Doodads: A Family Foodie Tradition

I'm sure every family has their favorite holiday food, but in our family the holidays are ALL ABOUT THE FOOD ~ and eating it with family! One of our must have food items includes homemade Doodads. Now, I'm sure folks have other names for this delectable salty snack such as homemade 'Chex mix' or the like, but we've just always called them Doodads.

I found this recipe shortly after we were married, when I was trying to build up my arsenal of recipes. I've tweaked it over the years and made it my own with the flavors I know my family likes. But, this year I have been given some suggestions on spices to add to the mix. We'll have to see about all that, because now I'm intrigued to find out if they'd actually taste good with the these new flavoring ideas! 

Doodads is the official food that kicks off our Thanksgiving food fest! We typically cook all week leading up to Thanksgiving, and it's nice to have something to munch on while we're cooking up a storm. I can remember when we first started out making this recipe and how long one batch would last, and now we have to quadruple the recipe to make sure it last until Thanksgiving (but to be honest it barely does last, I usually have to hide a gallon ziplock bag just to make sure!). 

Since I am only two weeks shy of my due date, I have been given strict orders to scale down our Thanksgiving feast ~ sigh.  Not a perk of being pregnant during the holidays, but I do appreciate the concern and love my family has for me! One of my love languages is baking and cooking yummy food, especially for my family. I know how much my family loves some of the special dishes I only prepare at Thanksgiving, so this has been extra hard on this ol' girl. But, I can assure you one of the foods that was not cut out of the menu, was Doodads. 

Doodads

Ingredients 

1/4 cup melted butter

2 tbsp seasoning salt

1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce

3 cups nuts (we prefer pecan halves and peanuts)

4 cups pretzels

8 cups oat cereal

8 cups corn cereal

8 cups rice cereal

Directions

Combine butter, salt, and sauce. Mix remaining ingredients in a large bowl then pour butter mixture on top. Toss gently with spoon until evenly coated. Spread mixture on to two large baking pans. Bake 45 minutes @ 250*, rotating pans and stirring mixture every fifteen minutes. Let cool, then store in an air tight container or ziplock bags.

Y'all it has only been two days since we made our traditional super sized batch of Doodads and I have literally eaten so much of it, I don't think I will be eating any more!! I'm not exactly one given to indulging in sweets, but when it comes to salty snacks I have zero restraint ~ ugh!!! I'm blaming it on the baby this year though, lol. 

I'm truly blessed in the fact that since I've spent years teaching my little ones to cook and bake, now that many of them are older, they are perfectly willing and capable to lend a hand in the kitchen. I have truly been grateful for their help this year when I've been slow, awkward, and pretty much unable to keep up. 

Not only did I have the privilege of my kiddos helping with the making of our Doodads and our other Thanksgiving food, but my husband helped too. On our Doodad making day he surprised us with a half of day of work, and actually came in and immediately took over, finishing up the mix while I took in some much needed rest. 

With how much we make it took a little over three hours to get this tasty Doodad mix wrapped up. We are blessed to have a double oven and were able to do four pans of mix at a time, but we did a total of eight pans this year. With how quickly we're going through it, I think next year I'm going to have to make the recipe x5, 😅 So is the life of a large family mama!

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Christmas Toy Purge

In our family we a have a rule (well, we have plenty of rules, really, lol) but the one I'm talking about today is especially in regards to Christmas. The rule is: No new toys until we get rid of some of the old toys. 

We aren't a family who is overrun with toys by any stretch of the imagination, but we aren't anti toys either. Toys serve their purpose in my opinion. As long as we can keep the toys contained and our children are playing with them; then I have no problem keeping them in our home.

We are not in the habit of buying toys for our children except for at Christmas and their birthdays. Even though we are about to have ten children, only about half of them are really into 'playing with toys' anyways ~ which helps keep the toys to a minimum. 

With Christmas only a few short weeks away, this past Saturday was set aside especially for our bi-yearly toy purge (we do one in the Spring time too). I always do my best to include the children in the toy purge, but I have the ultimate say in what stays and goes. I feel it's important that they should have a say in the whole process, understand that we aren't hoarders, and contribute to the 'keeping of our home'. After all we only have so much space for a family of twelve.

