Buying in Bulk

Buying in bulk has been a major blessing to our family over the years. Our first experience with buying in bulk began with just white flour and sugar from Sam's (which at that time was over an hour away). I had zero clue how to cook or bake when I was a young, newly married woman at the ripe old age of 19. It took me a year to come to the realization that I actually wanted to cook and bake, and that I could really enjoy it. It took a couple more years and a couple of babies before I jumped into cooking and baking from scratch, but once I started doing that, I quickly learned it was in our best interest to buy dry goods in bulk. 

As our family grew and we evolved into a more healthier lifestyle of eating, it became more and more practical for us to seek out a bulk co-op company to purchase our dry goods from. Since we live in small-town rural Alabama, finding a co-op company was not that easy. Thankfully, through many hours of searching, as well as networking with other like-minded families, we did finally find a co-op company. That was about eleven years ago. Because of the cost, only once a month delivery options, and the inconvenience of driving an hour to reach the co-op drop-off location; we opt to purchase a one year supply of all our necessary dry good food items.

For our large family (currently 11 living at home) that means we store around 45, 5 gallon buckets (some are 6 gallon buckets) within our home. We do not have a large house. We actually live in a doublewide mobile home. Our house is not a Pinterest house. We make our house work for us. For now our buckets are dispersed in three different closets, stacked three buckets high. We keep smaller containers of everything in our kitchen pantry for daily use. We typically fill our smaller containers once a week depending on the food item, while some may only need to be filled monthly. 

We label the buckets with masking tape and a Sharpie. We do this because often the buckets have to be switched out when we purchase a surplus of one item or another, from year to year. It's super easy to just rip off the tape and put on a new piece, instead of scribbling on the buckets. 

I really don't have an exact science as to how I figure out how much of each item we need to purchase each year. It's kind of just a given that all our buckets need to be filled and I take stock of our inventory before placing our yearly bulk order. Some years we eat more of one certain food item than another and we order accordingly. 

Through trial and error I've learned how many pounds of food fill the buckets. Different food items require different amount of buckets. For instance a 50 pound bag of quick oats fills about two and a half 5 gallon buckets. But a 55 pound bag of seas salt barely fills one 5 gallon bucket. And to be honest I'm still learning! Even with this being our eleventh year for bulk ordering, we ended up being short four buckets, so we will have to order some more. This year we purchased more bulk beans than we have in the past, and I overlooked two full buckets of oats (meaning we didn't really need any ~ sigh, good thing they won't go bad!).

The following list is the bulk dried goods we've ordered over the years. As I've mentioned before, what we order exactly each year depends on what we consume, which fluctuates from year to year. 

Prairie Gold Hard White Wheat Berries

Quick Oats

Old Fashion Oats

Steel Cut Oats

Popcorn

Cornmeal

Brown Rice

Wheat Germ

Flax Seed/ Flax Meal

Spices

Carob Powder

Carob Chips

Raisins

Cranberries

Lentils

Sunflower Seeds

Quinoa

Kidney Beans

Chick Peas

Black Beans

Pintos

Sea Salt

Barley

Yeast

Nutritional Yeast

Baking Powder

We also purchase a year's supply of honey, usually as 'seconds' which means there's some form of condensation in the honey. To us this doesn't matter and allows us to buy the honey at a discounted price. Along with the honey, we buy a year's supply of maple syrup. We buy the maple syrup by the gallons, and four of them usually meets our family's needs for the year. 

The company we use for our dried goods bulk order is from Country Life Natural Foods. We usually place our order around March after we get our income tax returns. This year it took us until the end of April for us to get our order in due to most of our needed items being out of stock. Since we order so much food, we don't usually join in on a group co-op order, our own personal order meets the necessary money quota required for a truck order. 

We order our maple syrup from Branon Maple. 

The honey comes from a local farmer we know. 

We've purchased buckets from several different places over the years, one being Emergency Essentials, but they no longer sell buckets. We have purchased them from Lowe's before too and another online container store; but I honestly cannot remember the name of that company, it was so many years ago and the buckets are not labeled with the company's name. Pretty much any bucket will work as long as it is food grade.

Ordering in bulk has so many benefits, but mostly it helps save our family money and allows us more flexibility to remain committed to eating healthy. Finding some of these items in our local stores is nearly impossible. Without the bulk food suppliers our family would not be able to enjoy such diversity in our healthy eating endeavors. While we do eat plain, simple food, on repeat for the most part, it is a blessing to be able to mix our meals up to some degree. 

There really isn't anything complicated about ordering in bulk. It's just one of those things you have to jump into and learn as you go along. Each family is going to have their own different needs, but I'm confined nearly every family can be blessed by ordering in bulk.

