Night of Goal Planning

Well, we had a lovely night out last night. Some friends had given us a gift card to Applebees, my mom gave us a coupon also, and some friends watched all of our children for us. Was superb having a free dinner with no children! We went through numbers, figuring and refiguring what income and outflow was possibly going to be. It's hard when you don't have a regular week to week check. When it can fluctuate, you have to just roll with it and adjust accordingly.

Oh, remember earlier I mentioned about life incidences? We had one of those before we left the house. We have been needing some back tires for some time and have put it off. Well, Jonathon finally got some and they needed mounted, but we didn't have time to do that yesterday. Well, upon getting ready to head out, he just happened (the Lord directing his head I'm almost sure of it) to look down at the worst tire, and he noticed that it was bulging. Everybody unloaded and he headed to Sturgis to get them replaced, praying all the way that it wouldn't blow. When he got there, he stepped out of the van and immediately heard hissing from the tire as air was pouring out. Thank you Father for your protection and getting him there before it blew! So, money that wasn't figured into our budget at this time, but certainly necessary.

Okay, onto the goals. We wrote a lot out which would be too time consuming and I do have to go through them and reorganize what I have written down. We are thinking that it might not be possible to completely have the house paid off, but pretty close. We figured that if by the end of this year, we could have $10,000.00 left to pay off, we would be pretty happy. BUT the ultimate goal is to reach towards having it ALL paid off, so that is what we are heading for.

I want to suggest some ideas to save. Check out some of my links to the right for blogs that will help you save money on groceries or everyday necessities. Hip2save and Moneysavingmom are my two favorites, but there are lots out there that want to help households save weekly, so take advantage of those blogs and the knowledge that those women share with their readers.

We are now in lock down mode, trying to save as much and spend as little as possible. It's a challenge and actually something that I enjoy doing. Not all women could handle it, but I am not one who needs much to be happy and really, I find great pleasure in making things work without having to buy something.

I also wanted to give you all a heads up to a giveaway I am planning to do in a month or two. Not sure of what it will be just yet, but I the plan is if we have stuck to our goals this month, then I will give something fun away. So, stay tuned to what it might be......

Our House Is A Very, Very, Very Fine House

We have a great little house. I love how quick and easy it is to clean, how close my children are to me at all times, so I know what they are doing, and how it has kept us from being in the "American Dream" mentality that has gotten so many people into a whopping of debt. For all these things, I am thankful! It is a 2 bedroom home of approx. 840 sq.ft., filled with love....and with children. We manage with my husband and I and our 4 children, but it is getting quite tight as our fourth addition back in May brought more clothes, a crib, and a different level of toys. So, if I hear you complain that you don't have enough room in your house, don't be alarmed if I don't show you pity. = )


This is why we WANT to get out of debt, save to add on, and build more space. Notice I didn't say NEED. Do we really NEED more space? Absolutely not. We are wonderfully taken care of with all of our needs being met right here where we are at. Would it be nice? Definitely! So, this is why we are striving for such a huge goal. We realize things won't go perfectly. We live in a fallen world where there is sickness, unexpected vehicle repairs, natural disasters, and other unplanned events. But we are focused as much as we can be. So, here we go. Tonight we go out to dinner to sit down and write out our goals for this whole journey. Stay tuned for what we got accomplished.

Just had to post some pictures of Benaiah. Today I walked into the house after carrying wood and found him sitting on the floor clapping his hands with such delight. He used to fist clap, but today was the first that those hands were opened up in a real clap. He even made sounds from his clap.

Alegra was loving it and praising him to get him to keep doing it.

Maybe she has him trained. = )

He is our sweet little baby. He is working on his top front teeth. Having a hard time of it, but getting closer. He brings us great delight watching all of his new development. Still waiting for him to crawl, but if he would wait til woodstove season is over that would be great. Doubt that will happen, but we'll see. Until then, we will be very thankful that he still just sits. Much easier that way!

Alegra turned 8? What?

Oh wow, I can't believe that my little girl turned has 8! Look at that great smile! We love Alegra so much and are thankful for her life in our family. We played games and had pink cupcakes after breakfast to celebrate. At dinner we reminisced what the day was like when she was born. It was a beautiful winter day, only when you looked out the hospital window, people were driving around with their convertible tops down and walking around in short sleeved shirts. It was gorgeous out, and we welcomed her into the world with a smile and warm sunshine.

