Hiking with Children

I grew up hiking. I love hiking. I could easily go hiking weekly if not daily. Being in nature calms my spirit. I went years without hiking ~ like 15+ years and never graced the entrance of any trails. But, one day I realized how much I missed hiking and that I really wanted to share the hiking experience with my children. So, I started planning and taking my littles on hiking adventures. 

When hiking you naturally need some gear to safely and comfortably get you and your little crew onto the trails. I'm a minimalist hiker and bring the bare minimum. When planning our hiking excursions I try to make sure we are on heavily trafficked trails that are adequately maintained. I am NOT taking my children on eight hour long hikes, shoot most of the time our hikes our under two hours.

My main reason for keeping our hikes to under two hours is that we currently have several under the age of five. Trust me folks that age bracket can be highly temperamental, especially on the trails, lol. Keeping our hikes short and sweet insures we all get out and back to the van with as minimum meltdowns as possible. But, I have found that the more you get out there, hiking with your kiddos the more they want to do it and the better they get at it; actually wanting to keep going once you get to the 'turn around point'.

I started back hiking when I was pregnant with baby number eight. I didn't want to stop hiking because I was pregnant or had a baby, so I had to make sure I had the necessary gear to enjoy hiking with a baby. For me that's simply one item: my Becco baby carrier. Now I know there are awesome 'hiking baby carriers' available, but this one suits multiple needs and I LOVE it!! When they're teeny tiny I can wear them on my front and as they get older I wear them on my back. It is so comfortable, but most importantly it does not hurt my back!

Ok y'all another must have item for this mama is decent hiking shoes. I'm just going to go ahead and share this ~ I'm highly uncoordinated AND accident prone (insert eye roll and groan!!). Having good quality hiking shoes is a must for this mama. I love my Merrell's. I bought them at an outlet shop a few years ago and they have held up wonderfully. Our children do not have designated hiking shoes, I simply make sure they're wearing good tennis shoes.

Other items I make sure we bring on our hikes include:

First aid kit, diapers, wipes, tissue, cell phone (not always with service but good to have), bug spray, and sun screen tucked into a fanny pack (like this one) that I typically wear. This fanny pack is awesome because you can wear it like a backpack, over your shoulder, or around your waist. There's so much room in it and it's comfortable to wear. Plus I can wear it while I am wearing my babies. It's best to be safe and have the essentials in the event of an emergency.

Two lightweight backpacks (like this one) filled with water for each person and usually a snack. The older children rotate carrying these packs throughout our hikes. These little backpacks have been put through the ringer! I actually love them more than my light weight Osprey (which cost a whole lot more!). They're easily adjustable, packable, and have held up for several years now, being overloaded with the weight of multiple stainless steel water bottles and snacks. AND they're super affordable! I bought enough light weight backpacks for most of my children to tote their own backpack during our hikes, but for now we just bring two and disperse our water bottles and snacks between the two.  

That's it! Nothing overly complicated to getting out into nature and exploring with children, even when they're babies. Of course I must say a small disclaimer ~ be smart, research your hiking destinations, tell someone where you're going, start small, but most importantly don't stop (even when your hiking adventure doesn't go as you had envisioned)! Trust me y'all there have been plenty of hiking excursions I've dragged my kids on that have been a total bust. 

Thankfully, we've only had one time where I was concerned for our safety and that was 100% my fault as we took a wrong turn on some poorly marked trails. But, in that instance I never let the children know I was worried, I just kept encouraging them to keep going, and it ended up being one of our fondest hiking memories. That little hiking adventure gone terribly wrong turned into our longest hike ever, reigning in at three hours! It truly pushed us all to our limits, but we did it, we made it out, and even though that hike didn't go as planned, it made us all better hikers! 

Hiking with children can be done and it doesn't have to be complicated or expensive. Yes, sometimes your children may not want to go (half of mine really do not enjoy hiking), but once I get them to our hiking destination everyone usually has a great time. To me being in nature is like being close with the Lord, our wonderful Creator. It's peaceful, calm, and void of worldly distractions that vie for our attention. Hiking is a perfect way to decompress, relax, regroup, and most importantly connect as a family. 

