Raising Olives

4 Moms Share Vegetarian Recipes {Link-Up}

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Thu, 16 May 2013 12:39:41 +0000

When you’re feeding a crowd vegetarian options are a wonderful way to pinch some of those pennies.

My husband is a meat and potatoes kind of guy, so finding recipes without meat that don’t leave him feeling like dinner was simply an appetizer has been challenging. However, these two recipes fit the bill.

Quinoa and Lentil Salad with Caramelized Onions

Don’t let the title fool you, this salad is filling and delicious (although Nicholas, age 5, disagrees). The caramelized onions give the whole dish a sweet kick and the sprinkling of feta is just what it needs for balance and full flavor.

We prefer to soak our grains before preparing them, but you may skip the soak and simply cook up the quinoa and lentils according to the package instructions.

2 cups quinoa (you may substitute other grains if you prefer)
2 cups lentils
apple cider vinegar (for soaking)
Salt
Butter or coconut oil
broth
Olive oil
4-6 red onions
4-6 Roma tomatoes
large handful fresh basil
6 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 cups feta cheese, crumbled
2/3 cup chopped flat-leafed parsley

The night before:

Combine lentils with 8 cups water and a generous splash of raw apple cider vinegar and allow to soak overnight.

Rinse quinoa and combine with 8 cups water and two generous splashes of raw apple cider vinegar and allow to soak overnight.

The next morning:

Drain and measure the water from the lentils. Rinse lentils and place back in pot with the stock equal to the amount of water you drained off. Add two teaspoons sea salt and 2 Tbl. butter or coconut oil and bring to a boil. Turn down to a simmer and cover and allow to cook for 30-45 minutes or until tender. Let stand for a few minutes and then place in refrigerator.

Drain and measure the water from the quinoa. Rinse the quinoa and replace the liquid removed with water or broth. Add two teaspoons of salt and 4 Tablespoons of butter or coconut oil and bring to a boil. Turn down heat and simmer, covered for 15 to 20 minutes of until liquid is absorbed and quinoa is tender. Let stand for a few minutes and then place in refrigerator.

Before dinner:

Saute red onions in 2-4 tablespoons of olive oil and 2 teaspoons of sea salt until onions begin to release some of their moisture (2-5 minutes). Turn heat to low and cook for 25 more minutes or until onions are caramelized.

Then add the quinoa, caramelized onions, cooked lentils, chopped tomatoes, basil, parsely, vinegar, oil, sea salt and pepper to a large bowl and toss together. Sprinkle with crumbled feta and chopped parsley.

One-Dish Mexican Lentils and Rice

This recipe is a new favorite, simple, inexpensive and delicious. All of our children love this one. Our pastor’s wife brought this over for us after Valor (8 months) was born and we’ve had it on an almost weekly basis since then.

1 1/2 cups lentils, dry
1 cup brown rice, uncooked
2 onions, chopped
1 1/2 tsp. cumin
1 1/2 tsp. basil
2 or more cloves garlic
5 cups broth of choice
1 can Rotel, undrained

Put all ingredients in 9×13 and stir until evenly distributed. Cover with foil and bake at 325 for 1 1/2-2 hours.

We serve this with tortillas and top with cheese, salsa and sour cream. Optional: Sprinkle with cheese and let melt OR add one pound of cooked sausage.

Here are a couple of our winter favorites:

Lentil Chili

Spicy Black Bean Soup

Please link up your favorite vegetarian recipes:

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Unexpected Journey: Part 2

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Fri, 03 May 2013 11:48:48 +0000

…continued.

As I hit send, I fully expected to get ”you’ve got to be kidding me, we can’t get you approved in time” or “Whoops, you weren’t supposed to get that email”.

Instead we received a list of things we needed to do and Mark and I rolled up our sleeves.

That day we completed our application, turned in reference letters, had background checks done and started our training.

That evening we welcomed 6 of our nieces and nephews into our home for the weekend.

On Friday we reveled in the blessing of having 17 children under our roof and worked on getting our home child-proof for kids who wouldn’t know any of our house rules. We also continued training.

By Friday night we had a placement date (Tuesday) and were working on a time to complete the home study requirements.

After all of closed doors and the Lord saying ‘no’ or perhaps ‘not yet’, we were overwhelmed with how quickly we would be getting these children. We requested more information about their situation.

We would be hosting siblings, a 4 year old boy and 3 year old girl for about a month.

Our hearts broke for the children and their mother. We prayed.

On Saturday morning we sent out an email to some of the folks in our Christian ‘family’ here in Knoxville asking if anyone had extra toddler beds that we could use (we needed two). In about half an hour we had two toddler beds with mattresses and bedding, plus multiple offers of clothing, car seats and other toddler items. It’s amazing to be part of the family of God.

That rainy Saturday afternoon we hosted a cook-out with two other couples and our combined 28 children and got the home study/home inspection scheduled for Monday afternoon.

On Monday the doubts really set in.

Why do I think I can do this? I’m impatient with my own kids. I’m already behind on laundry.

I am not that person who loves unconditionally. I have friends who are like that. I’m amazed by their patience and compassion and wish I could be like them, but that’s not me. I’m the one who is self-centered and lazy.

These children will be losing nearly everything. Their family, community, home, possessions, how can we possibly even begin to fill that gap.

I’m already completely exhausted at the end of every day, where am I going to find more?

I prayed, but fear gripped me. I’m just not that person.

There is NO WAY I can do this!

To be continued….

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Unexpected Journey: Part 1

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 00:33:01 +0000

Mark and I have always been open to adoption. What Christian who has been blessed with enough wouldn’t want to share God’s blessing with the widow, with the orphan, with the least of these.

Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.

Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.
Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me. ~Matthew 25:40,45

It’s one of the lessons I learned from One Thousand Gifts . The idea of keeping my hands open, that the blessings He showers upon us are not just for our comfort and enjoyment, but are to flow through us to others. He blesses us so that we may bless others in His name.

There have been several periods of time over the course of our marriage when we’ve tried to pursue adoption and each time the Lord shut the door.

Then, after Valor was born, Mark and I watched this trailer. At the opening words,

And then I was weeping. I always cry when I’m angry. And she said, ‘Why are you crying? It’s only orphan.’

we wept.

And when it was over, we knew that now was the time. We NEEDED to do something. We decided that our first step was to have a home study done.

Once again doors were being shut.

We considered international adoption, but we do not meet some of the standards set by USCIS. The door for foreign adoption was closed.

We live in the state of Tennessee where social services will not place more than 5-6 children in a home. The door for foster care through the state was closed.

Private adoption was our last option and still we ran into obstacles.

One agency said they didn’t think we should have 11 children, period (this after being on the phone with me for less than 5 minutes). She said, that she didn’t think that we were seeking out adoption for the right reasons. (Our reasons were that we believed God had called us to reach out to the fatherless by opening our home to them and that if He never sent us children, we were fine with that, but we wanted to be ready should He send some our way. She wanted our motivations to be family building, that we NEEDED to complete our family.)

One highly recommended social worker never called me back. For 6 weeks I called her one to two times each week, leaving a message and never received a call back.

I wondered if we were heading the wrong direction, but Mark remained firm. “It’s fine if we are never blessed to adopt, but that home study is our “drop box“. It is the way that, here in the States, we can be open to children who need a home.

Then one evening, Mark and I were sitting at an informational meeting at Bethany Christian Services and we heard about Safe Families for Children. SFFC is a private, Christian organization that provides a temporary safe family for children whose families are in crisis.

“Oh, but I could never do that”, I thought.

But maybe it was really, “I don’t want to do that.” I don’t want to shower someone else’s child with all that love, only to feel that loss when they go back to the home where they belong. I don’t want my children to feel that loss. What if the home they are going back to is still very hard?

Mark and I had never wanted to do something where children would be placed in our home temporarily. We’d get too attached. Our heart was adoption. We didn’t want this kind of hurt.

But at that moment, sitting in that meeting we looked at each other and knew that this would be part of our story.

I requested an application for the Safe Families program. I read it over and then got busy with cross country, hospitality and enjoying the sunny weather. I sent out letters to friends asking if they’d be references for us and added “complete SFFC application” on my to-do list.

I often ask for a neon sign from God and sometimes He sends one.

On Thursday morning (4/25) I received an email titled, “URGENT: Housing needed for two children”. Really? Had someone made a mistake? We hadn’t even turned in our application yet.

Without hesitating, Mark encouraged me to email back.

To be continued because the kids are up, all 13 of them…

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Ultimate Homemaking Bundle or How to Get the 4 Moms Book for 30 Cents

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 12:58:16 +0000

Just in time for Mother’s Day and for 6 days only, more than 75 widely-known bloggers and authors in the homemaking sphere have joined together to offer 97 of their most popular eBooks and eCourses, valued at just over $600, for the incredibly low price of $29.97!

More than anything, the goal for this sale was for it to be, well… ultimate! You will not find a more comprehensive collection of homemaking resources anywhere on the web, and particularly not in this price range. For this low price, you gain access to every single one of these resources, so that you can customize your own collection to contain exactly the ones you want and know you’ll use.

This library of homemaking helps include topics such as mothering, organization and cleaning, recipes and kitchen helps, home education, spiritual growth for both moms and kids, home décor and DIY, pregnancy and baby care, frugal living, health and fitness, and even work-from-home and financial tools.

Some of my favorites:

To sweeten the pot, we’ve also teamed up with 10 companies to bring you over $140 in bonus offers. These bonus offers alone are worth the price of the bundle! You’ll get products you’ll use and love for only the cost of shipping, or in some cases, entirely for free!

What’s Included in the Sale?

When you purchase The Ultimate Homemaking eBook collection, you will get instant access to any of the 97 eBooks and eCourses listed below.

PLUS over $140 of FREE Bonuses (including $25 in store credit, heirloom sourdough or yogurt starter and a 3 month membership to Plan-to-Eat)

Each The Ultimate Homemaking eBook collection comes with more than $140 of FREE Bonuses from 10 companies that we know you’ll love. More on these bonuses below.

Please note: This collection is only available from 9 a.m. EST on April 29th to 11:59 p.m. EST on May 4th. There will be no late sales offered.

Real Food Kids: In the Kitchen plus 1 month access to select Real Food Kids eCourse videos by Wardeh @ GNOWFGLINS and Jami @ Eat Nourishing ($20.00)

Seasonal Menu Plans on a Budget: A Month of Meals from My Humble Kitchen to Yours by Diana @ My Humble Kitchen ($4.99)

Just Making Ice Cream by Marillyn @ Just Making Noise ($12.00)

The Curative Kitchen by Susan @ Handy Pantry ($20.00)

Pregnancy & Baby Care

First Bites by Hilary @ Accidentally Green ($9.99)

Confessions of a Cloth Diaper Convert by Erin @ The Humbled Homemaker ($9.95)

Stress-Free Baby Shower by Sara @ Your Thriving Family ($4.00)

Unbound Birth by Jenny @ The Southern Institute ($2.99)

My Pregnancy Journey by Mindy @ Simply Designs ($9.99)

My Buttered Life Baby Edition by Renee @ Made On Hard Lotion ($5.00)

The Minimalist Mom’s Guide to Baby’s First Year by Rachel @ The Minimalist Mom ($5.00)

Redeeming Childbirth: Growth & Study Guide by Angie @ Redeeming Childbirth ($3.99)

Holidays & Special Events

Festive Traditions: Real Food Guide to the Holidays by Jill @ Modern Alternative Kitchen ($7.95)

Holiday Mixes: Gifts in a Jar by Kristy @ Little Natural Cottage ($4.00)

Flourishing Spring by Michele @ Frugal Granola ($5.95)

Family Camping Handbook by Katie @ Kitchen Stewardship ($6.95)

Truth in the Tinsel by Amanda @ Oh, Amanda! ($7.99)

Plan a Fabulous Party by Mary @ Giving Up on Perfect ($4.99)

iPhone Photography: The Visual Guide by Alli @ Alli Worthington($9.97)

