Raising Olives

Kids in the Kitchen: Wordless

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:05:13 +0000

More Olive Wordless Wednesdays to laugh at or visit 5 Minutes for Mom for more variety.

It’s almost here, 4 Moms, 35 Kids starts tomorrow.

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Your Child’s Heart: How do you Find the Time? Part 1

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:15:03 +0000

In the previous posts in this series of “Keeping Your Child’s Heart” I’ve pointed out that the ultimate goal of gaining our child’s heart is to make disciples of Christ. In order to do that we must discipline and instruct them (Ephesians 6:4). We can do neither of these without spending both quality and quantity time with our children. This brings us to the question, “how do we find that time?”

One of the easiest ways to find and spend more time with our children is to make decisions that focus on that as a priority. Mark and I pray, talk over and write out a daily schedule. Our goal is for me to spend the majority of my time engaged with our children. By writing down how we are going to fit everything into our day, we are able to see where we are spending our time and evaluate whether we are investing our time into the things that we say are important.

Even if you don’t like schedules, writing down what you do over the course of a week and how much time that you spend doing it can be a useful tool to see how you spend your time and how that reflects your priorities. How important is “fill in the blank” (watching television, participating in sports, etc.) to you? Now how much time do you spend in a week doing that? Now compare that to the amount of time you spend communing with your God or directly engaging with your children. Do your daily decision reflect your priorities?

I think our human tendency is to sacrifice the eternal on the altar of the immediate. We tend to sacrifice building relationships and making disciples of our children in order to fix dinner, clean up the mess, minister to others or provide our children with some “wonderful” opportunity. Of course I’m not saying that we shouldn’t do these things, just that everything should remain in balance.

If I am so busy keeping the house clean, doing laundry, getting dinner on the table or running the children to different activities that I have very little time or energy to invest in my children then something is wrong with my priorities. This priority of building strong, solid relationships and making disciples of our children will affect nearly all of our decisions. Are we walking the walk, or just talking the talk? Evaluating how we spend our time can help us determine if our daily decisions are enabling us to meet our goals.

Another aspect of prioritizing our time is out-side-of-the-home activities. There is so much pressure, especially in the homeschool community, to have our children involved in multiple outside-the-home activities that there are many homeschooled children who spend more time with various peer groups than they do with their family and mothers who spend more time in the car than at home. (Don’t forget dad in all this. Fathers can become so busy with work and other responsibilities that they do not have a daily presence and influence in their child’s life.)

Saying “no” to good things in order to make room for the best things is vital when it comes to building relationships and gaining your child’s heart. We can not do it all!

A hard part of this is that often the BEST things aren’t flashy. Staying at home and making disciples of your children by pouring your life into them and encouraging them to choose the role of a servant and to serve others does not win awards, acclaim or scholarships. However, we must go back to our standard for life.

what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? (Micah 6:8b)

Christ came as a servant, why should I desire more for myself or for my children? No it’s not flashy, but it’s godly.

So evaluate how you use your time and the decisions that you make in light of the goals and priorities that you believe God has set for your family. He has given us enough time to accomplish the things to which He has called us. It is our responsibility to use that time properly.

4 Mom, 35 Kids talk about scheduling in only two more days.

You may be interested to read about some of the ways we try to implement our goal of teaching and training our children about the most important things in life. We try to make Bible reading a priority, we help our children memorize large amounts of scripture and doctrine, we have a daily time of family worship and we include our children in the corporate worship services at church.

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Table Manners

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:40:50 +0000

If you’ve been reading Raising Olives for long you’ve probably gotten that we try to be purposeful in why we do, what we do. We try to hold to God’s Word as our standard for everything and we try to communicate these values to our children.

Twelve year old Kaitlin to eight year old Carter. “The reason that Mom and Dad are trying to teach you good table manners is so that when you get to heaven you won’t be embarrassed to feast with the Lamb.”

Sigh, I think we still have a ways to go in communicating our vision and in working on table manners.

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Education and the Book of Daniel: 90 Days

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 13:41:29 +0000

I really enjoy reading the book of Daniel. Daniel stands out to me in several ways. First of all, it has some really great stories that are some all time favorites of many children, the burning fiery furnace, Daniel in the lion’s den, the hand writing on the wall. It also has prophecies and visions that at first seem confusing but then are clearly explained and these give us insight in how to interpret other Biblical prophecies and how the Bible uses figurative language to describe empires and their fall.

One thing in Daniel that struck me this time is the commentary in the first several chapters about education. In the first chapter we read that Daniel and the other young men were brought to Babylon by the king so that they could be taught the language and learning of that culture. This was the best education that Babylon (the world leader at the time) had to offer. HOWEVER, in verse 17 it is made clear that,

God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom: and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams.

and just in case that wasn’t clear, in verse 20 it says,

And in all matters of wisdom and understanding, that the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm.

God “educated” these four men so that they were 10 times more knowledgeable than the most educated men that the leading nation in the world had to offer. The Bible tells us over and over and over that the only way to wisdom and understanding is through knowing and fearing the Lord. The Bible gives us a pattern for educating our children, a textbook and the body of knowledge that must be covered. Still there is much debate and discussion about the “best” method to educate our children, the best curriculum, books, etc and most of the discussion centers around methods that are neither taught nor prescribed in Scripture. As a matter of fact in many discussions the core aspects of a Biblical education are pushed to the side in the interest of practicality.

There certainly is a balance. God gives specific instructions to parents about the training and education of their children. However, just as in every other aspect of human behavior, the results are the Lord’s and not ours. Christians may not lay aside the principles given in Scripture in order make it easier or to obtain a result that seems more desirable.

Our whole family has been sick for the last week (headaches, high fevers and cold symptoms) and we are all (Mark and I and our 4 oldest children) behind in our Bible reading. As we talked about it at the dinner table last night we decided that we would take our two grace days this week. So, I am “caught up” and everyone else is either caught up or will need to read an extra day today.

