Eternity

Spencer and I were sealed in the Manti Temple on June 2, 2012.

It was the best day of my life! We were very lucky to have almost all of our family and friends there to help us celebrate the wonderful day. Its amazing to me the love that I feel for my man. It is also amazing to me how much that love has grown in the last few weeks as we've prepared to go through the temple, gone to a few sessions together, and then finally to be sealed as a family for time and all eternity. Our relationship has improved in areas that I didn't even know we needed, that is the power of the gospel. That is the blessing of having the spirit in your life every day. I love being sealed to my best friend, and knowing that we have eternity to be a family! I love knowing that our little babe will be with us one day, and that the little dear ones who will one day join our family are also ours forever. Eternity is such an amazing concept to me. I feel like I've won the biggest jackpot in the history of ever. To be Spencer's wife, the mother of our children, a family forever, is the greatest blessing I've ever received. I love the temple. I love the feeling I get when I walk through those doors, when I listen to the blessings promised me, when I sit in the Celestial room with my best friend, and one true love. I love that our family and very close friends could be there to share this day with us. Being surounded by everyone you love, the people who mean the world to you, its almost like you're getting a glimpse of what Heaven will be like.

I love to see the temple.

I want to go every day.

To feel the Holy Spirit,

To listen, and to pray.

One Year Supply of Freezer Jam..... Check.

I dont know if you've ever had homemade strawberry jam before, but my mom makes it, and for years I thought she had some complex, super secret, passed down for generations recipe... little did I know she just got it off the box of pectin that you buy at Walmart. HA! It is also the easiest recipe in the world. All of the 3 ingredients can be found at any local grocery store. Strawberries, Sugar, Pectin. So simple. (Recipe found here)

Well, now that I am a responsible, married, adult, and I have another mouth to feed (Spencer's) I have to worry about how many jars of peanut butter(chunky) we have on the shelf, and how many jars of jam we have left in the freezer, you know, the important things. Well, unfortunately our month of June was not one of our better months, not only did we have an unexpected hospital stay, but we also ran out of jam! Spencer had to break out the smuckers for a few weeks... poor guy. So I decided to finally get my butt in gear and turn on the Suzy-Homemaker switch for the weekend.

Obviously a Costco trip was manditory (they have the BEST produce). So after 3 cartons of strawberries, 60 mason jars (random sizes... and yes we go through 2 jars a month), 9 boxes of pectin, and about 36 cups of sugar!!!!! (I didnt say this was a healthy recipe... its just mouthwateringly delicious!)

Now, the recipe says that you can throw everything into your blender/food processor and call it good... however, my mom said that you end up with ruuuuuuuunnyy jam when you do that. So instead, I got stuck with the task of HAND MASHING 3 cartons of strawberries.

Talk about tennis elbow.

But the ending result is fabulous...

(notice the random sized jars? makes it more exciting I think.)

We've made dozens of PBJ's (or just J's for me), Pancakes, Crepes, and coming soon, Scones!

I love me some Strawberry Jam!

Have a great day!!!!