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Easter Funschooling

 This year's Easter funschooling week was full of blessed family time making treasured memories. As I mentioned in my Easter Totschool post, my husband was off from work, so he was able to join in on our special Easter activities. Thankfully, the weather was beautiful and we were able to do all kinds of fun projects inside as well as several outdoor family projects. Easter in the South is typically a wonderful time as Spring is in full force which makes the celebrating all the more enjoyable.

This year we made a cross silhouette project. The children painted a sunset scene with paint onto white construction paper. Then we cut out of black construction paper a mound with three crosses and glued it on top of the dried painted sunsets. I think this is one of my favorite Easter projects we do.

Y'all know I love our directed drawing projects. Well here was a cute bunny that we drew for our Easter funschooling week.

Everyone really gets into the directed drawing projects around here. Seeing everyone's creative personalities come out into their drawings is so special to watch and experience. There's something so amazing about watching a child grow and evolve in their creative abilities. While we don't do regular art lessons, I do try to give the children opportunity to be creative with making sure we have necessary supplies and the encouragement to explore their creative nature.

Of course no holiday is complete without making cut-out sugar cookies.

And yes we start them young in this house. It was really sweet too, because as is usual I was multitasking when we were making cookies this year, but everyone was made sure Abby Lou got a turn to make her cookies (and no, she is not eating them yet, lol).

While it is a lot of work and mess making cut-out sugar cookies, I wouldn't trade it for anything. All the special memories we have created over the years making cookies at each holiday are priceless.

There was a time my OCD, perfection side would want to 'fix' all these cookies and make them esthetically appealing, but I've come a long way, and all I see is love, joy, and happy times with my family. It's more important for my children to have the opportunity to participate, make messes, and explore life than it is for their creations to meet the 'world's standards'.

My older children made these editable bird nests. Well, Lydia helped too by putting the eggs on, but mostly they were made by a collaboration of my big kiddos. These candy/cookies were a big hit with everyone. They were a combination of no-bake oatmeal cookies and Rice Krispie treats. Obviously a perfect combination. 

Our family dyes eggs every year. Only two dozen since we have hundreds of plastic eggs. Even though we own a ton of plastic eggs for hiding, it's just way too much fun to let go of the tradition of dying eggs. Being present and doing things with my family really is my happy place. It's not work or a burden to do these things; it's a privilege. 

Abby Lou had her first experience in dying eggs. She acted as if she knew what she was doing ~ go figure. These babies just keep getting smarter and smarter.

Finally we played a minute-to-win-it game where everyone had to stack and unstack plastic egg halves. This wasn't what I had planned for our Easter minute-to-win-it game, but it's what ended up happening when I realized the game I had planned, the younger children would not be able to play. For me it's all about including as many family members as possible in our activities. 

Life is strange and different now, I don't know if life will ever resume to what it was two months ago, but I do know that I can make an effort to keep my family's life as normal as possible. I'm thankful that this Easter we were able to pretty much keep life the same as it has always been. Did we go to church? No. but we did have church; it just happened to be at home. I refuse to stop living life amongst these uncertain times. I am 'keeping on keeping on' for the sake of my sanity and for the protection of my children. They deserve my best, and that is what they shall have. When I look back on all the pictures and videos of our Easter funschooling week, I'm so very grateful that I can create AND make these special memories with my family.

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer 

Spring Around the Homestead

Sorry Y'all I know it has been awhile, but life ebbs and flows for sure, and life has just been extremely busy. I've actually had 14 posts ready to go for a couple weeks now but getting everything set up and published has proven to be a little more challenging than I'd prefer.

We have been super busy around the homestead lately, gearing up for what we hope and pray is a bountiful harvest year. We've had so many projects going on from sewing, soap making, starting seeds, sewing seeds & planting plants in our big gardens, making new flower beds, and of course continuing with our homeschooling efforts.

 We had weeks of rain which made it difficult to plant our early spring crops. But we did manage to get in the ground some white and red potatoes as well as some onions. We planted double the onions than what we did last year. Lord willing we will get a decent harvest.

I'd really like to experiment with some different varieties of onions in the future. But, I am grateful we were able to find these onions still available; since finding garden plants and seeds isn't as easy as it has been in years past.

I know I've said it many times before, but I'll say it again; I truly love that my children have the opportunity to learn how to grow their own food.

Everyone gets their hands in the dirt around here. 

We added a new fruit arbor to our homestead. This one holds ten muscadine plants, which is like a grape. Grapes don't grow very well down here, but muscadines are a great alternative.