It’s been quiet out there the past few weeks. Are you all still reading? Don’t get discouraged, keep reading where you are and press on toward the goal of reading all the way through the Bible. It doesn’t matter where you are, leave a comment and let us know that you’re still reading (or not) or link up your update post and let us know how you are doing.

Be sure to check in and link up with Mom’s Toolbox tomorrow.

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Freezer Cooking with a Group: OAMC

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 12:12:54 +0000

Our family works together with 4 other families to freezer cook every two months. This allows us to purchase in bulk and save a lot of money. (We average $5-6 per meal and each meal serves 8-12 people. That is not including side dishes.) A number of you have expressed an interest in knowing more and even in starting your own group.

In our group we have 3 families that cook every time and we fill in the remaining 2 spots when it is time to schedule a cook day. Some things to keep in mind as you consider what families you would like to cook with:

Similar tastes in food (spicy or not spicy, etc.)
No picky eaters
Limited to no diet restrictions or similar diet restrictions
Must show initiative and be willing to pitch in and work hard
Similar family size – not necessary, but something to consider

Read about what happened the first time I cooked with this group and you may be amazed that they ever invited me back.

Select recipes.

The planning starts with choosing recipes. With a little thought most recipes can be adapted to bulk freezer cooking. We pick 20 recipes to make each cook day and we plan on at least 2 meals per family from each recipe.

We have our recipes divided by type, chicken, beef, pork (or other type of meat) and vegetarian and we choose several recipes from each category for a good variety of recipes.

Adjust amounts and make a shopping list.

For our group (2 families with 8 people, our family of 12 and the two additional families which vary in size) we adjust each recipe so that it serves 8 people and we call that a “single” recipe. We multiply this “single” recipe by 10 (five families and each family gets two meals) and that gives us the amount of ingredients that we need to purchase for that recipe.

We have a computer program that does the math and combines the ingredients from all of the recipes to make a simple shopping list for us.

With our recipes and shopping list we check out the sales and plan where to shop for which ingredients.

Shop for groceries.

Wednesday before our cook day two moms go shopping (usually accompanied by a LARGE number of children). Shopping on Wednesday gives everyone enough time to complete their prep work.

By purchasing in bulk we are able to get discounts that aren’t available to those who are shopping for more typical amounts. For example at Sam’s we are given a discount for purchasing meat by the case. We usually shop at 4 or 5 different stores (Sam’s, WalMart, Dollar General, a fresh produce market and Kroger) purchasing what is least expensive at each place.

Wednesday afternoon we sort the groceries and make sure that each family gets what they need to complete their prep. Sending most of the meat to different homes to be prepped has the added benefit of ensuring that there is enough refrigerator space for everything.

Prep work

Each family has some preparation work to complete before cook day. Here are the tasks that we complete before we gather on Saturday morning for cook day.

Chicken is cooked and shredded and broth is reserved
Beef is browned and drained
All vegetables are chopped, peeled, sliced, diced, etc.
All cheese is grated
All other meat is chopped, weighed/divided (like for roasts), sliced, etc.
All dry beans are cooked and re-fried beans are made

These tasks are divided between each family. Usually one family is given chicken, another beef and a third gets all the vegetable prep with perhaps the raw meat duty. It simply depends on the recipes that are chosen and how much prep work there is.

One of the important parts of prep work is accurately packaging and labeling the food that you’ve prepared, so that there is no confusion on cook day. As I chop the onions, I package and label them according to the recipes that they are going to be used in. I chop eight onions, put them into a Ziploc bag and label them with the recipe name. Then I chop four onions, put them into a separate bag and label them with the recipe name. For chicken or beef where we will be using large quantities we will label the bags something like this, Green Chili Enchiladas 1 of 3, etc.

I can’t emphasize how helpful careful and proper labeling during prep is for a smooth cook day. When cook day rolls around no one wants to have to try to measure or figure out what prepared ingredients go to which recipe. It need to be evident to whoever picks up that bag of onions what it is for and which recipe it goes with.

Prepare for the big day

In addition to this prep work there are some things that can be done the evening before cook day that will make the day go much more smoothly.

Set up a central location for all the spices and condiments that will be used in multiple recipes. (Salt, pepper, soy sauce, flour, etc.)
Designate an area that will be used for preparing raw meat, at least during the first part of the day.
Look through the recipes and decide how each one will be prepared and divided. (Things that need to be cooked in the oven will need to be started first, recipes that require time on the stove top will need to be staggered so that you don’t run out of room and some recipes can simply be dumped into each family’s container since the ingredients just need to be combined, etc.)
Gather a lot of large containers and pots to mix things in. We are able to borrow some from one of our churches, so this may be an option for you. Think outside of the box here, you can use a clean trash can or other large plastic bucket that you normally wouldn’t think to use in the kitchen. (You may be mixing things in HUGE quantities.)
Sort through all the remaining groceries and divide them by the recipe that they go into. We put these ingredients into plastic shopping bags and label them with the recipe name. This will include all the canned goods and other ingredients that are specific to only that recipe and that do not need to be refrigerated.

Cook day

We begin at 6 on Saturday morning and are generally finished between 12 and 2 that afternoon. Each family is responsible to bring containers to take home all the food that they will be preparing, their prep work, cooler, laundry basket and a snack if they’d like.

The laundry baskets are labeled with the family name and all that family’s containers are put into them, so that when someone is finished with a recipe they are able to quickly gather and packed it into containers for each family.

Most of us use gallon sized Ziploc bags to store our meals in. If you choose to do this it is VERY useful to have some empty containers to put the bags into that keep them upright and open while you are filling them.

Each person gets a recipe and begins to prepare it. As a recipe is finished it is labeled (recipe name and family name) and packaged into the containers brought by that family and placed in coolers to await transport home.

I posted pictures and more information about how a cook day is organized in Bulk Cooking in Pictures.

I’m also in the process of posting some of the recipes that we use. So far I have a group of Beef Recipes posted.

Overwhelmed and ready for a laugh? Read about all the things that happened the first time I cooked with these ladies.

This is a huge undertaking and I’m not sure I’ve done an adequate job explaining it, so please feel free to ask questions about anything that I missed, that is unclear or that you simply don’t understand.

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4 Moms, 35 Kids

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 13:24:10 +0000

Ever wondered what it’s like to manage a large family or curious how others do it? Hoping for some help for your growing family? Flabbergasted that we aren’t checking into an asylum? Think there are some secrets that we’re not sharing?

Well every Thursday starting next week you will have the opportunity to get a glimpse into the homes of 4 moms of many. We’ll each be sharing our different perspectives on how we manage our larger than average families. From scheduling to laundry, homeschooling to cooking we’ll share what we’ve learned and what it’s like trying to keep up. We’ll share some of our triumphs and some of our struggles.

Have questions or topics ideas? With four different perspectives there will surely be something that will work for you. Please feel free to leave thoughts and suggestions in the comments.

Next Thursday we will each share our schedule (or lack of one) and how we plan to get everything done each day. Then Thursday March 18 we will live blog how our days actually go. You didn’t think that things happen according to the schedule all day, did you?? (Trust me, with more than half a dozen children in each home it doesn’t.)

Connie is a Christian homeschooling mom of 8 rowdy children, wife for 25 years of one hunky golf pro, wiper of noses, writer of stories. She blogs regularly at Smockity Frocks.

The Deputy Headmistress is shy and blogs behind a pseudonym which she intended to be amusing and somewhat self-deprecatory. She and the Headmaster locked eyes in a high school Sunday School class in 1979 when she was 17, and they have been merrily married since 1982, in spite of the fact that at 17 the DHM nearly got the HM beaten up by her other boyfriend, and at 20 she nearly got him arrested by a cop from church. Happily God helped her grow up, and He is gracious and forgiving, and so is the Headmaster. They have seven wonderful Progeny both by birth and adoption, two handsome sons-in-law, one adorable grandson, and two precious unofficial foster sons, ages 5 and 3, who live with them about half the time. They have been homeschooling since 1988. The DHM, and occasionally some of the Progeny, blog regularly about politics, family life, living in the country, books, music, cabbages, kings, and living the countercultural Christian life at The Common Room.

KimC is a Christian, a wife, big sister to 13 sibs, and the slightly-crunchy homeschooling mom of 10 children: 9 on the outside and 1 on the inside. She lives with her very large family in a very small house in south Texas and finds peace in chocolate and blogging at Life in a Shoe: the methods and madness of one family of 12. Her family shares their little house on the hill with dogs, gerbils, snakes, and tarantulas, and a 10 year old cat named Tim. The chickens stay outside. Usually.

Kimberly blogs at Raising Olives (that’d be here) and is a second generation homeschooling mom to her soon-to-be 10 children. She is married to an amazingly patient husband, who also happens to be a magnificent father. Their family’s primary goal is to glorify God and to raise children who will do the same. For that reason they attempt to examine every decision that they make in the light of God’s word. Many of their decisions may seem strange to the world and they’re good with that.

New here? You may be interested in some of my do-it-yourself tutorials which include a fun way to display books, making your own chalkboard paint and recipes for homemade laundry detergent, yogurt, buttermilk and more. I’ve also posted about why we decided to homeschool and some of the ways that we save money.

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One Million Arrows

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 16:42:24 +0000

When our oldest son Matthew was four years old, we read about the desperate condition of abandoned and orphaned children in India who must live on the streets and struggle for survival. At that point, Matthew declared that he wanted to go to India and help those children. Matthew is now 10 and actively doing research on the culture and customs of the Indian people. He is also working diligently at learning Greek so that we will allow him to move on to Hindi. So I wept as I read the opening chapters of the book “One Million Arrows” that describe how God is using Dr. M. A. Thomas (aka Papa) to reach the lost children of India. Is this what God has in store for our baby or is it something completely different? How will we ever prepare him for his mission in life?

This book is much more than a book on missions, however. This book speaks to the deep needs of American children for their parents to change their ways, change their focus, gain a vision and pass that vision on to their children. A vision of reaching into all the world to preach the gospel, make disciples.

According to the statistics, a staggering 75% of “Christian” young people who are raised and active in their church are leaving the church for good by their second year of college. The homes where the faith retention rate is highest are not those where the teens are involved in youth groups, it is the homes where the parents are actively involved in making disciples of their children.

The numbers tell us that parents are failing their children in record numbers. Parents are taking their Biblical responsibility of training their children and passing it off to others to whom this responsibility has not been given. If we can not reach our own children for Christ, how will we reach the world and perhaps more importantly, what will happen in the next generations? (I Cor. 3:6-7)

“One Million Arrows: Raising Your Children to Change the World” talks about our responsibilities to our own children, our responsibilities to children around the world and our calling to give our all for Christ. As with all books, read One Million Arrows through the lens of God’s Holy Word. However, I recommend this book to help you refocus on what is truly important in life and your responsibility to give everything that God has given you back to Him.

Will you receive the blessing by giving your children into the hands of the Mighty King so they may truly help change the world with their gifts? Will you help support other children of the world that they may be launched as arrow to reach all who have not heard with the message of God’s love? – Papa

You may purchase One Million Arrows: Raising Your Children to Change the World for $11.16 from Amazon.com. All profits from the sale of this book will go to international orphan care and ministry.

You may read more about the book and the vision at OneMillionArrows.com.

I received a complimentary copy of “One Million Arrows” in order to give my honest opinion about the book. I received no other compensation and all opinions expressed are my own.

You may also be interested in reading my series of posts about gaining and keeping your child’s heart.

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The Pearls and Your Child’s Heart

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:08:08 +0000

First I would like to say that it was not my intent to post about this today or ever, really. However, because of recent events and since I recently posted about discipline, I would simply like to clarify our family’s position on the Pearls.

Before I begin let me clarify my actual, personal experience.

I was given a copy of the Pearl’s book “To Train Up a Child” about 2 years ago. I skimmed the first several chapters and realizing that this was not teaching I agreed with, I put the book away.

So, realizing my limited exposure to their teachings, I would like to share with you why we do not follow nor subscribe to them and why we have never recommended their materials to others.

It is our family’s belief that the ultimate authority on child training (and everything else) is to be found in the Word of God. We believe that the Word of God and a real relationship with Him is sufficient to guide us in all areas of life.

In our opinion the Pearls give directions that are not clearly taught in scripture (at best) or that clearly violate scripture and present them in a manner that can be and sometimes is misleading to those who are not familiar with Biblical teaching. I encourage you to go read “Senseless Deception” for more information about the Pearls and the tragedies that it appears their teaching has caused.

We believe that to regain our culture Christians must begin to think Biblically, that is the hope and intent of this blog, to encourage others to examine every thought and deed in light of God’s Word and then to live out that Word in our life. Do you wonder how to raise your children? Go to the Bible, it really is all you need.

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Preschoolers in Church and Coming Soon

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 14:30:41 +0000

This Sunday I stayed home from church with some sick children (Amber 13, Matthew 10 and Carter 8). When Mark and the rest of the children returned home we sat down and ate lunch and discussed the service with our children.

Mark mentioned that during the sermon Colby had asked “Dad, what’s he saying?” a few times. Impressed that Colby had apparently been trying to pay attention, I looked at him and asked, “So what did pastor say today?” Colby replied with confidence, “He said nothing, Mom.”

On a completely different topic, beginning March 11 I will be joining KimC, mom of 10 at Life in a Shoe, Connie, mom of 8 at Smockity Frocks and Deputy Headmistress, mom of 7 at The Common Room to bring you a weekly series of posts about managing a large family. We’ll be talking about all things large family from cleaning and cooking to scheduling and homeschooling. We are even going to be live blogging on March 18 so you can see what a day in a large family really looks like.

We are hoping that this will be interesting and helpful to you and are open to questions and/or topic ideas from our readers. Here’s your chance to ask the experts four moms who are trusting that the Lord will give us the wisdom that we need to raise the children that he has given us. What do you REALLY want to know about life in a large family?

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God’s Love: 90 Days

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 19:05:17 +0000

As I read through Isaiah and Jeremiah, two things struck me. It’s was interesting to me that here in these books, after we’ve read all of this inspired history of Israel, God seems to give us His commentary and His response. Israel (and Judah) were immensely unfaithful and in Isaiah and Jeremiah He shares with us His perspective on their unfaithfulness in rather vibrant and graphic terms as well as what He will bring about in response to their “harlotry”.

The second thing that I noticed is how God displays His love and care for Israel in the book of Jeremiah. If you just read the book of Jeremiah you may be wondering what in the world I’m talking about. Yes, I did read Jeremiah 15 where God tells Jeremiah to send this people away from His presence and continues in verse 2

Thus says the Lord: “Those destined for death to death; And those destined for the sword, to the sword; And those destined for famine, to famine; And those destined for captivity, to captivity.” “And I shall appoint over them four kinds of doom”, declares the Lord: “the sword to slay, the dogs to drag off, and the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. And I shall make them an object of horror among all the kingdoms of the earth.”

I also read the rest of the fifty some chapters that talk about Israel’s unfaithfulness and the judgment that God is going to bring upon them. Let me tell you it isn’t pretty. So you may wonder why God’s love struck me in these passages.

Well, first of all we know that the God of the Bible does not change, He is the same yesterday, today and forever. We also know that love is part of God’s character. As a matter of fact, love must be defined in God’s terms or it is not love. So we know that God’s reaction to Israel’s sin is a loving reaction and this is confirmed to us toward the end of Jeremiah.

O Jacob My servant, do not fear, declares the Lord, For I am with you. For I shall make a full end of all the nations where I have driven you, Yet I shall not make a full end of you; But I shall correct you properly and by no means leave you unpunished. (46:28)

God, because of His loving nature, must not leave Israel unpunished ( Hebrews 12:5-11).

Then God assures Israel that they are not forsaken, even in the midst of their guilt.

For neither Israel nor Judah has been forsaken by his God, the Lord of hosts, although their land is full of guilt before the Holy One of Israel.

Our family is caught up on our 90 Day Challenge Bible readings. Let us know how you are doing so that we can better pray for you. If you wrote a post please feel free to link up here. Don’t forget to also link up at Mom’s Toolbox tomorrow.

1. celee

2. MisMom

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Fine Doodles

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 13:09:01 +0000

An acrylic painting that brings life to your child’s artwork is a Fine Doodle and Summer the artist at Fine Doodles offered to create one of her paintings for a Raising Olives reader. A painting like this onethat she created from this drawing by our then three year old called “Wedding Cat”.

Congratulations to Dagny who blogs at Scarlet Nest who won the painting.

These paintings make great gifts for both children and the adults who love them, so head over to Fine Doodles look around and order a meaningful gift or book mark the Fine Doodles site and keep it in mind for those hard to buy for grandparents or great grandparents.

Coming to Raising Olives, Life in a Shoe and Smockity Frocks beginning the second week of March: A series about how moms of many manage. Stay tuned, you don’t want to miss this.

You may want to read “Thoughts on Child Training“, a very honest look at the first day of potty training in the Olive house or my answers to questions about pregnancy, child birth and more.

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Hide and Seek: Wordless

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 17:19:21 +0000

Want to see more of the funny things the kids are up to?

