This year was a season of change for us. We have home schooled for the past eight years. It has been very hard, but wonderful and…. we are not done, with all of them anyway. We had our first graduate. Our oldest daughter finally completed her 12 years of school and she is moving on! (notice I did not say “moving out”) She is going to further her education at a local college and study culinary arts in hopes of beginning a cottage industry from her home when she is ready to have a home of her own. I am excited for her. I am scared for her, but most of all…. I am proud of her.
In honor of this time of her life, I wrote a poem just for her. She was my first child and as all mothers know… there is a lot of bumps in the road with the first child, as we smooth the road for the children coming up after them. I am grateful to her for her patience with me during all these years struggling to do my best for her. I am grateful for all I learned as her mother. With much love….
The Teacher
At first sight I fell in love
You made me want to be
More than what is possible
To humanly achieve
I struggled through those early years
You struggled right along
Even though I failed each day
You filled each day with song.
My fears of not being good enough
Over time you helped me grow
To have confidence as a mother
Though the road was painfully slow
My duty was to teach you
So much to fill your mind
Reading, writing, arithmetic
To love and to be kind.
I taught you to look at books
And to write your ABC’s
You taught me to seek out my Lord
To daily hit my knees
I taught you be careful
To take instruction and try your best
You taught me that love still abounds
Even if we fail the test
See, in all these years of teaching
In short time I did see
It was not I that was teaching you
But you were teaching me.
By: Mama 2011
Tags: college, cottage business, culinary, culinary arts, graduate, home school
I know it looks like I’ve fallen off the face of the earth, and at times, it certainly felt like I had… but I’m here! It has been a long summer, and not a restful one. I actually think I will rest more when school starts than I have all summer, which is a HUGE statement since I home school with 6 kids in the home all day (two still in diapers). Why so busy? We are trying to move closer to the city my husband works in. He drives a little over two hours each day to go to and from work! (I’ll give a little more detail about the money issue there in a moment)
We have been looking for a house for about a year and a half. Yes. We have looked and looked and looked. This was basically our option.. we could have bigger house (well, at least nicer house) in a subdivision more convenient to his work, which, we were both raised on lots of acreage, so, a neighbor being “too close” is about a thousand feet on either side… or smaller/older house on more land a little further from his work. For the sake of our privacy, the children’s play area and our country bumpkin hearts, we chose the latter.
So, having FINALLY made that decision, we also put our house on the market. Trying to save money, we considered the ”by owner” selling option, but there was the issue of less publicity and safety, so we went with a realtor. That’s where my summer went. I trudged along a couple of months on next to zero iron, but, after an iron infusion, watch out! I cleaned out every nook and cranny in our home, every closet, every drawer, every corner with a toothbrush! I painted all the walls, doors and trim, moved all the furniture from the bedrooms (FIVE of them) into our living/kitchen area (in three hours, with the help of the kids), yanked up all the carpet and padding, and had carpet installed… all in about two weeks time! (Can you tell I am anxious to move?)
Now, here’s the major motivation… gas money. As of now, I have to budget $820 a month just for gasoline. Yes, it is that much. That is several hundred more than we pay for our current mortgage. It is insane. When we first moved here seven years ago, my husband worked about 15 miles down the road. But, for the past five years, it’s been a little over 60 miles one way, and I don’t have to talk about gas prices… we all know. So, after the summer rush… we wait. We will home school… and wait. We will get the house ready to show and show and show… and wait. And when it does sell, we will be back to a crazy, frantic pace, so, I’m actually going to enjoy the waiting.
Besides trying to sell the home to save money, my other money saving hasn’t been going so well, but, I have finally come to a place to stop and breathe (such as being able to write on this blog) and I WILL get a new handle on it! Stay tuned…
Because of Him,
Laura
Tags: gas bill, gasoline, gasoline prices, home, moving, savings
Although it takes a little while to prepare, this is a very easy recipe that taste fabulous and definitely is cheaper than dining out! It makes a 9×13 inch pan, that even with 8 of us eating (baby is only a few months old) we still have enough for lunch the next day. As usual, I made you a printer friendly version .
Baked Lasagna
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2 lbs ground beef
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1 medium onion chopped
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2 tsp parsley
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2 (6-oz) cans tomato paste
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2 C. water
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1/2 tsp salt
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1/2 tsp pepper
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9 lasagna noodles
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2 eggs
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16 oz. cottage cheese
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6 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
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Grated Parmesan cheese
In a large skillet, brown the ground beef with onion and parsley.
