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.

Homemade Buttermilk and Yogurt

Here are three quick and easy ways to save money on your dairy expenses without cutting your usage.

Make your own buttermilk, make your own yogurt, and how to use powdered milk in your cooking.

These recipes have moved to our new blog. Visit Homemade Buttermilk and Yogurt or go to our homepage for more recipes, money saving tips and information on raising a large family.

Mexican Lasagna

Suzanne made this for dinner the other evening and it was delicious. I have been craving it ever since.

Mexican Lasagna

Ingredients:

• 2 T. olive oil (optional)


• 2 lbs. ground beef


• 2 T. chili powder


• 2t. ground cumin


• 1/2 onion, chopped


• 1 14 oz. stewed tomatoes


• 1 C. taco sauce


• 1 can black beans, drained


• 1 C. frozen corn


• salt


• 8-8in. flour tortillas


• 2 1/2 C. cheddar cheese, grated


• 2 green onions, chopped (optional)

Preheat oven to 425°. Preheat large skillet over medium high heat. Add ground beef and onion,brown and drain. Season with chili power, cumin, then add tomatoes, taco sauce, black beans, and corn. Heat mixture through 2-3 minutes, then season with salt to taste. Grease Baking dish. Layer meat, tortillas, cheese and repeat as needed. Bake 12-15 minutes, until cheese is melted and bubbly. (May top with green onions) Serves 6-8.

Plan ahead and cook the beans from dry, make your own tortillas and taco sauce and this meal ends up being an inexpensive dinner.

Homeschooling-Nature Journals

We just bought Savannah her nature journal and yesterday was her first entry. So I thought I would share with you how we use nature journals in our homeschool.

We began using nature journals for science about 7 years ago. Don't be fooled however, nature journaling teaches them much more than science. They also learn observation, art and basic research, not to mention they understand that they are able to learn on their own. They realize that they can go out, see something they don't understand, and then find the answers. They learn to be their own teacher.

When our children are old enough to begin a nature journal, between 4 and 6 depending on the child, we allow them access to some good quality art supplies. We use Prismacolor pencils. They allow our children to add detail and color and are easy for the little ones to manipulate. We have given our children more options as their art skills have progressed. These Caran D'ache water color crayons are my new favorites. I will suggest that if you expect quality results give them some quality tools. (Trust me on this one, I don't recommend spending money very often but nice art supplies are worth the investment IMO.)

The first assignment that we give each child is for them to go out into the yard and look around very carefully. They are looking for something that they have not noticed before. It can be the veins in a leaf, the spots on a fuzzy caterpillar, a blue rock or the fact that our dog has her tongue hanging out the side of her mouth. When they notice something that is new to them, they get to draw it. They must look at it while they draw and we encourage them to try to notice even more details while they are working. If our child notices a bird or something else which would not stay put long enough to draw, they may look it up and draw from a picture in a book or online.

If your children are like mine, their first drawings will not be impressive. It is okay if the drawing is immature and even unrecognizable. Their art skills will improve over time. At this point just encourage them to notice details and to try to include them in the drawing. So if your child noticed the veins in a leaf, and has drawn an uneven circle with lines going who-knows-where, that is wonderful. They have learned to look more closely at nature and to communicate what they discovered through art.

Next we have the children write something about their drawing. For the example of the drawing of veins in a leaf, we would ask what she just drew. If she says, "I drew lines in the leaf," then we would direct her to a source where she could discover what those lines are called. If she already knows that they are called veins then we would ask her to find out why a leaf has veins. The idea is to require them to find out something new and write that beside their picture. As soon as she understands how and where to find information, she no longer needs help with what to write unless she is having difficulties.

We require one nature entry a week. When I look at their assignment for the week they are usually full of information that they want to share with me. After we have discussed their page, I will usually tell them what I want them to do for the next week. Often the assignment will be exactly the same as the one I outlined above. However, if I notice that a particular child is struggling to do meaningful research or is stuck in a rut, I will give them a more specific assignment to help them progress in their ability. For example, if they are failing to convey new and meaningful information on their nature page, I would give them a specific question to answer or a process to explain for their next assignment.

If you don't have time to do anything more than this, your children will still benefit greatly by taking some time out each week to observe, wonder, draw, and study God's creation. However, I highly recommend the Handbook of Nature Study. We use this to give us more focus and to help us go deeper into a topic. You can work your way through a section doing a page on all the plants (or whatever) that are native to your area. It is an amazing resource; the only nature text that you will ever need.