Toy Purge Guidelines

~ Anything broken or excessively dirty

~ Anything missing pieces

~ Anything not regularly played with

~ At least one stuffed animal per child 

~Toy collection must not exceed designated locations

When it comes time for our toy purge the first items to hit the trash bin is anything broken. Broken toys do not typically play well and in my opinion are meant for the trash anyways. I try to keep a look-out for broken toys throughout the year and dispose of them immediately, but sometimes toys slip through my eagle mom eye, lol

Next, I get rid of toys which are overly dirty. We try our best to keep inside toys inside, and outside toys outside, but sometimes inside toys get taken outside and then brought back inside. If that happens, then the toy has likely been dirtied up real good by my rough and tough little boys making it not fit to mingle in the 'clean toy bucket'. It's hard enough keeping our house clean without bringing and keeping dirty toys in the house.

Also, items that are missing pieces must be thrown away. This would most easily be associated with games, but could pertain to a myriad of different toys too. If the toy can't properly be played with then there's no sense in keeping it.

Toys which I notice that have been pushed to the side and rarely played with, are placed in the donate pile. Sometimes the children receive gifts that they just don't like and if it isn't getting played with after at least six months, then it has to go.

Okay here's one that I'm often met with resistance on: the donation of one stuffed animal per child. Y'all stuffed animals can QUICKLY take over your house!! Where do they come from?? Oh.my.word. Enough said there, it just has to be. If I'm the bad mom on this one, so be it!

Now for the last guideline, and the ultimate end all be all of the toy purge. I have designated areas for toys in our house. We do not have a toy room, but we do have special places for toys to reside. Once those areas are filled, then it's time to reevaluate the toys we own and get rid of some of them. If the children can't decide which ones are to go and how to keep the toys contained, then I come in and handle it for them. I'm a stickler that everything should have a place inside our house and that includes the toys as well.

Thankfully this year's Christmas toy purge went off without a hitch, and there was no fussing as to what we purged and what we kept. Now, we are three giant trash bags lighter on the toy front, the toy bins have been scrubbed clean, and all the toys are in their appropriate locations. It feels so good to have this cleaning/organizing project completed. Not to mention it looks so much better in our house now that we've taken care of that little (major) task!

I'm sure my children would all agree since the Christmas Toy Purge is finished, that they are officially ready for Christmas and to receive any new toys that might happen to be on their wish lists!

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer 

A Christmas Vinyl Project

For as long as I can remember we've been a 'water only' family, especially when we go somewhere. Even if it's just to town, we all bring our own water bottle with us. Which means everyone has their own water bottles. When I got my Silhouette Cameo, and was able to cut vinyl, I started monogramming our children's water bottles just to help streamline the whole whose is whose.

Our children's current water bottles are in dire need of replacing. They are stainless steel with stainless steel screw-on lids. For some reason after only about two years of use the lids have started seizing onto the water bottles, making them a pain to use, especially for the little ones. So this year I came across all these water bottles on deep clearance at Target ~ my favorite kind of finds when I'm shopping for our large crew.

Unfortunately, Target did not have enough of the stainless steel water bottles for all my littles so Lydia is getting this one and I had to order one off of Amazon for my oldest (which has not been monogrammed yet).

All of the water bottles will go into the children's stockings for Christmas. I did buy Abigail (our new little one who will be here by Christmas) some baby bottles for her stocking, but I decided not to monogram them ~ just in case we have any more daughters who may need to use those bottles. 😬

I'm afraid this was my last vinyl project with my current Silhouette Cameo and computer combo. I've been in dire need of replacing my whole system for the past year, but I just haven't wanted to spend the extra money on it, especially since it's not a necessity. I just really enjoy making the cute vinyl crafts, and now if I'm going to continue with these projects I will have to upgrade. Thankfully, I was able to get this project done and I have a couple of months to decide if I really want to continue with the vinyl crafting.

With our large crew I really like having the monogrammed items which helps to keep 'whose is it squabbles' to a minimum. I've tried color matching to each child for things like cups and towels, but it has yet to work for our family ~ insert eye roll!

I'm hoping since the lids to these stainless steel water bottles are plastic that they will hold up better and longer than the ones we currently have. But, I am nervous that the plastic is going to crack and break with my rough and tough crew, especially with how much we use them. Time will only tell, I suppose.

Over the years I've always tried to make the children at least one homemade gift for Christmas. One year almost our entire Christmas was homemade (that was a special year, but a lot of work!). This year the extent of our homemade gifts are only these water bottles monogrammed and I hardly consider them homemade ~ sigh. But, my children do enjoy receiving gifts with their names on them. Maybe next year, I can get back to my homemade gifts; there really is something extra special about giving and receiving homemade gifts ~ at least there is to me.

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Blueberry Muffins

I really kind of feel out of place sharing my recipes on my blog since there are so many amazing foodie blogs out there, but folks do ask what I feed my people, so I'm going to share. 

I know the last recipe I posted was for muffins, but it was a savory muffin recipe and this one is for a sweet muffin recipe. Plus, we eat an assortment of muffins at our house every week. Like I've said before, I think muffins are awesome! Perfect for serving littles, minimal mess, and they make it easy to maintain portion control. 

We currently have an unusual situation in that I typically make at least two weeks of freezer meals for when I have a baby; and I have yet to do so (and the baby is due in less than three weeks!). 

I do this in an effort to lighten everyone in the family's load in regards to cooking while I'm in recovery. With a large family, meals aren't just something you 'whip up' easily. You have to plan a tad bit more since you need a whole lot more ingredients to feed a large family. I try to keep a well stocked pantry, but that's easier said than done when you're limited on space. My husband and children are certainly capable of handling preparing meals, I just prefer they didn't have to carry that burden if I can help it.

Well back to our 'unusual' situation we find ourselves in....our freezers are FULL from our summer harvest!! Now, I am NOT complaining, but there is literally no room to put any freezer meals for when the baby is born. So, lately I have been trying my best to free up some space in our freezers in a last ditch effort to make some freezer meals for my family. Which means we've been eating a lot of breakfasts made with blueberries. 

We were blessed with quite the abundance of blueberries this summer and they are overflowing in our freezers. Just this week we had blueberry muffins, blueberry breakfast cake, and blueberry baked oatmeal. It's a good thing we like blueberries, lol. 

So that's the story of why I'm sharing a recipe for blueberry muffins in the midst of the holiday baking season.

Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup milk
1.5 cups blueberries

Directions
Combine all the ingredients in the order given. Evenly divide into greased muffins tin. Bake 15-20 minutes @ 400*. Makes 12 muffins.

These muffins freeze really well and are a staple in our breakfast menu routine. They're really easy to make and usually my children bake them with minimal help from me. Of course, we typically double or triple the recipe and have never had any problems with the muffins not turning out perfect every single time. 

If you desire to make mini muffins, drop the baking time down to 10-12 minutes. We always make at least two dozen mini muffins for snacks later in the week. Mini muffins are the best snack for hangry little ones who wake up from naps extra cranky and just can't make it until dinner time, lol. 

I'm not sure if I'll be able to clear out enough freezer space in time to make any freezer meals for when our baby is born, but we're definitely enjoying the process of trying. I doubt anyone will ever complain about homemade blueberry muffins regardless of the time of year. Even if I am anxious to get back to all the yummy seasonal food ~ pumpkin everything 😬.

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Thanksgiving Craftivities

Whoop Whoop super excited that I'm getting this post on here before Thanksgiving! The last few weeks of pregnancy I literally feel like a ticking time bomb and always preface my list of to-dos with "if the baby doesn't come today". Well as y'all can see the baby hasn't come yet and I got all our fun Thanksgiving craftitvities done and documented!! Yes, I am one happy mama. And to make it all even better, every day of our projects went off without a hitch except the last day ~ sigh! Well, you can't win them all I guess. 

We kicked off our Thanksgiving craftivities with baking homemade cut-out sugar cookies. 

Making cut-out sugar cookies is one of my favorite holiday traditions, so much so that the kids learn real quick and at a super young age the cookie making process, lol.

