Kids in the Kitchen

We are pretty big on kid independence in our house and one area that the kids love practicing this is in the kitchen - helping with cooking and baking. So, the kids get invited to join regularly and I never, ever lack for a kid who wants to help cook- it's more like too many of them want to help and I have to divide the steps four ways so everyone gets a turn at something.

Depending on their ages/abilities, it is easy to add kid help to anything I am making for any meal. Being a total nerd about education - it's such a joy for me to watch how much they are learning about so many different things while we cook/bake together. Grey learned about how important it is to measure when adding salt to food when he made a super-salty egg sausage casserole that made his Dad's face squish up (hah! still a favorite memory story around here!)

We practice counting cups, reading recipes, even fractions! We learn about time - why does it take so long for the cookies to bake?! - we learn about not wasting food, and how much better things taste when we use fresh food (from our own garden, or chickens, or the farmer's market!)



It's not perfect by any means - we've had plenty of burned fingers from the stove or oven, enormous flour explosions when the electric mixer gets too speedy, had to pick egg shells out of a mix. And it can certainly be frustrating for me because when I have a house full of hungry kids and a piled up with dishes kitchen - ain't no momma got time for little hands sticking their fingers in my cookie batter (hah!) But like most things when it comes to raising up future people - you have to smile through the patience and focus on the learning. They're never going to learn to do it for themselves if you don't show them and then let them do it (no matter how long or how much of a mess it makes the first couple tries).

Here is how the helping in the kitchen shakes out for us currently and through the last year. Even writing this list out has me motivated to keep teaching the kids new skills (Grey - mac & cheese solo, Gem - grilled cheese sandwiches solo). It's always evolving and figuring out what works best for each kid and age.

Ages 2-3 (Rusty)

• can stir mixes with a utensil- frequent reminders that "we keep one hand on the bowl to hold it steady, and the other hand stirs the spatula"
• can add pre-measured ingredients to a bowl
• can get supplies out that we will need (peanut butter, chocolate chips, etc)
• can do one by one things: put cupcake liners in cupcake tin, add blueberries as toppings to each iced cupcake, etc
• always up to taste test and lick the spoon!

Ages 4-5 (Violet)

• can crack eggs into a bowl
• can use an electric hand mixer
• can count correct cups (I can give her the correct size measuring tool and the item she is adding and tell her, "you need 3 of these")
• can use cookie cutters without assistance
• can use a butter knife to spread toppings (butter/jelly - although peanut butter is a hard one to get right - even our 9 yr old still struggles adding peanut butter to toast!)
• can pick ripe vegetables from the garden (knows the difference between still growing and ripe)
• can make toast/waffles/toaster strudel & take it out of the toaster safely

 Ages 7-8 (Gemma)

• can cook eggs on a stove (scrambled)
• can brown ground meat in a skillet
• can use a sharp knife to cut up vegetables
• can pour own drinks/cereal (without a huge mess)
• can ice a cake/cupcakes 
• can add sprinkles (without a huge mess)
• can flip pancakes
• can 'fold' delicate things into a batter (like blueberries)
• can make her own sandwiches (lunchmeat, pb&j)
• can shuck corn (unassisted)
• can set the microwave time correctly (after a lot of supervision and one incident of a melted bowl and a smoke filled kitchen)

Ages 8-9 (Grey)

• can follow a handwritten recipe after we go over it together
• can read & understand the packaging for baking instructions (oven temp and length of cooking)
• can put things in and out of the oven with mitts
• can cook on the stove (including turning it on/off, using the correct size burner, etc)
• can mix his own sauces: when he realized we had run out of buffalo ranch dressing, I told him that he just needs to get the right mixture of hot sauce and ranch dressing and he could make his own. He blew his own mind! 
• can start a fire in a fire ring (for campfire cooking)
• can steam things in a pan (breakfast sausage, vegetables)
• starting to learn how to grill simple things like hamburgers and hot dogs - highly supervised/assisted
• starting to learn about cooking clean up - that all the ingredients you use during cooking need to go back in the fridge/cupboard, it's easier to wipe the stove right away rather than let messes sit, soaking baked on pans, etc

Now if only we could get them to clean up after a meal as good as they cook/bake - that'd be a real miracle!

