Raising Olives » Home Making

Updated Chore List for Our Large Family

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 11:59:50 +0000

Scroll down for a fun froggy scavenger hunt and super giveaway.

Having twelve people living in our home it is important for everyone to pitch in and help with everyday tasks. This allows us to serve others, do fun activities, projects and trips. I wrote about the importance of chores, how we train our children to work and what types of chores we give at what ages in my post Daily Chores.

We rarely switch chores around. We generally do it only as little ones and middle ones get old enough to take on more responsibility and during those times of “restructuring” we try to rotate the children so that they get experience with different tasks.

Our idea is that we would rather have them doing the same chore each day, week, month, so that they are good at doing it and we know that they know how to do it, so our standards can be pretty high. Whenever we switch chores it takes a while for everyone to learn their new duties and takes training to teach them, so for us it is just easier to keep things the same

We have 3 separate chore assignments during the day: Before Breakfast Chores, Regular Chores and Table Chores. Before breakfast chores happen before breakfast, duh. Regular chores are done immediately after breakfast and table chores after dinner each evening. (For table chores see our chore assignments from last year.)

You can see how these chore times fit into our daily schedule and also get a glimpse of what our schedule was like with 4 kids 3 years and younger.

Before Breakfast

Scheduled for 30 minutes each morning. During that time each child makes their bed, cleans their room, gets dressed, brushes teeth and hair and then:

Amber (13) – Makes breakfast
Kaitlin (12) -Cleans downstairs bathroom
Matthew (11) – Empties top and bottom rack of dishwasher
Alyssa (9) – Feeds dog and fish and tidies front porch and back deck
Carter (8) – Vacuums two upstairs area rugs (in family and living rooms)
Sadie (6) – Sets table and helps with breakfast
Savannah (5) – Makes mom and dad’s bed
Colby (3) – Empties silverware rack of dishwasher
Nicholas (2) – Empties trash cans from bathrooms
Isabella (3 weeks) – Prevents mommy from getting a shower

Regular Chores

(30 minutes immediately after breakfast) Most children have an area for which they are responsible. They tidy and do basic cleaning tasks everyday, in addition they have a specific deeper cleaning task each day. The goal is that everyone is able to complete all of their tasks within thirty minutes.

Amber (13) – Clean kitchen
Kaitlin (12) – Clean master bathroom AND Monday – wash windows, Tuesday – sweep and clear cobwebs off front porch and back deck, Wednesday – clear and dust rain gutter bookshelves, Thursday – clean out fridge, Friday – wash sliding glass doors.
Matthew (11) – Downstairs – tidy, dust and sweep
Alyssa (9) – Family room – tidy, dust and sweep
Carter (8) – Monday, Wednesday and Friday – vacuum downstairs. Tuesday and Thursday – vacuum and sweep in kid’s bedrooms and vacuum stairs.
Sadie (6) – Dining room – clear and wipe table, tidy, dust, vacuum and sweep
Savannah (5) - Kid’s bathroom – wipe down mirror, sinks, tub, and toilet, shake rugs outside and sweep floor
Colby (3) – Living room, entryway and hall – tidy, dust and sweep (using the dust pan and brush)
Nicholas (2) – help mommy
Isabella (3 weeks) – Wreak havoc with our plans and keep mommy from getting bored.

Interested in what our chore assignments were a year ago or what table chore assignments are? Questions?

Froggy hunt details:

Raising Olives is participating in a fun scavenger hunt giveaway along with 7 other blogs. You are competing for 8 prizes ($40 gift card to Amazon.com, $25 Alice gift card, a lovely handmade tote and one of Smockity Frocks famous oilcloth aprons plus more) and you have 8 opportunities to enter.

You’ll want to start your hunt here to read the complete entry rules and see all the prizes, then you’ll want to come back here and find the froggy.

There are 7 other blogs who are hiding a froggy:

~Hoosier Homemade
~iGoBoGo
~It’s A Blog Party
~Our Homeschool Home
~She Saved
~Smockity Frocks
~Tatertots and Jello

In one of my recent posts here on Raising Olives is a picture of a frog, you need to find that post, leave a comment there and then hop over to my BlogFrog community and leave a comment there telling me which post you found froggy on. Repeat for each of the above blogs. (Remember comment on the post with the froggy AND in the BlogFrog community of each blog.)

If you find froggy on each blog you’ll gain a total of 8 entries.

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Spaghetti and Meatball Cupcakes

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 10:33:36 +0000

Mark’s birthday was last week and as a fun (and super easy) dessert for his birthday the children decided that they wanted to make “Spaghetti and Meatball” Cupcakes.

No, it's not a big plate of spaghetti, they're cupcakes!

We got this idea from the adorable book Hello, Cupcake! After the kids and I had so much fun making the hamburger and ant cupcakes that we made for Memorial Day, I saw the book ‘Hello Cupcake’ in the store and purchased it for Sadie, our 6 year old gourmet wannabe.

This book is perfect for children because it doesn’t require special, hard-to-find tools or ingredients and the techniques are simple and explained clearly.

We did things the easy way and purchased vanilla cake mix and pre-made frosting (I know, I know after all my talk about making things from scratch, I’m using the 2-week old baby excuse. )

Ingredients we used to make 20 cupcakes/2 platters of spaghetti:

Vanilla cake mix
White frosting
White cupcake papers
Cocoa powder (for tinting frosting)
yellow food coloring (for tinting frosting)
sandwich bag (for creating the pasta)
hazelnut chocolates (Ferrero Rocher)
low-sugar strawberry preserves
2 TBL white chocolate

We tinted the frosting with a bit of cocoa powder and yellow food coloring until it looked the right color for pasta

and then laid 10 cupcakes out on each of two platters. Before we started making the ‘noodles’ the children lightly frosted each cupcake.

For the ‘noodles’ we spooned frosting into a sandwich bag, cut a very small hole in the corner and squeezed ‘noodles’ all over the frosted cupcakes ( I was nursing the baby and didn’t get a picture before the kids started adding meatballs).For the meatballs we opened the hazelnut chocolates, tossed them with strawberry preserves

and spooned one onto each cupcake.

For the finishing touch we finely grated some white chocolate and sprinkled over the top of the ‘spaghetti and meatballs’. Next we topped each plate of ‘spaghetti’ with birthday candles and served to the best husband/daddy in the world.

These cupcakes are SUPER easy and the children (9 and younger) were able to do everything with only minimal supervision.

This post is linked to Cupcake Tuesday at Hoosier Homemade.

Happy Birthday, Mark. I’m very grateful to be able to grow OLD with you. ♥

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Homemade Yogurt and Yogurt Cheese: Guest Post from Katie

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 12:46:01 +0000

A special thanks to Katie at Kitchen Stewardship for today’s guest post.

By making my own yogurt, I save at least $300 a year on just one food item. If your family eats yogurt at all, you’ve got to try this! (Ahem: if you don’t eat yogurt, allow me to introduce you to the health benefits of yogurt. You should be using this food often to nourish your family.)

When I think of all the plastic hitting the landfills, or even the recycle centers, from single serve containers of yogurt, my stomach turns. The expense to have this healthy super food on hand, especially for larger families, can be pretty intense. Even purchasing the 32 oz. tubs could mean $2/day for my little family of 3-and-a-half (the toddler eats…like a toddler…so I count her as half for now).

Beyond saving money, saving the earth, and keeping your family healthy, I’ll save you time. This is the easiest homemade yogurt method ever, especially if you hate dishes.

I make homemade yogurt almost once a week, and it takes me about 17 minutes, split up into four parts. I’m willing to teach you my secret method, but only if you promise to get your kids to eat yogurt with as little sugar as possible. The basic steps of yogurt-making are easier than chocolate chip cookies:

Heat to sterilize the milk. (185 degrees)
Cool milk to proper incubation temperature. (90-120 degrees)
Add starter yogurt.
Incubate at warm temperature 4-24 hours.

Supplies necessary:

Glass jars (quart canning jars or empty mayo or spaghetti sauce jars work great)
Milk (any, from skim to whole)
Candy thermometer, but I can show you how to do it without one too
Pot large enough to hold your glass jars
2 Tbs of plain yogurt per quart of milk (Buy the freshest yogurt possible at a store and make sure it has “live and active cultures”. I prefer Dannon. I know it has the three top cultures that I’m looking for to help the gut. The little cups are often on sale for 40-50 cents.)
picnic cooler
bath/beach towel
timer

Prep:

Run jars and lids through the dishwasher to sterilize. Allow them to dry very thoroughly, then cap and store them.
Get out picnic cooler and clean bath towel.

