A really great cookbook!

The Jeub family is once again offering some outstanding deals on their cookbooks, Love in the Kitchen 1 and 2. I have the first one and love it! I use it at least twice a week in our menu planning. It even has recipes for some fun things for the kids like caramel popcorn, which my kids thought was awesome! The really neat thing is that now it is November and it is time to start thinking about that special person in your life who could really enjoy a new cookbook or two. I personally have the second one on my wishlist for this Christmas. So head on over and check it out! Also check out the other great resources they have.

In other news I am hanging in their and trying to obey doctor's orders with my foot and just sit still and keep it up. This makes it hard to be on the computer very often (although today I snuck on before anyone catches me. LOL.) I hope all of you are well and enjoying the pretty November days!

How to scare your family

On Saturday I was at my brother's house helping him paint his softettes on his roof when the ladder I was standing on gave way beneath me. Next thing I remember I'm in my brother's car speeding to the hospital and asking him what's going on. It was so weird to lose time like that. Turns out that when I fell I hit my left ankle first and then bounced my head on the ground twice. This knocked me out for a few seconds and scared my brother half to death. After a few hours in the emergency room we found out I had a concussion and a fractured ankle. Turns out I have a pretty hard head though because it was only mild. Feeling pretty sore and I'm not sure how often I'll be updating for the next week or two until I'm feeling better. I'm praising God that He watched over me and allowed my injuries to be very minor.

A great website full of encourgement!

Imagine getting a free book about speech and debate. Sounds like a dream, right? Nothing is free you may say, but today that isn't true. The Jeub family is offering a free book,  Jeub’s Guide to Speech & Debate right now on their website. They also tell how they make their family business work.Check it all out here. While you are there read some of the other posts on this great website. It's one of my favorites!

3 Parenting Truths about Kids and Shoes

1. Kids will always want to wear their snow boots in the dead of summer's heat. (or their dress shoes with shorts)

2. Even though it's a 50/50 shot to get the shoes on the right feet, it seems that 90% of the time they get it wrong.

3. You can have the best setup and organizing strategies but it never fails that when it's time to go, one of the shoes you need will have gone missing. This happens either through the baby trying on an older siblings shoes and "losing" them or throwing them off in the worst possible place at the worst possible time.
(case in point to this is Natalia threw her shoe out the car window the other day. Luckily we were at a gas station filling up when she did this. We all had a good laugh but I'm sure if she would have done it as we were going down the highway it wouldn't have been so funny.)

Rite Aid Deals 10/18/10

Today I went to Rite Aid and finally started the coupon game with them. I'm pretty happy with my trip. Here's the break down:
1 box Huggies diapers 19.99
3 boxes Kleenex tissues .99 each
1 crest pro-health toothpaste 3.99
Then I subtracted out a $5/$25 Rite Aid coupon, a $4/$20 Video Values coupon, a $2 Huggies Video Values coupon, two $1 Video Values coupons on any non-prescription coupon, a $1 off on 3 boxes of Kleenex Video Values coupon.

Total OOP: $10.57 and I received $6 in UP rewards coupons for next time!

(Hat tip to Passionate Penny Pincher's post on this Rite Aid deal and to Money Saving Mom who lead me to that post. Thanks!)

Puggles!

At our church we recently started a new program through AWANA for the 2 year olds called Puggles. Wednesday night the new puggles got their shirts and I just had to post how cute Natalia looked in her shirt. If you do not already attend an AWANA program I would highly recommend it. We love it and it teaches the kids so much about Jesus and the Bible. It's even teaching me so much too!

Here's Katerina at the end of the last school year when she graduated from cubbies. She was so proud and so was I. (You'll have to excuse the poor quality of the pics. One is from my old phone which doesn't have good pic quality and the new phone I am still learning how to make the pics come in more clear.)

How life can change in such a short time...

God in his providence changed our lives dramatically this past week. Without getting into too many personal details I will simply say that our prayers have been answered and my husband got custody of his son. As I sit and reflect on this moment I am in awe of how God in His mighty power can change our lives so quickly. All last week I was so worked up over the details and I had to reside in the promises of the Bible. God has told how we cannot add one minute to our lives through worry (Matthew 6:27) and how He will work everything out to His glory and His goodness.