I want all the children's books Or Our home library

Someone recently asked me how many books I thought I read to my kids each day, and I responded unfazed with, "Maybe like between ten and fourteen," which I didn't think at all was that weird until I saw their expression which was a mix of disbelief and confusion.  Reading books is something we do well in our house.  Granted, there are several things we don't do well (like using beds for only sleeping instead of launch pads into piles of blankets and pillows while the adults in the house repeat over and over, "Please stop jumping off the top bunk and clean up that mess!" but that's a different story for a different day).

As I'm typing this post, Brandon is currently in a tent in the living room with all three kids and a flashlight giving some astounding depth to the Ms.Viola Swamp character from Miss Nelson is missing through some serious voice change.  We are a book loving home.  (also, I love that man).

The thing is, I love reading. period.  When you see those memes on pinterest that are all like "I can't be trusted in a bookstore with a credit card," I laugh because seriously, Brandon and I have gotten in actual arguments over the contents of my bookstore bags that were supposed to be new sneakers for me bags instead (oops).

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Backstory interlude:  I loved books as a girl, I could gulp down Goosebumps books like it was an appetizer.  Then there was a long period (high school) that I just didn't get reading anymore.  It had become a thing we were being forced to do (read books and stories that I couldn't find any connection with) and I just lost it.  Then in college, I borrowed a book from a friend and realized with amazement that it was actually kind of funny.  And it's been no looking back since then.

As an elementary teacher, I became enamored with children's lit.  Because I taught ESL, I was became passionate about finding books that my kids could relate too - authors who celebrated different cultures, languages, celebrations, and challenges.  I saw firsthand how books became an open window for kids where there had not been one before.

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Cut to, years later as a Mum to three small kids, it is all about the home library over here.  But reading is the thing we do.  All the kids huddled around (or on my lap) and we pull out a book and laugh, ask questions, and marvel at the stories.  When the day is tipping into the chaos, we sit down to read.  Before bed, we read.  After Violet wakes up from her nap, we ease back into playing with a few books.  When the kids pack their backpacks for strange little adventures in our yard, they pack books.  books are all over our house in the weirdest places:  in our bathroom, under their bunk beds,  in the kids' dirty clothes hamper...

I also collect books by the season or the holiday (other people do this, right!?  Right?!) and we pull out books from our decoration boxes that apply to that occasion.  By far our biggest collection is Winter Holiday books, but Halloween is right behind there trying to catch up.

For our everyday reading, I try to build our home library with as much range as possible.  We have books with kids and families that look just like ours and books that have kids and families that are nothing like ours.  We have teeny tiny board books, and big huge books that don't fit properly in our shelves.  Short chapter books, books with no words, and books with no pictures (shout out B.J. Novak!)  Fiction, non-fiction, poems, and pop-up books.

Once my best friend laughed when I told her I was looking for a book to buy about a challenge we were going through with Greyson and she said, "I love that you automatically think a children's book is the first order of business for tackling this."  #shegetsme

Now this post isn't to brag, but more of a:   I know I'm not the only one out there who spends far too much money on children's books!!!  Are you, too, getting confused and concerned looks from your partner and family members?  Then maybe this post is for you, because I've been able to bring my problem down to a manageable, more stable area.

I wouldn't say my obsession with having all.the.books for my kids has gone away or even subsided in any way (um, no), it's just taken a turn for the more practical and financially sensible.

Step one:  We started going to our local library regularly this summer.  We signed up for a library card, we hung out and played with the toys, puzzles, and looked at books about bigfoot (obviously).  And I got to know my way around a little bit.  It can be intimidating walking into a place that you haven't been in sometime, especially when there are 'regulars' that know the schedules and the rules and all of that.  So I introduced myself to the Children's department folks and took home flyers about storytime sessions and free movies and started to feel more comfortable little by little.

Step Two:  With the help of several awesome instagram accounts that are dedicated solely to children's books reviews, I have found a way to balance my insatiable appetite for new, great books while also not spending tons of money on books the kids might like. My little routine every two weeks (that is our library's check out timeframe) is to sit down and go through my "Posts I liked" section on my instagram and sift back over the books that were featured on my favorite insta book accounts.  From there, I'll copy down book titles and author names and then take that list with me on our library trip.

