Strawberry Fields Forever

     Remember that I said we picked strawberries on Memorial Day? We did. Twenty-two pounds of strawberries. We had seven people picking, and it only took us twenty or thirty minutes. Uncle Bob and Aunt Heather took half of the strawberries to the Morris house, where I believe they were turned into strawberry shortcake. We (my immediate family) had to go home that same day, and we took the other half with us. Unfortunately, they didn't fare too well. If you stick two sealed containers of strawberries in a hot, messy mini van with three boys and a cross sister, they don't exactly come out in pristine condition. But you can't throw that many strawberries away, can you? I mean, come on. You need a rescue plan. (Preferably one that involves strawberry shakes.)

See now? They're a little smashed, but they are still STRAWBERRIES! ;)

    Can you guess who was put in charge of saving the strawberries? Me! The first step involved scouring Pinterest for any recipes that had to do with old/pureed strawberries. I went through a ton of recipes and pins, and I finally decided on these three:

Mini Strawberry Pop Tarts (Scientifically Sweet)
Strawberry Lemonade Bars (Cosmo Cookie)
Strawberry Pops (MarthaStewart.com)

      I made the strawberry pops first. They're super, super easy (the only ingredients are strawberries and powdered sugar) and they were very flavorful and rich. They tasted like some kind of gourmet popsicle that costs three bucks. ;) They were also very filling, and some of us could barely finish ours. Which is weird because . . . have you ever had a popsicle that was filling?

     Next I made these poptarts. They were very intense and time-consuming, but they were amazing! I found myself really, really wishing that I had doubled or tripled the recipe, because I only got six poptarts out of all that work. I definitely would not do it again for only six poptarts, but I might do it again for a couple dozen.

     I was rather disappointed in the strawberry lemonade bars. As you can see, they did not exactly turn out beautifully. I think that there was too much filling. It was too gooey and flavorful, and you never got to taste the crust. It did taste like strawberry lemonade, but I'm not a huge fan of the flavor. I much prefer regular lemon bars.   

     Overall, the strawberry recipes were very sucessful and tasty. (And I got some new popsicle molds out of the bargain.) I'd also like to mention that strawberry puree is amazing. Yumm. I was tempted to drink it straight.
     Today (and tomorrow) we are having a joint garage sale with our neighbors. I woke up at 7:40 this morning (ick) looked out the window and saw that the whole street was lined with cars! Business is brisk, and fortunately, it rained last night and the temperature is almost chilly. That's good news, because it was horribly hot yesterday.

P.S. I've practically been breathing strawberries for several days straight, and I have a Beatles song stuck in my head. I don't think it's really talking about strawberries, but I can't quit mentally singing "Strawberry Fields Foreverrrrr!"

Best of May 2012

My favorite posts are the ones that I enjoyed writing. The ones that I feel describe me most. The ones that said exactly what I meant. It's not easy to decide which one those are. But if I had to pick five from this month, these are the ones that might be on my list . . . 

Dear Shoes.

Books that made me cry . . . 

Hey Boo.

I want to live where it's beautiful.

Without Little Boys. 

As for favorite posts from other blogs? That's a hard one too. Guys, I have like a million posts in my dashboard for the month of May. Scrolling through quickly (if that's possible) I would pick . . .


Sophia// Shang Chuan Dao (Life in the 852)
Rainy Day and Mother's Day (Definitely Screaming)
aloha (earworm)
awkward and awesome thursday (Bella Ragazza)
Old Family Treasures (an ordinary utopia)
Forgotten (Fernweh Magazine)
The Burning House (Fernweh Magazine)

What were your favorite posts from this month?

Give me some input?

     This summer I would like to start some regular blog features. I have several ideas of my own, but I'd like some input from you guys. Which of my posts have you enjoyed the most? What blog features are you interested in? I'm going to tell you some of my ideas, and then I need some feedback and suggestions from you guys. Please? Thanks, you're amazing ;) These are the ideas I've been turning over in my mind . . .