Spiritual Growth

Pursuit of the Proverbs 31 by Amy @ Amy Bayliss ($3.99)

The Best of Visionary Womanhood by Natalie @ Visionary Womanhood ($5.00)

God’s Word in my Heart: A Scripture Memory Learning Guide with Verses {all 4 versions} by Jenn @ The Purposeful Mom ($3.99)

Kept: a 13-Week Inductive Study on 1 Peter by Lara and Katie @ Quench Bible ($4.99)

Love Like Him: an 8 week Inductive Bible study on 1 Corinthians 13 by Lara and Katie @ Quench Bible ($2.99)

Marriage & Romance

Rekindling Romance by Jason & Jami @ A Biblical Marriage ($4.99)

Good Wife’s Guide by Darlene @ Time-Warp Wife ($2.99)

31 Days to Build a Better Spouse by Ashley @ Ashley Pichea ($4.99)

31 Days to Great Sex by Sheila @ To Love, Honor and Vacuum ($4.99)

Entangled: Recognize Your Emotional Affair by Amy @ Amy J. Bennett ($4.99)

Motherhood

The Heart of Simplicity by various authors @ The Heart of Simplicity ($9.99)

True Christian Motherhood by June @ A Wise Woman Builds Her Home ($7.00)

Hula Hoop Girl by September @ One September Day ($4.99)

When Motherhood Feels Too Hard by Kelly @ Generation Cedar ($4.97)

Mindset for Moms by Jamie @ Steady Days ($4.99)

From Cube to Farm by Heather @ From Cube to Farm ($2.99)

4 Moms of 35+ Kids Answer Your Parenting Questions by various authors @ 4 Moms, 35+ Kids Parenting E-book ($7.99)

That Works for Me! by Kristen @ We are THAT Family ($8.00)

Health & Fitness

100-pound Loser by Jessica @ Muthering Heights ($4.99)

Honoring the Rhythm of Rest by Danielle @ Domestic Serenity ($2.99)

42 Days to Fit by Brandy @ The Marathon Mom, Emma @ Real Fit Moms and Stacy @ A Delightful Home ($4.99)

Healthy Homemaking by Stephanie @ Keeper of the Home ($12.95)

Personal ePlanner by Jennifer @ ListPlanIt ($5.00)

Beauty

Frumps to Pumps by Sarah Mae @ SaraMae.com ($4.99)

The Cottage Mama’s DIY Guide by Kristy @ Little Natural Cottage ($4.00)

Simple Scrubs to Make and Give by Stacy @ A Delightful Home ($3.99)

The No Brainer Wardrobe by Hayley @ The No Brainer Wardrobe ($7.99)

Embracing Beauty by Trina @ Trina Holden ($9.00)

Reuse, Refresh, Repurpose by Kristen @ The Frugal Girl ($3.99)

Working from Home & Blogging

Your Blogging Business: Tax, Talk and Tips by Nikki @ Christian Mommy Blogger ($4.99)

The Bootstrap VA by Lisa @ The Home Life {and Me} ($12.99)

How to Grow Your Blog and Manage Your Home by Jacinda @ Growing Home ($4.99)

How to Have Your Cake and Eat It, Too by Mandi @ Life Your Way ($12.00)

Simple Blogging: Less Computer Time, Better Blogging by Rachel @ Small Notebook ($8.00)

Ecourses

Learning in Love: The Preschool Years by Renee @ FIMBY ($7.99)

Homeschooling from the Heart by Renee @ FIMBY ($7.99)

Grocery University by Carrie @ Colorado Bargains ($24.95)

Vibrant Living Strategies for Moms by Lisa @ Well-Grounded Life ($59)

You Can Do This! The First Five Steps to a Real Food Kitchen by Laura @ Heavenly Homemakers ($5.00)

PLUS, You will receive FREE Bonuses from these companies…

A FREE Two-Month Membership to Fit2B Studio, where their wholesome workouts for the whole family are tummy safe and particularly target Diastasis Recti (split abs). ($19.98 value. No shipping restrictions.)

A $15 store credit to TruKid. With products like their aware-winning sun care, they are dedicated to providing all natural skin and hair care for kids, babies, and now pets. ($15.00 value. Standard shipping applies. International shipping available.)

Your choice of incredible natural products like sea salt and clay for FREE. Choose from the Redmond Trading Earthpaste Bundle ($24.90 value) or the Facial Mud Bundle ($26.90 value). (Standard shipping applies. Continental US only.)

Your choice of a FREE heirloom sourdough starter or FREE yogurt starter from Cultures for Health, the leading supplier of starter cultures and supplies for making cultured and fermented foods ($12.95 value. US & CAN addresses only. Standard shipping applies.)

Your choice of: a FREE 3-Month Subscription (for new accounts) or 30% off a One Year Subscription. Plan to Eat is an online menu planner that uses your recipes, scheduled for the days you want them. ($15.00 value. No shipping restrictions.)

A FREE Culinary Herbs Assorted Seed Pack Check just in time for spring planting from www.wheatgrasskits.com, a living whole foods company. ($11.95 value. Standard shipping applies to all US states and territories- no international shipping for seeds.)

Get $10 off Union28′s original “my husband rocks” tee. Their marriage apparel lets you celebrate your spouse in style. ($10.00 value. Standard shipping rates apply. International shipping available, but free shipping only available within USA.)

A $10 store credit plus 1 FREE lip balm from Bee All Natural. Their whole body products nourish and heal, and are made using only the highest quality, food grade, organic ingredients. ($13.49 value. Standard shipping applies. International shipping available.)

A FREE 2 oz. bottle of your choice of liquid herbal formula from TriLight Health. They specialize in fast acting, great tasting natural herbal remedies. ($12.95 value or more. Standard shipping applies, within the USA only.)

Your choice of 3 FREE ePlanners OR a 3-Month FREE Membership to ListPlanIt, whose mobile lists will help to organize your life. ($15.00 value. No shipping restrictions.)

The fine print:

Bonus Offers

Each bonus offer can be redeemed once only per eBook Bundle purchase.
For each bonus offer, transaction numbers or proof of purchase may be required at the time of redemption.
All bonus offers are free gifts from the bonus sponsors, are their sole responsibility to provide, and are subject to availability.
All bonus offers expire at midnight on May 19th, 2013 (2 weeks from the last day of this sale).

General

It is your responsibility to download and back-up your purchase within the 1-month download time-frame. With proof of purchase, we can renew download links up until August 1st, 2013. After this date we will no longer have access to the books and will not be able to provide any new links to download.
Due to the nature of this sale, there will be no refunds available. However, we would invite you to read our Frequently Asked Questions page to learn more about the file types, the download process, how the bonus offers work, etc.

Please note: This collection is only available from 9 a.m. EST on April 29th to 11:59 p.m. EST on May 4th. There will be no late sales offered, so make sure that you get your bundle right away!

Particularly for those wanting to read these ebooks on their mobile devices (iPhones or iPads, Android, Kindle, etc.) you will want to learn more about the file types, how to download them correctly, and how to transfer them to your device.

This post includes affiliate links, and I make a portion of the sale of each ebook bundle. Thanks for your support of this site!

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Lilla Rose Sale: One Day ONLY

Amber@raisingolives — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 15:06:12 +0000

Hi Amber here and I just wanted to let you know about this sale on these beautiful hair clips.

Sale for TODAY ONLY these three Lilla Rose styles are 10% off! Sale ends midnight PST.

Rosey Heart size small

Cameo Appearance size small

Spring is in the Hair size small

To order, please visit my Lilla Rose site. If you know which one you want, click here and select your size.

What is Lilla Rose? Be sure to watch the sizing video so that you can pick out the right size Flexi for you.

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Toddler Back Pack: Wordless {and some news}

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 12:32:14 +0000

We’re all still here and doing great.

Kaitlin (15) totes around Bella (2)

Backing off on my blogging commitments and unplugging from the online world has been a terrific decision for our family and we are reaping many benefits. I feel like these are the best years of my life, enjoying babies and teens with everyone all under one roof, and I appreciate being able to soak up every minute.

We’ve not been idle, however.

We tackled a home improvement project,

I created a website to answer questions about essential oils and share some of what we’ve learned about the healing benefits of plants and nature,

we are participating in spring cross country,

and spending lots of time playing in the backyard.

The weather has been lovely and we’ve all been blessed with good health.

This upcoming opportunity is TOO big for me not to tell you about.

Starting Monday and for 6 days only, more than 75 widely-known bloggers and authors in the homemaking sphere have joined together to offer 97 of their most popular eBooks and eCourses, valued at over $640, for the only $29.97 (that’s more than 95% off)!

Topics include: natural living, real food, homeschooling, time and home management, simplifying your life, DIY, parenting, decorating, fitness and weight loss and more.

eBooks include: When Motherhood Feels Too Hard, Family Camping Handbook, Real Food-Real Easy, Wholesome Mixes, 4 Moms, 35 kids-Parenting, Tell Your Time, 31 Days to Clean, 10 Steps to Organized Paper, over 90 titles total.

In addition to the $640 worth of eBooks and Courses, there are $140 worth of bonuses like an heirloom sourdough starter or yogurt starter, culinary herbs seed pack ($11.95) from Wheatgrass Kits, $10 store credit to Bee All Natural and a free lip balm, free 3 month subscription to Plan to Eat online menu planner and lots more!!

It doesn’t start until Monday, so you’ll have to have some patience, but it would make a terrific Mother’s Day gift {hint, hint}.

Please note: This collection is only available from 9 a.m. EST on April 29th to 11:59 p.m. EST on May 4th. There will be no late sales offered. I’ll be giving you some more glimpses into what the bundle will contain and will post first thing Monday when the sale goes live.

Blessings from our family to yours!

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Homeschooling Advanced Subjects

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 12:14:48 +0000

This week the 4 Moms are answering the question “How do you teach advanced subjects like trig, dissection or a foreign language in your homeschool?”

My experience of graduating from homeschool and entering college had a significant effect on how we view and handle this question with our children.

First, I’m sure many people would have said that my high school years would NOT have adequately prepared me for college. There was only one ‘class’ I ever took outside of the home. When I was in high school, my parents got a local Christian high school to allow me to come in for a couple of sessions where the biology teacher stepped me through a few dissections, that’s it. Other than that I learned at home with my mom or my dad as my teacher.

Additionally, I was not focused on academics during high school, I was much more interested in gymnastics. I easily spent 40-50 (often more) hours a week at the gym, working out or teaching classes and my studies were firmly in second place.

Second, I did extremely well on the SAT, ACT and other tests and/or college entrance exams. I was offered academic scholarships, received national academic awards and tested out of first year college English and Math (and math has never been a strong suit). When I entered college (at a school that is widely respected for it’s science program) I found the courses simple, even biology and chemistry, received excellent grades and graduated with honors.

Not only did this experience give me confidence as we entered the school years with our children, it also has given our family a unique perspective.

We don’t think that classes outside of the home are necessary!

Kaitlin (14) and Savannah (7) working on a project.

I know, I know. This is not a popular idea in today’s homeschooling circles, where parents seem to spend more time in the car taking their children to the next activity (educational or not) than they do at home actually teaching their children, but that’s ‘ok’ with us. Having 11 children isn’t a popular idea either and that’s worked out very well for us!

[I'm not saying that classes outside of the home are bad, just that they aren't necessary.]

Nicholas (4)

So how do we teach those advanced subjects?

Seek God’s Kingdom

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. ~Matthew 6:33

“all these things” includes higher level academic learning!

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge ~Proverbs 1:7a

There is no way around it, if we wish for our children to gain wisdom or knowledge, we must be seeking first the kingdom of God.

Sometimes seeking God’s kingdom may mean that our children will not participate in a specific learning opportunity, sometimes it will mean that they will take time away from school work to serve others and sometimes it means that others may appear more thoroughly “educated” or appear to have more or better opportunities.