Our local library doesn't always have the books (they're checked out already, or they don't have them at all yet) - so I'll jot down about ten books, even though we only rent six at a time (our choice, no limit at our library!)

If you're looking for a starting point for suggestions on great children's lit, these are a few of my favorite instagram accounts to check out - how I build my bi-weekly library wishlists:

@welovebookworms

@picturethisbook

@smashingkidreads

@thelittlestlibrary

@thelittlebookcollector

Step three:  I've been trying to be adventurous in my book selections.  Since I'm not spending money now, I can try out books that I wouldn't normally buy, but maybe seems like something we  would find interesting? funny?  If it's a flop, no harm, no foul - if it's not - big time win!  Grey recently fell in love with a book I would have never in a million years thought and it brought out a reading spark in him that I haven't seen in awhile (ya know, big kindergartner now and he and I don't really have exactly the same taste in book content).  

Step four: I have now started to see trends in our family's collective (and individual tastes) for books a little more clearly with the freedom that comes with borrowing books instead of spending real actual money.  Now, based off the kids' (and my) reactions to various books we've been trying, I'm building birthday and holiday book lists.  There are authors that I'm now more quick to try simply because we like their style (hello Mac Barnett, Ole Konnecke, and the great Mo Willems)  we are getting in a fair taste of older books and authors too that maybe we would not have tried their non-famous books without borrowing  (Frank Asch, Maurice Sendak, and Pat Hutchins).

So keep going for it mommas, giving it your all with all those voices that you change for the characters.  Look at you getting kids excited about stories and pictures and words.  This is a love that will last forever, so go at it with a full heart.

  happy reading! xxoxox 

Screen Free Week 2014 Reflections

We finished up our second year of participating in Screen Free Week.  And here is in a glance, what our week looked like:

If you are a regular reader, this does not look drastically different than our normal life (as per what I allow to be viewed on social media, ahem).  Well, minus all the napping - we don't normally nap this much or this easily, but that's what Screen Free Week does:  it makes for very tired (both physically and mentally) children.

The thing that is maybe less obvious in the drive-by view of our week is that all of these activities that are not so out-of-the-norm had two components that were quite out-of-the-norm.  First:  they were all done with kids that were eager to contribute to the play with their own ideas and creativity.

That's not to say that doesn't happen on a regular basis, but my kids are the go-go-go type and it feels activities last approximately 3 minutes before they are on to the next destruction.  They are not happy play-doh, crayon, paint, or lego artists - let me tell ya.  But Screen Free Week seemed to give their attention to these less-physical play an added boost.  They sat longer for craft projects, made up their own games that took place in only one location, and had more hilarious inventive ways to play independently.  Like the 36 concert and poem jam sessions I watched last week which included multiple renditions of "Let it Go" by Gemma and this precious poem:

My Mum's Love 
by Greyson (age 4)

I love my Mom
She cooks me food
I love it when 
she cooks me food
She turns on the tv
but not if it's today
but other days,
not today,
she turns on the tv

We were blessed with great weather for most of the week, so being outside after a very long, cold winter filled with lots of added screen time - it was a much needed boost of vitamin D and body moving.  We visited the playground and park, pretended the rock box was a nest (...my kids are weird), washed the little playground car-wash style, laid under the trampoline and read, got royally filthy sloshing through mud, and did a lot of digging for worms and looking for other bugs.

We also talked about various parts of the Earth that I penciled in during the week for when the kids (read:  I) got bored.  We have these awesome kid-friendly encyclopedia-type books ( Explore and Learn, 6 Volume Set ) that fascinate the kids that we really don't read & look at enough.  We read the pages that coordinated with the days that we were 'studying' and learned more about the ocean, rain forests, and trees.  By far, our favorite day was Insect day, but we also got our faces painted like sea creatures (a blue whale & giant squid...again; my kids are weird), made ocean bottles, a tornado jar, and caterpillars from egg cartons.

The second component, and probably more important, that makes Screen Free Week more magical than other weeks is that the day is spent with a Mum that is significantly more calm and more patient than normal.  I took a screen hiatus myself (only using email for 'work' which translates to The Hunting Daddies stuff and my work with the CV Alumni Association).  I didn't look at facebook, pinterest, instagram, or tv for the entire week.  I did use my phone to take pictures and call/text but other than that - I was a screen free Mumma too.

