You may recall that my husband loves to pick huckleberries.
He finds it enchanting.
I find it dreadful. Well, my husband also loves strawberry picking. When we decided to go yesterday morning, there was a skip in his step and a song in his heart. We picked for 45 minutes and reaped about 39 pounds.
You may exclaim: “Taylor! What on earth will you DO with all those strawberries?” Well, dear readers. I make my own jam, because I am super on top of things. We go through a pint of jam at least a week, so we need lots of berries to satisfy our household.
Lest any of you are too impressed, I have only made my own jam thrice.
Thrice is a fancy word to be used in place of saying”three times.” Feel free to steal it, as it is always impressive. And one should alway strive to sound impressive, particularly if one is a homeschooling mother such as myself. Sounding like you are fancy and knowledgeable helps ease the fret of the homeschooling naysayers.
So we picked and picked and then we, along with our bounty, had to get to my sister’s birthday party straightaway.
Sister Meagan received a 4-man boat for her birthday. 4-man boat is always code for “maybe two adults can fit comfortably . . . maybe.”
Here she is on her maiden voyage.
(Meagan is on the left, friend Caylee on the right)
Ahoy!
I told her she needed to name her boat something fantastic like, “Ina May” and she looked at me like an insane crazy person. Whatever. I think any decent boat should have a name. My parents have a canoe. Her name is “Nona.” If I get a boat, I am going to name her “Norma Jean Riley.” Even though I already named one of the rabbits that. It is that fantastic of name.
Ina May floated like a champ.
My kids are like fish. You cannot keep them from the water. It is their lifeblood.
Good Morning, Gil. I said, Good MORNING, GIL.
ha! Name THAT movie. Hilarious.
Here are my girls with their cousins in Ina May. Did you notice how I just decided Sister Meagan’s boat shall be called Ina May without her approval? I am the big sister and it is my right to do so.
Handsome Dude was getting a bit impatient to eat a cupcake.
“Grams, can you put the fire on these so we can eat them? I am hungry.”
Ha! He was talking about lighting the birthday candles. Keep up!
You may recall that my mother is following the Weight Watchers diet. And not for pretends, either! So, she made cupcakes and a cake. Brother Danny (he is my brother. And his name is Danny. Hence the name) is a little wary of my mother’s baked goods as of late.
Mom: Danny, would you like some cake?
Danny: Umm . . . who made it?
Mom: Me.
Danny: Ummm . . .
So for all that sass, he had to try it. Because she is still his mother and she said so.
He was super excited. Apparently it was a recipe where you take a cake mix and add a can of diet root beer, stir it up, and bake it.
I did not try it because I am pretending to be on Weight Watchers again and was hoping for frozen yogurt on the ride home.
And, I did get some. Oh, yes I did.
We had joyous times and did not return to our homestead until about 10pm. And, because my husband is a maniac, we had to clean/slice/bag/freeze all of those strawberries.
I didn’t go to bed until 11:30pm!
Look at me and my party-animal self!
It’s like I am back in my 20’s again or something.
Your brother does not look like you or your sister. I think some parental questioning may be in order.
Very, very jealous of your strawberries – all 39 pounds of them.
Haha. I might be with Mindee on this one… It’s kinda like Little Dude, you know. He doesn’t quite look like your other children. 🙂
I kid, I kid.
I bet her brother is like, eighty. Then the genes would make sense, since Taylor looks twelve and her mom looks sixteen.
But sister and I don’t really look like one another either. Brother and I look more alike than LJ’s Wife does.
Mmmmm strawberries!! Looks like you had a great Sunday (?)!!
A boat must absolutely have a name. Our boat had a name. I am not sharing it here as it had our name in it but it was good.
I have strawberry jam in my freezer. It is so delicious I like to eat it with a spoon.
What About Bob. You quoted a movie about someone losing their mind and huckleberry picking in the same post. Coincidence? I think not.
Wow. That’s a lot of berries. You’re superwoman!
You make your own jam, home school AND throw the word “thrice” around with ease?
I can’t compete.
And also, now I’m hungry.
(but I needed an excuse to stop reading blogs and make breakfast. so thank you.)
p.s. Norma Jean Riley IS a really great name.
I love berry picking…until I actually start. Then I remember how BORING it is. Also, bears like huckleberries. Grizzly bears.
We eat a lot of jam in our house too. And when I spend FIVE DOLLARS for a pint of jar at the grocery store, I much prefer making my own.
Love the What About Bob quotes. Ahoy. I sail. I’m a sailor. The trick is I just let the boat do the work. Your blog continues to crack me up.
Don’t you go all handsome on those strawberries now! (Did I use that right?) 🙂
Good work!!!
What About Bob! Did you watch it while you cleaned those multitudes of strawberries?
To the commentators who said you don’t look like your brother, I think he looks like your dad! I love making jam.
Good times. Good times.
I love making jam–it’s one of my favorite things. We go through crazy amounts of jam too. 🙂 Looks like a fun day! Every boat should have a name, I totally agree. Ina May sounds perfect. 🙂
Oh, you can’t stop me – I am duly impressed!
Finally, I see you have tried the local FroYo! Exxxxcellent.
So do you first freeze all your berries, then make jam at a later date with them?
So are you going to share your thrice made jam recipe with us or keep it all to yourself?!?
Very jealous of all those yummy berries, but I will admit mine would still be on the counter unwashed, unsliced, and unbagged. You wild party girl!
I am jealous of your strawberry picking skills. We went a few weeks ago for the strawberry festival and ended up with a pound. 🙁 It was very slim pickings. We are hoping peach season will be better.
I love What About Bob! I also love freezer jam. I do not like making it, although my mil offered to teach me how on a recent visit. I said “oh, sure” and then we never had time. Imagine that! I am very impressed that it only took you and hour and a half to take care of all those strawberries. I think it would have taken me the rest of the night. But then I’m not in my twenties. Or my thirties. And now I’m no longer impressed, I’m just depressed.
I would be exhausted after picking so many strawberries, but I have to say strawberries are one of my favorites. Your life seems to never be boring, and I like seeing a family do things together. This is my first time to your blog, and I really enjoy it. You have such humor with your stories and photo’s. I will surely be a regular on your blog.
And she shall henceforth be known as, “Ina May”.
(Aka I accept your changing of my boat’s name)
I am bummed we didn’t make it to your stretch of the woods in our trek to the last frontier. However, should your husband ever decide that he wants to hunt both for moose and berries (and possibly bear and caribou…) at the same time (then go fish for salmon and halibut), please feel free to load up the truck, camper, children, and Lucyfur, and come to Alaska. This new home state of ours abounds in berries. In one field, I learned how to pick wild raspberries, nagoon berries, wild blueberries, “low ground” cranberries, and a flower called fireweed which was promptly turned into jelly. Seriously, it is like berry heaven up here.
I, too am jealous of the plethora of strawberries. Don’t forget strawberry shortcake. If you want a luscious easy recipe I got one…
What about SpeedRacer for your boat?
Help Goober adjust his volume will you for the love of Pete!!