What have we been doing?

The last week has been a busy one. On Monday night we all started swimming lessons. Even James and I get to swim. We are doing the parent-toddler class with Naomi and Noah. Annie and Ellen are in the Tadpole class together. And Stephen was in the Turtle class but got moved up to the Frog class on Wednesday, he's so good. It is a lot of fun, and during the hot day we really look forward to getting in the pool. The water is quite cool, so after our 30 minute lesson it feels pretty good to get out and get dry and warm again.

Tuesday night after swimming lessons James picked rasberries and mulberries. We didn't know till last summer that we had a mulberry tree. It is still funny to me to see berries growing on a great big tree instead of a bush.

On Wednesday we had a bowl full of rasberries and mulberries sitting in our fridge, so I thought I'd go buy some strawberries and just make a bunch of jam. So the kids and I all went to Otto's Produce here in Moscow and I bought 2 flats of strawberries.

They were so delicious. Yes I do have a thing for strawberries, partly just because of the way they look (I love that color of red) but these were just perfect. Not too tart or too sweet and full of juicy, yummy, strawberry flavor. So the kids and I had to eat some. I did wonder how much more jam I could have made if we hadn't eaten so many, but that's all part of the fun, right?

Then I started making jam.

I washed and cut up till my hands were bright red. And yes I ate some more.

Then I mashed and mashed and used muscles I evidently hadn't used it a very long time. My triceps are still sore.

Then I stirred in the lemon juice and pectin.

Then I added a ton of sugar. I always forget how much sugar goes into jam. I went through almost 25 lbs. of sugar. It makes me want to rethink our almost daily jam intake, whether its on toast or in sandwiches.

And finally after stirring for what seemed like forever, even though it's only about 15-20 minutes all together, we have the finished product. We now have about 45 jars of mulberry, rasberry, and strawberry jam on our shelves. It is a beautiful sight.

This is where Noah spent some time during the two days it took to finish. Most of it I was able to do during his naps, but not all. And of course I chose to really heat up the house on the two hottest days of the summer. So Noah and Naomi got to enjoy some diaper only time.

Ok, just one more thing to add to this post, then I promise I'll quit. After two days of making jam we needed some time out of our really hot house. We went to the store and bought suckers, then went downtown to Friendship Square. Even though it was almost 90 that day it was really pleasant in the shade and the kids had a fun time on the playground and watching the fountain there.