Take a deep breath and stand on the promises of God’s Word. We’ve been there, we’ve time and again felt that we were failing our kids because we didn’t think that this or that opportunity that “everyone else” was giving to their kids was a good fit for our family, and yet time and again God has amazed us by blessing our children with knowledge above what they should have, given their opportunities and even better than that we’ve seen God’s blessing our children’s hearts with a love for others.

Teach Kids to Teach Themselves

The little kids develop a simple lifting system.

One of our primary goals as we educate education our children is to teach them to learn on their own. I believe that this is why I excelled in my college classes, it wasn’t that I necessarily knew all of the information, I just knew how to learn. After all, how many of you have learned new information or new skills without any classes? Plus, when you learn as an adult, your children will learn right along with you.

So the primary way that we’ve ‘taught’ advanced subjects is by preparing our children to learn on their own.

I think that perhaps this is one of the most negative influences that the public school system mentality has had on the homeschooling community. We have swallowed, hook, line and sinker, the idea that ‘professionals’ are the ones who should teach those ‘difficult’ subjects, but this simply isn’t the case (and nowhere in Scripture do you see a command to make sure to have professionals come in to educate your children).

You can do it! They can do it!

The little kids in a house they designed and built.

Our older children have been very successful learning math, science and Greek (are there any other ‘advanced’ subject areas?) independently.

Our kids have done high school chemistry and biology, complete with experiments and dissections all on their own.

Algebra 1 and 2 have been completed with very minimal help. (I asked our three children who have taken these classes and they each said that they sat down with their dad on a couple of specific problems (not concepts) and that when they finally figured it out, it was by going back and reading the text more carefully. i.e. the answer was there all the time.)

Our kids are working their way through a college/seminary Greek course on their own. Recently, God has provided a special addition to their Greek learning, which I’ll speak about shortly under the heading of “Christian Community”.

How to Teach your kids to be self-teachers

Bella (2) exploring the beach

I’ve said it before and I’ll probably say it again, but I think that it’s vitally important for children to have free time. It is my opinion that in many (perhaps most) cases in the U.S., having more free time will be more beneficial for a child than any type of scheduled activity.

Encourage your children to pursue things which interest them. They will learn more than you think and they will thank you for it when they get older.

Choose the right curriculum

Most of the homeschooling curricula and classes available today do not encourage children to be self learners because they spoon feed the children information that ‘someone’ deems important and then ask the children to regurgitate it back. Choose books and resources that encourage both you and your children to think, evaluate and examine.

It shouldn’t be an issue of getting the right answer, but of asking the right questions.

We LOVE “Life of Fred” math starting with 5th or 6th grade. In the front of the book it encourages parents to point their children back to the book when they come with a question because it explains that children need to be able to learn by reading the information.

Apologia also has this mindset. In Biology, it steps the children through the first several dissections and then tells them to do the research and figure out how to do the last dissection on their own.

Encourage your kids to try, even if it means ‘failing’

Our children come to me frequently with, what I consider, crazy ideas. I think that it’s part of my job to encourage them to try (as long as it’s safe and legal) because in that trying they’ll learn and one of the things that they’ll learn is that it’s fine to fail.

A few years ago they built a raft with some scrap lumber that we had left-over from a project. We then helped them transport their raft to a pond and they all took turns navigating around the pond on their raft. Honestly, I never thought they’d get anything that would float and, while there is some relativity in regard to the term ‘float’, they enjoyed the experience and have built several more effecient rafts since that time.

Teach them to secure their own learning resources

Carter (10), Kaitlin (14) and Colby (6)

Rather than telling them what they need to know or where they should go for help or signing them up for a class, allow them the freedom and opportunity to take responsibility for their learning. Encourage them to figure it out on their own. If they’re new at this and need additional help, offer up some suggestions, but be clear that your list of ideas isn’t exhaustive and encourage them to think of resources on their own.

One of the practical ways we teach this in the younger years is by having a couple of shelves full of science resources and pointing our kids to those shelves when they come inside with any kind of nature question.

One of my frequent questions when the children come tell me about something new they learned is, “How did you learn that?” It’s beautiful to hear my children explain to me the different ways in which they’ve acquired knowledge. Trust me, that skill is much more important than whatever they’ll be taught in a chemistry class.

Mom and Dad

I know this may seem obvious, but you really are your child’s best teachers. You may not know the most about a given subject, but you care the most about your children and their proficiency with any given subject.

Siblings

Matthew (13) holds Valor (3 months) for mom and a baby doll for Bella (2)

We’ve seen the beauty of this frequently with our children. Two of our older children excel at math and science and two are more creative and gifted with words. As they work through different subjects, they will go to each other for help to explain something they don’t fully grasp.

This type of learning is so much more than just understanding a subject; patience, humility, selflessness and simply taking instruction are all valuable tools that we want our young adults to learn.

Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser;
teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.

This teaching is generally spontaneous, it’s not that we assign one of our children to teach any of our other children, although I have been known to direct a child to one of their siblings when they come to me for Greek help.

Christian Community

Your Christian community should be one of the first places outside of the family that you turn to when your children need additional instruction.

We have recently been blessed by a lady in our community who is taking the same Greek course that our older children are taking. She asked if she could come over and work with our children on their Greek. She provides the blessing of accountability and more thorough explanations.

Online

Not only are there lots of online classes and other educational resources, but there are a plethora of information available for free. Matthew and Carter have learned to skin, prepare and cook both squirrels and chipmunks thanks to youtube videos. The girls and I appreciate knittinghelp.com when/if we run into techniques with which we are unfamiliar. And of course Google is a good friend of all homeschoolers.

You may also be interested in:

Why Greek?
Finding time for play - ’cause it’s important
Curriculum Choices for Big Kids
Homeschooling schedule
A Child’s World - what kids will do with free time
God’s methods for education
Teaching big kids
6 Distinctives of our homeschool

How have you tackled those advanced subjects in your homeschool?

Visit the other moms of many to see what they have to say:

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

Enjoy the 4 Moms posts? We wrote a book together. Buy the 4 Moms, 35+ Kids Parenting book available as an ebook or on Kindle.

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Confessions: Giggles from Our Homeschool

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 13:16:12 +0000

Posted with Kaitlin’s (15) permission.

For several years our goal has been for Mark to be more involved in homeschooling our children, specifically as they get into the upper grades. We’ve slowly and surely made progress in this direction and this year Mark is the primary homeschool parent for our oldest children. (He plans, gives and checks all assignments in all subjects, oversees all group readings and leads all discussions. This really allows me to focus on home educating our younger children.)

I hope that this is an encouragement to those of you who have a goal of a father being very involved in the homeschooling. Mark does not have the type of job where he can take children with him (he’s on the road everyday and most of the places that he goes require security clearance). This is something that our family has grown into and the Lord has brought about and I’m confident that for nearly all families who desire this it is possible, even with those situations that make it more challenging.

One of the things that Mark is working through with our older children is Omnibus Year 2 by Veritas Press. While they were reading Augustine’s Confessions I received an email from Mark.

It made me giggle, I love these kids.

Here is the email:

The assignment was to start an outline that will be used to write your own confession. I gave the assignment last week but no one was finished on Monday and only one was done last night. Read Kaitlin’s below.

In the year of our Lord 1998 I, Kaitlin ____ was born to two Christian parents. I have been raised to love the Lord Jesus Christ who is my Savior and who was willing to die on the cross to save me.

For my school I was told to do a paper about my confessions. Instead I slacked off and did not get it done.

Dad wanted me to write a paper so that I could learn diligence and practice my writing.

Instead of doing this writing I played, ran and forgot to do it. When it came time to turn the paper in I tried to make excuses for not having it done instead of telling Dad the truth.

I told Dad I forgot, but forgetting is a sin because I didn’t think it was important enough to remember.

When I saw Dad’s look of disappointment I knew I had failed him and had not obeyed my Heavenly Father. Thank you Lord for your mercy to those who do not keep your commandments.

Dad here is my outline. I love you.

What have your kids done recently that made you laugh or just shake your head in disbelief?

You may also be interested in:

Some of my “Not Me” posts

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Read the Bible in 90 Days: Go

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 13:01:53 +0000

If you’re following our Bible reading plan for the year (our 2012 plan worked so well that we’re doing the same in 2013) you just finished reading through the Bible, if not, now is a perfect time to jump in and read the Bible in 90 days (or in 6 months or in a year).

Today’s reading is Genesis 1-16. Here is the rest of the schedule if you’d like to join us.

Congratulations to Savannah Grace (just turned 8) who completed reading through the Bible in 90 days for her first time. We’re very proud of you.

Why does our family believe that Bible reading is important? Well, we believe reading is important and we believe that the Bible is the most important book you can read.

We think that it’s unwise to invest more time into reading books about to invest into time spent reading the Bible.

Requiring our children to through the Bible at least one time each year has been one of our best/most important homeschooling decisions that we’ve made. Do not underestimate the importance and value of reading God’s Word, it does not return void.

One side note, this is not our children’s only daily time in the Word of God. They delve more deeply into the Scriptures during our times of family worship, Bible memorization, school Bible reading and more.

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Teens, Schedules, Memorization and More: 4 Moms Q & A

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 11:30:58 +0000

I apologize that I’m out of lock-step with the other moms of many this week. I thought that it had been determined that we would be answering questions this week and so I prepared this post a few weeks ago. Then last night (after our family was off-line for the day) emails were flying and it was determined that we should be posting on a predetermined topic, so if you want to read a post about what to do when you desire more children and your husband does not, then visit the other 4 Moms:

Otherwise, I’m tackling more of your questions.

Lauree asked,

Discipline issues with teenagers. What do you do when they get mouthy with you?

Of course we’re still at the beginning of the teen years (we have three teens the oldest is 16), we’ll have multiple teens in our house for the next 16 or so years and so far the teen years have been delightful (perhaps my favorite stage of all, it’s like the icing on the cake of raising children-delightful!) For those who are curious, in two years we will have 6 teens in our home at once. I’m so looking forward to that!!

There have been a few occasions when we’ve had to correct one or another of our teens about the tone of voice they were using. Thus far, we believe that all our children that have entered the teen years have demonstrated the fruit of the Spirit and each time God brought quick repentance to our child from us pointing out that their attitude came across as haughty.

♦

Elizabeth asks,

How did you handle being pregnant with all littles? Did you just tough out that season, and count down to better days? Or were there specific ways you tried to keep things simple.

The short answer is anyway you can.

I’ve done all of the following at different times:

take a break from school
use videos – My big kids remember this with fondness and my little ones probably wish that this would happen again.
crock.pot – It’s your best friend.
Fast food – yep. This last pregnancy was the first time our family has made it through a first trimester without relying on fast food and that is because Amber took over in the kitchen.
once we paid a lady in our church to prepare a bunch of meals for our freezer
eliminate outside of the house obligations

You may also appreciate “Homeschooling Through Pregnancy or Chronic Illness”

♦

Kathy asked,

What do you do when you feel your scheduling and planning has failed, that your curriculum choices were way off? How do you restart? How do you reset? Do you concern yourself that it’s midstream, or do you just begin fresh and not worry about grade levels, etc?

This is a terrific question and one that took me a while to really get a grip on what was the best way to handle it. We finally decided that it was better to just start over midstream and not worry about grade levels.

Our decision was made clear when we considered this question, which is more important making sure that our children check off all the boxes and are in the right grade at the right time OR our children learning what they need to learn without all of us being miserable?

Our family is constantly making changes in how we homeschool. Our goal is to educate our children, not to make sure they systematically make their way through a set curriculum or a specific book list. Just recently, Mark has added a more self-conscious educational aspect to our meal times (We discuss a specific doctrine during dinner time each evening. Currently we;re discussing eschatology, just last night Mark asked Savannah (8) to explain about perterism. She told us why she was a preterist, but not a hyper-preterist based on some of our previous discussions.)

The talk titled, “How to Prepare for a Year of Home Education” in Family Strategies: How to Build a Healthy Family Culture in Your Home explains how we try to educate our children in our home.

♦

She also wondered if I could share

the best remedy for inconsistency on the part of the teacher.

