Update on my "Milk Jar Help" post

Although we have only started milking last weekend I have been using the colored circles and the "y's" and "k's".  The "y" stands for yogurt and the "k" stands for kefir.  I feel that it's been long enough to give an update to see how they are working for our family. 

So far I've only had one problem with this system....I don't have enough of them!!!  Ha!  I have plenty of the plain colored circles, probably too many, though they will come in handy should we loose any.  I did not have enough of the y's and k's.  Being that I had a large batch of yogurt in my dehydrator, and not enough y's to go around I took action.  As I thought more on it I realized how much easier things are to label, and that I should have more of these labels handy for some of my other milk type products.  I was trying to stick with one color per day for the milk and one color for the other milk products (yogurt, kefir, etc).  I did not have any more brown paint chip cards so I decided to make due with what I had.

It didn't take too long to make the circles, cut them out and write what was needed on them.  I then laminated them, and after cutting out the magnets from the magnet sheet, Jonah attached the magnets to the back of them.  I was a little bummed that some of the marker smudged.  I really wasn't up to using a permanent marker, like I did the last time, as I don't like their smell.  So I went with regular kiddo markers.  Oh, well, they will still work! 

So here is a shot of my current stash of labels:

 Lots of y's!  I made some for coconut kefir, animal kefir, villii (a room temp culturing yogurt), whey, coconut milk, coconut/nut  milk, and one for starters.  There's nothing quite like opening your fridge to see a bunch of glass jars with white stuff in them and not exactly knowing what is in each!  Problem solved.  Although masking tape works great, I would have to actually find said tape and find a pen...every. single. time. Not fun.  This is working like a dream for us!

 Ok, so there is the problem of them all staying in their proper place.  But, still better than hunting down tape and pen.  The girls did not know I had made new labels.  One of them went into the fridge for some yogurt and proclaimed we were out of it.  I told her there was no way we were out of yogurt as I had just made up a large batch.  I told her to look for the jars with the y's on them.  She was thrown off because she was looking for a brown circle.  As you can see I have them in purplish colors now.

 This picture and the ones that follow have nothing to do with my labels :-)  Just some pictures I took before I put my camera away after taking the label pictures.  Flannery and Saoirse have set up a drawing station at the desk.  They sit on the opposite side that you are supposed to.  We have wide window sills, and they use those for seats.

 Saoirse at work.

 Flannery has been very much into tracing pictures and coloring them in.

 Isabella was sitting on the couch across from the desk working on her math...until her little brothers convinced her to draw them some pictures of helicopters, dinos, cars and such.

Flannery's notebook that she insisted I take a picture of.  Oh, look!  A pencil sharpener!  We only have five pencil sharpeners in our house.  They either don't work, the batteries are dead, or they are lost.  This does not bode well with 7 kiddos using pencils and no pencil sharpener. 

Thinking ahead

For quite some time I've felt the need to gather up some supplies.  Mostly of the food type :-)  With the uncertain times we live in, it only seems prudent.  Of course there was so much to be done around here that it has only been a thought.  As I've looked into it I've been a bit overwhelmed by the how, and what.  How to do it and what to use.  I've been reading, and watching some videos.  I love the idea of canning.  I really love the idea of canning meats. Goodness knows how long it takes to defrost meat to be able to use at dinner time.  Plus there are veggies and fruits to consider as well.  But when I factored in the veggies and fruits I had to start think of *where* I would put all of this.  Then I came across the idea of dehydrating foods.  I was going to just skim over it as I really didn't think you could do much in the way of dehydrating.  Boy was I wrong!!  It looks like this would be the best way to preserve our fruits and veggies.  They would take up a lot less space, and they retain most of their nutrients.  With canning, the veggies and fruits loose up to 60-80% of their nutrients.  With dehydrating they only loose 3-5% of their nutrients.  There is a blog and a whole bunch of videos about dehydrating that I would love to pass on as they have so much information and inspiration.  I'm pretty excited to have found a solution for being able to store more food without taking up a lot of space. 

