Been a little "under the weather"

We have had some of the crud that is going around but I also have been having some other issues and was not able to spend much time on the computer. I am praying that I am better and will be doing some updating and adding lots of posts. I am going to be speaking at our homeschool group when we have what are called Mini-groups. There will be various topics being spoken about at the same time. Mine is about saving money in the kitchen. When I get that finished I will post it on here.
I need to go make bread. I have made a sourdough a few times but I don't like how it has turned out so I am going to make the bread that I made on here again. I really like this bread and I know that it works.

I am here- alive- but ended up getting the "crud" that is going around

I thought I would post while I was sitting here in bed- yes bed. How does a mother of lots manage to get into bed at 7 on a Saturday night? I can tell you it wasn't easy. I have planned school today, washed clothes, cleaned, prepped in the kitchen, prepped for Church in the morning and I am not feeling well. I said that I am done so I am taking a break and looking around the net and eating ice cream. Ice cream is sickness cure isn't it? I was always taught that. I did put a banana in it to make it healthy. ;-)
I have a kombucha scoby and made my tea and now have it fermenting. I have my sourdough souring too. Now that we are in a house again, I am going to try and do as much healthy stuff that I can. I would like to add that we are not very healthy. We eat too much stuff that we shouldn't, i.e. the ice cream, but I do try to make what I can and be as healthy as we can be. I know I have said this before, but it is really nice to be back in a house in my hometown with our family and friends. I hope to keep working on my blog and changing a few things around.

Making things from scratch again- Yay!

I am starting to get back into the swing of things in the kitchen. I have not made homemade wholewheat bread in a while, but today I made two loaves. I don't have have things to make it easier, I did the kneaded myself. I actually enjoyed this today. I haven't tasted it yet but I do hope it tastes great. I also made buttermilk for the first time. I plan on making old fashioned buttermilk pancakes for breakfast tomorrow, but you have to have part of the mixture soak overnight.
I am really hoping to get Kombucha going again soon. I don't have a scoby and I really hope that someone in the local homeschool group makes their own so I can get a scoby- but if not, I will see if the healthfood store has some.
I really, really miss traveling and being on the road, but I also really, really enjoy being in a house again and being creative in the kitchen. The kids are flourishing in church and at home- no complaints here!! If the bread tastes good, I will post the recipe on here tomorrow. :-)

Life resumes its' normal speed

Living in a house again has been fun, rejuvenating and easy to get back into the flow of things. I really do miss traveling and getting out everyday and "doing stuff", however, this just feels so natural again. Getting up, doing my morning routine, getting school going, cooking meals INSIDE, etc. We are hoping to get a garden going soon too. I have found a few things out while setting up home again....
1. It is much easier to clean when you have less stuff. I know we have all heard the stuff about decluttering but I don't think I have actually followed through completely. We only had what would fit inside of a very small space, approximately 7X12. We had no knickknacks or any of those types of items. Our house is now decorated very simply and guess what, it is much easier to clean. If I am going to bring more things in, I will see what I can remove. No need adding more clutter and dust collectors- I have better things to do with my time.
2. By keeping things simple, it frees up my time. I have more time to spend with my kids, homeschooling, cooking and my own interests. I have been spending some time in eschatology and garden planning. I remember often feeling like I was always playing catch up. Not so now. I know that I have things to do, but I am able to stay on top of things. This isn't because I am SuperMom (although I joke sometimes about that) but it has to do with starting back up with not much and freeing up my time.
3. Because of 1 and 2, I have much more peace in my life. I am able to spend my time on the things are much more important, my relationship with God, my husband, my children and my friends!
I guess decluttering properly really does make a difference!!!!

Bad weather day

Well, sort of. Hubby is working from home today. He has been doing some work for his old boss and since they are calling for ice, he is able to get all of his work done from home. We had our home phone turned on today. Yippee!! I haven't had a phone, and it has been hard. One night dh ended working till almost 10, and I didn't have a phone for him to let me know. Now we have one and I already feel so much better. One thing about homeschooling, we can school during ice storms or not. We are at least getting the basics done and I will do our read aloud and history after lunch.
I have a hard time coming up with a menu that I will stick with. I might try my hand at stretchy beans. I am not sure if Robin at LentilsandRiceblogspot (she has stopped posting for a bit and taken her stuff off the blog) coined that phrase or not, but I think it is a great idea. You make a lb of beans go farther than one meal, usually 3. She really had great frugal and healthy ideas using her stretchy bean recipes. Here is an example of how me sticking with a recipe doesn't exactly work- I used 1 1/2 lb pinto beans and cooked them in the CP. I them made them into refried beans with some seasonings and a half pound of chorizo. Friday night we had burritos with the beans, a little cheese, sour cream, lettuce and salsa. Saturday I made the beans into nachos. There was still plenty left, so I threw two chicken breasts in the CP, add a bit of salsa and taco seasoning and let that cook while we were at church. I made Mexican rice when we came back and we had chicken tacos, Mexican rice and refried beans. There was still a little bit of those beans left, so I combined the leftover chicken and refried beans, and a can of kidney beans that I mashed into the bean and chicken mix. I spread this onto tostada shells and topped with a sprinkling of quesadilla cheese. So, I managed to stretch the pot of refried beans into almost 4 meals. We were feeding an extra kid for 3 of these meals, so I might have had enoough to make this 4th meal. I hope I can do at least one stretchy bean cycle once a week. Beans are cheap and nutritious, which is a plus for me. DH still doesn't have an official job and things are about to get really tight. Time to really get creative. :-)

Busy weekend

We had a busy weekend. My dd's had a cousin stay the night all weekend and my oldest dd had a birthday and party. We had a house full on Sunday and it was a blast. All of the girls made various drawings and art items and hung them up around the house. There were streamers hung from the ceiling and balloons blown up. I made chocolate cupcakes and vanilla cupcakes and made a filling for them. I made homemade chocolate frosting for the chocolate cupcakes and a vanilla buttercream for the vanilla cupcakes. The chocolate ones were so delicious, the reminded me of a Hostess cupcake, but better. I liked the vanilla ones, but the chocolate was mmmmmmmmmmm good! It has been a while since have had a large gathering at our house. Oh yeah, we are in a house. It is an amazing story. I don't have time to go into details right now, but we are in a house with plenty of room for us. We are very happy with where we are and with what the Lord has provided.
I will try and get back with menus and such, but for the moment I am working on building up my pantry again (which is my weapon for eating cheaply, yet well).

It looks like we are back!

The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.
Well, after all of the planning and research, it looks like we might be settling down again. This wasn't our plan nor our intention. We have lots of plans to see the western part of the US. However, the Lord has provided a house that has most of the furniture we need in it, at a great price. This was just basically handed to us. We weren't looking nor were we planning on staying. The kids are so happy. To be honest, they haven't been this happy in a while. They are great kids and love to be together with their family, but to be back "home" is something that they are absolutely thrilled with. There are no complaints with me either. We have gotten back in the swing of things here. We are signed up for classes with our homeschool co-op, volunteering with the church, having friends over, we even went on a field trip.
I am hoping to be a regular blogger again (was I ever a regular blogger?). I am also hoping to join another one with this one.
It is nice to be "back"!

I Am Amazed at how Quckly Time Passes

I have been busy with lots of different things that are going on in our family right now. When I decided that I better get over to blogger to finally post I couldn't believe how long it has been since I lasted blogged! There have been so many times I wanted to post something but just never found the time to log in and blog about it.
My family is about to undertake a very big change in our lives. Basically we are selling most of our possessions, giving away just about everything and will store a few things we are willing to part with. We will then pack up the few things that are left and will then head out on the road. No we aren't crazy, no we haven't lost our minds, no we aren't going through a crisis. This is something that we have prayed about for a while and feel God is leading us in this direction. Not only will we be able to spend more time together as a family, we are also hoping to be able to minister to others as we travel. Our time on Earth is short. We really need to embrace everyday as the time it is since we don't know when our last day is. We will be able to do so much more together and spend time as a complete family (when dh is gone, I don't feel we are complete).
We do have a website but dh hasn't done much with it yet- he has been much busier than I have. He had 36 hours of OT this past payday! We are hoping to use the site to chronicle our journey and also share our story with others.
Well, now you know where I have been and what I have been up to- packing, planning, building, planning, plus homeschooling and all of the other day-to-day stuff that goes on.

No longer a baby

Life has been busy as usual. Who doesn't have a busy life these days? Anyway, there are going to be a few changes in our lives in a couple of months. My wonderful dh and I have been busy doing a lot of talking, planning and some working. I will post about that soon but my post for now is about how fast our children grow up.
I know about babies and what they are like- I know how wonderful they are and how they make us feel- how much work they can be but at the same time the joy they can give. Well, my "baby" is 5 (getting close to 6) but is no longer a baby. This week his bottom teeth were hurting him so I checked them out, they are loose! I was a little upset by that. I am not quite ready to be completely done with the firsts and the new experiences, I am not quite ready for my kids to grow up. Tonight I was urgently called outside to see something. I thought dh needed me but it was my 5 yo ds. He was riding a bike with no training wheels. To be honest, I was quite fine with him riding a bike with training wheels for another 5 years.
In reality I know that children grow up, I was a child once and now I have my own children. But, sigh, it is so hard to go through this. I loved being pregnant and having babies. I completely enjoyed adding a precious new family member to our family. It was so wonderful. I have left the part of my life of adding new babies to our family and so this is more than likely the last of our firsts.
How quickly children grow up. I do not feel like I have been a mother for as long as I have, time has just flown by. I was watching a show today (Kids by the Dozen, I think), and the mom said she wishes she could freeze all of the kids where they are and when she is ready for grandkids, unfreeze them. That is how I feel right now. I am not quite ready for my kids to grow up.

Sickness just won't leave

Well- I hoped that I/we were done with being sick but that isn't how it happened. We ended up having the flu. DH had it the worst. He ended up missing everyday last week at work. We aren't sure if he got paid for 4 of those days or not. We are hoping so. His birthday was last week too. I felt so sorry for him feeling so terrible and then to be sick on his birthday. I am feeling so much better today and think I am ready to get back into the swing of things.
I am going to start doing some spring cleaning. I plan on following (with my own little adaption) the Woman's Day 30 Days to a Clean House. The house could use it and so could I. The snow is melting, after a record year. Spring is finally appearing up here in Wisconsin and we are so ready.
I will try to post my menu today. I need to get everyone moving this morning, I don't think the kids are ready for it to be Monday.

Life is ...........

Well- life has intervened again and I lost track of lots of things, including my blog.
Besides me being sick and trying to keep up with the kids, the house and meals, our family suffered a terrible tragedy. I don't know if I will ever post about it or not, but it has not only affected our family but an entire community. My family, other families and a community will never be the same. I have been trying to grasp the reality of it, although, I don't think I will ever be able to. Something that I have noticed in the past is that time doesn't stand still, life goes on. This time, it was more than obvious that life goes on and that hardly anyone pauses. To the news media, it was just a tragic story but to the few involved, our lives are forever changed. So, I have been a tad preoccupied lately.
I will try to get back to posting soon, it is time for my menu and grocery shopping anyway and I like keeping track of everything on here. I have lost my written menu before and ended up using what I had posted to write a new one.
I do hope that everyone else is having a fabulous beginning of a year and are managing to make ends meet with rising cost of everything. Life here has been super slow at times and then at others, I feel like I need a break. This is a busy month for us (and I think lots of people). I turn 33 this month and my dh turns 34. I guess time just keeps marching on.

A Wonderful Post

While browsing a few blogs today I found this great article. I recommend that you read the article and see if you are up for the challenge!
http://homeschoolblogger.com/eic/453298/?#c898456

A Cute Video

Here is a really cute video put together by a precious lady on a group I am on.
We really enjoyed it and think they did a wonderful job.
http://youtube.com/user/quiverof7

As a side note- We are still recovering. We slept in today and seem to be on the mend. I hope we are now on the upswing. We still feel pretty yucky but much better.

Happy new year!

Update

We went to the ER last night since we couldn't get into the Dr's.
Most of us have an URI's - or colds- 4 of us now have conjunctivitis, better known a pink eye. We have an ointment we put in our eyes. 2 are on antibiotics for ear infections. The staff at the hospital was wonderful, absolutely wonderful. I couldn't have asked for a better experience there.
I feel worse today than yesterday and my ear is hurting but I am trying to treat myself with GSE, a natural antibiotic. If it doesn't get better, I will go in and see the Dr. I so wish that daddy's took off when mommy's were sick, or at least the kids would just as bad as mommy does. It is hard to deal with the day-to-day things when you don't feel well and some of the kids are sick and others have plenty of energy. Oh well, I can get through this. I just pray that my eyes don't get as bad as my girls and that hubby doesn't get sick. I can't imagine taking care of him too right now. : /
I hope everyone else is well and is having a great start to the new year.
I am off to lay down for a bit.

We are back from our vacation- but we are all sick

We are back from our holiday vacation in Texas. There were so many emotions that we felt leaving family and friends behind, yet it did feel nice to lay in my own bed again. We had an absolutely wonderful time- except for the fact that we came home sick. We have never been sick like this. I am dealing with 5 kids who are sick, some with different symptoms. The doctor won't see them because I don't have their shot records. I guess they are in Texas somewhere because I never kept track. Since we homeschool, keeping track wasn't a priority as I had no one to show them to. My kids haven't seen a doctor in a few years now since we don't get sick and don't need to be seen for typical school reasons. 2 of my girls have eye infections, I think they have a cold in their eyes and it is highly contagious. My 8 yo dd looks terrible. I am treating everyone, including myself, for a cough that is terrible, a sore throat and a couple have ear aches. My hubby will take the girls with eye infections to urgent care when he gets home from work tonight. We will find out if there is anything else wrong and if it will be necessary to have the others be seen. I sure hope that we are all on the mend and my dd's will just need some special eye drops. It makes me so frustrated that they can choose not to see someone because they don't have their vaccination records and I am frustrated with myself. I feel like a terrible mother, if I had been more organized, they would have been able to be seen.
This isn't how I had planned on spending the start of the new year.
Well, I am off to check on the kids and start making homemade chicken soup with lots of onion and garlic.

In Memory

I would like to devote today's blog to a young man who went to see his Heavenly Father a little earlier than many would have liked. His name is Brian Howard and he is the son of one of my very best friends. He died 4 years ago today, a day that many will never forget. I have learned firsthand the emotions that come from losing a child by being with my friend and her family through this time. I saw what a mother goes through when she loses her child early in life. I saw what it is like to become a member of the club that people say you never want to be a member of- the club of parents who have lost a child.
Brian was a handsome young man. He was a guy who always took care of what he looked like, who acted more mature than his years, who loved his siblings. I will always remember sitting in his house with his mother and hearing their talks, witnessing the love they had for each other.
One of the fabulous things that God gives us, is the gift of salvation. My friend rests in the comfort of seeing her son again one day. She rests in the comfort that he is being well taken care of and loved. She can't wait until the day she can see him again.
So, until that day, she (and the rest of us who knew him) keep him in our memories. Brian is only dead physically. He is alive to us in our hearts and alive spiritually in heaven. How comforting is that to someone who has lost a loved one? Only those who trust in salvation and have lost a loved one can understand that! I can't imagine what those who don't believe in God go through when they lose a loved one- there is no hope, none! How absolutely heartbreaking!

Tap, tap, tap, can you hear me?

