Raising Olives is Moving

Ok, take a deep breath and get ready for some action. Raising Olives is moving. Come visit the new Raising Olives and then change your links, favorites, bookmarks, feeds, or whatever you use to read Raising Olives, you don't want to miss out on all the action.

I will be leaving this site up, but all new posts will be over there. Come on, what are you waiting for http://raisingolives.com/, move it!

Laundry Help - The Family Closet

The family closet is a laundry/storage system that has always interested me. You must click on the link, it's just pictures, go on. If you aren't intrigued after looking at the pictures then you don't have to read anymore, I promise.

Still here? The premise is simple, store all of the clothes or at least all of the children's clothes in one room, preferably the laundry room.

This post has moved to our new site. Read Laundry Help - The Family Closet or visit our homepage and choose the laundry category to read all of my posts about laundry.

Laundry Help - Make Your Own Laundry Soap

A few years ago I Googled directions for making laundry detergent, made up a batch and HATED it. We didn't like how it cleaned ( or rather didn't clean) our clothes and so I scrapped the idea.

Several months ago, the economic climate being what it is and the fact that I had run out of our mega bucket of Charlie's Laundry Powder, I decided to rethink the whole homemade laundry soap idea.

The directions for making your own laundry soap have moved to our new blog. Visit the laundry soap post or our new homepage.

Laundry Help - Shrinking Mt. Washmore - Part 1

Our family produces a lot of laundry. We have the normal amount of clothes, towels, and bedding that any group of 12 people would produce and in addition we use cloth napkins, cloth diapers, cloth wipes, and cloth cleaning rags. This saves money and resources, but produces more laundry.

So how do we keep up with it all? Well, sometimes we don't, but I have spent a lot of time thinking about how to make it easier and I've tried several different systems. I plan to share some ideas and plans that have helped us.

This post has moved to the new Raising Olives. Finish reading Shrinking Mt. Washmore or visit our new homepage and click on Home Management- Laundry/Clothes.

Home Management - The Menu Plan

One of the things that has made it easier for me to feed 11-12 people, 3 meals a day, 7 days a week is working out a menu plan for breakfasts, lunches, and snacks (and bulk, freezer cooking for dinners, but that is a different post.) There is freedom in not having to make food related decisions in the midst of teaching school or cleaning house, in not needing to make up a new grocery list every couple of weeks, and in not feeling guilty because the children are eating the same thing day after day.

This post has moved to our new blog. Visit Home Management - The Menu Plan or our new homepage and search menu plan.

How We Do It- Cloth Napkins

We use cloth napkins in our house or more accurately we use washcloths. This not only saves money, but is terrific for the many spills that occur during mealtimes with children. The wash cloths are fabulous for spills, major or minor, as well as for grimy faces and hands. One washcloth will clean the baby even after he has played in eaten his spaghetti. To avoid washing hundreds of napkins washcloths every day, each person has their own unique napkin ring. We made ours, but it would be fun to shop for a special napkin ring for each member of the family. When we finish a meal each person looks over their napkin and if it is clean they put it back in the napkin ring. Then they all go into a drawer until the next meal. After dinner each day all washcloths are put in the laundry keeping the amount of washcloths washed in a given day to a minimum.

Click here to view my other "How We Do It" posts.

This is part of Works For Me Wednesday. To see the other WFMW ideas for the week, just click the link.

Home Management Part 2 - Daily Chores

Twelve people living, eating, and sleeping in one house necessitates a lot of time spent maintaining order and cleanliness. Homeschooling means that we are home making messes all day rather than heading off to school and work. It also entails a higher level of mess and clutter in the form of books and educational materials. So how do we keep order in our home? Everyone has their own responsibilities to help with our household chores.

Train your children to work.

1. Start young. Young children love to help mommy. Let them help you as you go about your work. If you have them with you while you are working think of ways that they can help. If you give them the opportunity, you will be surprised to see how helpful they will become and how much they will learn. Watching is learning at this stage.

As they become more capable, give them their own chores. This gives them a sense of pride in their accomplishment and allows them to feel that they are really helping mommy.

