Saving sunshine

I don't know why but it seems like I'm enjoying this summer weather more than I ever have.  Maybe because I'm grateful to be home.  Maybe because I am remembering to appreciate the world around me more.  Maybe because Seattle in July is the loveliest spot on the planet.

Who knows.

How I wish I could bottle it up and save some of the sunshine and warmth and blue blue skies.  (Well, yesterday was cloudy but that's the exception!)

Last week, Emma and I made raspberry jam.  Five batches.  We used raspberries that had been picked that morning at a local farm.  Popping one of them in my mouth made me swoon.  An explosion of warm sweetness and sunshine and the good earth.  Times like that make me grateful for a Heavenly Father who loves me.  Why else would there be such delicious decadence in the world?

As I surveyed the pretty jewel toned jars on the counter when we were done, I realized I had successfully bottled up some of July.  In that bottle were sweet fruit, laughter I shared with Emma while she crushed berries and I stirred jam, and sunshine.

All winter when I am making sandwiches for my children to take to school, I will not be spreading raspberry jam on the bread.

I will be spreading sunshine.

(That's what I'll tell myself...I will be needing some sunshine.)