Strawberry Love

After more than six months of being computer-less, I finally got a new one. YAY! I’ve spent most of the last month catching up on loading pictures. Now that's done and I can get back to other stuff. Like blogging!

Strawberry season is here. Its one of my favorites. Being one of the first fruits available, it just shouts spring’s arrival and whispers of the summer to come. We use a lot of strawberries. I do mean a LOT.

So many that we go to a local u-pick strawberry field and pick gallons of those little red fruits. This time we only picked two gallons, but with the intent to go back and pick more in a few weeks. (At least another two gallons worth.) When we first moved here it took a year or two to remember when strawberry season was so we wouldn’t miss it. Just in case you’re wondering- for us, it starts about the first week in May and goes through the month. Further north, you probably aren’t even thinking about local strawberries yet, June is your time.

We make strawberry freezer jam every year. Last year I only made 12 jars and we ran out in October. October people! That’s like six months of horrible strawberry jam deprivation. My oldest completely refused to eat peanut butter and jelly after that. Apparently, we take our strawberries pretty seriously over here. But we will be prepared this year! The boys are getting very into cooking, and even helped me prep the berries for jam this year.



PS- that's a butter knife. He likes to mangle fruit and veggies with it.

For the jam, I just followed the direction in the low sugar pectin box. (The pink one.) It is fabulously easy and since the jam is going in the freezer, no water bath canning is required!

I also made strawberry fruit leather. I didn’t take pictures of that because I pretty much just cut up some strawberries, squeezed some lemon juice, cored an apple and stuck it all in the food processor and then dehydrated it. (Oh I did strain the mixture to get out any large pieces of apple skin or pulp before dehydrating.) The boys love them. The apple adds just the right balance of sweet to the lemon juice without adding actual sugar. They taste just like a strawberry fruit roll up but without the added stuff.

Lastly, with this batch of strawberries I made Strawberry Hand Pies. A hand pie is the southern version of a turnover. I got the recipe from Not Quite Nigella.

The pastry was incredibly easy and I believe will be my go to for all future hand pie making. I didn’t have a large enough biscuit cutter, but the boys’ bowls seemed about the right size. I simply flipped the bowl over and pushed it into the dough to cut out my circles.

The filling was yummy, but I had to make 1 1/2 times the filling to fill 9 pastries, so I will double it next time. I also made the second half-batch without the cinnamon and prefer it that way.

This would be delicious with fresh whipped cream. Next time I might try some rhubarb to appease hubby’s strawberry rhubarb pie cravings.

I will be on the search for more recipes to share for next time we pick. Feel free to share what you love to make this time of year!

A Birthday Celebration

This week was a very special week. Busyness prevented me from posting on the day- but it was Hayden’s 6^th birthday! It is rather unbelievable that six years ago God gave us an incredibly special delivery and Hayden came into the world, fast and furious.

He’s no longer a little boy. Not a single trace of those babyish features remains. He absolutely amazes me with his mind and imagination. I live him to pieces, this six year old of mine.

He loves animals and learning all about them, and wants to be a wildlife biologist when he grows up. He is also very into superheros. Very. Which led us to this Superhero birthday party.

We took loads of pictures, and here are some that capture the big day…

 

To kick of the party (and kill time before the pizza arrived) we had a silly string war.

 

Then we ate, had cake and opened presents.

Our superheroes were amazing and we're so glad they celebrated with us!

 

We had so much fun!

 

Happy (late) 6^th birthday Hayden! We love you.

This Moment 10/10/2014

So I'm already being a bit of a slacker and not posting as much as I wanted too, but its been busy around here, what with a birthday party to plan and a house to sell (more on both of those next week.) I was posting "This Moment" on my Facebook page for a while, then didn't do ANYTHING for a while, and now have decided to move it over here, so here's to renewing a Friday ritual!

{this moment} ~ A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

 

 

 

Inspired by Soulemama

Summer 2014- Beach Part 2

Back to the beach!

