Where does the time go?

I have no idea how it has been over a week since my last post. I have been doing a few things in that time but I'm sure I could have posted. Time just flies faster and faster the older I get.
Finally the raspberries are ripe! I buy my raspberries from a lady that grows them in her backyard. She picks them and puts them in pint baskets and calls me when they are ready. Aren't they beautiful?

I took all she had from her first picking. 35 pints.

I made 7 pints of Raspberry Jam and froze a LOT of the berries. I couldn't find anymore of my canning jars. Hubby says they are out in the shop so I will venture out there to see if I can find them. It is too hot to can anymore right now anyway so I will pull them out of the freezer on a cool fall day and make some more jam. The kids and I ate some of them fresh as well and I also made a simple syrup and froze them in ice cube trays to drop into our iced tea or lemonade!

Very early on Friday morning we left for the airport. It was so early in fact that I never went to bed! So by Friday night, when it was time for bed, I had been up since 8 a.m. Thursday morning. Let's just say I was TIRED! A quick trip to southern California to see these two be wed on Saturday.

The groom is the oldest nephew on my hubby's side of the family. It was a lovely ceremony, and since it was near water it was not unbearably hot. We stayed with a nephew on my side of the family, in Rancho Cucamonga. HOT! It did cool off to 80 degrees by midnight though. CRAZY!! We were back at the airport before noon on Sunday.

We're having some hot temperatures here and I'm so happy that the coolest room in the house is my sewing room. Or shall I call it a studio? Good excuse to sew right?

Praise - that all of our travels went smoothly and safely. That our time with family was peaceful and fun.

Prayers - for the newlyweds. That their honeymoon would be safe but more importantly that their marriage would be long and honoring to God.

How's a gal supposed to QUILT???

I have had guests since Friday night. Well they left yesterday at 3pm. 4 kids (besides my own 2) and one mom and for one night, one dad. Everyone had a great time. The kids went to the lake, they backpacked, they made a movie. I cooked and baked for the gang. I like to bake when I know things are going to get eaten right up. I made two cherry pies one night from cherries that we picked last summer. This is what was taunting me from the front yard;

Yup, more cherries to pick! The tree is loaded. My friend wanted cherries, but she didn't really want to pick and pit them. So I tried to ignore the tree while everyone was here. Yesterday the lady I buy raspberries from called and said she had a flat and half ready for me. I picked them up last night. Raspberries and cherries and fabric. What to do, what to do. This morning and part of the afternoon (cuz I needed to wait for my son to come home from work and bring me more pectin) was spent making raspberry jam using the fresh raspberries. 10 pints. After dinner my hubby and two kids picked cherries. They didn't even make a dent in what is on that tree. I sat and pitted 2 quarts of them and then put them in freezer bags. My daughter is pitting some more now. Aren't they purdy??

So I guess that tomorrow can be a sewing/quilting kind of day. I can look forward to that. On my to-do list: cut and sew binding strips for the flimsy that I just finished and piece the backing for that flimsy. I need to get some Warm & White and then get this off to the quilters!!


I have been thinking about what I could make for a young couple at our church that will marry this fall. I think that I can get a quilt done. I hope I am not being too ambitious, since I do have a few other projects to do before I can get started on it. I'll let you know what I come up with.

Praise the Lord that all the kids stayed safe while they were here. If you could have seen all the activities they did you would understand what a huge blessing that is!

I'm in a JAM

It's that time of year again. Raspberry season! I love fresh raspberries. My kids love fresh raspberries and the entire family loves raspberry jam. Weirdly enough we are almost always just leaving town or just getting back into town during prime raspberry picking. I get my berries picked for me and boxed up by this great lady by the name of Millie. She calls me when my berries are ready and asks if I need more. She keeps a BERRY LIST by her phone. She knows my name by now, since I have been getting them from her for about 5 or 6 years. The price is incredible! Oh sure, there are U-Pick places but seriously folks - it is not worth it to me to pay just a little bit less, fight with the bees, stand in the sun and not get nearly as many nice berries. Millie is my go to gal for the berries. So today I made 10 pints of raspberry jam. But guess what! These were from last year's berries. Millie taught me early on that since it is insanely HOT during berry season that the best thing to do is freeze them and make them in the fall or winter. Millie is a smart cookie. Me, not so much. I DID make some jam last summer with the fresh berries because we were out of jam and then, because we had vacation plans, I froze many gallon bags full of berries. I intended to make jam all fall, then all winter and then in the spring. I never got around to it. So, in my moderately HOT kitchen this morning (not as bad as the other day), I made jam. Isn't it purdy???


I like making and canning jam and I always think of one of my SILs. She wrote in a canning cookbook that she gave me one year for my birthday (many moons ago), "Be quick, be careful, enjoy canning". I repeat that to myself many times during the process, usually when I am pouring the hot jam into the jars.
I am not sure what I will do with the fresh berries this month. Make some jam right away and be done with it (I will just crank up the A/C and bring a fan into the kitchen) or freeze them as I am on my way out of town again next week. One of my nephews is getting married.

Here is a little dress/top I whipped up for my dd. It is that pre-shirred fabric, just had to sew a seam up the side. We decided a strap would be safer than no strap. ;) New summer dress less than $5 .


Answered prayers today, my friend and the mission team were able to get out of Mexico. I don't know all the details yet but the photocopies and the police report must have done the trick. Pink survived her root canal and is eating on the right side of her mouth for the time being.