I love homemaking, but it seems that I rarely "get" to do much of it.  Managing others, yes, but *I* rarely "get" to clean or just putter.  The reason is that I am in a season of life where I am homeschooling seven children and will be doing so for another three years, then it will be six for two years, then five for two years -- you get the picture.  My children are all between 18 mos. and 28 mos. apart.  I do homeschool some subjects in groups, as needed.

 

Shopping, planning meals, monitoring everyone's chores and doing the personal tutoring of my children takes up all my time.  When I "get" to clean, I feel like I am on vacation!  Things stay pretty OK around here, but I have been missing cleaning so much that I made myself a new little schedule that allows me to clean for 15 minutes a day in the rooms that mean the most to me (my bedroom and the kitchen).  My children do all the cleaning and we have "zone" chores, ala FlyLady. 

 

When I take little "sanity breaks" at lunch time and after dinner, I like to read the messages here:

 

I would also like to take over the bread baking from my daughter.  She is busy with her schoolwork, piano, housework, reading, cooking, exercise, and her other interests so I don't want to add another burden to her to make more bread than she already makes.  I figured that if I purchase 50# of wheat, I can make 50 loaves of bread and that should last us two months if we just bake bread with it.  Of course, we bake other things as well, so it may not last a full two months.  My desire is to just bake for the week in one day and to simultaneously create a bit of a stockpile.

 

Lately, on Mrs. Cat's Blog http://www.xanga.com/MrsCatherine, she has been encouraging us to declutter our belongings, and to conserve our resources.  I have been so inspired.  Already I have set our computer to hibernate after five minutes if no one is using it, turning on fewer lights, not using paper towels so often and getting my son out of the shower!  I used to be much more frugally-minded but as I have had more children (and more money, at times), I have opted for convenience more often.

 

While I think we are a pretty frugal, back-to-basics family, I know we can do better.  We have been grinding our own flour for a few years now, and we don't buy prepared foods much at all.  Just the occasional thing here and there (more for birthdays and special occasions). We do buy some canned beans sometimes but I usually just cook them on the stove.

 

I would also  like to try once-a-month cooking to save money as well as time.  Cooking is not my hobby.  Well, it's not my preferred hobby, but I do spend a lot of time doing it, it seems.  It would be so attractive to have prepared meals that have cost less than cooking one or two meals at a time!  Doesn't that sound wonderful!  I'd much rather spend time reading to my children, sewing, scrapbooking, doing more homeschool projects, and cleaning and puttering around the house.  A friend of mine told me she is trying to create more "margins" in her life.  I know what she means (she has eight children and homeschools) but the only thing I can think of to cut down on is cooking time!! Computer time is already way down, as I have limited myself to only getting on when my work is finished (at least all I have energy to do that day!).  It is also very "necessary" to me anymore because I have a wonderful outlet for my crowded brain!

 

 

My dh is a bit of a spender when he has money (he says that there is nothing better for a man than to enjoy the fruits of his labor) but we have no credit cards or credit card debt.  We own our vehicles.  We pay cash for everything (or use that handy little debit card!).  When we have money, we have to catch up with many items (90% needs, I guarantee you!) but he has been known to buy a family movie or CD or two.

 

All that to say, I have a goal to start "hoarding" food to last us six months.  I am trying to figure out how much I would have to store of each type of item.  I know that in years past I have purchase enough pasta to last three or even six months.  Same with sugar and white flour (we buy white flour for some baked items as a filler), brown sugar, baking soda, beans, canned chicken and tuna.  I'd like to figure out how much non-perishable food I would need to buy to last six months and just buy our meat, cheese, and butter monthly and fruits, vegetables, and milk weekly.

 

We have been "poor" lately and this has further inspired me to ready for a "rainy day" or even a rainy couple of months.  My husband has made $0 since September, yet today, TODAY, the Lord gave him work and we can buy some food!  Just as I was saying, "Well, the Lord HAS to provide because he promised, and we have one day's worth of food left."  Today, HE did!  Thank you, Lord!! 

 

I truly never worry about the Lord providing for us.  Our landlords may get tired of us someday being late with the rent all the time (most of the eight years we have lived here, anyway), but the Lord will be faithful and provide for our needs, including housing.  Of that I am very sure!

 

Speaking of husbands not making money, my husband is self-employed and his work is feast or famine.  He is going to get his contracting  license instead of "partnering' with other people so that should change our situation.  He won't be home as much but we probably won't have the extreme ups and downs that we have been having for such a long time.  It's the Lord's timing, because this is the first time that my dh has felt that the Lord wants him to get his license.

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Today my two oldest boys went to the San Diego Wild Animal Park with another family with two boys (they are in a band together, too) so it was a bit quieter around the house today.  We had my son's friend staying here for the past six days (his parents went to the Bahamas) so things were a bit more in need of strict management this week (that is eight children homeschooling and feeding them all!)and this morning when his mom came to pick him up, we visited for a bit.  I had laundry going all during this time and I read a book to my three youngest boys (A Little Rebel Becomes a Saint).  I did SWR with two of my boys who were home today and helped my dd with her writing assignment (the hard part was hers, I just proofed it!). 

 

We made spaghetti today and my dd made a monstrous loaf of garlic bread.  I should have taken a picture of it but I don't know how to post photos anyway!

 

My boys and dh should be home soon.  Tomorrow I am going to my friend's house to sort some photos so I can get back to my scrapbooking.