My kitchen looks like a slasher movie.

Today, I went with the fam and some friends to pick strawberries. This was my first time doing this (as a grown up, when the "you can only take home what you can carry" rule doesn't really help limit things much.) We had such a good time. Chatting, picking, watching the kids get completely covered in strawberry juice -- they were the stickiest, cutest vampires I have ever seen. Well...18.5 lbs of berries later, I am up to my eyeballs in macerated strawberry guts. Strawberry cream cheese, strawberry vinaigrette, strawberry puree, 2 kinds of strawberry jam, and I still have about 12 quarts left. I am freezing the rest. I think I'll make the world's biggest margarita. The thing is, I thought this all out. I said to myself this morning, self, since you are going to be in the kitchen anyway, you might as well pick up some battered and bruised tomatoes for sauce. 2 bankers boxes full. 16 quarts of tomatoes. I am thinking about painting the kitchen walls with the leftovers. That might be kind of fun. After I finish of that world's biggest margarita, right?
It really is fun, though. And I only get to (have to) do this for a few months to have summer and spring all year long in my freezer. Speaking of that, due to the Red Debacle of 2009, my husband is out at the hardware store pricing freezers. I guess the Get-a-ton-of-produce-they-are-so-cheap argument is a flawed one.
Hey, I did my first load of laundry on the line this week. It was great! I thought that I was out of luck this week, as we were supposed to have big rain everyday. Well, Wednesday afternoon the sun broke through. I grabbed the little one and my freshly washed cleaning rags and towels (they are so cute -- most of them I knit to get over the precious knits syndrome) and hung them (the knits not the kiddo) on my retractable line. I have to say, I was really proud of myself. We ran through the towels and smacked our hands in the middle of them just like I remember doing at my Gramma's house when I was a kid. It was fun, and because there was a little breeze, nothing turned out too crusty. All in all, a good start to the Clothesline Challenge. I'm sitting at 20% dried on the line. Cool. I should have taken a picture. Next time I will. Just have to charge my battery. And really, you don't want to see the kitchen right now. Trust me.