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Homeschool Preschool

Homeschool Preschool, it's a topic of quick division amongst homeschool families. To do it or not to do it? I've swung to both sides of the pendulum, but I'm currently under the persuasion of including Preschool lessons into my little ones daily routine.

My main reason being that my little kids easily get ushered around here and there as I'm bustling around trying to manage our home and educate my six older children. I want to spend time with them and include them in our day. I find that they love to have their own little 'school' time and it really doesn't take much time out of my day. Plus, I like knowing they're getting a head start on their academics and getting into the habit of how to do 'school' for when they get older. 

When I had only one or two under five I did 'calendar books', which were a compilation of a traditional 'circle time' activities that I would do one-on-one with each of my little bitty ones. Now that I have four in that age bracket, I created a circle time board which we use together (saving a lot of time doing it once as opposed to 4 times). It's more of a fun approach with songs and hand motions to get the children involved and learning.

This year our circle time board includes:

• A welcome, good morning song which we do first to try to get everyone focused.
• A days of the week chart
• A weather song; we sing the song and then discuss the weather 
• A letter chart where we sing the alphabet
• A months of the year song
• A monthly themed fun song 
• A calendar where go over the month and day. For whatever day it is we clap the number, stomp the number, and whisper the number
• A weekly color, shape, and letter. The color and shapes have a matching poem
• For the weekly letter we have a motion activity card (for example: letter C we shiver acting cold)

While I love this circle board and we're having loads of fun with it, AND the children are learning from it; I already have plenty of updates I plan to implement next year. Some of our circle time activities I created, found for free on Pinterest, or found at Teachers Pay Teachers.

I made up these homeschool 'week at a glance' schedules to help me keep up with our table time and preschool time. Our preschool time includes story books, usually two or three that I have collected over the years. The children watch an education movie, we have a weekly sensory box, and they have worksheets/crafts that we do together.

These are the preschool educational movies we rotate between.

One year I bought the Abeka preschool program (yeah, that was not our cup of tea) and it came with these awesome letter posters and letter songs CD that coordinates with the posters. They're a lot of fun and the children love doing them, so we do that along with our circle board time.

Each week I rotate our sensory box, with a new theme each week. Tabitha (my 13 year old) lets the little ones play in the box (supervised) during her block of watching them each day. The sensory box is not left out for free play, it is put away each day.

The worksheets that I do with them is dependent on their age. For my two year old, she does a series of worksheets I created that review the weekly letter, shape, color, and number. My three year old does a set of worksheets that I purchased from Teacher Pay Teachers. The projects I do with them include a lower case and upper case craft each week that coordinates with the weekly letter. 

Every few weeks we have an 'off week' where we do not do a weekly letter, number, shape, or color. During that week we focus on seasonal themed crafts which I found on Pinterest. I will share in the future all about our 'fun themed weeks' and the activities we do.

I try to keep our preschool time play based and more like fun schooling. I don't want my little ones to be burden down with 'seat work' and flash cards. Not that those things are bad, but they're not exactly fun for small children. It's taken many years of trial and error to come up with what works for our family and this is finally exactly what I've been trying to create for 15 years! Even though I still have some tweaking I plan to do in the future, lol. I guess that's par for the course for homeschooling a large family. What works for one family won't work for another, but I love seeing what other families do for their homeschooling, so that is why I'm sharing our Homeschool Preschool routine. 😊

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Applesauce in the Making

Canning applesauce is some serious work, but for some reason the kids love doing it and homemade canned applesauce is just soooo yummy! I shared a couple weeks ago that we went and picked some apples with the hopes of putting up some jars of applesauce. We didn't get as many apples as we had hoped, but since our stock of home canned applesauce is dwindling, I thought it would be best to go ahead and process the few apples we did pick.

Buying apple sauce is fairly cheap, especially at Aldi. And they happen to have a sugar free version which is fairly tasty. Regardless of these fast, I think one of my favorite items to can is applesauce. Yes, it makes a gigantic mess, and takes forever to process, but I don't think there's anything more nostalgic than canning applesauce; other than maybe making jelly and jam.