Method

1. Put jars in the pot with a sink washcloth underneath.
2. Pour milk into your jars to about an inch from the top.
3. Place jars into the pot and fill pot with tap water around the jars.
4. Cook on high heat until boiling and get the milk to about 185 (you can’t burn it with this method, so if you forget it for a while, it’s OK!). Turn off the heat and put lids on the jars.
5. Put the pot in the cooler with the towel underneath and the lid on both pot and cooler.
6. Cool milk. You can do it on the counter, in the garage in winter, or in a sinkful of cold water with ice packs.
7. Get milk to about 110 degrees. I know the milk is about ready when I can pick up the jars and hold them without burning my hands.
8. Stir in ~2 Tbs. plain yogurt for each quart of milk.
9. Get those lids on again and nestle your jars in the cooler. Keep them wrapped in one half of the towel and take the lid off the pot to let the heat out, then close the lid of the cooler to keep the heat in.
10. My yogurt jars happily nestled in the cooler, ready to incubate. Before I close the lid, I’ll wrap the towel end from the right around the jars.
11. Incubate 4-24 hours. Shorter incubation makes sweeter yogurt, longer is more tart. Also lower incubation temperature makes sweeter yogurt and higher makes more tart. I’ve had good success between 4 and 8 hours.
12. When the time is up, put the jars into the freezer for about an hour. Do not stir first. No room in the freezer? They can go right into the fridge.
13. That’s it! You have created yogurt!

I know a lot of people make slow cooker yogurt, but I hate dishes so much that washing that big insert just kills me. I’d rather dump the water out of my pot to air dry, put my cooler away and be done.

But Wait! There’s More!

Here’s another trick with your homemade plain yogurt, no matter what method you use. It’s a great money saver, another way to get probiotics into your family’s diet, and so simple I’m almost embarrassed to call it a recipe. Yogurt can be made into yogurt cheese in a few simple steps, and the result is nearly exactly like cream cheese, but at half the price of the best sale you’ll find.

You simply dump the contents of one jar into a tea-towel-lined colander over a bowl:

Then hang the towel to drain for about 4 hours.That’s how easy it is to get cream cheese in the tea towel (about a cup) and whey in the bowl (about 3 cups).

That was a very quick explanation, so if you’d like more details, you can see how to make yogurt cheese back at Kitchen Stewardship.

More Information

If you’re nervous and would like more detailed instructions for the yogurt, my post on making homemade yogurt leaves out no details.
What can you do with homemade yogurt? See this list of homemade yogurt recipes
Here are my top 4 tips for eating less sugar in your yogurt.
If you make cream cheese, you might wonder: What do you do with whey?

Katie blogs at Kitchen Stewardship, where she offers weekly Monday Missions to help you balance stewardship of God’s gifts of health, earth, time and money. Find practical baby steps, healthy recipes, green living ideas and prayerful encouragement. You can also follow Katie on Twitter.

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Flower Hair Clip Tutorial

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 12:39:06 +0000

I’m sure you’ve seen the little crocheted baby hats with huge flowers on them, so cute. Since I love making baby hats I was on the look out for a way to inexpensively incorporate these huge flowers, different colors with different hats to match different outfits.

These inexpensive, easy to make flower hair clips fit the bill.

They are also great for the big girls to wear directly in their hair or use to spice up a head band.

Each flower clip cost me less than a dollar to make. They would be less expensive if you chose smaller flowers.Supplies needed:

a hot glue gun
alligator hair clips
scissors
silk flowers (I purchased mine at JoAnne’s when they had their spring flowers on clearance.)

1. Pull the flower off of the stem and then trim the little knobby part that sticks out of the back so that it is easy to remove the remaining flower parts.

2. Pull off the small plastic backing that is keeping the silk petals in place. (see it there above the flower?)

3. Remove all petals that are not firmly attached to the center and very front of the flower.The type of flower will determine how many of the petals you will remove.

4. Glue each layer of petals to the previous layer with the glue gun using the remainder of the ‘stem’ to line up each layer of petals.5. Trim any remaining stem so that it is flush with petals.

6. Glue clip to back of flower.I found this cheat to be helpful when I hot glued the clip onto the back so that the clip didn’t glue itself closed.

7. Enjoy!

For more tutorials including beaded bobby pins , a fancy ponytail, hand-dyed playsilks and more visit my tutorial page.

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Get Grease Stains Out of Laundry

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 10:45:47 +0000

This is a quick tip that I learned a few years ago and that has since saved a multitude of clothing from being ruined.

You know those pesky grease or oil stains, those little places on your clothes that look like they are wet even when they’re dry? Those pesky spots that do not come out in the wash? Frustrating right? Well, here is our solution to grease stains once and for all.

Squirt just a bit of Dawn dish soap liquid onto the offending spot and rub in with your finger then wash in warm water with a regular load.

It has worked every time for us and makes my husband very happy.

Using Dawn dish detergent to get grease stains out of our family’s laundry works for me.

Do you have any stain removing tips to share? Ya know that I can use all the help that I can get.

You may read more of my Works for Me tips or head over to We Are THAT Family for even more.

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Hamburger and Ant Cupcakes

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Mon, 31 May 2010 12:17:37 +0000

One of the lovely women that I met at Blissdom is Liz who blogs at Hoosier Homemade. Liz is super creative in the kitchen and her particular specialty is cupcakes.

When I saw these amazing ant and hamburger cupcakes featured on her blog last week I knew that our little cupcake lover (Sadie, 6) would be thrilled to make them.

These were super easy and didn’t require any special tools. We purchased red and yellow frosting (for the ketchup and mustard) in a tube right from the grocery and the children were able to put them on the cupcakes without any special tips.

Sadie working with some green icing for an ant cupcake

We colored some icing and coconut with green food coloring to create ‘lettuce’ and ‘grass’ and we piped black/brown icing for the ant’s legs and antennas using a sandwich bag with a small hole snipped into the corner.

Nicholas putting on chocolate covered almonds to make an ant.

Since we were making more than 40 decorated cupcakes, Sadie was happy to let the other children help out.

Amber helping Colby put some sesame seeds on top of a hamburger cupcake.

I love tackling fun projects that the kids are able to participate in and these cupcakes certainly fall into that category. After the bigger kids cut the cupcakes for the ‘hamburgers’, the younger children were able to finish the hamburger on their own.

Colby with one of his 'hamburgers'.

With the ants, some of them required help with getting on the green frosting, but were able to add the ‘grass’ and ‘ant’ themselves.

Hamburger cupcakes

Liz has a helpful video tutorial on her site for complete step-by-step directions and a listing of all the tools/ingredients needed.

Sadie with some of her creations.

For more kid friendly projects, check out these monogrammed, burlap pillows, domino Christmas ornaments or play silks.

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Cooking for a Crowd: 4 Moms, 35 Kids

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 12:00:00 +0000

As I was considering the topic of cooking for a crowd I realized that some would consider our normal dinner preparation as cooking for a crowd. I generally think of groups larger than our regular 12 when I think of a crowd, but certainly when we have company it would qualify as a “crowd”. So for this post I’ll share a recipe for an inexpensive family favorite, some tips for planning a menu for company a crowd and two of our favorite ‘company’ recipes.

Be sure to see what the other moms of many are cooking up. Oh and don’t forget that you can add your own favorite ‘cooking for a crowd’ recipe at the bottom of this post and check out many others!

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

Lentil Chili

This recipe is one of our family favorites. It fits nicely into our budget and I can make our money go farther if I use all lentils instead of the beef. Our whole family LOVES lentil chili so I have to make a HUGE batch to satisfy everyone. I can also make it stretch by serving it over rice, especially nice if we have company drop by unexpectedly.

Ingredients:

1 onion, chopped
1 tsp. cumin
10 c. water
1 lb. dry lentils
2 tsp. salt
2 c. salsa
29 oz. canned tomatoes, crushed
1 lb. ground beef
1 tsp. chili powder

Brown ground beef with the onion, drain. Add lentils and water. Simmer 1 1/2 hours. Add remaining ingredients and simmer for 15 minutes.

