Mary and her husband John live in Idaho where they raise inordinate numbers of children and tomatoes on their 3 acre mini-farm. Two of their children are grown, but eight still live at home. Their youngest six children were adopted, from Korea and Ethiopia. Their ‘baby’ just turned five.

Mary’s days are filled with cooking, mothering, homeschooling, and arbitrating squabbles, but almost every evening she can be found tapping away at her computer. You can read more of Mary’s adventures at Owlhaven. Or contact her by emailing owlhaven at aol dot com.

Available now at Costco, Target, Borders, CBD.com,  Amazon.com and at Barnes and Noble, here’s what people are saying about the book.

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From Mary of Merlot Mudpies:
“I was all set last night to sit down and write my thorough praises of Mary Ostyn’s new book, Family Feasts for $75 a Week, when my husband blithely reviewed the book better than I could have in pages with one sentence.

As I sat cackling over the money I’ve saved since reading a pre-publication copy of this book a month ago I said to Ryan, “I can’t believe how much money we’ve saved this month!  I’ve cut our budget by 50% and I think I could easily go lower if we needed to.” To which he replied, “That’s insane, because we have been eating really well recently, too!”  High praise coming from a man whose own mother (an amazing cook) dubbed him The Food Diva….”

FULL REVIEW HERE

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From Michelle of Plugged in Parents:

“When my editor handed me this new cookbook to review, I immediately dove in. With a title like Family Feasts for $75 a Week, how could anyone resist? The book claims to be for “families everywhere [who] are struggling to buy nutritious food for their children without going broke.” I’m pretty sure that includes every one of our readers. It definitely includes me!

Author Mary Ostyn is a self-proclaimed “black-belt budget stretcher,” and she’s here to turn us into frugal shoppers. Within the first few pages, I found myself wondering, “Where has this book been my whole life?”

This is not just your average cookbook. Not only are there amazing recipes, (our family fave was the Pork Chops with Apricot Sauce) but it’s almost like a thrifty survival guide: a meal-planning workbook. Mary’s friendly writing style is encouraging and made me feel ready to tackle the supermarket.”

FULL REVIEW HERE

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As an avid reader of Mary’s blog, an adoptive parent and mother of six I was immediately drawn to Mary’s cookbook. I knew I’d find lots of tips to help me be more frugal in the meal planning department, but I was also pleasantly surprised as to how many “new to me” recipes I found.

Usually, when I get a new cookbook, I start by flipping through the pages, picking out which recipes appeal and make a plan to try a few. With this book, the number of recipes I wanted to try asap hit about 2 dozen after just a few minutes of browsing. I’ve made the Garlic Cheese Biscuits and the Hamburger Lo Mein (using frozen meatballs instead of ground beef) and both were met with rave reviews from my finicky testers.

This recipe book is a real keeper and I’m sure I will soon have the front cover filled with a huge list of the recipe names and page numbers of our favorites. Love it!

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More reviews here

Have you been wondering if you could afford another child?  Do you wish for more joy while parenting the ones you already have?  Learn to save money and find more space in your home, while also balancing the needs of children, your spouse, and yourself.

Available now at Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com

What people are saying about the book:

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I feel a bit saner already!, March 27, 2009

I read this book cover to cover as soon as I got it – standing up while making dinner, in between folding loads of laundry, and finally – finally! – after my kids all went to bed at night. I greatly enjoyed Ostyn’s funny, poignant, inspirational and incredibly useful musings on raising a large family. I didn’t expect I would get any new parenting ideas, but I went away with quite a number of them. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the parenting superhero “Owlhaven” is a real person – she has just figured out what is essential when it comes to parenting her large brood, and what she can be a bit more relaxed about (children’s rooms, laundry, for instance). This is a useful book for any mom looking for a bit more sanity in her busy world – no matter how many children she has.

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Just finished this book, by one of my favorite bloggers, Mary Ostyn, aka “Owlhaven.” This book, “A Sane Woman’s Guide to Raising a Large Family” is like a cross between a long conversation with her and an in depth extension of her blog.  Mary has long been one of the women/blogs I check in with, daily, if possible. Her family is a great example of a successful large household. Even better, they are a family built by birth as well as adoption and she too has a love for Ethiopia. So, no surprise, great connections for me there. But the bigger picture is that Mary is a real mom. One who has the normal ups and downs and successes and failings, one who I can relate to. She says she’s not a “supermom” in the usual tabloid sense of the term. And maybe she’s not. She’s better. She’s a real mom, who is in the trenches, trying her best and has been for a good while….and therein lies the charm.

This book is an easy breezy read. It is not fluff though, it is full of good ideas, many I hadn’t thought of before. Yes, she is extra good at putting in a huge garden (Which both inspires me to find my spade and also to a bit of jealousy) and then canning it all up. So, maybe a bit of that is just not gonna happen here in my house…. However, the low key practical, thoughtful ways of running her home and caring for, loving and living with her big family is very much an inspiration for me. I am thinking about good new solutions around here in our busy house as well.

The book is organized into easy to find chapters, you could skip around if you prefer that mode. But I read the book straight through in a day (ok, I’m a pretty darn fast reader). It is not only tips and tricks, it is also thoughtful reasoning behind her stances on issues and ways of doing things. Helpfully, she admits that she is not an uber organized gal by nature, which makes me like her all the more. I tend to drop books by uber organized gals by nature, since I am alien to them and will never be that. But she has found a middle ground and that is where the treasure lies in this book. It’s for real moms. And not only real moms of very large families (And I admit, I am sliding into that category, but still, I remember the smaller days), any size family can find some connection moments in this book.

It’s an easy happy read for the start of spring. Pick it up, be inspired, get a deeper glimpse into a popular blog mom’s real life: the how’s and why’s, the what worked, what didn’ts. It might inspire you to try something new….for me, I think I might need to learn a few new card games. And this might just be the year to really put in a garden, I’ve been dreaming about one….
She says she is no “Supermom”…but I suspect she’s got at least a cape in her closet somewhere!

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So practical!, March 24, 2009

This is such a practical book–it’s completely full of hands-on, real-life tips to help parents (of ANY size family) manage with grace and humor. Mary Ostyn is humble and honest in explaining the challenges and joys of living in a larger-than-average family. I’ve underlined something on nearly every page!