Mmm...

What tastes better than a ripe blueberry plucked right from the bush after it's been warming in the sun? Not much! Christy and I took our little ones blueberry pickin' Wednesday and we came home with a whole mess of yummy, ripe blueberries! The kids had fun, though Leah didn't work for long. After about 10 minutes, she put her bucket down and started picking them entirely for her own stomach. When I questioned her about her bucket, she said "My mouth's an empty bucket, and I'm filling it!" Luke picked for a long time before finally setting his bucket down after I informed him that it was not a contest between us and Christy and Carley. "Okay", he said with some relief, "now I'll just eat 'em!" Still, he made it longer than most 6-year-old's would have. We went at about 1:00p.m. and were sweating like pigs! But it was worth it! Now the real hard work begins: deciding how to use our blueberries! There's blueberry cobbler, blueberry pancakes, blueberry muffins, blueberry oatmeal, blueberry preserves...I sound like the guy in the movie "Forrest Gump" who loved shrimp! Seriously, anything with blueberries in it suits me just fine! We're taking some to share with Mee-Mee and Paw-Paw this weekend when we travel to Florida (my thoughtful boy made sure we picked enough for them). I'll have to share my blueberry oatmeal recipe with you later (it's baked, fairly healthy, and super yummy). I'm also going to try Louise Hempling's blueberry preserves recipe next week, so I'll let you know if I'm successful. You may not want to hold your breath! Still, her recipe book is one of my greatest earthly treasures, so I'll share her recipe regardless of my effort to reproduce it! Now get off the computer and head to your nearest blueberry patch!