Hi everyone- look at this- two postings this week!
This week has been a little busy. Usually I lead what most would consider a boring life, although this life makes me happy. I enjoy staying home and taking care of my family. This week has been a little busier than normal. Monday dd11 got her glasses and also hearing aids. She was born with a unique hearing problems. Part of her inner ear did not develop properly, basically it is underdeveloped. She saw an ENT and had a lot of tests done when she was younger. He told us that a hearing aid wouldn't help her, that she would have to just learn to live with it. Well, our precious daughter is basically deaf in her right ear, she can only hear super loud things with that ear, things like a jet flying close to the ground. We have tried to adjust the best we can.
DH was able to make an apt at an ENT a couple of months ago for her. They ran the same tests as what was ran in Texas- she had special hearing tests and had a cat scan done. The results were basically the same as they were a few years ago. That is good because it means that she isn't getting any worse. We then went and met with a hearing aid specialist (who is absolutely wonderful by the way). She thought that a hearing aid might be able to help dd's unique situation. We were going to try one hearing aid but she felt 2 with a crossover would be best. Basically what happens is that what happens on the right side is sent over to the left side. She is able to hear better and that was the whole point. I am so happy for her. She can see better now and hear better. Her hearing loss cause her not to hear certain sounds too, so her world have come alive with new ones. She was riding her bike and heard the leaves crunch under the wheels of her bike. A wonderful new sound for her that I would take advantage of, not really paying attention to and to her, it is exciting!
We are heading to Milwaukee tomorrow when dh gets home. I hope we are able to get a membership to the science museum there. If not we do plan on seeing an IMAX I believe. I might not post again this week because I won't be home!
I hope everyone is having a fabulous fall colored week!

The World is Round

I know that it seemed like I would never return but here I am. If the world was flat you might think that I fell off the edge. I debated whether I should return and post again or not since it has been so long. While the laptop was in the shop I spent very little time on the computer. I was able to squeeze in a little time to check emails on dh's computer but it was hard with 7 of us using one. Then I got a little lazy. I started focusing on school and didn't spend much time on the computer. Now our school year is in full swing. We are using mostly FIAR- Five In A Row. FIAR volume one for the younger ones and Beyond FIAR volume 2 for the older ones. Beyond reminds me a lot of Prairie Primer. The girls are enjoying it and is a little less mom intensive which allows them to do somethings on there own. Things are going well on the schooling front- everyone is learning and happy which makes me a happy mom.
I am hoping that I can get back in the habit of blogging again. I was trying to start posting everyday and ended up going in the opposite direction. I have a lot of posts in my head ready to be typed out, I just hope I don't forget them when I sit down at the laptop.
Take care everyone!

Computer down

Hi everyone. Well, we are down to one computer again. The laptop is having a problem that requires that it be sent in to be worked on. That is the only problem I have found with the laptop- dh can't work on it. He definitely can't work on it while it is covered under a warranty. I was hoping to post once a week on the Biblical Womanhood series and will still try to later this week. One problem though is that all of my ideas and such are on the laptop.
I need to work on a lot of things and finish planning school and decluttering the house plus keep up with the series. One day a week would be best for that so I can keep up with everything else.
I hope everyone is enjoying the final days of "summer". Where I am from the weather for summer continues long after summer is over. I still haven't done some of the things I wanted to this summer but I still have time to get them done.
Enjoy your day!

Busy Day

Yesterday was a busy day. I really cleaned the kitchen. I went through the cabinets and organized them. I cleaned out the drawers, including the silverware drawer. How does the silverware organizer get so dirty? I mean, really. It amazes me how dirty it can get! It is also on of dh's pet peeves so I need to try and keep that clean. I also had my dds help me scrub the floor. Our mophead needs to be replaced and the floor needed to be cleaned. I don't know if my kids are exceptionally dirty or what but it seems that the kitchen floor needs to be mopped daily. Yesterday after we thoroughly cleaned the floor there were sticky spots all over it that night.
I also go to a ladies class once a week and it is on Mondays. I have missed the last 2 because I have been sick but was able to go last night. We are studying Loving God with all Your Mind by Elizabeth George. It is a really good study. I have learned so much through this study and am glad that I am able to go.
I hope to post again tonight. This might be dh's week for his Bible study too so I might have some free time tonight.
I have a wonderful hubby- for many, many reasons. I will share what he did last night: I came home from the ladies class and went to my room. He was sitting on the bed with the laptop. I thought he was working on one of the radio stations he hosts but he wasn't. He was changing over my website! I thought that was so sweet. I mentioned once that I would like for the site to look different and he showed me some different things he could do over the weekend and changed it last night. He is so wonderful and I am thankful that I am married to him!