One day last week, I fi.na.lly. cleared off my kitchen window sill above the sink and made a cairn out of the rocks Greyson has been collecting for me.  For no particular reason, that little rock cairn has given me unreasonable joy every time I've looked at it since.  It was like the creative window that being away from screens gave me helped me make time to clear off the windowsill and create this little zen statue of gratitude, happiness, and a bit of magic.  (is it really a surprise my kids are so weird?)

The funny realization that comes with Screen Free Week from a Mum point of view is that I really think that sitting the kids down in front of the tv for a show or two gives me all this time to get stuff done.  When in reality - it only makes me less efficient.  It's like I know that I have a good 25 minutes to do stuff without interruption, so I drag my feet and check social media and fart around and suddenly the 25 minutes is up and I didn't even get done what I had set out to do originally.

This past week, there was no 25 minute breaks while the kids 'zombie'd' out in front of the tv or iPad.  I needed to do what I needed to do (cook, clean, general caring for human life both born and unborn) and I knew I needed to get it done while the kids were with me or playing together or independently.  And imagine my surprise when:  it all got done!  I was an efficient machine!  I even tacked on projects that I hadn't planned like sorting baby clothes, deep cleaning the truck (prompted by Grey throwing up from the stomach bug), outdoor summer clean-up tasks, and cleaning out the fridge.  Seriously, it was crazy.

20 weeks pregnant cleaning out the truck in 85+ degree weather - Yea!  I can do that!

Keeping away from screens myself, also shone light on one-on-one time that I don't normally take time to spend with the kids because I feel so 'drained.'  Grey and I made blueberry muffins when Gemma slept in.  When Grey fell asleep before 7:30pm one night (!!!!!!a miracle, people!!!!), Gemmi and I had our favorite dinner together (pb&j toast) and while Gemma napped one day, I played Candyland and Memory with Grey.

So, the point of this incredibly long post (is anyone still out there?) is that just as last year, we made some incredible discoveries during Screen Free Week this year.  First, as revealed early this week, our new baby is a girl (!), but also - more existentially - we had a big reminder that screens do not in fact make our home life easier - rather, it makes us all feel more stressed and pulled in different directions.  Taking this week as a concerted effort in sharing less, mindlessly googling less, and even being less aware of all the stuff happening outside of our little home or family life - made our life feel so much more peaceful and efficient.

Moving forward, we are trying to take these lessons and find a way to implement them into regular life.  For example, the kids like 'waking up slow,' so they have been getting some tv in the morning and then that's kind of it for the day.  We have been eating lunch together with no screens and it was the kids that suggested last night that we all play Memory together while dinner was finishing up instead of asking for screen time.

I have been working on leaving my phone in the kitchen during the day and only blogging, social media'ing in the early morning while the kids are still sleeping or still slowly waking up (aka tv time).  I'm trying to be more conscious of the times I'm passively choosing another's creativity (tv, internet in general) over exercising my own creativity (writing, journaling, planning).

Overall, it was a great week.  I hope more people continue to join in despite how daunting the task seems at first.  Check out the hashtag on instagram:  #screenfreeweek to see some inspiring photos of how others 'looked up' last week.  And just for the sake of humanity and happiness, also please look at this hashtag:  #littlefreelibrary (makes me wish we lived in a cul de sac just so we could build one!   Alas, country folk we are).

If you're interested in reading some other recaps of Screen Free Week via awesome blogs - check these awesome mommas out:

Shelly:  was so happy to read Shelly's account of how much more productive and energized she felt as I had the same experience!  Again, proof we are kindred spirits!

Melodye:  Amazing to see the creative that came out of Melodye's week!  She is awesome anyway, but it was clear proof of the difference in passively consuming creativity (via tv/internet) compared to actively being creative.  Seriously, I'm in awe.

Angie from Risky Kids:  I was inspired to see "older kids" (well at least older than mine) accept and excel in the Screen Free Week challenge.  And the pic of the whole neighborhood crew of kids playing outside together got me feeling happy and refreshed.  (check out Risky Kids chronicles of the 50 dangerous things - I'm thinking maybe we're friends in a different life, Angie!)

