Homeshooling How We Do It

Welcome to homeschooling, year 14. As this year comes to a close and I start to face year 15, I noticed a theme that seems to keep repeating year after year. Perhaps you've noticed it in your house too.

We are ready to be done, physically and mentally, but not academically.

So, about this time of year, I start thinking about how to make next year better.

7 of the 8 children are still here in the house, and still need my time and attention daily. This year I taught 11th grade, 9th, 7th, 3rd and 1st grade all at once, with a three year old who likes to yell at me

"MOM, WHERE'S MY SCHOOLWORK!"

and a one year old who until recently was still nursing.

I often hear this question: "HOW DO YOU DO IT?" and almost always, the person asking is either not a homeschooler and completely clueless, and there is no answer that I can give them, OR the person is a homeschooling mom who is really asking, "HOW CAN I DO IT?"

So, I'm going to try to help answer both of those questions, without too much snark, and try to keep it real.

TIP #1 MAKE LESSON PLANS AND LISTS
REALITY #1 YOU WILL PROBABLY ALWAYS BE BEHIND SCHEDULE

After trying all sorts of things, I've learned that for my personality, I need to spend the summer researching curriculum and developing lesson plans. I have publishers I like Veritas Press and I usually start with their recommendations and tailor it to each child (I'll talk about that next). I use a grid from Sonlight to plan out our daily lessons or goals.

The first page always looks something like this ALL IN PENCIL with subjects along the side column and children's names at the top. It's a worksheet, a place for me to plan out what I hope to accomplish over the course of the year.

Then, I create a page for each day (Monday - Friday for 36 weeks) - this is important for those of you who have to report attendance or record a certain number of school days per year - at the end of the year, this can serve as your record book as well as a help for planning out the next year.

An individual day plan looks more like this.
TIP #2 MAKE ALL YOUR PLANS IN PENCIL
REALITY #2 PLANS CHANGE

I use a yellow highlighter to put a line through each item as we complete it. Notice not box is full. You do not have to do every subject every day. Also, we don't finish all the planned items on the day I plan them, so if we finish something the next day, I don't move it in the planner, I just highlight it whenever we finish it.

So, what to put on the plan?

I spend a lot of time really thinking about who each child is, what matters to them, what motivates them, what they want to learn about and how I can teach it to them while still having them learn the things I want them to learn.
For my high schoolers, I asked them this year to make a list of the classes they wish were offered at their school, classes they would take if they could. I'm using that list to direct my curriculum choices.

Some packaged curriculum come with an already laid out lesson plan, so I just transfer that to our daily chart. Most of them are at the very least designed to fit into an 18 week or 36 week plan, so it's just a matter of sitting down with the curriculum and sorting out what makes sense to do each day.

If you are creating your own curriculum then you will have to decide how to break down the work into daily bites. This is not difficult, but it does take more time. But, if you are developing your own curriculum, then you are already investing a big chunk of time. I've done both over the years, and I prefer to write my own for some subjects, and prefer a canned curriculum for others - it depends on you and your child.


TIP #3 RELY ON YOUR OLDER CHILDREN TO BE INDEPENDENT AND HELPFUL
REALITY #3 SOMETIMES THEY ARE SICK AND/OR GRUMPY TOO OR PROCRASTINATORS OR WELL, JUST HUMAN...

In real use, I pull out this binder every day and it helps keep us focused.
If I'm sick, or away from home, or taking a child to the doctor or nursing the baby, an older child can open the binder and know what to do and can help younger children to know what to do.

As the year progresses, we tend to get ahead in some subjects (you don't have to stop reading just because your lesson plan says that you've done one day of work - you just mark off what you accomplish), and you'll fall behind in others. That makes using the binder a little more challenging for a child.

I keep bookmarks at the spots where we are in each subject and move the bookmarks as we go along. I use sticky notes so they don't get accidentally moved.

TIP #4 MAKE LISTS
REALITY #4 SOME CHILDREN WILL IGNORE THEIR LIST IF YOU DON'T HOUND THEM

To keep the day running smoothly, it usually helps to start with everyone at the dining room table. I begin with math, since most of them can work on practice problems or reading their next lesson in their books on their own while I work with them one at a time. I check their previous work, and write down their next assignment.
Then, we do Grammar. As I work with each individual child, the others start on their math assignments.

I work through each subject this way, reviewing material, answering questions and writing down the next assignment. 

When all goes well, each child has an assignment sheet to work through in just a couple of hours, allowing me to help children who need extra explanation, prepare "schoolwork" for the three year old, plan meals and it allows older, independent children to leave the table and go find quiet spaces to work.

When all goes sour, well then we sit at the table for awhile and still get some things done, but I don't have to try and make a judgement about how "good" of a day we had. This gives me an objective perspective on our year as a whole. I can look back over weeks and months, not just one bad day, and I can see what we've accomplished.

TIP #5 GIVE OLDER CHILDREN QUIET SPACES TO WORK
REALITY #5 SOME CHILDREN WILL STILL TRY TO WORK ON THE COUCH IN FRONT OF THE TV.

Our older children have tables in their room that they can use for studying. We also have a couple of small tables in our basement that can be used for younger children to do art projects and Playdoh or for older children to study at if necessary.

