So, grocery shopping was rushed this morning, we had a bunch of near incidents and went to scrapbook and I was too wound up to relax to scrapbook. So, I drank some tea, ate some cookies and thought about all I had to do!
I figured though I had better write my menu plan up so I feed people......
Wed: Um, salad, leftover soup, hot dogs and some weird apple and peanut butter sandwiches
Thursday: Lemon chicken, broccoli, rice and cookies
Friday: Boys gone, except for T.and I, Vegetables probably and leftovers
Saturday: Birthday for my youngest son....Chicken, salad, cake
Sunday: Rice pilaf with meat
Monday: Stir Fry and rice
Tuesday: A big pot of soup, bread, cookies
We are having alot of rice this week, but we have alot of rice! I have to bake a bunch of cookies tomorrow, so hopefully things go smooth!
is a fun one for everyone to join in. Even those who only read books to their toddlers.....she challenges us to keep track of how many pages we read, what we read and authors. I am excited as it is fun to look back and see what you have done. This week, amazingly, I had alot of books to read so slowly worked them in amongst the chaos! Most of the books I read were fiction, but I re-read a book called The Family Nobody wanted by Helen Doss and was touched to no end by it. It was such a wonderful story of how God brought children into the life of a childless couple and how they were willing to give up peace and quiet to help children no one else wanted because of their race. Since I read several long books, I think this last week, I read about 2000 pages, I am not sure though!
Here are the books I have been reading
Books I have read:
A boy to Help by Mary Joyce Zimmerman- 32 pages
God loves me by Leora Zimmerman- 32 pages
Bic’s baptism- by Miss Robin 32 pages
Read to your bunny- 10 pages
Santa Fe Girl- Gilbert Morris- 450 pages
A mile in my flipflops- by Melody Carlson 330 pages
A Man for Temperance by Gilbert Morris 331 pages
Someday- by Karen Kingsbury 323 pages
The Moon in the Mango tree by Pamela Ewen 470 pages (This was classified as fiction, but was actually based on a true story of the authors grandmother. You can tell the difference when you read it)
Get Cozy, Josey by Susan May Warren 344 pages
The Family Nobody wanted by Helen Doss 274 pages.
Wow, that is a grand total of 2628 pages....
I will probably just add what I have read and the total at the bottom of my posts.
Anyhow, in this Family Circle Illustrated Library of cooking Volume 3, is a section on how to save money! Many of the tips are great still for now, but some I found interesting in how far we have come.
"Give all dairy foods goos care at home. This means keeping milk, butter or margarine and cheese tightly covered or wrapped and chilled. Another reminder:To enjoy these products at peak flavor, buy often and only what you can use within a few days."
Considerable savings are possible on fresh fruits and vegetables. Asparagus on special may be .23 cent per pound, while in comparable supermarkets the price is .59 cents per pound!"
"If you shop only once a week, avoid waste by using up fresh produce and other perishables first. Rely on canned and frozen foods to carry you through the latter part of the week"
Buy according to your storage space. Family size bags of frozen foods, are economical, but do not hold well in a ice cube compartment of a refrigerator"
Anyhow, we had pigs in a blanket for dinner, well, they all did. i had a whole wheat biscuit and a big salad. i made the biscuit dough in my food processor as it is almost as simple as using already made biscuit dough, except you have to wash the container. It is super easy! They turned out flaky, the boys liked them and that is what counts, right?
Tomorrow is another day and hopefully we can do much, much better, here is hoping!
We did get our new refridgerator drawer today. When we bought our new fridge, one of the drawers was cracked, so hopefully this one holds up better! I think I will take a shower and crawl in bed myself.
http://www.dhss.com
She is having a sale this week, July 15th-22nd, with free shipping on orders over $25. It is nice to support a homeschool family too! She also has some great specials on things too. I am thinking about getting this Young Mans Handbook with a free fishing set
Check out all the sales by clicking on the link above!
By Miss Robin
Reviewed by Martha Artyomenko
This little book is a short story that talks about the details of baptism in a simple, easy to understand way for young Christians. It is written for ages 4-8 and has color pictures on every page. Bic has become a Christian and when he is at church, he witnesses a baptism. It starts him asking questions, he wonders what was in the water and thinks about how he should be baptized. He feels very nervous about it and listens to more sermons on baptism, which he is glad to learn that baptism does not save him, so maybe he does not have to do it. He learns though the reason for baptism and the symbols behind it, but he still feels nervous. He was afraid the pastor might drop him and gets more nervous. He wisely seeks out an older person to talk to about his fears, where he encourages him and prays with him. God helps Bic and he is able to be baptized.