It was a few years later that I learned something. I had an amish client who was talking about her son who had died while riding his bicycle on a warm, sunny, late January day. What? Yes, the same day my first child was being born, another mother's son was being taken home with Jesus. Within an hours time even. It really gives me a better appreciation of the life He gave us in Alegra. Thank you Father for her and help us to remember that she is ultimately Yours and not ours. Help us to train her to serve You and shine with Your joy.

Birds Are A Blessing.

I know I haven't covered much on our big goal, but this weekend, Jonathon and I will be going out (without children), and we will sit down then and write out what our goals are and THEN I will get on the ball with this. Stay tuned, but until then, we wanted to share our birds with you.

Once a week we do a story time with another family from church, and we take turns hosting it and planning it. One week, we decided to do it on birds, and for the craft we made suet blocks (this is a great winter project. Directions for making at the end of the post). We hung one of ours in the tree just outside our big front window and Jonathon screwed a piece of wood outside the window where we sat the other two. So far, no birds right up at the window. I wonder why with three chilren who as soon as they see a bird, yell, "BIRD". = )

Alegra has enjoyed taking pictures of them, so I wanted to display some of her work.

This one is of a female Cardinal sitting right outside the window by one of the suet blocks.

Here she captured both a male Cardinal and a Downey Woodpecker.

This morning, I was up early to feed Benaiah. Here I sat in my chair, thinking about what the day would hold and some visitors arrived. Mr. and Mrs. Card came by. Mrs. Card was very brave this morning (maybe it was because the children were still in bed or she was sleep flying). But joining them was Mr. Downey. Though I remember that he and Mr. Hairy Woodpecker look very similar, so I am needing somebody to remind me of the difference between the two. I didn't want to embarrass him in front of Mr. and Mrs. Card. I sat and nursed Benaiah while they enjoyed a bite to eat also. What a pleasant visit we had! What a blessing!

These little guys look like sparrows to me, but I do believe they are a fancier kind of sparrow if there is such a thing. If anybody knows what kind this is, please leave a comment. The head had more distinct markings than a sparrow, which makes me think it is one of those, something or other crowned sparrows or something like that. Any help? I really need a good bird book!

And these guys weren't at all afraid of the children. They would let them get right in the window to watch them. How fun!

That wasnt' all we saw. We watched Tufted Titmouse, Juncos (snow birds), Red Bellied Woodpecker, Blue Jay, 2 male Blue Birds, and 1 female Blue Bird. What a pleasure it is to watch this simple creation of HIM. We certainly enjoy the simple things in life and this happens to be one of them. What a lovely thing to watch while I nursed my infant, praising HIM for all His blessings in my life, both big and small blessings!

Homemade Suet Blocks

-Start by melting down some beef suet. I didn't measure I just estimated. And be sure you stir while it is melting, so that it won't burn.

-Other than suet, you will need bird seeds, berries from bushes or trees, peanut butter, and containers such as coolwhip or sour cream containers.

-After the suet is melted (DO NOT add the peanut butter to the suet while you are melting it or it will burn. And then your house will smell nasty for days to come. Lesson learned and sharing with you) add peanut butter.

-Let it cool a little and then pour into your containers.

-Have children scoop out bird seed and berries and dump into container, then stir thoroughly.

-We also put a tied piece of yarn at the top of the inside of the container for hanging it up. Seemed to work good on two of ours. We just pushed the yarn into the mixture so it would solidify within it.

-Let it sit until it is solid, then carefully try to tap out of container.

-Then hang in a tree or put on a ledge and enjoy the birds during the winter months.

Goals for our financial well being this year

The Bovees are seeing things brighter this year. So many things have been changing including our children, us, and our work situations. I am continueing to do massages one day a week, and Jonathon just added to our Bovee Family Services business, satellite installation (or something like that). It is getting very busy, and we are seeing so many blessings and open doors just about everyday. It's exciting for us as we sat back and waited on the Lord for so long to help us out in this area. We are now seeing His blessings!