Variations: Omit meat and double the amount of lentils for a vegetarian dish. Serve over rice. Top with cheese and/or sour cream.

I double or triple this recipe to feed our family of 12.

♦

Menu planning for company

Here are some things that I’ve learned to make hospitality easier and more relaxing for us and hopefully more enjoyable for our guests. A side benefit is that we can easily have company 3 times a week (when I’m not pregnant) and not feel too overwhelmed or disrupt our regular schedule.

I have a much looser food budget when we have company so that we can have nicer meals with easier preparation.
I keep my recipe choices more traditional. (There are a lot of picky eaters in this world.) I almost always serve a meat or pasta dish rather than beans and rice, fish or more ethnic choices.
I choose recipes that I can prepare ahead of time and keep warm (or cook) in the crock pot. This allows for the preparation to be done when it’s most convenient for me and the kitchen mess can be cleaned up well before company arrives. When guests arrive we simply sit down and eat. Dinner is warm (and not burned) when we’re ready to eat whether our guests are early or late.
I like to have several sides available. I generally serve two vegetables with an everyday dinner, but with company I will add one extra side. This helps make the main dish go farther, ensures that everyone finds at least one vegetable that they like and no one leaves the table hungry.
I like to always have homemade bread available. It’s another great filler.

Of course hospitality is much broader than having another family over for a sit-down dinner, but that is a whole different post.

♦

Here are some of our favorite company recipes:

Cranberry Pork Roast

This is a nice traditional meat and potatoes meal with a unique twist of cranberry, so that your company has probably never had it before, unless they’ve been in our home.

Ingredients:

4-5 lb. boneless pork loin
16 oz. jellied cranberry sauce
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. cranberry juice
1 tsp. dried mustard
1/4 tsp. ground cloves

Put the pork loin into the crock pot. Combine remaining ingredients and pour over roast. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours.

Use the juices from the roast to make an AMAZING gravy. We always serve this with mashed potatoes because it would be a shame to waste this gravy.

This recipe will feed 15-20.

Ground Beef Stroganoff

A less expensive dinner option for a larger crowd. I am particular to recipes that are served over pasta and/or rice when having company because it’s very easy to stretch to feed more people if your husband invites another family or two over at the last minute. When that happens I just make more pasta and/or rice and heap the plates high.

Ingredients:

2 lb ground beef
2 med. onions, chopped
1/4 c. flour
1 tsp. garlic salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
2 lb. fresh mushrooms, sliced (you may do more or less)
2 T. butter, melted
2- 10 3/4 can cream of mushroom soup (substitute ‘from scratch’ varieties)
16 oz. sour cream

Brown ground beef, drain. Add onion and cook until onion is tender. Add mushrooms and butter, cook until mushrooms are tender. Stir in flour, garlic salt and pepper until mixed. Mix in soup and place in crock pot. Cook on low until a half hour before eating, then stir in sour cream. (Everything is cooked when you add it to the crock pot, so there is no need to leave it in the crock pot all day.)

Now it’s your turn, what are your favorite ‘feed a crowd’ recipes? Link them up here and your link will show up on all four of the 4 Moms blogs.

Please enter your recipe name in addition to the name of your blog, so that people can find the recipes they are most interested in. Remember to link to the specific post with your recipe and please, provide a link back here so your readers can share in the fun! (links that don’t follow these guidelines will be removed)

1. Smockity Frocks
2. Raising Olives – Lentil Chili – Cranberry Roast – Stroganoff
3. Raising Arrows {Lunch for a Bunch}
4. Phoebe @ GettingFreedom(Baked Beans for a Crowd))
5. Amy @ Finer Things (Cavatini and more)
6. Anita (cooking for a crowd or the freezer)
7. DHM, cooking for a crowd
8. Cyndi L. (Inside out turkey cheese burgers)
9. KimC (pudding, bread, enchilada sauce)
10. Cooking for the multitudes (Balancing Beauty/Bedlam)

11. Linda @ Gluten-Free Homemaker (Mexican Lasagna)
12. Plymouth Rock Ranch (Whole Wheat Pumpkin Spice Waffles)
13. Betty-
14. Alicia’s Homemaking–Bean and Sausage Stew
15. Milehimama (Tips to stretch food and Swiss Steak)
16. HoosierHomemade{Homemade Meatballs}
17. Girls and sunflowers (dressing for the masses!)
18. Gwen T
19. Raising a Quiverfull (Shredded pork tacos)
20. Empty the Pantry Casserole

21. Big pot of yummy Lentil Stew @ Every Precious Joy
22. Vickie (Crock Pot Burritos & Lasagna
23. Amber (Plaza III Soup, Potato-Cheese Soup)
24. Dewey’s Treehouse (White Vegetable Lasagna)
25. NerdFamily Food (Chicken, Spinach and Corn Enchiladas)
26. Angela @ Blissfully Single
27. Mrs. Hearts
28. HoosierHomemade{Make-Ahead Meals}
29. Kitchen Stewardship – 4 kinds of Pasta Salad for a Crowd
30. Olivia@Of Such is the Kingdom (Pasta Salad)

You may be interested in the other 4 Moms cooking posts; cooking from scratch, menu planning or feeding your family on a budget.

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Homemade Cottage Cheese Recipe

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 02:28:44 +0000

Last week when I posted about ‘from scratch’ cooking and a few of you asked for my recipe for making cottage cheese. This recipe comes from way back in our ‘poor’ days when a recipe that called for cottage cheese was ‘too expensive’. Back then we made our own yogurt, cottage cheese, etc. from powdered milk. (We also used wheat gluten as a meat substitute and saved the left over wheat bran for use in muffins.) We don’t do quite that much ‘from scratch’ cooking anymore, but this cottage cheese recipe may be a good one to pull out again and reconsider.

Cottage Cheese Recipe

Ingredients:

1 rennet tablet – dissolve in small amount of warm water
1 gallon milk (we used reconstituted powdered milk, but you may use any milk you prefer)
1 pint buttermilk or yogurt (link to my recipes for homemade buttermilk and yogurt)

In a large pot heat milk to 90 degrees F. Stir in buttermilk or yogurt and then add the dissolved rennet tablet. Cover pot and leave overnight in a warm place.

The next day your “cottage cheese” will be a nearly solid mass, like firm yogurt. This is the curd. Using a knife cut through this to break into small pieces. Set the bowl with the curd into a pan of warm water and heat. Shake the pan gently to heat evenly.

When the curd has reached 110 degrees F turn off the heat leaving everything for 30 minutes. Next pour the cheese into several layers of cheese cloth to drain.

After the curds have drained the cottage cheese may be used in recipes. If you prefer to eat it plain, you will want to add a little sour cream or moisten it with some yogurt. You may also want to add salt to taste.

You may also be interested in tips and ideas about feeding your family on a budget, menu planning, cooking from scratch or my recipe page. For homeschool help and ideas about teaching multiple levels visit my homeschool page.

This post is linked to Works for Me Wednesday

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Cooking from Scratch: 4 Moms, 35 Kids

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 11:58:20 +0000

This week the 4 Moms are talking about cooking from scratch, what we make and how we fit it into our busy days. Visit Life in a Shoe, Smockity Frocks and The Common Room to get their perspectives.

This is a huge topic, so I’ve chosen to focus on how we keep up with making staple items from scratch. The short answer to that is that we don’t, but we’re working on it. Thank you to those who pitched in yesterday with ideas on how to get it all done.

Three ways to schedule ‘from scratch’ cooking

Have a scheduled day to make each item

Anita and Dawna both have a certain day that they make certain things, bread on Monday, yogurt and buttermilk on Tuesday, etc. You simply determine how much of a certain item that you will need for the week and make your batches accordingly.

Pros:

it gets done regularly
it will fit into a regular day without special scheduling
you know what needs to be done and when it will happen
if you’re having muffins for breakfast anyway, there is very little extra effort to make a double ( or triple) batch

Cons:

you have to clean up a mess each day that you have scheduled to make something (granola is the worst)
if you get off schedule or skip a day … (I know YOU wouldn’t do that, but me? )

Set aside a full day to do all of your ‘from scratch’ cooking

Abba12 and Elizabeth both suggest setting aside one day to get it all done. Abba12 does this shortly after her bi-monthly shopping trip and Elizabeth has all of the children pitch in.