This short story is a great way to explain to children the symbolism of baptism, how o conquer fear of things and learning to follow the Lord. It would be a fun lesson to do in a Sunday school class or in your own home classroom. (It details baptism by immersion)
It is available from Little Light Press www.littlelightpress.com
It is 32 pages long, color pictures in an easy to read style, and retails for $12.95
I babysat for the last two days, we went to the local beach, which sort of has dirt mixed with sand, but more sand towards the water, where I did not want to sit. My baby I was watching was having a hard day, so I was jumping, bouncing and cajoling her most of the while. One of my sisters took her and she loves to make babies make funny faces and got her happy for awhile and gave me a break. She did much better today though! It was a little overcast, but the boys had so much fun. They loved it! The water was so clear and nice too.
This morning, I went shopping and yesterday got a few things. I went to the produce place and was surprised, pleasantly as they had some great deals. I got some apples that were a little soft, but not bad, just not crunchy, for .35 a pound. Cucumbers, zucchini, green peppers, lemons were all 2/$1. I got some plums too cheap, watermelon for .10 a pound. Bags of the peas that you can eat the shell were $1 a bag, grown on the Hutterite colony and stuff like that! Anyhow, it was fun and nice to have some veggies and fruit!!
Menu for the week:
Wednesday: Chef Salad for me, watermelon, boiled eggs, turkey ham and crackers, finger jello and veggies and dip
Thursday: Pigs in a blanket, salad
Friday: Tator Tot casserole - Green beans
Saturday: Beef Fajitas- spanish rice
Sunday: BBQ chicken legs jello salad, pasta salad
Monday: Chicken noodle soup- bread (I know it is not a typical summer dish, but P. has been asking for it)
Tuesday: Beef and Broccoli stir fry- rice
My garden is growing, I have several little cucumbers that I may be able to harvest soon! I am excited! My camera though I am afraid is broken, so I am going to have to check finances to get a new one as there has been alot of thing I have been missing taking pictures of.
So, life has been busy, life has been good, and God is blessing us with many good things. tomorrow I am going to work on organizing the basement. I am trying to go slowly through the rooms. My closet is pretty much done and the little boys room and the two upstairs bathrooms. The hardest is saved for last!
One thing I love about TEACH is it is not something that makes you feel like you can never attain. Instead you feel like, "Others have been there too and here is what i can do to fix the problem!" This issue, the theme was "The Art of homemaking", which was the title of one of my favorite books growing up!
Probably my favorite article was in the "Swinging on the back porch" article, by Marilyn Boyer (a mother of 14, lest you think she does not know what she is talking about!) She speaks about how mothering is a full time job, it is not easy, and we cannot do it all ourselves. Lately, I have felt this many times, the sort of panic when you realize that you cannot do it all! She talks about how to train your children to help you and to be their coach.
She starts with something simple, like shoes, which is something frustrates me. If everyone has 2-3 pairs of shoes and there are 6 of us that is 18 shoes laying around! Removing clutter, making lists, and finding time for bible study are all part of this article. It is so good, I am going to re-read it and start implementing it! I figure a mom of 14, well, it has to have worked for her by now!
In A apple a day, there was tips on homemade beauty, including a Peppermint polish for your feet! I am so excited to try this as it says it really helps your feet and is all natural stuff that is not expensive to buy to make it! There is a recipe for vanilla Body butter and bath salts too! It is written by Jessie Hawkins at Vintage Remedies.
Anyhow, I am blessed again to get this magazine and I hope that some of you check it out and subscribe! it is like a breath of fresh air in your mailbox!
If you subscribe too for two years you get a bunch of free gifts too!
www.teachmagazine.com
This is a harder lesson to learn sometimes. I think we think of it often as in our daily lives, food, clothes, houses etc. which is true, but also I think sometimes it can be where we have been placed in our life.
Our purpose in life may have been decided for us by the actions of others, like our parents, our spouses, our children even, yet can we say that in whatever state we are in, we can be content?