Add tomato paste, water, salt and pepper. Stir well, bring to a boil on high, cover and turn heat to low, simmer for one hour.
I usually wait until about 20 minutes before the sauce is finished to boil the lasagna noodles (according to package directions). When noodles are through cooking, I rinse in cold water so that I don’t burn my fingers during assembly.
In a separate bowl I mix the eggs and cottage cheese, stirring well.
Now it’s time to assemble! Spray a deep 9×13 inch pan with cooking spray and then spread about 1 cup of meat sauce around bottom of pan.
Then alternate layers of 3 lasagna noodles,
about 1/3 of meat sauce,
about 1/3 of cottage cheese mixture,
and then, 2 cups of the shredded mozzarella cheese. Repeat the layers a total of three times. Sprinkle generously with Parmesan cheese.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes until bubbly. I usually serve with a large salad with lettuce, a couple of diced, vine-ripe tomatoes, a very thinly sliced purple onion, and an entire can of medium, black, pitted olives… served with Italian dressing, of course! Add your favorite version of Italian garlic bread and you are done!
Sit down and enjoy this meal with your family knowing you have saved a ton of money!
Because of Him,
Laura
Tags: baking, cooking, dine in, dining in, easy lasagna, easy recipe, homemaking, lasagna, lasagna recipe, saving money
My husband has been telling me for days about a conference that is coming to the town he works in. He told me how he’d really like to go and some of the keynote speakers who will be there. They speakers ARE great, mind you, and there are several I actually wouldn’t mind hearing speak. The title of the conference? Get Motivated!
I have been dealing with some issues, to put it mildly, with home management since we’ve had our most recent baby. She just turned 3 months old, so I won’t beat myself too much, there IS a “settling in” time when a newborn comes home. My sweet husband mentioned me going to the conference to well, get motivated! Keep in mind, this is a business seminar. I asked him “Are there any successful homemakers in that line up?” Um, no.
Again, these are GREAT figures of our time, but in my little world, I need some practical advise here! Take Nick Saban… yes, an incredible football coach, but could he give me advice on how to single handily keep a home running smoothly, classically educating four children, washing clothes for nine people, schedule three squares (and cook them), keep the home clean, the bills paid, the groceries bought, the menus planned, and provide loving support for seven children and a husband?? I don’t know, I doubt he’s ever broached the subject. A man who rallies and motivates grown men to play and win a football game (and make MILLIONS doing it.. talk about motivation!!!) and I, have Z-E-R-O in common.
Show me a woman who stands up against the WORLD (and sometimes church) who says she is wasting her time, who tries to shield her children from corruption, who raises them to believe in and serve God, no stadiums of cheering crowds, not a dime, no accolades, no audience, not even making a blip on the world’s radar… a woman who is standing strong against the tide (no pun intended)… and you’d have my attention.
I love you honey, I really thought about going to the conference just to spend time with you, but well, I looked at the “Get Motivated” FAQ’s and they said and I quote: The GET MOTIVATED Seminar is primarily a professional event for adults (18 and over). See, they don’t understand my world at all. I go NO WHERE alone. But that’s okay. Maybe one day (maybe sooner than you think) I can pull together a conference for the family where homemakers can Get Motivated!!! Stay tuned!
Because of Him,
Laura
Tags: homemaking, inspiration, motivation
Yes, seriously.
I LOVE to blog, I really do. Who doesn’t like to sit around spouting off all that is near and dear to them? For me, that is my husband, my kids, saving money, home making, etc. Well, it’s their fault I haven’t blogged! 
We’ve actually have had a growth in our family size. My stepson (whom I would completely claim as my own , if it weren’t a lie) came to live with us at the end of May, and I gave birth to little Gloria on September 1st, 2010. So, now we have a family of 9, and it has been quite an adjustment for this ol’ lady!
Not only has our home, schedule, and homeschool been thrown for a loop, so has our budget. Big time! We’ve added another cell phone to the mix, another user to the cloth diapers, another driver on our insurance, more groceries… it’s been difficult. So, while I try to re-figure out our home budget, I’ll share with you and maybe you can reap some money-saving for your home! Some situations here that need my focus are: our daily schedule, chore schedule, grocery budget, cell bills (yes, still), home school planning, and it would be REALLY nice to have this baby on a napping schedule of some sort. Although there never seems to be any such thing as “extra money” or “free time” around here anymore… I am so thankful for our newest additions, and they are totally worth any and all adjustments!
Glad to be back!
Because of Him,
Laura
Tags: bills, budget, home making, home management, Planning, scheduling
Last week, I went to Wal-Mart and purchased the kid’s emergency phone. It was through the Tracfone system. The phone cost $10 and the plan is $15 for 90 days of service and includes 60 minutes of airtime. I find this to be an unbeatable deal for an emergency cell phone. For only $5 a month, we have the peace of mind that our kids can get in touch if they need us without the excess costs.
So, to tally the savings per month of our new cell phone… last month our two cell phones from Cingular with 500 minutes anytime, free nights (starting at 9 pm) and weekends ( Saturday and Sunday) ended up being $160! It had been regularly $80 a month until our roll over minutes ran out. (This is what inspired me to look into a new cell plan.)
Now, with our unlimited minutes, texts, and internet cell plan through StraightTalk for $45 a month and our 60 minutes for 90 days emergency phone from Tracfone for $15 every 3 months, we are now spending a grand total of $50 a month for our new cell plan!! That is a savings of $110 from our last cell phone bill, but as far as savings on our budget of $80 for cell phones, we are saving (and I have earned) $30 a month for our family! That may not seem like too much but that equals about $360 a year… that’s a small getaway vacation, that’s a new stroller and crib I am going to need, not to mention school books for four of our children this coming school year!!
It all adds up, and when my computer engineer husband, who is the smartest man I have ever encountered, is able, he will write a program for this site that you ( and I) can use to calculate how much we are actually saving (earning) for our families per month AND year! I can’t wait! (maybe this weekend?)
Because of Him,
Laura
Tags: budget, cell phone, phone bill, saving money, StraightTalk, TracFone
After much ado, my power bill is finally starting to go back down. Winter causes us to turn up the heat AND isn’t very conducive to hanging close out on a line. Here is a little run down of our recent power bills. Keep in mind during this time, although we DID use the dryer quite a bit, we still hand washed all of our dishes. Also, I have $300 budgeted for power each month, so we never went over budget, which IS a good thing…..
- January 2010 – $299.47
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February 2010 – $248.53
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March 2010 $228.80
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April 2010 $160.48!!!
That is a savings (slow and steady) from January till now of about $140 a month! YAY! My husband looked at our bill from last April and it was $119…. I was STUNNED, I wasn’t washing dishes by hand or hanging clothes during this time, I was a bit discouraged. He explained to me though that the price per kilowatt hour has almost doubled since last year, so that was a great comfort to me. If we had the cost per kilowatt hour this year that we had last April, our bill would have been about about $80 less, around $80-$90.
What efforts have been made toward lowering the power bill? With these beautiful spring days, the windows have been up and we have used a few fans instead of central air. We have hung up practically every load all month, we only used the dryer to “fluff” towels and diapers, about 10 minutes each fluffing session. We have hand washed all our dishes… I bet a little spider has found our dishwasher a safe home by now…
One thing that could use some work is keeping unnecessary lights and bathroom fans turned off. I am shooting for even a lower bill next month which may be a challenge with the temperatures rising and the April showers coming to rain on my laundry days!
Oh, I have found another great benefit for hanging laundry!! I am a pregnant stay at home mother of soon to be six children… I do not have time to lay out nor money to waste on tanning beds. That leaves me a little pasty white during the summer, so now on laundry days, I put a little tanning lotion (with sunscreen, of course) and get a little colour on my face and arms as I hang up clothes!
*URGENT update on our Laundry Detergent experiment… this is the BEST cleaning laundry detergent I have EVER used AND you’ll not believe how long it is lasting… it has been six weeks since I made it and I am less than half-way through with my five gallon bucket of detergent! It took about $3.00 to make and has lasted 6 weeks and counting!!?? Insane, but wonderful. If you’d like to read that post go here
Because of Him,
Laura
Free at last! We are no longer with Cingular and I am seriously relieved. They tried to keep us, lots of new “deals” were offered, but none appealing. We were needing unlimited and they offered us unlimited for two phones at the steep price of $120 a month. So, what did we find out? What’s the new deal? Most importantly, what’s the bottom line?
I took Kathy’s advise and looked into the StraightTalk plan at Walmart. We went ahead and purchased the cheapest phone for $40 (an LG flip phone, which is quite nice, actually) and this is a one time purchase. Then, we chose the unlimited plan which included unlimited minutes, texts and internet for $45 a month. We will simply have this updated every month for the same plan. There is a $30 minute plan with 1000 minutes, 1000 texts and 30 MB of internet data, but, I’m not fond of limits on my phone! So, the $45 minute plan will work best for us.
Next, we will still need an extra phone for when Joe is at work and I need to run somewhere as my oldest babysits the younger ones. I live next door to my mother and we have a gate on our drive way which helps keep them even safer, but I like them to have an emergency phone also. For this, my wonderful hubby found this plan called Net10 which you buy the phone for $20 (again a one time purchase and again, an LG phone) and it comes with 200 minutes of airtime automatically. Then, we would re-enroll 150 minutes a month for $15 a month and when used, it will cost 10 cents a minute. Keep in mind I rarely leave the kids, and they are not to use except for in an emergency, so I’m thinking no more than 50 cents a months for usage. A grand total of…. $15.50 a month!!
So, now the all important bottom line…. how much for two cell phones for our family, one with unlimited and the other an emergency phone? $60.15 a month!! That is $20 a month cheaper when we didn’t go over on the minutes with Cingular and $100 a month cheaper than our two most recent cell bills! YAY!! I LOVE saving money!
Look into these deals and let me know if you stumble across any better deals for cell phones!
Because of Him,
Laura
Tags: cell bill, cell phone, Cingular, Net10, phone bill, saving money, StraightTalk
Okay, I’ve addressed this before… my biggest, worst downfall for our budget. The restaurant. If they made me wash the dishes, it wouldn’t be that big a problem, but they don’t. They don’t make me cook, refill my tea glass, clean off the table, get some fresh rolls, find the ketchup in the fridge, wash the dishes… nothing. Sometimes at the end of the day the temptation is STRONG because I am usually spent physically come dinner time.
BUT, I must do what must be done. Management. Cold turkey? No way. I know me, and “me” doesn’t handle being cut off completely from my little pet problems. It actually makes me worse. My Daddy always says nothing makes him think more about eating than going on a diet. Even when I diet, I eat a LOT, just healthier foods. So what can I do? I will set aside exact days for the luxury of dining out.
There are a couple of special occasions coming up, one being my birthday… YIPEE! That is definitely going to be a dining out day. So… what I need to do is realistically look back at how much I spent last month on dining out. Then, look at our average cost to eat out and set the amount of days we can eat out (on the calendar) to fit in the budget. Lord, give me the strength to BE STRONG and wait for those days like a good girl, and I’m not kidding.
Since it is the end of the month today, I added up the whole month of eating out and frankly, I am embarrassed. I can’t even put it on here for the shame, but some serious motivation has occurred within me… eating out is a curse, not a blessing… not when over used.
My plan? One night dining out every two weeks for the whole family, and one dining out for Joe and I on the alternate weeks… adding up to a grand budget of a little over $100 a month toward dining out. Let me just say, that’s WAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay less than this past month and not a bad goal for a family of 7. I’ll let you know if this was a reasonable goal at the end of April.
Because of Him,
Laura
Tags: budgeting, budgets, dates, dining out, eating out, restaurants, saving money
Not too long ago we had our home phone cut off… why? Because we were spending $80 a month on the home phone bill and $80 a month on the cell bill. Well, apparently, our cell plan’s minute usage wasn’t enough to maintain us for a full month and we (yes, Joseph, we)went over 88 minutes last month. Guess how much our cell phone bill was… over $160! I almost fainted and this coming bill will be a little more because I have already seen we are 91 minutes over the limit!
They charged me $1.00 a minute! I saved $70 on the power bill this month, just to put that extra money, and then some, on another bill… not really savings. Do you know what this means? New plan. New service as well. The cell phone company we have been using for YEARS is less than satisfactory anyway because instead of being faithful to the faithful customer, they try to “stick it to you” at every turn. My friend Kathy told me about the “smart talk” plan at Wal-Mart which is $40 a month for unlimited minutes… now THAT is my kind of plan.
We will be cancelling our old service and starting a new one soon, I’ll let you know the best deal we can find. Any suggestions are more than welcome!
Because of Him,
Laura
Tags: bills, cell phone, saving money