Pros:

everyone working together
if you did it after your shopping day you could do other prep work like chopping raw veggies for snacks, preparing and freezing things that you bought in bulk or found for a good price (thanks Abba12)
doing it just after shopping means that you will probably have all of the ingredients that you need
only one huge mess to clean up

Cons:

a whole day in the kitchen (or a half day in the kitchen)
if you have a large family you would probably have to do this every week, right?

Make it as you go

This is what I did when we had all young children. (Now, I’ve always had a regular schedule for making bread. It used to be a large batch once a week, now it’s a large batch three times a week.) I simply looked at my menu plan for the week and decided planned from there when I would make cottage cheese for the lasagna or tortillas for the enchiladas. If possible I simply got into the kitchen each morning and made all of the ‘from scratch’ staples that I would need for dinner that night. This is not the most efficient system, but it worked for me when I didn’t have time to think of something better.

Pros:

Simple to implement
you have what you need, when you need it
if you’re making just what you’re going to need that week you have no waste
no extra storage space required

Cons:

not very efficient
if you misjudge on time or something comes up you’re stuck trying to figure out a substitute or eating LATE

More tips for ‘from scratch’ cooking

Invest in “kitchen servants”, a wheat grinder, high quality mixer and crock pot among others. A Bosch Universal Plus Mixer is a wonderful investment, we can mix 5 loaves of whole wheat bread at one time and our children are able to begin bread making when they are around 9 years old. (It does a lot more than bread) (Thanks Tristan and Annie)

Use a checklist to keep track of what needs to be made. I can see combining this with having a day (or two) set aside each week for some extra kitchen work. You could check your list and see what needs to be done and then on the assigned day or two, you would tackle the necessary tasks. (Thanks Meagan)

Make like things and do similar tasks at the same time. Make loaves of bread, pizza crusts, sweet rolls, etc. all at the same time. Make granola bars while your working on granola. When you are browning ground beef fore dinner, brown extra to put in the freezer or use in another meal.

Have your big kids help. I love the idea of giving my kids ownership of a specific food item. Our 9 year old always gets to take over the bread making for the family (no small responsibility with how much bread we eat). My plan is to allow our 6 year old to begin making all of our salad dressings. (have any recipes that are quick, easy, healthy and yummy that you’d like to share?) Oh Emily, your ‘big kids’ magically appear after you’ve put in your allotted time with those little ones. It’ll happen sooner than you think, so enjoy, enjoy, enjoy.

Schedule extra time for dinner preparation. When all of our children were little I simply got into the kitchen fairly early each evening to prepare dinner. This allowed me to have additional time to make biscuits, cornbread, cottage cheese or other ‘from scratch’ items that I would need for dinner that evening.

Do what you can, then move on and let go of the rest. We can’t do it all, all the time. So make a plan and when the kids get sick or you’re in the first trimester of a pregnancy, let it go. Feeding your kids store bought bread or hamburger helper doesn’t mean you’re a failure. If it is the best way for you to spend time investing in them, then it’s one of the best investments you can make. (Thanks Emily)

Veronica’s Authentic Tortillas

Anyway, all this to say, with the recipe I use (from generations of tortilla makers), I successfully substitute 1/2 of the white flour with ww flour and they still come out beautifully.

2c. flour (can substitute 1c. ww)
1tsp. salt
1tsp. baking powder
1Tbsp vegetable shortening
water

Mix flour, salt, and baking powder. Add shortening and mix with hand forming little “peas”. Add water slowly until it forms a soft dough. Pinch off 12 balls and roll on a floured surface. Heat on cast iron griddle.

What is important, that I don’t think most people realize, is what you do with the tortilla after it comes off the griddle. You immediately put it in a kitchen towel wrapped up. Once the next one is done, put it in with the first one, and wrap it up again. Continue in this manner with the rest of the tortillas. The kitchen towel keeps the tortillas warm and the just the right amount of heat and moisture stays in to make the tortillas oh so soft, flexible, and utterly delightful.

Thank you Veronica! More recipes on my recipe page.

Be sure to check out Life in a Shoe, Smockity Frocks and The Common Room to see how other moms of many take on cooking from scratch.

More 4 Moms, 35 Kids: How Moms of Many Manage posts.

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Menu Planning: 4 Moms, 35 Kids

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 11:17:28 +0000

**Since we began cooking for our freezer, I do not menu plan like this anymore. Now I simply send one of the children down to the freezer to pull something out and I stock up on vegetables and salad stuff when I go shopping. We always have rice, potatoes and homemade bread (well, unless someone forgets to make it) on hand.**

This week “4 Moms, 35 Kids: How Moms of Many Manage” are talking all about menu planning and shopping. Hop over to see what The Deputy Headmistress, KimC and Connie have to say about this topic.

I hate dread don’t like prefer to avoid menu planning so I try to do it as little as possible. I also do not have the creative ability to look in my freezer or pantry and figure out what I can make from those ingredients, hubby can, I can’t. This means that I must create menu plans, but I create reusable menu plans.

I plan one week of dinners at a time and I plan not only the main dish but also plan side dishes and desserts . After I decide the on a menu I make a shopping list that consists of EVERY item that I will need to make everything on the plan. Both the menu and the shopping list are treated like solid gold carefully filed and added to my selection of week long menu plans.

Here are some of the ways that I make a dinner plan that will last:

I make sure that I have some meals that are quick and easy to fix, one that is a little nicer and may require additional preparation and at least one that can be prepared in the morning and put in the crock pot.
I include at least one company meal in each plan. (Unless I’m in the first trimester of a pregnancy. Mark’s rule is NO COMPANY during the first trimester.)
I include a variety of meals. We eat beef, chicken, vegetarian and fish each week.
I make sure the plan fits in our food budget.
I don’t put meals that are very hard to prepare on the menu plan.
I do not include breakfast or lunch. (I plan those meals separately.)
I do not put new recipes into a menu plan. Only tried and true recipes make the cut.
I only plan 5 meals a week . This allows for flexibility and the opportunity to try new recipes.
I do not plan which day we will eat which meal. Again, this allows for more flexibility and makes it easier for me to stick with the plan. (“We were at the park all day so I can pick one of the quick, easy meals” or “I feel like cooking and want to make something nice”)
I like to double one of the recipes to use either as leftovers or to freeze. (It’s important to remember this when you are making your shopping list for the plan.)

At the beginning of each week I simply select which menu plan I want to use and post it on the kitchen wall. Then I look over the shopping list that matches that plan and cross out the items that we already have. If we’re trying new recipes or have additional company I add those things to my list and then we head to the store. Each morning (or afternoon) we look at the plan and decide what we want to fix or have for dinner. It’s as simple as that.

Well, it’s as simple as that when I actually pick out a plan and go shopping. It should be very simple except that since I also hate dread don’t like prefer to avoid shopping, I am very good at procrastinating and my family has been known to live on the contents of our pantry/fridge for a week or more past “shopping day” Does anyone else do this?

Here are some simple tips for getting ideas for recipes:

Keeping a list of your favorite recipes. Each time you have something that you really like write down the name of the recipe along with where to find it. When it’s time to make a plan pull out your list of favorite recipes and let everyone pick their favorites.
One of my other secrets is Menus 4 Mom. These free plans include all of the recipes as well as a shopping list, no menu planning for me involved. From, egg drop soup with stir fry to Blue Cheese Stuffed Pork Chops we enjoy having a ‘Menus 4 Mom week’ and usually find a new recipe or three to add to our arsenal. (If you read my post last week about food budgets, Menus 4 Mom doesn’t fit into our food budget, so we make sure to plan ahead and pinch some extra pennies.)
Every so often have a week where you try a new recipe every single evening. This can be fun and gives you the opportunity to find new favorites

I shared more menu planning tips when I posted our menu plan for breakfast, lunch and snacks. Also make sure to check out the other 4 Moms and their menu planning and shopping tips.