We use kid friendly cleaning products. White vinegar for disinfecting, baking soda for scouring, etc.

A 2 year old can:

• Help load the washer and dryer.
• Empty small trash cans.
• Run simple errands like fetching the diapers and wipes.
• Help add ingredients while you cook.
• Sweep the floor using a small dust pan and brush.
• Help dust.
• Move things while you vacuum.
• Put their own toys away.

A 3 year old can:

• Empty the silverware from the dishwasher.
• Wipe down the babies high chair.
• Make their own bed.
• Help fold laundry.
• Use a damp cloth to clean the bathroom counter and sinks, or the baseboards. A 3 year old LOVES to use a damp cloth.
• Run errands.
• Pick up a room.

A 4 year old can:

• Fold and put away their own laundry.
• Clear and wipe the table.
• Empty a rack of the dishwasher depending on where your dishes are stored.
• Sweep the floor.
• Wash some dishes and load a dishwasher.
• Dust.

2. Give them real responsibilities.

At 4 years our children get "real chores". I view this as the real beginning of chore training. They are assigned an area of the house that they are responsible to tidy and clean. This allows them to take more responsibility and gives us the opportunity to train them to be diligent as they move through several different tasks. The area that we assign is well suited for training and includes tidying, wiping, dusting and sweeping for more practice. I list exactly what they need to do each day and then check when they are done.

Daddy gets more involved at this stage as he will frequently ask who is responsible for an area of the home and then will tell them how wonderful it is looking. Our children are so excited when daddy notices their area. There is certainly a sense of pride in a job well done and an area that is clean and tidy.

3. Set high standards.

Consider what constitutes a job well done for each child and write it out as concretely as you can. Then consistently check to make sure your child is meeting your standard. If not ask them to return to the area and correct what still needs work.

I like for our daily chores to take no longer than 30 minutes and we frequently use a timer to see who can make it within the time limit.

Assign chores.

1. Determine how you want to organize your chores. Do you want to organize your chores by task (i.e. child A vacuum and child B dusts)? We did this exclusively when we had all small children. Do you want to give each child an area of responsibility (i.e. child A cleans the living room and child B cleans the bathroom)? We use this system currently and love it!

2. Decide how much time you want to devote to chores each day. Decide if you want to have more than one assigned time. We have two different times during the day that we have chores assigned. See a simple version of our schedule.

3. List what needs to be done each day. Decide how much time each task should take.

4. Assign tasks to each child. I assign a chore to whomever is the youngest child that can safely complete it. This stretches those little ones and doesn't overburden the older ones.

• This does mean more supervision and oversight on your part, as you train your children to work hard.
• A benefit to this practice, that I am seeing now, is that it frees the older ones up to serve in areas that they are gifted or that they have a particular interest.

5. Clearly communicate each child's responsibilities to them. I like to have it written down, that way if when I forget I can just look at the list.

6. Check every chore, everyday. Well, only do this if you actually want the chores done well.

Have fun and work along side your children.

1. Change it up. When your children are generally diligent in their work, have fun with chore time.

• Try team chores. Divide your home into two fairly equal (as far as chores) parts and then divide you and your children into two teams and let them race to get all the chores done. Let the little ones or the big ones be team captains.
• Give them a day off of cleaning chores. We do this every weekend and occasionally during the week. Everything needs to be picked up, but nothing needs to be dusted, swept, wiped, etc.

2. Enjoy working with your children. Pick a day to work with each of your children on their task. In our house I have deep cleaning tasks in each of my children's areas, so on the day that I am working in their area, we enjoy special time working together.

All of my children enjoy helping me in the kitchen or doing outside tasks. I use this time to enjoy and talk with my children. Try to include your children in your life as much as possible, they love being with you, take advantage of that to learn their heart and their thoughts.

