Game Day at Tuscaloosa: Roll Tide

I haven't been to a college football game in 19 years until just recently, and now I've had the privilege of attending two! As y'all know a few weeks ago my husband and I took our two Auburn fans to a live football game, and then this past weekend my oldest son invited me to go with him to an Alabama football game. 

My oldest son was given tickets by one of his bosses and after he asked a buddy who couldn't go, apparently I was next in line for him to invite. Can I just say I was floored that he would even think of me to take to a college football game, but still encouraged him to find someone else other than his dear old mom. But, he insisted he really wanted to go with me. And y'all when your 18 year old seriously invites you to go somewhere, you graciously clear your schedule and go!

I find marching bands fascinating with the formations they can make!

It was an eleven o'clock game so we had to leave super early to give enough time to get there before kick-off. Thankfully, my 16 year old son held down the 'fort' until my husband could get home from work. It was a fairly easy drive, even if it did take two hours. Once we got there it was a breeze to park and find our way into the stadium. Our seats were fairly high, but I was thrilled to discover they were at least on the end, making it fairly quick to get in and out and down to the bathroom (y'all remember, I am 28 weeks pregnant and this girl needs lots of bathroom breaks, lol!). 

The day was beautiful and the game was great. As in true Bama fashion by half time they were winning with a nice good lead. Due to the extreme heat and the fact that I forgot sunscreen {{ugh}} and we were both burnt to a crisp by this point, we decided to leave in the 4th quarter. We took our time getting back to the truck, stopping to take pictures and enjoy the scenery. It really was a fun time and I will treasure the memory always. I'm truly honored my son would invite me to a college football game when he could have invited anyone!

No trip to Tuscaloosa is complete without a picture with the famous Bear Bryant! The line to take a picture with the Nick Saban's statue was quite long so we skipped that photo op. 

While I'm not a huge fan of college football for a host of reasons, I must say it is a blast to watch a game live! The atmosphere is so much fun. I've also learned more about the game of football during my two visits to live games than I have in the past 19 years. I'm sorry y'all, but watching football on television is just plain annoying to me. But, up close and personal, it's down right fascinating!!

I'm still not swayed to one team or another, which is border-line sacrilege in the grand state of Alabama. You cannot physically be an Alabama fan and an Auburn fan, it just isn't kosher! To be honest both teams have their enticements, but neither one really wins me over, lol. If one of my family members is so inclined to invite me to a live college football game, I don't personal care who's playing. I would be delighted to attend and cheer for the team of their choosing. I guess that's not exactly the definition of a true fan, but I'm not sure I could ever be one really. I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to BOTH football games and would gladly attend either one again!

With Love & Hope,
Jennifer

Vinyl on Everything

How about a short and sweet crafting post? While I don't consider myself a crafty person, I do like to DIY to save money. A few years ago I was gifted with a Silhouette cutting machine. It can cut a variety of different materials, but my favorite medium to cut is vinyl.

I love the boutique style clothing, unfortunately  I'm way too cheap to pay for it. With owning a  Silhouette I have the privilege of making some of my own, which ultimately cuts down on the costs.

I especially love the holiday shirts! Since our schedule is so full in the coming weeks, I decided to go ahead and create all my shirts for the impending holidays, plus a few more for my oldest daughter and me.

Our family attends several fall events where I like for the little ones to wear coordinating shirts. Yes, I'm a sucker for matching the littles. Last year I pushed the limits with my 6 year old and making him a matching shirt (who is now 7 yrs old). This year he was officially taken of the matching shirt list {{sigh}} I may have just shed a tear ~ they grow up so fast!

I wasn't going to make Thanksgiving shirts, but when I saw this design I just had to make them! 

My oldest daughter is not really a fan of the whole matching shirt thing even though she will do it. But, I saw so many cute girly Alabama football shirt designs that I just had to make her some! What girl doesn't love glitter fan wear?!

Even though we're headed into fall and cooler temps, she rarely wears long sleeves so all the shirts I made her were short sleeved. 

The next three shirts I made for myself. I hardly ever make shirts for myself, but I've had my eye on these cute designs, and I thought why not??

No truer words, lol!

For the past few years my girls and I have attended the Christmas Village in Birmingham.  This is a HUGE craft show and trust me matching shirts are a MUST!

There's no better holiday than Christmas for matching sibling shirts! 

And by Christmas little miss Abigail will be here to enjoy the festivities, even if she will be a teeny tiny peanut. 

Ok, I know it may seem over the top to some; and even a waste of time and money, but I love making these shirts and I'm grateful for the opportunity to make them. Now, I can't wait for all the family fun events to come around, so we can wear our awesome new shirts, lol!!