A few years ago we invested in a Squeezo food mill and it WAS WORTH EVERY PENNY!! It makes quick work of turning apples into applesauce. I'm a firm believer in acquiring the necessary tools which make canning and other homesteading activities as easy as possible. To me the Squeezo is a double bonus because it's a nonelectric device!

All the children love to take turns working the mill. This year Joshua and Matthew were totally into the applesauce making. Tabitha was kind enough to quarter all the apples so we could cook them down to put through the Squeezo. I try not to force the children to help, but encourage them to be involved as they choose. After all our kitchen is only so big. This year there were several children in and out, helping as they saw fit.

Of course the kiddos didn't fly solo making applesauce just yet. Since I didn't get to the applesauce making until late in the day, Daddy was able to head up the Squeezo operation.  

Once it got to cooking the applesauce after being run through the mill, it was just me in the kitchen. There really isn't a need for more than one person at this point unless of course you have several ladles and funnels. I don't mind, I enjoy the making the applesauce and was grateful for all those who did help make the applesauce this year.

The applesauce turned out nice and thick, which is just the way we prefer it. Sorry y'all I'm not a fan of runny applesauce. I find that the thicker applesauce last longer and stretches for more meals. When you're feeding as many folks as we are that is a major plus!

I honestly didn't think we'd get more than four jars, but we managed to get 10!! I was over the moon about this especially since we have so few jars left over from last year. Sadly, one jar did bust during the waterbath process. UGH!! I really hate it when that happens!! In reality I know in my heart God knew what we needed and how hard we worked to get those ten jars. Sometimes life just happens and we have to accept it. Thankfully we will not starve, and our food supply does not depend upon these few jars of applesauce ~ they're just nice to have. 

It looks like these few jars of applesauce will wrap up our canning season for the year. It was a whirlwind of nonstop intense labor: picking, canning, cooking, and preserving! But, as I look at our shelves (and freezers) filled with fresh homegrown produce, I'm overwhelmed at God's provisions and the strength He gave us to get it all done. As we wrap up the main gardening season with pulling up sunburned and withered plants I look forward to a slower season of homesteading and the opportunity to enjoy the fruit of all our hard work.

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Many Hands Make Light Work

We have many quirky family sayings. Many Hands Make Light Work, just happens to be one of them. But, my husband and I mean those words and we LIVE it. Intentionally teaching our children, daily, to be positive contributing members to our family. 

Being apart of a family is a gift, not a right. There are plenty of people walking around in the world who have no family. Sadly, there are even people choosing not to be apart of their own family's. 

The more people residing within a family, the more work there is to be done. Children don't just magically learn to work or volunteer to do said work (for the most part). It's the responsibility of the PARENTS to teach children to work. 

There's nothing like the topic of requiring children to work within a family to draw the proverbial line in the sand of parents. I am unapologetically on the side of children participating in the maintaining of the home. 

Working within the home teaches children a multitude of character traits that they can take with them for their entire life. Some of which include: a hard work ethic, how to serve others, how to clean their own home, how to work with a purpose, how to work within a team, and on and on I could go.

From the time our children are old enough to walk they begin learning how to work. From simple responsibilities like taking the cloth napkins to the laundry room or helping tote the bedroom trash bags to the big trash. Little ones love to work and typically help with a cheerful spirit. If children are taught from a young age that working within the family should not be done begrudgingly, they're more likely to continue that positive attitude as they get older. 

Our children's level of responsibilities increases as they mature. Each child matures at a different rate and we evaluate their abilities to do chores individually. Only parents can determine what their children can and cannot do. But, the following charts are what we currently have posted for each of our children's and what they're required to do.

We call 'chores' a different name and have since we began having children. I always felt like the word 'chores' denotes such a negative task and I wanted my children to see contributing to the needs of the family as a privilege not a burden. So, we call chores ~ "House Assignments". 

Each day of the week my children have a specific task they're responsible to clean. This chart includes house assignments for each of our children ages 4 through 16. The one and three year old do odds and ends but they don't have a 'daily' job. They're mostly 'helpers'. And my 18 year old works crazy long hours so he no longer has a designated daily job.

Because I believe it is hugely important for children to know how to cook, each meal we rotate a Meal Helper. This person is responsible for being my assistant getting ingredients/utensils/dishes out to prepare the meal, setting the table, filling cups and making sure the proper condiments are available for the meal. My little ones love to help cook and are often in the kitchen helping too, but I like to have a big kid in the kitchen helping as well. I rotate the meal helper schedule monthly so all of the children can help on various days for experience in learning to prepare a variety of meals.

Every family has their own method for getting the laundry done. With a family of eleven creating dirty laundry, it can quickly take over. I'm NOT a fan of letting the laundry pile up. It's rarely not done at the end of each day. I have a system which has always worked to make sure we don't get behind on laundry. To help maintain the laundry, I rotate a laundry assistant. This person is responsible for making sure there's no laundry misplaced in the house, starting and moving the laundry, as well as helping to fold and put it away. 

I realize the majority of families have older children do their own laundry, and well that system just wouldn't work for us for two main reasons. #1 To be frugal and diligent with our money, we only wash full loads of laundry. It would take at least a week for one child to accumulate enough laundry to equal a full load. Which leads me to reason #2 We are limited on space and I don't have the room for dirty clothes to be piled up everywhere (not to mention that's just nasty!). So for now all laundry is washed as a family unit. 

Along with the responsibilities posted within these charts, each of our children are required to make their own beds, take all their clothes to the laundry room, and pick up after themselves. 

Also we have daily meal clean up duties for each child. I should make a chart for these jobs too, but the kids seem to memorize these responsibilities fairly quickly. Typically when school is starting back I evaluate our kitchen clean up crews and make adjustments accordingly. Because we homeschool and enjoy three meals a day together as a family, our kitchen is cleaned thoroughly after each meal. The kitchen is the hub of our home and having a nasty kitchen just wouldn't work for us. Not to mention I really don't care for preparing a meal in a dirty kitchen.

In the event that anyone is curious about our kitchen clean up tasks they look a little like this:

(Each person is responsible for taking their own dishes to the sink)

 (And each person uses the same cup all day, which is taken back to the counter after each meal)

We do not own a dishwasher ~ on purpose! GASP!!

Small dish washer: hand wash cups, silverware, cups, bowls, and plates, dry and put away

Large dish washer: hand wash pots, pans, crockpot, prep dishes, etc., dry and put away

Wiper down & put awayer (lol): clear littles tableware, put away condiments, place leftovers in container and in fridge/freezer and wipe down counters, table, chairs, and high chairs

Sweeper: sweep kitchen floor

There is no way my husband and I could physically do all the work required to maintain our home. Yes, we chose to allow the Lord to bless us with children (specifically a lot of them) and NO we did NOT have them to be our slaves. The amount of children we have does NOT dictate our beliefs in raising children to be positive contributing members of our family. Regardless if we had one or twenty-one children we are firm believers that children should be included in the daily tasks of running the home. 

Working together as a family makes it fairly easy for us to get our daily house assignments completed quickly. I love a tidy house and since my husband and I have spent years teaching our children to help around the house, my older children also appreciate a clean home. I rarely have to tell my big kiddos to do their daily tasks and they often willingly do other need-to-be-done jobs around the house just to surprise their daddy and me. 

When children are taught that maintaining a home isn't just Mom and Dad's job from a young age, it doesn't take much to keep your home in order as they get older. It's a gift and a blessing to get to work along side our children, training them in the way they should go. Even though we have much to do around our house to keep it clean, I can assure you there's no more truer words than "Many hands make light work".

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Apple Picking

Living in the South can make growing apples quite the ordeal. Apples just don't like the high heat and humidity. Despite this, we do have several apple trees on our property, but they rarely produce enough to do anything other than eat a few. We are blessed with a neighbor who has 'horse apples' that he lets us pick, but they don't produce yearly. And those horse apples are way too tart for applesauce ~ we make diced apples for baking with those apples. 

So, then we have a distant relative who lets us pick her apples, which are suitable for making applesauce. Unfortunately, they don't produce yearly either and you never know until you get there if it's going to be a producing year. Most years my father-in-law takes the children to go pick apples, but since he had his knee replaced recently he wasn't able to take them this year. 

