Strawberries.

It's been a couple of years since I have gone and picked strawberries for our family.  This is a tradition that I grew up doing with my own Mama and brothers all throughout my growing up years.  We would go early early in the morning, we would pick for hours, and then we would come home and stem all of those berries that same afternoon.  Mom would always make a warm strawberry shortcake for dessert that evening, and we'd all have huge bowls of berries with milk and sugar.  And then, with the rest of all of those beautiful berries, my Mama would take them and make them up into the best ever strawberry freezer jam that we would enjoy all throughout the year....until it was time to do it all over again the next summer.

Hello, beautiful.

Since we've moved home from Pennsylvania, we've picked a summer or two here and there...and we even picked them to sell during one summer.  Oddly enough, that year, I was so pooped from picking them to sell during that entire season, that when it came time to make my own jam, I just drove over to Wal-Mart and bought myself some store berries for my jam.  I was DONE in the field for that year....

My dear auntie Sharon came along for the adventure.

Last year was busy, so I didn't really pick any....and so I told myself that this summer - no matter what - I was getting me some.  And call me crazy, but wee bitty baby and all, I had my sites set on getting me my berries.

When I told my own Mama my plan - taking four kidlets and all to the field - she said:  "You can't take that baby to the field.  What are you thinking?"  To which I replied:  "Well, I haven't given her a bottle before, so I kind of need to take her."  To which she replied:  "Your father and I will drive down tomorrow night.  We will watch the two youngest kids, and I'll help you stem them all when you get back."  To which I replied:  "Thank you, Jesus."

And so that very day, I pumped and introduced London to her very first bottle - fully expecting it be a nightmare, because all three of my boys were less than impressed with their first few introductions to one.  But, this little chunky monkey took it like a champ.  And so, I pumped late at night and early in the morning to have a stash of milk for my Mama...and London had her very first solo time alone without her own Mama yesterday whilst the two largest boys and my Auntie Sharon and I went picking.

And let me tell you this ~ we have picked many a year and at many a place, and the place where we went this year was just a wee bit like going on a scavenger hunt.  You couldn't really see the berries for the weeds.  And I also just might have chosen the hottest day of the summer so far to go a pickin'...but beggars can't be choosers, and so when my Mama said she was comin,' I said we were a goin' no matter what.

And so I promised the boys a buck a box for however many they picked.
And a Dunkin' Donuts Coolatta on the way home.

Behold, 55 boxes of pure joy and bliss.
And very hard worked for, might I also add.
I kind of feel like they should have paid me for all of my hard work....

Do you see any strawberry plants?
Not so much....

Anyhoo, we got 'er done.

And then Part II of the labor began.

After sharing several boxes with several people, we got down to the nitty gritty of washing and stemming all the rest of the boxes.  Grammy rocks like that...  Grampy rocks, too.  He took all of the Hoolies to the grocery store for treats, and then he may or may not have come back and made my most favorite brown sugar fudge for all of us to eat...

London did so well with Grammy while I was gone, and then she gave us the lovliest of long naps in the afternoon so that we could work.  This little Missy Miss is tending to cat nap and be crabby all morning, but I can handle that when she naps for three hours in the afternoon.  The mornings make me crazy sometimes, but the afternoons are cozy.  And sometimes we may or may not take little cozy naps together.  It may or may not have even happened yesterday afternoon for twenty minutes or so whilst Grammy slaved away in the kitchen.  I didn't mean for it to.  It just did.  Geez....

And while it was so. blasted. hot. yesterday, it was still so much fun working together in the kitchen.  And I felt so blessed and cared for by my parents dropping everything and coming down.  We had so much fun together, and the boys loved seeing their Grampy and Grammy.  London got loved on all over, and we all just got our love tanks filled right up to the tippy top brims.

If I didn't have a newborn, I would have started right in on my jam making.  That's my most favorite part of berry-ing, but these days I find I have to do many many things in stages if we all want to maintain our semblances of sanity around here.  So, we washed and stemmed, we saved a few out for eating with milk and sugar, and we bagged the rest up for the freezer.

And some rainy day a few weeks from now, when London is taking a marathon nap - or maybe late at night if she maintains her cat-napping tendencies - I will pull them all out and make enough jam to last us the whole year through.  Peanut butter and jelly are the life-blood of the Booker household - either on toast in the morning or for lunch at noontime.  And there are days, when we might even have it for both....

And just like in the days of my childhood, my Mama whipped up a warm batch of homemade biscuits and whipped cream, and we had ourselves some strawberry shortcake to top off our day....

Blissy....