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Back to School Weenie Roast & Campout

Due to life being super busy lately, I'm just now getting to the final post for our Friday the 13th family fun day. By now most of y'all have probably caught on that I love traditions. Well, one of my many crazy traditions that I implemented many moons ago has been our Back to School, Backyard Weenie Roast and Campout. 

Once we complete our first month of school we have a weenie roast and campout to celebrate all our hard work. As my fellow homeschool mama's know getting back into the swing of homeschooling and knocking out those first few weeks can be a major challenge ~ which is why I feel a celebration is  a must.

I grew up camping ~ in a tent! Sorry y'all I just don't believe it's camping if you're in a travel trailer or motor home. To me, true camping is in a tent. Tents have come a long way over the years and this one we have from CORE is amazing!! Once you get it staked, it's four poles and you're done other than attaching the rain fly. 

Everyone loves helping set up the tent, even the little bitty ones. 

Here's another one of those pictures I've taken for years and years and years. Ugh to watch my babies grow up (and our family grow) brings a mixed of wild emotions!

These two little rascals were the most excited, but they ended up going to bed inside after the weenie roast and roasting s'mores. Since my husband had to work the next day; he slept inside and we opted for the three little ones to sleep inside as well so that the big kids could have some 'big-kid' fun.

It was a very long day with the apple orchard, the covered bridge, and finally the weenie roast and campout, but my oldest daughter was a little energizer bunny helping set up all the food for our homeschool celebration. 

This year I opted to create a serving tray for the s'mores. This worked perfect for quick and easy assembly!

I love this picture!! My father-in-law has this cute little truck for piddling around the property. The kids used it to fill up with sticks for the bonfire. 

Yes, at one point our little bonfire turned into a massive flame, lol. No worries we were all safe and all weenies were salvaged.

Not all my kids love s'mores, but in my opinion no weenie roast is complete without the presence of s'mores! 

I mean what's not to love?? Char broiled gooey marshmallows, melted chocolate and crunchy graham crackers. Yeah I'm a sucker for nostalgia!

Okay y'all here's the nitty gritty of the conclusion of our Friday the 13th family fun adventures: it was ALL drama. and a story for the books! After our weenie roast and s'mores the kids played some after-dark tag while the older folks started cleaning up. Then we put the little bitty ones to bed and the big kids and I headed into the tent to enjoy our sleep outdoors in the backyard. 

Due to it being soooo hot I opted not to put the rain fly on the tent (BIG mistake ~ insert groan). I had checked multiple weather apps as well as t.v stations and radio stations for the overnight forecast and there was ZERO chance of rain!!!!!! When 11:45 pm rolled around, I was awakened to it feeling like someone was spitting in my ear. {{ugh}} Y'all I was literally about to get on to a child for pulling pranks and NOT sleeping. But, nope it was rain!! Insert massive eye roll!

Once I got my bearings, I frantically woke the kiddos up and told them to grab all the sleeping bags and pillows and to RUN! So our little backyard campout was cut half short due to an unexpected torrential downpour complete with straight-line winds. We all slept indoors that night and when we awoke the next morning our tent had about an inch of rain inside of it. {{sigh}} Thankfully, it was another scorcher of a day and the tent quickly dried out once we draped it over the swing set. 

And there y'all have it, another drama-filled fun day in the life of the Williams family. I really do try, and at this point all I can do is laugh about it. Oh, the stories my kids will have to tell their children one day, lol! Even though my grand plans rarely turn out the way I had envisioned, I'm still going to keep on keeping on, pushing through, making the plans and attempting to make special memories with my family.

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Exploring the Clarkson Covered Bridge

Well, I told y'all in the last post that I was going to split our Friday the 13th 'family fun' into three separate posts, so today I'm sharing our adventures to the Clarkson Covered Bridge in Cullman, Alabama. 

The last time we went to the Steel Apple Orchard we had the lovely privilege of touring with a preschool class full of amazing mamas who graciously welcomed our family into their close-knit group. They so kindly invited our family to picnic with them at the Clarkson Covered Bridge (which I had never even heard of before). Since we had so much fun picnicking there during that little adventure, I knew we had to visit there again this year. We're big fans of picnicking and rarely eat out when we go on our little road trips. Feeding this crew via dining out could get quite expensive pretty fast; and to me, picnic food just tastes better in nature anyways.

There aren't any trails at the Clarkson Covered Bridge (that I know of), but there is plenty to explore; especially with the creek and large rocks blanketing the area.