Of course we can't make cut-out cookies without icing them. The day was so full with activities that it was well after dinner before we could get to icing our cookies. Mama almost made a major booboo!! When we went looking for our sprinkles, we discovered most of our fall sprinkles were empty ~ Yikes! You can't ice cut-out sugar cookies without sprinkles!! Thankfully we made it work, but I will be urgently restocking our sprinkle stash.

Our first art project was a turkey directed drawing. 

I absolutely love how the kids get into creating their own personalized directed drawings.

Our next craftivity went along with watching our Charlie Brown Thanksgiving movie. 

The children made mini pumpkin pies.

 My eldest daughter decided to add chopped pecans to her little pie, and I think it turned out so pretty.

Next we made 'Thankful Turkeys'.

I free-handed a turkey body, beak, gobbler, and feathers onto construction paper for the children to glue together. On each of the turkey's feathers the children wrote what they were thankful for.

One of our Thanksgiving traditions is to make mini loaves of pumpkin chocolate chip bread for our neighbors and a couple family members. 

I'm one of those weird mamas who loves having my babies in the kitchen with me AND when I see extra big cheeky grins like this one on Lydia, it makes all the extra work and chaos worth it to have them bake and cook with me! 

I almost love these mini loaves as much as muffins. They're so cute and perfect for gift-giving. 

Last we had a Thanksgiving minute-to-win-it. The goal was for the children to blow faux turkey feathers across the room. The first one to reach the other side of the room was the winner.

During our seasonal fun schooling weeks we do 'light duty' in regards to the nitty gritty of our normal core homeschooling regime. This week we did do a Thanksgiving interactive notebook (which I did not take any pictures of~ sorry). For the most part the children's lessons consisted of whatever they could do independently. It gives us all a much needed break from our normal homeschool routine.

Scheduling these fun school weeks has been a lifesaver for this mama and I wish it hadn't taken me so many years to figure out how to incorporate them into our homeschool schedule. Trust me though, they will forever more be a common reoccurrence in planning all our future homeschool years.

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Thanksgiving Fun School

I can't believe I'm actually getting this seasonal post up before the actual holiday, lol. Mercy, it's been a whirlwind lately of trying to do all the things! I've got two Thanksgiving homeschool posts coming your way; one for the little ones and one for the bigger kiddos, but both can really be used for any age bracket if you so choose. This first post is more for the younger crew.

I love doing the fun crafts and unschooling projects, but fitting them into our already busy schedule can be a struggle. This year I think I have finally figured out the perfect system for incorporating crafts and projects. I planned in great detail every week of our homeschool, including all those awesome projects I want to do with my children. This way, I can fit the fun seasonal activities into our days without feeling guilty. It's all about balance and I'm convinced us homeschooling mamas can find the right balance for each of our own unique families.

I know I haven't shared in great detail about our sensory boxes, but they are apart of our homeschool. Each week we have a new themed sensory box, especially on our fun schooling weeks. This week's sensory box included orange and yellow dyed white beans, faux turkey feathers, brown cotton balls, a small metal tin, and some pinchers.

 We have collected hundreds of books over the years, especially children's books. Our Thanksgiving stash is fairly large. These are the storybooks I read for our Thanksgiving fun school week. 

We read my absolute all-time favorite storybook this week ~ Louisa May Alcott's, An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving. This book is about a large family and their Thanksgiving celebration. When I first started reading this book to my children we only had a few kiddos, and now we have more than the family in the book. It's a very touching story of the selflessness of a house full of children who choose to serve their family with cheerful spirits. It melts my heart every year!

Our first craft was sponge painted turkeys. I let the children sponge paint assorted fall colored paint onto a white paper plate and then I cut out and glued a turkey body and face to the plate once the paint had dried.

No, the little ones didn't get much hands-on with this project, but my littles love to paint and were content with that part, and of course they were delighted with their turkeys once we got their bodies and faces glued on the plates.

Our second project was to make corn on the cob with construction paper and oat cereal. 

Our third craft was to make construction paper pumpkin pies. I cut a paper plate into quarters and tore orange and brown construction paper for the littles to glue onto their 'slice' of the pie. Then they glued a cotton ball in the middle to represent whip cream.

