Teaching Good Things, Practical Skills for Real Life

Equipping Families with Practical Skills for Real Life!

Category Archives: Resourcefulness

1 Way Grown Stay-at-Home Daughters Make Money

Olivia has decided to make coupon/deal shopping for our family her part time job. :) The thing about a job is that you have to be committed, you have to do it even if you don’t ‘feel’ like it. I have shopped the deals from time to time, and there really is no excuse for why I don’t do it now, other than TIME. But if I were on Facebook less and surf the deals more I could make it work (there is today’s confession).

Anyway, Olivia is committed to adding to our family’s economy by shopping the deals. She spent about 4 hours making list, clipping and printing coupons, devising her shopping trip. You can’t save or make money without a good plan!

For us it is about a 45 minute drive to the good stores (which is another reason why I quit the deals). So Olivia and Emma decided to make a day of it. The two of them set out for a day of adventure, deal shopping and memory making!

You can read more about their adventure and memory making at Olivia’s blog.

She bought $191.00 worth of stuff for $41.00!!!

They make money by saving us money! This is the real stuff of life, this is what they will use when they marry!

People are always asking our daughters (21 and 18) what they do now that they are “graduated”.  I want to say, “How much time do you have?”  They do things just like this. Things like this free me up to spend more time with the younger children and not be so frazzled when my husband comes in from his work. Working together as a family is not easy, but it sure is good when everyone is on the same page. :)

I’ve written about how Family Life Makes Good Cents and this is one way to prove that!

Building a Family Economy- More Than Making Maple Syrup DVD Giveaway!

I just viewed the Moore Family’s latest DVD, More than Making Maple Syrup and I love it!  Whether you really do want to learn how to make maple syrup yourself to save money or make it to sell to help build your family economy; or if you just want to see how it is done as part of your homeschool curriculum this is the video for you.

What I love most about this video is that it is made by a down-to-earth family that really does work together. What a blessing it is to see that.

Again the more skills you have, the more marketable/profitable you and your family can be.

Every Christmas my mom and grandma gives us a jug of maple syrup that comes from the tapping of the trees on my grandmother’s farm. It’s like liquid gold. :)

This is a great film that shows everything from the tapping, to the cooking down, to the canning of the sap/syrup.

Save $3.00 if you buy this before Feb. 29, 2012.


More Than Making Maple Syrup
 

The Moore family is offering a giveaway for our readers.

The giveaway winner will be announced February 24, 2012.

To enter, all you have to do is leave me a comment telling me you’d like to be entered.

For additional entries (leave a separate comment for each):
  1. Post about this giveaway on Facebook.
  2. Post about this giveaway on Twitter.
  3. Post this giveaway on Google+.
  4. Write a post, linking to this giveaway, on your own Blog. (This is worth 3 entries. Please leave 3 separate comments.)
  5. Become a Public Follower through Google Friend Connect.
  6.  ”Like” Teaching Good Things on Facebook .

 

 

Linking to The Christian Home.

5 Survival Skills Your Kids Should Know Before They Turn 12!

When our son was about 12, a fellow homeschool dad did a Survival Camp. They met once a week for 6 weeks and learned some very basic survival skills. They learned how to build a basic shelter in the woods, how to skin a fish, how to coat matches to keep them dry, how to start a fire without matches, how to cook over an open fire, how to purify water and more. It was a great time for them!

As you prepare your kids for real life do they have basic survival skills in case they were lost or stranded? If you can’t teach the skills, find someone that can. Perhaps several families could go in together and do a Survival Camp?

What would your list of most needful skills be? Make it a priority to learn them, you never know when you may need them.

Here is some good food for thought.

Sheds and Other Buildings from Pallets

Last week I shared about a really cool bench.

Did you know that:

  • Approximately 40% of all hardwood harvested in the U.S. is for making shipping pallets
  • About two-thirds of pallets are used only once before being thrown out
  • 1/4 of all wood in landfills is from used pallets

 

You’ve got to look at this guy’s website and all of the different pallet sheds that people have sent him pictures of! Some are simple and some are simply amazing!  There is everything from a woodshed, a hen house, to a children’s fort, to a get-a-way cabin, to an outhouse!  Scroll all the way down! :)

 

 

 
I love pallet projects!

How to Dismantle a Wooden Pallet – Free Videos

I LOVE the whole using wooden pallets to make things for almost free! Not only that, but it is a great way to keep your high energy boys busy! Learning how to use a hammer and drive, in this case remove nails is something every guy needs to know.

OR you could do it this way, but I think you would not be able to salvage as much wood.

If you don’t reclaim the pallets this happens to them:

I love pallet projects!

A God-centered health care plan- Samaritans Ministries

 Being self-employed makes buying insurance VERY expensive. A couple of years ago we decided to use Samaritan Ministries for our health care needs. Jeff is not on our family plan because he uses tobacco (cigars), so we carry a separate insurance policy for him, but our girls and myself are on a family plan. The cost for Samaritans is much less than if we had to carry a normal health insurance policy. We pay $320 a month, even if Jeff were on it the cost would be the same.

Samaritans is not insurance, but rather a Biblical alternative to health insurance.

Every month when I write out my check for $320, I write it to an individual. Samaritans sends me a letter with a name and address of who I am suppose to send the ‘share’ to. They also tell what the medical issue was so we know how to pray for that person’s healing.