I love when the children go searching through nature to see what they can find. One of my boys turned over a rock to discover this little frog. Another one is convinced he saw a snake head! {{YIKES!}}

During our last visit to the Clarkson Covered Bridge, there was plenty of water flowing, turning the giant water wheel. This year we are experiencing a major drought so the water wheel was not moving. My middle boys thought it was a prime opportunity to see if they could make the wheel move. And yes, y'all they could make the wheel move, lol!

So much to touch and feel and discover! Even though it was hot and I had cranky littles, we still had fun exploring the area. I was kind of sad to see that in the two years that have past since our last visit, the park seems to have been neglected. There was quite a bit of trash and debris littering the scenery. But, on a positive note, the bathrooms were maintained and in working order ~ a major bonus when you're in the middle of nowhere, have a bunch of littles, and are pregnant!

The last picture of my kiddos did not go as planned, especially since we had to wait for two other families to finish taking photos on the bridge. The little bitty ones were in dire need of a nap while the rest were just done taking pictures! One of these days I'll learn to take my "must-take" pictures at the start of our adventures and not at the end. (sigh)

I love this picture, even if we were being silly. My three little photo bombers in the background give y'all an idea of how long the bridge really is!

Here's a little clip showcasing the profile of the covered bridge. Quite amazing for something that was built in the early 1900s! Yes, it has been restored, but still, men originally built a similar bridge with very limited tools and resources in the exact same spot ~ I'm totally impressed!

We really didn't stay long at the Clarkson Covered Bridge, just long enough to eat and stretch our legs before we headed back home. I love traditions, and visiting the Steel Apple Orchard and Clarkson Covered Bridge is a perfect back to school tradition for our family (even if the drive is LONG). While the day didn't go exactly as planned and none of us really felt 100% well, it was absolutely worth the effort to stick to our plans and immerse ourselves in nature for a short time. Thankfully the drive home was relatively uneventful. We made it home with just an hour to spare before we kicked off our final family fun event on Friday the 13th of September; which I will share all about in my next post!

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Homeschool Fun at Steele Apple Orchard

This past Friday was brimming over with family fun! So not to make my posts lengthy and drawn out; I've decided to break the day up into three separate posts. Our Friday adventures began with a trip to the Steel Apple Orchard in Cullman, Alabama. 

It took us a solid two hours to get there, and folks let me just tell ya, it was a l-o-n-g two hours!! All you mama's out there know those 'fun' road trips that just don't go as planned ~ well this adventure certainly started out a little rocky to say the least! We had two pit-stops (because hello, 27 weeks pregnant and I have the bladder the size of mustard seed - insert eye roll), a detour in downtown Birmingham through the projects, a puking (carsick) child, and crying babies ~ yeah it was a blast!!

Once we finally arrived at the orchard the day started to get a little better, but it certainly wasn't without it's struggles. I still had sour attitudes and cranky babies. Lord willing my kiddos will remember the highlight real and not all the drama, because the Good Lord knows the drama meter over runeth on our trip to the apple orchard that's for sure!

The real culprit to all our road trip troubles was a nasty head cold we all seemed to be nursing. Unfortunately, I couldn't cancel our apple orchard tour, or we wouldn't have been able to attend this year. Since we missed last year, I really didn't want to forgo the experience, especially for the little kids. 

We were supposed to 'piggy-back' on with another group for the apple orchard tour since our group did not total 15 people, but the other group never showed up. I was a tad bit anxious we were NOT going to get to do the tour, but the folks were super kind and basically gave us a private tour despite us not being a 'full group'. 

Steel Apple Orchard is a family owned, small farm that began in 1985. They have 15 acres and over 200 apple trees including 20 different varieties of apples. The wife actually does part of the tour with another farm worker. The tour began in their processing room where they share about how they pick, sort, and store the apples as well as what they do with all their apples. 

This particular apple orchard sells all their apples to patrons visiting the farm. They also make a variety of apple products including apple cider, apple butter, and fried apple pies which they sell in their country store.

Once the children get a lesson on the farm operations, everyone is taken outside the 'shop' to learn some more fun facts about the health benefits of apples, how the honeybee is beneficial to the apple, and of course no apple orchard tour is complete without a thorough education on Johnny Appleseed. 

To conclude the tour the children have a blind apple tasting of different apples and the kiddos try to guess what kind of apple they were eating.

The folks at Steele Apple Orchard are just as sweet and down-to-earth as they come. While it was a long and difficult drive, it was absolutely worth it, and I'm glad I was able to take the children on this little adventure. (Even if half of them didn't really want to go.) I'm quite used to my people giving me grief over road trips ~ most of them are homebodies, but they usually have a great time and admit it once we've get home from the crazy escapades I drag them on, lol. So, I reckon I'll just continue planning these 'fun' trips and giving my children a taste of adventure; after all getting out of our comfort zones is good for all of us!