Many of us have life circumstances that we would rather live without it. A spouse that is ill, children who have problems, relatives that cause issues, it may be that our parents have made decisions that will effect us for the rest of our lives. I read a story about a family with Fragile X syndrome, which is passed down from person to person. How would we feel if we realized this was a "gift" our parents gave us? Would we be bitter?
I have had some difficult things to deal with that happened. I have had to look at them as facts, they are things that will not or cannot be changed. Through this I have a choice, I can look at it and be frightened to death. I can sit and think of all the scenarios that could happen in the future, or I can enjoy each and every day to the fullest now. I can be bitter I was handed this. I can blame myself for decisions I made, my parents made or other people made and be bitter and grumpy about it and be miserable the whole while.
I could sit inside and wonder why, but instead I choose to look at what has come out of it that is good. Through some of the circumstances in my life, I have been able to connect with people, I would not have been able to before. I have been able to minister to others because of my pain, I understand theirs. I knew as a small child, that God had called me to be a missionary, but I did not realize His plan was not to be a missionary in the sense that I expected, but that God had a special mission field planned for me that did not involve heroism, great laud and fame. Instead, it is the mission field of something that may never be noticed, sacrifices that people may never see because they are ones that are within.
Some of the sacrifice is never being able to ever speak of things that have happened to most people, but instead being qualified to listen to others pain. It is bearing a burden that if you did tell, you wonder if people would believe you as when you have hinted at it, the reactions were mixed. You bear the silent pain of wondering if your children will suffer from the same things, you wonder why some people cannot comprehend it and allow it to continue.
But through it all you make a choice "I have learned that in whatever state I am in, to therefore be content!!" Paul suffered so much if you read the verses above this, he knew pain, suffering, beatings, imprisonment, stonings, loss of friends, people not understanding him, all those things. Yet, he was content and kept pressing on to the high calling and sacrificing himself for the name of Christ.
I wonder are we willing to sacrifice all for the name of Christ? Are we willing to lay everything down and be servants to others and deny ourselves for those in our family, our friends and those that come through our lives? That may mean something different for everyone! For one of us, it may mean changing diapers, and for another it may mean loving one of our siblings who is hard to love. For another it may mean caring for someone with an illness, a spouse with depression, a job loss, financial problems and others.
Whatever your state is, I will pray that along with me, you will take the challenge to be content! "For Godliness with contentment is great gain." 1 Timothy 6:6
It is reasonably priced too! You have to buy the book which is $26 and if you order before July 15th, it comes with a free activity packet. You do not have to buy more for your family, unless you do not have a way to copy it as you can copy the pages for your own family. You can also get the activity packet in a e-book form and then just print it off.
I just sold those schoolbooks, so I am excited to be able to buy this and use it this year!
If you would like to see it go to www.writeshop.com
and here I thought I was getting older!! The one day, we helped mom clean up some in the house and in the yard. They started a pile to burn some of the wood and some icky stuff around the house, but it was really close to the house and was not a good plan. The fire got really big and hot and we had to put it out because the house was getting to hot and we got worried we were going to melt the electrical box on the house. The house was steaming when we sprayed it. This is one handed typing as my other hand is stuck under a sleeping baby that I am babysitting. On Monday we had a homeschool book sale that was okay, but I did not sell very many, I was thrilled though to find when I came home I had sold most of them for mom...that was great!
We have been busy, in a good way, but I do not want to get too busy, it gets too tiring. I love days where you can just sit and watch them run and play. This morning the baby, T. and L. and I, went for a walk. T. got a nice little bike with training wheels so he rode that and L. was on his new bike I got him at a garage sale last week. I got that one at the garage sale and T.'s a friend gave me. It was nice, we rode down to a park nearby, we swung a bit and then came back home. It was a little difficult helping both of them, the baby in the stroller and T. on the bike!
We got a bunny rabbit last week, so that is a huge deal for us. We are not pet people, but I thought we should all learn about caring for an animal. I am not sure what it's name is, so as of now it is not named.
Menu for the week:
Wednesday: Leftovers-pineapple
Thursday: Hot Dogs, watermelon- salad
Friday:BBQ with family- hamburgers and side dish or dessert- I am not quite sure exactly what to bring, but I am thinking of a few different things. I was thinking pie sounded good, but I am not sure.
