Greater Expectations..

I love strawberries.......... I mean, I really, really LOVE them! In 1988 I actually had 2 strawberry pies for my birthday! My visiting teacher got me one , and a friend got me one. I have never forgotten that birthday.

My wonderful husband brought me 3 flats of strawberries the other day. We want to freeze them, preserve them, etc. so we can enjoy them longer.

They were some of the best strawberries I'd had for a LONG time. Naturally sweet, didn't even need any of my Sweetleaf Vanilla Creme stevia drops to taste amazing.
I had strawberries for my "legal fruit" as I was cleaning them and preparing for freezing.

I ate and I ate and I ate...... Lets just say I used "strawberries" as my fruit and veggies for the entire day! I had 3.5 oz of chicken for lunch, and 3.5 oz of chicken for dinner! The scale was my friend this morning, so my unplanned modification worked, this time.




I froze bags and bags of them, but had the fantastic idea that I wanted to dry some. I prepared the berries and filled my trays of the best dehydrator.
Such a beautiful sight!
Then the drying started! The house smelled FANTASTIC, just like strawberries.
This morning........ the end result!




Here are my dried strawberries......... they are "okay", not bad really. But, come on, these are STRAWBERRIES! They need to be fantastic! The amazing sweet flavor didn't carry through. I didn't add anything, I wanted all natural, only strawberries; just like I do my apples I'm addicted to!

Dried strawberries will never be an addiction. I adore fresh ones, frozen are good...... but there I draw the line!
I wanted to try, I did have great expectations. Instead I got a learning experience.

Often life does NOT go as we plan, even aspects of our daily life are not as we expect or work for! This is life,* Life is what happens while we are making other plans*
You know, these are just strawberries and they will still be eaten and enjoyed. The harvest is still upon us so I will have more strawberry opportunities. I will not dry them.
I will savor them for the sweet fruit they are!

I will take each moment of my life, good, crazy good, not so good- and appreciate it!
This is what we get, this is our today and we only get to do it once!
So I will have greater expectations, and it's okay if I have my "dried strawberry days"