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

One More to Adore

I'm super excited to announce we are expecting another little blessing. I am currently 27 weeks pregnant with another baby girl! I can hardly believe the Lord blessed us with two baby girls in a row, but Hid did! After five consecutive boys we weren't sure if we even had a chance at having another daughter; but God was merciful and saw fit to give us Lydia and another daughter within two years. 

Thankfully, I haven't had any difficulties this pregnancy, but it certainly hasn't been easy. I don't consider myself old, and I am in the best health I have ever been in, but pregnancy at 38 is not nearly as easy as it was ten years ago, lol. My only real complaint other than horrible all day 'morning sickness' in the first trimester, is exhaustion. The kind of fatigue that no amount of sleep can cure. {{sigh}} Of course wrangling nine other children and the demands of homeschool and life in general could also be contributing to me being so tired 😂.

I didn't have my first O.B. appointment until 17 weeks due to my doctor being overly booked. But, the perks of such a late-in-pregnancy first appointment was, we were able to find out the sex of the baby at that appointment. Having seen many ultrasounds over the years, I was able to instantly see we were having another girl, and I could hardly contain myself! I didn't say anything until the ultrasound tech asked if we wanted to know the gender of the baby. We told her that we did, and her response was that she'd try but couldn't guarantee anything ~ little did she know, both my husband and I had already seen her little girly parts. Within just a few minutes she confirmed we were indeed having a baby girl ~ yeah bring on all the pink, glitter, and big bows!!

Picking names for our children has never been an easy task. We committed early on that we'd prefer to have biblical names for our childrens' first names and then a name that flowed well with the first and last name for our middle name choice. Sheesh it's always been an ordeal, and it was no different this time. 

My husband and I both liked Abigail, even if it is kind of trendy, for the first name, but we couldn't come up with a middle name. Then one day my husband told me his grandmother's middle name and it just seemed to fit. To make it even more special, Abigail is due on my husband's grandmother's 93rd birthday! Isn't that amazing?!

We've never shortened our children's names or called them nicknames, but for our tenth little one I guess you could say we're doing 'things' a little different. This little bundle of joy is going to have her very own sweet nickname. We've decided to call her "Abby Lou". 😍 Even though I've never been a fan of shortening names, it just seems like this was meant to be her name. 

I never thought in a million years I would be blessed with the gift of carrying ten children under my heart (actually 15, if you count the five little blessings the Lord took early to be with Him). But the Lord had a perfect plan, which has been so much better than my own. I'm beyond grateful for every one of my children, and give God all the glory for blessing us with these beautiful treasures to raise unto Him. I always say I'm living the life I never knew I always wanted!

Every one in our household is anxiously counting down the days until we get to meet and hold little Abby Lou in our arms. She is truly one loved little lady!

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,

The fruit of the womb is a reward.

 

Like arrows in the hand of a warrior,

So are the children of one’s youth.

Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them;

They shall not be ashamed,

But shall speak with their enemies in the gate.

Psalm 127:3-5 (NKJV)

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Texas Caviar

Okay y'all my life is always wild and crazy busy but some times it just gets super busy! I'm currently in one of those insanely busy seasons. With that said, publishing posts is getting harder and harder. I really want to stay committed to blogging because I enjoy it and have a lot to say, lol.  I'm trying to reevaluate how and what I'm posting to make it a tad bit easier to make my post happen as often as possible. Lord willing I can figure it all out and find the balance.

It's been a while since I've shared a recipe, but we fixed such an amazing little fresh salsa of sorts the other night that I had to share! It started out as what some folks call Texas Caviar, but of course I added and subtracted ingredients to make it my own recipe. I've decided to keep the name of the recipe Texas Caviar since that's what most folks would best associate the ingredients with, but to me it's more like a fresh Pico de Gallo. But hey, call it what you want! When it's this good just fix me a loaded bowl full so I can put it in my tummy ASAP!

Texas Caviar

Ingredients

• 1, 15 oz can black beans drained
• 1, 15 oz can black-eyed peas, drained
• 1 can sweet corn drained
• 1 avocado pitted and diced
• 3 medium firm tomatoes chopped
• 1 large bell pepper chopped
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 bunch cilantro chopped
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 2 tsp sea salt
• 2 tbsp lemon juice 

Directions

Mix all ingredients together and chill. Serve with tortilla chips or your favorite food for 'dipping'.