Just do it!

You may also be interested in “Homeschooling When Mom Needs an Attitude Adjustment“. All the advice in that post would be equally applicable in this circumstance.

Tera said,

You said that your children do a lot of Scripture memory. How do you decide what is age appropriate and how long to give them to finish?

The vast amount of Scripture memorization is done together in groups with our Memorization System. We have a memory box for both the big kids and the little kids that we do every weekday. We’re not in a rush and we don’t have set time limits. Whenever most of the children have memorized a passage we move on. We’ve found that over the years we’ve memorized a lot of Scripture.

Another way we’ve done Scripture memory is to make it into a game or a contest. Who can memorize the most verses in a week? (We give them a list of passages to work on.) This will give you a good idea of what each of your children are capable of doing. Each child is different and each should be encouraged to work their hardest.

Who can memorize the first chapter of Ephesians in ___(a certain amount of time)____. We gave the children different amounts of time based on their abilities. Whoever completed the memory work in their assigned time earned a place at a family party.

I think the important thing is incorporating Scripture memory into everyday. If you’re working on it regularly then you’ll find what works best for your family and for your individual children.

I was encouraged and inspired by Bambi’s post on how the made a more concentrated effort to encourage their children to memorize Scripture.

Now head over to the other Moms of Many to read about what they would do if they wanted more children and their husband didn’t:

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Changes

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 13:56:03 +0000

After much discussion and prayer, Mark and I have decided that I need to take a small step back from the responsibility of posting once a week on a specific topic with the 4 Moms.

My life is simply too full for that level of commitment at this time.

Full of my crazy,

Colby (5) and Nick (4) being snowmen with a bag of stuffing.

Mark mocks our attempt at “camping” cornbread.

Pirate Valor ( a couple months old)

Told you, crazy!

amazing, precious family,

Savannah (7), Carter (10) and Colby (6)

Colby (6)

Kaitlin (14)

Precious, too!

Bella (2)

real-life friends,

surprise 40th birthday party

Kaitlin (14) with friends planning a surprise birthday party for me.

Yes, they completely surprised me.

My favorite part, sitting on the porch late into the evening discussing theology.

celebrating babies

(Three babies in 3 days and a fourth a few days later, plus more on the way. We celebrated together, of course)

Some of the new babies in our group.

The dads that had new babies each read an open letter to their child.
Mark’s letter to Valor brought tears. I’m so very thankful.

What’s a celebration without singing?

family campouts

(Some spent the night, some hiked and some just came for the food.)

Most of the group at our annual campout

Some of our precious friends at our annual campout

We are so thankful that God has put these people in our lives.

Thankful for ALL of them.

and just regular life in God’s family.

Amber (15) plays the violin along with the guitar and cello as we sing at one of our Sunday afternoon gatherings.

The 4 babies, born within days of each other, are growing.

Eden (3) and Bella (2) are best buds.

Colby (6) and Savannah (7) congratulate Mr. and Mrs. Lindauer on their race through the obstacle course.
I’m not telling who won.

Mark, Liz, Chris and Matthew (12) enjoy more of my favorite – late night talks.

I’ve found that our family dynamic and schedule has changed with the addition of teens (3 so far and adding one more this year) and I’m no longer able to regularly spend time blogging when the children are in bed or resting, mainly because the children get up earlier and go to bed later and my teens enjoy my input during rest time.

Our hope is that by cutting back my commitment of weekly, scheduled posts on pre-set topics, I will have more time for other priorities and that I will also be able to find the time and passion to post about other things. (I really miss having the time to post “Not Me’s” and recording life during these ever changing years.)

I will continue to post with the 4 Moms on the second Thursday of the month. (The rest of the moms of many are going to do weekly Q & A posts the rest of the time. Stay tuned to the 4 Moms Facebook page for your opportunity to ask questions.)

I still hope to see you weekly, but we’ll see. Regardless, I’m grateful for the work that God is doing in our lives and the work He is doing in yours. I am looking forward to seeing what He has in store for us.

Now may be a good time to sign up for email updates or follow via RSS, so that you will know when I post.

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Ultimate Easter Basket {Giveaway}

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 11:46:25 +0000

This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to Melissa who won the giveaway package from Crayola.

Our family is pretty low-key about Easter celebrations. We generally go to church and then enjoy a big family dinner.

Occasionally we pick up some candy in an after-Easter clearance sale and every once and a while Mark talks me into dyeing Easter eggs sometime in May.

Last year we arranged a very special egg hunt for the children as a fun way to announce the gender of our expected baby.

But this year, when I was contacted about creating an Ultimate Easter Basket chock full of Crayola products, how could I refuse?

Kaitlin (12), Me, Amber (13), Bella (4 months), Alyssa (10)

(Our trip to NYC, one of the special reasons we LOVE Crayola!)

Crayola sent us a package full of goodies plus a $25 gift card to Michael’s to get the rest of the supplies needed to create this ultimate {large family} Easter basket.

We filled our basket with a little something for everyone in our family (a big thanks to my kids for picking out and helping make it all look ‘pretty’).

Thanks to a clearance sale at Michael’s which included cake and candy decorating kits from Wilton and the generous package from Crayola, we stayed within a $25 budget.

Enter for a chance to win a Crayola Gift Pack

Your gift pack will include:

$25 Michael’s gift card
2 Crayola Color Wonder Kits
Crayola sidewalk chalk
Crayola Giant Bubbles
Crayola Crayons

To enter do one or more of the following:

Visit the Crayola website and then come back and leave a comment telling me one of your favorite Crayola product.
Like Crayola on Facebook (and leave a comment telling me you did)
Follow @Crayola on Twitter (and leave a comment telling me you did)

A random winner will be chosen on March 8th and will be notified via email.

The Crayola product, gift card, information, and additional gift pack have been provided by Crayola.

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Adopting, Character Training, Selecting Books: 4 Moms Q & A

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 12:21:44 +0000

Becky asked,

Has your family ever considered adopting and what service projects do you guys do?

Yes, we’ve considered and have actively pursued adopting on several occasions. So far, the Lord has firmly closed the door, but we remain open to this possibility.

As far as service projects, we believe that God has specifically called our family to serve the body of Christ by encouraging other families as they walk the road less traveled. For us, this means opening up our home to groups and individuals, facilitating ways for families to meet for times of encouragement and biblical teaching (including camp outs, an Above Rubies retreat, and a much talked about, but hasn’t yet happened family conference here in the Knoxville area) and preparing and serving lots and lots of food.

So far because of our family dynamic of having many small children, other acts of service have been mainly limited to financially supporting those who are on the front lines.

♦

Blair wondered about,

How to deal with family and friends who question about having more kids.

I was fairly certain that the 4 Moms have posted about this before, but when I checked our handy-dandy list of ALL the topics we’ve ever covered (complete with links), I couldn’t find it on there. So here goes.

We haven’t had much of a problem with it honestly. My mom is the youngest of 10, so she can’t really say anything, right Mom? There have been times when one person or the other hasn’t been thrilled when we’ve announced a new arrival, but we just allow that (or try to allow that) to roll off of our backs.

♦

Emily said,

I’ve read on your blog before that at times when your children are struggling with character/behavior issues you guys put everything on hold to work on the issues at hand. I’m curious how that looks.

Of course it looks different depending on the issue, the number of children struggling and the number/ages of the children in our family. In other words there isn’t a set way the day looks.

The point of “putting everything on hold” is so that the children will have my undivided attention all day so that we can really focus on the character training that was lacking. At the end of the day, if we’ve worked hard on character training, we shouldn’t be discouraged with not getting much else done.

These are some possible scenarios:

Cancel any outside of the house activities. If friends were coming over or if we had lessons or cross country practice, we’d cancel or chose not to go. We did not to run errands or grocery shop. This ensures that the focus stays where we want it to stay, on character training.

Front: L-R: Alyssa (12), Carter (10), Sadie (9), Matthew (13)
Back: L-R: Amber (16), Mark, Kaitlin (14)

Eliminate any other things that would distract me or make it difficult for me to stop what I was doing to handle the correction and teaching of our children. For me this generally includes school work, computer, phone, or other mind-consuming projects, etc. For you the list may be different.

Generally, we would tackle some type of cleaning or organizing project around the house. Everyone would be working together on the same thing and we would all be in the same area all day. Then every time a character issue needed to be addressed, I’m able to address it and since I’m not trying to tackle all of my regular duties I’m not frustrated (hopefully) that we really didn’t get anything done that day.

♦

Stephanie asked,

What is your favorite food?

First of all, thank you Stephanie!

I have two, chocolate and ice cream. Of course to qualify the ice cream should have chocolate in it.

♦

Sarah asked,

How do you make “one on one” time with your husband and each of your children?

Here’s what the 4 Moms have had to say about that; Spending Time Alone with Your Husband and Spending Individual Time with Kids.

♦

Nichole asked,

How do you encourage sibling relationships?

I hope that you find these posts to be helpful:

Building Strong Sibling Relationships
How does your family foster great sibling relationships? – This is a Q&A post and the answer is a little way down the page.
Solving Sibling Squabbles – How we teach our children to handle squabbles biblically.
Bossy Older Siblings

♦

Tosha asked,

How do you choose good age appropriate books?

We have a few friends who we trust with book recommendations and I do a lot of pre-reading. I generally pre-read, or get input from others on Sonlight’s recommendations. (In this post I share the Sonlight books that we don’t read.)

Most of it comes down to doing your research, pre-reading and finding like-minded friends from whom to get suggestions. You may also like these book lists that I’ve posted.

We are a lot more free with what our older children read. We gently guide and with books that we haven’t read, we trust their judgement to come to us if there is something that is inappropriate.

♦

Visit the other moms of many to see what they have to say:

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

Enjoy the 4 Moms posts? We wrote a book together. Buy the 4 Moms, 35+ Kids Parenting book available as an ebook or on Kindle.

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Laziness and Arrogance – Helping Our Children Work Hard with a Happy Attitude: Part 2

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 13:30:31 +0000

At the beginning of yesterday’s post I mentioned how difficult it is for me to answer this type of question to those who do not know me and my family personally and based on several of the responses to that post I did not overcome that difficulty and failed to present a balanced answer.

Yesterday’s post elicited criticism on both ends of the spectrum. On one hand this,

My gosh! You don’t do any of the housework or cooking? That is not right. How can you encourage your kids to work hard when it sounds like you do nothing but delegate?

and on the other this,

I must say that at times I wish that you posted more “real” scenarios and actually admitted once in a while that your children had A bad day. Your posts always sound as if your children are always perfect.

and this,

As far as talking about the shortcomings… your post sounds like you have it down pat.

At the root of the above comments is accurate criticism, both that I’m lazy and that I’m proud. I am both.

I am a sinner. I am a redeemed sinner who faces no condemnation in Christ. However, I continue to sin and fail Him on a daily basis in more ways than I can count.

I am lazy. My husband, children and friends know this because they’ve seen it and they’ve heard me ask forgiveness for my laziness.

I am proud and have far too high an opinion of myself and of my ideas. Once again, this will come as no surprise to my husband, children or those who know me personally.

So, in as far as I’ve sullied the name of Christ by my sin coming through on this blog in yesterday’s post and in previous posts, I ask for your forgiveness. It is my earnest desire that above all else Christ would be exalted by my efforts on this blog and in my life.

He must increase, but I must decrease.

Thank you for your patience with me as a sister in Christ.

It is difficult for me to write about the type of topic addressed yesterday because I currently don’t have (or am unwilling to take) the time that I need to present a whole, balanced picture to those who don’t know us personally. Please allow me to try to add some “real scenarios” to give you a more balance and perspective to yesterday’s thoughts.

First a statement of the obvious, our whole family has bad days. I have bad days. Mark has bad days. Every one of the children have bad days. It’s a fact. We all sin and there are some days when we sin a lot more than other days.

