Castles and Crybabies

Some people who look like this:

Feel like this:

College Update

OK, I'm not freaking out anymore.  I'm more of a low-level panic.  We've got all of our paperwork submitted.  Financial Aid forms.  Applications.  Scholarship Applications.  Essays.  Transcripts. Etc.  I even beat the deadlines, by the mercy of God.  Now we're going to go tour a few different campuses.  Oh man, the word campus looks terrible as a plural.  I should say, "a campus or two." Or "campi." ?? Anyways,  since Jacob is interested in video game design and simulation,

Van Moments 3, The Disco Ball

After church we all stopped in at Goodwill.  Score!  Noah got his very own disco ball!

Bargain Victory!

So, I already told you a little about how I afford to feed our rather large family on a rather small food budget.  Part of it is cheap dinner recipes.  Another part is cheap stores.  Literally, we call it "the cheap store."  I've been shopping there for a while and for some reason I thought that the owners were Amish. Now I think they're Mennonite.  Either way, I feel like a heathen when I go there.  I've considered buying a proper jumper to keep in the car for when I need to go serious bargain hunting.  But I can't bear the humiliation.  So, I'll just be friendly and hope they know that I love the Lord, too.
Not that it matters what they think, that's just my weirdness.

So, on to my awesome grocery haul.... Check this out!

Yep, that's what fifty bucks will get ya, if you're not too proud and you don't mind expiration dates being in the past.  : )

Meet the Fam

The Captain

me

 And all of our wonderful children...

Sukey and Greg

No wonder there's never any birds at the feeder!

This is our second orphan kitty, Sukey.  She thinks she's a panther.  We got her at the 127 yard sale this past summer...  Apparently it's the world's longest yard sale.  I guess people come from all over America to find deals.  All I found was a half-starved kitten and some mucking boots.  That was a deal, right?  Then I stopped in at a hardware store and a guy there named her.   There was a raging debate in our family about whether to name her Sukey, like the guy said, or Lily.  Turns out that Sukey means lily in Hebrew...who knew?

She fits in with our family just fine.  She seems to prefer my favorite chair, especially since I made a new cushion for it.  Figures.
She likes Greg, our first orphan kitty who's all big and manly now. 

Cheap Eats for a Big Family

Has anyone else been trying to figure out how to make cheaper meals, lately?

I recently read an article where a mom of two little kids was bemoaning the fact that she had a food budget of $125 a week and wasn't sure how she was gonna make it work.  Are you stinkin' kidding me?  I feed my family of NINE on less than that!  And FOUR of them are teenagers!  Yep, it's true.  Maybe that's why they're all so skinny...nah, I do actually feed them.  : )

So, what do we all eat, you ask?  Well, I'll tell ya this much... it ain't deer.

I bake a lot of bread.  And bread related foods.  Lots and lots of bread.  Once you get the hang of it, it's pretty easy.

So, what goes with the bread?  (besides butter, real butter, of course.)  Yeah, you can't just serve bread for supper and expect a happy family.  That's where soup comes in. 

Two's a Crowd in the Dog House

Annabelle looks a little lonely in her great big,  new and improved doghouse.

What "Real" Teachers Think of Homeschoolers

OK, so here's another question from a mama getting ready to embark on homeschooling...

Question: How do you tell family you are actually homeschooling? My family seems to think its a faze and I will get over it. They keep asking me about pre school for my daughter and my aunt and mother-in-law work in schools and just think they are the best thing since sliced bread.

Oh Man.  I'm really on a roll here.  For some strange reason this topic keeps appearing lately.  Maybe I should just rant for a few minutes and get it over with.  I just got done reading a very heated discussion between certified public school teachers and their arch nemesis, homeschool moms here.  A mom wrote in with a simple enough question..."What advice can you credentialed teachers give me in order to help me homeschool better?"    One certified teacher wrote in stating that she didn't really learn anything in college that would be relevant to a home school scenario.  Well, that was just the pop to the top of the can of worms that everybody needed.   Look out!  The "teachers" came out in force.  Spouting lots of lingo like "classroom management" and "learning hooks" and "scaffolding."  Yeah, right, whatever!

 Here's a little sample of how some teachers think.  Obviously there's lots of differing opinions out there, but I was a little shocked by this one, and she's not the only one.

Mama's Secret Weapon; Intuition

A good friend of mine just recently decided to take her children out of public school and begin homeschooling.  I know that's not very uncommon, but what makes her situation unique is the fact that both parents are professional teachers in the public school.  Not only that, but they are both excellent teachers who have been at it for many years.  They have tons of experience teaching a classroom full of other people's kids.

It's funny how some friends of these teachers say that they wish they had the patience and education necessary to homeschool. Like "real" teachers are the only ones who can really handle it.  Huh?  I guess it seems logical that a professional teacher would somehow be more qualified for the task of home educating than a plain ol' mommy. But, not necessarily.

Mommies have a secret weapon....and it's not a college degree in education.