My kids were/are here!
Meant to do more blogging but both of my grown up children were here for the long weekend. Plus, Sarah had a guest here from Friday evening to Sunday morning, so it was a house full! I love having lots of people to cook for, but actually wasn’t expecting my son and his girlfriend that first night… just BARELY made enough food.
So, here is a photo from Easter a gazillion years ago. Sarah is 3 years older than Richard, and this photo is probably from ’87 or ’88. No, wait… it actually says on the back of the photo! 1987. We don’t have a really great scanner, I did the best I could…
My kids in 1987
I am sure there is a better version of this photo, but I couldn’t find it. One where part of Sarah’s head isn’t cut off. That’s one really nice thing about digital cameras, you can always see what you get.
Between this that and the other thing… I almost didn’t get a photo of them again. Today Sarah reminded me, as Richard was going home to Tulsa this afternoon. So I went out quick and snapped a few… and then set the camera up to take some of all three of us.
My kids today, July 6, 2010
Sarah and Richard went out with buckets yesterday and picked blackberries…. they brought me TWO gallons! I bet they could have filled another bucket. (we use ice cream buckets for picking) I ran the berries through the food mill thing that takes out the seeds and piths yesterday, and then poured it all into one big pot and stuck it in the fridge. That was all I had time for yesterday.
Stayed home from work today and made jam. 3 batches: 9 pint jars and 4 half pint jars. I was afraid I was going to run out of jars! That’s a lot of jam, and the blackberry is no where near to being done, but that’s okay… we’ll pick em and freeze them. If I can figure out a way to get the juice to my sister in Virginia, I’ll send her frozen juice so she can make wine.
So, this last photo is of me and my kids, and I look fat and sort of tired. But I was just done with all that jam making! :)
Sarah, Vyx, Richard.... me and my kids
Sarah went off tonight to visit with a local friend, Richard went home to Oklahoma. I need to go back to work tomorrow…. so this is all for tonight!
hugs,
Vyx
That’s kinda awesome. I wish I could get set up to make jams and stuff for the holidays. I usually just send cookies and cakes, sometimes I make granola. Your kids are pretty cute!
Somehow didn’t see this until tonight Wednes! Jams are not hard to make at all. They recommend now that you boiling water bath everything, but as much sugar as jam has, I don’t think it needs it. So, all you need is a canning funnel, a good spoon to stir, jars, and a pot to cook fruit and sugar and pectin in. Oh, and something to dip the jam out into the jars with the canning funnel in place. It’s not hard, really. You probably have everything but the canning funnel and the jars.
Pectin packages have recipes… tell you how much fruit you need, how much sugar and how to cook it all up. I prefer liquid pectin, but powdered also works well. If you have a dishwasher, you wash the jars in that and they are sterilized just fine. (but really, boiling sugar/fruit is SUPER hot, will sterilize anything it comes in contact with. Will also burn you if you splash it.)
You can do it… get some fruit at a farmers market and try a small batch of something. A normal batch from a recipe with sugar only makes a few jars worth.
hugs,
Vyx