A Trip to Astoria.

A couple of weeks ago, the temperature was supposed to reach over 100 degrees, so Tim and I decided that a trip to the coast would be just the thing to do. We packed up our car with a days worth of supplies and headed out to Astoria.

Along the way we drove right by a train, which caused Beniah to shout out "Tain!Tain!"


Once in Astoria, we decided to ride on the Astoria Riverfront Trolley.

The lady in the front window was very helpful with helping entertain Beniah.

Beniah fell asleep on our way to Warrenton.


The Perter Iredale.


Beniah was not happy with the beach this time. He only wanted to be carried and he would try to steer us away from the water with his legs if we got to close to it.


From there we traveled down to Seaside for dinner and to walk along the boardwalk. Beniah was much happier with this idea.


Looking at the river with Daddy.


We stopped by the arcade and let Beniah play with the Wack-A-Shark game. He loved being allowed to hit something with a gigantic mallet.


On the way back to the car, Beniah decided to sit down in the middle of the sidewalk and try to throw the pebbles in the cement.

Homemade Strawberry Jam

This past July, we went on a family excursion to our local farmers market in search of fresh strawberries to make honey sweetened strawberry jam. The recipe is a little tart, but if you are wanting to cut down on the amount of sugar that your family consumes, this one is pretty good.

Beniah eating the foam that was skimmed off the top, just like his mama did when she was a little girl.



No Sugar Needed Strawberry Jam
(Makes 3 pints of jam)

4 cups hulled and crushed strawberries (about 4 lbs)
1 cup Unsweetened White Grape or Apple juice (100% juice only. I suggest using the bottled juices so you know that the juice isn't too watered down)
1 No Sugar Needed Fruit Pectin (1.75oz pkg)
Optional Additional Sugar (0-3 cups Sugar or 3/4 - 1 cup honey. I used 1/2 cup honey and it turned out fine)

To cook the jam:
Combine fruit and juice in a 6-8 quart sauce pan. Gradually stir in pectin making sure that there aren't any clumps. Bring to a rolling boil that can not be stirred down while you are stirring constantly. Add sugar or honey if desired. Bring to a rolling boil again. Boiling hard for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and skim off the foam. Pour jam into clean, warm glass pint jars.

To Can the jam:
Once you have 7 jars of jam prepared, clean off tops of jars and place canning lids and rings on top. Place in a water bath canner and bring to a gentle steady boil and process for 10 minutes. Take the lid of and let jars stand for 5 minutes. Remove the jars from the canner and place it up right on a clean towel. Do not disturb for 24 hours. Wipe clean jars down and remove rings. Label jars and store in a cool dark place for up to a year.

Note: Do not double or triple the recipe to save time. The jam will not set up and will be wasted.

What Tim and Beniah Did Today

Tim was asked by his Dad to help with the cutting down of 2 obnoxious tree limbs, so Beniah and I went out to watch the cutting procedure. He was so excited that he didn't want to wait for me to find his shoes and grabbed the 1st pair of shoes he found and put them on.



He was very fascinated by the whole ordeal and was upset that I wouldn't allow him to climb the tree after his grandpa. Once the tree limb was down, Tim pulled on the work gloves to start chopping up the limb into firewood pieces. Beniah looked at me and said, "Goves!" So we went inside in search of some gloves for him (and to change into tennis shoes for the both of us).


Beniah was so proud of his gloves and the fact that he was able to help his Daddy haul wood.