We started many plants this year including this entire flat filled with tomatoes. 

We also planted an assortment of herbs which were given to us by some dear friends. 

We did purchase a good bit of plants this year: tomatoes, several pepper varieties, sweet potatoes, and eggplants. We are hoping to preserve more seeds this year for next years garden, reducing our need to buy plants.

Unfortunately, due to a very late cold snap, we lost most of our sweet potatoes. We are planning to replant them this week.

Our fruit bearing bushes and trees are looking very good this year. We currently have blueberries, pears, apples, peaches, plums, blackberries, and figs. 

Even though we purchased 'late blooming' fruit trees and bushes they often get a little excited over early warm weather and bloom a little too soon causing us to lose our harvest.

We are fervently praying that this will not be the case this year. We are all super excited and hopeful for a bumper crop of fruit this year! 

Currently in the ground we have tomatoes, bell peppers, hot peppers, eggplant, pumpkins, onions, white & red potatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, butternut squash, field peas, green beans, and corn. We have a good bit of seed starts growing to help stagger our garden harvest. 

I've been collecting canning and preserving items over the weeks such as vinegar, sugar, and canning lids. We have been diligently working to wrap up household projects and finish our academic year before the harvest begins. It won't be long before we're knee deep in produce! Fun times ahead for sure!

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Easy Southern Freezer Biscuits

It's been a few weeks since I posted a recipe, so I thought it was time I shared one. The internet is overflowing with amazing recipes (and plenty of not so good ones, too). The problem with so many of them are the fact that most of them aren't suited for large families ~ especially those on a strict budget. There's nothing more that annoys me than clicking on a recipe quoted being for a large family on a budget and the lady posting has three children. Now, I'm not saying three children isn't a lot to handle, and perhaps a family of five is a large family to many, BUT I'm looking for cheap recipes to feed a family of eleven (and I realize that isn't the norm these days).

My ultimate goal is to feed my family of eleven for less than $5 A DAY. I know that sounds like a crazy low number, but it's true. Do I always achieve it, not hardly, but it's good to have goals. I would not say that we eat fancy foods or to the standards of the FDA and their idea of a 'balanced daily diet'. I try to keep the balance in the realms of a weekly picture ~ feeding my family more whole foods consisting of meals rich in fruit, vegetables, and protein.

A sample daily menu for my family could be: 

Breakfast: Homemade Whole Wheat Pancakes and organic maple syrup with a green smoothie

Lunch: Homemade Whole wheat cheese pizza with a salad and ranch dressing

Snack: Homemade oatmeal cookies

Dinner: Hamburger Sloppy Joe's on homemade buns and roasted potatoes

This particle daily menu would have our daily food budget hovering around $5 because most of the food prepared we grow or purchase in bulk. Feeding a large family on a strict budget takes long-term planning, cooking from scratch, and a lot of creativity. I almost treat it like a competition to see how low I can go to feed out large crew, while still making the food look appealing and taste good.

One my family's favorite breakfast recipes is homemade southern biscuits. They're a perfect recipe for those who are on a strict budget, like to cook in bulk, and want a no fail biscuit recipe. I have been making it for years and can't even remember where I found the recipe. I can assure you it was long before the internet, lol. 

Easy Southern Freezer Biscuits 

Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2/3 cups shortening
• 1 cup buttermilk

Directions 

Combine dry ingredients, add shortening, mix, add milk stirring until soft dough forms. Turn dough onto floured surface and kneed ten times. Roll out 1/2 inch thick and cut with biscuit cutter. To bake immediately place in 450* preheated oven for 10-15 minutes. 

If freezing; place raw biscuits on a cookie sheet and into the freezer, once frozen remove from freezer and place in a freezer bag, return to freezer. To bake frozen biscuits bake in 400* preheated oven for 18-20 minutes. 

Note** If you do not have buttermilk (which I never do) put 1 tbsp lemon juice in a one cup measuring cup and add milk to fill to 1 cup mark. Stir and let sit at least one minute. Use this to replace buttermilk.

I have doubled, tripled, and quadrupled this recipe dozens of times and they always turn out wonderful. Of course, I suppose, like all recipes, everyone has their preferences as to how they like their biscuits. But, for us, this is our go-to biscuit recipe. I even have some children who won't eat any other biscuits or will make comments saying they'd rather eat my homemade ones. Which is why when I'm making a batch, I like to make enough to freeze to eat on a later day. Yes, I am always planning for the next meal and how to make life easier. 