The blog (which has a lot of info in the "helpful hints" section):
http://www.dehydrate2store.com/

There are videos on the blog above, and different videos (by the same person) on their youtube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Dehydrate2store#p/u/14/DfQg0hzFihM

I hope you find the videos as informative as I have.  We have a five tray dehydrator that we've had for a few years now.  I never thought of using it for all the various foods and herbs.  I also was given a food saver that I haven't utilized yet, but now I can't wait to pull it out and see how this all works.  I don't have the best of these things, but I will use what I have to see if it will be what will work best for us.  I'll let you know how it goes.  On my most recent shopping trip I bought an extra bag of frozen blueberries and strawberries to give it a whirl.

Back to work I go :-)  I don't have to do as much work for our "bug" problem as before.  That will let us work our way back into our regularly scheduled program. 

An organized closet

We started our purging process in the kids bedrooms, and have slowly made our way out to the main rooms.  We didn't get much done last week due to the girls testing.  I started back up yesterday.  I wish the rest of my house looked this organized!  Ha, ha.  We had done our monthly shopping just days before and the girls put everything away. Unfortunately they hadn't put things where I normally keep them.  So I took everything out of the closet, put everything where it needed to go and labeled the shelves.  It looks soooooo tidy.  And sooooo organized (which is not like me at all).  I had to take a picture to share.  Now, hopefully the girls will take the time to read the labels before putting anything back.

Pretty amazing

Two things that are amazing.

 The first being our wee baby boy goats.  The little girl (named Pipi), is spoken for.  That left us with four boys.  We were thinking it was going to be hard to find homes for FOUR boy goats.  That just seemed like a lot for some reason. My little prayer was that they would be able to go to a home where they would be loved on.  I just cringe when I think of them as dinner on someones plates.  So this afternoon I went out with my camera to take some pictures of the little boys to send to Jeremiah.  Jeremiah put them up on Craigslist.  I'm not exactly sure what time he posted it, but I'm pretty certain not 30 minutes had elapsed before I was getting phone call after phone call!  And wonder of wonders the very first call was from a lady who wanted ALL four boys!!!  Can you believe it?  Just like that, the first call.  She and her husband came by to take a look at them.  Everyone who called was smitten with Prince, who is the all black with white ears.  I was also pleased that Jeremiah talked them into waiting a bit longer to take them.  They were set to take them next week, after we disbudded and neutered them.  I was a bit sad to think that Honey would be crying for her babies, that she had just given birth to the week before.  I know they are not human, but last year when we sold their babies (at 3 months old) both of the goats just maaa-ed and maaa-ed for the longest time.  They kept walking around the yard looking for them. So sad.  But by then they were already eating regular goat meals, and their mamas were not as patient when they wanted to nurse.  So I am happy that these babies will get to have the next two months with their mommies :-)  Here are the pictures we put up on Craigslist earlier today.  the first three all look like the same goat, but they are not!

Bandit

Cowboy Smiley

He gets his name from the unique pattern on top of his head that looks like a smiley face!

Sheriff

(Anyone seeing a name theme going on?)

Prince Pepper

He looks just like his mommy.  All the others look just like their daddy.

(Princess) Pipi

The Prince and Princess are brother and sister.

As far as the other amazing thing.  Shelves.  Yes, you read that right, shelves.  I had been praying for some nice, large, sturdy shelving.  And my prayers were answered. A friend was selling all of her shelving.  Shelves that I had once drooled over when I first saw them in her house.  And now two of them are mine, with a possible third to be some day.  How big are these shelves?  I had Isabella stand next to them for reference.  She's about as tall as me, probably 5' 7".  

These have been wonderful, wonderful for keeping my counters clear.  Whenever we do a BJ's run we get a large amount of bananas, as seen above.  All of those, plus a few more that were already eaten would be piled high on the counter next to the fridge.  Plus the three gallons of water kefir, now home on the shelf, and not on my middle counter.  Wonderful I tell ya.  We have this one in the kitchen and the other in the laundry room.

I had a small, very rickety shelf back in the laundry room to put our folded laundry on.  Each night, or close to it, we would pull our bin of laundry out and put it away.  I really loved that set up.  I didn't love the fact that the shelving would collapse every week.  So I had to give it up after it started to fall apart almost daily.  That meant that our living room became the new folding laundry area.  Not very aesthetically pleasing :-)

 These shelves fit the bill.  Underneath, you can just barely make out is a pink bucket.  We have one pink and one blue.  The pink one is for gathering chicken eggs.  The blue is where we put out scraps into for the animals, to be taken out daily and washed afterwards.  So far so good.  The bottom shelf holds the items you see above.  I was able to get rid of the blue bin that was sitting in there taking up an awkward space.

Laundry takes up the next three shelves.  The top laundry shelf holds towels, wash clothes, dish towels and sheets.  The next one holds my, Jeremiah's and the oldest two girls laundry.  The third houses the rest of the kiddos.  Jed and Jonah share the same clothes, so there is only one pile for them.  This is working wonderfully.  I can fold immediately and put everything on the shelves as I fold.  I just have to bring back some hangers for our clothes that need to be hung up.

The top shelf houses bags of beans and rice.  These items were in the blue bin.  I used to have them on our small white shelf, but a mouse got into them!  I am hoping that a mouse will not be able to climb up these. Time will tell. 

It was a very productive day.  Got the chicks all new bedding, and my bathroom cleaned up.  Chicks are messy business.  At least for us.  We have very eager little helpers who like to add shavings and pour food for the chicks.  Those things don't always make it into the box.  Thus the need to clean up my bathroom.  Tomorrow is our crazy day. I think Moira is going to attempt to go to art class tomorrow.  I think it might do her well.  I am looking forward to her being herself again. She still has pain. I think she is getting to the end of her rope with all of this. Poor girl.  I think with all the new life we have around here it is helping to keep her mind off of it.  She really enjoys sitting outside with the baby goats, or in my bathroom craddling chicks.

Grocery list

Ok, so here is my grocery list that I took with me shopping today. This list is for the next two weeks worth of meals. Except that we do make another run for fresh produce after the second week. And this list was made based on what meals I planned, that are listed in my last post.

This is what I bought at Walmart, again this is for two weeks:
popcorn x2
cornstarch
rosemary
parsley
mushrooms x2
bacon bits x2
dried beans (white x2, pinto x2, black x2 and red x1)
canned pineapple x3
brown rice x4
pizza sauce
lime chips
egg noodles
molasses
Dijon mustard
golden raisins
baby food (2 packs x16)
Paul Newman's Italian dressing
" " Ranch dressing
buttermilk x3
butter x3
mozzarella cheese (large block)
eggs x5 (this is for one week, as we don't' want to keep eggs for two weeks)
frozen corn on the cob x2
frozen fruit (raspberries x3, cherries x3, pineapple x3)
4# chicken thighs x2
ground beef, 3#
ground pork, 1#
strawberries x3 packs
3 pack paper towels
kleenex x2

Total: $160.14


This is what Jeremiah bought at BJ's today:

Dog food
Vitamin C
bananas X8 bunches
toilet paper
cheddar cheese x2(block)
maple syrup
olive oil
avocados
frozen blueberries x2 bags
frozen strawberries x2 bags
Danactive yogurt drinkables

Total was about $170


This is what I bought at Harris Teeter, where we get our produce:

green leaf lettuce x2
red leaf lettuce x2
turnip greens (bulk)
tomatoes x3
cucumbers x2
red onion
yellow onion x2
oranges x4
tangeloes x6
bread x2
honey
pears x4
celery
bag of apples 3#
green onions
spinach x3 bunches

Total: $52.80

So there you have it, feeding a family of 7. I will have to get a few more things as I just found out that our church is planning ahead for our Memorial Day gathering. They invite the community, and we provide the food. So I will make a couple batches of cookies and whatever else they will be serving. But that is outside of "our food". And next week we will make another run to Harris Teeter for the following weeks produce. The grand total so far is 382.94, which when broken down for two weeks is 191.47 per week. That will go up of course next week, but that is the general idea. This of course can vary each pay cycle as sometimes we need diapers, or shampoo, etc. And this is not including Jedidiah's formula, which we have in a separate category altogether. We will be saving a LOT of money once he is off the pump and formula....to the tune of about $500 a month! Formula is EXPENSIVE.

On other notes....I made keifer for the first time today! Yeah! It;s not very pleasant, but it will be put into smoothies to hide the taste. For some reason when we drink the goats milk plain, it tastes exactly like cow milk. But when we make the keifer or it gets "frozen" in our smoothie we get that hint of "goatiness" to it. Very weird. Although the kids haven't said anything about it, so it's not bad, but it's there.

Have you all taken a look at that baby ticker on my side bar? I remember it getting into the two digits, and now we are in the 70's! Yikes, the time is flying. I feel great, the baby is active, which the girls all love. Jeremiah is picking up a birth kit tomorrow. Someone on our homebirth loop had to transfer to the hospital at the end and didn't use it and was giving it away! That is like $40 worth of supplies.

It is getting very late here, I finally got all my wheat ground (I decided to hop on here as I waited for it to be ground), put my pancake batter in the unheated oven to soak overnight, and now I am tired and want to go to bed. We have had some really neat discussions (Jeremiah and I) about some interesting topics in the Bible. I will have to share about it sometime. And just for the record, in case you are wondering who this Jeremiah person is, it's Jerry. You see he introduced himself to me (15 years ago) by the name of Jerry. For almost two years that is what I knew his name to be. Until I met his parents for the first time, and they kept calling him Jeremiah. What?! Who is this Jeremiah person they keep talking about (I'm being silly here). But he went by Jerry, and that's what I have called him all these years. Since I am really tired I won't go into why he's decided to go by his real name now and not his nickname. I will say I like the name Jeremiah better than Jerry, but it is having a hard time coming out of my mouth! Habits die hard! So when you see this Jeremiah person mentioned on my blog....it's just my hubby :-)

Ok, now I really need to go to bed. Goodnight all.

Menu Planning and Grocery Shopping

This may not be a post of much interest to most. But keep in mind that this is also where I put things for me to look back on, and to help others. Sometimes a blog I read will be doing a post on schedules and they ask everyone to share their schedules with them. And sometimes they do a post on feeding a large family and ask for people to share their menus or shopping lists. So this is here for that reason, and for anyone curious as to what I feed these kiddos and a peek at our shopping list.

Here is what is on my current menu, that I made up last night and this morning:

Breakfast
I don't have set days for what we eat for breakfast. Although Sunday mornings we have our normal lunch food, since we won't be having a snack. So breakfasts are smoothies made with greens, fruit, keifer/yogurt, and healthy fats. The girls may also have extra fruit on the side, or a muffin.

Lunch
I set aside a specific lunch for each day, these are the types we are having:
pancakes
waffles
scrambled eggs and biscuits
oatmeal
juicy eggs and toast
egg burritos

Dinner
Our dinners are more varied and are the following for the next two weeks:
grilled cheese, corn on the cob
baked potatoes
chicken and rice burritos
corn bread, beans, salad
broccoli soup, wheat bread
baked beans, wheat bread, salad
focaccia, salad, deviled eggs
sweet-n-sour meatballs (on rice)
pizza, salad
taco salad
baked potatoes
chicken soup, wheat bread
black beans and rice (on tortillas)
grilled cheese, corn on the cob
chicken quasadillas, salad

A few of those seem to be very minimal dinners and that is on purpose. Those would be our Sunday dinners, which we keep light since we eat a buffet lunch at church. And of course there are repeats since I can only seem to come up with so many different things to make, or wish to make, keeping it simple for me. When I put too many different or new dishes in my week I tend to get overwhelmed and fall behind and make something not planned since it seems too much for me that particular night. I also try to make up more rice than I need that particular night for another nights meal. Same with salad. I make a huge salad to have over a few days. Not all our salads are green lettuce. I will have two that are different, one with red cabbage, apples, carrots and other yummies. Another will be a tobouli type salad with parsley, cilantro, avocado, tomatoes, cucumbers and nuts. So it varies. I need to get off and get a few things done, so the grocery list will have to wait till later or another day.