Project 857- June 14

It was a "berry" eventful Saturday...

Like that pun?? Aren't I clever?? haha.

Yes, there were some berries procured, and processed and turned into jam... but before that happened, we had a little family date in the morning.

I really want to spend these last few weeks as a family of 3 (wow, that is a weird thought) getting the most out of our time together. I want to make memories with Austin and make sure he knows he's special to us and we like to spend time with him.

Day dates and little outings will be high on my priority list as we wind down my pregnancy (another weird thought.. wow).

So we headed to this little coffee shop in downtown Oregon City that I'm absolutely in love with. They have great food, amazing coffee, and a play area with toys for kids that Austin was just thrilled with!

Fire trucks, dump trucks, school buses... it was like heaven for a little boy!

Breakfast was fantastic too.. we got Austin his own waffle and he scarfed almost all of it down! I don't blame him.. Singer Hill Cafe. Oregon City. Go. Get the waffles. Trust me.

Since we had some carbs and sugar to burn off, we walked across the street to a little park area. It's so crazy... I swear just yesterday Austin had to be followed closely at a playground and helped up things and down things and really monitored.

Now, he is like.. well a kid... he climbs, he navigates, he jumps.. all on his own. I am just really the spectator and cheerleader now. Kinda sad...

You go little monkey! Do your thing. :-)

Neal and I joined in on the fun of the swings (who doesn't love to swing still???) and Austin loved his first time on the actual "big kid" swing!

I was swinging beside him here... swing buddies!

After our fun morning, Neal had to leave for the rest of the day to run a National Cornhole tournament for his friend Cheyenne.

So Austin and I went to the store to get pectin and jars and things to make my very first batch of strawberry jam! He liked going to the "farm" to get the berries, and liked even better getting to eat several bowlfuls of our bounty..

Getting the berries was quite the adventure...

Went to the store for pectin and jars.

Went to the farm and found out they only took cash. I had no cash.

Farm also seemed to be charging a lot of their pre-picked berries and I was indecisive.

We drove around in the country for awhile trying to see if we could find a different farm.

Didn't find another farm.

Drove home.

Ran inside to grab the cash Neal left me.

Back to the farm.

Got our berries.

Austin didn't want to leave the farm

Wrestled him into the car, getting red mud EVERYWHERE

Got home.

Austin sacked out for a nap.

I read my recipe.

I GOT THE WRONG PECTIN, DAMMIT!!!

Couldn't go back to the store because of the sleeping kid.

Waited 2 hours... do dee doo....

Hauled the kid back to the store, exchanged the pectin for the kind I needed.

Got home.

Started the jam.

Holy crap, there are more berries in this flat than I thought! Maybe the price wasn't bad after all..

Hours of washing, stemming, mashing berries ensued...

Austin was real thrilled with the jam making process.

Then I ran out of containers not even half way through and ran out of pectin... so I had to take pics of both and have Neal get me more on his way home from the tournament.

Sheesh.

So I finished up at around... 8pm I think?

Making jam is exhausting.

But...behold!!! 17 containers of fresh, no-sugar (yes, I went all crunchy granola Mom and made a no-sugar version) strawberry jam!!!

I hope it turns out.

The only sweet is from natural apple juice. It's all in the freezer, waiting to be tried and my fingers are crossed I didn't waste all that time for crappy jam.

Now who wants a PB& J??? :-)