Since my father-in-law couldn't take the children to pick apples, we decided to make it a family event. We all loaded up this past Saturday to go pick apples ~ even our oldest son. Little did we know it was going to be a major adventure with a hilarious story that we will tell for years to come!

My husband and I had never been to this distant relatives house, and all we had to go by was the crazy directions written by my father-in-law. Somehow we didn't even get an address, not that we could have used a GPS phone app since there was zero cellphone service where we were traveling. I wish I had taken a picture of the directions, because y'al,l they were absolutely hilarious! They went a little something like this:

Go past Able gas station 

go thru two 4-ways (there wasn't the first 4-way during our drive!!)

make right at crossroads (what constitutes as a crossroad???)

Look for a large mailbox on right

If you get to the church turn around and look for large mailbox on the left

I'm NOT EVEN KIDDING!!! 

No road names, no mile markers, nothing! The only definitive direction was the Able gas station. We ended up making two major wrong turns which led to a supposedly 20 minute drive turning into over an hour long adventure. But, we did finally get there ~ YEAH!!

Once we finally arrived and unloaded a giant dog was running wild and wanted to 'play' with our younger crew. Much to my littles disappointment they had to hang out in the back of big brothers truck until we could get the dog put into his pen. (which took a good while)

Despite the wild ride to get to our apple picking destination ~ this was not a year for apples in the Deep South. We ended up with barely 10 gallons of applesauce making apples. Regardless, we still had fun, and now we know how to get there, so the next time we go to pick apples we'll know exactly where we're going, lol. I think we'll still try to make a small batch of applesauce because my little people love to make it, and fresh applesauce is so yummy!

There aren't too many apple orchards in Alabama and the few that are located in our grand state do not allow for folks to go pick the apples themselves. Which to me defeats the whole purpose of visiting an apple orchard. So those of y'all that have the luxury of visiting and picking apples at a local apple orchard ~ don't take it for granted; not all of us have that wonderful privilege. {{sigh}}

We have visited the amazing Apple Festival in Ellijay, Georgia which is about three hours away. It was well worth the drive, but it still isn't a place to 'pick apples'.  Even still, it is a fun place to visit and find all sorts of farm fresh apples, baked apple treats, as well as a plethora of other fair goodies! We're hoping to visit the apple festival again this year, Lord willing.

Thankfully our food budget doesn't depend upon us finding free apples to can, but it is so nice the years that we are able to put up fresh apples. My family loves fresh canned applesauce and fresh canned tart apples. Hopefully next year we'll be able to get some apples to can. Until then I will continue to ration the few jars of applesauce that we have leftover from last year. 😊

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Easy Southern Freezer Biscuits

It's been a few weeks since I posted a recipe, so I thought it was time I shared one. The internet is overflowing with amazing recipes (and plenty of not so good ones, too). The problem with so many of them are the fact that most of them aren't suited for large families ~ especially those on a strict budget. There's nothing more that annoys me than clicking on a recipe quoted being for a large family on a budget and the lady posting has three children. Now, I'm not saying three children isn't a lot to handle, and perhaps a family of five is a large family to many, BUT I'm looking for cheap recipes to feed a family of eleven (and I realize that isn't the norm these days).

My ultimate goal is to feed my family of eleven for less than $5 A DAY. I know that sounds like a crazy low number, but it's true. Do I always achieve it, not hardly, but it's good to have goals. I would not say that we eat fancy foods or to the standards of the FDA and their idea of a 'balanced daily diet'. I try to keep the balance in the realms of a weekly picture ~ feeding my family more whole foods consisting of meals rich in fruit, vegetables, and protein.

A sample daily menu for my family could be: 

Breakfast: Homemade Whole Wheat Pancakes and organic maple syrup with a green smoothie

Lunch: Homemade Whole wheat cheese pizza with a salad and ranch dressing

Snack: Homemade oatmeal cookies

Dinner: Hamburger Sloppy Joe's on homemade buns and roasted potatoes

This particle daily menu would have our daily food budget hovering around $5 because most of the food prepared we grow or purchase in bulk. Feeding a large family on a strict budget takes long-term planning, cooking from scratch, and a lot of creativity. I almost treat it like a competition to see how low I can go to feed out large crew, while still making the food look appealing and taste good.