Saturday: Spaghetti and meatballs- salad
Sunday: Enchilada casserole/ dessert or side dish
Monday:Swedish Meatballs, noodles and green beans
Tuesday:Stir Fry and rice
Getting more mature and older seems to do that to a person, I guess! I have wonderful friends who are my moms age, in fact my closest friends are moms age and my mom, so I guess that may be why. I relate more to people those ages than the ones more my age. It could be too in the way I grew up too. My mom was not too old when she had me, so maybe that helped us to be closer, I am not sure.
I have caught myself though looking at young people getting married and thinking 'They are so young to be getting married, having babies...." "Do they know what they are getting in for?" I catch myself though because it is easy to say that now, but people said it when I got married too!
I think it was watching a new mother and father with their baby and the tears of joy in their eyes and the joy in their voices when they exclaimed "I have a daughter!!!" "She is mine!!" it takes you somewhere to a place where you as an outsider can look in and think of reality of them having the responsibility of a child, where also the tears come to your eyes as you watch them as you shared in it with working through it with them. They thanked me and tell me how much they appreciate it and I left with this feeling of a job well done. It is hard work, but that is why I do it. It is the joy that a new life has come and you helped, not just physically, but with emotional support. It is a wonderful feeling!
It helps me remember why I do this day to day sometimes seemingly useless jobs of cooking, cleaning, taking care of clothes and other things as you remember where you started. It is when it started with the tiny baby who was so helpless, depending on you for everything and you were so in love, but that is the same one that can really drive you crazy at times now that they are toddlers!! The same ones who are gobbling up food like they are starving, and yet the same ones who kiss you good night and tell you how much they love you.
We work hard to bring them into this world and it is with joy we accept them, then as we raise them we have the hard labor again of teaching them what is right and wrong, how not to scream for things, to be polite and to just try to be presentable!!!! We want to pass on a love for God, we want to teach them all sorts of things and yet inside we wonder how on earth we are going to do it as we still feel like a little child ourselves!
So, as we all get older, just remember probably we all feel young inside, time passes quicker than you think and take each day as it comes. Rejoice that we have today, for you never know when God will call us home.
Wednesday: I was not home- spent all day at the hospital with a friend. Beautiful baby girl!
Thursday: Chicken fried rice, salad
Friday: Hamburgers, potato wedges, carrot sticks
Saturday: Soup with meatballs, bread
Sunday: Leftover soup, popcorn and cookies
Monday: Roast chicken crockpot- bread in bread machine
Tuesday: Dentist appt- gone, back Wed.
Marie's Black Beans
4 c. dry black beans
3 qts water
1 green pepper
1 onion
1 T. salt
Put into 6 qt pressure cooker and bring up to pressure. Cook one hour with weight rocking slwly. Cool cooker until pressure goes down. Remove onion and green pepper (you put them in the cooker whole)
Add 1 t. cumin. In a frying pan saute a chopped clove of garlic in a little oil, until brown. Add to beans. Just before serving add 1 T sugar and 1 T. white vinegar. Serve over rice.
Afterwards I like to make Black bean Chili from the leftovers.
6 chicken breast tenders
1 (15 oz) cans black beans or 4 c. home cooked ones
2 16 oz cans stewed or diced tomatoes
1 c. salsa mild or med.
14 1/2 oz can tomato sauce
2 t. chili powder
1/2 t. cumin
1/4 t. garlic powder
Tortilla chips
Grated cheddar cheese
Sour cream
Combine all ingredients in crock pot, except cheese, chips and sour cream. Cook on low 8 hours. Just before serving remove chicken and slice into bite size pieces. To serve put a handful of chips in the bottom of the bowl and ladle chili over top. Top with cheese and sour cream.
You can use more or less chicken if you want! If you like it spicier use spicy tomato sauce instead of regular. To save money, I also buy #10 cans of diced tomatoes and tomato sauce and freeze it. You can put them in the crockpot all frozen if you want.
Caught in this cycle were thousands of children- orphaned, abandoned and unwanted. Many suffere in the notorious state run orphanages. Many froze or starved as they struggled to survive by begging in the streets. in 1989 the yoke of communism was broken and the world's eyes were opened to the suffering and oppression of the Romanian people. Just over two years later, the Nathaniel Christian Orphanage opened it's doors to provide a home for hurting children.
