Strawberries Anyone? And Happy Memorial Day!

Look at all these! Paul is prancing around like a proud papa!

These are actually 2 separate "pickings".  And then there are the ones we pick and give away.  The strawberry patch is being very good to us!  And what happens during strawberry season around here?

Yep! That's Paul in the kitchen! And he's making his amazing strawberry jam.  And he's one happy chef when he's making jam.

And here is the "fruit of his effort" (tee hee) after 2 baskets of strawberries.  There are still strawberries in the frig, and we are eating them, making smoothies, making strawberry pudding and there is a request for strawberry cake ... LOTS of things strawberry in the works!

For those of you who don't know, Paul is getting up at 4:35 AM(!) to be at work on the golf course by 6AM.  This is NOT his normal or his natural schedule.  He has been a really good sport about doing it though.  So ... staying up to make jam has a whole new meaning. 

We are getting the garden ready ... have some things planted, but most things will be going in this week.  We have potato plants flourishing now that Paul and Christian planted on Easter.  And I've put some herbs in ... but we'll be putting in food now.  YAY, YAY, YAY!

So that's our gardening update ...

Look at this little guy!  I am sorry this photo is not in better resolution and etc. but I snagged it off of facebook.  Do you know who this is?  It is Christian, of course!  If you are a facebook member you can go on Victor Hall's profile and see this much better.  The point is, look at this incredibly healthy young man who is growing up all too fast! We are blessed.

And finally ...

Thank you, daddy, and the other gazillion young men and women who go honor bound forward to protect our country from the evil that lurks out there.  We appreciate your guts and fortitude.  My dad left a small town in Virginia on a train bound for California, and there found he was to be stationed in the jungle of Burma, India.  He boarded a ship and they all set sail with butterflies in the guts and their hearts in their throats.  At 18 years old and straight out of high school, this kid, my dad, took a 3 month "travel expedition" that landed him smack in the middle of a nightmare.  WWII.  He would not talk about most of it.  After my mom passed away, he told me just a little bit.  I know he spent 30 days in a foxhole eating canned rations, that mostly included pineapple, and he wouldn't eat pineapple after he returned until the day he died!  He also refused to camp out ... said he'd had enough of that.  He was promoted once to a corporal, but got busted back down to private ... just didn't like the officer rank~or what all that involved I suspect!  The men of that generation were different from the men of this day and time.  Thanks, dad.  To the rest of you civilians, remember a soldier today.  The modern day soldiers have so much to deal with because of the evolution of weaponry, strategy, complications and etc.  And when it's all said and done, the task at hand is the same today as yesterday, and war is war.  I don't understand it, and I'm sure I never will. 

God be with you, men and women of the serving forces.  Happy Memorial Day!

Blessings to all!  Enjoy the day! It's beautiful here ... guess we'll pick some berries!

Happy trails!

Paul and Cheri