I wanted to do a series on health and natural living. I wanted to share our journey into making kefir, moving to all sourdough, using more natural cleaners and eating only whole foods traditionally prepared. For now I’ll point you to the site that gave us the oomph we needed t0 take the plunge, GNOWFGLINS . If you’re interested in learning more about whole foods, healthy eating and traditional food preparation I highly recommend looking into taking a class or two. (The girls and I are taking both the Sourdough eCourse and the Fundamentals eCourse.) We also*heart* their weekly menu plans with shopping list.

I hoped to write more about homeschooling and everything that God continues to teach us.

For the time being, we’re focusing on just getting by, but hopefully these things will be coming soon. If you want to keep up with us you may want to ‘like’ the Raising Olives Facebook page.

If you’ve asked a question via email or in the comments, I’m not ignoring you, I’m just behind.

In the meantime, here are some facts about this newest pregnancy and our family:

• We found out we were expecting on Christmas Eve.
• We told the children on Christmas morning by wrapping the positive test and putting it in Amber’s stocking.
• Due date August 28
• This will be our 4th August baby.
• August/September is my favorite time of year to have a baby.
• This baby will be 25 months younger than Isabella.
• This will be our second longest gap. (longest-27 months between Nick (3) and Bella (1).
• We’ve had 3 un-medicated hospital births, 4 births with epidurals, 2 home births and one c-section, in that order.
• This baby will be born via c-section because of my history shoulder dystocia and Nick’s Erb’s Palsy.
• We’ve always had more girls than boys and have never been ‘even’.
• I’m 39 and will be 40 in August when the baby is due.
• I’m still breastfeeding Isabella (18 months).
• So far, this has been my most difficult pregnancy, but Mark says that I always say that.
• I have not asked Mark to remind me that I don’t ever want to do this again because I finally realize that no matter how hard it is, it is worth it!
• Green Smoothies, they’re how I’m getting in my fruits/veggies this pregnancy.
• During this pregnancy I’ve been unable to eat at dinner time.
• Mark’s hospitality rule for all of my pregnancies is, “No company during the first trimester”
• Mark is the best ‘pregnant’  husband EVER!
• In God’s providence, I’ve never experienced a miscarriage.

Any other questions I didn’t address? I hope to write some posts in answer to your questions….soon.

Some Notes About Pregnancy #11 is a post from: Raising Olives

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The passage that explains both why we chose to home educate and dictates how we home educate is Deuteronomy 6:4-9

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

There are many verses and passages that plainly explain God’s commands and desires for the education of His children. Knowing that God has placed the responsibility for the education of our children upon Mark and me encourages us that He has and will equip us specifically for that purpose.

Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ ~Phil. 1:6

Matthew 6:33 is another passage that has served as a guide to us as our children have gotten older and as outside pressure to live up to everyone’s (or anyone’s) standard has increased. And that pressure is immense in the circumstances that God has placed us. (We’ve had  parents tell us that in order for children to be equipped to be leaders in today’s society they must receive a specific type of education that simply can’t be provided at home.)

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

So as we hear, “You must teach Latin.” “Parents can’t teach higher math/science.” “Our kid received this or that award, what are you doing? ” , etc. We simply pray to fix our eyes on Jesus, we pray to seek the kingdom of God first and we look to the Word of God to see what He says is important.

We’ve found that when we block out the chatter of the world and what they say is important or necessary for a ‘good’ education and instead turn to God’s Word as our standard, we are most encouraged.

He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?

Immerse yourself and your children in the Word of God, teach them to fear the Lord, tell them the great things He has done for you, teach them to stand firm on His Word and all these things will be added unto you.

Psst, in case you missed our announcement.

Also visit the other moms of many to read their encouraging verses and stories:
Smockity Frocks
Life in a Shoe
The Common Room

For more information about the 4 Moms of Many including a listing of all posts, visit the 4 Moms page.

Encouraging Verses for Homeschooling: 4 Moms of Many is a post from: Raising Olives

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Coming August 2012

We’d love prayers for our family during this time. I’ve been struggling with dehydration over the past several weeks and have required multiple rounds of IV fluids.

Thanks for rejoicing and praying with us.

You may be interested in:

• Rejoicing in Morning Sickness
• Pregnancy is Hard
• Be a Quitter
• Our birth history, because I know you’ll pray
• More Pregnancy posts

Coming August 2012 is a post from: Raising Olives

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Brianah asked this question on FB. It’s one that gets asked  frequently so probably deserves some more publicity,  “What did your day look like when you had all littles?“

Our first 8 children are all between 14 and 18 months apart, so by the time we had our 4th baby our oldest was 3 1/2. I wrote a whole post on this topic, Home with All Littles, including our daily schedule and some tips for how we managed Bible teaching and beginning homeschooling.

Crystal asked about our children’s Daily Bible Reading, “Do your children enjoy doing this much Bible reading?”

The short answer to this is, yes. Of course there are times that I’m sure they would prefer to head outside and play rather than read, but Bible reading is part of their (and our) lives and has been since they were born.

When Mark and I decided that we wanted to read through the Bible in 90 days we were not planning on the children doing it. However, they all wanted to take the challenge.

This year they had the option of reading through in 6 months or continuing to read through every 90 days, everyone who was allowed (we didn’t give the slower readers the 90 day option) wanted to continue with the 90 day plan.

We actually have less trouble getting them to read their Bibles than we do getting them to make their beds.

Crystal continues, “When they complain about it, how do you address that?”

