Pear Jam Magic

Is it ridiculous to call it magic when a housewife turns this:

... into this?

It is quite a marvelous transformation. Jam-making is somewhat hard (hot, sticky, steamy) work. When a friend gives you a pile of spotted, beginning-to-rot fruit, and in an hour or so you alter it into clean, bright jars of sweet jem-like preserve ... you feel you've accomplished something beautiful!

I only put a small dent in the fruit. I used ten cups of sugar (!!). Now I have 5 and 1/2 pints of jam. I've never made pear jam before; the fruit was very tangy, but not very pear-tasting, so I hope it's okay.

On the agenda today is plenty of homeschooling, teaching a piano lesson, some crochet work, some laundry, some house cleaning, some doggie training, and hopefully some rest.