Raspberry Jam

Today's project: 3 batches of raspberry jam, freeze 4 huge bags of raspberries. We were supposed to go hiking with my mom but it rained and although she and I would have been fine, the kids are not yet Oregon-hearty hikers. Instead we went to a movie with my parents (Winnie the Pooh, the kids loved it, I fell asleep) and then came home to rest and make jam.

Oh. And I took Mr. T to farmer's market this morning. No big thing but something that has recently been added to my list of things I can't do with the kids by myself. As the kids have gotten older, the list of things I can't/won't do with them has gotten very short. So far this year it has: swimming, amusement parks, fireworks, farmer's market, and that's about it. Not too bad huh? Farmer's market is pretty crowded and trying to keep hand and or eye contact with both kids is difficult in itself. Add in trying to balance a few crates of berries and bags of stuff and the begging for popcorn and it never ends up fun. This year I just swore off doing it entirely. But. After we picked 2 crates of raspberries yesterday, I wanted one more so I could just check raspberries off the list for the year. Since I only had Mr. T this morning and it was a little rainy (= less crowded), I figured we would try it out. And you know what? It's totally doable with one kid and no crowd. We had a lot of fun, Mr. T and I. We ate choquettes, looked at the fountain and bought some berries. It was, as Mr. T would say with a big grin, "easy peasy lemon squeezy".

(I'm still backfilling the blog from vacation. As you can imagine, pretty much everything is behind right now and the kids and I have been out and about having a fun summer. I'm excited to share all my pictures of our great start to summer. Things are done through July 1, then it gets a bit spotty. I'll fill in though, really I will. )