County Fair!

We met some friends at the Waukesha County Fair last week. Here is a picture of Mary and her friend Matthew that Matthew's mom took. Aren't they adorable? They were holding hands and walked right into this pole. They thought it was so funny and laughed and laughed about it, and then said, "Let's do it again!" and proceeded to run into the pole over and over again.

Here is a shot of us walking together. Joey is once again loving the view from my Beco.

And here is Mary, Matthew, and Cal on one of the rides. They had a blast. I love the fair!

Hip Mama Diaper Bag

I recently sewed this fabulous diaper bag for my sister-in-law who is due with her first baby in September. I am so proud of myself - this is the first serious sewing project I have ever completed, and I did it all by myself! It has a zipper pocket on the back, magnetic snap closures, four velcro pockets all around the outside, and two elastic pockets on the inside. I think it turned out fabulously, thanks to this great tutorial from A Mingled Yarn. I love that it doesn't *look* like a diaper bag, so you can keep using it after baby is older. Plus you feel like a "hip mama." The outer material is outdoor weight canvas fabric from Jo-Ann and the inner is vinyl - easy clean up! Here is a view from the front:

And here's a look at the inside:

And one more angle:

So there! I can sew! And did I mention I did it all by myself? Next step: sew one up for myself!

Berries (and cream!)

We have wild raspberries in our backyard that are ripe! We've been picking a handful every day for quite some time. Here is Mary showing off a bowl full. Joe has been playing this video for her lately and she has pretty much memorized the whole thing. Their little joke is that whenever someone says "berries," they say, "berries and what else?" and Mary makes the crazy smile face at the end of the video.

In other news, Joey had tooth number eight finally poke through today. Finally! Maybe now he'll start sleeping a little better. He has also mastered his first animal sound - Moo! - and learned how to dance! He's getting to be a lot more steady on his feet and it won't be long before he's running around the house.

Strawberry Season!

After a long hiatus, The Yatzeck Family Journal is back in action!

A couple of weeks ago we went strawberry picking at the Barthel Fruit Farm in Mequon. We ate lots and lots of strawberries and picked lots and lots more. Here is Mary sampling a juicy ripe one as daddy works on picking berries.

I carried Joey on my back in my new Beco Baby Carrier, which I got for my birthday and absolutely love. Joey seems to like the view from up there too. Here he is enjoying berry picking.

Here's Mary and Daddy with our flat of strawberries. And Mary eating another one. We had about twelve pounds of strawberries! We also picked sugar snap peas on the farm. I love fresh peas out of the pod! Mary and Joey really like them too. Joe is weird and doesn't like them. I think they are so sweet it is like eating candy!

So, what to do with so many strawberries? Why, make jam, of course! We had never made jam before, so after a little online research we formulated our own recipe. We didn't have enough freezer space to make freezer jam, so we decided to make cooked jam and can it. We had never canned before either, so we had to research that a little too. Here is what we did:

1. Wash and hull strawberries. Chop up in food processor until desired consistency is reached. We ended up with about 4.5 cups of mashed strawberries.
2. Put the berries into a large pot on the stove and stir one package of no-sugar-needed fruit pectin into the berries. We used Sure-Jell (in the pink box) for the first batch.
3. Add 1/2 teaspoon of butter (helps to stop foaming).
   
4. Bring to a full boil.
   
5. Add one cup of honey and one cup of 100% juice. We used pomegranate juice, as that's what we happened to have on hand in the fridge and I thought it sounded yummy.
6. Bring it back to a boil and boil hard for 2 minutes.
7. Fill canning jars to within 1/4 inch of the top. We sterilized the jars and rings first by running them in the dishwasher for a little while. For the lids, we boiled some water and then let it cool a little before adding the lids and left them in the water pot on the stove. We pulled the hot jars out of the dishwasher and poured the hot jam into them. It was a little messy, but we just wiped any spilled jam off the top, seated the lids, and tightened the rings around them.
8. Place jars into large pot of boiling water and boil for 7 minutes. Keep the jars covered with at least 2 inches of water and keep the water boiling.
9. Lift jars out of the water and let them cool. It usually takes overnight. Once the jars are cool, check that they are sealed verifying that the lid has been sucked down.
   

Ta-da! Jam! I think it is absolutely delicious. Mary loves it too. Joe didn't think it was sweet enough, so we made a second batch using a more traditional recipe - 3 cups of mashed strawberries, 2 cups of mashed mango, 7 cups of sugar, and 1 package of regular Sure-Jell to make Strawberry Mango Sweet Jam. Much too sweet for me, but Joe likes it better. Now we can have a little taste of summer all year long!