Allow your children to enjoy journaling. As something interests your child, let them explore it further. We have studied rocks, leaves, squirrel habits, butterfly life cycles, live bearing fish, and the reproductive process of our pet guinea pigs. Hmm, I should probably get my children to produce some nature pages about ants.

If your children tend to focus on different aspects of nature, set aside time for them to show each other their books and talk about what each one is learning. This expands everyone's horizons.

They don't have to learn it all in a week. They don't have to produce a work of art every time. It is the process that teaches. Relax and enjoy.

Here are other posts on homeschooling, including why we homeschool and our most important assignment.

Daily Bible Reading

Since the most important part of homeschooling, in our home is training our children in the discipline and instruction of the LORD, one of their daily assignments, once they are able to read, is reading the Bible. The first year they read through the New Testament and each subsequent year they read through the whole Bible.

We have been asked why we make Bible reading an assignment. After all, the argument goes, we want our children to read the Bible because they want to know God, not merely because we require it. True, just as we wish for our children to brush their teeth in the morning because they desire to be clean and have good grooming habits. However, in our house we do not give our children the option of brushing their teeth, we require it and we trust that through the habit of brushing their teeth every single morning they will appreciate the benefits and acquire the habit.

So how do enable all of our children read the Bible daily?

• We have time set aside first thing each morning for Bible reading.
  
• We give each independent reader their own dated Bible reading schedule.
  
• Mark and I also read from this schedule, so that all of us are reading the same passages. This works for us because we are able to ask our younger children questions about their reading, in order to see how much they are comprehending. We are also able to better field questions from the older children . All of us reading the same passages each day also encourages discussions between the children about topics or stories that they have read.
  
• We like to pick schedules that have New and Old Testament readings each day. Our early readers just read the New Testament assignments, which are generally about 20-30 verses long and the older readers read the whole assignment.

Reading through the Bible each year has given our children more biblical fluency than I had hoped. It has equipped them to think more biblically because they know more of what the Bible says and has helped them to realize that the Bible speaks to all areas of life. It has also lead to several interesting conversations. After all the Bible is not exactly G rated.

There are many Bible reading schedules available online. I like this one. Another one that is already dated and goes through the Bible chronologically is here.

To see my other How We Do It posts click here or check out my other categories listed in the sidebar.

Homemade Hamburger Buns

I had tried, on several occasions, to make whole wheat hamburger buns. My results were generally, flat and crumbly. Mark and the children gallantly ate them, but I have a kind family.


That was before this recipe. This was sent to me by a good friend from Florida and produces wonderful, company worthy hamburger buns every time, even when my easily distracted, second daughter makes them. They are super easy to make, look lovely, and taste amazing. You will never want to go back to those preservative filled store bought buns again. Unless of course you are going to be feeding several hundred people.

This recipe has moved to our new blog. Visit Homemade Hamburger Buns at our new site or visit our homepage for more money saving tips, recipes and ideas about raising a large family.

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.

Seed Beaded Bobby Pins - tutorial

With seven girls in the house we fix a lot of hair and the newest rage in our home are these decorated bobby pins. They work great for all the girls big and little alike and are quite versatile. Amber is our resident artist and has come up with some lovely creations.

To decorate one basic bobby pin you will need:

• A small (standard size) bobby pin


• 25-28 seed beads


• 18-20 inches of 28 gauge wire


• fingernail clippers

1. Hold the bobby pin with the straight side up, opening toward your body. Place the center of the wire on top of the bobby pin near the bend and hold there with your thumb.

2. Grasp the wire to the right of the bobby pin and slide it through the rubber tips and up to the bend in the bobby pin. Continue to wrap up and over the bobby pin so that it ends up back on the right again.

3. Now repeat with the wire on the left side, pulling it through the rubber tips and tight up to the bend in the bobby pin up and over the top of the bobby pin so that it ends up back on the left.

4. Clip the ends of your wire so that they are even. (They should be 9-10" each.)

5. Thread a bead onto both wires and pull it up tightly to the bend in the bobby pin. Pull one wire to the right of the bobby pin and through the rubber tips. Pull the other wire to the left of the bobby pin and through the rubber tips. Be sure to pull the wire tightly against the bead to secure it. (You will be wrapping around the flat side only.)

6. Continue threading beads and wraping until you get to the rubber tip of the flat side of the bobby pin.

7. Wrap each wire around the bobby pin tightly several times to secure. Poke the ends of the wires back into the hole in the last bead to hide them. If your bead is too small to poke the wire ends through again, wrap the wire around the bobby pin between the last and next to last bead instead of at the end. It will keep the ends of the wire from poking you.

The varieties are endless. My favorites remain the dragonflies.

This is part of Show and Tell Friday .

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.