Easy Strawberry Freezer Jam – fresh and delicious
I used to be scared of making jam. There’s no such thing as an easy strawberry jam recipe is there? Making freezer jam sounded complicated and like a heck of a lot of work. Plus, it never tasted good enough that I’d go through the trouble to make it myself. I have enough to fill my day, thank you very much. Then one day I tasted strawberry FREEZER jam, courtesy of my in-laws. I swear the clouds parted and my taste buds did their happy dance. It was so. darn. good. Possibly the best strawberry jam recipe ever! I was finally motivated to put on my big girl panties and attempt to…
Shades
Last year we went to a 4th of July parade in a small Oregon town. I love a good parade. The sense of community. The Americana vibe. High school marching bands. The sense of unity – at least for an hour – between townsfolk. The possibility of kettle corn. My kids love the candy. Just keeping it real. If candy collecting was an Olympic sport… The local frozen yogurt place had a float in the parade. By float I mean a pickup truck with a banner attached. Tomato. Tom-ah-to. I guess it was prudent of them to not throw frozen yogurt at the crowd. So instead, they handed out sunglasses.…
Sneak Peeks
We’ve been busy around here. So what else is new? So I thought I would share a few sneak peeks of what we are up to. First, strawberries are in season in Georgia. Say WHAT??? To this Oregon girl, strawberries in April are like an early Christmas present. We usually have to wait until June in the Pacific Northwest. We picked up 6 gallons of strawberries from Washington Farms in Watkinsville, GA, last week. It yielded about 48 cups of crushed berries for freezer jam plus a few for eating. Seriously, these were the best berries we’ve ever had the pleasure of eating! Next, I saw a picture in the…
Footprint Step Stool
It’s possible I’m feeling a little sentimental. My baby does turn FOUR in less than a month. How did that happen so fast? Anyway, we’re working on making over our powder room. There was just something about the patterned wallpaper from 1986 that wasn’t going to work in this century. I’m crushing on the grey and yellow combo lately, so that’s what inspired the overall color scheme for the powder room and for this mini step stool makeover. (And, yes, I will show you what’s happened in the powder room, but I’m not quite done with it yet. Stay tuned.) It seems that during the preschool years hand and footprint…
Miss Me When I’m Gone
The “Cups” song by Anna Kendrick has been stuck in my head lately. The lyrics “you’re going to miss me when I’m gone” should really say we are missing all our friends and family. That’s the hardest part about moving – not getting to see the folks we love as often as we’d like. All the rest of it is pretty darn awesome. New adventures everyday. Meeting new people. Trying new foods. Exploring new parks. Enjoying the weather. Love. it. all. And thankfully, so do my kids. Not sure how I lucked out with such easy going kiddos, but I’m not complaining! Now, if only we could pack all of…
Suds
Our master bath has a jetted tub, which is really cool to my kids because we haven’t had one before now. I’m glad they like it because everyone is excited for bath time. Win-win! So earlier this week my son, Tor, was taking a bath while I was sitting a few feet away helping Annika with her math homework. Homework in the bathroom… This is normal, right? Anyway, he was happily playing in the bath and I was trying to figure out why 1st Grade math homework was showing the concept of negatives in subtraction. (Turns out they weren’t, it was just a poorly worded problem trying to demonstrate that…
Skating: It’s Harder Than It Looks
Right across the street from the Hubby’s office is an ice rink. Not only that, but they have a roller skating rink too. I know, cool, right? So, of course, we had to check it out! We picked Jeff up early from work one Friday afternoon (shhhh!) and headed on over. This was the second time Annika has been ice skating and she LOVES it. Don’t you just love the rosy cheeks and the teeth that still have not come in yet? It was FREEZING in the ice rink. Yes, I suppose freezing temps are to be expected. Seriously though, her eyes just light up when she’s out there. We…
Random Bits of Life
Do you ever look back on your day and know you were busy, but don’t feel like you accomplished much? No? Just me? Shoot! That’s been my week. I try to remind myself that the moments when we are very present in “mother mode,” are just as, if not more important than crossing things off a to-do list. Here are a few of the random things that happened this week: Now that we live in town, there are new rules. One of them is you can’t ride your bike or scooter in the street unless mom or dad is outside with you. Both kids have been good about following this…
Hobby Lobby Heaven
How have I gone all of my 29 *cough, yeah right* years without visiting a Hobby Lobby? How? I have read about people and their glorious Hobby Lobby finds on blogs for years. Years, people! When I’ve been looking for the perfect, inexpensive knobs for a DIY project, I silently cursed the people who had a Hobby Lobby nearby. If Hobby Lobby won’t come to Annisa, Annisa will come to Hobby Lobby. Today after I dropped Tor off at preschool, I programmed by Waze app to take me straight to the closest Hobby Lobby. It doesn’t look like much on the outside, but on the inside…let’s just say, I forgot…
Movin’ On In
Let me assure you. If there was ever a doubt about where you are moving or why you are moving, five days in a hotel with your two kids will, uh, really firm things up in your mind. Go ahead, try it. After countless questions regarding where their toys are on the moving truck, where the moving truck is, are the movers playing with the toys, will they see their toys again and my absolute favorite, can we get all new toys, you will weep with joy when you see the moving truck pull up to your new house. Plus, eating dinner like this while you wait for your stuff…
