Ladies and gentlemen, thanks to a resident cinematographer at our church, you now have the chance to hear this Sunday’s special music! (A great big thank-you to Angel!)

Just a little explanation. The kids started singing before I had a chance to strike a single note on the piano! I think we need to practice the piano intro here at home a little more. Andrew helped them pause to let me join in for the second verse.

Andrew also had them sing this at the nursing home in the afternoon. Marie wasn’t there (I took her and Rachel home for naps), but my nephews were along for the nursing home ministry and helped out in Marie’s absence.

This morning was jam day at our local U-pick strawberry patch (just a few minutes from our house).  The strawberries were .99/lb.  I wasn’t planning to go get more strawberries, but yesterday Paul wanted to buy some strawberries from the produce stand.  I told him we would go picking in the morning.

We did!  I am ever so glad we went.  The kids had so much fun.  They ran around in the patch some, but for the most part, they spent over an hour with me picking strawberries.  Paul and Hannah had quart-sized boxes that they carried around, and each of them filled them several times and brought them to my big box to empty.

It was interesting to me what my kids observed.  It did not register to me that a cow was mooing until right after the first moo, Marie said with stunned surprise, “I heard a cow sound!”  I had no idea that would be remarkable to her.  Then they all listened to the cow moo, since she kept it up for a little bit.

Later, Paul was very interested in some farming activity that was going on in the next field.  There were two tractors running over there.  I mentioned something about this farm, or farming, and Paul asked in a shocked voice, “Is this a farm?!”  I went on to explain to him that yes, this was a farm, and they had planted strawberries on part of their farm.  When I relayed this exchange to Andrew, he said Paul had to adjust the categories in his mind.

While we were out picking strawberries, Andrew was at home with this little blue-eyed girl.

Rachel Anne is quite the elevated lady these days.  She thinks she can’t be happy if she isn’t on top of something.  She has the ability to climb, and she uses it.  She spent a long time this evening standing on this stool at the island, with her cup in reach.  She was completely happy to just stand on the stool, wiggle around, and constantly pick up the cup, move it around, put it back down, etc.  Just to stand at the island and do something there made her feel grown up and part of the world of big people.  I was thrilled to see her so happy.

We all had a berry good time today.

I ended up with about 20 lbs. of strawberries.  I made about 1/3 of them into 17 half-pint jars of jam, and the rest are in the refrigerator to eat fresh this week.