
To perfection.
I could ask for my Aunt’s Strawberry Jam recipe, but it wouldn’t matter. This jam is made from Strawberries grown in my Uncles garden in Delaware. I remember when he decided to plant strawberries and had them in pots, now there are enough for jam! I could attempt to make her jam using fresh strawberries from the farm here, but ours aren’t as sweet. And there is no way I could get it so that the strawberries weren’t complete mush.

So for now, I will savor the remaining jar and a half I have left. I have had English muffins for breakfast, something I usually save for holidays, for the past week. I have also mixed the jam into my bowl of Cream of Wheat, and boy that was heaven. I am afraid to buy some vanilla ice cream for fear there would be no jam left. I can only imagine how delicious it would be drizzling down the sides of the ice cream.
It’s a good thing she didn’t send me home with her peach pie!!! Oh man, my mouth is watering just thinking about it.
Categories:
Food,
The Beach

And this Church is still standing. It is located in Laurel, Delaware, not far from my Aunt’s house. I have been to Laurel many times over the years, but I never noticed this little Church. If you didn’t know it was a Church you would think it was a barn and keep on driving.
One of the days that we were at my Aunt’s house and heading out to do a bit of shopping, Hubby remembered seeing this Church in a book on my Aunt’s coffee table the year before. Hubby loves old buildings and Churches and is always wanting to stop and look at them. We looked it up in the book and got the address onto his GPS and headed over. It was beautiful. Not that it is fancy or anything, but the sheer fact that it was built 300 years ago using timber from the land and iron from the Nanticoke Indian Tribe. And the fact that it has boxed seating and the interior has remained unpainted for 300 years is amazing.
I guess you are wondering how I know all this? Well, after Hubby took a walk about, I got the kids out and wanted to take some photos. When I was finishing up and we were getting ready to pack everybody back in the truck a little red car pulled up. I was thinking, that we were going to be in trouble for parking on the land or walking around or something, but no. The couple that pulled up asked us, “How would you like to take a look inside?”. How would we, we would love it!!! They were the keepers of the Church! They attend the Christ Church in Town and nobody had been taking care of the Church for a few years, so they offered to do it. There are at least four weddings a year, one of which was theirs some 20 years ago, and every Sunday the Pastor holds services there during the summer.

Here is a photo from inside the Church. Each box was owned by a family, the pulpit is on the right wall (This photo has it cut off a bit), and there is a balcony for visitors, which is where I took this photo from. The couple wanted to open all the windows for us, but I stopped them at one. It was such a treat to be able to see inside this piece of history, we felt blessed. For all the years I have been going to Delaware, it was nice to see a little something extra.

Not to bore you all with photos of my trip, but I am trying to drag it out as long as possible, if only so I don’t feel like we didn’t have a vacation at all. We haven’t even been home a week and J keeps saying that he has forgotten all about his fun at the Beach. I know for a fact that this isn’t true because he talks about how much fun he had at other times during the day. J is a lot like me and because he doesn’t want to admit that we aren’t there anymore, he pretends like he can’t remember.

The kids were fabulous on our trip. J only really started to like the actual beach last year. Previous years he spent in the stroller or sitting on the blanket. Great for me as he was easy to clean. This year it took him about fifteen minutes then he was playing in the surf and chasing the waves onto the shore.

Apple was fantastic. Unlike her brother she loves the sand and the surf and would take at least one nap a day on the blanket. I kept her in the carrier for a while each morning while we would stand at the water and watch the water, J, Hubby, other kids playing.
My cousin is in the process of moving from Virginia Beach back up to Maryland, but their house keeps getting pushed back, so my cousin-in-law and their two kids came up to the Beach a couple of times to play some games, walk the Boardwalk and just basically hang out. J loved it. Their eldest is 13, but he is fantastic with young kids and let J hang off him and wrestle him and colour with him. It was great because honestly 11 days with Mom, Dad and baby Sister is not always fun.

I’ll try not to go into overkill with my Beach vacation, but it does have to keep me going for a whole year. And thank you for your well wishes for my Uncle. He is still in his induced coma, but they are now bringing him out slowly. His condition is still critical, but we are praying for a full recovery.