This morning, for the very first time ever, (that I can remember), I went berry picking! My good friend Tammy, Matthew, Mia and myself. It was really fun and even though it was work, it was not much different than the feeling of weeding and I do love that feeling. :) We picked strawberries. We picked for two hours which meant we got some sun and a very lot of berries! I believe we got 32 quarts! Matthew and Mia did well. They did just as I expected they'd do: Mia was very busy and interested for the entire time, doing a very good job picking the good berries and being sure to not step in the rows. Matthew did well too, for a short time! He picked about 20 berries altogether I'd say. And maybe he picked and ate another 10. But he really did enjoy himself for most of it. I think it's one of those experiences that he'll remember and maybe not want to do again for a while. I will invite him the next time of course, and I do hope he'll want to, but I will be very prepared for him to last not even quite as long as he did today. :) Two hours IS quite a long time for a boy to be "picking" though but really, the only hints of him getting worn out was in the last few minutes of picking. All in all, a quite positive experience. I'm planning to pick raspberries and blueberries very soon!
Tonight with about 13 of the 32 quarts, I made freezer jam, (another first for me!). That was a good time in the kitchen - just me after the kids were all in bed, with Ron popping in now and then to stir and put the lids on the jars so I would have a bit of an assembly line. He also wiped any sticky stuff from the outside of the jars with a hot paper towel so they would store nicely and neatly. I need to go out tomorrow and get more SureJell and make another few batches. Tonight, we ended up with 14 and 1/2 jars! I'm so excited! I want to put some downstairs in our freezer and I'm looking forward to giving some away as gifts. I bought these cute jar label stickers with strawberries on them and I'll put those on the ones that will be given away. I love the idea of bringing something like that to someone's house when you are company or when you stop by for a surprise visit. :)
Titus is crawling!!! He began on the 22nd and has not looked back. He didn't really practice at all! For two or three days before, I saw him do 4 or 5 "knee-slides" while on his hands and knees and then all of a sudden, he was going across the room and ending up in back of me as I was washing dishes or putting books back on the shelf! He's mobile! I love it. He's happy. Every time my babies crawl I sing the song, "I Get Around." "Get around, get around, I get around....ooooh I get around...." I love that Titus James by the way. What a dear baby. His smile can pull smiles out of me when I'm just waking up in the morning - but then again, all my kids do that to me. :)))
So! School. Today I wrote my "letter of intent" to the Superintendent of Schools here in Fulton that will let the school district know that Matthew will be schooling at home as a first grader for the 2011-2012 school year. Tomorrow the letter will go out in the mail and it will be official! Apparently soon after they recieve that letter, they will send me a big packet of information and then I'll have until August 15th to get them my curriculum choices and quarterly dates for grades. I'm getting more excited about this and Matthew is too. Of course Mia will be doing school too, (pre-school and K) but nothing yet that will get reported and seem so much of a big deal!
This past Wednesday was our first ever Women's Fellowship Meeting at our church. We will be having it monthly. This particular one was more of a planning one where we all brought our ideas to the table of what we want our focus to be, what exactly we want to work on together etc... We decided that we'd share testimony, one person each time, and we are also volunteering each month to lead a devotional. I'm so excited about this. We said our focus is to grow closer to each other as a group and closer to God. Life is so busy. It's not easy to make time to get to know each other better unfortunately. This is an opportunity to do that among other things. We won't be a gossip group or just a way to pass the time. We will be working towards our goal-our focus: learning about one another, praying for one another, lifting each other up and learning together more of God's word. I will be sharing my testimony at our meeting in July and my Mom will be leading the devotional on Esther. I'm really looking forward to that. I have many ideas on subjects of devotionals I would like to lead. I'm confident the forming of this group will be a real blessing to each of us.
This coming weekend, Ron and I and the kids will be traveling to Melrose, MA to visit Ron's brother Ryan and family. We're excited! Our niece, Tabatha, and our nephew, Sean, will both be celebrating their birthdays and we are able to attend their joint party! It's really fun when we're all together. It's nice to see the kids play together and form closer relationships and the grown-ups always end up staying up late talking. These are the good old days! Both our families have young children and there will be 10 of us in a 2-bedroom apartment, but we'll have fun when they're older talking about these good old days of piling all together and sleeping over. We are so blessed to have family within traveling distance. Ryan's family has come to our new house several times in the last year and so it was definitely our turn to make the trip! Anyway so that's coming up this weekend. Planning and packing going on beginning tomorrow.
Last night, I visited my friend Jen, who is a kindred spirit of mine, and she and I began the workings of a camping trip for our two families! Jen and her husband have four children also, including twin 3 yr-old boys! We talked to "the guys" and we are planning a weekend this month to go camping altogether. I love to camp. Ron and I have not gone since we've had children. We ended up deciding to go to a more local (about 1/2 hr. away) campground. That way if it's necessary, we can come home if we need to if we forgot something or ya know...all the what ifs.
I have great memories of camping. I remember camping with my family when I was younger like it was yesterday. They are really some of my fondest memories of my youth actually. Camping is work, but it's fun work and for me, I love the organizing part - the setting up of camp; the planning and cooking of meals; the resourcefulness one requires to really rough it. I remember laughing alot at bedtime by the fire and also while we were in our tents ready for bed. My dad told stories and he would crack himself up and we'd all laugh at him laughing at himself. :) I remember going sleep with a smile on my face. :) And waking up to my Dad cooking a great breakfast of over medium eggs with onions and peppers....Mmmmm!!!
Needless to say the kids are really looking forward to their first real camping trip. We've read lots of books that have camping in them. And we've read the Box Car Children books together so they have read / heard a lot about "roughing it" and resourceful living in the woods. That kind of stuff really intrigues them as it intrigues me. We won't 'truly' be roughing it though. We'll have a bathhouse at this campground. Of course it helps also that our Matthew and Jen's son Evan are pals. The adults can't wait either!
Let's see...there's the update here at the Tumbrys! I'm leaving out SOOOO much but there is just no way to cover it all.
Thanks for reading!
I'm off to bed at 11:46pm!
Love, Rachel
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