If they show that they are having trouble doing their work with the freedom to get their work done at their own pace, then I make them stay at the dining room table and work there. When they show a more diligent work ethic, they get their freedom back.

For especially difficult lessons, I will also ask older children to take the Littles to play with their toys so that I can work with one child alone who needs extra help.

TIP #6 DON'T LET THE LIST LIMIT YOU
REALITY #6 THERE ARE MANY THINGS THAT ARE EDUCATIONAL THAT YOU WON'T THINK TO INCLUDE IN YOUR LESSON PLANS

As fun and interesting things present themselves, go do them. Take time off of your schedule for swimming lessons, theater productions, hikes in the woods and whatever other things your family likes to do.

This year we discovered the Performing Arts Center in our area and their educational series. So, when we do those things, I pencil them into the lesson plans, or in the side margins if necessary. This year, we've added speech and essay contests, 4H projects, theater productions, drama club, youth group, swimming lessons and more to our original lesson plans.

How do I do it all? Here are some tips, but my answer is really by the grace of God go we.
So, don't forget to pray.

Five Steps to a Clean Bedroom

I found a short list for cleaning kids rooms that I thought was great. I tweaked it to fit our family needs and have the following 5 STEPS to a clean room posted on my daughter's bedroom wall. She uses it nearly every day to help her keep her room tidy.

It's simple, fast and even little kids can do it.

So, here it is:


Step 1. Push everything off the bed onto the floor and make the bed. 

Making the bed can be as simple as laying a blanket over the top of it and calling it good. Military corners on sheets and all that is not what we're going for here. Just presentable.

Step 2. Put laundry on bed.

This might seem counter-intuitive since you just made the bed, but it might be the only clean spot in the room and this is about sorting the clothing, towels and such from the rest of the stuff on the floor. So, just make a big pile of everything that would be considered laundry on top of the bed.

Step 3. Put toys in bins/on shelves.

If your kids don't have this, get it. Bins don't have to be fancy or labeled, just bins. We do bins on book shelves or dresser drawers for special items. Again, this isn't an organizing adventure, so put away the label maker. This is simply getting everything they care about up and off the floor and into some kind of container for storage.

Step 4. Throw away trash/Vacuum floor.

There always seems to be garbage on the floor, even if we just vacuumed yesterday. But, if you don't have that issue, then you can just throw out any trash that might have found its way into the room, and call it good. I think running the vacuum over the center gives it a more finished look.

Step 5. Sort laundry.

Remember that pile of laundry on the bed? Now is the time to tackle that. Clean stuff gets put away, dirty stuff goes in the hamper. You, parent, can decide what 'put away' means. For some, it might just be throwing it all in a laundry basket, or shoving it in a drawer - we have labeled bins on shelves for this too, so all the shirts go in one, pants in another and so on. Dirty clothes go in a hamper, and older kids can take that hamper all the way to the laundry room if you want them too.


That's it. Done. Not perfect, but tidy and presentable.

Good enough.

Pithy Signs Don't Make You Cool

It seems like everywhere I go lately, every store, every home, everywhere there are these wall hangings with clever, sweet and pithy little sayings like,

Last night, my husband and I were out and we saw one that said this:

In our home, we

Live Joyfully... Sometimes, but not always. Read this, and you'll know sometimes I'm really sad.

Laugh Abundantly... Sometimes we do laugh so hard it hurts. But, what does abundantly mean? 

Sometimes, we don't laugh at all. Sometimes, we yell and call names. Sometimes, we are mean.

Give Generously... That sounds nice. Wouldn't it be nice if we did that?

Love Affectionately...

Care Deeply...

Listen Carefully...

Smile Spontaneously...

Yes, let's do those things. 

Pray faithfully...

Forgive Freely... Yes, let's do these things too. I want us to do these things.

Play Adventurously... This one. This one, my boys have it down. They know how to play adventurously. But, it's okay. I'm not afraid of the E.R. Been there. Done that.

Hug Tightly... This one. I'm really good at this one. I can give Squishes ALL DAY.

But, I look at this list. This wall hanging that I keep seeing everywhere I go, and I wonder.

If I buy it and hang it on the wall, will that make it true?

No. It won't.

I didn't buy it. I'll probably never buy it. 

But, then I saw another sign and it gave me an idea. We don't have an Elf on the Shelf to do silly things or give our kids little gifts, and we don't pretend that a fat man in a red suit is bringing them stuff either. 

But, they do have a generous Dad and a silly mama. So, this morning, while they were all sleeping, I made them a sign. One we can all do. It's on the wall in my kitchen. 

It looks like this:

This.

I'm pretty sure we can accomplish this.

We are going to be amazing today.

And, maybe we'll even be amazing every day.

People are like painted walls, you never know what's underneath all those layers

Home remodeling projects always take more work and more time than we expect.
Several weeks ago, I started to tackle the bathroom walls.

Several months ago, I tried to ignore the bathroom walls.

The paint kept peeling. I would pick at it just a little with my fingernails, just enough to keep it smooth so the babies wouldn't mess with it. But, it just kept getting looser and looser until the spaces that were missing paint were pretty obvious.

Too BIG to ignore.

So, I got a scraper. I still intended it to be a quick job. Simple.
I would just scrape around the loose edges, get it smooth enough to paint and paint over the problem. That's obviously what everyone before me had done.

