Plum Tuckered Out!

The last 2 and a half days have been so full of activity that I am ready to crawl back under my covers and stay there for the next week! In all honesty I am most happy when I am spending my days lazing about at home, there are always plenty of things to do, and I never seem to get bored. My cabin fever was getting bad though, because after a few weeks of being a hermit, sometimes you just need to get out!

I thought I would cure it with a much needed picnic, so Monday morning on our weekly grocery trip the kids and I picked out some fun foods to have a picnic that night. I am so glad we did, because I am not kidding, the weather was perfect! It was slightly overcast, breezy, and just down right beautiful! The kids had fun running around, and I had fun sitting and relaxing. It's so nice to take them to the park as a family because Keith can be the parent that chases them around while I get to sit!



Apparently that didn't cure my fever though, because Wednesday became the most booked day I have ever had. Fun, but exhausting. The day started with a trip to the local library for the reopening of story time for the summer. We really love the librarian that does story time (Mr. Bob) and the kids missed him so much during May when the librarians do school visits, so story time gets put on hold. Anywho, we got some great books to start our summer reading logs. The kids are excited to get prizes for reading. I guess there is nothing wrong with a little bribery every now and again, as long as they are enjoying the books!

After story time we headed home to gather up supplies for a trip to the strawberry farm with my friend Betsy and her adorable kids. We all packed lunches and the kids all had a "car picnic" on the way there. Brady was sitting near Betsy's new (2 month old?) baby and at one point told me, "Mama, I love baby Kate", can you say sweet? He couldn't get enough of her, and to be honest neither can I! She is teensy and precious.


The strawberry picking was a success! The weather was perfectly overcast, so we didn't sweat to death, and the kids were all excited about what we were going to be doing. We doled out buckets, set a few ground rules (only pick the red ones and don't eat any), and they were off. All of them did so well, and with a few minor setbacks; ginormous patches of mud, a few falls with dropped buckets of berries (Brady), and one incident of shoes literally stuck in the mud (Brady), we were able to get a good 10 lbs of berries between the lot of us. I am so glad we went, it was a good time and we came home with some fabulous loot!

After picking berries and then cleaning off our feet, we headed over to some friends of ours who so graciously let us use their pool! I couldn't think of a better way to cool (and clean) off from a sweaty, muddy excursion. It was a great way to top off a busy afternoon. Thanks again Betsy for coming with!


After a good nights sleep (the kids slept in till after 8, they were so tired!) I was ready to just stay home and get the laundry done, and make my first ever batches of strawberry freezer jam. My Mom always made this stuff growing up, so I was excited to try my hand at it. I have to say it turned out yummy! And we shouldn't have to buy jam for at least a year! I found some sweet little plastic freezer "jars" (with cute purple lids!)and used some liquid pectin by Ball for my batches and it worked just fine. I was a little nervous because I know my Mom always used the powdered pectin (which makes jam solid), but the liquid was very simple and seems to have done the trick.



Anywho, I digress. The morning was uneventful, well if you can count washing AND putting away ALL of the laundry (woot!) and making the jam (can you tell I am excited about that dang jam??). I was just getting logged on to work, and getting the kids settled down for a movie for the time before Daddy gets home when I got a phone call. It was Keith and he had been rear ended. Through multiple phone calls and texts we decided that since Keith's head broke out the rear window of his truck, that a trip to the ER to get checked out was necessary.

Everything kind of fell into place and our friends were able to pick up the kids, and treat them to McDonalds, and watch them for the next 5 hours (Thank you Taylors!!), and I was also able to leave work and take Keith in. After 2 unsuccessful attempts at getting the catheter needle in his arm (apparently he has tough skin, because the first one literally BENT, and the second on PINCHED CLOSED), he was all C collared up and we waited for the CTs. Thankfully all scans were negative and now all we can do is keep any pain under control and make sure no strange symptoms manifest. It may seem that I am being overly cautious, but in cases like this better safe than sorry! I told Keith that if I ever wake up and he is dead in bed beside me, I would kill him! So we are just trying to make sure that doesn't happen any time soon! Next comes the waiting, and the checking out of the vehicle, and all that jazz. I hate car accidents! This is our first between the two of us, and I hope that we don't have another for a long, long time!

All I can say is after all that excitement, I am ready for a lazy weekend!