Our heart's desire is to be debt free. That doesn't mean everything except our mortgage. When some people say they are debt free, they mean credit cards and other debts are paid off, but not the mortgage. We have no debt except our mortgage and are looking to get that paid off this year. Yep, you heard me right. Our financial goal for this year is to get our mortgage paid off. So, that means the Bovees are in lock down mode. No going out to eat (unless we have a gift card or equivalent of), no extra entertainment expenses unless extremely cheap, keep grocery costs low, and do the best we can at keeping ALL expenses low. This shouldn't be too hard for us as we have been already living this way for the past year or so. We just have to make the committment to continue in this lifestyle to help us reach the.......


Once our house is paid off, our goal is to begin saving money to add on to our little house. So, that will mean more lock down. In order to put money in the bank we will be careful of every expense and give up plenty to reach this ultimate goal that we have had for so long. But as long as we live frugally, our money will go here..... And then once we reach that goal, well, we don't know what the next one will be. We'll see when we get there. So, this blog is going to become more of sharing with you our journey at getting our goals accomplished. I would like to share with you some great free or inexpensive deals that might be of interest to my readers. The things that we do for entertainment that helps us not spend money and also still live life happily, will be posted with pictures. And I will keep you updated on how we are doing with getting the mortgage paid off. At the end of every month, I will post where we are at and how much farther we have to go.





I am hoping that this will help us stay on track, will encourage others to do the same thing, will get our readers to give us suggestions on what they do to save money, ask questions on how they can save in certain areas, and support one another in getting out of the bondage of banks. Let's all do it together! Please join us in this journey!





In a week or so, you may notice that the blog looks a little different. I will be changing things up a bit to give it a fresh new look, and since I will be here more often, make it more enjoyable for me to come visit as well. :) Soon to come, pictures of our little house, so you know why we NEED to add on, pictures of our family for those of you following that don't really know us, and the fun will begin soon of great deals and ideas of what we do to save our family money.

Looking forward to the journey with you all!

Benaiah's First Cereal Feeding

It's taken me awhile to get around to feeding Benaiah cereal. I usually start my babies later than most people do, so I know that their body is really ready to digest it easily. But it seems that he is ready now and maybe if he gets a fuller tummy before bed, he will sleep better at night. I'm praying for that one.

He liked the first couple of bites quite well.

Wanted the dish more than the spoon.

Lip licking good!

Distraction by the camera.

By the end he was done with it. But he never choked like they usually do when you start them off, and he seemed to take actual bites, which I was surprised by. Still plenty of mess, but we'll get that nipped as he eats more and more. Jonathon doesn't tolerate messy eaters very well, so we have to be on top of it from the start.

So far, so good. We'll see how he does tonight. And soon he'll be eating burgers.

A sled is fun inside and out!

Grandma Linda bought the children a new sled for her contribution to what she was going to share for their party, but since she didn't get to make it to the party, they didn't get to enjoy it til after. But, boy did they enjoy it! I got the brilliant idea of turning it upside down to use as a slide and hoped that noone would get hurt.

They had so much fun! They even tried to do tricks-going down on their knees, going down on their sides, going down on their feet. They didn't do so well in other ways other than their bottom but that was alright, as they were glad they could do that. Who knew a sled could be this fun in the house!

Grandparent's Annual Party- Transportation Celebration

Every year since we have homeschooled we do a theme unit study the first half of the school year and then we have a party with the grandparents where the children can show them all their projects that relate to the theme, and they do a little program.

Our only guests were Grandpa Dan and Grandma Deborah because of bad roads. I didn't get much accomplished for this party as things have been pretty crazy around here the last month, but it was nice and small. We did decide to do another one in the spring so everyone can make it.

For lunch we had "Submarine" sandwiches, veggies sticks, cottage cheese and smoothies. We also had homemade "Car"amel Corn and Nut Clusters. I always try to have food that is theme related too, but this year was a little difficult coming up with something, but it worked and was delicious nonetheless.

Then onto the program. Alegra read a tractor book that even made sounds (Benaiah really liked this book).

Then they all three memorized a long poem and recited it. We recorded it after a couple tries.

Then Grandpa Dan shared. We alwasy ask the grandparents to bring something related to the theme that they can share with the children. He shared about dog sleds. Was very good and kept everyone's attention.

Grandma shared about snow shoes, camels, and other things. Was interesting looking at the pictures she brought along for them to see.

And of course we had to get the picture of the children with their guests. Now with Benaiah makes it more complete.

Now we are going to start studying farms. And hopefully by spring, the children will learn how important it is to work and how we can benefit from working outside, especially in the garden. The goal is to have great little helpers in the garden this year, so we will see if our farm unit will help with that.

Bovees and Brothers - Day 3

Well, today was packed with fun! We got up early and went to our weekly storytime at the Park's lovely home. This morning our theme was picnincs! Our picnic took place inside thank goodness! :) We heard a story that was about Prospect Park in New York where the Park family used to visit when they lived in Brooklyn, and a story about some run away babies. There were others two but those two were the best ones.

After story time we did a paper basket weaving craft. This was a little challenging for the little ones but everybody did great once they got the hang of it.

Craft is done and we are ready to march like the ants!

Liz played a guitar and the children took turns being the leader and marched around singing, "The ants go marching one by one, horrah, hoorah. The ants go......". I think Zeky was thinking "baby song" but he participated and didn't complain one time. His face shows his true feelings here. Ha!

Elli is the leader and still marching!

Then snack time! We all enjoyed some snacks on the picnic tablecloth in front of the fire.

Everybody smile! And Zeky of course putting food in his mouth just for the picture!

Then after Jonathon got home from some appointments, we headed to Shipshewana to see the ice sculptures. They were all real troopers as we walked around the whole downtown to spy which ones we could find. Amazing work of ice for sure! Anybody in the Shipshewana area should swing by for a visit.

At Blue Gate their is a huge horse. The children all thought it was funny because there were icecycles hanging from it's nose like frozen snott (wow, I don't know that I have ever spelled that word. Is that right?).

So amazing!

And you know I couldn't post something without pictures of Benaiah. Here is our little snow baby all bundled up enjoying the ice sculptures too.

We had told the children that we had something special planned for on the way to taking them home. Well, they all thought that the surprise was getting to see the ice sculptures. We didn't say otherwise until we pulled into the parking lot at the ice skating rink in Elkhart. Alegra has been begging for the last 2 years to go since she was given some ice skates awhile back. We never fit it into our funds and with our little guests and Alegra's birthday coming up, we decided to go for it. Happy Birthday early, Alegra!

You should have heard the excitement when they realized they were actually getting to go. This picture is of all of us entering the ice for the first time. Jonathon stayed with Benaiah and Josiah and I put some skates on skated with the children. I had done it as a child on small pond down the road from our house, but haven't since then.

This is how the girls looked most of the skating time. Hugging the rail with all of their might. I believe it was Diella who said later on that ice skating is harder than she thought it would be.

Zeky took to the ice quite quickly and was definitely braver than the girls. But the beow pictures are classic of him. Enjoy!

Yes, he still had his share of falling, but he got right back up and tried again. Zeky and I were the only ones who actually skated the full loop. Laura, the gal taking them the rest of the way home, came and sat with the girls while he and I braved away from the rail and skated away from the safety zone. My legs and feet were quite happy when we got back to the beginning and got to rest again.

They all really did have a good time despite being really cold. They even got to watch the zamboni come out and smooth out the ice. We took that time to get Zeky a bigger pair of skates and wipe runny, cold noses.

The four skaters showing off their slippery footwear.

Elli, Alegra, Diella, and Zeky

And finally everybody said they were done and we all went in and took those wretched things off our feet. I don't remember skates hurting so bad. Ha! I guess I wasn't this old either. :) Here is Laura helping out and making sure we all had all of our parts and pieces. Thanks Laura for your help!

By today the children were bickering a little more, but with fun things planned in the evening to keep them all busy, it helped a lot. I learned some lessons while having two more children in the house.

-Feels better to keep up with the dishes all day long than let them pile.

*Is better to make them keep up with the dishes.

-Is more difficult getting school accomplished.

*Helps to have them compete against each other to get school accomplished.

-Telling them what fun we are going to have helps motivate them to get ready.

*Seeing the sheer excitement on their faces from a surprise is much more fun.

-Having a quiet reading time is necessary to a peaceful day.

*Letting them choose between certain books is necessary for peaceful reading time.

-Establishing bedtime rules from the first night is imperative to going to sleep.

*Simply telling them they cannot do anything but breath and sleep works too.

-When all of the house is a disaster zone and the mom needs tranquility, computer games help.

*For calmness amongst ALL children at the same time, movies are better.

-And just when the meal is over, it helps to make sure all bellies are full.

*Even if you do and bellies are full, expect to have starving, wasting away children in 10 minutes or less.