I even found the matching paint in the collection of various colors that line a wall in our basement. The can even said "downstairs bath"

But, no. Nothing is ever as simple as it seems.

The "downstairs bath" color was NOT the current color of the downstairs bathroom walls. No match. I looked again. I'm still hoping that maybe one of those unlabeled cans might be a match, because I haven't opened them all, so there's still hope.

But, then I had another thought. The painted walls look like tile. The floors are ceramic tile. Hard tile. Like every dish that hits the floor breaks on this tile. What if the bathroom walls were the same tile, but painted over? Wouldn't that be neat?

I thought maybe I could pull back the layers and find something beautiful underneath. I like to think I'm that way. Covered with layers of life experience, some beautiful, some ugly, but underneath it all is something wonderful. I wanted the walls to be beautiful underneath all that paint.

Layer after layer after layer, I slowly and carefully peeled and scraped until finally I found bare tile. But, it was not what I thought. It's just plaster.

Today, it made me think about how people are sometimes that way too. They look on the outside like something beautiful underneath the layers of life, but then they turn out to be mostly plaster covered in paint. Layers and layers of paint, but nothing but plaster in the end.

So, now, I've set myself up for all this work, and I still  have to finish peeling the paint layers off the wall, so my babies don't. And when that's done, it will be my chance to make it something beautiful. Because plaster can be patched and painted. So, I'll join the long line of women who have lived in this home and thought they could make it beautiful. This time it will be my turn to discover a beauty within myself that I can project onto the walls of my home, so that the next person might see something beautiful under a few less layers.

Making my home beautiful

I live in a parsonage.
That means I am always struggling to balance the fact that this is my home, but it is not my house.

Before my husband attended Seminary, we had always owned our own home. All of our married life was spent in homes that belonged to us, homes that we made payments on, homes that we put our financial equity in as well as our sweat equity.

I've spent most of my adult life living in a place that was wholly mine.

I don't mind not being responsible for all the maintenance and repairs, that part doesn't bother me a bit. But, during Seminary life, we were renters. It was never ours and it was always short term, always had an end date.

So, I didn't hang pictures on the walls, or paint, or decorate or care if it was beautiful. I found beauty in my children and my books instead.

But, now, we don't know how long we'll be here.

I think part of making a place feel like home is making it beautiful. But, everyone has their own idea of beautiful.

I think about this as I scrape through layer after layer of paint on the bathroom walls. It had started to peel, probably because of the humidity, and I had picked at the peeling paint. I couldn't help myself. I felt obligated to fix it. I planned to scrape just the loose bits and then paint the walls, but it kept coming off and every time I thought I was ready to paint, I would find another loose spot.

There are reds and greens and blues and creams and pinks and shades of grey. Some I think, oh I like that color and others I think oh my I wouldn't have chosen that. But, all of these colors and patterns were beautiful to someone at sometime. Now, it's my turn to choose what I think is beautiful.

We've been here for two and half years, and this will be the first time that I have had a chance to put some of myself into this space. It will never be my house, but maybe someday it will feel like home.

Uber Organized Laundry

This.

is a fabulous idea.

I love it.

But, I'll never do it.

So, this mom takes all of her daughter's laundry and as it comes out of the dryer, she matches up the sets (her child only has sets) and folds them together in a large zipper style clear plastic bag.
When her daughter is getting dressed in the morning, she does not have to sort through a closet or dresser to find all the pieces of her favorite outfits because ALL she has to do is grab a bag.

I love this idea.

In fact, when I pack for long trips, I have done this exact thing with my younger children's outfits and even labeled each bag with a name and weekday assignment before putting them into the suitcase. I did this to prevent certain children from crying that they had no pants to wear after two days of vacation. It was a survival mechanism.

It's great.

But, for me, it must be filed under the category of things I would do

IF

I only had one child.

Some things just have to be let go.

This is one.

Hard Core Poor, a book review

I just finished reading Hard Core Poor by Kelly Sangree. I read a lot of books on this topic. I find an enjoyable challenge is seeing how little I can spend and still have everything we need, so new books on this topic intrigue me.

This one isn't bad, but I still haven't found any that can compete with The Complete Tightwad Gazette.

I commend Sangree for taking the time to write it.  I've often thought of compiling my years of notes and personal experience into a book on the subject, but always feel like the topic is endless.

Hard Core Poor is a short read.

Her conversational tone allows anyone to glean from her ideas. She covers most of the basic essentials of life and offers a broad range of options in each category from the free method to some of the most expensive. And, if you are new to the idea of being frugal, this could be the book that gets your brain thinking in that vein.

Her ideas aren't bad, but most of them are little more than surface discussion, and don't really get into the nitty gritty of living a frugal life. I think what I love about the Tightwad Gazette is the mass number of specific tricks to try, from washing and reusing plastic storage bags to creative crafts made out of old milk jugs. To see some of my ideas worth sharing, check out my blog posts on the topic of Frugal Living.

Some of my favorites are making your own dishwasher detergent, variations of a pot pie, and the $400 grocery challenge.

Normally, I don't buy these books, but borrow them from the library instead, because they so often contain the same or similar material as books that came before them.

Sangree admits that experienced frugal mommas will find most of her book covers material we already know, but she does discuss a few novel things like where to cash a paycheck when the bank won't let you, and housing options when you can't afford rent. Hard Core Poor also has several website and blog references, making it simple to springboard into other resources fairly quickly.

