One of the Best Days

Yesterday morning a friend called me about some green beans she was selling. She had just canned 79 quarts of them and was going to sell the rest. Of course I was interested. So, I dropped by to pick them up. There were ten pounds and she had already washed and snipped them! (How could I resist that?)

So I brought them home and Spenser sat and helped me break them in half and put them into jars.


And as we worked together, side by side, we talked. And we talked. And I don't think I've had such a good time lately.

I learned a lot about her. She wants to get married in the temple and have ten babies (it used to be four). She wants to learn about pigs and horses. And when she's a mom she wants to sew and play on the Play Station. (Just for the record, I never, ever play on the Play Station. I guess she sees the boys doing it and we keep telling her she needs to be older to play.)

And we sang together (all the while she is wearing a ballerina costume). I love singing with her. She's so much fun. It is so much fun to have a girl.


And when we were finished, we had eleven quarts and four pints of green beans. It wasn't how I had planned my day, but it was one of my best ones.

And then my boys begged me to make more jam. The blueberries needed to be crushed, so I gave a bowl to Jackson and Mason and told them to smash away. (I think Spenser and Carter joined in, too, at some point.) It was messy, but it kept them busy and they had fun. And I made them clean the floor when they were finished.

At the end of the day we had made this much jam. And, out of 20 pounds of blueberries, this lonely colander is all that is left. Between two batches of jam and all of us eating them like crazy, that's all we have. I suspect by lunchtime it will be gone.

Now, someone please pass me the ibuprofen. My back hurts too much to stand up ...