I Just Spent $60 on Blueberries

After moving to Maine I noticed a very obvious trend. Canning was apparently very popular in New England. I never thought about canning before. My sister-in-law makes this amazing raspberry jam and jars it for everyone to enjoy, yet it never even crossed my mind to do it myself. It wasn't until I started really noticing the displays in stores that I started to think about doing it myself. It was during my frugal week, so I went to the library and took out some books on preserving food. I read some and then thought about what I wanted to make. I thought for a good week before I decided that I was going to make blueberry jam. I'm living in Maine and most of my family and friends aren't. I wanted to give them all a piece of Maine. I set off on my quest to get the berries. I won't go into all the details because they aren't that interesting, so I will cut to the chase.

This morning I picked up 15 pounds of wild Maine blueberries from Jordan's Farm. And then, after dinner, armed with An Idiots Guide to Preserving Food and a web video about making really fast and easy jam I set out to make some jam.

Before I started cooking I turned to Jeremy and said, "You know, I don't really like blueberries" as I watched him eat them by the handful from the box. Jeremy looked at me with that annoyed look he gives me when I admit to doing something ridiculous, like spending $60 on a fruit I don't even like. As I made the jam I thought about all my feelings that I have about blueberries and by the end, I was pretty sure that I understood it. Blueberries are great as long as they are cooked, raw... I'm not too crazy about.

I made a very small test batch, only about 10 ounces, and I really like it. Jeremy and I tested it on peanut butter and buttered toast and we cannot decide which we like best.

Here is what I did... I watched this video from The New York Times entitled The Minimalist: Fast Blueberry Jam and did exactly what he did. I added a tad of sugar and some lemon, other than that, it is all berries.

Then I jarred them and used a boiling water canner to seal the jars. When I was finished, I had two full jars and one half. But, now there is only one jar left :)

My Sport is Your Sport's Punishment

My sport is your sport's punishment? That sounds like a horrible sport; A sport I would never ever want to be part of. And that was true. A year ago today I thought running was the most insane sport and that only crazies ran. When I was about 16 years old, I tried to run, but as soon as I started, I would begin wheezing and coughing so hard that I thought I was coughing up blood. After a few unsuccessful attempts, I never tried again.

September 11, 2011 will mark my 1 year anniversary of running, a sport that I swore was for the mentally ill. What changed? What changed was that I gave birth. I had just packed on 30 pounds and now I felt I would be bound to my house with a newborn, probably eating my days away. I was a new mother, overwhelmed and looking to take short cuts. I ordered take-out for dinner several times a week and put off trying to get back in shape. When would I find the time? The energy? With little sleep and a new munchkin, it was easy to convince myself I couldn't do it.

Shortly after Max's birth, Jeremy took up running and decided that he was going to run the Philadelphia marathon. I thought he was crazy. I wouldn't run from my front door to the curb, let alone 26.2 miles. Regardless, I supported him and thought him insane only behind his back. Throughout his training, Jeremy exhibited great control over his work and family life. He was organized and seemed to have more positive energy than usual, and I thought... is he like this because of the running? Then my friend Gina started running too and started dropping the baby weight and then... she signed up for a 5K and asked me to do it too.

Gina was just like me, same height, same weight, and we both just had a baby. All of a sudden I felt like if Gina could do it, so could I. Immediately, without a further thought, I signed up for the same 5k she did and started to think about a plan.

Gina discovered running by using a program called the Couch to 5K Program. And it does exactly that... it takes you from the couch to running a 5k in just 9 weeks. But, I didn't have 9 weeks... I had 7.

My plan was to expedite the program. Instead of running 3 days a week and resting 4, I would run every other day. Some weeks I ran 4 times, some weeks I ran 3. This was my plan so I would be able to run the 5K. Running and not walking any part of the race was really important to me. And... the training began.

For those of you not familiar with the couch to 5k plan, it is a program designed to ease any non runner into running. The goal would be to get anyone to run 30 minutes straight. It starts out with a run that consists of 60 seconds of walking, 60 seconds of running, 60 seconds of walking, 60 seconds of running, for 30 minutes. It sounds quite easy, but I found it challenging. The next day they have you run for 90 seconds and walk for 60, until 30 minutes is up. That program continues to increase running time and decrease walking time until one day, before you know it you are running for 20 minutes straight and blazing through the center of town, feeling good.

And it was true, I wasn't just fooling or lying to make Gina or Jeremy feel better, I was really in love with running. It made me feel good. It gave me energy and improved my mood. Best of all, it took pounds off. I was, at that point, thinner than I was when I said "i do" the year prior. Things were good and it was all thanks to running.

On the 7th week of the couch to 5k program I ran my first 5K alongside Gina in Hoboken, NJ on October 30, 2010. I completed the 3.1 miles in 34:53:21 and did not walk any of it.

After that race, Jeremy went on to run the Philadelphia Marathon, which blew my mind. Jeremy was a marathoner. I could not have been more proud.

Running was invading our lives, taking us over and consuming time that would have been spent watching tv or arguing. This thing, that I hated and vowed never to do was making us happy. Then we started racing together and running together.

The thing about running is, it is great as long as you are doing it, but as soon as you stop, forget it... it is really hard to start again. You keep thinking that you can do things that you just can't any more. It's hard to understand that you have to start slow and increase your miles gradually. Even if you ran a marathon only a few months prior, with time off, you are going to have to start with fewer miles than you want. We all stop for different reasons. For us, it was the move from NJ to ME. Packing, Traveling, Moving, Unpacking... it all takes energy and time. We decided to take the energy and time that we were putting into running and stick it into moving for the time being. And with that, we lost the running.

On July 14, 2011 I turned 30 and Jeremy and I ran 3 miles, together with Max (in the stroller) alongside the crashing waves of the ocean in Maine. We had been in Maine for 3 months and that day was our wake-up day. That was the day the excuses stopped and the running hiatus ended. We vowed to one another, on that beach that we would run again.

I am currently signed up for a 10K on September 18, 2011, almost a year to the day I started running. I was hoping that this moment would have come sooner, but in some ways I am just happy to know that this moment is finally here. Jeremy will also be running. We have set up a training schedule and are following it as ridgedly as we can. Right now, the farthest we ran has been 3.5 miles. We have to make it up to 6 and I have no doubt in my mind that we will do it. We take Max with us on most of our runs and he seems to really love it. We hope when he grows up he will want to run. Cause, why not? Anyone can be a runner.