Mmmmmm

Guess what I did all day? No really, guess. I'll bet you can't! Well, I have a bunch of friends on facebook going off about how many strawberries they got from bountiful baskets. I don't do bountiful baskets because I have a neighborhood food co-op instead. When the list of foods we were getting came out and strawberries were on them, I frantically asked my friend if I can get more than just 1. I informed her I wanted 20 because what good is just 1 at $1.00 a lb. It's one of the best prices I've seen and I was so excited to be making Strawberry jam again! This time I made freezer jam because between last June and now, we got a deep freezer. Oh how I love my deep freezer. I get to buy all sorts of fun things now, like 1/2 a cow with some friends! OK, back to the subject.

I spent 6 hrs working on this stuff and when I tasted the final product it was totally worth it! Here's all the information because I will need it next year when I want to do this all over again, or at least in a couple months when strawberries are cheap again.

I didn't think about taking a picture until I already had half of the strawberries in the sink getting clean, so this is 10lbs. Aren't they beautiful?!

 Here they are being rinsed. Oh how this makes me miss summer. Which by the way, remember the pity party I had? Yea, I'm pretty sure it's because it's February. I think I do this every year around the same time. I'm better now, well not all better, but at least I realized this is me and that's OK. Besides, now I get to eat all this yummy homemade jam.

 This is the sink after I took all the strawberries out. Do you see why they need to be washed? Look at all the dirt, leaves, and petals. Mmmm, how I love me some dirt in my jam!

 Then you take this nifty instrument which I bought at the last Pampered Chef party I went to and oh was it worth every penny! This thing cut down labor by at least an hour! Yea, I'm that slow :-)

See how pretty they look! All ready to jump into the blender and be mashed up all up nice and smooth. Now I know, sometimes it's good to have little chunks in jam, but then sometimes it's just nicer to get the work done fast, which happens if I use the blender instead of my potato masher.

 

Before the blend

After the blend. Oh it just keeps getting better. Can you feel it?

I dumped 5-6 cups of mashed strawberries in a bowl and added 2 cups sugar and 3 Tbsp ultra set (which is a modified food starch) and stir it. Then I used my big funnel and poured it into the freezer jars which are not sold at very many stores in the winter. For some strange reason the stores don't stock a lot of canning stuff during the winter. I know, it's weird.

Here's the finished product, aren't they gorgeous?! Oh and it tastes so good. Have I mentioned that already?

This is the aftermath of my sink. I think this is the part in the story where I call the cleaning fairy, or at least some friends who can come over and clean it. I'd totally give them some jam.

A little lesson I learned; don't try to carry as many containers as you possibly can down into the garage to put in the deep freezer. If you do, your van might get strawberry jam on it and your garage will look like a crime scene. Oh yea and you'll lose 15oz of your jam. Don't say I didn't warn you!

For future reference, I used 20lbs of strawberries which made 19 16 oz containers and 6 32 oz containers. 1 batch filled 3 16 ozs and 2 32 ozs (I know, it doesn't make sense) I made 2 trips to the grocery store and went through a small bag and a half of sugar. I didn't like the big chunks my blender left in it when I just pulsed it a little, so on the last couple batches I pulsed it enough to make it all mashed up and I like that better. Not too bad, especially if you compare it to when I make wassail.

Running

I was never going to be a runner. I have so many friends who run and tell me they love it. Are they crazy? Running isn't fun. You get sweaty, it makes your knees hurt and you get sweaty! I mean come on, who want's that?

I guess I do because I started running right before Christmas after complaining again to a friend about how I'm just not losing the weight. I have this 20 or so lbs I want gone! I've only ever been able to lose it once and that was when I was on this dumb trial diet thing in 2006 and I basically ate every other day. Gee, that sounds healthy. I was also taking exercise classes at the University of Utah.