The Common Room
Life in a Shoe
Smockity Frocks

So does anyone enjoy menu planning? Do you love looking over recipes and writing out shopping lists? I love cleaning, I wonder if the love of menu planning and the love of cleaning are mutually exclusive? Anyone like both? Just wondering…

Topics that the 4 Moms have already talked about:

The Schedule – What we aim for day by day
The Reality: A Live Blogging Adventure – We live blog through the day so you can see what really happens. Warning this post includes purple laundry, fighting and the use of sticks.
Going Out with Lots of Littles
Feeding Your Family on a Budget

Mark your calendars, these are the topics that are coming up:

April 15 – Cooking from scratch – what we make from scratch and how we fit it into our day.
April 22 – Favorite recipes – We’ll post some of our favorite “feed a crowd” recipes and give you an opportunity to share yours. You may enter your link into any one of the 4 Mom’s blogs and your link will show up on all four sites. Fun, right?

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Feeding Your Family on a Budget: 4 Moms, 35 Kids

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 11:24:31 +0000

Before we begin talking about food budgets and kitchen stuff let me give you my caveat, this is not my strong point. Want to get ideas about scheduling, planning, cleaning, organizing, homeschooling? No problem. Want to talk about feeding your family? Not so much.

That said, we feed our family for less than half of the average per person cost. My husband loves meat, our kids are big eaters and we eat healthy.

There are also 3 other moms who are going to be tackling the topic of budgeting to feed a crowd, so be sure to see what they have to say.Connie at Smockity Frocks
The Deputy Headmistress at The Common Room
KimC at Life in a Shoe

From what I researched the average household spends $150-$200 on food per person per month. Our grocery budget (which includes personal care products, cleaning supplies and paper products) is $800-$900 per month. That’s $75 for food per person per month. (Well, it would be $75 if we were eating the shampoo and toilet paper, we don’t so it’s actually less than that.)

Feeding your family on a budget is all about balance, the balance between time, health and money. Each of us are going to have different priorities and different tolerances for what we consider “healthy” and what we consider “expensive”. Sometimes healthy choices will save you money and sometimes they will cost you money, they’ll almost always cost you time. It’s just a matter of balance.

Here are some tips that our family has learned that can keep our expenses down.

Have a food budget and know what it is.

If you don’t have a food budget or at least a number to shoot for, it’s pretty hard to plan to hit it. My hubby is the budget guru in our family and so I know exactly what I am able to spend. Our food budget also includes personal care products, cleaning supplies and paper products (more about saving on these items later) so I usually take a certain amount out for those things. For menu planning purposes I figure out how much we have to spend per meal.

Have a menu plan.

I have a menu plan for breakfasts and lunches that we only change occasionally. We currently bulk cook freezer meals for dinners, but before that I planned out several weeks of dinners using the same planning methods that I use for my breakfast and lunch plan. (See above link for my “secrets” to menu planning. ) As you plan your menus keep your budget in mind. I like planning some meals that cost less, so that we can splurge and have more expensive meals at other times.

Have an extra freezer.

This enables us to stock up when something is on sale and to do a lot of freezer cooking. You can purchase a used freezer very inexpensively and we’ve found that it has more than paid for itself.

Buy in bulk.

I suggest looking for a food buying co-op in your area. If there isn’t one already, it may be worth your while to start one. Our co-op enables us to buy basic staples such as wheat, oats, rice, beans, honey, etc. at prices much lower than we would spend at the grocery or health food store.

We purchase our beef directly from the farmer and then pay the butchering fees. We work together with other families so that we don’t have to buy a whole cow at a time, but are able to buy a quarter or half.

Cook from scratch.

Bread, bagels, granola bars, tortillas, granola, yogurt, buttermilk, kefir, desserts and sometimes even pasta are supposed to be made from scratch. Doesn’t always happen, but that is the plan and it saves us a lot of money. Usually if we’re not making it from scratch we simply go without. That is good motivation to get cooking again.

Shop at discount groceries.

This is not something that we do much anymore, but before we made all of our own bread, we would shop at the day-old bread store. I’ve also found great deals at salvage and other discount grocery stores.

Shop at produce stands.

In my effort to balance health and budget I set aside a specific amount of our food budget to spend only on fresh fruits and veggies. I find that I can cut my produce costs by about 20% by shopping at local, side-of-the road produce stands.

Avoid fast food by keeping some quick meal options in the pantry.

My standard for “instant” meals is not as high as for regularly planned meals. I don’t mind spending a bit more per meal and they don’t have to be quite as healthy.

Some of our “instant” meals:

Pasta and canned spaghetti sauce for a quick spaghetti dinner.
Saffron rice and canned black beans for beans and rice.
Canned chicken and/or refried beans, cheese, salsa and tortillas for burritos or chicken quesadillas

Snack healthy.

This is one of those things that short term can seem more expensive (fresh fruit and nuts are more expensive than Little Debbie’s and chips), but long term yields healthier kids, fuller bellies and less cravings.

Skip dessert.

We have dessert every Sunday and whenever we have company. Outside of that we skip the sweets.

Drink water.

Um, self-explanatory. We serve milk or juice each morning for breakfast, but other than that it’s all water.

Don’t forget to plan for hospitality.

Our food budget is tight. However, we believe that we should practice Christian hospitality. The way that we reconcile these two concepts is that our “hospitality” does not come out of our food budget. This enables me to plan much “nicer” meals for company and to not cringe at the thought of feeding a large crowd.

Use re-usable.

I mentioned earlier that paper products and cleaning supplies come out of our food budget. With 12 people these things can add up very quickly. (Seriously, we recently won a month’s supply of toilet paper. When the children opened the package they all exclaimed at one time, “That won’t last us for a month!!”) To cut down on these expense we don’t buy a lot of disposable items.

We generally use cloth napkins (click link to see how this helps with dinner time spills and I avoid spending all day washing napkins), old cloths rather than paper towels, cloth diapers and wipes.

We do on the other hand purchase toilet paper, lot’s of it. Here’s a tip I read recently, before you place the toilet paper on the roll, smash it so that you bend and flatten the cardboard tube. This helps cut down on toilet paper waste. We’ve noticed a big difference!

Make your own cleaning supplies.

We make our own laundry soap and disinfectant cleaners. We are talking serious savings on this one. We do buy some cleaners for heavy duty cleaning, but our day to day cleaning is done with homemade, non-toxic cleaners.

For more grocery budgeting tips check out these other posts:

Connie at Smockity Frocks
The Deputy Headmistress at The Common Room
KimC at Life in a Shoe

What tips for saving money on your grocery budget have I missed? Do you use coupons? If you do, do you really save money on the basics? Should I reconsider my “no coupon” policy?

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Crocheted Baby Hat with Flower Pattern

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 13:47:31 +0000

I’ve been inspired to get out the crochet hooks and make some baby hats for some friend’s children. (I enjoy both knitting and crocheting because there’s very little mess or space required.) Here is one that I made for Connie’s baby girl who is due in a few months. (Did you know that Connie and I got to meet back in February?)I used this free basic pattern and added a scalloped edge and the flower.

Here are my pattern alterations:

Crochet rounds 1-10 as directed in the pattern.
Round 11: Ch 2, *dc in next 12 sts, 2 dc in next st, repeat from * twice, dc in each stitch to the end. Join. (43 dc)
Round 12: Ch1, sc in same st, * skip 2 sts, 5 dc in next st, skip next 2 sts, sc in next st, repeat from * around. Join.
Finish off.

For flower: Worsted weight yarn and size H crochet hook.

Round 1: With center color ch 3 and join with a sl st to form a loop. Make 12 sc in loop. Finish off leaving a long tail to sew onto hat if desired.
Round 2: Switch to petal color, join to center with a sl st, * ch 15, sl st in same st, sl st in next st and and repeat from * around. Join. Finish off.

Sew flower to hat.

For more fun and versatility sew or glue flower to an alligator clip and make a couple hats in different colors and flowers in different colors and mix and match. (So happy that we’re having a girl this time, so we can make all sorts of fun girl stuff for her.)

If you enjoy fiber arts and aren’t a member of Ravelry yet, you should be. It’s free and is a wonderful resource for patterns (many free), yarn information and just general inspiration and information for knitters and crocheters. Be sure to look me up over there, I’m Raising Olives of course.

Problems with my directions? Please let me know, I’m fairly new at writing out directions, but have lots of plans.

Do you enjoy my knitting/crocheting posts/patterns or is it something you’re not interested in? I’m wondering if I should post more posts like this or if I’m boring you. Is anyone there??

This post is linked to Tutorial Tuesday.

