Pantry Organization

I've been using a variety of glass jars to organize my pantry and love how it's working out. I buy most of my spices in bulk, 4oz-1/2 pound increments, from Azure Standard. After I refill my Costco sized containers I store the extra in mason jars. Sometimes I just use a quart mason jar and skip the plastic containers. I found my onion powder was getting clumpy from moisture and had a difficult to seal lid, so I pulverized the contents of the whole container in the food processor and poured it into a clean jar. The mason jar now gives me the air tight seal I need. One product that I just started using is tomato powder. It's just dehydrated powdered tomatoes. It replaces tomato paste and tomato purée. When I want to make pizza sauce, I fill a pint jar with water and add in 2-3 TBS of the tomato powder. It thickens up within minutes. Then I add my spices and shake it up.
The garlic cloves in one of the jars is my harvest from my garden. I planted a row of garlic last October and harvested it this summer. It's been drying in my garage for about 6-8 weeks and I just cut the tops off today. I wasn't sure how to store it, but my cabinet is a dark and cool place so I decided to put them there.
The other side of the cabinet has our jars of nuts and dried berries. The kids who eat nuts appreciate having easy to open containers. I love seeing the jars all lined up!

Busy End of Summer

Life has been a pleasant whirlwind. Kids in sports, sewing projects and just loving on my 7 kids. Sam is playing football with a rec league near us and Katie and Lily are cheering for his team. I love watching the girls cheer. Lily especially loves the moves and the chants. This time last year it would have been hard, but something clicked in her development recently and she is learning and retaining information so well. Seven seems to be one of the magical age when life falls into place.
The whole family went to the game Saturday and even Caleb had a good time. We stuck my shades on him, but we ended up leaving at half time because of the heat.
The girls had a bake sale recently to raise funds for their squad and I made a big batch of candied pecans. I had so much fun dressing the bags up for sale. The recipe was pretty simple. You take about 1/2-3/4 of a pound of pecans and mix them up in a bowl with whipped egg whites, about 1-2. Then scoop out the wet mess and dump it in another bowl of cinnamon sugar with a pinch of salt. Stir well and scoop out on a baking sheet. Level it out so there aren't any huge clumps. Bake at 250 for an hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Let cool and enjoy.
I've also been planning Christmas presents. I want to make 1 of the gifts that each of the girls will get. I decided to make knot style dresses for the little girls and skirt for Katie. They will all have matching purses too. I bought the fabric and notions and have already cut out Rachel's dress. Her dress will be gray and yellow with a few polka dot fabrics and a chevron print. I can't wait to see it all sewn together! Lily's fabrics are a hot pink print, zebra print and a polka dot print. Katie will have a slightly more mature chocolate brown polka dot and a sage green combination. I think I'm going to sew a sash for her skirt. I hope that by starting early that my odds of finishing are in my favor!

Look at what we saw!

The kids spotted it first.  I dismissed it as a simple spider, not to be feared.  John was our hero though and squashed it and its babies! Yuck!

Black Widow

First Day of our Homeschool

This week begins our 7th year of homeschooling!

Austin is 13 and entering 8th grade.

Sam is 12 and entering 7th grade.

Katie is 9 and entering 5th grade.

Lily is 7 and entering 1st grade.

Rachel is 5 and entering kindergarten.

Joshua is 3 and entering Pre-K 3.

Caleb is 7 months and getting into everything!

Lily, age 7 Toucans



Lily's toucan on the ipad that inspired her to draw today.

Rachel, 5 car

Rachel, 5 an ear of corn

Lily, 7 car

This year my priority children are the little ones.  The bog kids are very much independent.  They are also taking their most intense classes in a homeschool class.  This will greatly free up my time to teach the younger ones to read. Lily is well on the road to reading and Rachel is coming along well too.  My schedule every day, that we don't have classes, is to let the little ones play dress up, play pretend, or just romp around having fun.  They color and draw off and on all morning too.  The bigger kids do most of their school work scattered around the house on their own. I try and pull aside Joshua or Rachel and work with them on a review of skills like colors, shapes, or letter names and sounds.  After lunch the three youngest go down for a nap and my time with Lily starts.  She and I review known skills, work on sight words, do math activites, sentence writing with new words, a bit of cutting and pasting, and more drawing.  She works with me for about 2 hours on task before she runs out of steam. I try and leave off before she becomes frustrated.  Rachel and I spend abother 30 minutes or so working on her school work after her nap/rest time. 

Lily,7

Our 2 create/craft boxes
They are stuffed to the rims with do-a-dot markers, colored pencils, scissors, pencils, markers, twistables, glue and tape.

Caleb, 7 months

Katie, 9 doing Rosetta Stone Spanish

Bedroom Additions

As part of our home renovation, roof lifting expeience, the older 3 kids got to watch their rooms be built right in front of their eyes. The boys endured the most chaos because we emptied the attic into their bedroom for the first 3 weeks, until the addition needed to move into the house.  I worried that Austin might struggle with extra anxiety or stress, but he didn't surprisingly well. The kids all spent time visiting family for a summer treat and that helped reduce the number of pitter pattering feet. 

Katie's room was painted a medium pink.  I purchased the polka dot curtain panels which helps pull all the colors of the room together. The bunting was used as at the girls' parties as decoration and now have a permanent spot in Katie's room.  She loves the short bookcase because she finally has a home for all her American Girl books and dolls.  She is 9 and a half and teetering on the brink of growing up and not turning back to girlhood.  She is blossoming right in front of me, both physically and emotionally.  I love being her mom and we had a sweet time decorating her room.

Sam's room is at the end of the hall and is the largest of the three new rooms.  He has one set of bunk beds that will soon be shared with Joshua.  He has a super large closet that I hope will be used as a toy closet/room. 

Austin's room is in the middle of the two other bedrooms.  He loves the quiet he can retreat to and savors his personal space.

Bulletin Board Update

I stole a bulletin board from our dining room and it found a new home on my sewing room wall. I love the white washed edges and complemented it with my favorite pictures. I'm still debating what to do with the sloped ceiling wall above my desk, a swirly mud design, tin tiles, light colored wall paper, or just paint. Either way, I've spent lots of time in my sewing room, crafting sweet hair bows, tasty ribbon edged owl toys and baby washcloths.  Several babies have been blessed with my endeavours.

Baby Wash Cloth Bouquet

Flannel and Terry Wash Cloths

I Claim a Verse

The month before Caleb was conceived.

Delivery Day: 183#

3 weeks postpartum. I don't care what I weighed, I was in love!

This past weekend I spent some time contemplating my weight.  I know, every woman's nemesis. I feel good at my weight right now, 153. I feel healthy and active. But I know it can be better.  When I exert myself I run out of energy way before I should and my clothes don't fit as smoothly as they could.  I decided it was time to claim 2 Timothy 1:7. Last week,  I set my phone up to read that whole book to me, in the New Living Translation, and this one verse, read before in other translations, caught my attention for the first time.  It says "For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love and self-discipline.". I love it!  I love that God has already given me these gifts. I love that he knew I would need the spirit of power and self-disciple. He knew. So, I claimed that verse and set myself some goals.

5 months postpartum:155#

My main goals are to increase my stamina so that I can run for a mile or do aerobic activity without struggling for breath, eat 3 sensible meals and a 2 snacks everyday, with the last snack being no later than 8pm, and to lose weight in such a way to not adversely affect my milk supply.  I already feel like my diet is really good, whole foods, little processed foods, and very little eating out.  I drink tons of water a day and eat lots of fruit and veggies.  Even if I make the kids banana bread or sweet rolls, I might have a small piece and let them have the rest.  I want to win so bad that I find the temptations easier to handle.  I know that I'm really playing a mind game with myself.   My body doesn't need the chips or coke, but my mind sometimes screams at me that I deserve them or that I'd feel so much better with them.  Such a lie. I usually get a sugar high and then a sugar crash after a coke and the chips leave me hungry for something more.  I want my foods to make me feel energized and satisfied.
My main snacks are toasted almonds, whole milk homemade yogurt with frozen cherries, a fruit smoothie,green smoothies, romaine salad with veggies, hard boiled eggs, sliced and diced veggies with ranch, popcorn popped in coconut oil or one of my no bake bars that are high calorie but with real power packed foods. My breakfast everyday is a quart of smoothie.  I start with 2 cups or so of water, one frozen banana, 1/3 cup or so of frozen cooked brown rice, 1/2 cup frozen cooked beans (like adzuki), a handful of almonds,1/3 cup rolled oats,  2-3 TBS Nesquick, and some ice.  If I find almond, coconut or rice milk on sale I'll substitute that instead of water but I found that it is so much cheaper to just make my own "milk".  This smoothie keeps me satisfied for hours.  No cravings, no sugar drops, no feeling of deprivation.  The kids like to poke fun at the ingredients but you really can't taste the beans at all! 

5 1/2 months postpartum

I know that exercise is my missing component.  I can find every excuse out there so I don't have to get outside, heat stroke heat excluded.  It's a shame really, God gave me this fantastic neighborhood with gently rolling hills for me to run on.  I'd probably get bored with miles of flat road. So, I put my big girl pants on and decided to set a goal of running 4 miles this week!  I have to go out at night, after John gets home, and do my running, but the nights have been good to me so far.  Since Sunday, I've run 3 miles! Yay, for my previously lazy self!  I stuck to a solid mile and found that I am able to finish in anywhere from 11:45 to 12 minutes.  Yes, those 15 seconds are very important to me. :) I have one more mile to run this week to complete my first goal.
The first morning after I ran, I thought I had died.  My body ached and hurt so bad.  By lunch time the soreness hadn't really gone away so I knew I was going to have to run again that night.  So I did.  The third night, I couldn't wait to get out and run. I surprised even myself!  It's not long, maybe 3 songs on my iPod, but it feels good to do something that will help me. I usually spend 3-5 minutes warming up before and 2-3 minutes after stretching, before I jump in my cool shower. I'm excited to see where I'll end up this fall and and Caleb's first birthday in December.  I hope my weight drops down 10-15 pounds and that I can make this a lifestyle change.

Caleb's Owl Lovey

While our home addition was going on I spent most of my creative energy thinking up new ideas. My sewing stuff was packed away, unreachable except in an emergency and John didn't think owl toys were an emergency. �� When I finally got my sewing room organized I set to work creating this sweet toy for Caleb. He loves to chew on tags, grab soft, silky fabric and I love owls so this incorporated all those elements. This prototype has room for improvement but we both love it!

Caleb: 5 Months Old

Caleb, our 7th blessing and a loving baby, was 5 months old at the end of May. He weighed in at around 16 pounds and was able to roll over both ways. He loved to put toys, fingers, toes and blankets in his mouth. He's wasn't too interested in solid food, taking all his nourishment from his daytime nursing. He mostly slept through the night and napped for 2-3 hours a few times a day. He wore clothes inthe 6-9 month range and compared to his siblings, he's average in height and weight. Joshua still wins the biggest kid award for every age so far. He sucks his thumb and does not take a pacie. He likes his lovie blankets but isn't attached to them passionately like his siblings are.

Rachel, 5 years old cheesing