I made plum pear jam last night and it is to die for. I made a triple batch and only used a small portion of my plums and it only came to a lousy 9 pints. Mind you that's a lot of jam, but I had to peel pears and depit small (but tasty) plums for it, i.e., not much end product for the effort.

I bought 20lbs of sugar today and 3 boxes of pint jars and I'll be busy skinning pears and plums slicing up plums until the wee hours this evening, I'm sure. I also found a plum peach jam recipe, so I'll probably be doing some combo of those tonight. My hope is that next year that I won't have to buy any more freaking canning jars. I'm also fairly certain that somewhere in the depths of my garage, I have a whole box filled with perfectly useable jars, but I'll be darned if I know where it is.

Mostly, I'm tired. Mike is working 12-14 hours per day and this single parenting gig really blows. I accidentally slept in today and honestly, I felt like I could stand a few more hours, but I got up and worked on laundry, shopping,etc. I brought Mike a sandwich, because otherwise he doesn't eat lunch. I have groceries that I still need to put away.

One thing at a time, I swear.

So much to do, so little time to accomplish it.

I also felt like a queen yesterday because I managed to get rid of three boxes of crap out of the garage. Some of it was boxes I hadn't unpacked since we moved out of California three years ago.

Oh, shaddup.

I found scrapbooks, Russell's baby books, and some favorite tapes.

I think what was neatest is that I got to go through Russell's baby book with him and he got to understand how much I planned for, protected, and loved him. I think when Russell understood that despite my obvious failings that I have spent his whole life adoring the blue bejesus out of him, he found it comforting that I have always thought he was special. Heck, I think I got one month's worth of stuff into Genny's book and abandoned the whole thing.

I have a lot more pictures of her, though, and for that, I'm happy, too.

I also found Genny stuff in the boxes -- including a small Beatrix Potter pail with her tiny baby newborn socks in it. I tried putting it in her room, but she started to go through it, so I hid it in mine until she's older.

Memory lane is a pretty place.