Our last craft was to make 'turkey tracks' with chenille stems bent like a turkey foot stamped into paint and then onto construction paper. 

Our snacktivity for the week was pilgrim hats made with fudge bottom cookies, mini Reece cups, and Reece's Pieces. The little ones had to have some extra help with this activity, but I can assure you they did not need any help gobbling up their treats!

Many years ago, I would have majorly stressed about their imperfect little cookies, but now I just want my children to do as much as they can on their own and know the feeling of personal pride in doing their very best, regardless of how whatever they're doing actually looks. There's so much more to life than striving for perfection. Doing your best is far more important.

I feel like at the end of each one of these 'fun school' posts I have to put in a disclaimer. For the most part doing projects with children is like trying to catch a muddy hog. You're going to get messy and they're going to fight you ~ FACT! But, every once in a while they do the projects without fussing, everyone has fun, and the craft turns out somewhat like you had envisioned. 

This week we did have those rare moments, where it was actually 'fun' doing our crafts, but truthfully they were not all the 'warm and fuzzy' family bonding time I had hoped them to be. And dear sweet friends, it's in those struggles that we learn and grow as mothers. Yes, we could give up and never do these elective projects again, but that would be such a terrible travesty. Don't let Satan get the last laugh ~ keep on keeping on, doing the best you can to make those treasured memories with your babies.

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Large Families & Birthdays

 

Celebrating a child's birthday can be a tricky subject to cover in this day and age with Pinterest and social media; add in a larger than normal sized family and birthdays can quickly become a taboo topic. Remember the days when celebrating a birthday meant family and friends coming together to eat a simple undecorated cake with ice-cream, balloons and streamers, pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey, maybe a piñata, but mostly kids ran a muck playing while the adults enjoyed some basic fellowship. Sheesh, fast forward 20 years and now birthdays are an overkill, social media extravaganza with destination event locations, elaborate cakes, hundreds of dollars worth of decorations, perfectly choreographed games; I mean they are legit, epic parties ~ every parent trying to outdo the other!

Yeah well, those types of parties just don't exist in our large family life. There was a time when we had fairly large (homemade) themed birthday parties for our first few children; but as our family grew (and we got all weird with homeschooling, lol) people quit coming ~ so we had to change our way of celebrating birthdays. We wanted to make sure that each of our children knew they were a unique special gift to us, and that their birthdays were important. So evolved our family's method for honoring each child's birthday.     

First off, we allow each child to plan their birthday menu, picking their favorite breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Most of the children choose my homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast. So much so that I hardly ever make them except for birthdays since we have a LOT of birthdays to celebrate throughout the year, lol. Lunch and dinner can range anywhere from homemade pizza to homemade chicken tetrazzini.

Next each child chooses a special party theme in which I purchase decorations to match. I also bake and decorate a cake to match their chosen theme. My older children rarely pick a 'theme' and prefer my homemade ice cream cake (pictured at the top of this post). For our children who prefer a traditional cake they also get to choose their favorite ice cream. Of ALL the birthdays we've celebrated we've only bought one store-bought cake and it was for our oldest son's first birthday. My cakes are rarely fancy but they are one way I love to show my babies they mean the world to me.  

We encourage the children to give us a birthday wish list and we try to purchase three gifts. This may be less/more depending on the price of the gifts requested. We do not typically purchase toys/gifts throughout the year. Birthdays and Christmas are pretty much the only time our children receive toys/gifts, so we try to buy them things they're really wanting (within reason).

We do not have guests for our children's birthday celebrations. Sometimes my father-in-law will come by, but not always. It's mostly just an intimate celebration with our immediate family. 

Some years, depending on our financial situation, we take each child out to their favorite restaurant with just mom and dad. Its fun to get some one-on-one time with our kiddos on their special day. 

Each of our children are treasured gifts from the Lord. Their birthdays are immensely special to us, we want to celebrate them to the fullest. The above has been what works for our family. This system allows us to recognize birthdays as a day of importance unique to each one of our children. Not to mention, keeping them budget-friendly and fun for our little blessings. 

Every family has to figure out what works for them and it's perfectly fine to tweak traditions over the years as family dynamics change. But having a 'baseline' plan helps everyone to know what to expect AND allows mom and dad to more adequately plan for those special events.