For more Wordless Wednesday posts head over to 5 Minutes for Mom.

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It’s A …….

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 17:10:29 +0000

…..

Girl!

Yes, God has decided to bless our family with a sixth daughter and as far as they can tell via ultrasound she looks well and healthy.

“Give thanks to the Lord for He is good and His mercy endures forever!”

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God’s Sovereignty – 90 Days

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:49:05 +0000

Win a wonderful way to celebrate and display your child’s art, enter my Fine Doodle Giveaway.

This is the point in the reading that things really get interesting. Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon and Isaiah, there is so much that I don’t fully understand and yet one thing has struck me clearly as I’ve read through Isaiah particularly.

Everything comes from the Lord, the good and the bad. He truly is sovereign and in control of all. All things happen according to his plan. There is great comfort in that and great rebuke.

Isaiah 31

Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses, and trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but they do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the Lord! Yet He also is wise and will bring disaster, and does not retract His words, but will arise against the house of evil doers, and against the help of the workers of iniquity. Now the Egyptians are men and not God, and their horses are flesh and not spirit; So the Lord will stretch out His hand, and he who helps will stumble and he who is helped will fall, and all of them will come to an end together.

How often when we are in trouble or distress do we turn to the physical things that we can do rather than turning first to God for help? How often do we try to “fix” a problem by relying on our own wisdom and doing something that may have a good end result, but clearly violates some of the principles of God’s Word?

This seems to be a overall recurring theme through out the Old Testament. When God brought the Israelites out of Egypt, God told them to stand by and see the salvation that God had wrought for them that day. God would fight for them while they remained silent.

Gideon (you know that he’s one of my favorites) went up against the Midianites who “were lying in the valley as numerous as locusts; and their camels were without number, as numerous as the sand on the seashore” with 300 men and God gave him victory.

I often tell my children that sometimes obeying God feels like you’re closing your eyes and stepping off a cliff. Do you obey God when it looks like the path that He has called you to will end in disaster, or do you only obey God when you see how it will all work out in the end? Are you willing to step off the edge of the cliff in faith and obedience to your sovereign God or are you still looking through your fearful eyes of flesh?

“Do I act on the reality that God is really sovereign?”

Our family is currently behind in our reading by 2 days. We should remedy that today by taking some time away from our other school subjects and allowing extra time for Bible reading. (This is one of the reasons that we’ve chosen to home educate, it gives us the freedom to choose our own priorities and not be stuck with the ideas that someone else imposes.)

Please leave a link to your update post or a comment and let us know how you are doing. We have committed to pray for each of you every day of this challenge and when you let us know how you are doing it helps us to pray a little more specifically.

Also head over to Mom’s Toolbox and link up your post there.

1. Alice @ Blessed Mummy to 4 Precious Little Ones

2. Heather @ Marine Corps Nomads

You may be interested in reading about how Mark tried to murder all of our fish or how I tackle a big project with little ones around. Also feel free to ask some questions on this post about our bulk freezer cooking, I’m working on a “how we do it post” on that topic, so now is the time to speak up.

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Celebrate Your Child’s Art with this Giveaway

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 13:21:43 +0000

Scroll down for an opportunity to win a $55 Fine Doodle.

I love art and I love my kid’s art, so when Summer contacted me about doing a Fine Doodles review and giveaway I knew I it would be a terrific fit. Fine Doodles combines Summer’s artistic talent and my kid’s creativity.

After receiving the paintings that Summer did for us, I’m even more excited to be able to tell you about it and to give you the chance to win one.

Summer takes children’s drawings and then uses acrylic paint to render them with color, dimension and imagination. The results are amazingly charming and whimsical. She created two paintings for us and I’m completely sold.

Just look at what she did with Alyssa’s “People”

"People" - original

"People" - Fine Doodled

and with Savannah’s “Wedding Cat”

"Wedding Cat" - Original

"Wedding Cat" - Fine Doodled

I already have several more drawings selected that I want to have Fine Doodled. I should have at least one from each child, right? The great thing is that my husband was also enchanted with the paintings, so I don’t have to sell him on the idea of getting more.

After seeing these delightful paintings, even Suzanne (the college student who is currently living with us) wants to have one of her childhood drawings painted by Summer.

Summer paints onto a high quality board that can be placed into a frame for ease of display. Each drawing comes with a certificate of authenticity that includes a high quality copy of the child’s original art work.

Pros:

Wonderful way to celebrate and preserve your kid’s favorite drawings. (Our copy of “People” had been drawn on scratch paper and was a bit crumpled, but now it can be displayed.)
The quality of art is amazing.
Summer really captures the essence of what the children had imagined. (We emailed a couple times about “Wedding Cat” so that she was sure her painting fit with what Savannah was trying to express.)
I honestly can’t say enough good about these. You just have to see your child’s art transformed into a Fine Doodle to completely appreciate them.

Cons:

One of our paintings was damaged during the shipping process. However, Summer did offer to immediately make it right.

Fine Doodles offers gift certificates for any of their painting sizes. These would make great gifts for grandparents, parents, children, grown children and even grand children. (I would love to have a Fine Doodle of one of my parent’s childhood drawings.) It’s a special way to celebrate and preserve children’s art.

Want a Fine Doodle of your own? Summer is going to create a medium sized Fine Doodle for one blessed Raising Olives reader.

To enter:

Please visit Fine Doodles and look around. Then come back and leave a comment on this post telling me how you save/store of your kid’s art work.

Extra entries:

Tweet about this giveaway. (You may receive one extra entry every day that you tweet.)
Post about this giveaway on your blog. (Three extra entries)
Please leave a comment for each entry.

Open to residents of the U.S., Mexico and Canada. Giveaway will end Wednesday, February 24 at midnight.