I LOVE the satisfaction of knowing that the money is going straight to a person and directly to their medical cost, rather than an insurance company with a LOT of strings attached and people in offices to pay!

I love that this is actually sharing the cost of medical bills of other Believers.

My mother who also lives with us, uses Samaritans now that she is retired, rather than buying an insurance policy. I know several other people that use Samaritans.

Even if we were wealthy I would still want to be a part of Samaritans because I believe that paying for medical care should not be big business, and insurance companies should not be influencing the cost of medical care as much as they do.

 If you would like to know more about how Samaritans works, go here.

Link Disclaimer

 

Want to Make Money? This is how…

If you want to make money you need to be skilled.

 

The more skills you have,

the more opportunities you will have to make money!

 

You need to know more than one thing.

 

You need multiple streams of income.

 

Not to mention, the more you can do for yourself,

the more money you can save by not paying others!

 

You should NEVER stop learning!!!!!

 

This month our DVDs are 25% off.

Use the code: AUG11 when checking out,

and we’ll ship your order with in 24 hours!

Encourage Enterprise

Encourage enterprise, don’t give the children everything they want!

Let them find ways to make some money so they will appreciate

the value of a dollar,

the value of labor, and

the value of good character.

Children, just as adults, will not do things until they have to.

:)

Making Christmas Ornaments with Buttons

When my kids were younger we’d usually take the month of December off from most of our book work. Between parties and holiday commitments it was just easier to set the books aside and still be learning in a more creative way.

Whether it is simple crafts, holiday baking, special meals or gift giving there is plenty to keep us busy.

On the site this week we’ll focus on making Christmas ornaments. Please feel free to comment and leave your suggestions or links.

Today everything is button related!

Button Wreath

Button Wreath Ornament

Button People and Animals

Gotta love Martha’s site!

CUTE!

Making the Most of the Flowers and Herbs

The ordinary arts we practice every day at home

are of more importance to the soul than their simplicity might suggest.
~ Thomas Moore

Last Friday Olivia gave me some beautiful yellow roses for my birthday.

Sunday I trimmed them down and added some fresh basil and rosemary from the herb garden;

then I placed them in 12 mason jars with a little raffia (my favorite trim for everything!).

I took them to church for the tables so that everyone could enjoy my roses. :o )

At our church we eat lunch together at least once a month.

The fellowship is always sweet!

…

After  church I came home to rearrange them…

using a glass candy dish as a vase.

I snipped the roses and herbs shorter, removing the leaves from the roses.

Leaving the leaves to sit in the water will cause them to decay faster.

Add the fresh herbs and be sure the steams are long enough to be in the water.

These should last me all week and the herbs make the house smell so good!

Look around your house, what could you use for a vase?

Be sure to plant some herbs in the spring, they will give you foliage all year long.

Herbs are not just  for seasoning food,

but also for decorating your home and making it smell good!

Why do we love certain houses,

and why do they seem to love us?

It is the warmth of our individual hearts reflected in our surroundings.


~ T. H. Robsjohn-Gibbings

Questions about Cast Iron – Camping Pictures

Dana (one of my favorite readers/Facebook Friends), commented on last week’s post about cast iron pans:

A local store carries the cast iron cookware–all of it–but I have no idea how
you’d use a dutch oven with FEET unless you did use it outdoors….and then I’d have
no idea how to do that! On one hand, how do you keep from burning things, and on the
other hand, how do you get it hot enough to actually cook anything? You’re going to
have to share details about this, ok?  :-)

Blessings–
Dana

My cast iron dutch oven has feet, which is helpful if you are outside. I can also use mine in my oven inside because the feet slide through on the oven rack. Using a tripod to hang your pot helps to regulate the heat over an open fire, or you could just move the pot further away from the fire if you don’t have a tripod.

Last weekend we went camping, I only brought one pot and it was the dutch oven. My goal was to cook everything in this one pot over an open fire. For the most part it worked out good. Just like anything else you have to use it a while to get the hang of it.

I forgot to bring our tripod so we had to be a bit creative. We had friends come visit one day and the dad and Jeff used two wood chunks and a steel pole (clothes rack) from his van to make a way to hang the pot to cook the roast and potatoes more slowly, of course, I did not get a picture of THAT! It was the best meal of the weekend!!!

 This really does work like an oven, you can even bake bread in it. It heats evenly and gets VERY hot!

This was chicken that was in the freezer that Olivia made, so all we had to do was warm it up.

One afternoon we had friends come to visit (a family of 10) so I had to think of a way to make the food stretch. I cooked a roast and potatoes; when that was finished I used the drippings from that, a jar of vegetable soup (I brought as back up) and leftovers from the pasta salad from the day before. I threw it all in the pot and warmed it up. It was YUMMY! Mr. Crawford called this Ho-Bo Stew. :o ) It went perfect with the roast!

One night the girls and I tried popcorn.

Actually we tried it twice… it was a failure. We’ll need to play around with that one some more.

One morning Olivia made sausage…

then the gravy (all from scratch)…

then she combined them…

this with the BEST buttermilk biscuits she made at home before we left….YUM!

I made whole wheat pancakes…

 

They were good, but not near as good as the gravy and biscuits!

 

Even if you do not camp or care to cook over an open fire, it is a good thing to have at least one cast iron pot and learn how to use it. If there were ever a natural disaster (or man-provoked disaster) it is wise to know how to cook for your family in rough conditions.

 

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