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Counting Down to Baby Number Ten

I wish I could say "I can't believe it's almost here!" And that it has been a quick and easy pregnancy, but that's simply not true. We found out at around four weeks that we were pregnant and it's been a LONG pregnancy. I haven't had any major problems, it just isn't easy navigating life being pregnant when you have a house full of children plus homeschool, and all the other 'fun' stuff wives and mamas have to do in any given day. Trust me, it makes pregnancy a little harder and seem a little longer (at least it does for me, anyways).

But, here we are three weeks until my due date and I am super excited to meet little miss Abby Lou!! I am feeling pretty good these days, but I did have some weird cramping two weeks ago which has led my doctor to doing a weekly non-stress test. Nothing has shown up on the test so far and she seems to be doing well. To be totally truthful, I've felt so good throughout this pregnancy, that I've still been exercising six days a week; which includes lifting weights and speed roping! It is getting harder every day, but I'm going to keep up with my normal fitness routine until I physically can't do it anymore (per the doctor's orders) or she is born.

I've had zero swelling this time, which is amazing, because I have ALWAYS had terrible swelling in the last trimester regardless if it was a summer or winter pregnancy. 

The only other issue I've had this pregnancy has been dizzy spells where I felt like I was on the verge of passing out. My doctor felt it was because of my blood sugars spiking too quickly, and that I needed to make sure I was eating small meals with protein multiple times a day. Once I started doing that, I haven't had any more of those spells.  

 My doctor doesn't typically do late pregnancy ultrasounds, but because I'm 39 years old he wanted to make sure the baby was growing correctly, which meant we got to see her beautiful face via ultrasound last week! Apparently older mamas have an increased risk of babies not growing properly at the end of pregnancy ~ thankfully Abigail not only is growing just fine and dandy, but she's measuring a full week ahead of her due date! I'm guessing she's going to be a big baby just like her big sisters. Both Tabitha and Lydia were over nine pounds when they were born!!

While I'm not a fan of unnecessary testing, I am grateful for a doctor who is attentive and insures my baby and I are both as healthy as we can be under the circumstances. Perks of the non stress test is that I get a couple hours break from 'life', and I get the joy of hearing my baby's precious little heart beat. But, the downside of being hooked up to all those machines is that Abby Lou DOES NOT LIKE IT!! She squirms and kicks the whole time and I have terrible false labor contractions which ends up putting me in the bed for the rest of the day ~ sigh! 

I've only gained around 15 pounds this pregnancy and I didn't really start showing until I was around 30 weeks, so I have very few 'bump' pictures. Last week I had my 16 year old take a few pictures of me so I can remember Abby Lou's baby bump in pictures. 

I'm sure with multiple appointments this week, and Thanksgiving next week, the next couple of weeks are going to fly by (or at least I'm hopeful that it does, lol). I am trying to focus on keeping up with homeschool and deep cleaning projects. I'd love to say it was because I was nesting, but nope, I typically deep clean around the holidays. It works better for me to do it now verses in the Spring when we're going into our big gardening season. Of course, I'm not getting nearly as much done as I'd prefer, but I am trying to take it easy and not over do it, which is super hard for this organizing, clean freak, type A, overachieving mama. 😜

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Large Families and Teen Drivers, What to Do?

We've had the privilege of having two teen drivers to make their way through the ranks of our family so far. We had a lot of kinks to work out in the realms of teen drivers (and other areas too). Where we live, it isn't uncommon for parents to give their 16 year olds free reign of a brand new or nearly new vehicle with little to no driving restrictions. We knew this method just wasn't going to work for our family and family values.

It is our intentions to teach our children responsibility, how to value a dollar, and that you 'work' your way through life (as opposed to being handed everything). We knew we wanted these core values applied to the ins and outs of how we handled teen drivers as well. 

We did quite a bit of research on how to handle this very sensitive aspect of child raising. But, we were also intentional to inquire from large family parents who have walked this road before us. Let's face it, there's lots of dynamics larger than normal sized families have to take into consideration that smaller families do not have to deal with.

