this week

This week I finished my finals. At times I didn't think I would make it. This semester has been tougher than I expected. I'm glad it's over and that I can have some time to get ready for the baby and do some projects and spend time with Kevin and Ryan.

In my Surface Processes class, there is a sweet lady who is probably about my mom's age and going back to school. At the beginning of the semester I started sitting in the row in front of her, and we started talking and became friends. She is one of the kindest people I've ever met and was very supportive of me having a family and finishing my education. The day of the final, she pulled out an old cookbook with favorite Mormon recipes in it and gave it to me. I had told her about my church and she remembered that she still had that cookbook and thought I would like it. I thought it was a really thoughtful thing to do. I wish we had exchanged email addresses. I don't know if I'll ever see her again.

My mom sent me a copy of Chicken Soup for the Expectant Mother's Soul. I started it after finals were over and I'm already halfway through. It was just the sort of thing I needed. I needed heartwarming and funny stories about pregnancy and babies.

Yesterday we went and picked strawberries. Ryan and I ended up taking turns picking berries because Kevin just wanted to eat them, but we still had a good time. Since it's still early in the season, we only had to go a few yards along the row to get all the berries we needed. I was also surprised that it wasn't as uncomfortable as I had expected to pick berries at eight months pregnant. A man said to me, "They're not going to make you pick berries, are they?" and I replied, "Oh, it's not too bad, because I have a built-in pillow to lean forward on." We got over 20 pounds to make jam and eat. It was fun to hear other pickers around us exclaiming, "Oh, wow! Look at these berries! They look so good! This is so amazing!" You don't get berries like that in the store, so I guess most people aren't used to seeing what real strawberries look and taste like. We are fortunate to have several pick-your-own berry patches nearby. It brought back memories of going to pick strawberries with my grandma and my sisters in Idaho. I loved the feeling of being in a field full of plants.

I need to make a trip to the store tomorrow to get some pectin because the pectin I bought calls for twice as much sugar as berries, so I'm going to try to find the Ball Freezer Jam pectin that I used two years ago, which calls for much less sugar. I'm teaching a Relief Society class about canning in a couple of weeks, so I'm glad this happened because now I realize that not all pectin is the same and I can talk about that in the class. Isn't it nice to live in a time when we can just buy pectin instead of standing over a spattering pot of berries waiting for the fruit's natural pectin to cause the jam to gel while all the flavor and nutrients boil away?