One my family's favorite breakfast recipes is homemade southern biscuits. They're a perfect recipe for those who are on a strict budget, like to cook in bulk, and want a no fail biscuit recipe. I have been making it for years and can't even remember where I found the recipe. I can assure you it was long before the internet, lol. 

Easy Southern Freezer Biscuits 

Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2/3 cups shortening
• 1 cup buttermilk

Directions 

Combine dry ingredients, add shortening, mix, add milk stirring until soft dough forms. Turn dough onto floured surface and kneed ten times. Roll out 1/2 inch thick and cut with biscuit cutter. To bake immediately place in 450* preheated oven for 10-15 minutes. 

If freezing; place raw biscuits on a cookie sheet and into the freezer, once frozen remove from freezer and place in a freezer bag, return to freezer. To bake frozen biscuits bake in 400* preheated oven for 18-20 minutes. 

Note** If you do not have buttermilk (which I never do) put 1 tbsp lemon juice in a one cup measuring cup and add milk to fill to 1 cup mark. Stir and let sit at least one minute. Use this to replace buttermilk.

I have doubled, tripled, and quadrupled this recipe dozens of times and they always turn out wonderful. Of course, I suppose, like all recipes, everyone has their preferences as to how they like their biscuits. But, for us, this is our go-to biscuit recipe. I even have some children who won't eat any other biscuits or will make comments saying they'd rather eat my homemade ones. Which is why when I'm making a batch, I like to make enough to freeze to eat on a later day. Yes, I am always planning for the next meal and how to make life easier. 

Feeding a large family on a strict budget can be done. I can assure you most folks don't have copious amounts of money to spend on food, even if they have many mouths to feed. Life is about balance. Are these the healthiest version of homemade biscuits, not exactly. But, I would say they're better than the store-bought versions, simply because there's no preservatives or fillers in them. And most importantly they are affordable and easy to make. That makes them a perfect recipe for this ol' country mama to many!

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Pepper Place Farmers Market

I am a huge fan of farmer's markets, craft shows, and agricultural festivals. If I had my druthers I would travel the country attending them and hiking all around the areas we visited. But, I also love having a place to call home; plus the idea of 11 people in a small home on wheels just doesn't sound appealing, lol. Even though we don't spend our days traveling full time, we do enjoy visiting many different farmer's markets, craft shows, and agricultural festivals within driving distance of where we live. This past week we visited Pepper Place Farmer's Market located in Birmingham, Alabama. 

Pepper Place Farmer's Market is nestled in an urban setting and TONS of people flock here to buy locally farmed produce and fun homemade wares. It's August in Alabama folks ~ the heat has been intense and the 100 degree day didn't seem to deter folks from coming out to enjoy the outdoor market.

Live music just seems fitting for an outdoor market. This couple were amazingly talented in their musical abilities, singing a wide range of music including several different instruments. We listened to them perform as we downed a few dozen fresh baked donut holes from a local bakery who had set up a booth peddling their amazing pastries. 

While Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks are great, sampling the brews of small-town mom and pop coffee shops is so much fun, especially when they are authentic to roasting and grinding their own coffee beans. The Red Cat Coffee House had a booth set up as well as a brick and mortar shop conveniently located along the route of the outdoor market. 

The flowers were in full bloom at Pepper Place this particular Saturday. I have never seen so many beautiful bouquets! Absolutely gorgeous flowers! And if I wasn't such a penny pincher, I would have loved to bring home a bunch of lovely flowers to decorate our dining room table. 

One of the most awesome things about visiting such venues, is the variety of creative and fun items made and sold by folks for all walks of life, including the furry little friends in our lives. These folks had set up a booth selling gourmet doggy treats that looked just as tasty as some of the human food showcased at the market. Even though we didn't purchase anything from this particular vender, I'm assuming from the long lines, that the cute pooches loved the delicacies their beloved owners were buying for them.  

While we really didn't buy anything during our adventure to the Pepper Place Farmers market, we did enjoy some fresh bake goodies and coffee which were all wonderful. Sometimes the adventure isn't really for buying things, but just for the fun of experiencing the local culture and enjoying family time. 