Feeding a large family on a strict budget can be done. I can assure you most folks don't have copious amounts of money to spend on food, even if they have many mouths to feed. Life is about balance. Are these the healthiest version of homemade biscuits, not exactly. But, I would say they're better than the store-bought versions, simply because there's no preservatives or fillers in them. And most importantly they are affordable and easy to make. That makes them a perfect recipe for this ol' country mama to many!

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Back to School Hike at Lake Howard

If you hang around this blog for any length of time you'll quickly catch on that I LOVE traditions. I absolutely love planning for them and looking forward to them coming around each year. One of our back to homeschool traditions is to go on a celebratory hike concluding our first week. For many years we went to Mount Cheaha State Park. But after they upped the entrance fee from $10 a car load to $8 PER PERSON we quit going there. 

On a trip back from the beach three years ago I discovered Lake Howard. Which happens to be an amazing off-the-beaten path boating and hiking destination. It's actually a dirt bike trail, but plenty of folks hike there and in three years of hiking at Lake Howard, I've only seen one person riding a bike on the trail. It takes about an hour to get there from where we currently live, but since it's free, it's totally worth it to me!

I think it's so fun to take the same pictures year after year and watch our family grow. This particular hike was just me and the eight younger children as my husband and oldest had to work.

I must be honest half my children do not enjoy hiking. But, they typically admit to having fun after we venture into the woods. I always have at least one kiddo who is thrilled to be on the hike. You know that one who wants to walk right beside me, volunteer for a dozen pictures and even slips their hand into mine as we hike along the trail. It really makes all the extra work, dragging eight children out the house and into the woods totally worth it!

I'm a huge proponent of baby wearing. There's so many styles to choose from these days, that it's super easy to find a brand and style the suits your needs. My favorite is the Beco Baby Carrier. I've worn my current carrier with four different babies to great extents.  It was worth every penny and then some. I couldn't do half the stuff I do with a baby in tow without a baby carrier, especially hiking. My bigger boys and my husband have even worn this baby carrier. And I've yet to have a baby that didn't love riding on my back (or front).

The Lake Howard trails are wonderfully maintained and accurately marked ~ which is not always the case with many of  the trails we've been on over the years. Of course, my children love to venture off the path for a little exploring, but even then the brush is adequately cleared. 

I must give a disclaimer though in regards to the Lake Howard trails, on a scale of 1-10 (one being the easiest and 10 being the hardest), I'd rank them at around a 7. This would especially be in regards to the main trail. There are some intense inclines that might be difficult for some folks to navigate. 

That being said, my three year old does walk the trails on his own. But my crew, as you can tell, pretty much grow up hiking and quickly get acclimated to the rigors of intense trails. I try not to make a big deal about it and just encourage them when they start struggling. But there have been times when a big brother or sister has helped piggy-back ride a little one at difficult parts of our hiking adventures. 

When we are  hiking I usually will set my cell phone timer for a minimum of 30 minutes. After 30 minutes I reevaluate how everyone is coping on the trails and if we're doing okay we keep on walking, if not we turn back around. I do try to be mindful that the little ones will have to make it back out, lol. At Lake Howard it takes us about 40 minutes to reach where the main trail forks. So, that is always our goal for this particular hiking adventure. 

If it were up to me, I could go hiking at least once a week, but that is highly impractical under our current family dynamics (and  I wouldn't change those for anything). Which is why I'm extra grateful for the times when we do make it into the woods to enjoy God's creation. Being in nature helps me to regroup and refocus my energy. For some reason when we're hiking I seem to forget all the worries of life and I can just breathe, feeling truly at peace. So while it does take an act of congress to get us to these little hiking adventures of ours, they are so very worth the hassle to me. 

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Daily Family Devotions: Faith Amidst the Chaos

As Christian parents we desire nothing more than to raise children who will seek after righteousness and follow the truths of God. Whether a child is homeschooled, public schooled, or private schooled; it is still a parents job to train them in the way they should go. There are strategic steps we as parents can take to insure the spiritual well-being of our children. Yes, taking our children to church and living out the teachings of Christ is important; but a crucial aspect of raising up a godly generation (which is often missed) is teaching the scriptures from home, through family devotions.

As first generation Christians, my husband and I have had quite the learning curve in training children to follow after the Lord. We knew early on in our child rearing days, that we wanted to incorporate daily family devotions to help instill the word of God into our children's hearts. With many young children we have run the gauntlet of the 'how-to's' for incorporating family devotions into our crazy life. After much trial and error we have come up with a simple system that works for us.