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Our Schedule: 4 Moms, 35 Kids

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 13:45:45 +0000

This week 4 Moms will be talking about scheduling. Be sure to visit the other 3 Moms to hear different perspectives and ideas and don’t miss next week when we all live blog how a day REALLY goes with real time updates.

Life in a Shoe
The Common Room
Smockity Frocks(4 Moms live blogging day)

I’m a schedule person. I’m also a “drop the silly schedule, spur of the moment” person. I like to have a plan and know what to expect, yet I like to have the flexibility to follow an interest or a whim when it suits. So while we have a pretty specific schedule, we use it as a tool to know what needs to be done and to have a plan to fit it in rather than a master that runs our day.

We’ve found that having a schedule in place gives us something to shoot for even though we rarely (if ever) follow all of it. We get much more done when we have a plan rather than when we don’t.

I was introduced to this type of scheduling just after our fourth child was born. Our children were 3, 2, 1 and newborn and I thought that my days of taking a shower were over when one of my friends recommended the book Managers of Their Homes .

The book changed our home. I went from not having the time to take a shower to being able to have quiet time with God, occasional company for dinner and time each day to rest, knit or crochet.

Did we stick to our schedule? Rarely. However, it provided a plan.

Below is very close to that first schedule that we used. Amber was 3, Kaitlin was 2, Matthew was 14 months, Alyssa was an infant, Mommy was 20 something. (Alyssa usually woke up to nurse at 5:30.)When each child had their turn “babysitting” Alyssa I was always close by and Alyssa was strapped into her car seat or swing. The children simply showed her toys, talked with her or danced in front of her. They loved having the opportunity to help with the new baby and Alyssa was safe.

Our basic schedule (above) that was put in place over 9 years ago can still be clearly seen in our current, much more complex schedule. We’ve added 5 children, accomplish a lot more each day and specifics have changed, but the basic structure has remained.

Do we stick with it? Rarely. It does still give us a plan.

Amber – 13, Kaitlin – 12, Matthew – 10, Alyssa – 9, Carter – 8, Sadie – 6, Savannah – 5, Colby – 3, Nick – 1, Mommy – 30 something. (Mark is currently not working on the catechism at 6:00 with the younger children because of the 90 Day Challenge. Catechism work will resume at the end of this month.)

Having a specific schedule helps the house to continue to run even when mom doesn’t (like during the first trimester of a pregnancy).

I sometimes think that I may be expendable since so much is done by the children. My role has certainly shifted from the person who did EVERYTHING for EVERYONE to the person who makes sure everything gets done. It’s not that I have less responsibility, it’s just that I’m much more of a manager now.

One other thing that I’d like to point out about our schedule. I am naturally a morning person, it’s just the way God made me. When I wake up, I’m HAPPY and ready to start a fresh new day. On the other hand I’m not that fun at night. Our schedule reflects that aspect of my personality, your schedule should reflect your personality.

I’ve posted a lot about scheduling:

How we create our schedule.
Tips for making a workable schedule.
Our chore list .
Our specific school schedule.

Also visit the other moms of many to read about their scheduling thoughts and ideas:

The Common Room
Smockity Frocks
Life in a Shoe

Do you use a schedule or are you more comfortable without having that structure? Do you think it depends on personality or do you think a basic plan will benefit everyone?

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Freezer Cooking with a Group: OAMC

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 12:12:54 +0000

Our family works together with 4 other families to freezer cook every two months. This allows us to purchase in bulk and save a lot of money. (We average $5-6 per meal and each meal serves 8-12 people. That is not including side dishes.) A number of you have expressed an interest in knowing more and even in starting your own group.

In our group we have 3 families that cook every time and we fill in the remaining 2 spots when it is time to schedule a cook day. Some things to keep in mind as you consider what families you would like to cook with:

Similar tastes in food (spicy or not spicy, etc.)
No picky eaters
Limited to no diet restrictions or similar diet restrictions
Must show initiative and be willing to pitch in and work hard
Similar family size – not necessary, but something to consider

Read about what happened the first time I cooked with this group and you may be amazed that they ever invited me back.

Select recipes.

The planning starts with choosing recipes. With a little thought most recipes can be adapted to bulk freezer cooking. We pick 20 recipes to make each cook day and we plan on at least 2 meals per family from each recipe.

We have our recipes divided by type, chicken, beef, pork (or other type of meat) and vegetarian and we choose several recipes from each category for a good variety of recipes.

Adjust amounts and make a shopping list.

For our group (2 families with 8 people, our family of 12 and the two additional families which vary in size) we adjust each recipe so that it serves 8 people and we call that a “single” recipe. We multiply this “single” recipe by 10 (five families and each family gets two meals) and that gives us the amount of ingredients that we need to purchase for that recipe.

We have a computer program that does the math and combines the ingredients from all of the recipes to make a simple shopping list for us.

With our recipes and shopping list we check out the sales and plan where to shop for which ingredients.

Shop for groceries.

Wednesday before our cook day two moms go shopping (usually accompanied by a LARGE number of children). Shopping on Wednesday gives everyone enough time to complete their prep work.

By purchasing in bulk we are able to get discounts that aren’t available to those who are shopping for more typical amounts. For example at Sam’s we are given a discount for purchasing meat by the case. We usually shop at 4 or 5 different stores (Sam’s, WalMart, Dollar General, a fresh produce market and Kroger) purchasing what is least expensive at each place.

Wednesday afternoon we sort the groceries and make sure that each family gets what they need to complete their prep. Sending most of the meat to different homes to be prepped has the added benefit of ensuring that there is enough refrigerator space for everything.

Prep work

Each family has some preparation work to complete before cook day. Here are the tasks that we complete before we gather on Saturday morning for cook day.

Chicken is cooked and shredded and broth is reserved
Beef is browned and drained
All vegetables are chopped, peeled, sliced, diced, etc.
All cheese is grated
All other meat is chopped, weighed/divided (like for roasts), sliced, etc.
All dry beans are cooked and re-fried beans are made

These tasks are divided between each family. Usually one family is given chicken, another beef and a third gets all the vegetable prep with perhaps the raw meat duty. It simply depends on the recipes that are chosen and how much prep work there is.

One of the important parts of prep work is accurately packaging and labeling the food that you’ve prepared, so that there is no confusion on cook day. As I chop the onions, I package and label them according to the recipes that they are going to be used in. I chop eight onions, put them into a Ziploc bag and label them with the recipe name. Then I chop four onions, put them into a separate bag and label them with the recipe name. For chicken or beef where we will be using large quantities we will label the bags something like this, Green Chili Enchiladas 1 of 3, etc.

I can’t emphasize how helpful careful and proper labeling during prep is for a smooth cook day. When cook day rolls around no one wants to have to try to measure or figure out what prepared ingredients go to which recipe. It need to be evident to whoever picks up that bag of onions what it is for and which recipe it goes with.

Prepare for the big day

In addition to this prep work there are some things that can be done the evening before cook day that will make the day go much more smoothly.

Set up a central location for all the spices and condiments that will be used in multiple recipes. (Salt, pepper, soy sauce, flour, etc.)
Designate an area that will be used for preparing raw meat, at least during the first part of the day.
Look through the recipes and decide how each one will be prepared and divided. (Things that need to be cooked in the oven will need to be started first, recipes that require time on the stove top will need to be staggered so that you don’t run out of room and some recipes can simply be dumped into each family’s container since the ingredients just need to be combined, etc.)
Gather a lot of large containers and pots to mix things in. We are able to borrow some from one of our churches, so this may be an option for you. Think outside of the box here, you can use a clean trash can or other large plastic bucket that you normally wouldn’t think to use in the kitchen. (You may be mixing things in HUGE quantities.)
Sort through all the remaining groceries and divide them by the recipe that they go into. We put these ingredients into plastic shopping bags and label them with the recipe name. This will include all the canned goods and other ingredients that are specific to only that recipe and that do not need to be refrigerated.

Cook day

We begin at 6 on Saturday morning and are generally finished between 12 and 2 that afternoon. Each family is responsible to bring containers to take home all the food that they will be preparing, their prep work, cooler, laundry basket and a snack if they’d like.

The laundry baskets are labeled with the family name and all that family’s containers are put into them, so that when someone is finished with a recipe they are able to quickly gather and packed it into containers for each family.

Most of us use gallon sized Ziploc bags to store our meals in. If you choose to do this it is VERY useful to have some empty containers to put the bags into that keep them upright and open while you are filling them.