I picked it up free on Kindle during a promotion, and offering her book free really speaks to her heart for those who are really "hard core poor", so for that reason, I don't mind recommending it.

Shopping from my ArmChair with Amazon Prime Pantry

I recently discovered Amazon's Prime Pantry.  I have been waiting for this service, in fact I have been known to tell people that if Amazon offered groceries I would never go to a store again. That may have been an exaggeration, but not by much.

We became members of Amazon Prime when we were both buying college textbooks and needed that free 2 day shipping, and we still buy enough to make it worthwhile.

A few months ago, we started using Amazon Subscribe and Save because I like not having to go to the store. Sitting down at the computer, putting together my list and having it all delivered to my door is just my style. I appreciate being able to take the time to calculate the number of toilet paper rolls we will use in the next 30 days and compare the cost per square inch without feeling pressured to get out of the aisle or get home to my family. I can even add things to my list individually as I have time and notice the need.

I love that every month a giant box of toilet paper arrives on my doorstep just as we are about to run out!

I thought I would fall in love with Prime Pantry too. I want to love it.

I spent over an hour scouring the list on their site (see link above), calculating prices per ounce to compare to my favorite store and pricing in the $6 shipping fee and then calculating the % of my pantry box that each item would fill. I don't like going to the store, but I can't stand paying extra for something if I don't have to.

When I had it all calculated out, I did what any good researcher would do. I compared my results. I drove over to Aldi's (calculating the mileage into my comparison, of course).

I walked the aisles with my list and was both elated and disappointed to find Aldi's prices better on nearly every item - and not just slightly better, but significantly better.

Your circumstances may warrant using this service, especially my friends who live an hour from a reasonably priced grocer, so as always I encourage you to do your own research.

As much as I dislike shopping, Prime Pantry doesn't yet deliver refrigerator goods so I'll still have to go to the store for those, and Amazon's grocery prices aren't quite good enough to meet my needs yet. But, I'm looking forward to the day that they are. I would be happy to do all of my shopping online and never have to spend time in a retail store again, so this is a program I'll be keeping my eyes on and someday I'll do all my shopping from my favorite armchair.

The story's climax, a writer's dilemma

It's coming into the final countdown for me and my fellow WriMo's.

Just three days left...

I'm staying up late to chase the clock and I've just topped 40K

I'm coffee'd up, exhilarated and speed typing.... ZOOM!!!

But, oh, poor Agatha. She just can't seem to get it together.

Guilt and shame are nasty bedfellows and they are weighing her down.

They speak to her in her weakest moments.

They lead her astray...

Sometimes, oh, many times, I've wanted to save her. I've been so tempted to have compassion on the poor girl and just give her happiness. But, happiness doesn't come that easily in this sinful world, and it's not fair to pretend it does just because I want it to be that way.

Agatha has to overcome (or not) all on her own. It's her story and it has to be her ending.

This is when I am most glad that I have a strong outline and sketch before I begin. Because it is now in this home stretch that I am most tempted to lie to my readers, to say it will all be hunky-dorey for Agatha, but once you've been with her this far into the story, you know that there really is nothing in Agatha's life that is, ever has been or ever will be hunky-dorey.

Like all of us, Agatha has a few things to cling to for hope, and at this point we have to follow Agatha to her ending, because we know that all hope is not yet lost for her, and we want to be with her when she overcomes (or be there for her if she doesn't).

Either way, this is it.

The end is near.

The Lowest Possible Grocery Budget

Can we feed a family of 9 on $400 a month? That is the question I’m trying to answer, and it just leads to more questions. I tend to get a little obsessed over things that people tell me are “impossible” or “can’t be done”.  I want to be able to answer the question, “why not?”

Why can’t I feed my family of 9 with a $400 a month budget?

If $400 is too low, then what is the bottom? What is the lowest amount of money that we can spend?

I think of it as a challenge, sort of a puzzle. I like puzzles.

So, before we go any farther in the debate about whether or not it can be done, I need some parameters, sort of like rules for a game.

1. Nutrition. There won't be any meal plans that include "an $8 bag of shrimp today and we'll fast tomorrow." The government is in the middle of changing the guidelines for what constitutes healthy eating, due to come out in 2015. And, I know people have their own opinions about what's good for you or not good for you, but that's an argument for another day, and I need a standard now. So, we'll be trying to follow the general guidelines provided by Health.gov in 2010.  We'll also be using Choosemyplate.gov as the standard for serving sizes.

2. Inventory. Food already in my freezer or pantry doesn't count against me. I'll be using what I have on hand and purchasing items as necessary to go with my on-hand inventory. I won't be adding in the cost of items I already have into my monthly budget. Because, I'm not trying to see if I can do it for one month, I'm trying to see how low we can go on a sustainable budget. So, we'll be looking at the actual grocery receipts, but mostly working on meal plans, eating habits and recipes that save money over the long haul and can be done consistently.

For example, we currently have a membership to Sam's Club. If I buy items there, I won't be calculating the membership cost into my grocery budget because it's already spent. However, if I choose to renew the membership or join somewhere else, then I will calculate that future cost into the budget.

3. Coupons. I will be using the normal cost of items usually. I will not be considering coupon use into the budget equations unless it can be repeated on a regular basis, as with toothpaste. Seasonal sales will be considered as this can be planned into the schedule and repeated as often as the sale cycle comes around.

