Another first!

2 p.m. This morning as I was chatting with Mom on the phone during Alida's "nappy walk" she asked what was on my day.  As odd as it may sound, I really hadn't generated much of a list yet so couldn't come up with an interesting answer at all (I had a few phone calls to make and was hoping to catch up by doing lots of puttering around the house but I waiting to see how the day would unfold). It's been so busy that I really hadn't thought about today ahead of time - other than working with Kali on the menu for our "fancy etiquette dinner" tonight (she recently re-read the family meeting minutes book and found some things that we had decided to do regularly that we had only done once - this being one of them!).  This week I've shifted to 3 long days a week rather than 2 short and 2 longs days at work.  This gives us another much needed day (today is the first of those "extra" days) at home together each week through the summer to work on projects and keep up with the garden. 

Well, I should never worry about generating a list of things to keep me occupied!  I was quite pleased to head out to the garden mid-morning and come back with four bowls of goodies - one overflowing with fresh spinach and lettuce, one with fresh oregano for drying, one with rhubarb and finally one with strawberries.  The spinach and lettuce has already been consumed and the oregano still needs my attention, but what I'm most excited about is the 7 little jars of strawberry rhubarb jam cooling on the counter (and the one in the fridge to be tried tonight with fresh cornmeal rolls as part of our "fancy dinner"). 

Kali seems to get a kick out of me when it comes to how excited I get about food processing - particularly the popping sound made when jars seal.  It makes me completely giddy!  And I think if Kali was completely honest, she gets kind of excited about this time of year too - when I was cooking the jam, she asked if I had to can it.  When I said, "yes" she exclaimed happily that this would then be the first canning of the season. 

I'll have to report later on whether we like the results or not (the licks from the pot and spatula were approved by Kali and me) but here is what I did. I looked online at various recipes and was appalled by the sugar content.  So I took one recipe and followed it pretty closely but only put in 1/4 the sugar called for.

A generous 4 cups each of cut up rhubarb and strawberries
1 T lemon juice (the recipe called for 2)
a dab of butter
two boxes of no sugar pectin
2.5 c sugar (it called for 10!)

The recipe didn't have you cook the rhubarb before you cooked it all together and then said to only boil for 1 minute. Hopefully it sets up okay because I had to cook it much longer to get the rhubarb soft so I might change that in future times too.  It looks tasty!  And it is fun to try something new.  I have frozen two very small containers of strawberries but otherwise we are keeping up with eating them fresh (though we did enjoy a strawberry shortcake dinner the other night - at which there were no leftovers).  Alida used to gobble them down quickly and now she can often be found with one strawberry in her hand for a good 20 minutes until all that is left is a little mushed up piece and then juice dribbling down her arms and all over her face. 

Now I think I'm going to try to grab a short nap while Alida is sleeping peacefully here beside me.   Jason and I made the unwise attempt at processing various things last night from about 10 p.m. until after midnight.  It had been so long since we have tried to have any kind of long or in depth conversation that we had forgotten what a bad idea it is to try it late at night.  We are both a bit sleep deprived today, since Alida decided to rise at 6 this morning, but Jason is working away at getting the rest of the garden weeded.  Part of my tiredness right now is clearly physical - and I like the good tired feeling I feel most days from working hard on meaningful and fun tasks, especially when done side by side with Jason.  I think I'm also feeling a pretty strong emotional surge right now.  The last few years, it usually surprises me a bit when it hits me.  I've been thinking about May and June arriving and always think of our last month with Nora particularly at the start of the Summer Peacebuilding Institute at my work (which started on Monday).  But yesterday, in particular, I found myself experiencing waves of sadness.  When I got home from work and had a moment to reflect on it (as there was no clear external reason for the feelings that I could tell), I realized that it was May 8th, the four year anniversary of Nora's feeding tube surgery.  I continue to feel a bit amazed by what seems to be our bodies' ability to remember anniversary days/seasons.  In many ways May 8th feels like one of the harder anniversary days for me as I think back because it clearly feels like the turning point.  I was grateful for a few moments this morning during Alida's first nap to read back over some of our writing of this time.  Alida has reminded me of Nora a few times recently - she has a little squeal which sounds very similar to the vocalizations Nora made.  And most recently as Alida nursed to sleep just now, she had her one little arm outstretched on my shirt reaching towards my face.  It evokes such a tender feeling in me to feel like this little person wants to be near me and finds comfort and nourishment in my arms.  I'm glad Nora and I experienced some of those moments too.

10:19 p.m. Some pre-supper dancing in our fancy clothes, a delicious dinner with the family (and Jason in a tie!), a leisurely walk along Happy Valley Road (the world seemed all fresh from the rain and like we once again live in paradise with the clouds on the mountain), a game of Yahtzee (in which Jason creamed both Kali and me) and now it's time to bring the day to a close.  The strawberry rhubarb jam was considered a success and none of us can imagine how horrible it would have tasted had I put the additional 7.5 cups of sugar called for: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/strawberry-rhubarb-jam-3/  Not quite all the strawberries went into the jam.  Here's Alida enjoying one recently:

Alida has some work to do on mastering mealtime etiquette!

Tomato cocktail, mint tea, green beans, fresh cornmeal rolls with jam and chicken tenders. Yum!