We honestly haven’t had any (?) complaints, at least I can’t remember any.

I think that there are two things that contribute to our children’s attitude about Bible reading. 1). God has changed their hearts. They love Him and honestly desire to spend time in His Word. 2). For the most part we have our children’s hearts, they love us and desire to please us.

Bible reading is a family affair. Most mornings our whole family is out in the family room, snuggled up in blankets with our Bibles reading quietly. The little ones alternately snuggle, give kisses, play quietly with toys and ‘read’ their Bibles. Colby (5) frequently asks when he will be old enough to have and read his own Bible just like the big kids.

After reading the post on teaching grammar Kirsten said, “I’m wondering how you handle interruptions during read aloud times? Do you pause your read aloud to answer any and all questions that one or more of your children may have about the topic you are studying?”

Yes and No.   I try to keep a balance on stopping during read aloud time. Often it’s beneficial to stop and discuss different aspects of what we are reading and sometimes it just interrupts the flow of the story.

It’s a delicate balance because we want our children to understand and think deeply about what they are hearing, but when you have more than one child, it can be frustrating to keep stopping to answer questions.

The way that we balance this is that we stop after each chapter and give our kids the opportunity to discuss what we’ve read. If someone asks a question that requires research or looking up, I have them to use that topic as their writing assignment for the day.

Also visit the other moms of many to read their thoughts and ideas:
Smockity Frocks
Life in a Shoe
The Common Room

To learn more about the 4 Moms of Many including a list of all previous topics visit the  4 Moms page.

4 Moms Q & A: Only Littles, Bible Reading Attitudes and Read Aloud Interuptions is a post from: Raising Olives

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Managing clothing is one of my least favorite tasks. It seems that no sooner do all the children have a sufficient number of nice outfits that 7 of them will put holes in the knees of their ‘going-out’ jeans and 3 of them will stain one of their nice shirts. However, since I haven’t been able to convince anyone in my family to simply forego clothing altogether we just keep on doing the best that we can.

Limit the amount of clothing

Here are our basics for each child:

• 2 pairs of pajamas
• 2 Sunday outfits for boys and 3 for girls
• 3 pairs of nice, going out clothes
• 5 pairs of everyday clothes (I’ve learned to designate one of these outfits as a ‘backyard only’ outfit, otherwise all of these get way too worn out.)

Manage hand-me-downs

Most large families deal with a lot of hand-me-down clothing.  Here is my strategy:

• Pull each item out of the hand-me-down bag/box and evaluate it’s condition and style. If it’s not in nice condition or not something your children would wear, place it back into the bag/box to giveaway.
• If it passes the condition/style test, sort it by season, gender and size.
• Now it’s time to find out which of these items of clothing your family needs. Pull out your clothes storage boxes that correspond to the gender, size and season of your ‘new’ hand-me-down clothing. If the box is full, I take a quick look to see if there is anything in the box that I’d like to swap out for something that’s nicer in the handed down clothing. If the box isn’t full, I just put the ‘new’ clothes into it.

Don’t store too much

Since we’ve been blessed with both boys and girls spanning a wide range of sizes, we simply aren’t able or willing to store clothing from the time Amber (15) wears it until Bella (1) is able to wear it. Besides something that is 14 or so years old often won’t be in wearable condition. God has always provided our family with clothing, so rather than store an item for several years before it’s used again, we pass it on to someone who will be able to use it and trust that God would provide more clothing for our family when they are needed.

My rule of thumb is that I keep what a child will be growing into within 1-3 years. If no one will be wearing an outfit in the next three years, we pass it on.

Shop second hand

’cause if you spent lots of money on their clothes, you might not survive stunts like this.

If you follow my system for sorting, storing and limiting clothing, you should have a list of items that your children need. Depending on where you live, yard sales can be the best source for children’s clothing. Here are some guidelines that I use for shopping (and buying) at yard sales.

If yard sales aren’t an option then consignment stores often provide nice clothing at discounted prices.

You may be interested in how I clothed our entire family for years on $25 per month.

Have a plan for laundry

Here are several different laundry systems for large families (click link for a description of each system):

• Three basket laundry system
• Laundry day
• Personal responsibility laundry system
• Room by room laundry system
• Family closet

Now it’s your turn to share your tips for managing clothes.  Please play by these rules:

1. You must link to a specific relevant post on your blog.
2. Your post must include a link to at least one of the 4 Moms blogs.
3. The post you link to must be completely family friendly.

If your link is deleted, you probably didn’t follow one of the rules above. Please feel free to add your link again once you have fixed the problem. If you don’t know why your link was deleted, please ask.

Be sure to visit the other 4 Moms  of Many to see how they manage all those clothes:

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

For more Moms of Many posts visit the 4 Moms page.

Managing Clothes for a Large Family: 4 Moms is a post from: Raising Olives

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We often have last minute company or company that stays beyond one meal, so most often our snacks for a crowd are super simple items that we always have on hand:

• Popcorn (plain or with fun toppings)
• Homemade granola bars
• Apple slices (toss with a little lemon juice to prevent them turning brown)
• Carrot sticks
• Chips with homemade salsa
• Sour dough crackers and cheese (My favorite sourdough cracker recipe is part of the GNOWFGLINS sourdough eCourse, highly recommended.)

