My day in Jam Hell...

So I happened by a roadside fruit stand today and decided.. "Hey, I should really make some jam." I've made jam before, it's a fairly easy thing, but I've never really been on the purchasing and planning end of it since my dear sweet dad always just "happens" to have bought a bunch of berries right before I visit.

So I ask the lady at the fruit stand how much jam would one flat of raspberries make. She tells me 12 pints. I'm thinking.. ok, I'll buy some strawberries too just to stretch it out to a few more pints.

I go to the store to get the correct amount of pectin and Karo syrup. I go home and begin. I decide I should just mash all the berries up first thing and put each kind in it's own bowl. (I had strawberries, raspberries & blackberries) I start making some interesting combinations of jam, but after 4 batches it's pretty apparent that 12 pints was a GROSS underestimation. I've now used ALL my Karo syrup and am out of lemon juice, but I still have a plethora of mashed berries.

So I run back to the store for more pectin, Karo & lemon juice. A few batches later and I'm out of jars... still many many berries left.

Back to the store AGAIN to buy 12 more pint jars and 3 more pectin boxes and another Karo syrup (hmmmm... I wonder if I should have bought that super-size Karo the first time I came..) .. surely this will be enough to finish off the berries (it didn't help that I got fancy and threw some peaches into the mix too). On the way to the cash register I grab a tray of Fish Egg Sushi Rolls so the girls can at least have something to eat for dinner since their mom is all grouchy and sticky. Oh did I mention that I brilliantly picked a day Matt was out of town to tackle this little project?

I'm on my LAST batch and... no - more - jars! I start scouring the fridge and cupboards for jars. I found a jar of olives which I dumped into a tupperware and cleaned out.. the lid still smelled like green olives.. so we'll see what that one tastes like. I cleaned out a jar that was used to hold bugs... REALLY WELL. And had to stoop to a tupperware for the rest of it.

And so... 6 hours, 40 pints (yes,that's FORTY) and 3 trips to the store later, I finally finished all those crappy berries! 12 pints my butt!

I don't even want to think about how much I spent on the whole process. I think I have my 5 year supply taken care of. This is good because I don't want to see another box of pectin or mashed berry for a looooong time.

Heeeere snaily snaily snaily...

Apparently my poor allergy ridden kids are so hard up for pets that they now keep several baby snails in a jar. Sammy and Olivia even take them out and 'play' with them! Wouldn't you think 7 crabs were better than a jar of snails?

Hmmm.. I wonder if they'd like some pet cockroaches too?

Is it dedication or a sickness?

Riley informed me Monday evening that she need to have a speech and poster for the Student Council election on Tuesday. Hmmm... doesn't it seem a bit strange that they would only tell her the day before it was due? I thought it was a little suspect myself.

So she decides she wants to base her poster and slogan on the Joker character in the movie The Dark Knight. She want's a picture of the Joker as well as a picture of her face morphed into the Joker's. So... after MUCH Photoshopping we finally achieved the effect she was looking for.

At this point she informs me that another girl has already done a Dark Knight poster... wait a minute, I thought she only found out that day about the posters... how did this other girl get hers done and posted on the wall already? Hmmm.. perhaps she's psychic.

Well I was a little worried that we would be copying someone else's idea, so I decided we should one-up the idea. I decided to print out Joker playing cards, except instead of saying "Joker" on the sides they'd say "Vote 4 Riley" and she could pass them out to the kids.

Of course by the time we get to this point it's about 11:30. Ahhh.. yet another project that will require mom staying up late to do various Photoshop items.

Well, as you may know, I tend to get a bit obsessive about details when it comes to things like this. If I'm going to do something like this I like to be accurate and not just slap something lame together. So OF COURSE I had to search the web to find the various exact Joker cards that were used in the movie. I finally got a selection of 6 different cards and proceeded to print and cut out 45 copies.

Riley of course was sleeping and comfy in her bed while I stared bleary eyed at the monitor half the night.. but it was done.. and they looked good. In the morning Riley get's up and decides that 2 of the versions are "creepy" and she doesn't want to take them. I of course was understanding and offered to make her some more of the un-creepy ones.. NOT! Hey, you wait until the last minute like that and you get whatever your mom is willing to do for you.

Happily it all turned out well in the end. Apparently the Joker cards were a big hit (even if some were creepy). Now we just have to wait for the vote tomorrow to see how she fares.

I hope some day she realizes just how much her mom put's into things like this, not to mention Halloween costumes...

Plugging my nose and diving in...

Ok, ok.. I've finally decided to do the blog thing. I thought I should at least be familar with them when clients ask about a blog of their own. So here goes, we'll see just how far I decide to take it.

I have to admit that the final kicker that made me buckle down and do this was our friend John's site. I was really digging on the music player on his site. Unfortunately for some of you, it's filled with music I like, and may not be something you enjoy... hehe.