Every now and then I will feel this strong inclination to be "SUPER MOM," a little domesticated ball of crazy. This weekend happened to be one of those moments; when I decided I was going to make jam. I'm certain I can't be the only mother that has experienced this but I always start out my projects gung ho and then little by little as things gradually go wrong I begin wondering what the hell was I thinking? I'm no "Super Mom" just a crazy jam making lady!!!My brilliant husband had made jam with his mom growing up and as much as I thank him for his expertise he has a tendency to take over, which in turn makes me mad because after all it was my project. Things started out well, we had our fruit ready and the jars were boiled sanitized and ready to go. One thing I have failed to mention is that the cooking space in our kitchen is very limited so bumping into each other is fairly common in our household. This is where disaster generally strikes, you can only bump into a person so many times, especially with little ones under foot until someone's nerves are bound to blow.
Our first batch wasn't the problem even though we used old pectin and 17 jars didn't set up and ended up looking like runny goo, nope that wasn't a problem at all. This runny goo just happened to be my breaking point of frustration because oddly enough most of the things I cook, bake, assemble, etc. generally come out pretty flawless. I'm not a fan of failure and have a slight tendency to beat myself up over things that don't turn out exactly like I envisioned. At this point I was blaming it all on my mother-in-law for the bad pectin, LOL why because its always easier to point the blame elsewhere instead of admitting we actually screwed up.
Instead of being wise and throwing in the towel what did we decide to do, let's make one more batch!!! Aside from the fact we had two starving children under foot and a kitchen full of chaotic mess on every visible surface area, we were doing pretty good right? Paul was mad because he wanted to be cutting the lawn, Danielle kept asking when we were going to eat breakfast (I did tide her over with a yogurt just so you know), and Kanyon kept pushing a kitchen chair over to the counter so he could see what all the chaos was about.
I will tell you that after all the mess was tidied up, kids were fed, and parents a hair calmer that our second batch of rasberry jam turned out completely perfect. What I did learn is that I can indeed sometimes be "Super Mom." I am a firm believer this is why I have gray hair and I'm a few pounds heavier than I care to be, because let's just face it these situations can be highly stressful so what better way to handle stress than pop a twinkie or two :) LOL funny right? Lesson learned: do projects when kids are in bed fast asleep or husband is preoccupied. I love you baby, I really do but let's just face it two stubborn people in a tiny little kitchen, bad things are bound to happen to good people and I would really hate to dump a bottle of runny goo on your head!!! Nuff said :)
LOVE this write-up. I can almost smell the goo and hear the kitchen chaos because of your great writing. You are a SUPER MOM, no doubt about it! My one sticky experience bottling peaches with my sister was enough to swear my off for years to come. And BOY do I hear ya about the stress eating ...sadly there's just INSTANT comfort from my happy snacks...when everything else around my is going to hell, I seek solace from my Diet Pepsi and Doritos. :)
ReplyDeleteKaye you're too sweet, but its a guarantee my writing just doesn't quite compare with yours. I love to read your stories they are wonderful!!!
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