Lavender Festival and My Son The Canner

After I headed upstairs last night (Saturday) I realized that I didn't blog. I simply forgot. Rachel came around 11:00 a.m. and Jon and I headed to the Lavender Festival at Blake's Cider Mill. Last year Diane and Randie joined us, but this year they are both under the weather. When we arrived, I almost turned around and came home. Way, way, way too many people. I pulled into the closest parking lot, not expecting to get a spot. God did provide one in that lot and we didn't have to walk a mile from the field across the street. I took my mom's walker with the seat on it because I'm like a drunk on uneven ground. It helped a lot, but it was hard to maneuver through the crowds. Friday was a record-breaking day with 5,000 people in attendance. I think there were 5,000 people there when we were there.

When we finished we drove to Armada and had lunch at Chap's. After Rachel left, Jon got out his canning stuff and began making blueberry preserves. His batch yesterday was full sugar. Too sweet. He made another double batch today with half the sugar. Delicious! Way to go, Jon!

He's also been changing out his herbs. He's putting last years herbs in bags and refilling his jars with the newly dried and processed ones. (They're to the upper left of the picture.) I'm one lucky mom to have a son who enjoys gardening and then canning. Growing up in the city, we had canned goods. No back yard garden. It's a lot of work, but so satisfying and he enjoys it so much.

Today (Sunday), we took turns going to church then met Chris, Eric, Sean and Ashley at the Hamlin Pub for lunch. Jessie was thrilled because I let her have fish and chips. She's not had anything deep fried in a couple months. I finished a really good book by Lauraine Snelling entitled, Someday Home. I also took a long nap while Jon was canning. We had a light dinner, Jess and I sat on the front porch for a few minutes, and now it's almost time to call it a day.

Thank you for praying for Jon. The steroids are helping quite a bit. He's still uncomfortable, but not like he was. Jessie is doing super. She's back to sitting on the floor, leaning over her legs to play with her cards, beads and watch her iPad. However, every once in a while she says, "Pain!", gets up and sits on the couch. I'm not really sure how she can sit on the floor already, but that's what she wants to do. She loves pulling up her shirt, displaying her surgery sites and saying, "Surgery, all done!"