With football season upon us, this is the perfect 'healthy' item to bring to all those football shindigs and tailgating parties! Yes, it did take a little bit of extra time to prep, but trust me y'all it was well worth the effort! Get a few kiddos involved with the chopping and it will go by super fast. It was a huge hit with my family. Even with some of my picky eaters who are not fans of 'leaves in their food', lol. Just chop the cilantro up fine enough and they'll never know!! I can assure y'all this recipe for Texas Caviar is super simple to make. Every one in our family officially said they wanted it added to our favorite food rotation!

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Visiting Tiger Country

Okay y'all it's college football season in the South!!!

 For those of you who don't know college football is LIFE in the South. It may be this way in other regions, but having lived in the West and visited the North quite a bit, I've never seen collegiate football devotion and dedication quite like it is in the South, anywhere else. Now, I have seen similar sentiments to the NFL and other professional athletics, but never to college football. 

I will not lie, I'm not exactly a fan of any organized sport. It just isn't my preferred choice of how I'd rather spend my time or money. And, to be perfectly honest the whole collegiate sport thing gets on my ever last nerve, especially in regards to how much teachers/professors are paid verses those directly involved with the athletic programs. After all students are attending college for an education so that they can be productive contributing members of society; without those teachers there would be NO college! But hey, that's another debate for another day ~ one in which I know I'm the minority. 

Today I'm here to share how we spur-of-the-moment bought tickets and attended the Auburn football game this past weekend. Because you know doing anything 'normal' would be so out of character for our family, lol. 

About 5am Friday morning my husband texted me from work to say he'd found great tickets to the Auburn game for Saturday and to let him know ASAP if I was interested. (We had already discussed starting a new family tradition of treating our children to a 'live' game of their favorite college football team ~ I just didn't realize it was going to start so soon!) Of course I said yes, and completely dropped everything I had planned for the next two days to attend and get us ready to attend the ballgame. 

We acquired four amazingly affordable tickets, which was perfect because it meant our two Auburn fans and both my husband and I could go to the game.

My husband informed me it was a 'white out game' and that we needed to wear white shirts. So of course I had to whip out my Silhouette Cameo vinyl cutting machine and design some shirts. Come on y'all, we couldn't go to a college football game wearing nothing sporting the Auburn logo. And it just so happens that Grandma had recently sent a care package including one of her famous appliqué tiger masks, which was perfect for our trip to Tiger Country! 

I'm sure all organized sport programs have regional traditions, of which I am completely clueless about. But, I do know for Auburn fans it's the 'thing' to go by Toomer's drugstore and buy a famous lemonade. Daddy and the two boys each got a lemonade. Everyone proclaimed them to be one of the best lemonades they'd ever had!

We had quite the ordeal getting into the ballgame. Unbeknownst to me this was the first home game as well as the first time they were using security scanners for all patrons. Because of massive confusion and poor organization it took us a solid hour to get through security. {{insert groan}} It actually was pretty crazy, because after waiting an hour, and it was nearly our turn to go through the scanners, the workers announced the particular line we were in was only for the visiting team!! Since there was no sign explaining this and we had just waited a really long time in the blazing heat, we decided to risk it and just go on through anyways. Thankfully we were able to get into the game without further delay!

We were anxious to get inside the stadium and settled in our seats so the kids could see the eagle soar. Despite arriving as early as we did, we barely made it inside and to our seats in time. My husband basically threw me my phone as they let the eagle loose! I did manage to get a decent video even if it was a major ordeal to get it, lol. Once we got settled the band came on the field and played a patriotic song and then FOUR FIGHTER JETS flew over the field! It was spectacular and I wished I'd gotten a video. But, we had no clue that there was going to be fly-over ~  it was amazing to say the least.

Believe it or not I did not take that many pictures. It was so crowded and loud and believe it or not I was actually trying to follow the game. I had no idea how awesome our seats were going to be especially for the great deal we got on them, but y'all, they were so great. We got to see so many plays up close and personal, I was totally impressed!

No sporting event is complete without a huge bowl of popcorn! (okay any function really, lol)

I think our two Auburn fans in the family thoroughly enjoyed their first ever trip to a college football game!

 Our trip to Tiger Country was awesome and I'm so grateful we were able to make this special memory with two of our children. While I'd prefer everyone in the family to have gone to the game, it's nice to do things with just one or two of our children at times. When you have a large family the dynamics are ever changing and as parents we try to adapt. We've made our fair share of mistakes along the way (and I'm sure we'll make many more), but making the effort to invest in our children's interest has never been one of those problems. Yes, it cost financially and took some major coordinating, but we made it happen, and had a wonderful time. I'm actually looking forward to taking the rest of our children to their favorite teams football game. 😊

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer