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The Cole Homestead

Making Room for One More

Posted by ElCloud
10:17, 2008-Oct-6 .. Posted in Our Family .. 1 comments .. Link

Every time we have another baby, people ask us where we're going to find room for the baby. Literally. Before we moved here, we had a 3 bedroom 1200 sq. foot home, and 6 kids. Now we have a 3 bedroom home that is almost 1800 sq. feet, plus an unfinished basement. The bedrooms are smaller than our previous home's bedrooms. Even though we have a larger home now, we've already been asked how we fit everyone into our home.

The answer is bunk beds, toy shelves, creative storage solutions. At the moment, the girls' room has two bunk beds. 2 yo L's bunk is empty, waiting for her to move from the toddler bed in our room to the girls' room. The boys' room has a twin bed, and a twin daybed with a trundle under it. Eventually, we'll have to start using the trundle for baby G, but at the moment it's only used when my sisters are all visiting at once.

We have toys in the bedrooms, and toys in the living room. But, we would get rid of toys and other excess stuff to make room for our children! I often tell people we don't have too small a home, and we don't have too many children ... we just have too much stuff.

Baby G has a bassinet in the living room for napping, and sleeps in our bed. Eventually, he'll move to the toddler bed that is beside our bed. Finding room for their clothes, and getting new dressers has usually been more of a problem than where the new baby will sleep. But some creative rearranging usually solves that problem, as well.

This pregnancy, the big issue was actually our vehicle. We had an 8 passenger Suburban, and were expecting our 9th family member. We tried finding a front bench to replace our two captain's seats. Steve called every salvage yard and used parts store we could find in central and eastern KS ... but kept coming up empty. Finally, just four days before Baby G was due to be induced, Steve located a bench seat for us at a salvage yard in a small town about two hours east of us!! We didn't get it picked up until Baby G was a week old, and we didn't get it installed until this weekend.

Sunday was our first time driving anywhere with the new bench seat. It works wonderfully, although Steve and I are still adjusting to having a teenager sitting between us. There go our semi-private quiet conversations as we drive. *giggle*

It was much less expensive than one of the fourth row benches, and safer. It was definitely less expensive than buying a larger vehicle, although we do hope to do that soon. It even matches our interior perfectly. I had told Steve I didn't care if it was purple or red or polka dotted ... to buy it and we'd put a cover on it. But it's exactly the same upholstery as the rest of the seats. Just an additional blessing.

So, we've officially made room for this baby, too. Praise the Lord! I had tried not to stress over the seat problem. I told myself repeatedly that if we had to drive 2 cars to church and not take any family vacations for awhile, we'd just have to trust that it was God's will for us for a time. I did reach a point of accepting that, and was very surprised and blessed when Steve finally found a seat, at the last minute.

I'm very thankful for God's provision, once again. And, as He often does, He provided in His time, at just the right moment ... not too soon, not too late, and not when I thought it needed to be accomplished. Just another lesson in trusting Him.

Trusting in Him,
April

WATER AND PROTEIN: SHORT COMINGS IN THE PANTRY

Posted by TheIntentionalPeasant
06:35, Monday, October 6, 2008 .. 2 comments .. Link

I was warming water up on the stove last night for baths. I had the reservoir full but needed it to finish up dishes so I figured the cook top was hot so might as well put some water in pans and use that. I can get 3 turkey roasters plus one large kettle on the top. As I was filling the pans and checking the reservoir to make sure it was full it occurred to me how close and personal water and I have become this summer. I know that sounds odd but really. I never knew how much water my family wasted. Now don't get me wrong, I still have cold water at the touch of a faucet but cold water is basically good for drinking and cooling milk after pasteurizing. Hot water makes things function. Bathing, washing, cleaning etc. I learned over the summer that it took an amazingly small amount of water to shower in. The solar showers hold 5 gallons, two of us could take showers with water from one.

This summer I learned I could wash the days dishes in less than 3 gallons of water. I recycled in little ways. Hot water from the pasteurize went into the dishpan. As my great grandmother and grandmother would have done from days of old I washed the least dirty first then the dirtiest last. Hoping, praying the water would hold out. A big change for me, although I don't have a dishwasher I have always liked to change my wash water with every load, glasses get one, plates another, etc. A little quirk of mine and so wasteful, I always have left the hot water running to rinse the dishes. I have sense learned that wasn't possible or necessary.

I found that yes, this might be more than many could accept, certain things in life changed. Cleanliness, though most certainly didn't have to be sacrificed must take place at different levels. Hot water at hand to wipe down the table, to fill a bucket to mop with, to wash clothes. I am a product of our thoughtless society in more ways than I thought. Its made me wasteful and worst still, unappreciative. I have taken one of the basic necessities of life for granted. Use to when taking a bath we will fill it to capacity to soak in, almost every time. Whether we had 5 minutes of 20 minutes. We have a claw foot tub to boot. Holds more water. When doing dishes besides constantly changing my water and leaving it running, I would find I would fill up a pan and let the dishes soak. If I got busy doing something else and the water got to cold well you guessed it, I'd empty and refill. We figured we went through on the average 2 hot water tanks full of water a day. About 60 gallons. That of course doesn't include the cold water.

Last night as I filled up the containers I wondered how much was really necessary. I had filled my reservoir us 3 times yesterday by that time and I thought how crummy it would be if we had to all it in from outside. Then it hit me, what if it wasn't available. 15 gallons of water just to wash with, that doesn't include cooking or drinking. As stated in a long past entry, water storage is a weak point in my pantry. Obviously if hard times are here your only going to worry about drinking it for life's sake. But not to be able to wipe off a counter or have it to cook/boil something with could wear quickly on someone's nerves. So I guess my point here is besides drinking water make sure you put up some water to cook and wash with too. But also start now to see how much you really use and how much is really neccessary.

Weak points in the pantry can be found out when its too late to do anything about them. I would recommend some dry runs. Living off your pantry for a week or more to see where you need to shore up. Another week point I found this summer was in the area of protein.

We've had to use our pantry a lot this summer. As this recession has hit home here. I'm sorry, I forgot, all of Washington says we aren't in a recession yet. Okay well for whatever reason we've had to tighten our belts here and protein is an issue in our pantry. In most pantries people worry a lot about mood foods, and though important they are the least of needs. Make sure to look over life giving requirements and how your pantry is stocked there. The old saying you don't want to get caught with your pantry down is so true.

Until next time at the The Hard Times Cafe

* Ham Loaf *

Posted by ~Rebekah~
10:33, Sunday, October 5, 2008 .. Posted in Recipes From the Kitchen .. 0 comments .. Link

1 lb fresh ground turkey

1 lb ham, ground (or turkey ham)

1 cup breadcrumbs

1 egg

1 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

3/4 cup milk

SAUCE

2/3 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon dry mustard

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup vinegar

Directions: Grind meat (if necessary) and mix all loaf ingredients. Shape into a loaf. Bake at 350°F for one hour. Mix sauce ingredients together. Pour sauce over loaf and continue to bake for another hour. SERVES 8

Squashkin? Delakin? Pumash?

Posted by ~Melissa
9:47 PM, October 5, 2008 .. Posted in By the Garden Gate .. 1 comments .. Link

We couldn't decide what to call this new squash. I had a plant come up on it's own and I just let it go, knowing my other squash weren't growing as well. This is what we ended up with. In looking at it, we think it is a cross-breed between the delicata squash that we grew last year and the sugar pumpkins. Most all were growing on their bottoms, sitting upright. The green stripes were a bit more apparent until just at ripening when they began to take on some orange.

I decided to cook one up today and see what it tasted like. I baked it for quite some time and once done, I served it at supper. The texture was more stringy like in spaghetti squash (which is odd because I never grew that here). I think it took on that from the pumpkin. The smell of the item smelled identical to pumpkin, although it was more yellow in color like squash. The flavor... was bitter. We don't know what went wrong with this cross-breed, because delicatas are sweet and so are sugar pumpkins, but this was like a flat squash flavor with a bitter edge to it.

I will be trying to boil the next one to see if I notice any changes and see if I can work with it enough to cause us to keep the 20 some that grew in the patch. If not, I guess the girls can enjoy carving them... we have plenty.

