Learning life lessons through books

Mark and I listened to an interesting radio program today that talked about reading with your children. I have always loved reading. I was the type of kid who always had my nose stuck in a book. I would take a book out to recess and read it to the teacher supervising us. I still really like the book "Mr. Popper's Penguins" which I read in 3rd grade. I just love books.
Mark didn't really like reading. When we got married, he could not have told you the last book he had read. He didn't read much as a child. He only read the minimum required for school. He didn't see much value in reading.
When I started homeschooling Nathaniel we did our fair share of reading. In 1st grade I read him "Alice in Wonderland". He really enjoyed it and understood it. This was a boy that they were taking out of classes because he could not comprehend the easy readers. I found that he wanted real stories. He wanted something interesting to happen unlike the books they were having him read at school.
We are currently reading "Little House of the Prairie". It is amazing the things you can pull out of these books. The other night we were reading about putting a candle in the well they were digging to determine if it was safe to go down into. This is a great time to discuss science with the kids. There was a chapter about being obedient even if you don't understand why.
Many of the books that are around right now do not have these great conversation starters. There is no depth to many books. I want my children to be exposed to family values, christian values, and history. I want to fill my childrens heads with questions, not senseless busy work. I want reading to have them searching further to answer questions for themselves.
I love books but some are what we call fluff books. Our children are allowed to get one fluff book at the library. Then, they can get all the real books they want. History, science, biographies, and worthy novels. With so much great out there to read I don't want them bogged down by all the not so great.

Mark has come around and now likes reading.

sara

letting God lead

The longer Mark and I are parents, the more we believe in ourselves. As we go through our day to day happenings, sometimes the things we do may not feel right. A moment of correction may not seem to work quite right. A minute of teaching may not be clearly understood.

However, looking at the big picture, we realize that all the reasons we live like we do work. The reason they work is that Christ is the center of all we do. Everything we do is examined in the scriptures. That doesn't mean that life is perfect. There are times that things are not going smoothly or I feel overwhelmed. God is always there in those times. And even in those times, sticking with God's plan works.

I need to focus on God everyday and fill my day to day things around Him. There are too many days I try to shove God into the cracks betweens the cracks in the schedule. I have found He is way too big for this. God needs to consume my whole day. I have found my days are much more peaceful when I put God first. Also my priorities seem to change when I let God lead my day.

I will talk more about this tomorrow but I need to head to bed.

sara

happy times

After some unhappy times yesterday, we had a wonderful day today. We have just enjoyed being a family (along with the new ones). We are getting into a better routine as we now know eachothers schedules and ways. Things around here are wonderful.
Today we had chicken, potatoes, carrots, and corn for supper. We all ate ourselves silly. Then we made brownies. We all went to bed with full bellies and smiles on our faces.

sara

today's happenings

After much stress this morning trying to figure out our new life, we headed off to Good News Club. We had no children today because of the threat of snow. So we packed up our stuff and came home early. We made bread and cinnamon rolls. We all played games together. The story of the Good Samaritan was the Bible story for tonight. We also videotaped some more for Grandma and Grandpa, hope you enjoy it.
Tomorrow we are out early as I have an eye doctor appointment. Hopefully, we will get in school tomorrow along with our Bible reading.
sara

a compliment today

I got a compliment, even though I don't think it was meant that way. We were discussing the TV show "The Waltons". The children in this discussion (not mine) were saying that it would be so bad to live like that. One looked at me and said "You remind me of the Mom on that show". I would love to have it all together like Mrs. Walton seemed to. I know that we saw a TV life and no one lives like that, but I think she is my new role model.

It brought a smile to my face.

sara

Cinnamon Rolls

This recipe was borrowed from Hillbilly Housewife
The cinnamon rolls use this recipe as a base. Once the dough is prepared, simply roll out nice and flat. Spread 3/4 stick of butter over the entire area. Sprinkle on sugar (1/4 cup) and then cinnamon. Roll tighly into a large long cylinder. Cut even slices, I have found that a 9x13 pan is good to use 18 slices for this recipe at a 6x3 grid. Let rise overnight. Bake at 350 degrees for 18-22 minutes. Rolls are done when center is no longer doughy. Add icing of your choice.