If I have some notice then our fare may be a little more interesting:

• Garlicky baked fries – Yum! We had these for snack yesterday afternoon.
• Pumpkin soup – Or any other type of soup without chunks and served in mugs with no spoons.
• Cranberry pretzel dip with pretzels
• Cauliflower Poppers
• Ham and Cheese Sliders – or another simpler sandwich offering
• Hot Wings – (Recipe below) We make these up, sans the sauce, and store them in the freezer. Whenever we want hot wings we simply heat them up and drizzle the sauce on top.

Photo Credit SausageKingOfSeattle

Hot Wings Recipe

Ingredients for wings

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 10 chicken wings
• oil for deep frying

Mix together all spices. Place chicken in large bowl or dish and sprinkle spices over top until chicken pieces are evenly coated. Spread coated chicken pieces evenly in dish and cover and refrigerate for 60-90 minutes. (This step is important.)

Fry coated wings in hot oil (375 degrees) for 10-15 minutes or until parts of the wings begin to turn brown. (We use a deep fryer)

Freeze at this point or continue on to next step. If you freeze wings you will simply bake until hot when you take them out and then continue to next step.

Ingredients for sauce

• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup hot sauce
• 1 dash ground black pepper
• 1 dash garlic powder

Combine sauce ingredients in small saucepan over low heat. Heat and stir until butter is melted and ingredients are well blended. Drizzle over hot wings.

Now it’s your turn to share your favorite appetizer and snack recipes.  Please play by these rules:

1. You must link to a specific relevant post on your blog.
2. Your post must include a link to at least one of the 4 Moms blogs.
3. The post you link to must be completely family friendly.

If your link is deleted, you probably didn’t follow one of the rules above. Please feel free to add your link again once you have fixed the problem. If you don’t know why your link was deleted, please ask.

Visit the other moms of many:
Smockity Frocks
Life in a Shoe
The Common Room

For more Moms of Many posts visit the 4 Moms page.

Homemade Hot Wings and Other Snacks for a Crowd: 4 Moms Link Up is a post from: Raising Olives

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In our family we’ve taken a laid back, whole language approach to teaching grammar.

Our plan goes like something like this.

1. Read aloud to child
2. Have the child narrate
3. Teach the child to read
4. Teach the child proper letter formation
5. Introduce copy work
6. Introduce dictation
7. Introduce written narration
8. Teach formal grammar (diagramming, nomenclature, etc.)

Each child progresses to the next step, not at a certain age, but when they demonstrate proficiency in the previous step and a readiness to move forward.

Read aloud to children

For most homeschoolers this goes without saying, but from the time our children are very young we model proper grammar in our speech and by reading aloud to our children. Consistently hearing proper patterns of speech helps train our children to recognize and use correct grammar.

I still read aloud (usually more than an hour a day) to our 12, 13 and 15 year old.

Introduce narration

Narration is simply having the child tell a story, give a description or relate an event in their own words. This comes very naturally throughout our day.  We have different children tell us what they learned during our science and history read aloud times. We have children tell daddy about the story in our literature reading. Children tell me about their adventure in the woods or how they learned a new trick on the trampoline.

Our goal is for each child to narrate something each day.

Sometimes children may require a bit of guidance. I recall when Matthew was 6, he had just finished reading Misty of Chincoteague and I asked him to tell me about the story. He launched into what would have been a several hour long narration, when I asked him to try to just tell me the main points of the story rather than including all the detailed descriptions of the island, characters, horses, etc. For other children, I’ve asked them to include more description and detail. There is a place for both detailed descriptions as well as for condensed story lines and it will be useful if your children become adept at both.

Regular narration continues through all the subsequent steps. This teaches our children to organizing their thoughts into sentences and paragraphs which, for most children, is the difficult part of written composition.

Teach reading

We do this when they seem interested and ready. Once our children are able to read they read through the Bible at least once a year and have one hour of free reading time each day in addition to regularly assigned ‘school’ reading.

You may be interested in my teaching reading post.

Teach letter formation

We begin to teach letter formation or handwriting when our children begin to ‘write’ notes of their own accord. You may be interested in my teaching handwriting post.

Introduce copy work (generally by age 5-8)

After our children are fluently reading and have learned the basics of letter formation, we begin copy work. Our children are given a few words, a sentence or a paragraph, depending upon their ability, that they copy. They pay special attention to spelling, handwriting and punctuation.

In the beginning, I sit beside the child as they copy and immediately correct if they begin to make an error, giving them the rule as to why what they were about to write is incorrect. (i.e. There must always be an end mark at the end of a sentence.)  As they understand what is expected of them, they simply bring me their assignment when they are finished. If something in the copy work is incorrect, they re-copy the entire assignment.

For years we simply pulled portions from our read aloud books for our children to copy, but a couple years ago we purchased Spelling Wisdom to use for copy work and dictation. They certainly aren’t necessary and we don’t always use them, but I enjoy the ease of nice, inspiring and increasingly challenging copy or dictation passages right at my fingertips.

Introduce dictation (generally by age 9-12)

Once a child can consistently copy their assignment quickly, easily and accurately, we move on to dictation. Instead of having the child look at the passage they are writing, I read it aloud to them. Now they are having to spell and punctuate from their knowledge of the English language.

If they make a mistake in either spelling or punctuation, we go over the rule that they violated and/or explain why what they’ve written is wrong and how it should be corrected.

If a child has difficulty adjusting to dictation, we don’t hesitate to move back to copy work. Our goal is mastery of the language, not that he/she be dictating by a certain age/stage.

Depending upon the child, a misspelled word or a common grammatical error may be put onto a spelling list or a grammar rule list for them to formally review (only one of our children has needed this type of help).

