"unless You Want To Sell Them For Less?!!!"
Decorating By mommachris Updated 16 Apr 2008 , 10:04pm by vteventrider
MIchelle....It sure seems like I remember it ... whether it was hearing the moms talk about DOING it ... or if they were just "remembering when...."
And guys .... for the record, I LUV getting older! I wouldn't go back to being in my 20's for nothing!! 40 was fabulous and 50 will be freakin' phenominal!!!! Look out world ... here I come!!!
and yep ... I stop dying my hair blonde (and I started dying my hair blonde when I was 12 years old) because I LIKE the gray!! My family keeps begging me to get a dye job, though!
Oh Debbie, I think I'm making you older than you are. I'm sorry!
I know what it is. You are our "cake mom" and so I compare you to my real mom. *trying to pry foot out of mouth at the same time digging herself out of hole*
Thanks so much for the kind words. 
I don't have a business and I only make cakes when I want to or really like that person I am going to bless.
Winnie bought some cake truffles at a bake sale a couple of years ago and asked me to make her some. I try to follow the law which is why I did it only for cost.... as a favor.
It has come around to bite me in the butt so 'no more cake for you!"
As for the big family, it wasn't our original plan. We stopped at three. But God showed us that he had so much more planned for us that we opened up our hearts and let Him decide our family size.
Dh had a reversal and i have been pregnant 10 since then. God thinks big.
Just to answer the most commonly asked questions about large families:
We drive a 15 passenger van.
We spent about $1100 a month on groceries...I shop once a week.
The house is 2600 square feet. It was a pole barn that my husband converted into a home so the bedrooms are more like dorms...18x12 feet.
We camp when we go on vacation ( can you imagine taking 20 pairs of shoes somewhere...our luggage is action packers ( big tupperware)
No I have never left anyone behind...except Amy, but we had just left the parking lot so she never knew she was abandoned.
We did arrive at Walmart once and the five year old didn't have any shoes.
I'm no super woman. I have trained the older ones to be great helpers. The two teenage girls have even taken the 2 am feeding off my hands since I was bedridden for almost three months with this pregnancy. They are the sweetest girls. I am blessed to be their mom. I still need buckets of grace to parent just like any mom.
Homeschooling is still legal in California. I got a pm that mentioned the recent ruling in our courts.
This was longer than I intended. Guess I needed to share.
Thanks again for telling me I did the right thing with pricing.
And I have been enjoying those truffles...yummy little things aren't they?!
mommachris
I beg to differ... you are no SuperWoman... but you ARE a super woman! 
To bring that many children into the world and give them a decent upbringing is no easy task. Heck, some people can't even do it with one, so here's a boost from me to you! You go girl!
mommachris.... I just HAVE to see a picture of this pile of kiddies you have!!!!! It amazes me to see families this large and I love to watch that one show on TV where they all go to Sam's and spend like 1K on groceries.... and they camp just like you..... it isn't you is it??? I am proud (even though I don't know them) of your older girls stepping up to the plate, it shows 2 things, 1 you are an amazing mother who has raised them well, and 2. they will be amazing moms.... good on you! I know your daily prayers must be miles long when you thank God for your blessings... he truly has bestowed bountiful wisdom, strength, and patience upon you and has blessed your family with being so large.
I want 10 kids, but I feel nutso after this second one.... do you have any cures for that 
Hey Indydebi-
Nice to hear you are a Capricorn too!! I hope that saying about us is true, because my "second childhood" is looming up fast too!! 
Calling all other "older" CC'ers!!! Remember the price freeze during the Nixon administration? I was a kid but I remember all (and I mean ALL!)
Ok, now I am sure that I am older than "dirt"... 
I realized many years ago that the reason my grandma's recipes were not working was because that the "can" of evaporated milk she used was bigger than todays 
... and that everytime a box has "new and improved" stamped on it, it means less product=more money for the mfg.... a box of DH cake mix used to actually fill 2 - 8" rounds 
Wisdom is great thing.. I wish I had acquired it sooner 
.... the reason my grandma's recipes were not working was because that the "can" of evaporated milk she used was bigger than todays
Oh, that is funny!!!