4. Food/Non-food. We are aiming for a monthly budget of $400. This amount breaks down into a goal of $10 per day for a total of $300-310; $2 per day for toiletries ($60 per month); and $30-40 per month for non-food kitchen supplies, like Ziploc bags, aluminum foil, etc.

5. Humans. My children help me cook, so measuring varies and waste is an issue for us. But, part of this process is to teach my daughters to be economists in their homes and teach my sons some money lessons too. So, who are these 9 people in the experiment? One adult male, one adult female (nursing an infant), two teenage girls (15&17), two preteen boys (10&12), two kindergartners (6&4).

I invite you to join me in this challenge. Not just to see if you can make it on $400, but to see 

HOW LOW YOU CAN GO!!

Send me your meal plans, daily budget busters, tricks of the frugal, and favorite budget saving recipes. 

Learning to shop without the Seminary clothing co-op

I talked about re-learning good, frugal grocery shopping habits in a previous post, so now I'll talk a bit about shopping for clothes; specifically kids clothes. I've been the same size for about 17 years, so I don't really buy new clothes for myself. I have gotten some great items at the co-op, and updated my closet. But, prior to Seminary, my wardrobe didn't change much.

My kids are a completely different story. They either grow out of or destroy clothing at a fairly rapid rate, and we are constantly replacing items. I used to have the best prices memorized. Ten to twenty-five cents per item was awesome and $1 per bag sales were usually my favorites, because I'm an excellent packer and I can fit A LOT of stuff in a bag. Saturday mornings always began with yard sales...

But, the clothing co-op had my shopping eye jaded pretty quickly. Even at ten cents, I was quick to exclaim "How can I waste this dime when I can probably find something just as good at the co-op?!?"
Now, as we prepare to leave the Seminary, I am struggling to find my treasure hunting, yard sale scrounging personality... I just keep thinking about how much I am going to miss the clothing co-op. When I go "shopping" anywhere else, I have to keep reminding myself that
"THIS STUFF ISN'T FREE!"
It's so easy to forget, and I find myself filling my cart with whatever random thing strikes my fancy, and then backtracking to look at the prices. Yikes! This has me terrified. I have forgotten how to shop... and when I say "shop", I mean get things my family needs for next to nothing.

So, as I'm thinking about this, here are a few of my old habits that I need to re-establish.

1. Yard sales, obviously. But, here's what I look for: 

• High quality brands - I love OshGosh, Old Navy, and Levis. 
• Bulk buying options - like $1 per bag
• Up-sizes - I try to buy the next few sizes up for each child, so that we never have to panic over a growth spurt.
• Good Condition - It's not worth 10cents if it's already all used up; and yes, you have to watch out for sales where people think it's okay to sell stained items.
• Shoes - we always need shoes. I think feet are the fastest growing body part, although I have no scientific proof.

2. Thrift stores. I look for the same types of items, but usually I stock up over time from my yard sale hunts and use thrift stores to fill in sizes that I don't have much of. 

I sort all of the clothes by size and store in bins or boxes. The cheapest way is to recycle and label cardboard boxes, but as my family grows, I am seriously considering investing in some clear, easy open, lidded containers, so that I can see what's in them without opening every container. Because, time is a valuable asset too.

Each container has boy or girl clothes of one size, and when my kids NEED an item, these bins are where we shop. I started doing this when my oldest was born and prior to Seminary, I only HAD to buy item (at retail price) in 12 years, and that was because my oldest boy grew three shoe sizes overnight, in January (no yard sales and he couldn't go barefoot), and I had only stocked for two up-sizes that winter. 

It was a great system. Since Seminary, the availability of new items whenever we need them has become a crutch, and I have not kept up with my clothing storage and organization system. 

My first task after we move? Hitting up the yard sale circuit in my new neighborhood. We will grab a map and spend our weekends learning about our new community as we explore yard sales and learn how to shop the resale market again.

Learning how to shop without the Seminary food co-op

I wear my frugality like a badge of honor. When people say, "You're the cheapest person I know," I swell up with pride. Or when someone calls me "Tight with money," I consider it a compliment of the highest order. But, lately, I've lost my frugal touch.

I blame my frugal ineptitude on our time at Seminary. Having no income means having no budget. Then, there is the overwhelming support of congregations and individuals that has allowed us to have things I wouldn't have purchased otherwise. (Gift cards are a joy to spend, while cash is not).

Because of the generous donations to the food and clothing banks at the Seminary, along with generous gifts to us directly, we have only had to purchase a few clothing items for our children, and thus I've forgotten how to shop for kids clothes. My food and household budget are jaded because so many of these items have been provided for us.

As we near the end of our years at Seminary, I am forced to ponder our budget for next year. Of course, I have no idea where we will live, what shopping will be like or what my husband's salary will be; but, I do know that as the economist of this household, I don't want any of it to go to waste. So, now is the time for me to relearn how to shop, study the retail and resale market of items we will need and polish up my old tricks of the trade.

Here are a few of those old tricks.