Introduce written narration (often not before 10-13)

When a child can reliably write any passage from dictation with only occasional errors, we move on to written narration.

Written narration is as simple as it sounds. Simply tell your child, “Today instead of telling me what differentiates Mars from the other planets, you will do your narration on paper.” Next thing you know, your child will have written their first paper.

They have practiced composing and organizing their thoughts through years of oral narration. They have learned the mechanics of writing and the rules of spelling and grammar through copy work and dictation and now they simply put what they already know together. (Next month we’ll talk more about teaching composition.)

I moved one of our children into written narration while they were still being challenged by their regular dictation exercises. In this case, I simply worked with that child on their composition during written narration assignments and, for the most part, ignored grammar and spelling errors. Then we continued to work on spelling and grammar with daily dictation practice.

Teach formal grammar

We’ve always wanted to teach formal grammar to our children. We just never saw the point of spending 8-10 years to teach them 8 parts of speech. It seemed to us that a child, who is ready to learn, could master the 8 parts of speech and their diverse functions and roles in a year or less.

So as our children got older we looked for a rigorous grammar program that would allow us to teach our children all the formal grammar that we wished for them to know, without spending lots of time on busy work, repetition and drill. For us that program has been Analytical Grammar (and it takes just one year to complete).

I know that other home school parents have simply chosen to purchase a 7th or 8th grade level of other grammar programs and have their child go through that one level. There is so much review written into every program that I’ve seen that even children who’ve had no ‘formal’ grammar instruction have no problem moving through an upper level grammar course. (We seriously considered doing this with Shurley English.)

I say it over and over, but it’s true, some of the beauty of homeschooling is in the diversity of ways that parents effectively teach and train their children in the skills they will need for life.

Take some time to visit the other moms of many to find out how they teach grammar in their homes:
Smockity Frocks
Life in a Shoe
The Common Room

How is grammar taught in your home?

For more Moms of Many posts visit the 4 Moms page.

4 Moms Teach Writing Part 1: Grammar is a post from: Raising Olives

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One vital aspect of this training is for our children to know the Word of God. One way we accomplish this is that we spend time every day reading the Word of God. (Why we require daily Bible reading.) Mark reads to us each morning and evening during family worship. I read at the beginning of each school day and as soon as our children are able to decipher words, they begin reading a portion of the Bible each day.

Bible reading around the camp fire each morning

For years we used a ‘read the Bible through in one year schedule’. Then two years ago we read through the Bible in 90 days and found that it was just what we were looking for. It takes us between 45 min. – 1 hour of reading each day and provides great context especially for the historic and prophetic books.

Last year, we read through the Bible four times (everyone 10 years and older). Our younger reader (8) read through the Bible once during the year and our beginning readers (5 and 7) just read through the New Testament.

This year the younger readers will use this schedule to read through the Bible twice during the year, while our older children (11 and up) read through the Bible another 4 times.

Here are the schedules that we are using this year. We customized them so that each  day’s reading ends at the end of a chapter and each reading is labeled with the date to be read. This makes it easier to keep up with where we should be.

Bible four times during 2012:

January – March

April – June

July – September

October – December

Bible two times during 2012:

Bible in 6 months schedule

This regular Bible reading has produced benefits greater than we anticipated when we began more than 10 years ago. God promises that His Word will not return void and it has not.

May our year be characterized by faithful obedience to our Lord and Savior in every area of life, a greater knowledge of who He is and what He has done for us and more wisdom and understanding of how we can bring ‘every thought captive’.

Bible Reading in 2012 is a post from: Raising Olives

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Christ was born, oh holy night.

May you and your family have a blessed day worshiping and celebrating the birth of our Savior.

Merry Christmas is a post from: Raising Olives

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Nothing is neutral. We are either serving Christ in any given decision or action or we are against Christ.

Read the rest today  at Visionary Womanhood.

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Words fail, but I do not mourn for Denise.  I mourn for those who are left behind.

Denise was a faithful friend and encourager to me. When I was overwhelmed with many little children, Denise came alongside, willingly gave of her time, and shared her life with me.

Shortly after the birth of our 4th child  (our children were 3 , 2, 1 and a newborn), Denise invited me to a get together in her home. That evening I met other women who rejoiced in God’s blessing of children and  delighted in the honor and privilege of supporting their husband’s vision. They shared encouragement and practical help in the spirit of Titus 2 and I went home that evening encouraged to do a better job in my God given calling of wife and mother.

The mom’s group that began that evening in Denise’s home continues today and when our family moved to Knoxville it was Mark’s desire for me to begin a similar group here. Our Knoxville group has been meeting for 6 1/2 years.

Yes, we weep, but our tears are mixed with joy. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Please pray for God’s peace and comfort for the Sproul, Rocklein and Warhurst families and pray specifically for Denise’s husband R.C. Jr. and children; Darby, Campbell, Shannon, Delaney, Erin Claire, Maili, Donovan and Reilly.

You may also be interested in this Facebook update from Darby, Denise’s oldest daughter.

In Memory is a post from: Raising Olives

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with fresh greenery from our back yard, gold organza fabric (left over from a previous project), sparkly red and gold ball ornaments and the old classic string-of-lights-in-mason-jars to transform our living and dining areas.

I love Tisha’s gift box topiaries, but decided to simplify her lovely idea and simply stack our packages. They don’t look quite as elegant, but offer the same cheery effect.

Congratulations to Rachel who ordered from  Amber’s Lilla Rose store and was chosen to win a flexi-clip of her choice.  Lilla Rose flexi-clips are ideal stocking stuffers or gifts for nearly any girl on your list.

My online friend, Anita, shares It’s a Wonderful Life, a beautiful vision of the blessing of women living life according to God’s eternal design, not man’s current ideas.

Two of the most significant events of the twentieth century were women leaving the home en masse for corporate America, and the subsequent transformation of the home from a bastion of Christian family life, domesticity and culture; to a mere flop-house of individuals co-existing under one roof.

Read the full post at Busy Hands, Busy Minds.

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This year we added puff paint and Sharpies to spiff up our ornaments and to make them do double duty as adorable gift tags.

Cinnamon Ornaments

1 1/2 cups cinnamon
1 cup applesauce
1/3 cup white school glue

Mix all ingredients together and then ‘knead’ adding additional cinnamon as necessary until you have a nice dough.

Roll out to a 1/4″ thickness and use cookie cutters to create shapes. Don’t forget to use a drinking straw to make a hole for the ribbon.

Let dry for 3-4 days turning occasionally.

**DO NOT EAT THIS DOUGH OR EVEN LET YOUR KIDS LICK IT**

When finished drying decorate with puff paint.

You can certainly tell that this batch of ornaments were painted by the older kids

Use a Sharpie to write,

To:

From:

on the back and these sweet ornaments will do double duty as gift tags.

What are some of your last minute craft and decoration ideas?

Homemade Cinnamon Gift Tags: Kids Can Make This is a post from: Raising Olives

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Here are some of our reasons:

• We don’t need all that stuff.
• We wish for the focus of Christmas to be on serving others, giving of ourselves because He gave Himself to us.
• We believe that we have been given an abundance so that we may, in the name of Christ, share with those who have need.
• We simply can not justify spending hundreds of dollars on frivolous things we don’t need when there are so many who have true needs that remain unmet.
• Remember Laura and Mary being excited over a piece of candy and a new tin cup? We desire that for our children. (And you know what? Our children are excited and grateful for things that most American children feel entitled to and/or take for granted.)

Gifts for kids

We have a plan.

Each year we purchase two gifts for each of our children.

• a book or CD that we think they will particularly enjoy
• a gift of something that they are passionate about – For example, last year Carter (8) received an army hat, boots and canteen, the two younger girls (5 and 7) received princess dresses and Alyssa (10) got a microscope.

Sibling gifts.

In addition, our children draw names and each child purchases a gift for one of their siblings.

Often our children  purchase gifts for more than just their one ‘assigned’ sibling because they know something that sister/brother would love. We love to see their excitement about giving to their siblings.

We shop online.

We do 95% of our shopping online.

• We don’t have to drive around town, try to sneak gifts into the cart when the kids aren’t looking or have baby sitters available.
• There is little temptation to purchase items not on your list.
• You can actually find the items that you’re trying to find.

We don’t worry about money.

I’m not talking about spending more than we have budgeted, but rather not trying to keep what we spend on each child ‘even’.

Our one year old may fully appreciate a $5 set of stacking cups, but we might spend $20 on a pair of binoculars for the 8 year old. The goal is something that our child will use and enjoy, not that the price tag equates with what their sibling receives.

We pass it on.

Our three oldest girls had a fun play kitchen that they enjoyed for years. When they outgrew it, we put it into the attic. After a couple of years our two younger girls were old enough to enjoy a play kitchen, so we pulled it out of the attic, cleaned it up and gave it to them for Christmas.

Again, the goal is to give something that is beneficial and enjoyable, it’s age may or may not matter.

Shopping for others

Gift cards:

Especially useful for family and friends that you rarely see.

Homemade gifts:

Wonderful for kids or adults, homemade gifts have featured in our Christmas’s for years.

Here are some homemade gifts we’ve made:

• Personalized table cloths
• Marshmallow guns
• Beaded bobby pins
• Hand-dyed playsilks
• Domino ornaments
• Monogrammed burlap pillows
• Flower hair clips
• Truffles
• Pillowcase backpack – I made these with homemade pillowcases.
• Cabled knit booties
• Crocheted baby hat

You may also be interested in:

• December Challenge: showing Christ’s love this has been the best thing we’ve done in years and it’s not too late for you to join in!
• Large family gift guide -  gifts that have stood the test of time.

Here’s how the other Moms of Many manage gift giving:
Smockity Frocks
Life in a Shoe
The Common Room

How do you manage gift giving in your home?

Large Family Gift Shopping: 4 Moms is a post from: Raising Olives

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Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. ~ James 1:27

Define Necessity is a post from: Raising Olives

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• Marshmallow wars
• Christmas Mysteries- They keep everyone on their toes.
  

  Nicholas (2) and Savannah (5)

•  Santa’ hats – All the children wear them whenever we go out. It brings lots of smiles and gives us more opportunities than usual to express to others God’s blessing of children.
• We give money to every bell ringer we see. The children collect their change (and often their savings) so they all have something to give.
• After dark we take the long way home in order to enjoy the Christmas lights and enjoy the little ones joyful reactions to the Christmas lights.
• Jammie Drill – Christmas lights and hot chocolate
• A Family Fun Night where we watch Polar Express and serve hot chocolate right at the point in the movie where they sing the song ‘Hot, Hot, Hot, Hot Chocolate’.
• Christmas caroling with plates of goodies
• Handel’s ‘Messiah’  We usually find a church that is doing a free performance.

Isabella (5 months)

What are some of your favorite family traditions?

Holiday Traditions for the Whole Family is a post from: Raising Olives

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Last year our three oldest girls and I (along with Bella) traveled to New York City to help celebrate the launch of the  Pop Art Pixies line, a new Crayola line designed specifically for tween and teen girls.

Kaitlin (12), Me, Amber (14), Bella (4 months) and Alyssa (11) in NYC

The Pop Art Pixies are all about crafting to create something fun and useable for a tweens and teens. Water bottles, decoupage plates, glow lamps and shadow boxes were some of the products that we enjoyed last year, but just in time for Christmas the Pop Art Pixies have several new craft kits.

Fab Snaps

Pop Art Pixies offers Fab Snaps kits to create jewelry (bracelets, necklaces, pins and pony holders), water bottles and even a purse.

Each Fab Snaps kit comes with silver snaps and a variety of fabric in different shapes in addition to the items needed to create the project you are working on (water bottle, purse, etc.).

Fab Snaps can be used and reused to create hundreds of different looks. Your favorite tween can create jewelry and accessories to compliment any outfit.

Alyssa (11) modeling her Fab Snaps Jewelry

Fab Snaps also come with accessories that allow you to attach your finished creation to just about anything (including flip flops) for nearly unlimited possibilities.

Ice

This years Pop Art Pixie line also includes two Ice crafts, a chandelier for your tween’s or teen’s room and Ice Jewelry.

The magic of Ice projects is that after you create your design it crystallizes creating a lovely patina that looks like frost on a window. When our girls did this project the little kids gathered around in order to watch each design ‘freeze’.

The Ice Chandelier was everyone’s favorite. With 120 designs to create it’s perfect for a group project (although the kit only comes with three of the special markers).

We had 6 tween and teenage girls work together on the chandelier (we used additional markers from the Ice Jewelery kit) and they had a blast coloring, chatting, laughing and watching how each design changed as it froze.

Colby (5) watching Alyssa's (11) Ice design 'freeze'

The Ice projects are also reusable as the designs easily wipe off with a damp cloth and can be created again and again.

Alyssa (11), Ashely (15), Amber (15), Kaitlin (13), Emily (13), Hayley (11) with their new chandelier

Pop Art Pixies kits are available at Amazon.com, Target, Toys R Us, JoAnn, Michaels, Meijer, CVS, Hobby Lobby, Safeway, Barnes and Noble and CrayolaStore.com

Crayola is giving away this huge Pop Art Pixies prize pack to one Raising Olives reader.

Crayola Pop Art Pixie Prize Pack

The winner will receive:

• Crayola Pop Art Pixies Fab Snaps Wristlet Purse
• Crayola Pop Art Pixies Fab Snaps Jewelry
• Crayola Pop Art Pixies Fab Snaps Watter Bottle
• Crayola Pop Art Pixies Ice Chandelier
• Crayola Pop Art Pixies Ice Jewelry
• All four of the Crayola Pop Art Pixies Fab Snaps refill kits

To enter:

• Leave a comment on this post telling which of the new kits most appeal to you.

Additional entries: (Please leave a separate comment for each additional entry.)

• Post about this giveaway on Facebook (you may use the share button below)
• Follow Crayola and  Raising Olives on Facebook
• Tweet about this giveaway (you may use the share button below)
• Blog about this giveaway and link to the Pop Art Pixies.com and this post (3 entries)

Giveaway will end December 15.

Our family was given a Pop Art Pixie prize pack in return for posting this review and giveaway. All opinions are my own and our family LOVES Crayola and the Pop Art Pixies!

Crayola Pop Art Pixies Fab Snaps {Giveaway} is a post from: Raising Olives

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Our family has a variety of recipes that we traditionally make this time of year, most of them involve chocolate. The recipe that I’m sharing with you today is not chocolate, but they are so beautiful and add such nice variety to our goody plates, that they always have a place in our holiday recipe line up.

Peppermint Meringues

2 egg whites
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 cup sugar
2 peppermint candy canes, crushed

Beat egg whites until foamy; add salt and cream of tartar and then beat until soft peaks form. Gradually add sugar while beating until stiff peaks form (about 6-7 minutes).

Drop meringues by teaspoon full onto ungreased foil and sprinkle with crushed candy canes. Bake at 225 for 1 1/2 hours. Then turn off heat and slightly open oven door. Lleave meringues in oven until cool (1-2 hours).

Makes 3 dozen.

Here are some of our other favorite holiday recipes:

• Cranberry Pork Roast
• Nanaimo Bars
• Pumpkin Crunch
• Heath Bars
• Chocolate-Peanut Clusters
• Cranberry Pretzel Dip
• Pumpkin Soup

Be sure to visit the other 4 Moms for their favorite holiday recipes:

KimC at Life in a Shoe who shares some chocolate recipes along with eggnog and chai tea.
Connie at Smockity Frocks who gets fancy with mice, penguins and houses
Headmistress at The Common Room shares her fondue recipe

Now it’s your turn to share your favorite holiday recipes.  Please play by these rules:

1. You must link to a specific relevant post on your blog.
2. Your post must include a link to at least one of the 4 Moms blogs.
3. The post you link to must be completely family friendly.

If your link is deleted, you probably didn’t follow one of the rules above. Please feel free to add your link again once you have fixed the problem. If you don’t know why your link was deleted, please ask.

Recent 4 Moms topics:

• Preparing our children to be around unbelievers
• Thankful post round-up
• Large family transportation
• Large family food storage
• Homeschooling science

Coming soon:

12/15- Gift shopping for a crowd
12/22 – Q & A
12/29 – How to handle all those incoming gifts and gift givers

For more Moms of Many posts visit the 4 Moms page.

Peppermint Meringues: Holiday Recipe Link-Up is a post from: Raising Olives

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Remember when he pulled this amazing whopper?  and these fun Wordless posts;  here and here and here ?

If you look through the ‘not me’ archives, you’ll see that he’s well represented.

Here is my latest collection of Colby stories:

Colby loves trains and Colby especially loves the train at Dollywood. So when Colby found out that we were going to spend the day at Dollywood with some friends, he got to work creating a drawing for the ‘train driver’.

As we arrived at the park Colby asked, “Are we going to ride the train, now?” “No, we’re going to head to the big kid rides first. Would you like me to hold your picture?” “No, I want to hold it.” And hold it he did. He held it while the big kids rode the big kid rides. He held it while he played on the playground. He held it as we walked around the park. He held it as we headed out to the cars for lunch and he held it during lunch. After six hours of holding onto his drawing, we headed to the train where he proudly gave it to the ‘train driver’ and got his opportunity to ride the train.

Currently for family fun night each Friday we make and eat Mexican food; homemade tortillas , homemade salsa and a variety of fresh fillings and toppings along with lots of cheese. At one recent family fun night dinner Colby said, “Please pass the broccoli moldy.” (That’d be guacamole, for those less fluent in five-ese.)

{We have an OREK vacuum cleaner.} During his reading lesson Colby reads the word “or” and says, “That’s just like orcs, mom.” He thinks for just a minute then adds,  “Hey mom, that’s the man who fixes our vacuum.”

On Thanksgiving morning Colby was helping me get the turkey into the oven. “Mom, when the turkey starts squeaking, does that mean it’s done?”

A few weeks ago I ran a 5K  with Amber (15). It was the first time I’d raced in a 5K  since I was a teen, but Colby had big plans for me. Before the race he was telling me how he was praying that I would win or at least beat Amber.

Me: “Will you still be proud of mommy, even if Amber beats me?”

Colby: “Weeellll….(he pauses to think for a moment)….. probably not.”

Colby walks into the kitchen, “Wow mom, a plum is an angiosperm, it makes a container for it’s seeds.”

A few days later, Colby digs a sunflower seed out of his bagel and says, “Mom, a bagel is an angiosperm.”

Do you have a Colby in your house? What has he/she been up to recently?

Colby Tales is a post from: Raising Olives

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The winner of the $100 Vision Forum gift card is…

Steph Leppard

The winner of the $200 Vision Forum gift card is

Jeanine Feldkamp of Bored and Blogging.

And the winner of the $300 Vision Forum gift card is

Zanre5 of Moozann’s Mind who submitted this blog post about Vision Forum.

Winners will be contacted via email.

There are still opportunities to save on your Christmas shopping at Vision Forum.

On December 8 you can get free shipping on any order of $50 or more with the coupon code FREESHIP50 .

On December 23 you can may purchase  $50 e-gift cards for $40 and $100 e-gift cards for $75, no coupon code required.

Vision Forum Winners is a post from: Raising Olives

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I just want to come out on the side of championing the cause of those moms who are giving up their lives for  their children because they think it will make a difference…choosing to seek to spend time with their children at home in order to reach their hearts for Christ.

Women are not hearing that choices have consequences--that their children’s hearts, minds, morals and future is dependent on the vision and faithfulness of mothers in this generation.

Read the rest of Sally Clarkson’s  Foolishness Abounds .

This week we picked up the pace of Christmas gift making and completed some lovely hard lotion bars (we did not purchase the kit as we had the ingredients on hand) with pretty ribbons and wrapping. We substituted cocoa butter for the Shea butter and they turned out perfectly.

We also made a dozen tubes of homemade lip balm.

These two projects go hand in hand as they require the same ingredients if you’re willing to use the cocoa butter in the hard lotion bars.

Kelly reminds us that  knowing the will of God requires thought and purpose.

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…”

To “be conformed” is a passive result of not doing anything. If we are just “being”, we are being conformed to the world around us.

A couple of you requested to see our calendar of what we were doing for our December challenge of showing Christ’s love to others, so I made  a PDF of what we’re planning to do each day.

Today is the last day to get free shipping from Lilla Rose on your order of $20 or more.

Weekend Links is a post from: Raising Olives

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You can see  my complete review here.

Lilla Rose is a great gift for the  girls on your Christmas shopping list and now through December 3rd Lilla Rose is offering free shipping on orders of $20 or more.

Don’t forget that if you place a Lilla Rose order before December 15th, you’ll automatically be entered to win a free Flexi-clip of your choice. So please check it out and have fun saving.

This short sizing video will help you determine the best size Flexi-clip.

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I don’t believe there is one right way to manage interactions with other people, believing or not. We are all different, with different backgrounds, maturity levels, motivations etc. and so even identical circumstances might need to be handled differently depending upon the people involved.

My assumptions for this post are that you have a vibrant, active and healthy relationship with your children, that your children would naturally desire to come to you with questions and that you, the parent (not peers or others),  are the main influence in your children’s lives.

Pray, pray, pray.

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask God who gives to all men generously. ~ James 1:5

Actively work to train up your children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. (Eph.6:1-4) Saturate your children in the Word of God which is the best defense one can have against error, attack or unbelief. (Eph. 6:10-20)

Don’t be afraid to talk with your children, but don’t force it. There probably is no need to sit your 4 year old down and tell him, “Great Aunt Cecilia is not a Christian.” However, we have found that as our children have matured, they’ve come to us with questions about how a friend’s words or actions don’t align with God’s Word. This is a great opportunity to, first of all, remind them how often their (and our) actions do not align with God’s Word and that we are not able to judge a persons heart. It’s also a good opportunity to speak with them honestly about the situation.

Protect your children, but don’t overprotect to the detriment of relationship. Remember that there is nothing inherently sinful about being in the presence of sinful behavior, (i.e. foul speech, drunkenness, etc.). This is where parents need wisdom to make decisions in each specific instance.

If you have your child’s heart there is little to fear from occasional exposure ungodly thoughts, ideas and attitudes. There may also be little to fear in criticism of firmly held beliefs and ideas. We are after all to be in the world, even though we are not to be of the world. (Please don’t misunderstand the Proverbs are chock full of warnings about ungodly companions.) However, there are two sides of this ditch. We are to protect our children and some things can be particularly damaging.

Two things we have done in regard to protecting our children is that our children are never left under the authority of an unbeliever and we  do not expect them to encounter those who are antagonistic to our faith alone. In other words, we primarily protect our children by staying with them.

Teach your children to stand firm with love. This is done by example. As your children see you interact with unbelievers (and sinful believers) with love, compassion and firmness, they will learn to follow your example.

Another important aspect of our children learning to interact and respond with love is to watch what we model for them in private. We can not expect our children to interact with love, if they are hearing unloving criticism for the beliefs or ideas of others in the privacy of their home. Our children should hear truthful, biblical criticism of thoughts and ideas that are contrary to Scripture, but that criticism should be tempered with humility and love.  Often when we are discussing an error of our culture, we take a moment to examine how we fail in much the same way in our own personal lives.

What strategies do you use to prepare your children to interact with unbelievers, family or otherwise?

Be sure to visit the other 4 Moms to read what they have to say about this topic:

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

For more Moms of Many posts visit the 4 Moms page.

Preparing Children to Be Around Unbelievers: 4 Moms is a post from: Raising Olives

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This idea combined with our annual tradition of an event advent calendar is our family’s challenge for this December.

(An event advent calendar is where each day in December we ‘celebrate’ by participating in a special event. It may be something as simple as reading Luke 2 while sipping hot cocoa or watching “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas’ or it may be bigger like making goodies for some friends and neighbors and spending the evening Christmas caroling and delivering them.)

Since December is the time of year when we traditionally celebrate the most significant gift ever given, this year we are going to strive to reflect that in our choices for the events to include on our advent calendar. Our activities this year will be designed to demonstrate Jesus’ love to friends, neighbors and strangers.

We’ve printed out a calendar of December and have assigned each child a couple of dates (10 children, 24 days until Christmas = each child gets 2 days with a few left over for the older children to split)

Each child will pick and plan (according to their ability) the blessing activity that we will do on their date. Additionally, they are the ones who will communicate why we are doing what we are doing to those who wonder.

We’re aiming for a mix of simple and more involved activities.

Some ideas so far are:

• writing letters and drawing pictures to send to their great-grandmother and some other lovely women who will appreciate them
• passing out handmade ornaments and/or goodies to our neighbors
• making and delivering dinner to some friends who will find it useful
• going to a local grocery and spending the afternoon offering to help carry groceries to the car
• visiting a nursing home
• making and sending packages to our servicemen overseas
• action packs for VOM

Will you join our December challenge?

What ideas do you have for blessing others during this holiday season?

December Challenge: Showing Christ’s Love is a post from: Raising Olives

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Visit these blogs for more opportunities to win:

Life in a Shoe

Smockity Frocks

The Modest Mom

A Wise Woman

Generation Cedar

Additionally, until midnight tonight (November 26), Vision Forum has some great deals going on.

1. The daily deal for today is the All-American Pop Gun for only $3.60. We’re planning on ordering a couple of these to use as stocking stuffers for our little guys.

2. When you order $95 worth of product from Vision Forum you will receive a $50 gift card to Blue Behemoth, VF’s sister site where you can download many of VF’s audio and video selections.

3. Buy 2, Get 1 Free. (no limit)

You could purchase a lovely doll

and a fascinating science and creation resources like the Jonathan Park series, Incredible Creatures that Defy Evolution series or Mysterious Islands

and a get a macho cross bow for free.

Or you could invest in some of their insightful history resources like The History of Christianity and Western Civilization,

Navigating History: Egypt (our kids were absolutely fascinated with the Navigating History series) or How the Scots Saved Christendom: Tales of Bravehearts and Covenanters and get one of the inspiring Lamplighter Tales on Cd

or Tales of American Heroines for free.

Or perhaps you’ll chose some of their family and faith building books:

• When you Rise Up: A Covenantal Approach to Homeschooling
• Ten P’s in a Pod
• Shepherding a Child’s Heart
• Before You Meet Prince Charming: A Guide to Radiant Purity

Whatever you choose everything is buy 2, get 1 free until midnight tonight.

And don’t forget to visit these blogs for more details and for the opportunity to enter to win part of the $3,600 worth of Vision Forum gift cards.

Raising Olives

Life in a Shoe

Smockity Frocks

The Modest Mom

A Wise Woman

Generation Cedar

I have no voice and a couple of the children are struggling with cold symptoms, but we’re enjoying homemade hot cocoa (always good for a cold),  Dutch Blitz and Bananagrams tournaments with the children and colored lights from our Christmas tree. Hope that you are enjoying a nice weekend with family.

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