After much debate and prayer we came up with a plan as to how we would approach teen drivers within our family. Now each family will have their own variables which will effect their plan of attack for handling their teen drivers, but I find it helps to have input from other parents walking similar paths. Take what I share today with a grain of salt and tweak it to fit your family.

Williams Family Teen Driver Memorandum

1. With approved maturity, permit can be pursued at age 15.
2. With continued respect and maturity shown, drivers license can be pursued at age 16.
3. Option to purchase own vehicle at 16, but we (Mom & Dad) will not be providing teen with their 'own' vehicle.
4. Must pay for gas, even if driving parents vehicle.
5. Must ask permission to drive anywhere, giving exact times and locations teen plans to visit.
6. If planning to drive regularly, teen is required to buy cell phone and pay for own cell phone plan.
7. If teen chooses to purchase vehicle, teen will be responsible for payment, gas, insurance, maintenance, etc.
8. If teen chooses to drive parents vehicle, parents will pay for vehicle, insurance, and maintenance until 18.
9. No driving after dark unless absolutely necessary.
10. Driving under the age of 18 is a privilege, not a right and keys can/will be revoked at any time if teen chooses not to abide by family rules.

I'm sure to some, our family's approach to teen drivers probably comes off as barbaric and behind the times. But, we are a tad bit old-fashion. We believe in parenting our children. We aren't here to be their best friends. Yes, we have to let loose of the reigns at some point, but it is our intentions that it's a gradual loosening and not a sever at the ripe ol' age of 16.

Two of our core goals in parenting is to keep our children safe AND to teach them how to be competent adults who can function on their own two feet without their parents financial support. How we handle teen drivers is a prime opportunity to help shape our children into the men and women they will become one day. 

For now this is what is working for us, but I'm well aware that each child is different and our plan most likely we have to be adjusted to meet the needs of each child as they become teen drivers. But, I'm confident that for the most part, our family's teen driving guidelines will remain similar.

We had purchased a smaller truck for our oldest son when he first became a teen driver, he has since bought a new truck on his own dime and we sold that old truck. But, because our boys manage their own property maintenance and lawn care business we knew we needed another (bigger) truck for our current 16 year old who did not want to purchase his own vehicle at this time (he had the money, but he wanted to continue saving). We happened upon an amazing deal on this Dodge truck and now Elijah is the current main driver of it, even though it is 'our' truck. 

Parenting is tough! There's so many issues we have to navigate, especially as our children get older. I've found that all the 'mommy bloggers' out there slowly start to disappear once their children reach the teen years. Sheesh, I'm finding that is the time I need the most support, encouragement, and wisdom. Hopefully, y'all can glean a little from this post regarding older children. Lord knows we've had our fair share of 'grappling through the dark' as we find our way as parents of teenagers.

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Fall Sewing

Here's a quick little crafting post sharing some things I've been working on in my 'free time' (hahahahaha). Fall sewing is so much easier said than done with our busy schedule, but thankfully I got a few things finished up that were on my sewing list. 

 Earlier this Fall I made some holiday vinyl shirts and I wanted to make some matching boutique ruffle pants for my little girls.

I was kind of stressed about finding a pattern, (which I never found) so I tried my best to create one from a pantaloon pattern that I already had. 

Just like creating recipes, it's hit or miss if creating your own pattern is going to work. Because I was so anxious about my 'new pattern', I literally waited until the very last possible minute to make Lydias Christmas ruffle pants, which I wanted her to wear to the Christmas Village. Thankfully, they turned out ok and I was able to get her Thanksgiving pants done a few weeks ahead of time!

I really liked how Lydia's ruffle pants turned out, but Abigail's looked more like culottes, lol. 

Oh well, sometimes that's just how it happens, and we're going to roll with it this time (perfection is overrated, lol. I'm sure they'll still be precious on her. 

I have one more major sewing project I was hoping to complete before Christmas, but I've decided to put it off until next year. I made most of our children their own monogrammed Christmas stockings several years ago and I was hoping to sew everyone else's this year. Unfortunately, there's only so many hours in a day and working around the clock at 9 months pregnant just isn't happening. I've already bought the fabric and I'm going to work on them in the coming year. 

How about y'all, anyone working on special sewing projects for the holiday?