{Please understand that I will generally not share specific struggles or sins of my children because neither Mark nor I believe that it’s good for them to have their private sins placed out in the public arena for people to criticize and comment upon. On this blog, I am purposely slow to point out the failures of either my husband or my children and quick to point out their successes.}

Training our children in hard work and diligence with a pleasant attitude is a daily, if not hourly task. It’s a daunting, discouraging task. Laziness and grumpiness are part of our everyday life, but there is hope and we’ve seen beautiful fruit in our children.

Yesterday I mentioned that we don’t tolerate a lousy attitude in our children. This doesn’t mean that our children never have lousy attitudes and this doesn’t mean that Mark and I handle lousy attitudes properly every time, they do and we don’t.

Teens – Several days ago, one of our teens was struggling with cheerful obedience. This is a teen who demonstrates the fruit of the Spirit in their life (I imagine this would be handled differently if we weren’t confident of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit). I told the child to take a few minutes to examine their heart and attitude in light of God’s Word. A few minutes later, the child returned to me, confessed the poor attitude and asked for forgiveness. Generally, this type of gentle rebuke is sufficient.

Sometimes we remind them of Scripture passages which they are violating. Sometimes we share with them our vision for what their behavior should be. Sometimes we talk with them about how we’ve struggled with the same difficulties and sometimes there are biblical punishments for continual refusal to comply.

Preschoolers - To me it seems that this is the easiest age to tackle these issues. One of the first phrases that we have taught our children is, “I’m disappointed.” When one of our verbal children begins to cry, we remind them that they may not fuss and cry if they are not hurt, but should use words. Then we role play, giving them the words to express their feelings. [Colby's Attitude Change in Pictures]

The Middles - From around age 4 or 5 until age 9 to 11 are what I call the Galatians 6:9 years.

And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.

Galatians 6:9 is not for the children, but for me. Chores require constant checking, feedback, rechecking and biblical consequences and when I begin to get discouraged I try to remember Galatians 6:9. If your oldest children are in this age range there is hope just around the corner (read my post from yesterday). [Teaching Children to Work and Teaching Children Diligence]

We often fail. We always fall short. However, in spite of our failings God has chosen to bless our children with good fruit beyond anything that we could ever hope to deserve. I hope that yesterday’s post will be an encouragement to you. If God can accomplish that in our family in spite of our sins and in spite of our failings, He can do it in yours.

But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. 1 Cor. 1:27-29

We are weak and we are foolish, but God in His great mercy has chosen us to equip these children for His service. Indeed we serve a good and gracious God!

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Helping Our Children Work Hard with a Happy Attitude: 4 Moms

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 13:49:21 +0000

“How do you teach your children to work hard with a happy attitude?”
That’s the question that the 4 Moms are answering today and it’s a hard one.

Edited to add: Obviously I didn’t handle this topic well, so please read Part 2: Laziness and Arrogance for a more balanced picture.

First of all, we don’t tolerate our children working, obeying or just hanging around with a lousy attitude ever. We don’t tolerate this in the one or two year old, in the eight year old or in our teens.

We’ve taught our children to obey cheerfully from the beginning and generally our older ones simply need a reminder if they are struggling with cheerful obedience. I also think that this is mainly an issue of God’s grace working in the lives of our children. While the Proverbs do say that the rod gets to a child’s heart, ultimately (even if the outside appearance is cheerful) none of us can have a right attitude toward God (or any other authority) without God’s mercy.

As I’ve pondered this post, I’ve struggled with what to say. Most of you don’t know me and don’t know my children.

You have no idea whether or not our children work hard and you have no idea whether our children are cheerful.

You also have no idea what my definition of ‘hard work’ is.

It’s much easier to answer this question when people we know ask it.

“Why are your children always so eager to help?”
“How have you taught your children to see what needs to be done and do it without asking them?”
“How have you trained your children to serve each other cheerfully?”

They know our kids and know what to expect if they ask for our advice. But you don’t know our kids, so allow me to give you a glimpse into our home.

The beginning of my pregnancy with Valor was tough and while I did post on here that I was in and out of the hospital struggling with dehydration, I did not post (and don’t intend to now) how extremely ill I was. Let’s suffice it to say that it was a “good day” when I was able to be upright (sitting) for more than 4 hours in a 24-hour period. I was so sick that I was back in the bedroom sleeping even when our family Bible study group was meeting in our home.

The house functioned without me for 3 months and the children figured out how to cope without me on their own.

Amber (15 at the time) managed all the food. She planned all the meals, prepared shopping lists and put 3 meals a day on the table for 12 people.

Kaitlin and Matthew (13 and 11 at the time) tag teamed the responsibilities with the younger children (5, 3 and 1), keeping them cleaned, entertained and cared for.

Everyone pitched in and continued to do our basic cleaning and home maintenance routines and of course Mark supervised and kept up with everyone’s school work.

Not only did they keep the basics going, they hosted large groups in our home several times.

And after that experience, our children still pray that God will send us more babies. So overall I would have to say that we are making progress in this area.

So how did this happen? How have we helped our children to become happy servants? The simple answer is, “We’re still working on it and I’m not sure.”

This is one of the main goals of our parenting.

We want to teach our children to be humble servants of Christ.

So this whole blog is really an answer to this question. We try to make all of our parenting decisions lead to this end. If our children are humble servants of Christ they will humbly and cheerfully serve others. Also note that if WE are humble servants of Christ, WE will humbly and cheerfully serve others, and yes that is convicting to me.

That said, here are some things that I think have contributed to the work ethic we see in our children (and trust me, it’s not perfect. It’s so hard to speak of these things to those who do not know our children, their strengths and weaknesses):

We expect our children to contribute to the family welfare. In addition for taking care of their own things (brushing their hair, keeping up with their school work, making their bed, etc.), every member of our family spends time serving the whole family. We do this regularly with daily chores.

We expect our children to serve others by denying self. One example of how we do this is that whenever there is a line for getting food, we always allow others to go before us. Our family is nearly always one of the last to get food.

This is true even when we have little children who are overly hungry and/or tired. The truth is that learning to be a servant is learning to do things we don’t want to do and often that will mean dealing with being uncomfortable.

I realize this is completely contrary to our culture where we excuse poor behavior in children with “they’re overly hungry” or “they missed their nap today” and we rush grumpy children to the front of the line. A lack of physical comfort is absolutely no reason for poor behavior, disobedience, selfishness or even fussing (for children who are verbal).

We encourage our children to be productive. I’ve mentioned before that we don’t go in for much of this entertainment society that surrounds us. Generally our children’s non-productive screen time is limited to one family video each Friday evening.

Currently, our older children (age 7 and over) spend their ‘free time’ learning music, drawing, running cross country, cooking, planning and planting a garden, reading, wood carving, taking care of the baby and sewing. This is what they do for fun. Our younger children spend a lot of time playing outside, drawing, building with Lego’s, playing with the babies and watching/helping the bigger kids.

Our children have progressed naturally from the play type activities of the younger years to the more productive type activities of the older years. They actually desire to be productive.

We do NOT require our children to participate in non-productive activities. I say this because I think it contributes to how our children decide to spend their time. If, from the time they are small, we occupy our children’s time with purposeless, repetitive tasks (I’m thinking of all that preschool busywork that we throw at our children) then it will be natural for them to continue to choose non-productive activities when they are older. (6 Distinctives of our Homeschool)

It’s for this reason that we delay formal instruction in math and grammar. We teach our children those skills that they need and use as they are needed and wait until they are older and have a good grasp on how they use grammar and math on a daily basis to introduce formal instruction and workbooks. So far, all of our children have enjoyed and excelled in both grammar and math.

We do expect a lot from our children. While we don’t require a lot of busywork and we try very hard not to fill our children’s time with meaningless activities, we do require a lot from our children. Hopefully, what we require reflects our purposes and goals for our children’s lives, so while you won’t see Olive children completing myriads of worksheets or other time consumers, they have plenty of opportunities to practice diligence.

Our children memorize scripture, lots of it. It takes us over 30 minutes each morning to recite our review passages from the ‘big kids box’ and a couple weeks ago, several of the children memorized the first chapter of Ephesians within 3 days.

Our children read the Bible. All independent readers spend about an hour reading their Bible everyday.

Our children help around the house. My role is more managerial these days and I’m able to focus on parenting and educating our children, most everything else is delegated.

Our children help with the younger ones. – They actually beg and squabble over who gets to do this.

Our children serve others. Look around, there are lots of opportunities for this for any child between 7-9 or older (even younger ones can be helpful, but when it comes to helping with younger children, a little older is better). Most kids are too busy playing to notice, but if parents are aware they can see the opportunities and direct your children. People who drop something at the store, opening the door for ladies, helping other families with small children, walking a fussy baby, cleaning up after a church meal, carrying packages or boxes for others, helping prepare food for others, babysitting, mowing yards, etc., etc. The needs are vast!

We work alongside of our children. We love to tackle projects together as a team. It’s amazing how quickly things can get done when you have a bunch of people working together. Our children help with whatever is happening in the home. Some kids help with the little ones (2 and 5 months), some kids help mom, some help dad and some may help an older sibling.

Also, those needs that I mentioned above and more are needs that are often not being met by the church body. Often families could use help as they struggle with illness, welcome a new baby, tackle big projects, etc. This is where the body of Christ can come together and lend a hand. The key here is not being so busy with your own life that you have no time to help others. When you go to help others include your children. Not only can they be very helpful, they are also watching you.

As a word of encouragement, there was a time when we were not seeing the results that we wanted. Namely, that we were always having to point out to our children the needs of those around them. I think that this is a problem that simply resolves itself with maturity and practice. Keep on keeping on and don’t be discouraged. Gently point out how they can help those around them and soon they will begin to see things themselves.

I would say that things should probably change if your children are not obeying you cheerfully whatever their age. Even Valor (5 months) understands the meaning of the word ‘no’ and doesn’t touch things that we tell him are a ‘no’.

Also, children who are capable of speaking should not be in the habit of crying when they are not hurt. I suspect that allowing this will make it more difficult to teach cheerful obedience in the future.

How have you helped teach your children to work hard with a happy attitude?

You may also be interested in:

Large family chore lists
6 Distinctives of our Homeschool
Memorizing system
Bible reading – why and how
Bible reading schedules
Colby’s Attitude Change – a pictorial tutorial of how we teach our children to obey with a sweet attitude

Visit the other moms of many to see what they have to say:

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

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Pastry Wrapped Brie: A Valentine’s Day Recipe Link Up

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 10:51:56 +0000

When I told my husband this week’s topic he laughed. For years Mark and the boys have been in charge of Valentine’s Day. “What will you post he asked?”

I thought about throwing up the linky and just asking you all to share your favorite recipes, but then I remembered. One year Mark had a work emergency at the last minute, so the girls took over the celebratory preparations. The biggest hit of the night was a simple pastry-wrapped brie wheel with raspberry preserves.

Since we had last minute notice that we were ‘on’ for dinner, this recipe falls into the super-easy category. It’s so far into that category that I’m not sure it even be called a recipe.

Pastry Wrapped Brie Wheel with Raspberry Preserves

Brie wheel – any size according to how many you’d like to serve
Pre-made pastry dough (uncooked) – enough to completely wrap your wheel (Yes, I know that this is a ‘no-no’ for you health nuts out there, but I told you this was last minute.)
Raspberry Preserves – Any type (If it’s sweet, it will taste marvelous with your pastry wrapped brie

Neatly wrap the brie wheel with the pre-made pastry. Feel free to use pie crust, puff pastry or crescent roll dough, it will all be delicious. Place in the oven and cook according to the pastry instructions. You’ll probably have to add a bit of time depending upon the size of the wheel, etc. When it looks a lovely, golden brown it’s probably done.

Remove from the oven and allow to sit for 5 minutes. Serve with raspberry preserves on the side or if the entire wheel will be eaten quickly, drizzle the raspberry preserves over top. Or cut a serving sized slice and top with the raspberry preserves.