And it strikes me how we can go through trials in our lives and feel as if we are so small and insignificant to Him but all the while He is behind the scenes doing amazing things on our behalf. I hope that this is a lesson that I can always hold fast to and can treasure forever. Through my crisis He carried me and gave His angels charge over me and never let my foot be dashed on the stones. ( Psalms 91)

Thank you Lord, Thank you! I will praise you Lord and thank you for this gift. Please bless us through this and watch over our family. And please be with all the others that are involved in this difficult but happy moment. Amen.

Our Curriculum for 2010-2011

I've been wanting to put down on here what we are using this year but it's been very busy. So I've determined that sometimes you just have to get it done. So today I'm sharing with all of you what we are using for our homeschool this year.

Katerina is in Kindergarten:

Bible: One Year of Devotions for Girls
Phonics: Explode the Code (She has been working through these since the end of last year and just finished book B)
Reading: Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
Handwriting: A Reason for Handwriting K
Spelling: Spell Bright Level One (we are doing this only as an introduction this year, next year I will focus more on indepth learning to spell)
Science: The World God Made
Math: Saxon Math K
History: History for Little Pilgrims with coloring book
Physical Education: Gymnastics and games at home or church
Music: Starting Piano lessons
Geography: Galloping the Globe (we will be starting this near the begining of January)

Natalia- Preschool/ enjoy being an almost 2 year old
For her we are doing some of the fun things from letter of the week and from Joyful Heart Learning.

I am planning on really trying to focus on Christmas and the reason behind it this year in December so we have a lot of our school time devoted to some fun activites and hands on learning for Christmas. I can't wait!

Menu Plan Monday

So there are several blogs that I follow that post their menus on their blogs and I figure it might be a great way to encourage me to plan out a menu every week. So here it is:

Monday: B- crockpot oatmeal  L- sandwiches or leftovers D- Salsa Chicken (from Fix it Fast, Cook it Slow Cookbook)

Tuesday: B- pancakes L- Leftovers D- Tacos

Wednesday: B- eggs and toast L- Leftovers D- Beef Stroganoff

Thursday: B- Baked Oatmeal L- Leftovers D- Sloppy Joes

Friday: B- Waffles L- Leftovers D- Rotisserie Style Chicken (from Fix it Fast, Cook it slow)

Saturday: B- Eggs and toast L- Leftovers D- Hot dogs and Brownies (this is my contribution to a family reunion for the evening)

Sunday: B- Eggs and toast L- Leftovers D- Tuna Casserole (this is to take to our church's watchcare group meeting)

More pictures, because I love posting pics

This is a recent picture taken of Natalia by our friend Evelyn. She took it because she takes pictures of the kids in the nursery and posts them on the wall. She's been playing with the single color pics and I just love this one! The purple stands out so nicely against the black and white.

More from 4 Moms, 35 Kids

     I am really enjoying the topics that the bloggers for 4 Moms, 35 Kids have been discussing. This week was homeschooling, the big picture. Each article really helped me since I am new to homeschooling. It is really refreshing to read about how it doesn't have to be so focused on academics, but instead can also be focused on character training and biblical discipliship. For my husband and I this is really important to us too, for what good is it if our children are super smart but can't defend their faith or don't have the tools to grow to christian maturity. So once again I want to put in the links to 4 Moms, 35 Kids:

KimC @ Life in a Shoe
Kim @ Raising Olives
Connie @ Smockity Frocks
Deputy Headmistress @ The Common Room


Upcoming topics for 4 Moms, 35 Kids: How Moms of Many Manage:

May 6 – Picking a curriculum, method or tactics that work for a large family.
May 13 – Teaching little kids
May 20 – Teaching big kids.
May 27 – Putting it all together.
June 3 – Husbands and homeschooling.
June 10 – Keeping house while homeschooling.