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unruly children

Have you ever noticed that some peoples children really make it hard to enjoy the company of other adults? I love visiting with friends. I would have people over every night of the week because I love entertaining. I like just getting to know others, play games, or have bible study. We have many friends with children. Usually we have a great time together.
One family we enjoy spending time with have 5 children. When they are over, the adults spend time together and the kids move around the house. Sometimes we don't see any of them for quite awhile as they play a game or find something interesting outside. Other times they join our discussion in the living room and are extremely polite and add depth to the conversation.
Another family we visit has 5 children. While we visited last time, the kids only interrupted twice (very politely). Once to ask for a snack and once to prepare them to go outside. We had a great conversation with the parents. The children all had a great time with no fighting or troublesome behavior. In both these situations, the children conducted themselves in a very mature manner while still having fun. Very little correction is needed with the children in either of these settings.
Then there are families where one child can ruin the entire gathering. The one child who is destructive, loud, seeking attention, and downright rude. These children are not born this way, they are trained this way.
Many people do not like to hear the word TRAIN when speaking of raising children but that is what they need. A child does not know the correct behavior in every situation. A child needs to be trained to properly live in society. Just as a dog is trained to remain calm and quiet on a leash, a child should be trained to remain calm and quiet when appropriate.
A child can be expected to act civilized when out in public. This may come as a surprise to some people. Mark and I can expect our children to come simply by saying "come". They are to come immediately when they hear us call them. Yes, this is something that needs to be taught, but can be expected. We are working on this with the baby right now. "NO" is to stop the action right away. If she does not stop, I go to her and correct her.
All of this training does take work but is very well worth it. It is very tiring to always be arguing with children. Everyone in the family is happier if the children can be expected to obey the parents. There is also more time to spend together doing fun things than correcting behavior.
Our children are expected to be "good" while out in public because we work on it at home. We talk about correct behavior for different situations. One must be quieter in church than is expected at a close friends house. Some parents wonder why they cannot get children to be good when in public. It is because the child is allowed to act unruly at home with no respect of authority.

I will talk about this more later but I hope this is some food for thought.
For all my friends I described in this post, thank you

sara

ahh relaxation

We had a very restful day today. We slept in, then went to visit friends and go to the feed store. We then ate a quick lunch and took a much needed nap. Supper was a homemade pizza I froze last week. Very nice to have a day with not much responsibility.
Tomorrow we have chapel in the morning. We are starting men and womens bible study tomorrow so we will be gone for most of the day. Then our usual popcorn and hot chocolate for supper tomorrow.
I will be making a tutorial tomorrow or Monday for homemade cinnamon rolls. Thanks Angela for the suggestion. I would also like to do one soon for homemade tortillas. Check back soon for these pictures and more.

sara

crazy day

Today was a pretty hectic day as we did a full school day which is the first in a while.
Tomorrow will be really busy. We have to drive to a dentist appointment, go to a chiropractor, and arrange transportation for everyone. I have never been so happy to see the weekend.
I am hoping to post some tutorials over the next few weeks to show some of my cooking.
Hope to write more soon.

sara

rest and cloth diapers

Sorry it has been a while since I have written. I have taken the last few days to rest and get the house back to normal (ish). I did the basic chores and started cleaning out clutter from the house. The baby has decided that early morning (between 5-6) is a great time to wake up. Well we do not actually have to be up until 7. I don't like jumping out of bed that early. However, Naomi will pee on the potty as soon as she wakes up. So I jump out of bed to take her to the bathroom and my day begins. I am very slow after this rude awakening. Breakfast is almost always something homemade, like muffins, banana bread, pancakes, eggs and toast, or oatmeal. Being slow and not quite awake is not a good combination while making these things. Double the baking powder and they do not taste quite right. Many kitchen mishaps happen at breakfast time.
Anyway, I promised to talk about cloth diapers a few days ago and it has not happened. Well here is the long awaited post.
I started thinking about doing cloth diapers about 1 1/2 years ago. Not because they are better for the environment and not because the thoughts of all those chemicals on my babies rear was horrifying. No, none of those reasons. I did them because I am cheap. Disposables diapers are expensive. This year we have been trying to cut out any non essential costs. I was able to buy enough diapers to last for all of Naomi's diapering years for about $150.
We use Dappi brand diapers. I bought them at babybestbuy.com I use a basic prefold, folded in thirds, inside a cover. For those that are used to the old style diapers, cloth diapers have come a long way. There are no more pins to worry about. The cover has little velcro tabs so you put it one like a disposable. They are so easy.
After she has wet one, I take out the prefold and put it in a covered bucket. I then reuse the cover to put a new prefold in. If the cover is wet or soiled I throw that in the diaper bucket too. I wash laundry every few days. I just throw them all in the washer and run through a rinse cycle. Then I wash them in cold water. Every couple month I strip the diapers, this means to run them through the washer with hot water a few times. This gets any extra detergent out.
I love cloth diapers they are really easy.
Write more later.