1. Throw together meals: In the United States, we waste, as in throw away, 40-50% of our food.. I have learned over much trial and error to mix and match items in a wok with some oil and seasoning, or in a crock-pot to make a new meal. Some people say, "Oh, my kids won't eat leftovers." But, when you are working on a strict budget, I say, "My kids will eat leftovers or my kids won't eat."
Another way to use up leftovers is as snacks. When there is just a small amount of something, one child can have it for a snack.
Or, if you have several leftovers that don't seem to go together in one new dish, you can have a special day of leftover buffet. Set out all the various things from your refrigerator in a sort of buffet style presentation and let the kids make their own plates. This makes for a great, fun lunch. For example, today, two children are thrilled to get egg salad sandwiches, while the others are happily eating Tator Tot Casserole.
This is an area that I have been a little lax in over the past few years; but, now is the time for me to get back into my old habits.

Our goal for next year is to get our food budget down to $10 per day. That will require no waste and carefully planned meals.

2. Batch cooking & freezing. Some people like to do freezer meals, but they are mostly a replacement of the freezer meals that can be purchased at the grocer; like lasagna. My family doesn't really eat foods like that, so the amount of work that would be involved in making up a bunch of recipes that I don't normally use and don't know if my family will like doesn't seem like the best use of my time. Plus, I don't like buying a bunch of ingredients just to make these recipes. Instead, I batch cook more like this. Buying potatoes in bulk is a waste if I don't use them up, but her method allows all of the potatoes to be processed and frozen and it replaces the purchase of frozen potatoes, like tots, and fries.

I also like the way she cooks up bulk hamburger. My plan is to purchase a case (about 80 lbs) of meat from Sam's Club and cook it up 10 lbs at a time in my 20 qt stock pot. Another good option that we may or may not have available to us next year is to buy meat directly from a local farmer. It is not always the least expensive, but is usually a very high quality meat for your dollar.

We will also batch cook waffles in a four-square waffle maker. The ingredients for waffles; like flour and sugar are generally inexpensive and easy to buy and store in bulk. A huge batch of these size waffles can be made all at once, cooled and frozen for later. They fit nicely into a toaster (like Eggo's) and make a great, quick, convenient breakfast or snack on the go. My kids will even eat these cold right out of the refrigerator, but you can add fruit, butter, syrup or other toppings as well.

I am planning to try doing something similar with a pancake mix, but I haven't found a recipe that freezes well and is easy to heat up (I like the McDonald's ones, but am still working on replicating them.) If someone can send me a link for that, I would be very grateful. (I could eat those McGriddles all day long - see what gift cards do to me?)

This is longer than I'd planned, so I'll talk shopping for clothes in another post

It's Time To Live With Less

With my past 2 pregnancies, my nesting instinct led to redecorated bedrooms and lots of painting. That was back before we were renters. Now, it isn't my house... in fact, most of it isn't even my furniture. So, this time nesting will look very different.

I've tried to set some goals for this year.

1) Less books. I know that this doesn't seem to make any sense, but being pregnant meant that in our last move, I didn't do much of the heavy lifting. My husband says that if I had seen the looks on the faces of the men who helped us when they saw 'another box of books' I would understand that some had to go. So, I'm working on it. First, I'm trying to read as many as I can - check out the Professional Writing label on this blog for book reviews as I finish them.

2) Less clothes. It's hard to know when we have too many and when we don't have enough. I try to purge and take inventory, but then I always have a child who can't find anything to wear. So, I've taken to labeling all the dresser drawers and keeping labeled boxes in the closet with spares and up-sizes of just about everything. I'm trying to stop there. This is especially challenging as we are all so excited about the new baby coming that we want to go out and buy MORE clothes. I think 5-7 outfits per child, especially the older ones who don't spill food and run in the mud so much anymore, is plenty. But, the older they get, the more attached they are to their clothes and the less likely they are to give them up. It's a vicious cycle.

3) Less paper. I've been writing for a long time; mostly on paper. These little scraps add up. I've granted myself a clear storage tub that I can lift by myself (even when I'm pregnant and it's full). My goal is to pare down the amount of paper, either by typing up the handwritten copies and printing them or by simply getting rid of some of the old garbage.

4) Less pictures. This has been an ongoing challenge. I love to take pictures. But, it seems that whether they are prints or saved digitally, my habit is to store them and never really put them to good use. So, getting the best of the best into albums that can sit on the shelf and be shared with family and friends and then purging the rest, I am going to make our next move with less pictures.

5) Less toys. This may be the hardest one of all. Every time I think I can get rid of a toy, someone tells me it's their favorite, and then I just can't let it go. Then, there are some toys that my kids may not even care about, but I personally love, and I can't seem to let them go either. But, my goal for this year is to move with less toys - I don't know what that means exactly or what it will look like in reality, but I do know that it has to be done.

So, with these goals in mind, I head into the last 9 weeks of pregnancy, motivated and already exhausted. Funny how that works.

Men, Messes and Roofing

Our move was initially delayed due to storm damage, but now we have been here for over a month. Each day, I tackle a new project... it might be catching up the laundry, unpacking a stack of boxes or really getting that bathroom clean - I mean like sterile, I might deliver my baby in here clean, but I'm not nesting yet and that's not what this post is about.

I've looked out my bedroom window every day since we've been here and lusted after my neighbor's immaculate yard. Ours is filled with large logs, tree limbs, busted siding, boards filled with nails and other miscellaneous trash. It's depressing.