By the time Johnny and Ruth Miller moved to Romania with their family, the orphanage housed 53 children. their touching and sometimes heart-wrenching- stories unfold in this first hand account of the Miller's first year in Romania.
I grew up reading Christian Aid Ministries newsletters, back before it was Christian Aid Ministries and when it was Christian Aid for Romania. We sent clothes, we supported a family with food packages and wrote to them. I even had Silvia's niece for a penpal for awhile. So, this story of the orphanage really tugged at my heart. I think the thing I found the most amazing was that most of the children were not at all orphans, but usually had at least one parent alive. In one chapter, it tells of a visit to a village and a mother dressed her children up nice hoping to convince them to take them to the orphanage. It just really made me want to cry! Johnny Miller relates how he sort of felt like the woman in the shoe as suddenly he was in charge of 53 children! He shares a story of hatching eggs into chicks and he planned on butchering all the ones he hatched and saving the others, when the children realized that all the "Romanian chickens" were going to die and the "American chickens" were going to live, they protested that it just was not fair and in the end all the chickens died for fried chicken dinners! From trading ice cream for fast treatment at the emergency room, to dealing with punishments for riding in the dryer and dealing with relatives with bad motives were just a few things Johnny and Ruth Miller experienced.
This well written book is a very good read, one that would be a great read aloud! You can order it from
Christian Aid Ministries P.O Box 360 Berlin, OH. 44610
Ask about their other books as well and sign up for their newsletter.
There is a short summery on the ministry here Christian Aid Ministries
There is also a link to buy the books there!
Afterwards we were invited to a couple's house we have been wanting to get together with for awhile, so even though I had something I was thinking about going to at 6 (and it was 4 pm.) we went. It was alot of fun except I am not sure I was good for conversation as I was so tired! She made a wonderful dinner with sausage and hot dogs wrapped with bacon, steak, chicken nuggets, a lovely cabbage salad which is finely shredded cabbage, dill, and thin sliced cucumbers with salt, a different cold soup than I have ever had, but it was good, mashed potatoes, fresh bread, and then she had desserts and tea. It actually got a little chilly out there, but then they started a fire to help with mosquitoes and that helped warm us up too!
I stopped by the place I was going to go and said goodbye and it worked out well. It was fun and I hope we can do it again sometime. I am trying to work up my nerve to invite people over and come up with all kinds of excuses not to, the main one being "Does anyone want to come over?" Second one being "My table is small' and it goes on from there. "My house is not clean enough", "What would we talk about?" "What if they do not like my food?" ......I said, excuses!
Speaking of messy houses, I need to go get busy on my chores and get boys busy too! I took a nice walk this morning, it was very peaceful!!
I watered my tiny garden this morning to start after starting a load of laundry. It was a nice day so I figured i would hang the clothes out to dry. I am hoping that saves some on electricity!!
It is a little far away in this picture and I need to pull th weeds that are around the beds, but the green in the beds, that is all plants! I have cucumbers and zucchini in the tires, beans, radishes, spinach and lettuce and a couple peppers in the first bed and all tomatoes and peppers in the second bed, mostly tomatoes.
We needed a ladder. We had one that had something sad happen to it, so we went on a search for a ladder. I had circled several garage sales that said they had tools, hoping there might be a ladder for a decent price. It was fun! This one sale we went to, was a Estate sale. The house was beautiful, it was an old home that had been kept up very nicely and had so much character. They had all this old furniture, neat stuff for sale there and it was so much fun to just look! There was an old wood cookstove that was in mint condition, the neatest storage cellar down there in the basement and just so organized. I loved the house. It is right in a very busy part of town, but had 4 acres with the house which it is in an odd place for that. I just hope the person who bought sells the house to be moved if they just wanted the land. Anyhow, back the story, they had a ladder!! For $10 a sturdy wood one! We also bought two shovels for $2 each that we needed for snow in the winter (I paid $8 for a plastic one last winter!), a box of jar rings and they gave me a bunch of jelly jars. Some of the lids look like antiques so I am not sure if they will work, but there was some newer ones in there too. It was worth $3! I also got this lovely picnic set, I have always admired them in old cookbooks! it has two large thermoses and a container for sandwiches! It was in in excellent condition for $3 also!