Now it’s your turn. Please remember these rules:

Your post must be family friendly.
Link to a specific relevant post, not to the homepage of your blog.
Your post must include a link to at least one of the 4 Moms.
If your link is deleted, you probably didn’t follow these rules. We hope you’ll fix the problem and try again! If you don’t know why your link was deleted, just ask.

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For best results, use HTML mode to edit this section of the post.

The other Moms of Many:

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

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Routines, Schedules and Hooks: Getting it All Done

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 13:21:15 +0000

When it comes to managing our home, our routine (or schedule) has been the single most valuable tool.

Many people are intimidated at the thought of setting up or using a routine or schedule. Many say that they function best without one, but I would disagree.

The truth is that nearly everyone has a routine or schedule.

How many of you have a day that looks something like this:

Wake up
Eat breakfast
Eat lunch
Eat dinner
Go to bed

Do you do this nearly every day? Then YOU use a routine.

Now, it’s just a question of whether you wish to use your routine to accomplish more than eating and sleeping.

I recently posted our full schedule in detail here. Below you will see the basic, underlying plan, from there we hang on all the extra details.

I read long ago that one key to consistently getting things done is to “hang” important tasks on “hooks”. A hook is something that occurs daily. The five events listed above are the “hooks” we’ve used to build our routine.

Below are the tasks that we have hung on each of the “hooks” listed above.

1. Waking up

Read Bible – Depending on reading level our children read through the Bible between 1-4 times a year. (This year the 7 year old is joining the older kids in reading through 4 times.)
Dress, tidy room, personal grooming
Before breakfast chores

2. Breakfast

Eat
Family worship
Memorization box
Hymn, picture or music study
Table chores
School work

3. Lunch

Eat
Read aloud
Table chores
Play outside
Rest time

4. Dinner

One hour BEFORE dinner time – regular chores During this time the whole house is cleaned and tidied, the table is set and dinner is prepared and put on the table. (I think it’s time to update our chores lists as I think the most recent list on here is from 2-3 years ago.
Eat
Table chores
Ready for bed
Family worship
Little ones to bed
School work and discussion with Dad

There are many routines within this big routine. For example, during regular chores each child has a mini-routine to follow (they pick up after them self first, next they complete their assigned task, then they tidy in their bedroom). As you work within a routine you can build in more or less detail as it suits your family.

Having this type of routine allows for plenty of flexibility. We’re easily able to do “regular chores” (normally an activity that takes place right before dinner) right after breakfast if we’re going to be out all day.

As our children have gotten older, we’ve found that we give them areas of responsibility and they create their own routines to accomplish their tasks. (i.e. Kitchen duty – the person with this responsibility plans the dinner menu, creates the grocery list and prepares the evening meals. It’s the most coveted responsibility.)

As our family changes and our needs change the specifics of what we do changes, but this same outline remains.

You may also be interested in:

Putting it all together: Fall 2012 schedule
Summer schedule 2011
Daily schedule 2010 – includes a schedule from when we had 4 children, 3 and younger
Build a better schedule - tips for creating a schedule that actually works
Daily Bible reading: How and Why
Bible reading schedules - for reading through the Bible in 90 days and for reading through the Bible in 6 months
Early Bedtimes

The other Moms of Many have this to say about their schedules:

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

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Valor at 5 Months

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 13:47:01 +0000

Valor was born 5 months ago. Can you believe that, 5 months??

Valor continues to be a remarkably happy and content baby. He smiles easily and hasn’t met a stranger. Quite a contrast to little princess Bella who really wanted things exactly the way she wanted them.

Valor laughs through diaper changes, baths, nursing and play time and then cuddles into bed when it’s time to sleep, although he doesn’t object to being held/snuggled through a nap.

Along with his easy-going nature, Valor is loud and active.

All boy this one.

It’s an interesting contrast to have a baby who is so happy and content to snuggle and so active and LOUD.

He loves to jabber, talk and shriek. (Why or why does he enjoy that shrieking so much?)

His current favorite sound is “Ba, ba, ba”. Nick (4) says, “Mom, Valor thinks he’s a sheep.”

Valor spends so much time being held that I was thinking he may be a little ‘slow’ on some of his developmental milestones, but I was wrong. Even though he didn’t attempt to roll over until he was 3 months, he was successful first try and hasn’t stopped since.

Valor loves to move, bounce, scoot, explore and crawl.

Yes, I said crawl. The boy is officially a mobile unit.

He gets up on all fours and propels himself. It’s not yet the typical hand and knee crawl and he’s not into long distances yet, but he’s moving about on all fours and gone are the days of being able to find the baby wherever you put him down.

Valor gives me ‘kisses’. When I hold him it’s a constant barrage. He reaches out both hands, grasps my cheeks, pulls me in for huge, open-mouthed displays of affection.

Valor (4 months) realizing the reality of life with 6 older sisters.

I’m loved.

Where is that tiny, scrap of humanity that was such a soft lump of fuzzy, floppy, snugly….sigh.

It’s going fast and I’m just trying to soak in every moment that I can.

You may also be interested in:

Sleep talks with Bella
Valor’s birth and first week
Coping with a newborn
Homeschooling with little ones
Reality: A Live Blogging Adventure – a glimpse into a regular day in our home regular updates posted throughout the day

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Valor at 5 Months is a post from: Raising Olives

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Building a Social Circle, Child Training and Treating Colds and Flu Naturally: 4 Moms Q & A

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 13:22:21 +0000

Enter for an excellent chance to win a Lilla Rose Flexi of your choice.

Today is another 4 Moms question and answer post. So here goes.

Marie asked,

Does your family use essential oils? What are your favorite uses – especially with cold & flu season?

Yes, our family uses essential oils.

It’s important to use pure, high quality oils when using them for medicinal purposes. Oils of lesser quality may not be as effective and may even contain harmful contaminates. We exclusively use Young Living essential oils and they have been amazingly effective (even hubby is convinced) and their effectiveness for minor ailments such as cold, flu, ear infections, burns, bedwetting, etc. has been almost immediate. (Young Living is currently giving $40 product to new members who order $100 in product. If you sign up with me as either a customer or distributor I will send you an email with more info. My member number is 1328200.)

This cold and flu season has been bad in our area and we’ve been exposed to RSV, stomach flu, THE flu, colds, etc. and thankfully gotten away with just a few days of runny noses and a few coughs.

We use Thieves to knock out a sore throat and at the first sign of cold symptoms. This is an oil blend that is anti-viral and helps to support immune systems.

We’ve been directly exposed influenza twice this year and both times different family members started exhibiting symptoms shortly after (fever, body aches, head ache, chills, etc) exposure, but we’ve used this great protocol and the symptoms vanished within 12 hours.

Essential oil protocol for Influenza

At the first sign of flu symptoms:

Take a warm bath to which the following have been added:

5 drops Melaleuca Alternifolia (Tea Tree)
2 drops Lavender
2 drops Thyme

Then massage your whole body with:

2 drops Meleleuca Alternifoila (Tea Tree)
2 drops Eucalyptus

Mix those essential oils together then add them to 1 tsp of carrier oil (We use olive, coconut or sweet almond as carrier oils.) for the massage.

Spray bedroom with Thyme and Lavender or diffuse that combo in the room and go to bed.

Common cold

My children swear by this ‘common cold’ massage oil. It gives immediate relief although, like all essential oils it may need to be reapplied often.

1 drop Lemon
2 drops Eucalyptus
3 drops Rosemary

Mix these oils together then add 1 tsp 0f carrier oil. Use 1-3 drops to massage around sinus area, neck and chest to relieve congestion, stuffy head, cough and tightness in chest.

Congested cough

This is a terrifically effective, although really nasty tasting, treatment for a congested cough.

Create this oil blend:

2 drops Eucalyptus
1 drop Thyme
1 drop Melaleuca Alternifolia (Tea Tree)

Then put 1 drop of this blend into a Tablespoon of honey (raw, local honey is best). Pour warm/hot water over and sip slowly. I actually prefer to skip the water and just gulp the honey/oil mix down. It seems to me the water just prolongs the yuckiness.

Esther wanted,

Practical expectations for an 18 month old. Both in what tasks they are able to help with and also dealing with comprehension and obedience expectations.

Every child will be different when they’re 18 months and you know your child best, so keep that in mind. Here is a list of chores that we assign to children who are 2.

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.

For chore suggestions for other ages, visit my daily chores post.

All of our children, at 18 months, have been capable of immediate, cheerful obedience. They have also been capable of easily sitting through family as well as corporate worship.

18 month olds, who are verbal, are capable of lots of memorization (I suppose that those who aren’t particularly verbal are also capable of this, it’s just hard to determine if they have something memorized). Several of our children have have memorized the Children’s Catechism by the age of 2. **

**EDIT: I am so sorry. I checked with Mark and he said that our children were nearly, if not already, 4 by the time they memorized the Children’s Catechism. It was not my intention to be deceptive, but I do want to correct this. It is our recollection that our children were 3 or 4 years old before they completed memorizing the Children’s Catechism. This has not been true of our younger children as we’ve been much less faithful in working with them on memorizing. Our older children had memorized a lot more at a younger age than have our younger children have, but we’re working on that.

Bella (2) has several Psalms memorized in addition to many other verses/passages and several of her favorite hymns (and she has been VERY slow verbally, most people still don’t understand her speech). Here’s how we help our children memorize.

I think that much of what determines what our children are capable (or incapable) of is what we expect (or don’t expect) of them. The longer I parent, the more convinced I become that these little ones are much smarter and more capable than we give them credit.

Julie wondered,

What is the best and most consistent way to deal with whiners?

The best and most consistent way to deal with whiners is identical to the best and most consistent way you deal with any sin in your children.

First, you clearly tell your child what is expected of them. (i.e. “You may not whine, you must speak in a big girl/boy voice.”)

If it’s necessary, at this point you can help them understand what you mean by role playing it with them.

For example:

Mom: “Say, ‘Please may I have a snack’ not (in a whining voice) ‘I’m hungry’.
Child (in a whiny voice): ‘Please may I have a snack’.
Mom: “No, did you hear how you used a whiny voice? (Mimic child’s voice). “I want you to use a big boy/girl voice” (Speak emphasizing the ‘big’ voice you want to hear)
Child (in a big kid voice): “Please may I have a snack”.

Second, once they understand what you mean, if they choose to disobey they receive biblical consequences.

To be consistent, you do this each and every time they choose disobedience. (i.e. Each and every time a whiny sound comes out of your child’s mouth, you address it.)

Ashley asked,

How do you deal with a toddler (who is generally well behaved) hitting, pushing, and biting?

See my answer to the previous question and give instruction about hitting, pushing, biting instead of whining.

Lindsey wondered,

Is it normal to have a very small social network with a large family? Seems like we never get invites to anything now that we are a family of 7. I don’t mind at all being the hostess. Just wondering if this is normal, and how to maintain our friendships with other families.

I think this is a terrific question and I think that the answer will vary depending on the place that God has placed you. In the past, we were in a church that, while there were several other large families, there was very little hospitality or interaction of the members outside of official church functions.

We tried to fill this gap by being the hosts for other things (a mom’s support group, family Bible study and lots and lots of having others into our home for dinner) and God blessed this by providing our family with deep friendships with people outside of our particular church family.

We still host the vast majority of time (mostly because we have a house that is especially suited to easily hosting large groups of people), but we now find ourselves in an amazing community of believers who act like our family. All the families in our ‘group’ go to a variety of churches.

This group of families have wept and rejoiced with us. We get together with them for meals, hikes, and sometimes funerals for tiny babies we never met, but we all loved. We take meals when there is illness or busyness. We clean each others homes, house each other when we have plumbing problems and listen on the other end of the phone as we struggle through the hardness of an everyday. We’ve watched children while they’ve called 911, we’ve camped and sang and our kids have fought and we’ve run to each other when our world has fallen apart.

We know each other because we spend time together, we invest in each other (and it is an investment).

I think that this is missing in most churches, homeschool groups and social circles regardless of family size. People do not know what it is like to truly act like the FAMILY of Christ. (I don’t think it’s having a lovely visit with each other each Sunday and then being oblivious to their lives Monday through Saturday.)