Today, I watched a group of four or five men change all that, well, almost all that.

They worked quickly and quietly, each knowing what to do next. In under 8 hours, they had stripped the damaged area of the garage, reframed the entire corner, cleared the roof and reshingled it.

I'm praying that they will be back tomorrow to finish up the siding, clean up the mess and we will finally have a garage to store our outdoor toys.
We were so inspired by the efficiency of their work, that after they left, we went out and cleaned off the patio.

It's been hard to be patient as we've waited for the work to begin, but their progress today gave me hope. We are so excited to actually have a back yard to play in soon!

Purging to make room for new life

It's that time of year again... when I start to think about moving. It's November, and we won't move until July, but I wonder how many other wives have allowed the glimmer of thought on this matter to permeate their mind.

You see, we are on vicarage, but I don't feel like we've really left the Seminary. I drove down for the wives retreat last month, I still chat with the same friends on Facebook, and I still get notifications from the SWA page and I still get all the issues of the student newsletter. I'm still taking classes at IPFW, albeit online only... but, so many things are still the same.

If you are a first year wife, unless you happened to rent from a family on vicarage and have to move at the end of this year, you are probably not thinking about moving just yet. In fact, you are probably just starting to feel settled in. For me, it's just about the time that settled in feeling comes along, that the thoughts of moving start to enter my mind.

I look around the house and it's ALL unpacked. Everything we own, out there for me to see. It makes me start to think about all the work of packing and moving it. Then, I think, it's such a big job... I better get started right away. I also start to dread Christmas, and the five birthdays that will happen in our house between now and the move. I just don't know how we could possibly find room for any more stuff.

Then, I think about how we have to do it all again, the year after next. I know that we could be happy with much less stuff. I clean out rooms, I sort through boxes, I organize shelves. Things get messy. But, as the weather gets colder and I spend more time indoors, the house becomes my haven and the process of organizing becomes my mission. It will never be as clean or as organized as I imagine it could be, and we will always have more stuff than we need, but as I get older and have the age and experience to look back on my life, I can see that this is a season for me.

This time of year, it happens to me whether we are preparing for a move or not. When the leaves are changing and the wind is blowing against the windows, I find I enjoy being in a home that is at least sort of organized and sort of clean - even if it only happens in one room at a time. Every year, as the leaves die and are purged from the trees, making way for the new life that will blossom there; I purge the dirt and the dust and the clothes that don't fit and the toys that have broken and the books we've all read. Every year, I purge the old to make room for the new gifts that will enter our home.

As I do this, I think about how God purges the earth with each passing season. I pray that he would purge my heart of the sin of pride that comes from thinking I can have a perfect home. I pray that he would purge my heart of the sin of anger that comes from seeing the imperfections in myself and others. I pray that He would renew my mind and my heart with fresh, beautiful life giving thoughts and words.

This year, like every year, I will clean more, I will purge more, I will read more and I will pray more. But, I will also tolerate and accept the mess more and when there is peace and order in my home, I vow to enjoy it more.

Before you go to the store...

I'm still cutting out coupons as I begin to write this, so I don't yet know how it will all turn out. Follow me along on today's adventure.
It's 11:30 am and we are done with math, science and history. I was up at 5:30 to keep up with my course work. Then, I began to work on one of my many Mom duties: grocery shopping.
This is not my favorite task, and I go out of my way to avoid it. In fact, my most creative meals are made when we have little to no food in the pantry and I have to improvise. It is in my nature to be lazy about the tasks that I don't enjoy, so if there is easy to make food in the house, then, that is what we eat. The really good recipes come out of necessity.

I do, however, find great pleasure in the challenge of meeting my family's needs without spending money. Our family of 8 has a grocery budget of $300 per month. It's my job to stay under it. Some of my tricks are explained in other posts, but today I am going to try out our local Sav-A-Lot. I am driving my daughter to the equestrian center this afternoon and there is a Sav-A-Lot store seven miles away from where she will be.

Remember: travel time and expense must be calculated when figuring your costs and savings.


I've not been there before because it is 28 miles from our house. So, I will be dropping her off and driving 14 miles total (7miles each way) to try out the Sav-A-Lot and see how much I can get in my budget. Now, I'm not an extreme couponer, I don't buy coupons - in fact, currently, we have a lady at church who gets her paper at 5am, reads it and then brings it to church for us, so I'm not even buying a Sunday paper at this time.

Now, my van averages 21 miles per gallon, so the 14 miles will cost me 2/3 of a gallon of gas. At $3.79 per gallon, that is about $2.53 that I am spending before I even get to the store. You could calculate wear and tear on the vehicle also, but I'm not quite that detailed... yet.

Remember: Nothing is really FREE, even when it says FREE.

I have shopped at Sav-A-Lot before, so I know that I will need to provide my own bags and boxes, so I am packing those. If I don't bring them, I end up at the checkout, tempted to buy the bags they sell for ten cents each, and I don't want to do that, so I'm putting them in the car now.

Previously, they did not accept coupons, but I checked their website today and now they do, so that is why I'm trying them out again. I want to see how their prices minus coupons compare to my other shopping options, so I will take with me: my COUPON BINDER (this link goes to Couponing 101 where she has a great video demonstration of a coupon binder) and my PRICE LIST (scroll to the end of this article for a copy of my price list) I am making sure that my coupons are organized, and that I have all of them in the binder so I don't miss anything.

