This Week's Happenings

We've been having some crazy fun around here. The week started off with me making some strawberry jam. I got the strawberries for $3.99 a flat and since we were running low I thought I better take advantage. My 4 boys love jam. We go through a bottle a week usually. No one can eat bread or a roll without jam. I love a plain hot roll but not the boys, gotta have jam. I'm hopin we can get some grapes from Grandpa Bahr's this fall to make some grape jam as well. Canning is a blessing I got from living with the Bahr's. My generation just doesn't do it. I would never have canned if I hadn't seen them do it and see how easy it is. My Gma Mathern used to can everything too. She used to make the best strawberry freezer jam, which I would do but I just don't have a lot of room in my freezer, besides the cooked jam lasts longer. I'll be honest, I still get a little nervous about the safety of the food but all I've done so far is jams and juice and they are pretty safe. I am borrowing Gma Bahrs pressure canner but I haven't gotten it tested yet by the extension service to see if it's okay to use, but hopefully soon so I can can some vegetables and meat this summer.
I got 44 cups of jam out of my strawberries. I thought I could make 3 batches at once in my big stock pot and it all fit until it started to boil and it boiled over and made the biggest mess of my cooktop. Ooey, gooey, sticky mess and the picture doesn't even show what happened underneath, an even bigger mess. The stove was so hot the jam hardend immediately and it was like scraping hard candy off the floor. It lowered my feeling of accomplishment just a little.
I also planted a windowsill herb garden this week and I already have basil, cilantro and oregano sprouting. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do next though because I don't think everything will fit in this little container I have them in. It was just a starter kit. I'll be calling Neil's dad, the master gardener for some tips. I can't wait to make some italian and mexican with the herbs.

I've also started spring cleaning, even though we still have snow on the ground.

Conner and Sam watching the numbers count down on the microwave as the popcorn pops for movie night. I love how Conner's pants are on backwards.

Tuesday and Wednesday Sam went to the potty all by himself without me asking him. I thought this was the beginning of potty training and I was so excited. I don't push my kid to potty train. After cleaning up a couple of their messes (my boys have rotten guts, Nana knows) I realized it wasn't worth it. Sam turns 3 in a week and I think it's time so I'll ask him to sit but he always cries and says he's scared. Well him going on the potty only lasted those two days and now he wants nothing to do with it. We even bought him a new Thomas train and told him if he goes 5 more time he can have it and that hasn't even helped. My Sam just doesn't want to be a big boy quite yet.

We signed Conner up for T-ball. I asked him if he wanted to play and he was so excited he ran up to Mikey's room and got his baseball toy and bat and was just hitting away. Conner is not the most coordinated kid so we're trying to help him out. We're also trying to get him involved in more group things before school starts in July to see how he does. We're planning on having him start kindergarten if all goes well.

Movie night. Me and the boys. We watched Bolt. We all liked it. In the beginning of the movie when Penny was riding her scooter all over the road Conner turns to me in horror, "Mommy, she should be riding on the sidewalk with all those cars. That's dangerous!"

Me trying to watch conference. The boys just wanted to play. Like all conferences, this one was awesome with a lot of talk about our world's economic situation as well as temples. I've got a lot of things to improve on and that what's so wonderful about conference, it's often the motivation needed to be better. I can't wait to get the conference Ensign being as I did have a lot of distractions.