Simple Daily Family Devotion Plan

1. Sing a hymn or praise and worship song either along with a cd, acappella, or with an instrument. You can sing as many songs as you'd like, just remember that the little ones attention spans are limited.
2. Read a couple verses of the Bible or read along with a family devotional book. We have read through many. I typically purchase a yearly one and we go through it a couple times before we get a new one. Make sure to take the time to discuss the scriptures and/or the daily lesson and prompt the children to add their thoughts or questions.
3. Close with prayer. During this time you can ask the children if they have any prayer needs and discuss in detail any prayer concerns you plan to pray about.

This is just a simple plan which we have used over the years. We have found keeping it short and simple is best, especially with so many little kids. Our family devotions typically average 15 minutes. We've found this to be a good time frame in keeping with the younger children's limited attention span. Consistency with daily family devotions helps the children learn what is expected of them during this time. And, it is also good practice for church.

Now that we have a simple plan established, it's on to the implementation of daily family worship. I know that many of you have full evenings with extra-curruclars, homework, and chores; but I assure you a quick family devotion can be done with minimal stress. The Lord knows our hearts and will honor our efforts no matter how chaotic our lives may get. But I have a few tried and true suggestions that will hopefully make the daily commitment for family devotions just a tad bit easier.

Stress Free Daily Devotions

1. We have found the best way to do daily family devotions is immediately after dinner, before kitchen clean-up, at the kitchen table. We simply clear off the table and go straight to our family worship time. The children typically have full bellies and are content. Leave the little bitty ones in their high chairs or booster seats. Make sure they are comfortable and give them their 'Lovies' if they have one.
2. Make sure everyone has their bibles, song books, as well as notebooks and pencils. We have found even the younger ones enjoy having their own bible books to look at during our worship time.
3. Expect interruptions, distractions, and child training opportunities. God does not expect perfection, He will handle the follow through. It is simply a parents job to do the teaching.
4. Don't teach over their heads. Keep it all age appropriate. This is why we like yearly family devotional books. They help teach the scriptures on a child's level.
5. Involve the children in the lessons. Ask questions and allow for their input. Don't be afraid to veer off topic so long as it is still within the context of family worship. Some of our best family conversations have begun through our family devotions.

Daily family devotions is a special gift from the Lord. All we have to do is make it happen and God will bless our efforts. Don't get discouraged if your daily devotions seem like only an opportunity for discipline. Make a point to pray for your daily family worship time during YOUR  quiet time, trust that God will honor your diligence, and remember your children are still in the training process. Establishing a solid foundation of faith in the hearts of your children amidst the chaos of life IS possible; it just takes a simple plan, perseverance, and commitment.

"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6 (NKJV)

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

How To Get More Done: 5 Secrets of Productive Moms

The number one question I get asked is: "How do you get so much done!" I can assure you I am not supermom, but The Lord has blessed me with the ability to productively manage my days (for the most part). Every person is given the same amount of hours each day to accomplish all the Lord has set before them. I find attitude and perspective are essential to making the most of each day, but there are 5 SECRETS I specifically use to successfully tackle the many tasks a mom must get done in any given day.

• Wake Before the Children: This can be mighty hard when you have little ones, but I find getting up just 30 minutes before my kids allows me to collect my thoughts and prepare my heart and mind for the day. My personal goal is to be up 1.5 hours before my kids, which gives me ample time to invest in my own personal needs that I may best serve my family. Getting up so early inadvertently means I must purpose to get into the bed at a decent hour. Getting in the bed early means that I must make a point to effectively management our family evenings. This will look different for each family; but I purpose to orchestrate our evenings so that dinner is planned and prepped early, baths and family worship follows immediately after dinner, and then kids are in the bed shortly after baths.
• Exercise Your Mind, Body, & Spirit: A mother cannot adequately take care of her family if she is not taking care of herself. Rising before my children in the morning allows me the time to exercise (uninterrupted), read the scriptures and pray, as well as read and/or research topics reflective of my current interests and needs. When we take the time to improve ourselves and keep our mind and bodies in optimum health we are more likely to have the clarity and focus to accomplish the many demands of motherhood.
• Eat a Healthy Diet: Proper nutrition is paramount for keeping our bodies healthy. When we eat nutrient dense foods, our bodies will respond accordingly. Choosing to eat clean, Whole Foods that God created allows you to sleep better, reduces sicknesses, and drastically increases your energy levels. Eating like garbage makes you feel like garbage which in turn drastically reduces the things you can accomplish each day. Busy moms often find it hard to incorporate a healthy diet, but I find it critical for allowing me to 'get it all done' and well worth the effort to make it a priority in my life.
• Have a Plan: It's mighty difficult to get things done when you don't know what you need to do. Having a plan, a list of tasks you need to accomplish each day will help you get more done. I keep a yearly planner which is broken up into monthly and daily tasks. I write down everything that has to be done each day and throughout the month; even if it is simple everyday tasks such as laundry. I love to be able 'cross' off the things I complete each day. Seeing your daily accomplishments will give you personal hope, inspiration, and encouragement that you are making the most of each day AND accomplishing the many tasks which NEED to be completed. Having a written plan will also allow you to continue to refine your schedule and to-do list so that you can get more things done.
• Give Your Day to the Lord: Only the Lord knows what each of us can accomplish in any given day. Beginning each day with the intentions to give your day to the Lord, while trusting him to direct your steps will help to eliminate stress, allowing you to focus on the responsibilities He has entrusted you with. In my morning prayers I specifically ask the Lord to help me to accomplish all that He would have me to, and not fret about those things which I could not. Life happens, distractions are the epitome of motherhood, learning to ebb and flow with those distractions will allow you to be the most productive.

"And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men." 

Colossians 3:23 (NKJV)

Every day is a gift from the Lord. One in which we must purpose to fully use, not wasting a single moment. Motherhood can bring all sorts of caveats into our goals and plans for life, but it doesn't have to be an excuse for 'floating along aimlessly'. Whether you work or stay at home, God desires each of us to live each day with purpose. Creating balance and personal grace are the ultimate directives of being a productive mother.

Life will happen, schedules will be 'thrown out the window', but having a goal, a clear plan for each day makes for a happy mommy and an efficiently managed home. But ultimately, remember, God is in control and give yourself grace when your day(s) does not go as planned and your to-do list sits for days with nothing being accomplished. Simply do the best you can, love your family, and work towards the goal that God has set before you: raising your tribe to honor and bring Him glory.

With Love & Hope,
Jennifer

Taming the Laundry Beast

Now that summer is officially here, it's the perfect time to tackle some tasks that may have been pushed to the side during the hustle and bustle of the school year. Yes, summer can be just as busy as the rest of the year, but to me, it seems to have a more mellow feel to it. While spring cleaning is awesome, I like to take summer as an opportunity to get caught up on additional household projects that I have been neglecting. I know that laundry can be a major pain to stay on top of for any size household, but I've got some tips and tricks to help y'all get it under control!

A household of eleven can generate a ton of laundry! If I don't stay on top of things, the laundry monster can rear it's ugly head and make life mighty difficult. No one likes to have massive amounts of laundry to wash, fold, and put away; which is why I made a commitment a long time ago to keep our family's "laundry beast" tamed! Dirty clothes are just a part of life. There's no sense in complaining about it. It's just something that has to be done. I have found creating a laundry plan and sticking to it, makes keeping everyone in clean clothes a breeze.

Now I know many families, especially large families, assign laundry duty to children; and even require older children to do their own laundry. That just won't work in our household for many reasons. The main ones include: we don't have the space for mountains of laundry waiting for a teen to wash, I only wash FULL loads of laundry and none of my children (or adults) have that many clothes to fill a full load, and when littles 'help' fold clothes by themselves they are hardly folded and typically misplaced; which creates more work for me when I have to hunt for peoples clothing. With all that said I do believe children should learn to do laundry which is why I have daily laundry helpers, who can be closely supervised by me.

My personal laundry plan is super easy and effective. I think all mommies across the board, whether you stay at home or work, will find that this system can easily fit into your busy lifestyle.

1. Designate a location for 3-4 laundry bins. Divide the bins into 'colors', 'lights', 'work', and 'linens'. I typically combine our colors and lights and just sort as I do the wash, therefore only needing 3 bins.
2. Teach all family members to bring dirty clothes to the bin and sort accordingly. This is probably the hardest part of my laundry system. But, I literally teach this system from the time my kids can walk, they bring their dirty clothes to the bins. Just an aside here: There is dire consequences in our family if dirty laundry is not brought to the appropriate bins. My crew has about 4 complete outfits a piece, if they forget after too many days they will be hurting for some clean clothes, and this mama has very little sympathy, especially since I graciously do all the laundry.
3. Do a walk through of the house on your way to start the first load of laundry each morning, especially the bathrooms, to collect any stray dirty laundry.
4. Begin your laundry washing at the start of each day. If there is a bin full, throw it in the wash. Move it to the dryer, and start the next load if there is one. Repeat until all the laundry bins are empty. I don't typically do a load of laundry unless it is a full load; which isn't usually hard to come by with our large crew, lol.
5. I save the folding for all at once, usually towards the end of the day. After the laundry is folded it is past out to those who can put it away while the remaining I put away. THE LAUNDRY IS NOT DONE UNLESS IT IS PUT AWAY!

With this system I usually end up with two days of no laundry, YEAH! And, on the days I do laundry it's rarely more than three loads, typically just two loads.  I know some folks prefer to do all their laundry on one day; this just doesn't work for me because 1. I don't want to spend HOURS folding and putting away laundry on just one day, I'd rather do a little each day. AND 2. We simply don't have that many clothes to wait until one day a week to wash our dirty clothes.

Taming the laundry beast is super easy when you have a plan and stick to it. 'Dirty clothes' doesn't have to be a 'dirty word', lol. Just look at it like you would brushing your teeth or eating; you wouldn't skip doing either of those each day. What you purpose to do daily becomes a habit and second nature. After a while it simply becomes an automatic system which makes your life easier and creates peace within your household. Start today with a laundry plan and no longer stress about keeping your family in clean clothes.

With Love & Hope,
Jennifer

How NOT to Get Overwhelmed with the Harvest

                   

                  

4 gallons of fresh picked bell pepper

This past Monday we found ourselves swimming in produce. Apparently after a couple weeks of some refreshing rain, our summer garden took a massive turn for the better! We had thought that everything was on the verge of dying and sadly we did lose our first big batch of green bean plants to the mini drought. Despite them prematurely dying we are grateful we were able to eat fresh from them several times, even if there was no canning like we had hoped. The corn also took a hit and instead of long, full ears of corn we only got a couple cobs from each stalk and they weren't the best we've ever had. But, that is the life of a homesteader and growing your own food; the outcome is all dependent on the Lord and what He sees fit to give.

It never fails no matter how well you plan your garden and stagger planting your crops; it's inevitable that at some point everything is going to hit in major quantities all at once. This is where you can quickly become overwhelmed!! NO worries, after years of experience I've got a list of steps to help you stay calm so you can quickly and efficiently conquer your awesome garden haul!!

This is what we were looking at Monday evening and I'm not going to lie, I was in a slight panic. But, thankfully I've been here before and after taking a quick assessment we began tackling what needed to be done to make the most of our blessed harvest.

On Monday we picked about 19 dozen EARS of corn. Most of which we left on the cob and put in the freezer. I'll be posting soon how we do this and how easy it really is to preserve corn on the cob! 

Next we had 6 gallons of cucumbers to come in adding to the 4 gallons we already had.

Then we picked 5 gallons of yellow summer squash.

A couple gallons of hot peppers.

Some zucchini & eggplant

A mess of green beans.

And a gallon of field peas or as I affectionately call them 'dirt peas'. 

We had a mighty fine blessing through our gardens to say the least, but now we had to figure out what we were going to do with it all. Here is how I typically handle a bumper garden haul like this:

1. Determine the produce which you collected the most; that one takes priority, unless it's corn. Corn must be done within 24 hours or it ruins. 
2. Decide what is going to be canned, frozen, dehydrated, or eaten fresh.
3. Wash what needs washing.
4. Put away what you plan to eat fresh in the fridge.
5. Fill the dehydrator with what you want to dehydrate (In this haul we dehydrated the peppers).
6. Chop and bag what you want to go in the freezer. (For this picking we skinned the corn, chopped the bell peppers, and shelled the peas all to go in the freezer ~ the peas we will can at a later time, but for now they can go in the freezer until we're ready to can them).
7. Prep for any canning you plan to do, such as the squash, it can be cut the night before or just simply make sure you have all the supplies you needs for whatever you're canning the next day.
8. If you got a super bumper crop coming in you can always try to sell some of it ~ we don't typically have good luck with selling, but you can always try.
9. Go in on halves: this means someone helps you process your produce using whatever method you're using in return to take some of the harvest home with them.
10. Give it away. After all it's better to give than to receive and I'd rather share our blessings with others than let it go to waste.

** And here's a BONUS TIP **

If you're going to be having a marathon canning day ALWAYS plan for simple meals throughout the day. I highly recommend putting something in the crockpot for dinner. Trust me when I say, you will not want to cook by the time folks are hungry for dinner!

Hopefully this simple guide will help y'all when it comes to dealing with the harvest. I like to remember it's all for just a short season. Maybe two months at the most when you feel like you eat, live, and breath the garden. And then all at once it's done and your larder is full and you can rest; enjoying the fruits of your labors throughout the fall, winter, and spring. And ironically, when the main summer garden rolls around again somehow you forget how much work it is to grow your own food. It's like the joy of enjoying the harvest in the off-season overshadows the reality of the time and effort you have to put into the main summer garden. It's a wonderful mercy from the Lord, that's for sure.  

