Developing New Skills

With so many berries in season I decided to try making some mixed berry jam. We have enjoyed the strawberry freezer jam so much I've made more and it still won't last all year. Today I bought a container each of strawberries, black berries and blueberries. Jason and I had to eat some plain, but most of them made it into the jam. For those of you like me who are new to making jam, I'll give you a little tutorial.

First, you wash and pull the stems out of all the fruit. Next you put one layer into your bowl and smash it with a potato masher. You keep adding layers of fruit until it is all mashed. Next boil your pectin in water or fruit juice. (I use the Ball No-Sugar-Needed Fuit Pectin.) The directions for that are right in the package (along with intructions for all kinds of jams and jellies). Afterwards you can mix in however much sugar, honey or artificial sweetener you want. (I added two cups, since the blackberries were kind of tart.)

Then you just pour it into your jars. They're in my fridge tonight, but tomorrow I'll move them to the freezer. They'll last up to a year in the freezer and three weeks in the fridge. I'm so excited that I'm learning how to perserve my own food. It's a small step, but it's something! Another skill I am hoping to develop is gardening. I planted a bunch of flowers and am dilligent about watering them, but I don't really feel like I know what I'm doing. Some are flourishing and some look kind of wilted. I can't seem to tell if it's because they need more water, less water, more sun or maybe just some MiracleGro. I am so pleased with the plants that do grow well and am learning as I go with the ones that struggle.

These Violas make me happy every time I see them. When I bought them a few months ago there were just a flower or two on each of the six-pack. These are among the flourishing flowers. We have two kinds of tomatoes: cherry and "Bonnie" that are a hybrid slicing tomato. The Bonnie plant looks absilutely beautiful, but it doesn't have any tomatoes yet. The cherry tomato plant looks pitiful, but it already has a bunch of little green tomatoes that are 1-2 cm in diameter. I guess looks truly can decieve.

I love that our little strawberries are groing too. We picked up some bird netting at Lowes to make sure we will be able to eat the fruits of our labor.

This Dianthus plant is one of my very favorites. Last year was my first attempt at any gardening at all. I planted the Dianthus last year and just left it to get snowed on all winter. In the spring I plulled out the other dead plants, but the Dianthus was still alive, so I left it. It is certainly thriving again!

I am not the only one learning new skills. About a month ago I started letting Parker play around on http://www.pbskids.org/. He has really enjoyed it, so last week I let him try http://www.starfall.com/ as well. Parker has been starting to read lately. He's been spelling for a while, but only had the patience to read a word or two at a time. He still won't read much at a time, but I'm amazed at what he can do!