It's time for the end of the year push

This is the time of the year when the kids start counting down the days until summer vacation. This is the time of the year when they are so distracted when doing homework or chores because they want to be outside. It's also the time of the year when activities get really busy due to it being almost summer. In the midst of this I am also working on the garden, homeschooling, spring cleaning, and the general things that have to be done in a busy household, like feeding everyone. I'm also still working on getting the last of Katerina's curriculum ordered and her lesson plans filled out. Oh and we have to figure out when we are going to pull the pop-up camper out to air it out and clean it for the beginning of camping season! It's a wonderful time of year though as this busyness reminds us that we are called by God to be busy and to fulfill our God given roles. Thank you God for the people whom I love that you've given to me to take care of. Thank you for these six beautiful children whom you've entrusted me to raise to praise you.

Titus 2:3-5 (New International Version)

3Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. 4Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, 5to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.

Having Fun!

This week has been a blast! My husband and I went on our getaway. It was so much fun getting to hang out together and spend those moments where we can talk uninterrupted by kids. I love my kids so much, but every once in a while it's so nice to get away to where it's peaceful and quiet. I even got to sleep in until 8:30am! Wow! Then Thursday we spent the rest of the day in the yard. Steve roto tilled the garden for me. He kept suggesting making it bigger here or there, so what started out already as a big garden has become a really big garden. I can't wait to get out there and start planting some of things that can be planted now. Unfortunately it's raining today. But before it started raining I went to the park with the two little girls and met up with a friend from church and her kids. It was so much fun to just let the kids play and sit and talk about mommy things. After such an exciting week I'm feeling recharged and ready to go!

I haven't posted any pics lately so I looked through the pics and saw this of Natalia. This girl knows how to enjoy her chocolate!

Super Savings Saturday

Today I hit CVS because we really needed toothpaste and shampoo and conditioner. I decided to go ahead and spend more than I usually do because we really needed to stock up on these things and a few others.

Transaction #1: Two Pantene Shampoos 2.99 each = 5.98
Two Pantene Conditioners 2.99 ea = 5.98
Stride Shift Gum 0.99
Candy for the kids from the 2/$1 section x3 = 1.50
Coupons: 2x $3/2 and $.50 ECB and $5 ECB
Total OOP $4.87 and earned a $3 ECB and a $0.99 ECB

Transaction #2: Colgate toothpaste 2.99
Skintimate Shaving Cream 3.99
Coupons: $3 and $.99 ECB from above
Total OOP $3.43 and earned $2 and $3 ECB

Transaction #3: John Freida shampoo x2 and conditioner x2 = 19.96
2 packages Playtex Sippy Cups 7.99 and 3.49 = 11.48
Charmin toliet paper 4.99 x2 = 9.98
Dawn dishwashing soap 3x 0.96 = 2.88
Coupons: $5 ECBs from above, 4x .25, .50, 2, 2.50x2, 3
Total OOP $30.57 and earned another $5 ECB

The importance of putting your marriage first

I have been told that your marriage should be something that you spend money on, but until that last month or two, I was more focused on paying off debt then I was on putting money into my marriage. I thought that date nights were something that was too "expensive". However Steve showed me that we were both feeling quite down and that marriage is something that should be cared for. So for the past month or so we have been focusing on date nights when we can and now we are planning for our first overnight getaway in three years to amish country. I cannot begin to describe what a difference this has made in our attitudes. We are both so much happier. I have heard from so many couples that say that a marriage should come first. And we've worked hard to make it so that the date nights haven't cost us much money at all. Even the weeknight away we are doing very cheaply. What we've done to help:
* Swagbucks: We've used our swagbucks to purchase resturant.com giftcards to go out to eat.
* Appitizers at a local diner. When you only purchase appitizers and pop it's pretty cheap. We've been able to do $15-20 including a generous tip.
* Go window shopping together. (Hand holding is required :)
* For the getaway we are using a giftcard I was given for a birthday present, we are packing drinks, snacks, breakfast, and a nice dinner in our cooler. Lunch is typically cheaper and so we will be doing lunch out. The place we are going to provides dishes, a grill, a refrigerator, and a microwave so we can do some basic cooking if everything else is prepared already.

I would encourage all married couples to think of your marriage and put time into it. It doesn't have to be expensive, just think outside the box. We've decided that the night away will now become a yearly thing. It is that important to us.