Did you participate in Screen Free week?  I want to hear about it!!

Screen Free Week Prep 2014

National Screen Free week is nearly here (next week!) and I have been busy thinking and preparing for the week ahead with no screens for my family.  We participated last year and I was so worried before we began that the kids would be out of control and the week would be horribly long and difficult.  And then we did it and I was surprised to find that the kids hardly noticed and I was the one that struggled the most with screen free week.

Here's the cold, hard truth:  as a stay at home Mum with very young kids, there are large parts of the day that are unbearably boring.  Don't get my wrong, there are parts of the day that I delight in the kids sharing or playing some amazing imaginative scenario.  Other parts of the day, I'm cooking, cleaning, organizing, and planning.  And definitely parts when I'm part of the play too; reading, participating, and helping.  But there are also staggering moments that are endlessly mind-numbing.  Like when I've watched this child do the same flip off of the same couch armrest 36 times already and yet still I get, "Mum, watch this."  Oh, I know, I know.  Someday I will miss their constant need for my attention, alas, that fact does not decrease the mundane-ness of the moment right now.  So, in these moments of sheer boredom, Mumma scrolls.  She scrolls through facebook, instagram, pinterest, and other blogs.  I just need a distraction.  Isn't that the sum of life these days?  Distraction.

I'm not saying I'm proud of this - I ain't.  like at all.  But I'm just coming clean here and giving some more background for why we participate in Screen Free Week in the first place.  It's less about them right now (especially since they're too young to care about texting/facebook/instagram, etc).  My kids miss Netflix movies and tv shows during the week - and they forget about caring about that after Day1.  Mum on the other hand, my screen free week is a wake-up call just to how much of my life is distracted by screens because it's easy, it's available, and it's distracting.

So, going into our second year of Screen Free Week, instead of scared, I am excited!  Not only for myself but for the kids too.  I know this week means earlier bedtimes as the kids are more tired, I know it means more creative juice pumping in my own brain, and I know that being severely conscious of my own screen distractions makes for many more moments of awareness and intention in my day.

I am probably most excited at my book list I have organized for myself to read during the week.  I have been shamefully out of reading on a regular basis (except reading The Fault in Our Stars in a single day - this is why I can't read fiction outside of vacation!  I become consumed.)

I have lined up some books that I've been reading the past few weeks: Same Kind of Different As Me  and The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business  And my new reads: Thinking, Fast and Slow and Bossypants. And I also am awaiting to arrive in the mail: Cold in July which will be out in movie theaters this summer.  My Dad said he'd read it after me and we'll go see the movie together.

I got the kids some new books too. Rosie Revere, Engineer and The Tiger Who Came to Tea for Gemmi and some new chapter books to read to Grey during Gemmi's naptime:
My Father's Dragon: The Bestselling Children Story , Anna Hibiscus, and SuperDuper Teddy .

I've also mapped out in my planner to make an effort to focus on different parts of the Earth during the week.  Mostly because the kids are just interested in all things earth related these days.  So we'll be talking about the ocean, the rainforest, trees, bugs, and the weather for the week.  I'm using my current screentime to look up science and craft projects that align to those topics as back ups for the week if anyone gets bored (ahem, Me).  And we'll be having no lights at night - something the kids like doing anyway that makes evening and bedtime more fun; using candles instead of lights.

I recently read this quote from Kim John Payne (Author of Simplicity Parenting) that inspires me for both my kids' and my creative process in the upcoming Screen Free Week (and beyond?):

"What our kids see on a screen is someone else's creativity.  It is not their own.  Our children are growing up into a world where they will more than ever need to be innovative, adaptable, and above all, creative.  Having the courage to question the new normal of screen saturation in our kids' lives and allowing our homes to be low or no screen environments will give them the hugest advantage in their lives to come - because it gives them the space and time to transform passive consuming into active creativity."  

To get the kids talking about Screen Free Week, we created this list together of things we can do instead of TV/Movies next week.