A huge reason I enjoy attending places such is this, is that they're full of family-run business whether it be from farming, baking, handmade items, or the like ~ it's products made or grown by good old fashion American hands. It's such a blessing to find such items not in a major chain store, which seems to have taken over our country. I truly wish we'd have a back-to-basic revolution in our purchasing power, but I know it's highly unlikely. And hey, even I'm forced to buy from the local box chains since we don't even have many family-run stores where we live. But, like many of you I'm sure you'd be more apt to buy from local farms and artisans if it was more readily available (and affordable). Until then, I suppose our family will do the best we can to live simply and support American made products and wares when we can.

If you're ever in the Birmingham, Alabama area I highly recommend a visit to the Pepper Place Farmer's Market. I can assure you, if you're a fan of homemade and homegrown products, you'll not be disappointed. 

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Back to School Hike at Lake Howard

If you hang around this blog for any length of time you'll quickly catch on that I LOVE traditions. I absolutely love planning for them and looking forward to them coming around each year. One of our back to homeschool traditions is to go on a celebratory hike concluding our first week. For many years we went to Mount Cheaha State Park. But after they upped the entrance fee from $10 a car load to $8 PER PERSON we quit going there. 

On a trip back from the beach three years ago I discovered Lake Howard. Which happens to be an amazing off-the-beaten path boating and hiking destination. It's actually a dirt bike trail, but plenty of folks hike there and in three years of hiking at Lake Howard, I've only seen one person riding a bike on the trail. It takes about an hour to get there from where we currently live, but since it's free, it's totally worth it to me!

I think it's so fun to take the same pictures year after year and watch our family grow. This particular hike was just me and the eight younger children as my husband and oldest had to work.

I must be honest half my children do not enjoy hiking. But, they typically admit to having fun after we venture into the woods. I always have at least one kiddo who is thrilled to be on the hike. You know that one who wants to walk right beside me, volunteer for a dozen pictures and even slips their hand into mine as we hike along the trail. It really makes all the extra work, dragging eight children out the house and into the woods totally worth it!

I'm a huge proponent of baby wearing. There's so many styles to choose from these days, that it's super easy to find a brand and style the suits your needs. My favorite is the Beco Baby Carrier. I've worn my current carrier with four different babies to great extents.  It was worth every penny and then some. I couldn't do half the stuff I do with a baby in tow without a baby carrier, especially hiking. My bigger boys and my husband have even worn this baby carrier. And I've yet to have a baby that didn't love riding on my back (or front).

The Lake Howard trails are wonderfully maintained and accurately marked ~ which is not always the case with many of  the trails we've been on over the years. Of course, my children love to venture off the path for a little exploring, but even then the brush is adequately cleared. 

I must give a disclaimer though in regards to the Lake Howard trails, on a scale of 1-10 (one being the easiest and 10 being the hardest), I'd rank them at around a 7. This would especially be in regards to the main trail. There are some intense inclines that might be difficult for some folks to navigate. 

That being said, my three year old does walk the trails on his own. But my crew, as you can tell, pretty much grow up hiking and quickly get acclimated to the rigors of intense trails. I try not to make a big deal about it and just encourage them when they start struggling. But there have been times when a big brother or sister has helped piggy-back ride a little one at difficult parts of our hiking adventures. 

When we are  hiking I usually will set my cell phone timer for a minimum of 30 minutes. After 30 minutes I reevaluate how everyone is coping on the trails and if we're doing okay we keep on walking, if not we turn back around. I do try to be mindful that the little ones will have to make it back out, lol. At Lake Howard it takes us about 40 minutes to reach where the main trail forks. So, that is always our goal for this particular hiking adventure. 

If it were up to me, I could go hiking at least once a week, but that is highly impractical under our current family dynamics (and  I wouldn't change those for anything). Which is why I'm extra grateful for the times when we do make it into the woods to enjoy God's creation. Being in nature helps me to regroup and refocus my energy. For some reason when we're hiking I seem to forget all the worries of life and I can just breathe, feeling truly at peace. So while it does take an act of congress to get us to these little hiking adventures of ours, they are so very worth the hassle to me. 