Thanks for sharing your children with us for a few days. We all had a great time and hope we get to do it again soon! It was a good taste of what the families who took such good care of our children did for us while I was in the hospital. It's a blessing to have those relationships with others where we can take care of one another in whatever the circumstance. I'm glad yours was for a vacation in Florida and not a vacation in the hospital.

Hope you guys made it home safely!

Bovees and Brothers - Day 2

Well, half the day passed before I realized that I hadn't taken any pictures. We did more flashcards of which Alegra slaughtered Zeky (he wasn't very happy about that) and all the children were jumping crazy with the shape/jump cards. They did 25 minutes of reading while the littler ones played computer and you can imagine as soon as the timer went off they were in at the computer in a heart beat. :) Then we voyaged out in the snow for one of Zeky's other special requests....The Bent and Dent to get.....(see below).

....candy bars! And why was I thinking we would run in, get what we wanted and run back out again? Right! There were 4 BIG bins of candy bars. One would have been bad enough, but 4?!

Then onto some painting. They were all really patient with me as I wanted to get supper cooking first, so they sat with paints out and most everything ready except for minor details waiting for me to get food stuff cooking. They had a lot of fun with this project! I had extra paint brushes and paint colors which made it even more fun since I couldn't get those little paint thingys open that came with the kit.

Here is Elli doing her horse. And a mighty fine horse at that!

And Zeky in great concentration making sure that every part of his tractor was just the right color. He planned it all out I think before he started.

The Diva! While the ceramics dried the children had fun with the sunglasses. Elli came out of the bedroom like this and we all cracked up. What a sweetie!

And while the big children painted and played, this little guy was too tuckered out from the Bent and Dent trip and slept through it all. :)

The final projects along with proud painters!

We found the book with the insects starring Hermie the caterpillar at our library before the children came to stay with us. The first night before bed we read one of the stories and are trying to get through the book since we generally read Scriptures before bed. So, I took my turn reading one of the stories for some quiet time. Everybody loved it! Zeky really looks like he was loving it! Ha!

After our soup and cornbread, we had some anxius children for dessert, so I told them they had to help clean things up from supper. I gave Zeky the job of washing dishes which he was not fond of and certainly didn't want his picture taken doing this job. Can you tell? Hehe!

He realized I was going to get his picture whether he wanted it or not an gave up the fight. He was much happier when I demoted him to drying.

After clean up the girls got busy making pictures for the vacationing parents/friends.

And then on to dessert! We crushed up our candy bars from the store and put on our chocolate ice cream. Mmmmm, was it every good! Looks good, doesn't it?

Jonathon sat in the living room with Benaiah during the ice cream happenings and Benaiah was thinking that he should be having some. I finally got some rice cereal. I think I better start with him before we just skip the cereal and go to fish.

And finally bedtime (and a bald spot- wow)! That's my favorite part! Just kidding...kind of.

Two days down and one to go. We have some fun stuff planned for tomorrow. Since you are coming home tomorrow, you probably won't see our post for you until you are already home, but it should have some good pictures of our day that the children are looking forward to. Some they know about and some they do not. We'll see how it all goes. In the morning we head to the Park's for story time. Zeky is really excited about that! I made them all wear the clothes that they are going to wear tomorrow to bed, so I donn't have the stress of doing all that in the morning. Zeky wasn't too sure about that idea, but since he is so excited to go, he didn't want to be late and thought that if it would help then he would do it. He's so funny! I assured him it was fine just this once.

I am realizing that everything with this many children takes a lot longer. Some how I forget about Benaiah, and he doesn't usually get changed into normal life until lunch time. We've done some school stuff but nothing formal. It would be a challenge for sure to do actual school with all of them, but I suppose over time a routine would get set and it would all be fine. But for three days there has been no routine. Just hopes of getting certain things accomplished. I did get a shower today, so I was super excited about that. And I must say that Elli is worse than Diella when it comes to being hungry ALL the time. But she sure is cute about it.

Okay, JB is snoring while Benaiah is kicking his feet and flapping his arms in Jonathon's arms on the bed, and I should get him changed and ready for bed. Been enjoying the pictures you guys have posted. Hope there's more! We'll see you soon!

(posted for the Brothers, who are vacationing while we have their children for a few days, but is for all to enjoy as I cope with a small house filled with 6 children and 2 aults)