sara

favorite foods

My mom's supper tonight was a hit with all the kids. She made porcupines. They are like giant meatballs with rice inside. I think she got the recipe from the Betty Crocker Cookbook. They are great for giving to another family (I have not found a kid yet who does not like them).

We also like homemade macaroni and cheese, sloppy joes (hillbilly housewife), Homemade pizza, garlic breadsticks (hillbilly housewife), tacos, chicken soup, and homemade bread (hillbilly housewife).

All of these are made from scratch. I will post recipes as I have time but as you can see a lot are from hillbillyhousewife.com

be back later
sara

Just checking in

It has been really busy around here lately. Just cooking and washing dishes for 8 people takes up a lot of the day. I will post a few kid friendly recipes tonight. If anyone has any recipes to share that would please some picky eaters, PLEASE leave me a comment.
I will also write more about our experience with cloth diapers. I absolutely love them and will not go back to disposables. They are very easy and don't smell like chemicals like the disposables do.

Well, I am off to do more dishes. I'll write more tonight.

sara

life is good

We have had a very enjoyable day around the house getting things done. Bedrooms were cleaned and reorganized. Virginia now has new toy boxes to contain the chaos (well at least it does right now). Our van is now back home to stay.
I made a chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting with three assistants. It was a first attempt at peanut butter frosting but it came out really good. Unfortunately we still have a chocolate oatmeal cake left so we now have two cakes to eat. Don't worry I am eating a nice hearty slice while I type this.
God is amazing. Sometimes he will throw you a curve ball but he definitely gives you the strength to deal with it. We have a lot going on right now but God has prepared us so well through the years. I just praise God for how wonderful he is in leading our lives right to where he wants us.

Tomorrow I will write about some favorite family friendly (wow look at all those f's) meals.

sara

busy few days

It has been crazy around here the last couple days. Monday morning started out normally as we just did some cleaning from the weekend. About 10:30 my back started hurting (it has been bothering me for the last couple weeks). When we called the chiropractor he said we could be seen at 11:00 so we raced out the door. While in town we decided to pick up some things at Walmart (poison for the mouse of my previous post). Leaving there at 12:20 it struck me that we were supposed to be in Belfast by 1:00 for Nathaniel's dentist appointment. (a 35 minute drive) We drove to Belfast, finally ate lunch by 2:00, and ran home to get ready for guests that we were expecting for dinner.
At this point we got a phone call to do some foster care. So along with getting ready to have a family of 7 over to dinner, we also had to do some major decluttering and reorganizing of the bedrooms.
This morning we woke up to finish all those dishes from last night and clean house. We also had our first Good News Club meeting in 3 weeks this afternoon. I had to prepare the lesson for that plus bake two loaves of bread, make two pizzas for supper, take Naomi to the potty (she won't pee for Daddy yet), and get everyone to take showers.
As of tonight we are a family of 8 for a while. Tomorrow, we are going to pick up our van, which has been at the shop, so we have an extra seat. This still leaves us one seat short but we will make it work.
I may not blog for a few days as we get adjusted to the craziness here. Hope to be on soon.