Thankfully, our Monday harvest has all been taken care of and none of our produce went to waste. We're filling our larder one day at a time and I give all the glory to the Lord for giving us the harvest as well as the wisdom and strength to get it all done.

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Be Anxious For Nothing

As I am building my blog and combining Modern Mommy Mentor with Country Mama to Many I'm trying to come up with a plan for how I want to post and share my thoughts. After all life seems to run so much more smoothly when there's a plan, at least for me it typically does. 

I have so many thoughts and ideas I'd like to share, and I am excited to get them out there. I'm thrilled to finally be writing again, I didn't realize how much I had missed it. This blog is the perfect outlet for a woman who more often than not finds herself isolated with limited adult interaction. (I'm not begrudging it, it's simply my season of life right now. But, sometimes, I'm just lonely and have so much to say.)

While I don't want to live in bondage to a writing/posting plan, I do want to organize my posts so that folks can know when and what to expect. It doesn't mean I'm posting three times a week or only on those days, this is just a guideline to help me process my thoughts. So I'm thinking something along the lines of this pattern:

Matters of Faith Mondays

What Works for Me Wednesdays

Friday Fellowship

So with keeping to this plan I'd like to share on this fine Monday about a topic that I struggle with quite often: Anxiety. Despite knowing that anxiety is wrong in the eyes of God, I still often find myself over come with it throughout the difficult trial of life. 

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6-7

But with Christ I have the freedom to break free from this bondage of anxiety and to replace it with peace and acceptance in that whatever happens is God's perfect will.

"Whatever is lawful is legal. Therefore whatever is legal is lawful. 

Whatever is lawful is ethical. Therefore whatever is ethical is legal"

I recently watched a movie where these words were being recited, in the opening scene, over and over again. Apparently, a very successful finance man was trying to convince himself that the business deal he was in the process of making happen was indeed ethical ~ it wasn't. But, because what he was doing wasn't illegal he'd convinced himself it was indeed ethical. Sadly, he ended up losing his job and so much more from just this one deal. If only he'd listened to his conscious.

We are in the process of selling our house. Mercy what a long and painful story, that I most likely will share one day, but that day is not today. We currently have a tentative contract based on the buyer selling their current home. But, as is due process for the purchase to be finalized when they do sell their home we must have a home inspection. 

Today is our home inspection.

To say I'm nervous is an understatement! to say I'm anxious is an understatement! My current state of affairs is a pure hot mess of gut-wrenching-I-seriously-can-NOT-do-this crazed woman! But, we have no choice, it has to be done. 

The sell of our home is dependent on this one man inspecting it. To make matters worse our realtor has warned us that we got the 'bad luck of the drawl'. This specific inspector, coming to inspect our home, has been the cause of many deals gone 'south' for our realtor. (insert massive sigh and the onset of hysterical crying)

Thankfully I am a woman of faith and I've got this, or more likely God has got this! He knows all about our financial woes and our fears, struggles, and anxiety in regards to the NEED of us selling this house ASAP. Trust me The Good Lord has gotten an ear full every.single.day. for months from me in regards to the sell of this house! But, we all know God does things in His own timing. So, I must remain patient and trust that He has my good will in the forefront of all His doings and either the inspection will go well or it will not. Either way it will be God's will and He will carry us through.

Funny thing is our realtor made some suggestions for us to do in the hopes of making the inspection go more smoothly. Are you kidding me? Seriously, is this legal? Is this ethical? Why should anything I do effect the outcome of the inspection of my home? Is this really happening to me? Why is adulting so hard?

Then my thoughts rush to our home inspection. Did the same thing happen to them. Is that why so many things were not what they said they were to be once we took ownership of the home? Did they sway their inspector and that's why we suffered the consequences of a really bad deal? (Oh, but the difference from us to them is that we've fixed all those issues that were 'missed' during our home inspection!)

I'm finding that throughout this mess that if I keep my eyes on Christ and continuously lean upon His Holy Word; my fears are as water rushing under a bridge. But, I'm not going to lie, when I stop and think about anything other than those precious bible verses I've memorized the anxiety nearly over comes me making me vehemently ill and unable to catch my breath. 

"For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee. Isaiah 41:13

Lord willing at the close of this day our home will have passed inspection and we will be well on our way to finalizing the sell of our home. If not then it just wasn't meant to be and I'm sure the Lord has something else all the more better for our future. We just have to keep remembering that simple truth! 

We are His and He is ours!

(through the good times and the not so good times)

So, how do you handle anxiety and stress? What are your favorite bible verse to quote during times of overwhelming fear? 

With Love and Hope,

Jennifer