If you're asking yourself, "Geez, Tab, if you love Screen Free week so much, why don't you marry it?"  (haha, or do it all the time, rather).  The answer is that we need to start somewhere.  I do love a week of recognizing our screen dependence and how it impacts our life.  We learned last year, for example, that if the kids don't watch tv after 5:30pm daily, bedtime is easier and we've repeatedly implemented that in our regular life through the year.  We are anxious to see what we learn this year and hopefully move toward a more creative and less passive screen consuming life little by little.

Are you planning on going Screen Free next week too?  What will you be doing?  Do you already live a low screen lifestyle at your home?  Any tips?

Tacky Box Review: Cleaning up the way we speak

Unless this is your first time here (hi & welcome if it is!), you know we are all about kindness over here at Team Studer.   One of the ways we try to practice kindness everyday is in the way that we speak.  Ask any close friend or relative - my kids are notorious for announcing, "We don't say ###."  Some of the things that "We don't say" are words like 'stupid,' 'shut up,' or any curse words.  While watching The Grinch with Grey this past holiday season (the one with Jim Carrey), Grey would announce aloud every time, "We don't say idiot!"  He is like our little language police over here!

We have been doing very well with continuing our practice of kind speech but there was never any reason announced to the kids as to why we don't say those things besides telling the kids that 'it's not nice.'  And then I was contacted by the folks over at Tacky Box and I was thrilled to get a chance to review their new Tacky Box set as a tool to help children (and adults!) practice kindness in the way that they speak.

Chris Kent Phelps and Cindy Kent; a Mum and Grandma duo,  created the Tacky Box set to use as a fun and easy way to talk to kids about unkind language and how it might hurt others.  The book; Max's Magnificent Choice (there is also a Margo's Magnificent Choice version) along with the actual Tacky Box come together as a set.  The Tacky Box and accompanying book have been proven as great visuals for young children to make connections between the words that we say and how they may affect those we say them to.




We were eager to read our 'monkey book' (described by our 22month old Gemma).  The kids sat nicely for the reading of the book.  Each page is illustrated with bold colors of jungle scenes.  For a 22month old and a 3 and a half year old, the words on each page were just the right length to allow them to pay attention for each page.

I made a point to stop during the reading when Max chose to say anything that we 'don't say' at our house.  I'd turn to the kids and say, "Uh Oh, that wasn't a very nice thing to say!" or asked Greyson, "Why do you think the other animals didn't want to play with him?"  It was a nice interactive read that kept Greyson's attention for the entire book.

After reading about Max's Magnificent choice (to stop saying unkind, 'tacky' things), I showed the kids our very own tacky box.  Which, they were overjoyed to see we could have one of our own!  We got right to sharing and painting the box together while I wrote our family's name on it since we can always use the practice of using kind words!

After our Tacky Box was dry, we took a few minutes to talk about the book again and how Max made a magnificent choice to speak nicely to others.  Grey was very excited about coming up with Tacky Words to add to our box as well.  The thing I loved about the book and set combo is that at three and half, our son has trouble thinking up words and ideas out of thin air.  But because of Max's story, he was able to use the Tacky Words that Max said in the book to start.  Our first three tacky words were the same that Max said in the book, but thinking about Max helped Greyson begin to think about tacky words (and things 'we don't say') from our own life.  So we added some of those in as well. 

Our Tacky Box is sitting prominently in our living room as a reminder about speaking kindly to each other.  The week following our first reading, Grey said, "I don't like you!" and we reminded him that it was a Tacky thing to say.  The glimmer of realization was visible in his eyes that he understood both that it was not a nice thing to say and that it was hurtful to the person he said it to (me; his mum).  

I am anxious to see how over the next few weeks the Tacky Box continues to help keep us focused on speaking kindly to each other.  I will be back to update on any changes or improvements soon!

In the meantime - head over to these places to check out The Tacky Box 

Facebook

Website

Twitter

Pinterest

Youtube

And make sure to see how the  folks over at Tacky Box have started a Campaign for Kindness.  It is a mission meant to provide Tacky Boxes to Kindergartners all over the nation; in hopes that we can help kids make the 'Magnificent Choice' to choose kind words. 

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disclaimer:  I was provided a Tacky Box set in exchange for publication of my review and experience with the product.  Opinions in this post are my own.

our big secret project OR that time we started a publishing company

Gulp.

What's that thing the late, great, Mandela said?