sara

to catch up on yesterday

Last night, I was just too tired to write. I'll let you know how our Sunday went.
We were getting ready for church and things were going rather smooothly. (except for Naomi sticking her hand in the muffin batter and making a mess.) I commented to Mark that it was 20 minutes before we had to leave and everyone had eaten, dressed, hair done, and everything. Our Sunday mornings are not usually that easy. Well, we decided to do a few more things and next thing we know it was 5 minutes after we were supposed to leave. But we still got to church on time.
Chapel was very nice yesterday. Naomi was a little out of sorts so I missed rememberance time. However, she napped during prep for lunch so I got to enjoy the fellowship of the other ladies.
The rest of the day was a fairly normal Sunday with nap and family time. We watched a movie and just enjoyed time together.
Naomi is doing well on the potty. She only had 3 wet diapers yesterday and used the potty alot. I am now just taking her about every hour and she tries to go. Less laundry is great.
I said I would talk about infant sign language. It is American Sign Language (ASL) but you teach the signs most important to baby. You won't teach your baby the sign for dream but you will probably teach them the sign for eat. We started when Virginia was about 1 year old as she was not talking much and Nathaniel really wanted to learn sign language. She was signing within a month and still remembers the signs.
With Naomi we started at about 7 months. We started with milk, change, and Daddy. Everytime I changed her diaper, I would sign change and she started to learn it. We have gradually added more signs to include Mommy, potty, bath, and more I cannot think of now.
Sign language is shown to not slow a child from speaking. Virginia was a late talker so sign language helped alot. She was just never interested in babbling or anything except walking which she did early. Naomi is an early walker too as she zooms around the living room but she will also babble your ear off.
I am off to do dishes. Come back later and I will share some information on cloth diapers.

sara

dishes, diapers, and dough

Today I had a pile of dishes waiting for me when I woke up. They were stacked to the ceiling and spilling onto the floor. Okay, that is what it felt like. I hate waking up and knowing that dishes are waiting for me. A plate or cup from a midnight snack the night before do not bother me, but dinner dishes still watching for me to emerge from the bedroom is just overwhelming.
The dishes job around here is usually split. I do the breakfast dishes, Virginia is responsible for lunch things, and Nathaniel does supper items. However, when the dishes get piled up(even one meal), I feel overwhelmed. I do not feel right making the children do them when I (an adult, most days) am overwhelmed. I don't always get the dishes done on my shift as the baby may need me, or a phone call, or anything else that pulls me away from the sink( it doesn't take much). The water is cold before I get back so I wait for hot water (it takes a little while on the wood stove). Then they back up. Once you are a little behind, it can quickly become a lot behind.
Dough- the reason the dishes are so behind is directly related to dough (well bread but that is not a d word). There is a mouse in my kitchen. We discovered this when he ate some homemade bread. The homemade bread I made right before bed and had not even tasted yet. That little rodent chewed a hole in the bag and feasted on fresh baked bread. Until I catch that little guy, bread and many other things will be living in the fridge.
The dishes did not get done because of the thought of a mouse. I have a hard time believing that a mouse is more scared of me than I am of him. I just think about a little mouse running over my foot while doing dishes. Ewwww. I am not racing into the kitchen to work on those pots and pans.
Diapers- We use cloth diapers around this house. Diapers are laundered every other day to keep up with demand. However, I may have found a way to decrease my laundry load. We have taught Naomi (9 months) some sign language. She has been signing change (for change diaper) for about 1 month. We have noticed that sometimes she will sign change and have a dry diaper but pee shortly thereafter. So I have sat her on the potty throughout the day. She peed on the potty about 2/3 of the time that I set her there. That is really saving on dirty diapers and clothes. I love less laundry.

Tomorrow I will write more about baby sign language and progress on Naomi's potty time. I am off to prepare the house for tomorrow. I try to do as little work as I can on Sundays so I need to finish the dishes. I need to get them all done as the baby sleeps.

sara

Into the future

After months of reading others blogs, my husband and I have decided to start our own.
I, however, am not computer literate. I can turn it on, check email, and find some favorite sites. If one of those scary little alert windows pop up, I just back away slowly and call for hubby. So I will try to not delete this site or anything else you can do to it (I don't even know other possibilities but if it can be messed up I will do it.) I am married to the most wonderful man in the world, Mark. We have three wonderful children that we are blessed with. We will take any more blessings that God chooses to give us. I am a stay at home mom that cannot imagine being anywhere else in the world.
This blog will share my daily life in my jobs as
home schooler (relaxed with focus on Bible)
cook (most things are made from scratch and still trying to make it healthier)
housekeeper (working on keeping things off the floor with baby)
babysitter (home schoolers must have time to watch everyone else's kids)
submissive wife, and Godly woman. (I am still working on these)
This is a work in progress and may change as we go.
This week I will post about baby sign language, homemade laundry soap, and cloth diapers.
Check back soon.

sara