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Soap Making Fun

As a self proclaimed wannabe homesteader there's a whole lot of fun 'back-to-basics' projects I enjoy doing. One of them happens to be making cold processed lye soap. I've been making soap for many years, it was actually one of the first homesteading skills I learned to do. The funny thing is, I've never veered from making my plain old fashion soap recipe. I never add anything fancy to it like dyes, essential oils, or oats. I just prefer the plain old classic, unadulterated lye soap recipe to all the others ~  and besides it works, so why mess with it??

I know a lot of folks freak out over making lye soap, but it's really not that difficult or as hazardous as most people make it out to be. I mean if you've ever used bleach or any basic store-bought cleaner you've dealt with a potentially hazardous chemical in your home ~ and lived to tell about it. As long as you use safe handling measures, you should be perfectly fine. I always keep white vinegar out on the counter ready to use in the event we have a spill with the lye, because the white vinegar will neutralize the lye.

When I'm making my soap, I try to make sure the little ones are occupied just to be on the safe side. Which is no different than when I'm cleaning or using bleach. But, I do like to encourage my bigger kiddos to help me make the soap. I'm extremely passionate about my children learning the art of dying homesteading skills. Thankfully, my children typically enjoy making the soap. 😊

Learning what 'trace' looks like can be one of the hardest soap making steps to master, but once you get it, you get it. When I'm looking for trace, to me, the soap resembles the consistency of pudding. I've always used my electric stick blender to help speed up the process to get us to trace. And yes that would be the same eclectic stick blender I use for canning and making baby food. I thoroughly clean the stick blender after making soap and then we're good to go for it's next use, regardless if it's for food or another soap making day.

I've used an assortment of different soap molds throughout the years, but my favorite are silicone molds and my wooden block molds that my dad made me. When I am making soap in the summer, the heat and humidity tend to make it super difficult for the soap to get hard. Since the soap doesn't harden so well it can be quite troublesome to remove it from the silicone molds no matter how much I grease them.

My wooden block soap molds are my favorite molds. I never have to worry about the soap not being hard enough to get a decent block of soap. And I happen to think it's a classic look for soap, lol. The only notable thing about using my wooden block soap mold is that the soap never turns as white as my silicone molds. I'm sure it has to do with the heat distribution during the curing process, but my soap in the wooden block molds are always more opaque than white.

I'd exclusively use my block molds, but my children prefer the silicone molds over my block soap mold. It all works out though, because my soap recipe makes just enough for me to use one large block soap mold and a couple silicone molds. I always let the children pick out which silicone molds they want to use. And just a little frugal side note: all of my silicone molds have either been given to me or bought on deep clearance after holidays. None of them are traditional soap molds, but all were intended for baking. Since our family is the only one who uses the soap, the odd soap shapes don't bother us, lol.

Making soap is not really a modern necessity, but it is a fun skill to learn. To be perfectly honest it's probably more expensive to make the homemade soap than to just buy it from the store. But, that's ok for me. I happen to like the fact that I know all the ingredients in the soap I make. I like doing old-fashion activities that help tie me to those authentic homesteaders from days gone by. But mostly, I enjoy spending time with my children teaching them life skills that their ancestors did as a way of life.

Over the years our homesteading efforts have ebbed and flowed depending on mine and my husbands external responsibilities. In the grand scheme of things I think we'd both like to live a permanent homesteading lifestyle, but it just isn't where the Lord has us right now. This summer has been super tough on our family with maintaining our huge garden, canning, my husband's job, and the basic demands of life. We're constantly reevaluating is this lifestyle where God wants us to be, and how much time, money, and energy should we invest in pursuing this not-so-easy lifestyle.

Thankfully, the many life-skills we have acquired as a family over the years will never be for naught; even if the Lord closes this door for our family. (I'm not saying He is) I have cherished every minute spent learning along-side my husband and children. I believe this no-frills, simple life, is the best life to promote family unity as well as instill in children a strong and honest work ethic. So while soap making day may seem like just another useless modern day, expensive activity to some; for us it's a prime outlet to teach valuable life lessons, refine another homesteading skill, but mostly, an opportunity to enjoy being together as a family. And my dear friends, I don't think it can get much better than that. 💗

With Love & Hope,
Jennifer