Well, that about sums up our experience over the last few months as we built our own publishing company:  The Hunting Daddies

Let's start at the start, eh?

If you're a regular reader around here, it's no big secret that we are a hunting family.  I've written about how hunting and fishing .dictate a great deal of our lives with avid outdoorsmen surrounding me at every turn:  husband, Dad, dad-in-law, best friends, cousins, and the guy in line behind me in the check-out line at Gander Mountain last night.  We live in midwestern PA and as James Carville explained about Pennsylvania, "Philadelphia in the east, Pittsburgh in the west, and Alabama in the middle,"  we're located firmly in the 'Alabama' part.

So it really should have come as no surprise when Greyson came right out one day and asked me if I would take him, 'in the woods to sit in a tree stand to use the grunt call.'  He was barely three.  I just laughed at first and shook my head, "oh boy, here we go again - another redneck."  And then my teacher-brain started thinking about how impressive it was that he used the correct vocabulary words in the right context.  Shortly after, I got to googling- I wanted a book that was similar to our other board books that included vocabulary words with the corresponding picture for specific content.  We have one for basketball, football, and musical instruments.  Up until this point, Grey was picking up vocab based off of what he heard our family and friends say.  And I wanted a tool to have on hand that when Brandon said he needs to fix a 'fletching', we would have a picture of one handy instead of googling it.  Alas, I could not find a board book that fit my needs.

Our best friend Jon was living us during the week this summer, so he and Brandon just kept doing what they normally do; taking the kids with them to set up the trail cams, and going for walks in the woods, and teaching the kids to make turkey calls...all the while the wish for a vocabulary books kept rattling in the back of our minds.

Until, finally one night at dinner, I was all like, "Let's just make a book ourselves?"

And so then we did.

Well, it wasn't that easy, but basically that's what went down.  We wanted something that didn't exist so we took the very big, mostly scary, completely unfamiliar steps of making it happen.  

After the initial, 'Wait, are we being serious about this?' conversations, we got started on making it happen.  We all organized the vocabulary words we wanted for our first book, Jon drew the pictures, I learned Photoshop on the fly, we discovered we needed to become our own publishing company (as confirmed by this woman's post), we applied to be a small business, we spent lots of our own money, Linds and I excitedly called each other basically just to squeal, we set up a website, Lindsay navigated the world of online accounting and state taxes, we started social media profiles, we held our breath,  we waited, and waited and waited for our federal EIN, we held web-meetings, created a logo, ordered business cards, jumped through legal hoops, we messed up, we tried again, we googled, we drank beers, we laughed, and above all we learned.

And then after all that (and surely more of that to come), we arrived where we are today.  Somewhere in the middle of astonished and terrified.  The idea began as a way to get educational materials to our own kids about the stuff we already spend the day talking about (hunting, fishing, and other outdoor activities), and now after nearly 6 months into this adventure- we've found it's morphed into this awesome thing all of it's own.  

Through social media, we've been so lucky to meet other families that are just like ours (#huntingfamilyfriday).  Regular hunters and fishers who spend their weekends and evenings in the woods or at the creek with their family and friends.  That's what it's always been about for us - sure our husbands love tagging a monster buck or catching a legend-worthy steelhead - but those moments are few and far between, it's more about the memories that are made while spending time with your family away from distractions. 

So, here we are today, at the next big canyon of unknown.  Our first board books have made their way half-way across the globe and we are ready to start selling.  We are busily working on our next book and already discussing ideas for future avenues that at the start of this - we never would have dreamed of.  It's exciting and I'm so happy to get to finally share the news with all of you!

Soooo, that's what we've been up to for the past few months - hah!  So glad that cat's outta the bag, friends.  

If you'd like to check out our book for sale (will be shipped no earlier than Thursday 12/19), please find My First Bowhunting Book here:  http://www.thehuntingdaddies.squarespace.com/products/myfirstbowhuntingbook

If you want to learn more about The Hunting Daddies, check us out:

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Thank you so much for your patience over the last few months, I know my posts have been inconsistent so thank you for hanging around as we figure this all out.  I have no plans to leave our family blog, so stay tuned for regular updates and occasional posts on our adventures in publishing with The Hunting Daddies.

xxxox.

moral of this post:  Dream BIG, jump, figure it out on the way down.