Hi Barb, it's not unusual for the starter process to take longer than expected; often it takes more like 10 days to 2 weeks to develop a fully mature starter that is doubling predictably after a feeding. It sounds like your starter is heading in the right direction and the good news is that patience almost always wins out when it comes to sourdough starters. Even if you continue exactly as you're doing, eventually the starter organisms are going to figure things out. One approach you could take is to reduce the size of your starter so that you're not using up quite so much flour while you're waiting for it to rise. Our smaller starter recipe fits nicely in an 8-ounce wide mouth canning jar or jelly jar, and only requires 20g each of starter, water and flour for each feeding. When your starter begins to rise, it's easy to build your starter back to the quantity you need for baking. 

Another approach that seems to help encourage the yeast to kick in is to make the starter a bit more acidic. To that end you could consider modifying your feeding routine as follows:

1. Feed only once a day.

2. Feed with whole wheat flour rather than all-purpose. 

3. Feed with a ratio of 2:1:1 (starter:water:flour, by weight). For example, for our regular starter recipe your once a day 2:1:1 feeding would look like this: 1/2 cup (113g) starter + 1/4 cup (57g) water + 1/2 cup (57g) whole wheat flour. For the smaller starter recipe a 2:1:1 feeding would be: 30g starter + 15g water + 15g whole wheat flour. 

Once the starter begins rising predictably (twice) you'll want to begin feeding twice daily, and gradually, over the course of a few feedings, switch from whole wheat flour back to all-purpose. You can also resume the 1:1:1 feedings. Once the starter is doubling consistently after a feeding and has a pleasant aroma, then you can consider your starter mature and ready for baking bread. 

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