We went on to visit some other garage sales, but that was our biggest find of the day. We did get a old fashioned tea strainer F. liked for .50 and a shirt, pair of pants for P. to grow into and a photo album (that was brand new) and a stack of blank cards for $3
I cam home then and had to get busy baking! We have a baby shower the church is giving and I had baking to do for that.
Yay! Mom is going to bake cookies!!! This is my starting picture!
(He fell down and scraped his cheek up pretty good this past week, it looks awful doesn't it?)
Lemon Poppy Seed Bread.....I have stacks and bags of recipes and I always forget to mark the ones I tried as to which ones I liked and which ones i did not like. I did not like one of the recipes I used, although it had a lighter pound cake like texture, it was moist like it was underdone, when it was not.
the other one had less fat in it and we liked it better! F. did a taste test for me!
I made three different kinds of cookies, cranberry chip Biscotti, Cranberry orange pinwheels and thumbprint cookies. I am not really good at fancy things so my pinwheels were a little oddly shaped, but some were pretty!
After that i had to make dinner, which was broccoli soup. It earned rave reviews from everyone, except the youngest! My 6 year old said I am the best cook ever and had seconds even.....T. had applesauce and bread for dinner......not too protein filled. He asked for cheese on his applesauce so I guess a little!
After dinner, P and I hung the load of wash that was still waiting from morning on the line! 
The boys were all running out of clothes so I have to catch up!
Anyhow, it was a productive day and I am glad we got so much done. My wonderful husband helped me by cleaning the kitchen and I showered the youngest boy after he played in the dirt alot today and needed a fresh scent! I am off to bed, but I wanted to post before tomorrow started!!
Good night!!
I have decided that I am going to sew myself some new skirts as that is easy, they turn out fairly well if I take a little time with them and I have the material, I think. But I have to find some nice tops which are not as hard to find, but still I do not like sleeves that barely exist and thin fabric that feels like if one of my sons grabs it in the grocery in an attempt to stay with me, it will tear! I have tried looking online, but it is hard seeing as things are too long, too short, don't fit the way I want and I waste my money on postage.....
Then of course, I went through the boys clothing and they had enough pretty much. P. could use some new pants as he had only 2-3 pairs and a nice Sunday shirt. I found him a long sleeve cotton one at Walmart for $3, but now his everyday shirts several of them and the other boys got several holes in them.....
I was looking online at Children's Place as they had some shirts, shoes etc for $5, but then I did not know if they needed them that bad and they had some nice polo shirts, but now they do not...so maybe I will go there if they have any left!
Anyhow, if anyone has any advice on how to stay caught up so no raggedy boys occur and mom does not go without clothes again because the boys tore their shirts to shreds......
Thursday: Borcht, rolls
Friday: Broccoli cheese soup, crackers
Saturday: Chicken in crockpot, noodles, gravy and salad
Sunday: Chicken noodle soup, bread
Monday: Mashed potatoes, carrot salad (I am going to try.....it is a Russian carrot salad that I really like with minced garlic, a bit of hot pepper and jullienned carrots. It is so good!) and chicken gravy
Tuesday: Black beans and rice and salad
I let myself try something new when I was visiting a friend's house a couple weeks ago. They pick ferns when they are little and clean them, boil them somehow and put some garlic peppery mixture on it when they serve it. They do this and dry it for the rest of the year and I have seen it and was not sure what it was as it looks like seaweed with tendrils that hang down! A little creepy! Well, I really liked it! It tasted like a peppery mushroom!
I seem like it is easier to get less food on the same amount of money now. It is hard as it makes it so you have to plan so much, but hey, I am used to it, just not quite all the work it takes to keep up with hungry boys who want to eat three meals and 2 snacks.
I think I may make some stuffed eggs for a snack this week, or maybe for our picnic. I love them, but they give me a stomach ache, but sometimes it is worth it! Potato salad might be good too......now I have to get to work, I guess! If I decide not to go to the work of it, then i already have enough easy stuff planned, they should be okay!
I found it interesting as I did something similar when we moved and put away alot of the dishes. I have still not left too many out and it does really help. I think I need to go and and check again as there have been alot of dishes lately!