Menu Board Cards & Recipe Organization

2013...

that He would equip me and mold me into a better wife and mother this year!  I am including several Scriptures that I am meditating on as I seek Him to create in me a servant's heart.

"An excellent wife who can find?  She is far more precious than jewels." 

Proverbs 31:10

With the start of a New Year, comes the desire to "get things in order". 

"She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness" 

Proverbs 31:27

 Menu Board...Making Menu Cards

On New Year's Eve, I compiled a Menu Board, with supplies I had on hand, in an effort to make our meal planning a bit more flexible.  I finished the board on New Year's Eve and began working on transferring all my meals to menu cards to be used with the board.  This took a bit longer, but I finished today...probably spent about 5 hours since New Year's Eve working on them. 

Here are the results with details on the photos of what I did. 

Simple Gifts for Christmas...Joy-filled and Christ-centered

Gift making is underway at our home with many helping hands to make the load lighter {although not always neater}.  We are excited to give you a peak at what we will be sharing with family, friends, neighbors, music instructors and others of whom the Lord has brought into our lives.

With the colder weather sneaking back into our Florida days and nights, this makes for the perfect gift to warm the body...

How Do We Manage ALL Those Clothes?

Living in a large family forces one to be organized in order to keep order and peace in the home. Being organized helps us to be better stewards of what the Lord has given us. Our home is not large by most standards, especially for the number of people living in it, however it really is big enough for us. With each child, a little more creativity is tapped into {thank you Lord} as we re-organize to accommodate another blessing. One key is regular assessment of what we really need and either storing, selling or giving away what we don’t. This keeps our living area free from clutter.  With creativty comes the implementation of it and I have lots of helping hands to take it to the next step of putting it into action...taking the vision and applying it by DOING.  I am so thankful for a handy husband and sons who are going to know how to be just as handy by helping and doing!

Handling Current Sizes/Seasons

As you can imagine, a family of 10 has a lot of shoes, clothing and basic essentials. An area I will address today is the topic of managing all the clothes. For handling ‘current’ clothes, each person has a section of their bedroom closet for hanging items and assigned drawers {either with a built-in drawer unit in their closet or via a good ole dresser} for their folded clothes. I love the built-in units as they keep the bedrooms more open with less furniture needed. To further keep things uniform and orderly, we all have an assigned hanger color which helps when doing laundry.

My husband added this unit purchased from IKEA to our closet before Carolyne was born to accommodate her clothing, towels & blankets.

Closet system purchased from the home improvement store allowing for double rods for hanging clothes and storage shelves for personal belongings, books, etc.  When we built our house in 1995, all the closet had the standard wire rack with clothing rod...just ONE long rack in each closet.  That was also SEVEN children ago...wow, what the Lord has done!.  Our closets have all had a makeover to accommodate our changing and growing home.  Mark and the boys have been instrumental in getting this done and taking the vision I had and making it a reality...thank you Lord.

The good ole fashioned dresser...each of the boys in this room get one side for the folded laundry items.  This was my husband's dresser and continues to serve our family well.

Then these closet drawer units and double rods were installed into our other sons' closet allowing room for folded and hanging clothes.  Each son has a hamper/basket for their dirty clothes {which they wash themselves} that is also kept inside the closet.  I like these units better than the wire ones used in other other sons' room.  You can go here to get more design ideas.

On the other side of their closet we chose to use adjustable track shelving and baskets instead of drawers. Thus system uses brackets which wood shelves are screwed to and the brackets can be adjusted according to desired heights.  We also made the shelves go the full width of the closet unlike the other side with drawers, maximizing space.  This allowed it to be more customed for storing his belongings as well as using the baskets for folded clothing.  He slips his laundry basket under the last shelf for dirty clothes.  They slipped another Closetmaid type of drawer unit under the rods for storing games and such.

Same system was installed in the girls' room with double rods and drawers.  Each girl has a rod for hanging clothes and then this series of drawers is Elizabeth's.

This is the full shot of the girls' closets/drawers.  The center drawer unit is for Alyssa.  The right closet is identical to the left {see previous photo} with another series of drawers belonging to Kailynn.  Three girls' worth of clothing and it IS doable.  ;-)

How Much Do We Keep of Current Clothing?

The amount of clothing each person has is determined by what can be managed and what they can afford. We purchase all the clothing needs for our home and usually give new items during the year for birthdays or special occasions. When our children are old enough to work regularly, then they become responsible for buying items they need/want. Just as with any budget, they learn and establish a budget at a young age with funds set aside for such purchases. We have found that this is another life lesson and skill they will need when they have families of their own AND we have also found that whenever funds earned are exchanged for products, there is ownership that takes place and this in turns makes better stewards. {There is a cost associated with their purchase…work in exchange for goods…also helps them think twice about spending.}



I will say we could do even better in this area by further assessing what is REALLY needed. Having less, makes managing easier. Less to wash, less to care for, less to store. I have read others who only keep 7 days worth of clothing and a special outfit for church or occasions. That makes things very simple…I’m just not there yet.

Storing Out-of-Season/Outgrown Clothing

From early on, I saved the clothes purchased/given to our children and stored all outgrown items for future use with younger children. I have chosen to use the sturdy colored storage bins and labeled them according to contents. The out of season and outgrown clothing are kept in these bins in the attic until something is needed. I try going through them each season as clothes are rotated in and out, purging what is no longer needed or too tattered to keep.

I prefer the Rubbermaid or Sterlite brand colored storage bins.  I use them for clothing, holiday decor, toys, etc. and try to color code them according to the theme {Red - Christmas, Blue or Green - boys, Purple or Pink - girls, Grey - shoes, Taupe or Orange - Thanksgiving/Autumn, etc.} and label them to make keeping things in the attic organized, too.

What to Do with Clothing When It’s Been Worn Out

Clothing that is too tattered or outgrown is sometimes repurposed, like this great idea from Quinn at Reformation Acres!  Another repurposing idea can be to take all those favorites and make a quilt ~ what a great way to remember those sweet baby/children's outfits!  If things begin to accumulate to a point of more than may be needed in the future for other children, clothes may be passed on to other families or donated. IF a need arises for new clothes to be purchased…I ALWAYS keep an eye on the clearance racks and think ahead of the current season to replace more worn items. You’d be surprised what GREAT deals can be found on the clearance racks for well-made clothing…far better sometimes than buying consignment, thrift or garage sales…and the items are NEW. We also try bless others as items are reassessed, as we have been blessed with ‘new-to-us’ clothes, too. All these options really help to stretch the dollar.

Another way to stretch the dollar is to make your own clothing and I know many a family who are training up skilled seamstresses. This is an area I am not proficient in, but do sew enough to get by and not nearly as much as I would like. All my children will at least know the basics {including the boys}.

Managing the Dirty Laundry

I have written a post about our laundry system here which you can read to see how we handle this area of managing clothing in a large family. I haven’t deviated too much from this method, as I find this is what works for our family. Training our children from about age 9 on to do their own laundry helps to keep things from backing up. Up until this point the younger ones help with sorting, folding, delivering to each room, transferring clothes into the dryer or pulling them out, etc. We believe this helps them to be contributors in our society not just consumers…

Look what Mom found BEHIND the laundry hamper...no, no, no.  Someone's got laundry to do.  So, even with all the above...systems are only as good if they are utlized.  :-)   Here's a glimpse of REAL LIFE...

I hope that reading about how we manage the clothing for our family will help you and provide a few ideas to make your life a little easier…



Blessings as you seek to serve Him, even when doing the laundry ~

Linked this week to:

Raising Olives is one of the Mom's hosting this topic...

Sandy's DIY linky...click here to see others

Training Young Children as They Attend Church Service

How can children learn to worship? To pray? To listen to the teaching? To follow along in their Bible? By observation…observing their parents. As for our family, we believe it is best to teach our children by having them with us. (Deuteronomy 11:19, Proverbs 22:6) I do not claim to be an authority on this subject, as there are far more qualified parents out there. I only desire to share what has been an ongoing process in our own family in hopes to encourage you and maybe provide an idea or two for those who are desiring to worship as a family in church, as we have gleaned from others over the years.

For us, it is important that we keep what our children do during service centered on the reason we are there…to worship Christ.  We desire that our children attend church with us so they can learn from our example, hearing the same message we hear, praying and worshipping as a family. Our times of worship {at church and at home} are special times…times when we seek to share our love for the Lord with our children through our words and actions. Children are like sponges…they absorb what is around them. Although, they may be young, you might be surprised by what they can learn sitting in church listening to the sermon. They are listening. They are learning by our example. If we are earnest and joy-filled, they can see that. If not, well, they can see that too. We desire for our children to love the Lord and what a privilege to have them with us to share in that time of worshipping Him. 

We do provide activities for our younger children to do during worship time.  These activities are to encourage them and are ones we believe will help to grow them (even as young children) in learning about the Lord and Truth.  They are Bible and Christ focused as you will read about some of the things we do below. 


Here are some of the ways we are training our children to attend service with us:

• First, teaching them at home to sit during prayer times and family worship makes Sunday church not a once a week endeavor.
• Before service begins, I remind them what is expected… "remember to close your eyes and pray when it’s prayer time” or “when worship begins, remember to stand and sing along if you know the song” (try to practice the songs during the week at home so they will become familiar with the songs your church sings) or “remember when the pastor is at the pulpit, we are to sit still and listen – listen to God’s word”. Young children need reminders and it has been a good practice in our family to do so, BEFORE the service begins. Learning some basic sign language for words like “focus”, “sit”, “yes”, “no”, “read” have been valuable tools in our family to keep speaking to a minimum during teaching time. Another idea…make a run to the restroom BEFORE service, so that will be one less possible interruption during the teaching time.  These reminders are ones we believe help teach the children that our time is to be focused on Christ and if they fidget, are turning Bible pages loudly, etc. it may distract those around them from focusing on Him.
• During worship, we encourage them to sing, clap, stand when appropriate to stand, pray when prayer is done, etc.  This is not done as a "ritual" but more to show our reverence to the Lord and courtesy to those worshipping around us.
• For non-readers, we bring a small tablet and crayons (crayons are quiet) to allow them to color a picture about the sermon
• For non-readers, a picture Bible they can quietly look through during sermon 
• Using the picture Bible, you can ask them to look for all the pictures of… (if possible, keeping it relevant to the day’s message)
• For non-readers and beginning writers, bring a small tablet of lined paper. I have written words relating to the day’s message for them to copy. I quietly read each word to them before sermon begins and they copy the words.
• Beginning readers and writers can draw a picture about the message. They can also be trained to listen to the message, by having them listen for certain words and keep track of how many times the pastor says that word. This helps them develop good listening skills.



Notebooks my children used the beginning of last year.  As you can see, for my beginning writer I wrote some sermon related words down for her to copy.  In the other notebooks, our son wrote the Scripture passage, made notes and drew a picture about the sermon.



This was the passage the pastor read during worship today that our 8 year old copied.

• For more advanced beginning readers and writers, they can follow along as the pastor reads from the Bible. They can copy the passage he preaches from in their ‘special’ church notebook (small). They write down key words they hear during his message (i.e. who the message was written by, what the passage was addressing, etc.)

The above items can be kept in a ‘special church purse’ if a girl or small ‘special church bag’ if a boy. This will allow all items to be readily accessible each worship day.  {more on this in a moment} 

After the service, take interest in what they have written or drawn. Ask questions about the sermon to see what they remembered, such as what book (book, chapter, and verse for older children) the pastor taught from. Challenge them to give a summary in their own words about the teaching.

For very young children, give non-verbal praise throughout the service for observed obedience and good developing habits (a smile, pat on the hand for affirmation of good church habits, verbal when appropriate…). For older children, praise at the conclusion… "encourage one another”…With consistency and God’s grace, we have been encouraged each week as our family worships together. As we learn together under the teaching of God’s word, it has been a blessing to see our children growing and developing good church habits from an early age.

Last week was the first week Carolyne, Liz and I attended church since before she was born. My husband and I desire to keep our newborns home for 4-6 weeks after birth, in their own environment sheltered from too much exposure to germs and such. We have done this with all our children since our second child was born 15 years ago.

Well, with all outings and new babies, there is a transition period and last Sunday provided us some insight on how church would be with this newborn. Until Carolyne’s birth, my husband would hold our 2 year old and she would usually nap during sermon {after worship}. I would then have my 4 and 5 year olds sit on either side of me, with the older children following. Having the younger two next me allowed me to direct them as needed {little reminders…once again, simple sign language is useful in this area}.

With last Sunday being our first Sunday back to church as a family of now 10, our 2 year old stayed awake the entire service and the 4 year old wanted to talk/play with her…not a good thing, hence the separation. ;-) The last 15 minutes of service, it became necessary to take the 4 year old out with Carolyne and me. Although her voice was quiet, she became too fidgety {taking her shoes off, rustling her papers, etc.} and it concerned me she was distracting to those around us…not to mention possibly waking up Carolyne. The 5 year old did fairly well, with the exception that he had to share crayons with his older sister as his were left home…we were better prepared this week.

Today some minor changes took place. My husband still held our 2 year old, I held Carolyne {in the Maya Wrap} with our 4 year old next to me, then our 8 year old with the 5 year old in between his older brothers. My husband took the 2 year old out during worship {he just forgot to last week}, before greeting time to get her to sleep {that morning nap is still important in her schedule at this age} then came back in before service began.  This Sunday went much smoother.  The children were happy to have "new" church totes with "new" supplies and our 4 year old fell asleep 20 minutes before service ended...right before I stepped out with Carolyne, as she started to wake up in the Maya wrap.

The "new" totes I purchased are plastic handled boxes for the 4, 5 and 8 year olds.  Inside I placed "new church” drawing pads, crayons {they are quieter}, markers for the 8 year old and a lined notebook for her as well. I will be making reduced sized photo copies of Bible coloring sheets for the 4 & 5 year olds as they relate to the messages for them to keep in their boxes to color during service when possible. These boxes are large enough to keep their Bibles in as well.  This did provide incentive to do better this week in church.

Inside our 8 year old's church tote...her Bible, a doodle pad for drawing sermon related pictures, a lined notebook for writing Scripture and notes, crayons, mini sized markers, pencil and a Bible word find.

The Lord provided affirmation today that even when they may not appear to be listening...they are listening.  Our pastor had asked a question regarding who was in control of everything.  This was not meant to be verbally responded to, but Graham {our 5 year old} piped up quickly and loud enough to be heard in the front that "God is!".  I do not say this to boast, but only to show that small children do hear and can learn while attending church service.  He continued drawing the picture the whole time the sermon was being preached as he understood and illustrated it as a child would.

Several years ago we read an article by John Piper on how he and his wife Noel approached children in church with their own family. It was an encouragement to us and one I believe will encourage you, as well as provide some practical suggestions on how to involve your children in church.  The article is titled The Family: Together in God’s Presence. I am sure there are many moms out there who can name other ways they have found that work for their families…if you are one of them, please leave a comment about what you do in your family. If you are a mom looking for ideas, feel free to leave a question and maybe one of my readers can provide a suggestion or two. 

Because of Him,

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Works for Me Wednesday

The dynamics of managing a large family is all encompassing...the more people living in a home, the more there is to manage, right?  Well, one summer after loading a full dishwasher of CUPS (are you kidding), something had to change.  I mean really...how many cups do you need in a day?

Here's what works for us:

Each morning the children select their cup.  We label it with a strip of masking tape and write their name on it.  For the sippy cups we try to write a date on it, too.  (How many of you have FOUND a sippy cup with milk or juice remnants in it after 'hiding' for a few days?  Not pretty, although it could make for a great science experiment!)

A simple label with initial or name and date to help keep cup consumption under control...Works for Me!

Wallah!  Now, we have severely decreased our cup consumption, thus saving TIME and RESOURCES (electricity, water and chemicals needed for washing all those cups).

Hope that helps some mom of many out there...

Happy Cup Reducing ~

P.S.  I hope you'll pop over to enter "A Thankful Heart" giveaway I'm hosting...see what the Lord has placed on my heart, join in the challenge and enter the giveaway. 

This post is linked up to:

• Works-for-Me-Wednesday at We are THAT Family