I decided to do it. I mean if she was able to lose all her pregnancy weight and get back to where she wanted to be in like 3 months, then I would run because I'm not about to yo yo diet. I want to get healthy and be healthy.

Little did I know that I could run. I've finished a couch to 5k program where you run and walk for the first bit and then by the 9th week you're running for 30 minutes straight. I can do it, barely. I had to slow my pace down because my lungs weren't used to working that way but in my workout I speed it back up or else I get bored and want to quit. My running friends keep telling me that soon I will love running. I'm still waiting for that soon.

I couldn't figure out why I wasn't losing weight. I mean I felt better. I can run up and down my stairs without a problem. I love the way I feel but I really want to lose the weight! What I discovered is that I wasn't eating enough calories. Who knew? I mean I always thought the less you eat the better but really you have to eat the right calories and you have to eat enough. My body, with it's weight, height, and my age, burns 1664 calories a day, doing absolutely no exercise. Then you add in the exercise calories and I'm basically supposed to eat 2000 calories a day. Since I started running I was only eating 1200. Yea, my body was acting like it was starving so there was no way it was going to give any of that extra fat up. I have now upped my calories and I've finally lost 2lbs! This is a huge accomplishment especially when I watch 'The Biggest Loser' and those people are losing 20lbs in a week. It only took me 9 weeks to lose 2. Maybe I should go on the show for a month, then I could lose all this weight :-)

One shocking result for me is that it's actually helped my knee. It isn't constantly in pain anymore! I still don't love running, but I know that I love what it does for me. I also want to be a good example for my kids about hard work. We can't just quit because it gets hard or we don't want to do it anymore.

pity party, again

How do I get to the point where I care more about being with my family more than being with friends? I love my family but I have this desperate feeling inside me just aching for people to have a friendship with.

I've been kind of pity partying lately about not having people to spend the day with. I tell Ryan he has work to go to and even if he doesn't really talk to people, he at least has the opportunity. I miss talking to people. I am someone who will talk your ear off if we meet because I don't have a lot of adult interaction during the day.

I know I've talked about this before but it's frustrating! I don't know how else I can do this and I'm tried of always being in charge. I do have a few things at night with some friends every so often but not a whole lot during the day during the week. I want my younger two to have friends and play and I don't think I should have to put them in preschool to get that. Why should I pay someone to teach them the things I can teach them just so they can have friends? I don't get it!

I'm sure I'll get over this. I have it hit me every so often and I get all annoyed with it all. I hope it is sooner rather than later, because I'm not even sure if people other than my family would want to be around me, while I whine about how I don't have anyone to hang out with.

Compliments

You know those people who are always searching for compliments? The ones who just talk about how bad and horrible their life is or how fat and ugly they are and they just want you to tell them how wonderful, beautiful, and skinny they are? Well, I've never been one of those people. I guess I'd rather you tell me how to fix the problem than how what I'm already doing is good enough. Mostly because I wouldn't bring it up if I didn't want advice.

I think I've become one of those people. I have started running and I report every couple weeks on my facebook. I want people to tell me how awesome I am and how if I just keep going I can get even more awesome! Maybe this is bad, I don't know, but I'm pretty sure I'm not going to quit. I like being told how awesome I'm doing, mostly because I want to quit. Running is hard! I can't always catch my breath and I've had to slow my pace, my legs are tired, I usually end up with whining children who just want me to do something, I sweat like no other, and I'm doing all of this to myself on purpose!

I'm also able to carry my 2 younger children around without my arms wanting to fall off, I have avoided 2 different colds my children have all gotten, and I can actually run after my kids without losing my breath. I haven't lost any weight yet, which is frustrating but I'm learning and I'm not going to quit. I have to do this for all of us. I need to be healthy so I can be here for my husband and my kids. I mean I'm pretty sure he doesn't want to raise them by himself.

So I will continue begging for compliments on my facebook from some friends I haven't even seen since high school because if it makes me feel like I can get back on that treadmill more, I will do it!