Warmly, ~Melissa

Time for a new plan.

Posted by ~Melissa
8:25 PM, October 5, 2008 .. Posted in Allergy thoughts and trials... .. 0 comments .. Link

I have a new plan for trying to work in foods into our diet. I seen tonight it will already need some tweaking, but I need to go with this to start. What I decided to do was to try a new recipe each day, well at least 4-5 a week, I am hoping. And no better time to start, than TODAY!

Today's recipe was a Vegan Macaroni and Cheese. It was easy to cook. It was a crockpot recipe. The cheesy sauce however was a bit "sour" for our tastes. After it was all done, I had to cut it with a bit of honey to even make it palatible for our family. And then... it was still a no go. I found that when I took a bite of steamed broccoli which I had for a side dish, with a bite of the pasta, it really wasn't too bad. But alone, it was just too sour. I know that lemon can be a great taste, but I did not grow up with it, and the sharpness of the flavor was nothing our family was used to.

I also tried a cashew gravy. It had onions in the gravy and the way it was directed to cook, they did not get blended up. I put it onto a vegetarian loaf (which was new also, but I just tweaked a burger recipe that I had and made it into a loaf). The flavor... was good. The family says... It is a keeper. Though, next time the girls would prefer me to blend up those onions instead of leaving them in pieces within the gravy. Dh said he would have liked it better if I had made potatoes with our meal, LOL. He lives on potatoes and prefers it with every meal unless it is mexican or pasta ...and even then we add potatoes occasionally. The new loaf was a keeper as well. I have one daughter that requested I exchange the carrots for more potatoes, but I just smiled and everyone else said... it's fine...leave it as it is. When my girls don't eat too many carrots (this daughter especially), it seems that if it is tolerable, I ought to leave it in. *grin*

After all the cooking tonight, I realized that I struggle with doing dairy-free and soy free at the same time. An automatic substitute for dairy is soy. I made the vegetarian loaf with a vegetarian burger, didn't even dawn on me that there was TVP (Soy) in it.

I did not take a picture of the loaf, but basically here is what was in it...

One can of vegan vegetarian burger, one potato shredded, one cup of carrots shredded, 3 eggs, 4 slices of ww bread cubed, a good set of shakes of sage, onion powder, and garlic powder. I baked at 350 for about 30 minutes. During that time, I made the gravy and then topped the loaf with the gravy and baked another 20-30 minutes. (enough for the carrots to soften and the gravy to bubble).

The gravy recipe I found in the book "Choices: Quick and Healthy Cooking" by Cheryl Thomas Peters. It was good and I am relieved that I had ONE new recipe for today approved by all (even if I need to tweak it and blend the onions into the gravy next time!).

My plan will need some tweaking as on the first day I was given some comments on the plan. The new recipe is planned to be a side dish to the main meal. That part works, that way if it doesn't go over, the kids still eat. The next part is that I need to keep the menu plan a bit more "normal". This will prove to be difficult as we are ingrained in a particular style of food and when you can't eat that food, finding a new normal isn't always as easy as substituting one food for another. Like tonight, I should have made a potato dish for the new loaf. It would have been much easier for the family to accept the new food without feeling like they were being deprived. But, in my thinking... we had plenty on the table... the menu consisted of: Trial: mac and cheese, pineapple and banana salad (have bananas that need eating), burger loaf, gravy, steamed broccoli and cauliflower and squash (trial... we had a crossbreed in the garden and we tried it tonight...not so good! LOL). After looking at the menu, I need to try and keep it smaller/simpler as well. It's not like we're going to potluck, so I don't need to have so much food on the table.

Anyways, I will be sharing our journey as I try new recipes. I will share my flops, my forgetfulness, etc. All in all, going to a new diet will be hard on the entire family. I guess it isn't that it will be... IT IS.

