Hello Christian Friends & Homeschoolers,
Do you have any special memories associated with strawberries? I do.
Maybe you like to especially eat strawberries in the summertime. Or maybe you prefer to eat them all year round. Then again, maybe you don’t like to eat strawberries at all.
Well, food as we all know has memories associated with it. As my babies grew they eventually graduated to baby food. There is homemade baby food, organic baby food, and store bought baby food. Then there are the many, varied philosophies of when to introduce solid food.
All of this brings us back to the fact that food has memories associated with it. We have pictures taken of the first time a baby eats his or her birthday cake and ice cream. We have cute pictures of our babies with food all over their faces. Can you imagine what a baby thinks of all that extra attention just when he or she might want to focus on eating?
This brings me back to strawberries. We have special family memories associated with strawberries. When I was a young child my parents would take us to a u-pick strawberry farm. I mostly watched as my parents found the largest strawberries I had ever seen emerge from under the strawberry leaves.
Then to my utter amazement, I found that we were given permission to taste a strawberry or two while we picked strawberries. Imagine that. And nobody even died from eating a strawberry straight from the field. I don’t remember any lawsuits from someone trying to find fault with a strawberry farm because they had not cleaned it first before it was eaten. I don’t remember any signs posted that read: “Eat at your own risk”. With the advent of the lack of lasting family ties, we now find more people trying to find fault and take advantage of their neighbor. That is another blog though.
Let’s get back to memories again. Go out and find a u-pick strawberry farm or find a pick your own fruit and vegetable farm. Take your family with you. You will build family memories. In the dirt, you will work together. Have you ever heard the saying, “the family that plays together, stays together”? The family that works together, stays together! This is an essential trait of happy, healthy families.
When we eventually got the strawberries home we were not done. We needed to pick the stems from the strawberries, clean the strawberries and mash some of the strawberries. Then we would enjoy some of the strawberries over Twinkies or angel food cake. Others were frozen to put over birthday cakes. Sometimes we made strawberry jam which we enjoyed over toast. Yummy!
Now I have a question for you. Is picking strawberries fun time? Or is it work? Don’t you agree that when we work and play together as families, memories are built? This is one great way to create family togetherness. It builds a sense of family unity. Feel free to share some of your favorite ways to build family memories.