3. Have contests with prizes, or not. One of my favorite contests is the bedroom contest. We have two bedrooms for the children, the girls are in one and the boys in the other. Every morning I check the bedrooms to see who did a better job. I am picky, checking under the beds, in the closets, etc. The prize? During Christmas time the winning room got to display the table tree in their bedroom for the day. Currently they just get bragging rites. If both bedrooms are amazingly clean and they tie for at least 3 days during the week, we pick something extra special to do or eat on Family Fun Night (Friday). This happens more often than you suppose. Our children are very motivated by this game.

We have also had penny jars. Each child has a jar with their name on it and each day that they finish their chore on time and meet the standards we have set, they get a penny to put in their jar. When they get to a certain number of pennies they get a prize. We use a lot of special time rather than special things for prizes.

Chores do not have to be drudgery. A lot of it is in our attitude. This is one of the ways that we can serve Christ by serving our families.

If you would be interested in seeing our current chore list, please leave a comment to that effect.

To see How We Do It Part 1 - The Schedule click here.

Home Management Part 1 - The Schedule

One of the most frequent questions or comments that we get when folks find out that we have 9 children is, "How do you do it?" My intent is to write about some of the methods and systems that we use to keep our large family organized and running smoothly.

I must say that for us, our schedule is invaluable. About 8 1/2 years ago our fourth child was born. I was at home with 4 children ages 3, 2, 14 months, and newborn and I was barely surviving. Then someone introduced me to the book Managers of Their Homes and my life changed. I went from wondering if I would be able to take a shower, to having time each day to sit and work on a fun project. The idea is to pray about what you want each person in your family to accomplish and then to schedule that into their day. Each person has a schedule, no matter how young.

We often don't stick strictly to our schedule, but we usually stick with same basic flow for our day. For example, we may not eat lunch at 12:00 per the schedule, but we will eat lunch after we finish our school and then play outside after lunchtime.


We have had the same basic schedule for over 8 years now. Generally our day looks like this:

• Get up and read the Bible (for readers) or work on the catechism with daddy (for non-readers)
• Get dressed, clean rooms, and before breakfast chores (empty the dishwasher, make breakfast, care for the animals, etc.)
• Eat Breakfast
• Family worship
• Chores (the whole house gets cleaned during this time)
• School
• Lunch
• Play
• Nap for little kids / Music and reading time for bigger kids
• Free time (sometimes I assign projects, sewing, art, cooking, carving, etc.)
• Prepare for Dad to get home
• Eat dinner
• Family worship
• Bedtime

With that skeleton in place, we simply add specifics in and figure out times for each child and mom to accomplish what needs to be done.

So how can you come up with a schedule that will work for your family? Before you start, pray that God will guide you through the process and that you will make wise decisions about how to spend your time. Think of the priorities and goals you have for your family, does the way you spend time reflect these? Then:

1. Start a list of everything that you need to do each day and the amount of time that the activity should take. One of the main purposes of this step is to make sure that you are spending time on the activities that are most important to you and your husband. Make a list for each member of your family. (I don't schedule my husband.) My husband and I usually take several days to a week for this step and pray about everything that we add or eliminate.


2. After you have your lists for each person, start putting the activities into the time slots in your day. Are there some activities that obviously will work well if they are done simultaneously? i.e. I always schedule a young child to read to me during one of the time periods that I'm nursing the baby. Do you like to clean your house in the morning or afternoon? What time will you get up in the morning? What should your small children be doing while you are busy with other things?


3. As you are fitting the puzzle together think about things that you don't need to accomplish everyday and customize your days a bit. For example, we have had music lessons at various times during the last 8 years. Sometimes I have gotten rid of the afternoon free time and other times we have changed to a four-day school week.


4. Try it out, slowly and then adjust and re-adjust. When we first started, we were doing excellent to stay on schedule until lunch time. Give yourself and your children a week or two before you start changing things too much. Then figure out what works and what doesn't and change things around.

Don't get discouraged. I think that going through the process of making a schedule is helpful even if you never stick with it. It gives you the opportunity to think about how you should spend your time and encourages you to prioritize and spend time on things that are most important.

I hope to post some hints that we have learned to come up with a workable schedule. If you have any questions that you would like to have answered, please feel free to use the comments section.

To see How We Do It Part 2- Daily Chores click here.