Today's aftermath of whatever little Paige ate, allowed her entire dresser of panties to be emptied. That is about 15 pairs of underwear. She told me at about 6pm, that she ran out of panties. She also had about 6-8 bowel movements today. Totally cleaned her out, I guess. Her skin still has the redness that appeared yesterday afternoon. She also has a red blood mark in her eye today. She was aggitated most of today, but seemed to calm down after supper and fell asleep a bit early for her (around 7:45 pm). She didn't eat the loaf tonight, she has always seemed to say no to soy substitutes, although she does like gluten and those usually have soy flavorings. I guess I will likely need to make my own at some point. Anyways... hopefully tomorrow is a better day.

Warmly, ~Melissa

Old canning Lids?

Posted by Flossie
07:06, Sunday, October 5, 2008 .. 0 comments .. Link

Continuing on the theme of recycling and using, I saw this post on someones blog - sorry, forgot who's...

Recycling Canning lids - I don't have a lot - just started... but I hate throwing them away! So here are some ideas for them - we need pictures but that is my only complaint - being the visual person I am :)

http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf60768970.tip.html

Home Made tomato Soup

Posted by Flossie
06:34, Sunday, October 5, 2008 .. Posted in Cooking .. 0 comments .. Link

I made this from the many tomatoes I have ripening.

6-8 tomatoes (approximately 4 cups chopped)

1/2 onion

1 green pepper

1Tb garlic

1tsp salt

1tsp pepper

2 cups milk

chop the produce in cuisinart, dump into pot.

Add remaining ingredients.

Bring to a boil and then reduce and simmer for 20 minutes.

One Bowl Brownies

Posted by Flossie
06:32, Sunday, October 5, 2008 .. Posted in Cooking .. 0 comments .. Link

BAKERS CHOCOLATE ONE BOWL BROWNIE
RECIPE

4 sq. Bakers unsweetened chocolate
3/4 c. butter (1 1/2 sticks)
2 c. sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 c. flour
1 c. chopped nuts (optional)

Microwave chocolate and butter in large bowl at high 2 minutes or until butter is melted. Stir until chocolate is melted. Stir in sugar. Mix in eggs and vanilla. Stir in flour and nuts. Spread in greased 9 x 13 inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. Cool. Makes 24.

Range Top - stirring constantly, melt chocolate and butter in 3 quart pan over very low heat.

CAKE-LIKE BROWNIES:

Stir in 1/2 cup milk with eggs and vanilla. Use 1 1/2 cups flour.

My daughter and son - 11 and 7 are making this for dessert tonight!

This recipe is from www.cooks.com

Kettle Corn

Posted by Flossie
06:29, Sunday, October 5, 2008 .. 1 comments .. Link

1/3 cup corn oil
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup popcorn kernels
Salt to taste

Over a medium-high flame, heat the corn oil in the bottom of a heavy 3-quart saucepan. Sprinkle in 2 or 3 popcorn kernels. When the kernels pop add the sugar, and then the remaining popcorn. Cover with a good lid. Shake the pan over the heat while the popcorn pops. When the popping stops, remove the pan from the heat. Immediately pour the hot popcorn into a bowl. Try to remove any oldmaids with a spoon or fork. The popcorn will be hot and sticky so be very careful not to burn yourself. The popcorn should be lightly coated with a beautiful amber caramel. Salt the kettle corn to taste and serve to thankful recipients. Makes a large bowlful. Tastes best while watching a movie with friends and family.

I found this recipe at: http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com

Maybe we will try this this week for our Bible Study Group - Yummy!

Did you know about this?

Posted by Flossie
06:24, Sunday, October 5, 2008 .. 2 comments .. Link

I read this at another blog and thought I would pass it along to you all!

For our military families stationed overseas, food costs are very high. Most families shop at the commissary but staples such as bread and milk cost significantly more than in the States. Many military families overseas are one income families and the high cost of groceries can really strain their budget.

There is something you can do to help. Overseas commissaries accept coupons 6 months past their expiration date, but coupons overseas are scarce. This is where you come in, you can send your expired coupons to these military families overseas. This is a great way to support our troops and only costs you the price of a stamp.

If you are interested in supporting our troops in this way please email -

at coupons4troops (at) comcast (dot) net and they can give you more information. If you are a military family stationed overseas and would like to receive coupons please them, They would love to send you some coupons.

Blessings

Flossie