Ughhh...the flu

Sorry for the blogging break but Natalia was only the start of the flu bug in our house. Everyone but the three oldest got it. I managed to get thrown up on in the middle of the night once by Katerina too. Sigh. Oh well. Everyone is well now and we've had some great family time. On Tuesday we went to visit another large (larger then us) family and we all had a great time. The kids got to play with another family that understands that kids are not a curse, but that sometimes people like kids! And us adults got to enjoy some good quality adult conversations. And we learned to play a new game called Pit. It was alot of fun and we are enjoyed the time together. Then Wednesday we were given tickets to the local minor league hockey team's game. This too was a blast! The kids got a lot of Jumbo Trom time in the begining and the person running it even poked fun at Russell as he tried to take a pic of himself on the jumbo trom. The team ended up winning in the overtime shootout so that was quite an experience. I love having these times with my family and it's wonderful when God provides a way for our large family to have a night out like this and it doesn't cost much.

Birthday Party and a sick kid

Yesterday my dearest husband threw me a surprise birthday party. It was so wonderful! Truthfully I had an idea that something was up but the idea was so sweet! Then we hung out after all the family and friends left and we watched Blind Side. It was really good! I didn't care much for the lack of modesty in the dresses, but I liked the concept and that it was based on a true story. By the time Steve and I quit talking (we were having a really good conversation) it was 2 am! I couldn't believe it! So we went to sleep, only for me to have to get up about an hour and a half later because Natalia wasn't feeling good. So I brought her to my bed in the hopes of getting some sleep. Nope she fussed and fussed, and then at about 5:30 am she threw up all over me and the bed. Ugh, so after showers and cleaning up the bed I tried to go back to sleep only to wake up with the alarm at 6:45. I am sooooooo tired today. I am longing for bedtime, but I really enjoyed my party so it is worth it.

4 Moms 35 Kids, I love it!

I am really enjoying the posting by the mommy bloggers. The live blogging day was a relief. It was like a breath of fresh air for me, in that I saw that our lives are somewhat normal. I'm so used to feeling like we are weird for the six children we have that getting to peek into these four women's lives was just plain awesome! Thank you so much! Check it out.

Upcoming topics for 4 Moms 35 Kids:

•March 25 Outings/shopping with only littles
•April 1 Kitchen/food budgeting
•April 8 Menu planning/shopping
•April 15 Cooking from scratch - what you make from scratch and how you get it all done
•April 22 Recipe swap - We'll all post a couple of our favorite, budget friendly, feed a crowd recipes and a Mr. Linky so that readers can participate by contributing their own recipes. When you share your link on one of our blogs, it will show up on all 4! How fun is that?!

Past topics:

•March 18 - Live-blog day, in which all 4 of us live-blog a real day in our home. Find out what we really do all day. It's our own reality show, just for you. Who needs TV?

I don't know what to say

I still am in shock over the passing of the health care bill late on Sunday March 20, 2010. My husband and I are discussing this and it greatly saddens me. So many people have demonstrated that they were not for this bill and yet our congressmen and women ignored the will of the majority and brought this bill into place against us. Right now my husband and I are discussing ways to get involved in the tea party movement. Look into it and judge for yourself what should be done. Here's the link to their home page: http://www.teapartypatriots.org/

Lack of socialization or just plain shy

Katerina started gymnastics this past Saturday and it brought the oppurtunity for my husband and I to once again discuss how shy she is when she first enters new situations. Once she warms up to her new enviroment she does great but the first half and hour or so she is really scared. This is what happened at gymnastics. She just couldn't bring herself to participate in the beginning. I'm sure there were some people who would attribute this to the fact that she is homeschooled and not in public school. Yet really if you think about it this is just part of her personality. She eventually warmed up and then did fantastic! She really enjoyed the last half of the session and I hope she will continue to enjoy it as she goes through it.

Stress and life

I've been feeling very stressed tonight and lately. My mom is going through a lot right now and it's really hard on me, on top of just the normal everyday busy things that happen in my household. I ask for prayers for my strength to hold out and that God would grant me this strength and also the wisdom on handling this situation well.

