Strawberry Jam

Today was a long, fun, interesting, family and STRAWBERRY day! My dad got 10 BUCKETS of Puree Strawberries. He called to see if we would be interested (actually Jenni did). We had to agree to be over there today to help do the strawberries. I was excited because we go through jam like it's going out of style. We just had to have the other supplies. I figured no problem, I have jars and the other stuff wouldn't be too much. Well, it came out pretty good, but I have to say sugar, jars and pectin add up really quick :). We have sufficient jam to last us the year - I would hope.

Anyways, it started out this morning at 10 a.m. and we got home at 10 p.m. The kids had a blast playing all day at grandma's with their cousins. They ended up FILTHY, but had a great time. We ended up doing 351 jars or cooked jam and 16 boxes of pectin for Strawberry Freezer Jam (I don't have any actual count on the freezer jam). We also did 28 jars of Strawberry Syrup. That was delicious! We are thrilled with all of our supplies. It is nice to be prepared with something.

It was fun to be with the family. We had a great time. By the time 8 p.m. rolled around I think we were all getting close to being ready to being done. I have a sister that is going to do hers tomorrow, but we got through 7 1/2 of the buckets today.

Here are some of the pictures from the day (what you see isn't anywhere near all of them):

Mom Sanity tip: I loved today, but I missed spending a little quality time with my children. I know that they are alright and in bed sleeping sound, but I missed that few minutes of a visit with them today. The other day I had a friend of mine tell me that in a training she was in that she was told that a child only needs 7 minutes a day of quality, undivided attention from a parent to feel content and happy with their parents. That is such a small amount of time for each of our children. They deserve it!