Mama to 6~The Large Family Logistics

Lemon Custard Pudding Cake

Fire Cleaning update...Cleaners day 3, evaluation by adjuster

Sorry, I have not been on as of lately.  Just so busy cleaning! 

Day 3 of the cleaners went OK.  Just two of them came to clean carpets.  And they did it quite quickly.   We volunteered to move items, requested that we be asked to move the piano so they could wash the rug under it... but they didn't, they just cleaned around it.  *sigh*  How many times can you say... we want the piano moved!!!  When they left, I was relieved.  I just wasn't very happy with their service.

Today, the insurance adjuster came to see what they did and to give us the plan for the next step in getting back to normal after the fire.  We were basically approved to replace the kitchen ceiling (but not the dining room, yet... they currently both match... one was more damaged than the other and we are waiting to see if the cleaners will remove what was left on the ceiling).  We can replace the countertop (it was burnt in one corner and if Dh does the work, the adjuster will ok the replacement.  We will fix the cupboards... ourselves, and by doing that, I think the adjuster was happier to pay me for cleaning above the hours the cleaners had bid.  We turned in our receipt for the new stove.  My job is to email an estimate of cleaning left to be done in hours and itemized, email an estimate of kitchen repairs if we do the work with materials and time listed, and email a listing of items lost in fire (burnt items and food that was ruined from soot).  He said we would be reimbursed shortly for those items so we can begin repairs. 

We currently have about 10 areas that are pending needing a paint job.  But the majority of these areas aren't clean.  We took the insurance adjuster around and wiped with a chemical sponge in the kitchen and easily removed soot from the ceiling.  We also washed the living room ceiling with the cleaning solution and it wiped a nice white circle in the middle of a currently gray sooted ceiling (which they cleaned with a chemical sponge, but not with the solution).  The adjuster said... I've seen enough... I am calling this company and letting them know... because he had suggested them as well as our insurance company (different guy).  So, now, they will set up a date they can both be there and discuss the work done and what to do to remedy it.  The insurance adjuster does not want to pay out to this company if the house isn't "clean".  So, that is one more day to set aside for inspections.  Once inspected another plan will come about to decide who will finish the cleaning.  When he left today, I had a headache... I just want this to go away!  My mind wants things settled and it is getting to be a long process. 

Having no oven or stove adds a bit to the frustration... we are all a bit tired of sandwiches.  I thought having more raw items in our diet would be better for us, but apparently we are needing a bit of a change of heart... we are grumbling like the Israelites over eating the same style of food over and over and over.  I need a head break... just alot of stress going on!  

The stress isn't only the fire... We have VBS this week at church and my daughter was helping... that put me as a side helper... one that was used as needed.  I cleaned the church tonight as well since my older daughters are not here to do their jobs... they are working at summer camp.  I am being asked to lead out the children's program for a 2+ week evangelism program... with no breaks... it is every night (in September).  That is overwhelming for me to fathom at current, especially with all the driving.  VBS is hard enough on our family, especially with a 3yo!  Meals are never on time, bedtime isn't on time... I just don't know if I should commit to that big of a commitment.  The gal in charge of asking me (she's asked me 3 times now and the committee keeps coming back with new offers, LOL).  Anyways, they now know about the fire and asked if they could help "clean" the fire... I'm guessing so that I might help do the children's program!  I know their sneaky ways!  LOL.  With everything in limbo, though, I've had to decline their offer for this weekend, since I have to wait for another inspection of what was cleaned, so the BOSS can see what was and wasn't done.  

Other misc. items are popping up as well, though, I am not at liberty to say what they are.  These are more stresses that are happening to others, yet you feel you need to help, reach out in some way to help ease their pain.  I've been doing alot of praying. 

My most recent biggest stress was finding a louse crawling on my chest this morning.  Having helped with VBS and bending over so many kids' heads helping in crafts... just made me crawl... because the louse was not found right after VBS, but rather the next morning... that means enough time for nits to be in my hair... needless to say, I am now pulling at each thread of hair on it's own trying to find nits... It's more of a compulsive act.  I had lice with my daycare on two different occasions and it is so hard to get rid of when you have girls with long hair.  I told Dh this would be one occasion where I would consider cutting my hair as it took me nearly a month to rid it from our home... with the daycare.  Dh didn't say much.  He had actually asked me to cut it several months ago and it was his hope as well as his parents that it would remove the frizz from my curly hair...NOPE.  So he knows if I cut it, I'll just have a short frizz hairdo.  He'll let me do whatever... he knows how I hated the lice before... I just cried and cried over it.  I likely would cut more off this time, but I said I had to find another louse before I did.  I haven't and I haven't found any nits yet, either.   Creepies... just NOT what I needed at the moment!

On the lighter side, the adjuster said he found us some of the most honest folk he has found in a long time.  I found that odd.  Here we were complaining about the cleaners, but I guess he felt the complaints were justified.  We tried to think about what he meant exactly and we think it likely was that we said we were going to do the work ourselves and how we planned to do it... they will pay for that, but they WOULD have paid for a contractor to place a bid and pay us that and then we could have still done the work ourselves... meaning a contractor may have asked for $2500 to match our cupboards and replace them and we are asking for about $100 in materials and our time (at $10 / hour).   I guess you could call that honest... perhaps it was that we said upfront we plan to make other repairs/changes since we have to take everything down anyways...

We are still trying to figure out the total plan, but we've already figured out with what was approved, we will get our kitchen fixed... cupboards repaired, ceiling replaced, panelling replaced, wallpaper replaced, countertop replaced.  New oven and hood.  With all the cleaning we had done and will do, we will be able to pay our deductible ($1000) and have enough to upgrade our countertop to one that is formed rather than just a laminate on wood (which they are willing to pay for what we have, but nothing more)... but the cleaning affords us a couple hundred extra for a formed countertop, which means no more leaky water by the sink/window which seems to have found it's way to the cupboard underneath.  It also will afford us a new fridge.  Our current one is a used one and has been clunking and groaning for a few months, now.  So these are true blessings.  However, it is overwhelming my husband a bit.  He had summer plans to work on outbuildings and now he is being pulled inside.   I found it interesting, he asked me not to drag out the cleaning over the next couple months, but rather to get it done in the next couple weeks... I just looked at him in disbelief... one because I have 145 hours to clean and I wondered what expectation was to be met to have it cleaned in a couple weeks.  Then he sighed and said... I don't want to do the kitchen within a month, I'm sorry for asking you to turn the house inside out in two weeks as well.  Again I looked at him in disbelief... he doesn't say sorry very often.  *grin* 

Megan is home from camp and we are redoing her room as we put it back together.  Walmart had some cheap sales to add some different color to her room.  Her room is a mustard yellow color (it was our old bedroom and I love that color).  She however doesn't love the color alone, so we added jewel toned purple and jade to her room with the yellow it looks quite nice.  I spent about $100 on her room to update it, but Dh had overtime and wanted me to spend some money on her since BOTH her sisters left her for the summer.  Her older two sisters are working at summer camp... one is a counselor/horse barn help and the other one is volunteering as kitchen help and CIT (counselor in training).  Little Paige saw the curtains and said... Oooooo, Megan your room is beautiful!  It made Megan smile. 

Well, I need to get to bed... my sleep schedule is messed up again.  Back to working on it tomorrow! 

Warmly, ~Melissa

smoothies??

I'm looking for info on smoothies.. Now how many out there have a smoothie machine or do u use a blender?

I don't have a clue what they look or taste like..

Thanks..

Sister Brenda

75 Cost Saving Tips....

Good Cheap Food

1. Buy raw ingredients instead of prepackaged foods. If you don’t know how to cook, learn. You’ll save on food bills, and your body will thank you for it in the long run.

2. Buy in bulk from a local health food store, or place bulk orders directly with mail-order companies. If you can’t meet their minimum order size, go in on an order with another family, or organize a larger food buying club.

3. Avoid the middleman and buy directly from farmers. Look for farm stands, community supported agriculture programs and farmers markets.

4. Eat fruits and vegetables in season, when they are least expensive. (Once, we found organic watermelon for three cents a pound!) Stock up when they’re cheap and freeze or can any excess for later use.

5. Keep up with what’s in your refrigerator and make sure nothing spoils. Once a week, make soup or casseroles to use up vegetables and other leftovers.

6. Calculate the price of food per pound when you visit supermarkets. Doing the math will help you spot good deals.

7. Don’t overeat. When you do, you’re flushing money down the drain.

How to Avoid Rent

8. Find a live-in elder care position and help someone stay out of a nursing home. There’s always someone desperate for reliable help, and often there are no qualifications needed other than compassion.

9. Help renovate a house in exchange for lodging. This is how we came into our current home.

For the rest of the article, click here....Mother Earth News

Piggies on The Homestead and other chat

We have a bred sow coming to the homestead tomorrow afternoon and I'm hardly ready for her.  She is due within the month, so we'll work on a suitable section of the barn for her, ready for piglets.  Hmmm....how many piglets might we have here soon?

Our Miss Kitty came up from the barn Tuesday to eat, as she usually does.  She weaned her Easter morning kittens a while back, and has been looking just this side of side-splitting the past couple of weeks, so we've been watching her to see when she might drop her newest litter of kittens.  Well, after her meal, she stretched out, lounging in the sunshine of the front steps, and all of a sudden one of the youngers came running in -- "Miss Kitty pooped on the porch".  Gee...nice.  Upon walking outside, the comment changed, though, to "Miss Kitty didn't poop poop...she pooped out a kitten" complete with lots of eeeewwwwws and a couple of awww, gross.

See the benefits of living on a homestead and homeschooling?  Yeah...neither did I.  I think we need some new lessons in how babies, baby kitties at least, are born. 

Either way, Miss Kitty seemed a bit caught off guard this time around.  This is her 3rd litter...first she had only 3 and none made it to 2 weeks old; then her latest batch, our Easter kittens, numbering 5.  This time, however, Miss Kitty was large enough for way way more....she had 8 total, losing one very tiny weak girl within an hour.  I think she's a bit over whelmed with so many.  She's a great momma, but she's just a bit weird about it all this time around.  She feeds them a short while, then comes out of her 'nesting area' and sits away from them for the longest time.  So far, everyone seems to be doing well, so we haven't intervened.  Guess I'd have been overwhelmed had all 9 of mine come together at once, too.

We will be starting to set up a table at the local Farm Market here, I'm thinking August 1st.  I spoke to the man who runs it and he has no problems at all with our selling baked goods and the like.  Our market is very small....only 3 or 4 set up weekly for the most part, but it's a place to wet our feet with all of this and see how it goes.  Truthfully, it won't take long for word to spread that "that Amish family with all the kids is selling baked goods" and we'll see if it's worth the time and such to get there.  They are open Wednesdays & Fridays, but we'll start with Fridays I think.  Well...with school starting, maybe Wednesdays would be better.  We plan to sell our loaf bread, maybe some quick breads, assorted cookies and some homemade jellies.  I'm not sure about pricing -- what do you think?  I know folks around here jump on homebaked goodies, and loaf bread seems to be a treat to many.  We thought with school starting, the cookies might go well for lunch box treats.  We printed a flyer up to take along as we won't have all these things with us each time unless things go really well...

Flowers from my gardens.. Pictures..

This rose bush I just got this spring its a climber I was surprised to see a flower.. Its orange and yellow..

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orange lily

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Yellow lily

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Red lily

Thanks for stopping Sister Brenda

I picked peas~and Zucchini picture

This was the first picking for peas about bushel and a few zucchini I picked another 6 zucchini last night. And I have one more picking of peas.. I will be putting zuchhini and peas in the freezer..

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Thanks for stopping by happy canning..

Sister Brenda

Raspberry pie ~recipe~picture's

I made this pie yesterday..I picked the raspberries from our patch this is the first time I've gotten enough to make a pie with out deer~turkey's or something eating them..

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Raspberry pie

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about two quarts nice  rounded raspberries

put in bowl

and 3 tablespoons quick-cooking tapioca

2/3 cup sugar

dash of salt

mix all togoether and let stand 15 minutes..

Then spoon mixture into pie plate u can do a lattice top but I didn't..

Bake (425) 35-40 minutes..

Enjoy from my kitchen to yours..

Sister Brenda

Another hot day

Photo courtesy of www.lovelywhatevers.blogspot.com

Today will be another warm day here in Georgia.  I don't mind the warmth it's the humidity that gets ya.  My husband and I joke that although he sells far-infrared saunas we can just go outside for about 1/2 hr and have the same effect!  I just wanted to tell y'all why I picked this picture.  As some of you know my family, for now, lives in an apartment.  I try to make our apartment feel as homey as possible, but it isn't a house with a front porch.  So, I go out some nights, when it isn't sweltering, and sit on the sidewalk, which is known as Farrah's porch in the building.  This is important to make your home wherever you live. 

Today Bryson (10 yr old) has swimming lessons and then I have water aerobics.  While Bryson has his lessons I have to run to a chiropractor's in town to get our milk and eggs.  Isn't it sad that in order to get healthy milk and eggs the truck has to park behind a tree?  I tell my husband it's like their selling moonshine, not milk! 

After water aerobics, Bryson and I will run to Trader Joe's.  I've tried to go without getting groceries this week because we are trying to pay down the credit card from vacation.  However, we are out of a couple of things that I think I can get by with only $20 and that's all I'm taking.  So, with the dairy and the $20 I will spend only $40 this week in groceries.  That $150 will go towards the AmEx.  Next week will be my Whole Foods meat visit and that will be costly.  As soon as we can we are going to purchase 40# in grass fed ground beef from Riverview Farms.  They have a deal if you buy in bulk.  I'm trying to find a deal for chicken breasts/tenders and bacon that are grass fed.  Let me know if y'all know of any.

Nick (14 yr old) just called from his friends house and they stayed up all night recording and writing songs.  This is Nick's new obsession-screaming.  Yes, you heard me, screaming.  His band is a Christian version of Ozzy Osbourne.  I have no clue what they are saying until he reads me the words, and yes it gives me a headache.  However, there are some bands like The Devil Wears Prada and Norma Jean who really touch kids lives and teach them the gospel through the type of music they like to hear.  So, if this makes him happy and he isn't doing anything wrong I guess go for it.  Their band is featured on MySpace called My Chains are Broken if you want to hear.

A book I've been reading is called A Legacy of Love by Ruth Graham, the daughter of Billy and Ruth Graham.  It's about the relationship between this Mother and Daughter.  If you haven't then please pick up this book.  I spent the whole time in my bathtub last night reading and crying because it was so moving.

Well, I need to go make breakfast for Bry.  Then we have to take off.  I hope everyone has a wonderful day.

Blessings,

~Farrah

Tomato and Sage with Pasta

Tomato and Sage  with Pasta 


For 4 servings:
 
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 T. olive oil or cooking oil
1 1/2 lb. roma tomatoes, peeled and quartered
1/4 t. salt
1/4 t. black pepper
1 small green or yellow sweet pepper, cut into thin strips
1 T. snipped fresh sage or
1 t. dried sage, crushed
4 oz. uncooked linguine or fettuccine
 
 
1. For sauce, in a medium saucepan, cook the garlic in hot oil for 30 seconds. Stir in the tomatoes, salt, and black pepper. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered, for 12 minutes. Stir in sweet pepper and sage. Simmer, uncovered, about 5 minutes more or until desired consistency.
 
2. Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions, except omit any oil or salt. Drain. Return pasta to saucepan. Add sauce to cooked pasta; toss gently to coat.

Better Homes and Gardens Easy Diabetic Meals 2002