Blueberry Pickin'

This weekend we spent the afternoon at a wonderful park in our city...a public blueberry park can you believe it? Well it is true! I find this particularly exciting because I love blueberries and so does my family. It is a tradition for us every August on a clear evening to go pick blueberries by the handfuls off the bush. Its incredible, and then we have enough blueberries for the year. We wash them well, drain them, and then spread them out on cookie sheets and freeze them. Once frozen they are much easier to pack into zip locks. Then we just use what is needed for blueberry pancakes or scones. Delicious!

As you can tell I love blueberries, I even painted my bottom cupboards in my kitchen the color of blueberries!

This park is many acres within the city that at one time was a blueberry farm. There are tons of bushes and 15 varieties of blueberries...I didn't even know that there were that many varieties. Some of the plants produce berries with the most beautiful, big, bursting with purplish- blueberry goodness! You can't find these in the stores and the best thing about this park, is that its a public park! You can come and pick till your hearts desire, because it is FREE!

They have a volunteer group that keeps the bushes pruned and the pathways clear and clean, I even hear that they serve coffee and donuts to those that help out, that's a nice deal! This year they have made some great improvements to the park. They put in picnic benches and paved some pathways there is even a portable outhouse there now.

Here is What We Do For Easter

I know there are many traditional things to do to celebrate Easter, so I would like to share what our family does to bring the spiritual meaning of Easter into the forefront of our celebration.

I also wanted to make something special for the table this year and here is what I came up with, it goes very nicely with my blue and white kitchen.

The reminders of rebirth are everywhere! From the cherry blossoms bursting forth and the tinge of bright green that dusts the hills and valleys of gray. To the birth of spring animals, chicks, ducks, and baby lambs. Bulbs are pushing through the long dismal winter, a necessity of their fulfillment when they bloom.

Jesus too. He was born with great and specific purpose so you and I might have new life. Oh how I love Easter time! It comes just when (here in the Pacific Northwest) I don't think I can stand another bland, gray, day! Things start showing their new life and hope is born again! "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life."Prov.13:12 Jesus was given as our hope of everlasting life, oh how grateful I am for such a sacrifice of love to a sinner like me!

We usually start 12 days before Easter doing our resurrection eggs. We read the bible story of the crucufiction and resurrection of Jesus Christ each verse coincides with an egg. The kids open the egg after the scripture is read. The egg contains a symbol of what the scripture was about. The story of Christ's Death and Resurrection are explained in the 12 eggs. I have seen many versions of this idea but the one we do is special to me because the kids made this set when they were in preschool and we have used it ever since, 10 yrs. now!