Each person gets a recipe and begins to prepare it. As a recipe is finished it is labeled (recipe name and family name) and packaged into the containers brought by that family and placed in coolers to await transport home.

I posted pictures and more information about how a cook day is organized in Bulk Cooking in Pictures.

I’m also in the process of posting some of the recipes that we use. So far I have a group of Beef Recipes posted.

Overwhelmed and ready for a laugh? Read about all the things that happened the first time I cooked with these ladies.

This is a huge undertaking and I’m not sure I’ve done an adequate job explaining it, so please feel free to ask questions about anything that I missed, that is unclear or that you simply don’t understand.

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Yo-Yo Curtains: Tutorial

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 02:29:39 +0000

Thank you to Heather for being willing to guest post for me today. Heather has a degree in home economics and now homeschools her four children. She blogs at Kingdom Arrows and also has the distinct privilege of being one of my real life friends.

Bet you thought I was going to talk about circles and strings- well, I am, but of a different sort! My 12 year old daughter wanted a new window treatment for her room. But, I made 2 stipulations, it had to be cheap and she had to be able to do it on her own. She is not a big machine sewer, so together, we came up with this idea.

Materials Required:

Curtain rod (one you have laying around)
1.5 yd of ribbon to wrap the curtain rod
Ribbon to hang down
Material, maybe 1/8 of a yard of however many colors you want
Clover Brand Yo-Yo Maker- they come in different shapes and sizes, we used the extra large. This makes yo-yo making VERY EASY. My 6 year old can do them. There are instructions on-line for using it.

Wrap curtain rod with ribbon, hot glue. We then made little bows and hot glued them to the corners.
Tie other ribbon in a knot at the top, making it as long as you want it.
Hot glue as many yo-yo’s on as you want.
Take pictures

Skill level: easy

Cost: could be free, if you own extra ribbon and material. The yo-yo maker costs around $8.00, but watch for those 40% off coupons to your craft store. I have tried to make yo-yos without the maker and this is not a pretty picture.

Time: for the adult about 10 minutes to hot glue everything. For the child making the yo-yos, about 10 min/ yo-yo.

I have a lot more Works for Me Wednesday posts or you can head over to We Are THAT Family for more ideas from a lot more people.

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Keeping Kids Rooms Tidy

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 04:18:34 +0000

Every morning before breakfast our kids are supposed clean their bedrooms. Currently the 5 girls are in one bedroom and the four boys are in another bedroom, so both bedrooms have the potential for a huge mess and lots of squabbles. We’ve found a great solution for both of these potentials.

Our secret for having nice, neat bedrooms before breakfast each morning is our competition system. I check each bedroom before we sit down to eat. The room that is the cleanest gets bragging rights and a “trophy” to display in their room for the day. (This can be something as simple as a “Cleanest room” sign to hang on the door.) We use a plant.

There is also the possibility that both rooms are lovely. In that case we declare a tie and the trophy/plant is displayed in the living area of our house where we all get to enjoy it.

At the end of the week the room with the most “wins” gets to choose our family fun night activity.

Here is the BEST part of our system. If the rooms end the week in a tie, our whole family celebrates with something special for family fun night. Either a special treat like ice cream or a new game, just something extra fun for our family time to celebrate that everyone did a great job keeping their rooms tidy during the week.

This system has not only helped the bedrooms to stay nicer, it has also helped the children work together toward a common goal. It’s not unusual for the girls to go help the boys finish tidying their bedroom or vice versa so that they can tie for the day.

3 lb round steak
1 leaf bay leaf
1 tsp salt
0.125 tsp c.red pepper
1 pep green pepper
1 onion fresh onion
0.75 tsp curry
0.25 tsp pepper
1 cup water

Before cook day prep:

Chop onion

Cook day:

Place meat in bag and dump all spices on top

Eat day:

Thaw. Cook in crockpot on low for 6-8 hours. Serve over rice.

More recipes to come.

So how many of you once a month cook or do some variation on that idea?

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What Do You Do When You’re Overwhelmed?

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:30:52 +0000

Amy says you should Be a Quitter.

This is what our family does when we’re expecting a baby: no company, no extra activities, no deep cleaning, no fancy meals (unless we can pull them out of the freezer ) and lots less blogging. We do keep up with laundry, do basic chores and spend lots of time together as a family, resting, snuggling, praying, and reading.

Sorry for the dearth of quality posts recently. Please don’t give up on me, I usually feel marvelous about half way through a pregnancy and I still have lots to say. In the meantime head over to Raising Arrows and read Amy’s great post about being a quitter.

Oh and before you go, leave a comment to say “hi” to let me know you’re still here. Also, tell me if you are interested in reading our birth stories. I’m trying to get motivated to write those out…

You can help benefit The Children’s Hospital and be entered to win a fun blogging T-shirt by starting or replying to a discussion in the Olive Community. Head over and take part in the conversation about large families, teaching reading, homeschooling and celebrating the season or start your own topic.

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Monogrammed Burlap Pillows: Kids Can Make This

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 13:29:50 +0000

Here is another gift that our younger children (1, 3, 4, 6 and 7 year old) are making for family this year. (Don’t worry, I warned the family who regularly reads my blog not to read this week, so hopefully no surprises will be ruined.)

I saw this at We are THAT Family and once again knew that this was one that we would tackle. Kristen posted a complete DIY tutorial, so head over there if this is something that you want to tackle or book mark it for next year.

Here is how the children helped with the process. The kids designed the letters to monogram using Microsoft Word. They enjoy clicking print and watching the printer go. The 6 and 7 year old cut the pillow shapes out of the burlap. All of them were able to do the following steps.

Painting the monograms onto the burlap.

Stuffing the pillows.

Unraveling the edges of the burlap.

These ended up being inexpensive, cute, and fun gifts for our little ones to make. We made about 7 or 8 and they ended up costing less than a dollar each.

There are a lot of possibilities with this. You could make the pillows spell something or put a full message on one. Get creative, this is quick and easy!

Did you see my tutorial for making Christmas ornaments out of dominoes? It’s also a great idea for kids to make as gifts!

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Christmas Ornament Tutorial: Kids Can Make This

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 12:08:59 +0000

Each year the children like to make gifts to hand out to everyone who comes over to our home during the month of December. When my friend Betsy, came to our Mom’s Meeting (our topic was Christmas gifts), brought these cute ornaments and told us how to make them, I knew that this is what we would make for this year.

This project is simple enough that even our 3 year old was able to create his own sweet ornaments and the results are charming enough that people will enjoy having them on their tree.

Materials needed:

Rubber stamps
Dominoes
Permanent Markers
Ribbon (We used 1/4″ and 1/8″. The 1/8″ left some of the glue exposed around the edges.)
Glue (We used this zips adhesive. It’s like hot glue only already in a strip you just peel and place where you want it.)
Permanent, all-surface ink for the stamps

How to:

Stamp or let big kids stamp the back of a domino with a holiday or seasonal stamp. (The original ornaments that I saw used vertical stamps, but we had horizontal ones and they worked nicely.)
Have the children color in the picture with the permanent markers.
Place a strip of glue around the outside edge of the domino.
Cut a 12″ piece of ribbon. Center the ribbon at the bottom of domino and press the ribbon into the glue all the way around.
Tie a double knot at the top center of domino.
Tie another double knot at the ribbon ends to form a loop to hang the ornament.

We have a table tree on a table in our entry way and have decorated it with our domino ornaments. Whenever our guests are preparing to leave we ask them to please pick an ornament to take with them.

If you prefer a more elegant look, mom can stamp and color.

What simple gifts have your kids made for friends or family?

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Celebrating Christmas

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 17:08:40 +0000

There is an interesting discussion going on in the Raising Olives Community about celebrating Advent. Our family is just learning and deciding what and how we want to celebrate this special time of year, so I’d love to hear your input on how you celebrate the coming of Jesus, our Lord and Savior to live and eventually die among men.

Our family has decided to do a (simple) Jesse Tree this year. If you are unfamiliar with this (as I was), it consists of a scripture reading each night beginning Sunday 4 weeks before Christmas (that was 2 days ago, but it’s not too late to catch up). The children make an ornament to illustrate each reading and hang in on the Jesse Tree. The tree can be a simple drawing of a tree with paper ornaments or as elaborate as a full size evergreen with hand crafted decorations.