It seems that most people are so busy with so many different social groups that very few people have time for these types of relationships. So my encouragement would be to be hospitable and then to invest in the lives of others. Find out about them, speak with them during the week, meet needs that they have. Plan to do things together. Many will be too busy to build the type of relationship, but some will be longing for it.

Another interesting note is that you can not possibly have this type of deep, I-really-know-this-person relationship with too many people, there is just not enough time to invest this deeply in too many places. We’ve found that within our ‘large’ group (around 15 or more families) there are closer relationships between individual families within the group. I know that, in a pinch, any of the members of the group would be ready with prayer, physical help or support, but we don’t all fill all of those rolls for all of the other families within the group all the time. Sometimes it’s one family and sometimes it’s another.

There is something amazingly beautiful about watching these relationships develop and grow. It’s one of God’s good gifts.

You may also be interested in:

Daily chores – teaching children to work and a list of chores that children of various ages can do
Teaching cheerful obedience to little ones
Training little ones to sit through worship – practical ideas
Keeping little ones in worship – why and how we train our children to worship
Family Worship – how we do it in our home
Keeping your child’s heart: Discipline
Given to hospitality – what a week of hospitality looks like (and it’s not about lots of food or fancy decor, it really is sometimes just a cup of cold water)
Tips for different types of hospitality - plus some recipes
Memorization system – how we help our children memorize and get everything into long term memory.
Sign up to purchase Young Living Oils
Email Me – for more info about Young Living Essential Oils

Visit the other moms of many to see what questions they are answering:

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

Enjoy the 4 Moms posts? We wrote a book together. Buy the 4 Moms, 35+ Kids Parenting book available as an ebook or on Kindle.

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Writing Notes

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 12:16:06 +0000

A simple notebook can become something special.

Each child has a notebook. In it they write notes to me then leave it on my dresser. I write them back and leave it on their bed or at their place at the table.

Sometimes the notes are asking questions, “May I have a cup of tea with you today during rest time?” or “May we play pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey for Nick’s birthday?”

Sometimes they are sweet expressions of gratitude “Thank you so much, Mommy, for telling me to take the time to try to find the beauty in everything, even sweeping the floor.”

Sometimes they are simple and sometimes more complex.

Sometimes I’m reminded that they need to hear what I take for granted. “Thank you for praying for me, mommy. I like to know that someone is praying for me.”

Always they provide me with a glimpse into the heart of my child and give me a special opportunity to share myself with them.

I answer their questions. “I think that Nick would love to play pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey and I think we still have the poster for it downstairs.”

I give them instruction, “Remember to leave space between your words so it is easier for others to read.”

I gift encouragement, “I can tell you’ve been working hard on your chores.”

It also prompts me to pray specifically for that child as I contemplate what to write and as I’m gifted by these glimpses.

Sometimes I don’t get a notebook back for a while and sometimes a single notebook will go back and forth several times during a day.

Alyssa (12)

I could give you a whole host of advantages; it gives me an excuse to sit down quietly and write a note, it can improve spelling, penmanship and even reading, it motivates reluctant writers to write, it provides a journal of the happenings in a child’s life. But we do it mainly for the simple gifts it gives to both them and me.

Simple notebooks gifting me with precious glimpses of these amazing gifts that I’ve been given.

You may also enjoy:

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Writing Notes is a post from: Raising Olives

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Lilla Rose Sale and Giveaway

Amber@raisingolives — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 12:30:41 +0000

Hi, this is Amber the oldest olive with a Lilla Rose sale and giveaway. Lilla Rose is introducing some new styles and to celebrate these select items are 15% off today only! Also I am hosting a giveaway just in time for Valentines so keep reading.

15% off today only

These clips are our family’s favorite hair accessories. I am almost never without a Flexi-clip in my hair because they are so beautiful, comfortable, and easy to use.

These and other select styles are 15% off today only.

These unique clips are one piece so that you do not have to worry about losing part of it. View this sizing video (and the styling video) for some lovely ideas and to help you decide what size is best for you.

15% off today only

If you take advantage of the 15% off sale you will earn 5 extra entries for the giveaway.

15% off today only

Enter to Win One

We’re giving away a flexi-clip of your choice to one Raising Olives reader.

Here is how you enter:

Visit our Lilla Rose site and come back and leave a comment on this post telling me one of your favorite styles or if you have Lilla Rose products share something that you like about them.

15% off today only

Additional entries:

For 5 extra entries visit this link and create an account.
For 5 extra entries place any order on my website. (All orders placed between January 1 and January 25 will qualify for 5 extra entries.)
Share this giveaway on Facebook.
Tweet about this giveaway.

Giveaway winner will be announced January 25. Open to U.S. and Canadian residents.

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Our family is eating better thanks to GNOWFGLINS.

She Brings Her Food From Afar (and makes toothpaste too): A 4 Moms Post

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 13:39:34 +0000

If you came here looking for a great system to shop and cook by using sale fliers, I’m sorry. I’ve got nothing for you for the simple reason that I don’t and never have done it.

Instead I’m going to share several recipes and tips to help you consider how you can save time and money by cutting down on grocery store shopping period.

Our family currently spends about $10 per person per week at the grocery store.

The reason for this is that most of the items lining the shelves of our local grocery store are foods that our family doesn’t eat and even many of the items that we do eat can be found for less money and higher quality elsewhere (and sometimes we choose to pay more for the higher quality).

She is like the merchant ships,
She brings her food from afar.
~ Proverbs 31:14

Lessening your dependence on your local grocery can save money, but I’ve found that it’s saving us time, once we made the initial time investment to find our sources.

Also it has, in some ways, simplified our life. We purchase food in it’s more basic form which means we start with less variety, but then make it into the variety that we eat. One example of this is raw milk (one purchase). From the raw milk we get cream, butter, kefir, sour cream, cream cheese and other soft cheeses.

We also purchase foods in larger quantities, which means we need to repurchase them less often and we always have food in the house.

So what are some options for acquiring food outside of the grocery store?

Cooperatives

Purchasing food in bulk saves time and money allowing us to feed our family healthier foods for less money.With a little upfront investment in time and resources (mainly 5 gallon buckets for storing your bulk foods), we’ve found purchasing foods through a co-op to be a tremendous blessing to our family.

Foods we purchase via co-op:

grains (wheat, spelt, oats, rice, quinoa, popcorn, etc.)
legumes
spices (salt, baking soda, arrowroot powder, turmeric, etc.)
sugar
maple syrup
cocoa powder
raw nuts

Azure Standard recently began a monthly delivery here in Knoxville and this has provided a wonderful source of most of our co-op needs. Azure carries everything from the items listed above to raw milk cheeses, fresh produce, frozen items and even granola bars, chocolate, etc. The prices, variety and quality at Azure are unsurpassed (at least in my research) and a regular monthly delivery is super convenient. (You can check their website for some info on drop locations, but feel free to contact the Wood Family via this Facebook page and to see if they have, or can get, a drop location near you.)

Local Farmers

It may take a little more work on your part to find reliable sources for various items, but it’s worth it!

Buying from local farmers is my favorite way to shop. I love knowing the families that provides our family with milk, beef and produce. I love that they know us. I love knowing that we’re helping them while they are helping us. I say it nearly every week when we pick up our milk and produce. I LOVE shopping locally.

So how to get started?

Produce

Visit your local farmer’s market or look for a local farm with a CSA program here.

We purchase our produce from the Colvin Family and have been nothing but happy. (How fun is it that they have 13 children?) This may be an option for those of you who are in the East Tennessee area.

Our CSA share

Milk

Laws vary by state, but finding a quality source of raw milk has been a wonderful blessing for our family.

Please be careful and do visit the farm because not all those who sell raw milk care enough about the quality of the product.

You may start with this Real Milk Finder to see what is available in your area. Asking people you know may also be a good way to find a good milk source.

We get all of our milk from Cruze Dairy and have been blessed by them in many ways.

Meat

We’ve been blessed to know people who raise beef cattle, so this one fell into our lap. This is a super easy time-saver. We purchase a whole cow, pay the butchering fees and then pack it into our freezer. Grass-fed beef and lots of good beef bones for stock whenever we need them.

Does anyone know of a good way to find a nice source of local meat?

Honey

This is actually something that our local grocery stores carry at times; local, raw honey. When I see it in the grocery store (or when my sweet friend sees it and gives me a call) I try to stock up a year’s supply. With raw honey, local is important.

Online

Yes, you can purchase groceries online. Since most of the time co-ops are less expensive, this is my back up when I neglected to put something into my order

However, for some products, online is my primary source. Currently, I buy most of our soap making products online.

Homemade and Reusable

Our family doesn’t use most of the paper, cleaning or healthcare products sold in grocery stores. Instead of paper we use cloth (except for toilet paper, we love toilet paper) and instead of commercial cleaning and healthcare products we use homemade.

Many of you have asked for some of our recipes. Some are still evolving, but the toothpaste, shampoo and conditioner are keepers, for sure!

Recipes

Toothpaste

I could say a lot more about this and maybe eventually I will give it it’s own post with a picture explaining why we use these, but there you have it. This toothpaste has eliminated morning breath, seriously who would have thought that was possible?

1/2 c. coconut oil
1/4 c. diatomaceous earth
1 T. Xylitol
40 drops Peppermint essential oil *
2-4 drops Thieves essential oil *

Mix ingredients thoroughly and store in a small glass jar in the bathroom. We use tongue depressors to apply the toothpaste to our toothbrushes.

* Use only high quality, therapeutic grade essential oils. If you are interested in Young Living, please contact me for more info or you may use my member number 1328200 to sign up.

Shampoo

Please note this is just a recipe, not instructions on how to make soap. If you’re not familiar with soap making, I suggest this free video tutorial to help you get started. All measurements are by weight and as always you can substitute ingredients as long you run them through a lye calculator. This recipe has 6% superfat.

3 ounces almond oil (sweet)
1 oz beeswax
5 oz castor oil
2 oz cocoa butter
9 oz coconut oil (76 degrees)
9 oz olive oil
2 oz shea butter (unrefined)

4 oz water
6 oz milk (or goat’s milk or coconut milk or all water or an herbal infusion)
4.24 oz lye

Essential oils of your choice for fragrance. (optional)

Conditioner

Perfect to use in conjunction with the above soap. Mix apple cider vinegar and water (we like 1:4 ratio) in a spray bottle and spray onto hair after shampooing. Rinse clean. Your hair will smell amazing, not like vinegar.

Soap

16 oz. Coconut

16 oz. Palm

16 oz. Olive Oil

2 oz. Castor Oil

13 – 19 oz. water

7.4 oz. lye

We use this soap as is for our laundry soap and then French-mill it to add color and fragrance for a more luxurious shower experience. My favorite so far is our green tea and mint bar, that’s surprising because I thought I would like the cocoa mint better.
In what ways have you lessened your dependence on the grocery store or what tips do you have for saving money on groceries?

You may also be interested in:

The week of chocolate milk – just one way our dairy blessed us
Supporting a large family on one income
Cooking from scratch: Tools, Tips and Scheduling
Preserving food
Feed your family for $.50/person
Tips for feeding a large family on a budget
Menu planning for traditionally prepared real food

And if you were looking for those great sale-flier-shopping tips, visit the other moms:

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

Enjoy the 4 Moms posts? We wrote a book together. Buy the 4 Moms, 35+ Kids Parenting book available as an ebook or on Kindle.

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She Brings Her Food From Afar (and makes toothpaste too): A 4 Moms Post is a post from: Raising Olives

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Our family is eating better thanks to GNOWFGLINS.

Supporting a Large Family on One Income and Sonlight: 4 Moms Q & A

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 12:55:32 +0000

Welcome to another 4 Moms Q & A. I’m just tackling two questions today, one about being able to afford a large family on one income and the other about homeschooling and Sonlight.

Lisa said,

(I) came across a review you wrote in 2009 with mostly positive feedback on (Sonlight). I am curious if you are still using Sonlight or has your exposure led you to other multi-level teaching programs or just different programs in general?