On the positive side Katerina starts gymnastics this saturday and also on saturday is our first 4-H meeting.(Everyone will be joining) I'm excited about it and so are most of the kids. We are going to be getting chickens soon (and we've never raised them before) and we are all looking forward to spring hitting soon. The nice temps lately are really perking us up.

Rotten Spoiled

I love to hear stories of funny things kids say and I hope to preserve some of what my kids say here. So Katerina comes up to me and asks if I will make her some chocolate milk. Sure, I say. Then her comeback instead of thank you was, mommy, I'm rotten spoiled. This is all said with a big grin on her face. Oh how I love such sweet little ones. Thank you Lord for my many blessings. Please help me to raise them in your grace and will. Amen.

Different Attitudes

It's amazing to me how an event can be perceived by me. Take last night I went to Russell's blue and gold dinner for cub scouts. I only took him and the baby with me. While we were there Natalia was continuing her whiny baby stint and I was worried she was going to bother people. Instead the people I sat with doted on her, causing her to quit whining because she was interested in them and it caused me to have a wonderful evening with two of my children. It always amazes me when this happens because it seems like most people don't like children. After receiving such wonderful feed back on my children it made me feel so good. My personal reflection for this is that when I am out and about I need to watch how I respond to people and how I can uplift others to put them in a good mood too.

Birthday season

At our house we have birthday season. Starting in late Feb. we have 3 birthdays. First is Katerina's, then Savanna's is two days later. Then about a week later is James. Next is Mine which is in late March. Then we have MaKayla and Russell's whose are in the first week of April. It is a busy time of year but we love it. I like to make cupcakes for the kids to take to church or school for their friends but I got a shock this year. When I asked Savanna how many kids were in the youth group at church for making these cupcakes she found out the number is 75!!! Then there are about 5 to 7 adults. Wow that is alot of cupcakes!

Also going on at our house is Natalia trying to learn to say more and more. She keeps getting so frustrated because she doesn't get the attention immediately that she wants when she trys to tell me something so she whines. Poor baby. Oh and then my husband and I are starting to work out using the P90X tapes and we got a perfect pull up bar to do our workouts. All the kids wanted to try it. Then Natalia runs over to it and is motioning to me that she wants to try too. It is too cute.

How NOT to dye your hair.

Apparantly when you are an almost 5 year old and you see that your big sister got her hair dyed, you start to wonder how to dye your hair to be cool too. Katerina found a unique solution yesterday. She got some nail polish and put it all over her hair. I go into the bathroom to see what she is doing and there she is looking very unhappy (I guess it wasn't quite the look she was going for?). So then I'm trying to figure out how to get the nail polish out of her hair. I love the internet! After a quick search it seemed that if you put the child in the tub and get the hair wet, then apply a small amount of baby oil you can pull the nail polish out. It took a while to do, but hey it worked. Now that a day has past I can laugh, but oh was I not happy when she did it. LOL. Got to love kids.

Homeschooling

Yes some of our children our homeschooled. And I am excited about some of the things I have done to decorate our schoolroom/ youngest girl's bedroom. We've added the alphabet across the top in nice bold blue. We've also added a section to the wall that is a weather center to put labels based on the season and the current weather. I hope to add temperature charts and percipatation charts as the girls get older. Then we have our character trait papers. At the top of the wall we have the USA flag. Oh and we also have a section for hanging well done papers. It's really quite beautiful. Maybe one of these days I'll get the camera working to show you what I've done. I hope to add to this wall whenever the mood strikes me so we'll see how often that is.

PS I did go to CVS this past Saturday and when I find my receipts I will post my deals.

Trying to get it all done

It is so hard to keep up with a busy household such as ours, but there are definitely some things that can be done to make it work out better. Getting the kids to help out is one of them, but also making it a game. Making it fun. So today I am focused on trying to get the housecleaning done and clipping coupons all while having fun with my kiddos.

Meanwhile I cannot post a lot of photos on my blog of my one stepdaughter at the request of her mother. So if you notice a lack of photos of all my children, or you come up with less than six kids it is because I am honoring the wishes of her mother.

Also, I am going to try to get back into couponing and blogging about it. So we'll see if this helps with keeping me blogging more.