apologize for yourself at the beginning of a presentation.” And yet, I feel like whenever I talk about food, I need to. Hehe. Probably because there is SO MUCH amazing food out there in the universe, my small and far less than occasional contribution by way of chat and recipe-share seems kind of paltry. Although you HAVE to admit that my strawberry celebration of the past few days has been quite decent, right? Ya gotta give me that. :)

Pretty much for me, if I cooked it, it is a triumph. :) And, if you keep readin’, I can separate eggs. (ahem. *flex*)…

Well, tonight, after kind of a weird and kind of lengthy afternoon, we were deciding what to have for dinner, and I was like, why don’t we have waffles? And we could use up the last of the strawberries (yes, you might not be hearing about strawberries for awhile. But then again, you might…), and hey we have some whip cream in the fridge!

This spawned a Google search for Belgian Waffle recipes, and we came upon this:

First, I’m kind of geeked that there is a whole web site called Waffle-Recipe dot com. And second, this one was pretty delish.

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons white sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/4 cups milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil

1. Sift the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar - all the dry ingredients - together in a large mixing bowl.
2. Separate the eggs, placing the egg whites in a small bowl, and then in a separate bowl, combine the egg yolks with the milk and oil. Whisk together.
3. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour the liquid ingredients into it.
4. You can use a large spoon or mixer to mix the wet and dry ingredients just until you get a moist mixture (stop when the dry ingredients are moistened).
5. Beat egg whites until stiff.
6. Gently fold them into the batter, mix a little but not too much since you will destroy the delicate egg whites that make this waffle recipe so fluffy.

After our super-scientific double-blind taste test, we have officially confirmed that these actually are best with fresh fruit and whipped cream, rather than butter and syrup.

You may also like to increase the milk to 1 1/3 cups, and use only 3 eggs, although I love the eggy flavor. :)

And also? I didn’t take any pictures of the process. So picture in your mind me running back and forth to the laptop checking on the recipe, and the kids “helping” measure and pour flour, baking powder, salt, spilling some. And then picture us gathering around the island to dive in to our homemade belgian waffles, grunting to each other about how delicious they were around mouthfuls of deliciousness. Ya gotta try it out. :) Plus, you can show your kids how awesome you are that you can separate eggs.. yeah.. pretty proud of that, myself.

Strawberry Goodness

We have been up to our ears in strawberries and LOVING it! :D Here’s a shot of the two boxes we brought home on Friday morning. These are now nestled lovingly in the freezer in the form of strawberry jam.

We have strawberry jam, and did you ever have Fruit Pizza when you were a kid? Jared hadn’t ever had it, but I was able to get really close with this:

I had bought some sugar cookies and buttercream whipped frosting (you know, in the can, but whipped is better) so the kids could decorate some cookies on Friday night for their ‘fun’ thing while we were out on our date. So Saturday morning, we brought home the freshly picked strawberries, and I thought hey, if sprinkles are good, wouldn’t some sliced strawberries be DELISH on these cookies?

And boom. Mini fruit pizza.

So it’s:

• 1 sugar cookie
• Spread with buttercream frosting (I like whipped because it’s lighter in texture)
• 3-4 thin slices of strawberry

Eat. Repeat. Wipe away the tears of utter contentment and joy at having found one of the world’s perfect foods.

When I was younger, our young women group had fruit pizza a couple times. It was basically a version of what I’ve described above: a giant sugar cookie, spread with a cream cheese + honey mixture, and then we would top it with strawberry and kiwi slices, blueberries, and so forth. Cut into slices and eat. It’s awesome for parties, but hey, even with JUST strawberries, and on small cookies, and with storebought frosting, it could be a great make-your-own treat. What am I saying could be? It WAS. Oh yes. It was.

And then tonight we had some friends over for homemade strawberry ice cream. Which really, has to rank right up there with the mini fruit pizza, and I’m seeing a strawberry trend here among the world’s perfect foods. It has just 6 ingredients, and three of them are heavy cream, whole milk, and sugar. I mean, how can you possibly go wrong when a recipe starts like that, right? The other three, for the record, are vanilla, strawberries, and the Secret Ingredient: Fresh lemon juice.

It was declared a success all around, except that Rowen shared a bite with our friend Small M- who is allergic to milk, and her parents had to come to the rescue with some Benadryl. Eep! So all were warned that while sharing is awesome! and nice! and you should always share! just don’t share your ice cream with the girl who breaks out in hives. Ok? Ok.

It was a terrific evening - we lit the fire pit, and had fun even despite our sorry faux grocery-store logs. If anyone lives local to Raleigh and has a good source for firewood, please let me know, ok? Seriously, we are sad with our logs that “Burn Like Real Wood!” and are wrapped in paper like no log should ever be.

And while I know that strawberries are nature’s candy, and are supposedly amazingly healthy, we’ve diminished that somewhat by combining them over this past week with sugar, frosting, cookies, and heavy cream. Naughty. But SO nice.

Only Thinking in Bullet-points So Far Today

ok. Must recap.

• Last Friday Ele and I went with Rowen’s preschool class to a cute little farm to pick strawberries. We had decided we were going to make jam, so we picked about 10 pounds. If you’re a local, check out Buckwheat Farm here - they say they’ll be open through the first week of June.
• I spent Friday afternoon making strawberry freezer jam. Ele helped me wash the berries, and he helped himself to a couple dozen of them as well. There are FEW things, I think, that rival the intensity of flavor from a perfectly ripe strawberry fresh off the vine. WOW. KABOOM. I got about 20 pints of jam, too! Wee!
• (By the way, if *I* can make jam, anyone can - you only need some fruit, some sugar - a LOT of sugar - and some fruit pectin, and you will never eat storebought jam again)
• Jared came home on Friday night, and decided he needed to experience picking a strawberry right off its plant (and since I had chopped all the berries, he wanted to taste a whole one), so we decided to go back for more on Saturday. Hehe
• Friday night, Jared and I went on a DATE. Yes, that needs to be in caps, because it happens so rarely. We went out to eat(!) with no kids (!), and then we went to see Star Trek. Yeah, that is pretty much the only movie that could get us out of the house for an evening together.
• Star Trek was awesome. We got there 15 mins before the movie started, and the theater was packed. We ended up in the 4th row, which is WAY too close for this particular movie.
• The popcorn was delicious. Curse you, delicious buttery movie popcorn!
• On Saturday we went back to the strawberry farm and picked more berries. We will be making strawberry ice cream tomorrow night with some friends. My grandpa’s recipe. :)
• Yesterday was great - so relaxing, Jared and the kids brought me breakfast in bed (and then I had to hurry and get ready at 8:30 to be at church by 9), and then I got the whole afternoon to just relax. It was great.
• I hope your Mother’s Day was awesome. Mamas deserve more than one day a year, methinks, but it’s a start, at least.
• Here is a copy of a talk I gave last year at Mother’s Day. I feel like this might help someone out there, so I’m posting it again. Mother’s Day Talk.
• This morning, I’m having trouble getting rolling in the right direction. I feel like I can only think in bullet points yet. But hopefully the rain lets up a bit and we can go outside and feel some wind on our faces. And I do have some pics from the weekend events.