I also know that I tend to spend more when I bring my children. They distract me, they ask nicely for things that I wouldn't normally buy, but don't mind them having, and generally, I just end up spending more when I'm not focused. So, I am taking one child to an activity, and asking my teenage daughter to watch my two preschoolers, and taking just one or two of the middle kids. This will help me to stay on task and spend less.


Check back later to see how it went.

I have so many books I can't find the one I want

Do you have so many books that you can't find the one that you really want? When my son was interested in astronomy, I knew that I had some books on the subject, but where? When you collect lots of books, which is not a bad thing, they can become a burden if you don't keep them organized.

For those of you who are voting for your favorite Daily Tip topic, the subject of Organization is in the lead. Remember, you can vote for more than one.

Now, I've tried all sorts of methods to organize my books; alphabetical, kids books in one area, teens in another and adults in yet another, even by the Dewey Decimal system.

But, I've found the best way to organize anything, especially books is by use. So, the books in our house, now fall into one of the following categories, and each category has it's own designated space.

Categories We Chose (your family may choose different categories based on how you used your books)

Science - All astronomy, biology, chemistry, physics, etc.

History and Geography - This includes biography/autobiography, map-making and so on. We store our globe on top of this book case.

Art and Music - Songbooks, lesson books, etc go here. Also, we put this section next to history and geography so that we could include art history and music history in this section.

Math and Puzzles - This includes sudoku books, logic books, and of course our math textbooks.

Handwriting - Here we keep handwriting lessons and handwriting paper. Next to this, we have coloring books and crayons for our little ones to "practice" writing as well.

Classics - There are certain books that I consider classics and would like my children to read. When I assign reading, I allow them to choose from this area. By keeping them apart from general fiction, I don't have to search for a "good book" because I have them all in one place.

General Fiction - This area is away from the classics so they don't get mixed up, and includes many children's books that we enjoy at bedtime.

Writing - This is different from handwriting, and includes Vocabulary Builder, Dictionary, Thesaurus, Manual of Chicago Style, and so on. This is primarily a resource shelf for me as I work on Professional Writing, but the children use it frequently as well.

Language - This area is just below the writing section as some of these are related, it includes spelling lessons, English from the Roots Up, Grammar books and our foreign language materials as well.

Hobbies - This shelf has a variety of books, but includes all sorts of things we've been interested in over the years, but do not necessarily fit into an academic category; like gardening, antiques, electrical systems, tropical fish, puppetry, theater, woodworking, etc.

Crafts - Some of our art could really be crafts, and some of our hobbies could be crafts, but I keep a bucket just for craft project items. It includes some books, but also includes paints and brushes, markers, colored pencils and chalks, etc.

All of these book cases line the walls of our school room, and are available to us all day long, and we always know where to look when we want a resource for something. Some books that myself or my husband own for personal reading are kept on a shelf in our bedroom, but pretty much all of our books are in one room, and organized by use, so that they are available to us easily, and we seldom have to search for material on a topic. 

This method also helps us quickly see what we already have on a subject so that our library trips are devoted to filling in areas that we don't have at home.

If you enjoyed this organization tip, and would like to see more like it, please vote here.

Moving: Packing the knives

I'm moving.
The moving truck will be here in 23 days.

This will be the third move in three years.

I've found the best way to pack my sharp knives is to have a paper wrapper over them. 

I could buy some here, but I'm really cheap (at least that's what I've been told; I prefer to think of myself as practical, and that means I don't spend money needlessly). So, I made my own.

I've been buying the Sunday paper for the coupons lately, so I have lots of newspaper hanging around.

I wrap the paper around the end of the knife, and leave the handle out. I wrap it tightly, tape it in place, and lay it into the packing box flat.

I put the knives at the top of a box of other kitchen items. This way I will see them as soon as I open the box, and will not accidentally stick my hand into a box and get cut.
If you don't like using newspaper for packing because of the ink, you can get end rolls of blank newspaper for a few dollars at your local newspaper office. They usually have plenty of these, and they are much cheaper than buying packaging paper.

Did you scrub the toilet with my toothbrush?

Hopefully, you'll never have to ask this question in the middle of brushing your teeth. To avoid uncomfortable situations such as this, I suggest a simple household tip.
My frugal and creative friends, you already know that duct tape can fix just about anything - even this predicament.
When a toothbrush has reached it's prime as a cleaner of teeth, and is ready to retire to the bucket under the kitchen sink, where it will spend the rest of its life as a scrubber of crevices; it needs to be designated as such. Especially in a house of 8, where we often buy multi-packs and the toothbrushes all look similar.
I don't mind accidentally using my husband's toothbrush because I forgot what color was supposed to be mine. He might mind, but that's a different subject all together. If I ever try to give marriage advice, ignore it, I don't know what I'm talking about.
As to the subject at hand; how not to end up with the toothbrush in your mouth that you used to scrub the kitchen floor, and how to make sure someone doesn't accidentally use your toothbrush to scrub the bathroom faucets.

NOTE: For those of you think this could never happen... with six kids in the house... anything can happen!

 On to the point of this short story that I managed to make long... take a piece of duct tape and wrap it around the handle of the "retired" toothbrushes, and everyone will know that those are for cleaning things other than teeth.
The End