We are still using Sonlight for our younger set of children. Our family was VERY disappointed with Sonlight Core 6, particularly in their choice of ” The Story of the World” as their history spine.

‘The Story of the World’ is based on evolutionary presuppositions and does not include much of recorded Biblical history, however, the tipping point for our family is that the Biblical history that it does record is sloppy. It’s misleading in the best instances and blatantly false in others.

Regarding the death of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Ms. Bauer states,

So the Romans helped some of the leaders of Judea arrest Jesus. They put him on trial for treason. The penalty for treason was death! Jesus was convicted of treason and put to death near Jerusalem, the capital city of Judea. ~ ‘Story of the World p 283 (emphasis mine)

However, the Bible contradicts this. (Luke 23, John 19, Matthew 27 and Mark 14-15) Here is one example:

Then Pilate announced to the chief priests and the crowd, “I find no basis for a charge against this man.” Luke 23:4

Our family is currently using Sonlight for our younger children and a combination of our own personally designed program (lots of reading lists and lots of listening to lectures via CD and online) along with a modified Omnibus (by Veritas Press) for our older children.

Ally had several related questions,

HOW do you stay at home, on one income with so many kids?

The bottom line answer to this is spending. We need to understand the difference between a necessity and a luxury.

And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. ~ 1 Timothy 6:8

If you have more than food and clothing then you are enjoying luxury.

Early in our marriage, when gas prices were less than a dollar a gallon, we figured out how much gas cost for our family to drive to and from church each Sunday and for me to drive to and from OB appointments and we budgeted just enough money for those trips plus a tad more in case of an emergency. Mark walked to work and I literally remember telling my mom (who lived about 15 minutes away) that I couldn’t bring the kids over to swim. My reason was that we didn’t have money in the gas budget for that luxury.

Yes, driving to the park that is only a couple of miles from your house is a LUXURY (even if gas prices weren’t $3-$4/gallon)!

Cell phones are a luxury.

A second car (and perhaps even the first) is a luxury.

A TV, internet, cable, the newspaper are ALL luxuries.

New clothes are certainly luxuries.

More than one pair of shoes is a luxury.

Most of the food that Americans purchase, luxuries.

Your entire ‘entertainment’ budget, luxury.

Getting a haircut, luxury.

Christmas gifts, wrapping paper, lights, trees, decorations, all luxuries.

Don’t get me wrong. God loves to give good gifts to His children and we enjoy having luxuries, but when we act as if our luxuries were necessities we are being ungrateful. This can lead to wasteful spending (paying for an unnecessary cellphone) and an inability for families who make more than 84% of the world (annual income of $10,000) or who make more than 99% of the world (annual income of $50,000) think that they simply can’t afford another child.

Some of our innumerable blessings.
Back L-R: Amber (16), Kaitlin (14), Matthew (13), Alyssa (12)
Front L-R: Sadie (9), Isabella (2), Colby (6), Nicholas (4), Savannah (7), Valor (4 months), Carter (10)

We’ve also learned over the years that God does not necessarily provide what you need BEFORE you have need of it, but He has always provided everything that we need.

What are some of your favorite tips, secrets or anything that helps?

1. Appreciate how rich you are and be grateful.

It frustrates me when people don’t understand how RICH we are. Americans, in general, are the richest people in the world. Think about all the things in your life that are luxuries and sit back and marvel at how generous God has been to you.

2. Cut out (or minimize the expense) of a lot of those luxuries and appreciate the ones you keep.

3. Make your own.

Mark and I were talking about rising prices just yesterday and he said to me that because progress in making more of our own products from scratch, our costs have remained stable, despite paying more for everything that we continue to buy.

We currently make our own:

Laundry detergent
Soap
Shampoo
Conditioner
Toothpaste
Cleaners
Lotions (luxury)
Antibacterial ointment

Actually, the only pre-made things I can think of that we still buy are deodorant (if you have a good recipe for this, please leave a link in the comments), dish washing detergent and Dawn.

4. Go green.

Cut out the paper. Use cloth napkins, cloth diapers, rags, etc. instead of the disposable variety.

5. Buy used.

Seriously, our kids can recount exactly what items we’ve bought new for them over the course of their lives. We just don’t do it. It’s thanks to the excesses of the society that we live in that it’s completely possible to dress nicely and never purchase a single item new.

6. Give to others.

God blesses us with abundance (and if you’re reading this online, you’ve been blessed with abundance) so that we can bless others. Two of our children’s favorite charities are Voice of the Martyrs and Frontline Fellowship. Open your home, give to others, be generous.

Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.” ~ Luke 6:38

7. Use swagbucks.

This one makes me laugh, but our family has the Swagbucks search bar installed on our computers and we turn in our Swagbucks for Amazon gift cards. It’s terrific, takes no time and really does save us money on our Amazon purchases. I got nearly $100 in Amazon gift cards just last month.

How much income do you all live off of?

We’ll put it this way, our family income disqualifies us from foreign adoption because the U.S. requires that you make a certain percent above the poverty level in order to qualify to adopt from outside the U.S.

You may also be interested in:

May the Lord bless you in 2013!

Visit the other moms of many to see what they have to say:

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

Enjoy the 4 Moms posts? We wrote a book together. Buy the 4 Moms, 35+ Kids Parenting book available as an ebook or on Kindle.

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Supporting a Large Family on One Income and Sonlight: 4 Moms Q & A is a post from: Raising Olives

Earn free Amazon gift cards with Swagbucks

Our family is eating better thanks to GNOWFGLINS.

Lilla Rose Special

Amber@raisingolives — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 21:04:28 +0000

Congratulations to Christina who won a Flexi-clip of her choice for placing a order from our Lilla Rose store.

There is still time to order for Christmas!

(see below for details)

Still have some Christmas shopping to do? Buy for friends and family and treat yourself to one of these clips free.

If you sign up as a new customer and order 3 or more flexi-clips by December 22, I will send you a Flexi of your choice FREE! (Free flexi will be shipped separate and will not arrive in time for Christmas.)

Shipping dates for Christmas. These are not guaranteed dates. For USPS you can use Priority Mail until the 17th, and Express Mail until the 22nd. You can also use UPS ground until the 19th, 2nd day air on the 20th, and next day air on the 21st.

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Lilla Rose Special is a post from: Raising Olives

Earn free Amazon gift cards with Swagbucks

Our family is eating better thanks to GNOWFGLINS.

Candy Serving Tray Tutorial (It’s Edible): 4 Moms Link-Up

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 12:15:50 +0000

This week the 4 Moms are sharing quick and easy holiday recipes. I shared several fun easy recipes in my post on ideas for food gifts, but today I’m going to teach you how to make a festive, edible serving tray.

This is a good idea for taking treats to someone’s home as you can leave the serving tray and your host and hostess may eat it. The kids are also planning on making these to use when we go caroling and take Christmas treats to our neighbors.

Mint Candy Serving Tray

All you need for this project is:

Mints
cookie tray (or any oven safe dish with a flat bottom)
parchment paper

Preheat your oven to 350.

Line the bottom of your tray or oven-safe dish with parchment paper. Arrange mints on top of parchment paper in any design you’d like. Mints should be touching.

Place into the preheated oven and let the kids watch the candies melt together. Remove from oven when tray is smooth (about 10 minutes or so).

Allow to cool (about 5 minutes) then remove from parchment paper. We found that the bottom side of the tray generally has a prettier design than the top, so we turned ours over and used them to serve peanut clusters.

Other ideas:

Melt mints into the shape of each child’s initial for a personalized stocking stuffer.
Use a mixture of red and green mints. I think putting green mints in the shape of a Christmas tree surrounded by the red mints would be pretty.

Now it’s your turn to share your quick, easy holiday recipes. Please remember these rules:

Your post must be family friendly.
Link to a specific relevant post, not to the homepage of your blog.
Your post must include a link to at least one of the 4 Moms.
If your link is deleted, you probably didn’t follow these rules. We hope you’ll fix the problem and try again! If you don’t know why your link was deleted, just ask.

You may also be interested in:

Visit the other moms of many to see what they have to say:

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

Enjoy the 4 Moms posts? We wrote a book together. Buy the 4 Moms, 35+ Kids Parenting book available as an ebook or on Kindle.

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Candy Serving Tray Tutorial (It’s Edible): 4 Moms Link-Up is a post from: Raising Olives

Earn free Amazon gift cards with Swagbucks

Our family is eating better thanks to GNOWFGLINS.

Raising Olives

4 Moms Share Vegetarian Recipes {Link-Up}

Quinoa and Lentil Salad with Caramelized Onions

One-Dish Mexican Lentils and Rice

Unexpected Journey: Part 2

Unexpected Journey: Part 1

Ultimate Homemaking Bundle or How to Get the 4 Moms Book for 30 Cents

What’s Included in the Sale?

Home & Property {Cleaning, Organizing, Decor}

Educational Children’s Resources

Budgeting {Finance & Time}

In the Kitchen {Recipes and Cooking}

Pregnancy & Baby Care

Holidays & Special Events

Spiritual Growth

Marriage & Romance

Motherhood

Health & Fitness

Beauty

Working from Home & Blogging

Ecourses

PLUS, You will receive FREE Bonuses from these companies…

The fine print:

This post includes affiliate links, and I make a portion of the sale of each ebook bundle. Thanks for your support of this site!

Lilla Rose Sale: One Day ONLY

Toddler Back Pack: Wordless {and some news}

Homeschooling Advanced Subjects

Seek God’s Kingdom

Teach Kids to Teach Themselves

How to Teach your kids to be self-teachers

Mom and Dad

Siblings

Christian Community

Online

Confessions: Giggles from Our Homeschool

Read the Bible in 90 Days: Go

Teens, Schedules, Memorization and More: 4 Moms Q & A

How did you handle being pregnant with all littles? Did you just tough out that season, and count down to better days? Or were there specific ways you tried to keep things simple.

Changes

surprise 40th birthday party

celebrating babies

family campouts

Ultimate Easter Basket {Giveaway}

Enter for a chance to win a Crayola Gift Pack

Adopting, Character Training, Selecting Books: 4 Moms Q & A

Laziness and Arrogance – Helping Our Children Work Hard with a Happy Attitude: Part 2

Helping Our Children Work Hard with a Happy Attitude: 4 Moms

Pastry Wrapped Brie: A Valentine’s Day Recipe Link Up

Pastry Wrapped Brie Wheel with Raspberry Preserves

Routines, Schedules and Hooks: Getting it All Done

Valor at 5 Months

Building a Social Circle, Child Training and Treating Colds and Flu Naturally: 4 Moms Q & A

Does your family use essential oils? What are your favorite uses – especially with cold & flu season?

Practical expectations for an 18 month old. Both in what tasks they are able to help with and also dealing with comprehension and obedience expectations.

What is the best and most consistent way to deal with whiners?

How do you deal with a toddler (who is generally well behaved) hitting, pushing, and biting?

Is it normal to have a very small social network with a large family? Seems like we never get invites to anything now that we are a family of 7. I don’t mind at all being the hostess. Just wondering if this is normal, and how to maintain our friendships with other families.

Writing Notes

Lilla Rose Sale and Giveaway

Enter to Win One

She Brings Her Food From Afar (and makes toothpaste too): A 4 Moms Post

Cooperatives

Local Farmers

Online

Homemade and Reusable

Recipes

Supporting a Large Family on One Income and Sonlight: 4 Moms Q & A

(I) came across a review you wrote in 2009 with mostly positive feedback on (Sonlight). I am curious if you are still using Sonlight or has your exposure led you to other multi-level teaching programs or just different programs in general?

HOW do you stay at home, on one income with so many kids?

What are some of your favorite tips, secrets or anything that helps?

How much income do you all live off of?

Lilla Rose Special

There is still time to order for Christmas!

Candy Serving Tray Tutorial (It’s Edible): 4 Moms Link-Up

Mint Candy Serving Tray