Cramming it all in, to get Caught up......

WOW! I am such a slacker. It's been over a month since I posted last. I think I might have been a little busy lately. Doing what, I don't know. You would think that with being released from my calling that I would have a lot of extra time but I have just found other things that take up my time. I wish I could say that I have completed all the many projects that have been left unfinished, caught all the way up on my scrapbook pages or got all of the Spring cleaning done but I haven't done one of these things.

I have been buys with the everyday things like work, cleaning, laundry, cooking-(just the boring daily things) Kaiden finished basketball a few weeks ago, so our Saturday mornings have been spent at the junior high. I love watching him play, I think this will be the sport he excels at. (I will have basketball pictures up soon...)I've gone to a few baby showers and bridal showers, and even started watching tv more. I know this sounds funny but I NEVER used to watch tv. I think when I was single, I was trying so hard to keep up on everything that I was always going, going, going and never stopped to relax. I don't think Paul likes the idea of me taking over the tv because there have been some nights where I will sit on our bed and watch tv for a few hours. This has only happened a few times, so don't worry I'm not turning into a lazy couch potato. I think I just need a day, once in a while, where I can just veg.

One thing that I have done that I am SO proud of (I have to brag a little) is that I made HOMEMADE STRAWBERRY JAM!!!! I know this doesn't mean that I am Little Miss Domestic or anything but it's something that I have never done and never thought I could do and I did it!!!! The other day, my friend Marci was going to the store to get .99 strawberries to make some jam. On a whim I asked her if it was that hard and she said no. Marci is so good at everything, I still wasn't sure but asked her if she would pick up a bunch for me and I would give it a try.

I put it off for a couple days but then got the motivation (or courage) to start working on the strawberries. I had a bunch of different recipes that I was following because I had forgotten to get one from my mom or Marci and at that point, I wanted to see if I could do it ALL BY MYSELF. (that might have been pretty stupid on my part, if the jam wouldn't have turned out-luckily, it did) I finally settled on just following the one in the pectine box because I kept mixing up measurements and ingredients from the different recipes.

I don't know if Paul thought I was going to burn the kitchen down or felt sorry for me because I looked like a chicken with my head cut off, running back and forth in the kitchen, because he stood by and watched me the whole time. He kept asking me if I wanted him to call his mom. I told him he could if he wanted to but I would eventually figure it out. He called but she wasn't home, so I was on my own...He helped me smash the strawberries and when I almost overflowed one of the jars I was filling with hot jam, he thought he would take over that job because "I was in too big of a hurry" as he put it. I busted out laughing when he did the exact same thing as I did and jam overflowed to the top of the funnel we were using. I said, " I told you that it wasn't just me in a hurry, it just comes out fast and you can't tell if it is full." (I was glad that it wasn't just me being a spaz)

When my mother-in-law called back, Paul told her that I was making jam and that he wasn't really sure if I was doing it right. He told her that I had put 4 strawberries in a jar, added some sugar, lemon juice and water and sealed them. He said, "No she just put all of them in the jar, no she didn't mix them up first, just the whole strawberries." Anyone that knows Paul, knows that you can never tell when he is being serious or not. I think my mother-in-law believed him, not knowing if I was really that dumb. He hung up after saying "Well, she is already done so we'll see how they turn out."

It's a good thing that I can be teased because Paul is always doing stuff like that to me. Our boys think it is SOOO funny when out of nowhere, Paul says, "No Kristen I can't kiss you right now, in front of everyone." Or he is always making up things that I have done that make me look like a bigger ditz than I really am. It's things like this that keeps everyone laughing, even when my in-laws really believed that I couldn't follow a recipe.

So, the strawberry jam turned out pretty good and I couldn't stop telling everyone what I had done (I really didn't think I could do anything like that) It wasn't as scary or as hard as I thought it would be. I am already planning on canning our peaches when they are ready to be picked and Marci has even got me excited about canning tomatoes...Who knows, I might just turn into a Miss Domestic...