As promised, here are a few more pictures from our Tybee Island vacation. Being on the east coast we don’t get the magnificent sunsets of the Pacific, but we get a pretty amazing sunrise. I told myself that if I managed to wake up by sunrise one morning that I was going to get some pictures. I wasn’t about to set an alarm, because, let’s face it- this was vacation. But while we’re facing facts here, its also a vacation with three children five and under so waking up at 6:50 AM with the sun peeking over the horizon is a real possibility.

One morning I woke up, glanced at the clock and what do you know- it’s the perfect time to throw on a change of clothes and head to the beach. Only my mother in law was awake, and I’m pretty sure I freaked her out a little bit when she heard the door close as I scurried to capture some photos before the sun rose too high.

The first image is from our balcony. Talk about a seriously spectacular view.

 

After that I ran down to the beach and grabbed some more shots. The perk of taking sunrise photos versus sunset is that most people are still sleeping, so I had lots of room to shoot. Only a few walkers, joggers and early risers enjoyed the morning with me. It was beautiful and peaceful. and next time I think I'll just go sans camera and sit and enjoy the view.

I also took some shots of the walkway from our hotel to the beach. Until Tybee Island last year, I’d never seen sand grass and sea dunes. They create a gorgeous segue onto the beach.

So obviously, we loved the beach. We also made a stop in Savannah and visited Forsyth Park. The historic district in Savannah is gorgeous, but it was on our way home, the boys were exhausted and whiny, so Forsyth Park was the only stop we made and it was a quick one. Next time we might hit up Savannah on day one so as to avoid all the whine and fuss.

There's something about large trees draped in Spanish moss that lends and air of age and mystery to the city. I can't wait to explore it more.

Tuesday Teatime

This year, while planning out all the wonderful homeschooly things we were going to do, I struggled with when to fit in the extras. The things that would be nice, but aren't necessary for a kindergarten curriculum. When would we read poetry in addition to our other books? Study art? Music? I didn't want them to be an everyday part of our activities, it was just to much for kindy, but I also didn't want to neglect them either. It was then that I stumbled upon the idea of teatime.

Once a week, we were to set aside a time in the afternoon for contemplation. Tuesday Teatime has a nice ring to it, so I was sold. We'd rotate- poetry twice a month, art study and composer study once a month each. We'd sip tea and listen to said composer and then talk about what we heard or felt in the music. Or What is the artist was trying to express in this painting? Or what do you think of that poem?  Except... we are six weeks into the school year and I've yet to do a Tuesday Teatime. Ahem. I found it harder to put into practice than I imagined. The boys are always outside playing, the baby is napping. (If I'm lucky- if not, well... we won't go there. Ha!) There was always something going on. I couldn't seem to make it flow into our day.

But I finally determined it was time, somehow I was going to squeeze it in. Today was our first Tuesday Teatime! Its still balmy and warm here in the south, 84 was today's high. So instead of tea and scones (or something equally English sounding) I decided on lemonade. Quite front-porch-southern if I do say so myself. Maybe not as southern as sweet tea, but we all have our limits. 

Since the baby was napping inside, we took our lemonade outside on the back porch. We sat right on the deck eating fruit, sipping lemonade and reading poems. I read from A.A. Milne's When We Were Very Young. He's the wonderful author of the Winnie the Pooh series, which we just finished a few weeks ago. The boys enjoyed listening and some were a bit silly, making for some giggles.

The boys' favorite poem from today was, "The Four Friends", about an elephant, lion, goat and mouse. They also enjoyed, "Corner of the Street". It was such a wonderful change from our morning homeschool routine. I stopped to enjoy the day, the moment, the poem. It's probably one of my favorite homeschooling moments to date. The boys didn't want me to stop reading and I can't wait to do it again. Hopefully as fall draws nearer we can do a more traditional teatime in the house. Scones and all.