Dear Life
In this feature I would write letters to random objects, people and ideas. This is something I've already done twice (Dear Cat and Dear Shoes) Everyone seemed to enjoy both posts, and I enjoyed writing them. This would be a pretty flexible feature, and it would be interesting to see where it goes. Both of my posts were pretty spontaneous, so I'm not sure how this would go as a regular feature.

Book Stack
To be fair, this is already a pretty regular feature on my blog. (Click here to read the Book Stack posts) However, I think I'd like to change it a little. Mainly, I'd like to post the book stack when I return it to the library instead of when I check it out from the library. I feel like this would be a little more honest because I would only post the books that I actually read. It would also enable me to rate the books, and it would save me from the awkwardness of posting books that I didn't realize were inappropriate. (Because let's face it. That happens.)

Food Powers
It's no secret: Morrises like food. And (if I, as a Morris am allowed to say so), we're pretty good at making seriously tasty food. This feature would probably look a lot like the very popular Lemon Desserts post. It wouldn't necessarily include recipes, because I would feel pretty bad about posting other people's recipes on my blog. On the other hand, my family has some really amazing brownie recipes and Dad and I more or less invented our chicken salad recipe. If it can be called a recipe. It contains a lot of variables.

From the Journal 
This feature would mostly feature pages from my art/quote journal. (See this post for an example) It would mainly focus on quotes and creative lists.

Best of the Month
I am definitely planning on doing this feature. It will be posted at the end of each month, and will feature my favorite posts of the month (from my blog & other blogs). In addition, it will possibly feature my favorite blogs and my plans for the next month.

Pinterest Projects
Pinterest is wonderful. But the sad fact is this: very few of the projects and recipes that I pin actually turn into a project. This feature would be very similar to my Pinterest Challenge. (Just less rules.)

Book Lists
This feature would basically involve me making lists of my favorite books from various genres and groups. (Read Books that made me cry . . . for an example.)

Memories
This would be a fun way to dig through old photos and write about things that make me happy. I can't promise that this feature would be interesting, but I do have some pretty adorable photos and funny stories. 


      So. What do you think? Which features are you interested in? More importantly, which ones are you not interested in? Do you have any additional suggestions? Let me know! You guys are a super important part of this blog =)

Memorial Day Vacation

Jason/Piper and Pookie/The Avengers/Brunch/Bonfire/Strawberries

     We had a lovely Memorial Day vacation. We got to spend a lot of time with both sides of the family, and we got to see our cousins and most of our Morris aunts and uncles. A huge outline of our trip would probably be tedious, so I'll just make a list of the highlights . . .

• The Morris girls went out for brunch at a little cafe in downtown Delavan.
• Sam and I went to see The Avengers with Mom, Dad, and our aunts and uncles.
• We had shrimp and crab rangoon for dinner on Saturday night.
• Our wonderful friends the Smiths spent the evening with us at Grandma and Grandpa's, and we had a huge bonfire.
• We went to church with both sides of the family, and had barbecue for lunch. 
• On Sunday we had dinner with Grandma W. and Uncle Paul, and we got to meet Uncle Paul's girlfriend.
• We (Sam, Ben, and I) went strawberry-picking earlier today with Uncle Bob, Aunt Heather, Aunt Carolyn and Grandma M.

     So yes. It was lovely. We woke up early and sat around Grandma's kitchen table. We took the dogs on long walks around Grandma's farm.We played with our adorable cousins. We had delicious meals at Grandma M's house. We lay in the grass and looked at the stars and had wonderful conversations with our friends. It was good. And now? I think I shall crash ;)

Photo inspiration from Life in the 852 and Tease Your Toes.
Source for The Avengers photo can be found here.

Dear Shoes

Dear Shoes,
     It has been several weeks since I said goodbye to you. I must admit that I am not saddened by your absence. You might be interested to hear that independence agrees with me very much. I am doing quite well on my own, and I keep company with footwear that is far more gracious and agreeable. Perhaps we may remain on amiable terms, but I have no intention of returning to our previous relationship. It was much too controlling and confining, and I believe that I have greatly benefited from our parting of ways. I hope that there are no hard feelings between us.

Sincerely,
Lydia

Dear Readers and Followers . . . we are headed to Illinois for Memorial Day. I will be back on Monday. Till then!