But as a side topic, it's also a VERY good illustration of one of my pet peeves ... recipes that are written with directions of "one capful" or "one can" of something. Did they mean the 14oz can of green beans that serves 3? Or the #10 can of green beans that serves 24? Recipes need to be spelled out in detail.
We have a funny story that runs in my hubby's family. There was a guy who used to work for his dad who told hubby (when hubby was a kid) to go get him a gallon of water. Hubby gets a one-gallon bucket and brings him the water. The old guy starts yelling at hubby, "I didn't mean a LITTLE gallon of water! I need one of them BIG gallons of water!"
Oh Debi, that is hysterical!! I hate when I get the wrong size gallon!
On that same note, it's almost impossible to get a 'recipe' out of my mother. She just has no clue! I mean, I am an inventive cook and know how to just take 'stuff' and turn it into great food, but you have to have a general idea of what you've done, especially if you've made it four thousand times!! "You know, put some flour in it... til it feels right." Ok, would that be like a cup to a cup and a half, or more like 6 cups? Just give me a ROUGH idea please!! But she is totally clueless. She's lucky she could pass for a Marilyn Monroe look-alike or she'd never have made it this far! Just teasing!! But sometimes I think she got all the looks and none of the brain.
"I didn't mean a LITTLE gallon of water! I need one of them BIG gallons of water!"
Exactly~! All my grandma's recipes were that way. Now, DH's grandma's recipes are really hysterical...... They start out: Pick the corn before the dew settles, and .... But, I'm here to tell you, she made the very best sweet creamed corn ever~!! 
"You know, put some flour in it... til it feels right."
Gee, you say that like it's a BAD thing! 
My kids say the same thing. Oldest daughter says, "(My husband) is the only one who can makes mom's meatloaf." Son-in-law says, "I think it's because I'm the only one who can figure out how much "a sh*tload of ketchup" is!"
It's easy.....hold the bottle upside down over the hamburger in the bowl. GIve the bottle a big squirt. No, a BIG squirt!! Until you have a sh*tload of ketchup in there. Mix well. Now WHO can't follow a recipe like that!
*grin* I make (apparently) world-class deviled eggs. When we do our medieval re-enactment stuff, I make upwards of 100 of them for a one-day event, just for hospitality. I had someone once ask for the recipe, since she wanted to make them and I wasn't going to be at the event (and I couldn't make them because I'd just had surgery!). I completely blanked. I told her, "I dunno... you just mush up the yellows until they're all powdery, then squirt in a bunch of mustard and mayo, salt and pepper, and mix it. When you taste it, if it's too dry, you add more." "More of what?" "Whatever's missing... mustard or mayo. But not too much, or it'll be soupy."
She ended up bringing cookies... 
So yeah... guilty as charged...
"I think it's because I'm the only one who can figure out how much "a sh*tload of ketchup" is!"
hummm.... looking up "sh*tload" in Webster's.... there it is; "somewhere between that's not enough, and that's too much"
Oh my God Doni, I think you're using my recipe for deviled eggs!!! That's one of those dishes where I do a squirt of this, a pinch of that... hmmmmm... it needs more... yah, some of that! Etc. Too funny! But most things I cook, I have a basic, general idea of how to translate it into 'actual recipe'.
recipe...we don't need no stinking recipe.....
Add me to the list of 'how it looks or feels' cooks.
My dd (17) asked me how much salsa to add to a Mexican casserole I have been making for like 20 years. Had to tell her to add it to the mayo until it made the color of thousand island dressing- orangy-
It all depends you know on how much meat you started with, you can't using measuring cups.
Hey, when i got married all I knew how to make was Ragu spaghetti, Shake-n-bake chicken and fried pork chops. Poor husband.
At least she is trying to learn how to cook. Kudos to her.
mommachris
Y'all are killing me. A little of this and some of that and if you like something else then just swap them is how I was taught to cook by my Grandmothers. They taught me really young cause my mom can't cook and they knew I would need to cook dinner for the family. Now my MIL comes over and she gets all pissy cause she can't cook so she won't eat whatever I cook cause she hates that I can cook and don't follow recipes. Oh well...it is nice to know that other people use measurements like "until it looks right" and "a s-load of something" as these are very scientific measurements in my mind
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