My husband, my filter.

Strong man wraps his arms tightly around me.  My heart relaxes as I stretch my toes to touch his.  We lie together looking into the dark.  Safety, those arms bring so much safety and contentment too.  The ending to a good day.  That's when he asks about it; Shanbrosia, what's happened?

I sigh a deep sigh unsure what to say.  This mind wills it's fingers to write, but nothing comes, for days, weeks and even months. Surface thoughts are all these stiff fingers can punch out. The American smile is showing through I'm sure. The American smile?  The cursed smile that hides the heart and soul.  When writing it's all I can manage.  Where is my heart? Things are moving, changing even. I'm being stretched and grown; reshaped really. God is good, He is always good.  Still the American smile?  With the smile plastered on what is the point?

I tell him maybe it's time for that season to be over.

It troubles me that you stopped writing, he says.

He's troubled?  I run over our entire marriage to find a context.  No he's never told me he's troubled before, not in these words, not with this tone.  He wants me to write more.  He doesn't want me to stop?  So much confidence in such a broken women.  Really, doesn't he know me?  Doesn't he know his wife struggles?  I know he does, better then most.  What if I say something that will effect his reputation?  What if I hurt those I love?

He holds me tight our toes still touching.  I can feel his heart beating.  My heart is in his safety as he tells me again, keep writing.  I love it as it is.  Nobody can reach perfection.  I love you as you are.  Keep writing.

Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.

~ Psalms 139:23-24

#'s ?
- A husband who to hold me.
- A husband to push me past my insecurities.
- A husband to be my anchor.
- A husband to help me filter.

Strawberry lemonade

My Dad made this last summer and I was immediately hooked.  Here's the recipe:

6 cups hulled strawberries. (I made my juice the same day I made my jam and accidentally used 6 cups pureed berries.  I now have strawberry juice with a hint of lemon.  Good but not what I was going for...)
4 cups freshly squeezed lemon juice or 16 lemons.  If you have a juicer the best thing to do is throw the lemon in peel and all.
6 cups sugar

Heat to 190 degrees to kill off the bacteria.  Do not boil or you'll have yourself some jelly.

Mix 1 part lemonade concentrate with 1 part Ginger ale, Sprite, bubbly water or just plan old tap water.

Sit back and enjoy Recipe yeilds about 3 quarts.

Strawberry sorbet

Since my boys can't have milk I decided to try my hand at making my own sorbet.  It went well and is incredibly simple.

First disolve 1/2 cup water with sugar to taste.  I used about 1/2 cup.

Add a tablespoon of lemon juice.

Add in three cups of blended berries.  Taste to make sure you have the sweetness you want.  Remember that frozen berries become tart, so over sugaring just slightly will be perfect when frozen.

Put into freezer cups and freeze.  The recipe makes four cups.

It's delicious

That's what Man of the woods has named this treat. 

Take the foam that will be a substitute for a strawberry mousse and set aside.

Next melt some chocolate and break graham crackers into halves or fourths depending on how big you want the serving to be. Have the littles dip the crackers in chocolate and begin to make boxes with the chocolate as the glue to hold everything together.  If you use quarters then it will be a two sided box.

Once the chocolate has set.  scoop in the foam left over from the jam.  Drizzle more chocolate (and white chocolate just for fun) over the top.  Refrigerate and enjoy.

The secret to amazing jam...

Fresh berries.

A side from that I use the recipe that comes in the pectin package.  And I have no particular favorites between the gel formed pectin or the powdered pectin.  I usually choose by what is the most inexpensive.

But do save the foam off the jam.  There is a super yummy dessert that boys had a blast helping with....

What to do with 15 quarts of strawberries?

I shall tell you all week long.  =)

See the flower shaped berry?

But before we get to that a short tale of how I came about 15 quarts.  I have a wonderful aunt that gifted five quarts to me.  The rest I wish came from her fields, but alas I just couldn't make the three hour drive there and three hours back.  So I settled for the next best thing.  Grandpa B and my Man of the woods.

When I was the size Man of the woods is now.  My Dad took me strawberry picking for the first time.  I loved it.  Every year it was definitely one of my highlights.  Since they day I found out I was expecting my first boy, I began dreaming of berry picking with him.  So this year I got my wish.



The only proof Man of the woods came along.

Oh wait there's this one too.

In my minds eye the three of us would go and have a quiet restful time of berry picking.  Man of the woods would have a strawberry covered face, but be totally into picking for hours.  Ha!  he picked about twelve berries and then was ready to call it quits.  So we made him the official photographer, worm digger, and car watcher.  All in all it didn't take us very long to meet our quota.  And even though he asked about every five minutes if we could leave now as soon as we were in the car he said he can't wait to do it again next year!

What shall you do with all those berries? First things first I gave one quart away to dear friends.  Then I got to cooking.  I LOVE the smell of cooking berries.  More on that later.

Yummy recipes coming right up!

#s ??- #s??
~ cloudy days for berry picking
~ Grandpa to come all the way up just to pick berries with me.
~ Juicy berries.
~ Walking with Man of the woods for more flats.
~ flower shaped berry.
~ Man of the woods taking photos of Grandpa B's car so that he may never forget what it looks like.
~ A patient Grandpa.
~ Man of the woods looking forward to next year.
~ Laughter handling the fact that he's too little extremely well.

I love this boy.

He makes me laugh.