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Fun at the Apple Festival & Christmas Village

Our Fall schedule is typically slammed with family fun activities and two of our favorite traditions includes attending the Ellijay, Georgia Apple Festival and the Christmas Village at the BJCC in Birmingham, Al. Last year we took everyone to the Apple Festival, but have since decided to make it a yearly tradition only for my husband and me. We love visiting festivals and craft shows, and since our anniversary lands right around the same time, we thought it would be a perfect overnight getaway for just the two of us.

We headed out to Jasper, Georgia to our hotel late Friday afternoon. But, first we stopped and ate at our favorite local Mexican restaurant. We ended up renting the cutest little hotel room which basically consisted of a bed and bathroom. It was perfect for just the two of us. Once we got settled we headed out to find some coffee and local fun. We ended up at the nicest Dunkin Donuts either of us had ever been to, then we went to Walmart, 😂 Yes, we're officially old!!

The Apple Festival is an outside event located at the Ellijay Fair grounds. Unfortunately, the weather was dismal and it rained off and on throughout the entire day. 

Thankfully, the yucky weather didn't deter the festival craftsman/craftswoman from peddling their wares. 

The fair grounds were filled to the brim with booths set up selling all sorts of fresh baked goods and hand crafted items. Our typical plan of attack when we visit a craft fair, is to walk up and down all the isles and make notes of items we might be interested in purchasing. Once we're done, then we evaluate the list and decide what we really want to buy.

Once we were done enjoying the Apple Festival we went looking for some local food and we ended up at the cutest pizzeria called Ellijay Wood Fired Pizza. The food was so delicious and fresh!! This was my salad and it was AMAZING! Best salad I have ever eaten! 

I'm not typically a fan of pizza, mostly because I usually end up not feeling well after I eat it. But, not this time. I didn't get sick and we enjoyed every last bite!

The pizzas are baked in this wood fired oven, which was shipped in pieces from Italy.

Finally we found ourselves in the quaint Ellijay Coffe shop, trying to warm up before we drove home in the pouring rain. Despite the rain, we really did have a wonderful time enjoying the Apple Festival and celebrating our 20th anniversary.

After the Ellijay Apple Festival we went on our family vacation to the Great Smoky Mountains ~ I shared all about that trip over here. Then the next weekend it was time for the Christmas Village. 

I started attending the Christmas Village with my mother-in-law when I first married my husband. After she passed away (five years into our marriage) I quit going. But, as my first-born daughter was getting older, I realized I wanted to rekindle that tradition with her. Now Lydia goes with us too and so will Abigail. This year my husband tagged along because I was so far along in my pregnancy and I was concerned about navigating the downtown traffic. 😬

This year we were blessed with a gifted over-night stay at a hotel which connects to the BJCC (where the Christmas Village is located). It was absolutely fabulous not to have to find parking or walk in the cold to the craft show. Maybe somehow the girls and I can make that a new addition to our tradition of visiting the Christmas Village.

The Christmas Village is a giant two-story craft show. We approach this craft show the same was as the Apple Festival; walking through, taking notes, and then going back and buying what we really want. This particular craft show is very strict about NOT taking pictures, so I don't have much show-casing how awesome the event really is.

They do set up a few 'picture-taking booths' to help all of us crazed picture taking women commemorate our visit to the Christmas Village. 

We don't usually spend a whole lot of money at any of the craft shows we attend. It's mostly about enjoying the atmosphere, food, and visiting with the craftsman/craftswomen who labor to create awesome baked goods and crafts. Much of the items sold, are perfect for holiday gift giving and/or decorating. 

After we wrapped up our fun at the Christmas Village, we went to another town which has some great shopping and dining locations. So we indulged in some really good food and did a little shopping at some fun stores we don't have around us. We ended up cutting the day short and heading home as the girls and I were starting to get sick ~ sigh.

I had all but decided not to attend either craft show because of how far along I was in my pregnancy, but I am glad we decided to go anyways. While neither trip went as planned, they were both fun and now a treasured memory I get to hold onto forever. I'm grateful my family enjoys doing all my crazy traditions, even if they seldom turn out the way we plan, lol. 

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer