Happy 20th Birthday Rebecca!

Our oldest Daughter is turning 20 today!


How times flies by!

I know that we hear that saying often but it is so true.

Rebecca has grown into a lovely young lady. She has a heart for God and a sweet and warm spirit.

Our prayer that God will use her in a mighty way to glorify Him!

Happy Birthday Rebecca!

Love your Family!


You can check Rebecca's Blog Here !

Losing Weight Part 3

In this post I thought I would mention a great site that I found Spark recipe.

You can read my other two posts Here, and Here

This site can be a great help in our quest to eat healthier and to lose some weight.

Having a family of ten and trying to save money we end up cooking most of our food from scratch. So how do I figure out the calories, fat, fiber in my recipes.

Most recipes do not have this information :)

At Spark Recipe you can enter all of the ingredients and enter the serving size and it will give you the information for your recipe.

They also have over 131,000 recipes to chose from that are lower in fat and calories.

This site has been a great help to us. My homemade bread that we make from whole wheat grain is pretty high in calories. So for now I am eating some wheat bread from the store that is light.

I know that I am getting more nutrition from the whole wheat bread that I am making, but I thought for a while I would try to reduce my calories to help me lose weight.

So far I have lost 8 pounds. This is quite exciting. It has taken me a while but I feel good and hopefully I will continue to lose.

The most important thing though that I need to do to lose weight I feel is trusting the Lord to help me to continue to eat right.

Praise the Lord for all of his love for us.

God Bless, Kathy

Menu Monday

Dinner:
Chicken Kieve, Couscous, corn, corn bread, Salad
Pasta, Butter horn rolls, Salad
Beef Roast, Mashed potatoes, corn bread, peas, fried apples
Ham, roasted potatoes, corn, baked beans, salad
Pancakes, bacon
Homemade donuts. (Rebecca's Birthday Request)

Lunch:
Sandwiches, fruit
chicken nuggets, yogurt, fruit
chocolate chip muffins (home made)
sandwiches, fruit
hotdogs, pickles

Breakfast:
Cereal, Bananas
bagels, with cream cheese
oatmeal
cereal
coffee cake

Snacks:
cheese sticks
yogurt
apples
bananas
grapes
thin wheat crackers with peanut butter
Check out "I'm an Organizing Junkie Menu Monday"

Saving Saturday!

This week I did not have to go grocery shopping! At least not for a full weeks worth.

Last week I decided to write up two weeks of menu's and I shopped for two weeks.

It was so nice not to have to go to Aldi's and do the weekly shopping.

I thought I would try this out this month and see how we would fair for two weeks on one shopping trip.

So far everything seems to be working out very good!

I actually could not believe my bill last week for two weeks was very reasonable which left a little over for a few extras that I picked up this week.

Since I had a little extra this week I was able to go to a couple of local stores and snatch a few good deals.

Here they are.

At Target this week I was able to buy :

2 Lysol Neutra Air Kits On sale for $5.99 each
Used 2/5.00 mfg coupons and they came out to .99 cents each!
2 Pepperidge Farm Gold fish $ 1.79 each
Used 2/ 1.00 Target coupons paid .79 cents each
2 Nestle Tall house cookies refrig. dough on sale for 2.39 each
Used 2/ 1.00 mfg coupons paid 1.39 each (a treat!) We never buy these!

(Cookies in the oven Great Excitement! )

I also shopped at our Local Stop and Shop grocery store

I was able to buy 4/ Healthy Ones Deli meat

Reg price 3.49
Sale price 3.00
Used 4/ .75 cent coupons which where doubled.
I paid $1.50 each !

The Lord is so good!

Keep looking for those great deals! God Bless, Kathy @ In My Mothers Garden
Go to Money Saving Moms and check out some other great deals!

Spring Cleaning ( Kitchen Oven)

Today I decided to clean the Kitchen Stove.

First I pulled out the oven and this is what was underneath. Not too bad. Considering I seem to have to do this often.

That was a quick clean not to hard :)

Next I cleaned the outside of the stove.

I then placed the stove back and ran the self cleaning for 2 hours!
Praise the Lord for self Cleaning!

The oven went from dirty to nice and clean :)



You may think that by looking at it did not look to bad but in the 22 years that I have been married I have learned that keeping up with things makes it much easier to keep clean then to wait until it is really dirty which will take me twice the time to clean.

Happy Cleaning! :)
Visit Crystal and Biblical Womanhood to see what other woman are cleaning this week.
God Bless, Kathy In My Mothers Garden

Losing Weight Part 2

Today I was reading my son a book it told the story about the tortoise and the hare.

We all know that story right. The hare was always in a rush and wanted everything to happen fast. You know quick results. The tortoise was not in such a rush and by his perseverance he completed the race and won the victory!

I have been on many diets that are like this. Eat only meat and protein and lose weight fast or eat only bland tasteless food and lose weight fast. These diets have never lasted.

Sure they produced some quick weight lost but the results did not last. As soon as I returned to eating normal food on came the pounds.

In my last post I spoke about" The Weigh Down Diet" which really is not a diet it is a new way of life changing the way that you feed your body with the food that you have so you can slowly lose the weight and keep it off.

(Again I just wanted to strongly state that I do not agree with the author of this book in her religious beliefs)

When I last lost weight with this program it took me a while to lose the twenty pounds. I felt good and not deprived.

Well this time I thought I would add a little more to my eating or should I say less. I decided to start eating some food that is lower in fat or calories. Not tasteless but just better for me.

I found this great website called "Spark People". I really like this site.

It helps you to keep track of your calories, fats, protein, and fiber intake. I am using it as a tool to help me with my weight loss.

I love that I can go to the site and look up certain foods and see what their calories really are or I can also enter an item that I purchased and fill in all of the info for that item. I just click add to my food for that day and it keeps count of all of the calories that I have eaten and helps me to see what I am actually eating in a day and maybe where I need to cut back a bit.

The best part about this program is that it is Free! It is wonderful. I had thought of joining Weight Watchers but we really do not have the extra money right now so this program is really helping me.

In my next post I will write about another great site that has been a help to me in my quest to lose some weight.

God Bless, Kathy

Spring Cleaning ( Dresser Drawers)

Well I have been over to Crystals Blog at Biblical Womanhood and she is running a series about Spring Cleaning so I thought I would post about some of the cleaning projects that I have been doing around our home.

With ten people living in our home there is always something that needs extra attention.

While I was lying in my bed last night I began thinking about the boys dressers! They seem to always be in disarray.

My four year old Caleb loves to dress himself so into his drawers he goes and rummages through every drawer until he finds just the right outfit. Here is the results after he is finished!

What a mess!

After about a 30 mins I had the drawers back in order. I removed some of the clothes.
I realized that he had way to much which added to the mess.

So much better!

Now that the warm weather is coming a warm 40 degrees :) I am really itching for Spring!
So getting our Spring Cleaning started sounds good to me! Happy Cleaning!
Check out Crystals Blog Biblical Womanhood and see what others are taking on!

God Bless, Kathy In My Mothers Garden

Menu Monday

Dinner:
Roast, mashed potatoes, salad, applesauce, home made butterhorn rolls
Pasta, Butter horn rolls, Salad
Orange Chicken, white rice
Kielbasa, Potatoes, corn, corn Bread, fried apples
Pancakes, bacon
Pizza

Lunch:
Sandwiches, fruit
chicken nuggets, yogurt, fruit
chocolate chip muffins (home made)
sandwiches, fruit
hotdogs, pickles

Breakfast:
Cereal, Bananas
bagels, with cream cheese
oatmeal
cereal
french toast

Snacks:
cheese sticks
yogurt
apples
bananas
grapes
thin wheat crackers with peanut butter
Check out "I'm an Organizing Junkie Menu Monday"

New Years Resolution!

New Years Resolutions. Its that time of the year.

In January I decided that I wanted to read my Bible through this year and to lose weight!

Well my last post I spoke about my devotional that I have been using. You can read it here if you missed it.

So I will talk about what I am doing to try to lose some weight.

About a year after I had my fifth child I decided that I really wanted to lose weight so I began to pray about it because I knew that it would be so hard to do in my own strength.

The Lord led me to this book "The Weigh Down Diet" I began to read it and it had many things that really made a lot of sense.

I prayed and asked the Lord to help me and I began my weight loss.

Some of the things that the book spoke about was cutting back on my portions. Sounds simple right? It was hard for me. I was brought up to always eat what was on my plate.

Of course if the food tasted really good I did not really want to stop.

After eating this new way for a while it became easier and I lost 20 pounds. I was so excited!

I was feeling so much better but as you can guess I did not only have five children so I shortly became pregnant again. :) Sadly my old eating habits came right back and on came the pounds again.

Three children later now and I have decided that it is time to try to lose the extra weight again.

Here is one of my strategies that I am using. I will post again to share some other things that I am trying to do to help me lose some weight.

I realized that I needed to change my way of eating but one of the things that I had liked about "Weigh down" was that I was still eating my normal food just a lot less of it. Changing the way that I thought about food really made the difference.

In the "Weigh down program" I was taught a little more on how my body worked and how it used the food that I feed it.

God created us to feel hunger, when I needed to be feed. God also created us to know when enough was enough you know that " I am full feeling". Many of us ignore that feeling or we eat so fast that we have over eaten before that feeling of "I have had enough" signals us to stop eating.

By reducing the amount I eat I am also reducing the amount of calories I am consuming, and the amount of fat.

I also am trying to take a small plate to serve my food on. This helps a lot. I feel like my plate is full.

I am really trying to be in tune with my body while I am eating. Listening to that feeling that I am satisfied so I need to stop no matter how much is still on my plate. One thing that the author spoke about was eating what I liked on my plate the most first. So I adopted a motto for my self.

"Eat the Best and Leave the rest "

This has really helped me. If I want dessert after I would try to plan for that leaving myself still a little hungry.

I would really recommend this book it gave me a lot of good insight and ideas.

Now with that said I must also state that aside from this book I do not believe or agree with the author on other issues that she is dealing with.

As with any thing I took the information that was useful and discarded the rest.

In my next post I will share some other things that I am doing to make changes and to help me lose some weight.


God Bless, Kathy

Making Yogurt Stretch!

Hi, I wanted to share how I try to make our Yogurt stretch. Now I know that there are some of you who probably make your own yogurt I have not gotten that far yet, but with 8 children who all love yogurt I needed a way to make it stretch and to make it tasty at the same time.

My daughter Rebecca and I have been trying to lower our calories and exercising in an effort to lose some unwanted pounds. :) I have purchased some low fat lite yogurt and of course the children all want some.

I usually do the majority of my shopping at our local Aldi's . They have a 32 oz plain or vanilla yogurt which they sell for $1.59. That is pretty good.

So what I thought I would try was to take one of the low fat yogurts with fruit and to put about a tablespoon or so in each serving of the Aldi's yogurt and mix. My children love this. It helps me to stretch that yogurt and to keep every one happy at the same time . :)

Do you have any ideas. I would love to hear them. God Bless, Kathy

Daily Devotions

("Girl Reading" by Charles Edward Perugini, 1878)

A Dear Friend of mine blessed me this Christmas with a devotional to use to help me read through the entire Bible this year. I am really enjoying this devotion so I thought I would share it with all of you.

A Heart Devoted is the name of the book.

Every day it has a little devotion written to women to encourage us in our daily walk with the Lord.

I love these little devotions. They have really encouraged me. It always seems to be about something I am going through that day and it just comforts my soul. It is a blessing to know that other women have the same struggles. And they share their wisdom on how the Lord has worked in their hearts.

I hope to share some of the things in the week that God speaks to me about.

May God Bless you as you serve Him,
Kathy

Menu Monday

Welcome to Menu Monday.

I thought it would be fun to share my menu for the following week.

For a family of 10 a menu has proven to be a great blessing.

So here is our menu this week.

Dinner

Pull pork, homemade rolls, chips salad
Ham , Potato and Cheese Casserole homemade butterhorn rolls
Grilled Italian Chicken, mashed potatoes, peas, applesauce, bread
Meatloaf, rice, stuffing, quick yeast bread
Pasta, salad, bread
Pancakes
Pizza

Breakfast

French toast
Cereal
Bagels
oatmeal
Cereal- Banana
Oatmeal

Lunch

Pasta
sandwiches PB & J, yogurt
chicken nuggets, peaches
hot dogs, mixed fruit
Sandwiches grill cheese, pickles, fruit
Mac and cheese

Check out "I'm an Organizing Junkie Menu Monday"

Kathy

Saving Saturday!

Here are the deals that I was blessed to find this past week.

Rite Aid:

They had Bounty Paper Towels B1G1 Free. At our local store they were 1.29 each reg price.
I had a $1.00 Mfg coupon for 2/1.00 .
I had two coupons so I was able to purchase four rolls for .15 cent each !



Shoprite:

This is a local grocery store up here in New England and lately I have really be finding some great deals.

Here is what I purchased last week.

4- Colgate toothpaste
On sale for .99 cents each (reg 2.19)
I had 4 $1.00 Mfg coupons so they were Free

4- Mennen Speed stick deodorant.
On Sale for .99 cents each (Reg 1.89)
I had 2 Mfg coupons for 2/1.00
.49 cents each

4- Robitussin cough Formula 4 oz.49*
On sale for 1.99 (reg 4.99)
I had 4 Mfg coupons for $1.00
.99 cents each

3- Sucrets Ice 6 pk
On sale 1/2 price 1.49 (reg 2.99)
I had 3 Mfg coupons for 1.50
Free for all of these!

$47.83 worth of items for $6.53 oop

Praise the Lord! :)

Have a great day God Bless, and Happy shopping! Kathy

I'm Back !

Well Dear Friends I want to say hello! How long it has been since I have written a post!

I want to thank those who left a comment sharing with me your desire to keep my blog up and to keep posting.

Things here have been very busy! With school in full swing the days just seem to fly by.

Many things have been added to my plate this year so it seems hard to find the time to write a post. I do enjoy hearing from all of you. I have made a few friends along the way which has been a great blessing and encouragement.

There were many reasons that I started this blog last summer. I enjoy learning different things and through blogging I have learned a lot about the internet and using the computer. Of course Rebecca is still my teacher in this area. Praise the Lord for her! :)

I also had hoped to be a blessing to other moms out there . I remember what it was like being a young mom and desiring to learn from others.

The Bible says that the older women is to teach the younger. I know that I still have a lot to learn. We never stop learning do we? But it is my prayer to at least encourage other women to love the Lord and to raise their children for him.

I hope to be more consistent.

May God bless you all as you strive to serve Him!

God Bless, Kathy

History comes Alive!

Many people have dreamed of traveling back in time.
Books have been written, films produced, documentaries recorded about such an event as time travel. It seems an impossibility, doesn't it?

However, I know of a time Machine that exists in nearly every town: The local Library.
Reading historical fiction is my "little time machine", and it makes History come alive!
The library has so many little time machines!




Up until five years ago I didn't like history that much, it was "ok"
but not fascinating or captivating- I thought it was just a bunch of boring facts and dates.
I never thought that history could be interesting at all.







Then, one day I was in our local public library and came upon a book,
It was called "Voyage on the Great Titanic" and it was from the "Dear America" series. I liked the cover painting, and so I thought I would read it.

When I finished the small book a week later, I was hooked. This fictional diary was amazing! I felt like the girl "Margaret" was writing to me about her adventurous disaster on the Titanic. I even enjoyed the true facts and photos in the back! History from a girl's point of view who was about the same age as I was captivated me!







I went back to the library
and found a few more.

History was suddenly coming to
life right before me! I began to
check biographies and other books about the time periods of the diary I was currently reading.






Then I found another book,



I had heard about the Great Queen Elizabeth I, and since the Royal Diaries were from the same writers of Dear America I thought I'd give it a try.

Once again, I was captivated! And the best part was that these Royal diaries were about real girls, who lived and affected history. I looked for more, and found some!





These books were great!

But I kept coming back to the Elizabeth one, I read it over and over. I was so fascinated by the Tudor house, that I got out a whole bagful of books about her and her notorious father, King Henry VIII.

My Mother looked at a few of my books, and then we saw a documentary/film about the Tudors. Since that time my Mother and I have been studying the Tudor house. We have grown closer together, and have fun reading books, or watching films about this famous family.

I LOVE HISTORY!

There are so many stories out there, waiting to be read! If you have a child who is bored to death of history, try Historical fictions.

There are so many books out there that are historical fictions, and non- fictions that take dry boring facts and make them come to life! Most of these can be found at the local library.
God Bless, Rebecca.

Little brother

Meet Caleb. He is a 3 (soon to be 4) yr old little boy. Blessed with an incredibly innocent face and a "Melt-your-heart" smile. My Mom refers to him as "Little Mr. Edison" Why?

Our Little Caleb is a curious boy.

Did you know that as a child Thomas Edison burnt down his father's barn due to one of his "experiments."

Little Thomas Edison was a curious boy.


Thankfully, our little curious boy hasn't burnt down a barn or house, however. . . .



I remember when my father found red acrylic paint on our basement floor. The Suspect had fled. However, we quickly found the culprit, red handed.

Our little "Edison" was truly caught red handed.

At least it was washable paint!



This one was very "fun!"
Our Sweet little boy dumped an entire can of black pepper on the table! And right before dinner!

Although we scrubbed and scrubbed, our meal was still spicy.

This was 1 year ago, however Caleb still dumps black pepper on his dinner every once in a while.




This actually took place a few days ago. I was making chocolate chip muffins for lunch, when Caleb walked up with a big smile, and a chocolate mustache!

He had apparently stolen several chocolate chips while I had my back turned!

Ever curious, my sweet little brother!

This is a vacuum.

However he turned it into a race car while daddy was trying to fix it!

No matter how curious, no matter how many messes he makes, Caleb is priceless! He's always got a great big smile!

He is soooooo CUTE!

He is a treasure from God.

I'm proud to call him my brother, and my little buddy.

He had a bib when he was an infant that said, "With this Smile I can get away with anything" Not quite true, but perhaps close!



I love you little Brother!