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Your Child’s Heart Requires Time

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 17:30:30 +0000

Esther who blogs at MATROZKEPZO (and holds the distinction of being the only foreign language blog, that I know of, to have Raising Olives in their blog roll) left this insightful comment on my last post in Your Child’s Heart series. I thought it was good enough to warrant it’s own post.

Many people, even Christian mothers think, that it is sufficient and enough to occasionally listen to their kids. At these times, they sit down with them, and ask questions about school and life, and they are expecting ‘talk-flood’ from their youngsters. But usually, that flood doesn’t happen- and no wonder why. Because nobody can force another person at a certain time to open his heart up for him for ten minutes or for half an hour- just to be neglected for days or weeks after that.

The key is availability.

Many loving parents don’t realize, that there’s no such think as quality time by itself! QUALITY COMES FROM QUANTITY. You need to spend many many many hours (and I mean it literally) watching and listening to your children. You don’t even need to ask questions. Just be with them, and let them feel your presence. And then, you need to listen to them.

I think, this is the hardest part. To sit still smiling, and look into their eyes while they are chatting, talking and talking to you about everything. Sometimes it is so hard for me not to close my ears and my heart at them – even when they are talking almost continuously all-day-long! But I know, there is no other way I can have their quality time. Because in this way, I build relationships between me and each of them uniquely. So that each of them get to know, that mom is a person that he can trust with his secrets and one who he can count on- probably one of few in the early years… I think this is very important.

This makes clear the point that I was trying to make. In order to keep our children’s hearts we must spend both quality and quantity time with our children. I think Esther put her finger on a key point, “Quality comes from quantity.” You can’t have one without the other.

In Deuteronomy 6: 4-9 we are to teach these things (God’s law) diligently to our children, but then it goes on to explain that we should do that as we walk through life with them. If we aren’t WITH our children, if we are allowing others to raise them, teach them, spend the majority of waking hours with them, it is difficult to obey this command. We can’t simply schedule some “quality time” with our children in order to teach them what they must know. We must build a relationship, a relationship that in some way mirrors the relationship that our children should have with God.

For whom the LORD loves He reproves, Even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights. (Proverbs 3:12)

Just as a father has compassion on his children, So the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him. (Psalm 103:13)

It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? (Hebrews 12:7-9)

I’d love to hear how you incorporate both quality and quantity time with your children and how you foster and develop solid, loving relationships with your children.

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Simple, Frugal Birthday Cakes

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 11:35:10 +0000

For a number of reasons we have chosen to keep birthday celebrations fairly simple at our home. We have many special traditions and activities for each birthday, but a few years ago I discovered a way to allow children to participate in creating their birthday cake while saving me lots of time and energy.

Now sometimes we do a nice theme cake for the birthday child.
However, a few years ago while dealing with severe morning sickness, I hit upon an idea that is easy on mom and that our children enjoy even more than having me spend time making a pretty cake for them. We let the child decorate their own birthday cake.

The first time we did it, it was honestly out of necessity. Kaitlin’s birthday is just a few weeks after Christmas and I was nauseated, tired and unprepared.

We purchased some pre-made cookie dough (don’t think too poorly of me) and rolled it out to make a large cookie cake. We bought some gel writers and sprinkles and Kaitlin decorated to her hearts content.

She loved it and we had fun working on it together, but I felt like I deserved the bad mom of the year award for not making a real birthday cake for my child.

Our next birthday was just a few weeks later and this time I was ready. With plenty of time to spare I asked Carter what type of birthday cake he wanted. He asked to have a cookie cake and decorate it himself just like Kaitlin. And so a tradition was born.

I still enjoy making a special cake for a birthday celebration, but now we also give our children the option of decorating their own. Sometimes we make a more traditional, layered cake for them to decorate but most often they prefer a large cookie cake.

Birthday cake/cookie a la 6 year old

I realize that these cakes/cookies will not be earning any decorating prizes and I probably won’t be up for mom of the year since I don’t make a lovely, elaborate birthday cake for each child, but a simple birthday cake/cookie that makes my kids happy and saves me time and energy, that works for me.

Next Wednesday I’m going to post about how we make birthdays special without spending a lot of money.

Wonder how we deal with potty training, or how we don’t spend any money on paper and still allow our children to get crafty, curious about why I feel a special reason to celebrate that Carter is still here with us? Please browse the archives or read more of my Works for Me Wednesday posts.

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Changes

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 11:03:15 +0000

There are some changes coming to the blog that I thought might interest you since they will affect my posting.

I recently stepped down from The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew in order to have more flexibility and control in the products that we choose to use with our children. That means that our family will be getting back to the homeschool products that we know and love and some of new ones that we found through the Crew.

It also means that I’ll be posting reviews much less frequently. I still intend to do reviews, but I will be sharing about products that our family is interested in or products that we currently use and enjoy in our home and homeschool.

I hope that these changes will be as beneficial to you as they have been for our family.

My favorites from my time on the Crew:

Young Scholar’s Guide to Composers – Excellent composers study.
All About Spelling and the Beehive Reader – My favorite spelling program.
Rocket Phonics – Plan to use this in conjunction with 100 Easy Lessons to teach the rest of our children to read.
Virginia Soaps and Scents – Homemade soap, shampoo and laundry soap.

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Worship Guitar Winner

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 11:00:54 +0000

Congratulations to Shannon who won her choice of a copy of the first DVD in the Worship Guitar Series or Worship Guitar for Kids.

If you didn’t win, I suggest you head over to the Worship Guitar site and consider purchasing some of their fantastic products. It’s much more affordable than paying for private instruction. If you haven’t done so already, you may be interested in reading my complete review.

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Not Me Monday: Pirates and Grubs

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 14:28:55 +0000

Enter to win a worship guitar class on DVD (your choice for kids or adults).

As we were eating our dinner of chicken, vegetables and brown rice on Wednesday one of the children did not say, “Mom, it looks like there is a worm in my rice.”

If someone had discovered a worm in their rice it would certainly have been a figment of their imagination and not an actual grub/worm/gross thing in our dinner. We did not end up throwing out the rest of the rice. *shudder*

Since there are no vivid imaginations here, Kaitlin (12) did not think to dress up like a pirate’s bride, wooden leg and all.

Friday morning our children did not have chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. Our children always get a healthy start to their day and that does not include CHOCOLATE (unless of course ice cream is the main course.)

When we give Nicholas (1) an ice cream cone he does not eat every last bit of cone before he begins to eat the ice cream and we certainly do not laugh at his mess and the leftover pile of ice cream.

Things I did not say this week:

Please do not lick the carpet.
Oh Nick, don’t drink the water from the potty, that’s yucky!

You may want to read about how we memorize scripture with our children, stay prepared when we are in the car or homeschool with little ones around.

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90 Day Challenge: Half Way

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 14:10:30 +0000

The Psalms, chapters of praise and thanksgiving, chapters of pleading and remorse. These verses so familiar that many times you can close your eyes and continue “reading” the passage from memory. This is the first point in our 90 day challenge that the quick pace has seemed too quick, where I have wished for more time to dwell in these passages. The passages are so rich and deep and speak so to our human part, less story and more insight into the heart of man.

“Bless the Lord, Oh my soul and all that is within my bless His holy Name.”

“I will lift up my eyes to the hills from whence shall my help come? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to slip. He who keeps you will not slumber.”

“Vindicate me, oh God, and plead my case against an ungodly nation; O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man!”

Our family continues to stay up with the pace. I think there is a huge advantage in having several family members partaking together. It helps with the accountability.

We are halfway through, how is the challenge going for you? How was your journey through the Psalms? Please link up an update post or leave a comment here so that our family will be able to more specifically pray for you. Also don’t forget to link up tomorrow at Mom’s Toolbox.

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Giveaway – Jean Welles Worship Guitar Class

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 14:48:14 +0000

Scroll down for an opportunity to win.

I gave our kids the option to participate in the worship guitar class if they wished. Matthew (10) was the only one who initially wanted to try. However after a few lessons, when our older girls Kaitlin (12) and Amber (13) saw that he was able to play a few worship songs all on his own, they decided that they were interested after all.

Jean Welles Worship Guitar Class enables you or your children (10 and up) to learn to play worship music at home. Worship Guitar is a series of four DVD’s that build upon each other and teach the student in a progressive manner to play worship songs. Our family was given a copy of the first DVD in order to write this review.

The DVD begins with introducing the parts of the guitar and some basics of strumming and holding the guitar. In each of the 7 subsequent lessons the child learns one to two new chords and/or a new strumming pattern and by the end of each lesson they are able to play a new song.

The lessons build upon each other using the chords and strumming patterns learned in previous lessons to play more and more complex songs. Everything is clearly explained and shown on the DVD so the kids were able to learn to play simply and easily. You may view an excerpt of the first lesson here.

Our children had great success with this program. They were motivated and able to learn on their own and enjoyed practicing the songs that the DVD’s introduced. They especially enjoyed being able to play while others were singing.

Jean Welles also offers a Worship Guitar Class for Kids ages 5-9.

Now the great news. You do not need to take my word about Jean Welles Worship Guitar Class. One reader will win one of the Jean Welles DVDs. The winner will be able to choose either the first DVD in the Worship Guitar series ($24.95) or the Worship Guitar Class for Kids ($29.95).

To enter:

Leave a comment on this post telling me which level of guitar class you would choose.

Extra entries:

One extra entry each day that you tweet about this giveaway including a link back to this post.
Three extra entries for posting and linking back to this giveaway.

Please leave an additional comment for each of your entries.

This giveaway will end at midnight on Tuesday, February 16 and is open world wide.

Our family was given a copy of the Worship Guitar Class Vol. 1 in return for using it and writing this review. All opinions expressed are my own and I was not otherwise compensated. This post contains affiliate links.

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Beehive Reader 1: Review

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 13:18:15 +0000

Since this product is produced by and correlates with All About Spelling, you may be interested in reading my complete review of All About Spelling.

As soon as this book arrived in the mail Sadie (6) claimed it as her own. Sadie had not, to this point, picked up a book to read on her own initiative. However I found her all over the house reading the stories from this book. She chooses it to read aloud to me, she chooses it for her nap time reading and she can also be found reading it on her own.

She loves the size, perfect for her to put under her arm or in her reading bag. She loves the stories, some whimsical and some more realistic and she loves, loves, loves the pictures. I don’t think that my other early reader (age 4) has had an opportunity to look at the book yet.

Produced by All About Spelling the Beehive reader shares the quality, method and vision of the All About Spelling program. Each detail of the book was thoughtfully designed and children with different learning styles and struggles were considered and choices were made to make this the best book possible for them.

The Beehive Reader 1 is lovely. It is a 156 page, hardcover book with charming and whimsical pencil illustrations.

It includes 10 stories that build upon each other and introduce new reading concepts slowly and deliberately.

The All About Spelling team considered every aspect of this reader and how they could make it easier and better for the beginning reader. From the paper to the font and phrasing, each detail was evaluated and decisions were made with the kids in mind. (There is even subtle underlining to help children who have difficulty tracking.)

The Beehive Reader uses a solid incremental approach so that the children are able to decode all of the words in the book, no guessing. The words in the Beehive Reader directly correlate with the words taught in All About Spelling so children not only learn how to read the words, they also learn how to spell them. This makes the Beehive Reader ideal to use for dictation and copy work assignments, giving the children a more unified approach to reading, spelling and writing.

You do not need to use All About Spelling for your children to enjoy and love this reader. Sadie has not yet started All About Spelling, but reads and loves the Beehive Reader and all of my older children have enjoyed reading through it.

The Beehive Reader is available for $19.95. You may also purchase various levels of the complete All About Spelling program for $39.95. (Here is my complete review of All About Spelling.)

All About Spelling sent our family a complimentary copy of The Beehive Reader 1 in order to for me to write this review. The ideas and opinions expressed are my own and I have not been otherwise compensated. This post contains affiliate links.

You may be interested in how our large family manages the laundry or how we encourage our children to do chores or you may just want to read about how I managed to completely mess up dinner one evening.

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Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling: Review

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 10:23:32 +0000

The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling has over 500 pages of homeschool information and resources. From determining whether or not you should homeschool to teaching teens, planning your school year, choosing curriculum and preventing homeschool burnout, The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling certainly covers a lot of material. It also includes a resource guide of over 50 pages and includes all types of curriculum, academic competitions and various state resources.

I found many aspects and chapters of The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling to be helpful and inspiring. I especially enjoyed and learned from the chapter on goal setting. Once you have set goals for your children you will find many paths to work toward those goals and many of those paths will be real life adventures. If you don’t set those goals then you won’t be looking for those opportunities and won’t recognize them when they come your way. This is something that has helped our homeschool to be more focused and efficient.

However, the goal and focus of this book is almost solely on the academic aspect of school at home and as I’ve said before, while we have high academic goals for our children that is not the ultimate goal of our family. Also the author obviously holds a very different world view from our family and so while I agreed with many of her points I completely disagreed with many of the ways that she came to her conclusions.

From my perspective as a second generation homeschooler (I was homeschooled beginning in 6th grade) and now having the experience of homeschooling our children over the last 13 years, I thought that much of what she presents as necessary or vital steps in the home education process aren’t necessary, but rather are dependent on the educational choices and goals that your family pursues. If a new homeschooler were to pick up this book and try to do everything that the author has done I think that they may be overwhelmed.

While this book contains a lot of information about homeschooling, I don’t think that it should be treated as “The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling”. It is a compilation of one persons ideas, thoughts, experiences and suggestions. Many of her perspectives and ideas are good and helpful, but each family has their own set of goals and values. That is the beauty of homeschooling, each family striving to follow God in the manner and way that He has called them.

The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling may be purchased through Apologia Press for $20.00. Apologia Press also offers many other homeschool titles in addition to their well known science curriculum.

Apologia Press sent our family a copy of The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling in return for my time and effort to read the book and write this review. All ideas and opinions are my own and I was not otherwise compensated for this review.

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Dollar Homeschool: Review

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 22:53:54 +0000

Dollar Homeschool gave our family a complimentary copy of the Eclectic Education Series, a set of CD’s that is available on their site for $159.

The Eclectic Education Series is a set of textbooks that was used in American schools from the early 1800’s to the early 1900’s. These include McGuffey’s Readers, Ray’s Arithmetics, Pinneo’s Grammars, Thalheimer’s Histories, Norton’s Sciences and more. This was American education during those years. If you had all of these texts and the no-how to use them, you could educate all of your children from Kindergarten through graduation.

Since the majority of these books are available for free download on the internet, I’m going to do this review a little differently and focus on the service that Dollar Homeschool provides by gathering these titles for you and packaging them in a more easily usable format.

I think it is quite valuable to have Dollar Homeschool gather all the necessary text books for a complete education and put them in a more usable format. Dollar Homeschool has done a good job collecting texts from the days of early American education and compiling them onto a CD with an index that enables you to jump from one text to another and even search for different terms.

I was intrigued by the science texts and McGuffey readers, so we decided to use those products for the review period.

First Year Science

First Year Science is a complete science program with no additional library or resources needed. So the children and I began making our way through the 453 page text. Unfortunately when we reached page 5 we discovered that there was no page 6 or 7 the PDF text simply skipped to page 8.

I immediately called the Dollar Homeschool representative and asked about the missing pages hoping that they would rectify the problem. I spoke with Aaron Jagt and explained what we found. He said those pages probably got stuck together when they scanned the original text into the computer. Then he promised to email me a copy of the missing pages. I have still not received a copy of the missing pages.

I asked if there was a way that I could get a copy of the whole book file with the missing pages included and he told me, “no”, he was not willing to do that. So in order for our family to use the book First Year Science offered and advertised as part of the Eclectic Education Series we must open the original PDF file and then when we get to page 5, we go find the file with the 2 missing pages and read from there, then back to the original file. There is no way to search the complete text and many of the advantages of having everything in one place are eliminated.

First Year Science is not the only text missing pages. There are also pages missing from “Successful Teaching in Rural Schools”.

McGuffey Readers

Our family did use and enjoy the McGuffey readers. I used the first reader with Sadie (6) and Savannah (4) and the second reader with Alyssa (9). The readings were simple enough for all of the girls to practice using expression and inflection as they read. The out loud practice was wonderful for my, always-reads-to-herself, 9 year old. I pulled the girls copy work directly from the readers for additional practice. The girls all enjoyed their experience with the readers.

If you are interested in incorporating the McGuffey readers in your homeschool, I suggest you read this excellent article. Mrs. White has many helpful posts and articles on her blog, The Legacy of Home, about using the early American methods of education.

One thing to mention about the copy of the McGuffey readers in the Eclectic Education Series is that the pictures are so dark as to be mostly unrecognizable. There are several places in the readers that have questions or refer to the pictures, so this is more than an aesthetic problem. I found the same readers available for free download with much better quality pictures, so I’m not sure why this problem has not been remedied.

The bottom line:

If the problem of the missing pages and picture quality is resolved and you are interested in using these classic textbooks in your homeschool then you may wish to consider the Dollar Homeschool Eclectic Education Series. However, at this point in time I can not recommend this product.

You may be interested to read more about how we schedule our day, incorporate family worship, or you may wish to see how our children help clean the windows.

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