Here are some free resources online for help with creating your own Jesse Tree:

Here are instructions to make an elaborate felt tree with ornaments created with felt, wood-burning, sewing and other techniques.
Scroll down to Celebrating Advent in the Home and this is includes the scripture reading schedule and printable ornaments for children to color.
This site includes a reading schedule and has full-color, printable ornaments.

Please note that I’ve not looked over these links thoroughly, so please check and make sure that the resources they offer are in line with your family’s beliefs concerning this time of year.

Our family will be doing the scripture readings and our children will make their own ornaments using some of the above ideas as a guide.

So click over, read and share your plans for Advent. I’d also love to hear about your other traditions both holy and secular, your ideas and the ways that you celebrate and make this a special time of year. I started a new discussion for favorite Christmas traditions and shared several of ours (we have some strange and wonderful traditions), so go check ours out and share yours. Want more details? Feel free to ask.

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Thankful Tree Project

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 19:14:17 +0000

We aren’t doing a ton of decorating this year for Thanksgiving, but I did want to incorporate a Thankful Tree. As the month wore on I wasn’t sure we would get to it.

The idea is to create a tree and on each leaf to write something for which you are thankful. Often families will start a thankful tree at the beginning of November and have each person add a leaf to it each day. It’s a great way to help all of us get into the habit of being more thankful.

We obviously didn’t begin at the beginning of the month, but this morning I saw this post with leaf printables at Robin’s Heart of Wisdom Blog and knew that it would be quick and easy enough to pull off even with my limited energy.

Our thankful tree is rather large, too big to fit into a picture, but it turned out so cute and the children enjoyed the project and are thrilled with the finished result. I appreciate simple craft projects that allow us to spend time talking while our hands are busy creating something. This was project was super easy to include even the youngest children. Nicholas (1) made a thankful leaf, thanking God for “Mommy’s lap”, a place where he spends a significant amount of time these days.

Me? I’m thankful for my amazing family and the blessing of spending time with them. Thank you Lord!

Hope that you all have a blessed Thanksgiving and are able to reflect on all that our God has done for us.

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Cranberry Pretzel Dip Recipe

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 12:56:07 +0000

This recipe has become one of our Thanksgiving traditions. I first made it shortly after our marriage and its sweet, tangy combination has us hooked. It’s really much better than it sounds.

Paired with pretzels it is a delicious, fat-free snack option.

1 can (16 oz) jellied cranberry sauce (of course you can always make your own)
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1tsp. ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp pepper
1TBL flour
1 TBL cold water

Combine first 5 ingredients in a saucepan and whisk over medium heat until smooth. Combine flour and cold water then add to cranberry mixture. Bring to a boil and cook and stir for 2 minutes. Transfer to a serving bowl and cover and chill overnight.

This can be made ahead of time (we’re making ours for Thanksgiving today) to ease last minute prep.

I’m not a great cook, but I have gathered some delicious recipes and they’re almost all fast and easy! You can view all of my posted recipes here.

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Titus 2: Finding the Time to Mentor

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:15:00 +0000

Diana asked, ”(I)f women are to mentor to the younger women and women are to “be busy at home”, how do they find the balance between the two?”

Here are some of the ways that our family has found that we are able to encourage and serve younger or peer families:

Cooking meals – This is an easy one. I (or one of my children) prepare food for 12 people 3 times a day. It’s super easy to add a little more and take it over to another family for dinner.
Sending our children to help – While I’m not often able to leave the home to cook or clean for a younger woman struggling with a houseful, our children are quite capable of going over and cooking, cleaning or providing child-care. (This is an advantage of being in the middle years of parenting. We obviously couldn’t do this when our oldest was 5.)
Being hospitable – Inviting families into your home for a meal is a wonderful opportunity for encouragement and edification all around.
Be available in person. – A very easy way for me to be available to others is to have moms and their children over for a couple hours in the morning. We talk, the children play, we eat lunch and then everyone heads home for naps. We are able, and frequently do, take a day or half day off of “school” which is another advantage to homeschooling year round.
Be available by phone – Make sure that you don’t let the phone run your life. That’s what an answering machine is for. Be sure to make your family your priority, but you can do a lot of good over the phone. I have some friends who call once every week or so, just to see how I’m doing and to catch up. It is so uplifting for me to nurture those friendships with fellowship over the phone, whereas I wouldn’t have the time to actually get together in person.
Be available by email.

Probably the most important thing for moms with younger children to remember is, prioritize. God, your husband, children and home come first. Being available to help and encourage younger moms is something that comes as you begin to reap some of the benefits of your hard work, but it is a secondary calling.

Pray, look to your husband for guidance and listen to that guidance, then set some boundaries. For example, during the first trimester of my pregnancies, my husband has a rule, “No inviting company over for dinner” and “No making dinner to take to other families” unless I’m able to consistently have a hot dinner ready for my family each evening. I get very sick and very tired at the beginning of a pregnancy and it is a struggle for me to get dinner on the table for my own family, so for me to voluntarily take on extra responsibility during that time isn’t a good decision.

I know there are lots of other ways to minister to others. I’d love to hear your ideas.

Titus 2: Mentoring Younger Moms

Titus 2: Who’s Qualified?

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Titus 2: Who’s Qualified?

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:51:38 +0000

I got a lot of comments after my post about being a Titus 2 Mentoring Mom. The comments are almost all from women who are searching for a Titus 2 mentor.

Titus 2 is one of the motivations for this blog. I mentioned in my previous mentoring post that this is something that both Mark and I feel that God has specifically called our family to. So our Moms Group and this blog have been born. However, I am still in my mid-thirties and my children are still young. I don’t have the wisdom to offer that a woman who has grown children and grandchildren has available.

One of my thoughts as I read through the comments is something that the Lord has gradually been teaching me over the years. A Titus 2 mentor doesn’t have to have made the same decisions or walked the same path that we are. The Biblical qualifications of a Titus 2 woman are:

older
reverent in their behavior
not malicious gossips
not enslaved to much wine
teaching what is good – This is defined for us in the next verses. They should teach younger women to love their husbands and children, be sensible and pure, be kind, be a worker at home and to be subject to their own husband.

We don’t get to add anything to God’s qualifications. She doesn’t have to have homeschooled, had many children or even been a stay-at-home-mom. God sets the standard, not us. I have been guilty of not giving Titus 2 women the respect and attention that they deserved because they didn’t measure up to my standard. What ugly arrogance, my standard was higher than God’s. Titus 2 women don’t have to have walked the same path that we are walking to have valuable wisdom to offer us. I was slow to learn this truth, but it is laid out clearly in God’s Word.

So I urge those of you who long for a Titus 2 mentor to look for someone that God says is qualified. Lay aside your own ideas and standards and measure by God’s.

Another aspect of finding a Titus 2 mentor is that we need to seek them out, to let them know that we are willing to learn from them. Women who are wise aren’t going to show up on our doorstep offering us pointers on child training. I’ve also found that as I’ve approached wise women for advice and guidance, many are quick to point out why they are not qualified. I’ve had women tell me, “I did it all wrong.” “I have so many regrets.” ” I don’t have anything to offer.” I think this can be solved by either side. First, the Titus 2 mom should realize her calling and God’s standard, that what she did right or wrong as a young mom, does not affect her qualification. If she has gained wisdom through the process she should be quick to help others to not make the same mistakes that she did. On the other side, younger moms can ask and encourage the Titus 2 women to fulfill their God-given calling.

I personally think that those best suited and qualified to serve as Titus 2 mentors are women whose children are grown and who are in the grand parenting years. So, don’t look first at the mom in her 30′s or 40′s who is still homeschooling and parenting full time. They still have a lot of other responsibilities and a lot of wisdom to gain. Rather look to the grandmothers in your church. I think there is some indication of this in the Titus 2 passage with the use the term “older”.

Another aspect of learning from each other, is that all Christians are called to encourage and strengthen each other. We can and should learn from other women no matter where they are in life. So while I said, don’t look first to “middle aged” moms, (OK, somehow that sounds worse than being an older mom, am I really middle aged??) or moms with young children, I’m not saying that they don’t have wisdom and encouragement to offer. We should all, no matter our age or stage in life, seek to build up the saints with love.

Titus 2: Mentoring Younger Moms

Titus 2: Finding the Time to Mentor

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