the opposite of joy

My mom and I (and sometimes sister)  love to can.  Strawberry jam is always the first thing canned because of the season.  For as long as I can remember we have driven out to Kathan's Berries, picked/ate for awhile, and then got a can of orange pop and went home.  The past several years we have made jam.  If you haven't canned, you don't know the joy of hearing the processed cans "pop" indicating they are sealed.  It's wonderful.  We thought Brent was going to have to work out of town and I'd stay with my parents this week, but he didn't have to, so I drove down for one night  to get some picking and canning done!

So, my mom and I and Kira went to Kathan's yesterday to pick berries to make into jam.  One of the best tastes in the world is a sun warmed, ripe strawberry.  Even with a ltitle dirt- delish!  So we picked for awhile...

And the baby supervised....

And it was wonderful.

And then I had a freak strawberry picking knee injury.  The same thing happened back in Dec. when I was 8 months pregnant.  Basically, I tore cartilage and it got stuck and popped in the wrong place and it was just gross.  Crutches for 2 weeks, injections, physical therapy... super fun time.  Yesterday, I heard the same pop, and was unable to get up.  I finally did, and limped to the car.  This isn't my first knee injury and I'm sure it won't be my last, but it's still terribly frustrating.   I can't straighten it or walk on it, so it's back to the icing, wrapping, crutches, and back to the dr. tomorrow.

No canning happened.  No sugary jam to sample, no lid popping sounds (well, besides the one in my knee), no beautiful filled and processed cans to look at and take pride in. 

Even though we will definatley do much more canning this summer, it's hard to find joy in knee problems.  Knees are the opposite of joy.