The Winnowing Season Book Review

Again, Cindy Woodsmall delivers with a fabulous read!  I couldn't put this Amish fiction novel down.  In fact, "The Winnowing Season" which is the second book in the Amish Vines and Orchards series, is so good, that I am going out to get books one and three to get the rest of the story!

Rhoda Byler has special gifts that find her often in "trouble" with the Amish community.  She is working for the King Family Orchards, when a tragic tornado ruins the orchards, to the point of the family investing in new endeavors in a new state, Maine.

Jacob King is haunted by his past, but is madly in love with Rhoda.  His past seems to be a problem that takes him away from Rhoda when she really needs him.  His brother Samuel is the steady leader of the King Orchards, but often butts heads with Rhoda.  In their new settlement in Maine, Samuel realizes that he is madly in love Rhoda, too, but won't betray his brother.

Will the King brothers and Rhoda be able to stay faithful to God's leading, or will this new settlement bring them to ruins?  Can the brothers keep the family business together and stand behind Rhoda, whom they both love?

I highly recommend this book to anyone that loves a good, clean Christian Novel.  In fact, I recommend the whole series to you.  I did receive this book in exchange for my review of this book, but all opinions are mine.  (Oh, and I get no compensation for recommending the whole series - that's just my own opinion!)

You can go HERE to rate my review.

Completed Baby Albums

I was a first born child, so my Mom spent many hours making a baby book for me.  Now, back then, they didn't take quite so many pictures, but my Mom had everything there, all the prices she paid for a layette (down to the price it cost to buy a nursing bra!), what games were played at my shower, my first Valentine's Day cards and even my first haircut!  My second brother had a few things in his baby book, and finally, there was the baby, which I'm not even sure there were any pictures of! 

Although I wasn't the victim  like my younger siblings (Ok - I just thought my parents loved me more! lol) and not getting much for baby books, I remember thinking that I would never do that to my children: deprive them of childhood memories. So with each additional child, I have set out to get their first year of life into an album.   

Now if I lost you, because you feel the pain of not having a baby album completed for your children, let me begin again!  I don't have anymore time than the next person, but I have made a commitment to get that one thing done, equally for all of my children!  My first four children each got their albums done right around 1 to 1 1/2 years of age.  I put together all the photos, stories and keepsakes in one album ending with their First Birthday.

For my fifth child, sad to say, I haven't been quite as faithful as in the past.  I am still trying to get her album completed and she is about to turn 3!  Shame on me, right?  Well, never fear, if I can keep chugging away at getting this album done, so can you!  In fact, this month, not only am I getting the baby album done for the two-year-old, but I also completed a Prom album for my 16-year-old!   What's my secret?  Plain and simple: priorities!  I set the time aside and I do it!  No excuses!

I thought I'd share with you one of the pages I recently completed.  This is one of my fancier ones, most are more simple!  To me, it's more important to just get my story into the baby album.  I love the pennant look (by cutting squares in half) along with making ribbons.  To make the ribbon edge, I used a Square Shape Maker turned at an angle.  You could also just cut them using a scissors.

I used the Border Maker System  to make the borders across the top.  I will make a list below of all the tools and supplies I used to make this layout.  Any purchase made through my website HERE help to pay for the extras in my household (and my baby albums), so I appreciate your business!

Here's what I used:

• Border Maker System
• Shape Maker System - On Sale this Month!
• Stack Pack - You choose the colors - the great thing about these are that they all coordinate!
• Paper Ribbons & Flowers
• ABC Stickers
• Dual Tip Pens - most important for telling your story!
• Tape Runner
• 12 Inch Rotary Trimmer

So in honor of National Scrapbook Day this month, get back to, start, and finish those baby albums!!  It's not too late to start, and better yet, it's definitely not too late to finish your baby albums!  Your children will thank you!

Please let me know what you think and visit those sites I like to share with on the right column of my blog!

No More Perfect Moms Kindle Deal

 I wanted to let you know that the wonderful book I had the pleasure of reviewing and being on the launch team for, "No More Perfect Moms" is on sale for Kindle right now for only $1.99!  If you click on the picture link above, it should take you directly to the Kindle version to purchase.  Be sure before you check out that the price is only $1.99.  I don't know about you, but I definitely don't like to pay more the a couple of bucks for books, even my favorites.

To check out my review HERE, if you haven't read it yet.  I have to say this was one of my favorite books this last year!  I couldn't put it down, and I couldn't read it all, because I wanted to apply every bit of advice to my life, too!

MOPS Craft Project - Activity Bags

I've been the coordinator for our Mothers Of Preschoolers (MOPS) group this year, and we don't have many leaders, so I have been doing the Craft projects.  I thought I would share our craft this last week.  Our topic was on depression (I know, a depressing topic!), so to keep little ones busy while at appointments or car rides, we made busy bags for the car.

I found these cinching backpack bags at the Dollar Store:

There were two different designs, the other one had a beach ball on it.  You could use as small rubbermaid or a book bag too, but I was looking for something that was cheap.

We made 3 different activities to put into the bag.  The first is a popsicle stick puzzle that I got from HERE at Tot School.  This only required popsicle sticks and different colored Sharpies to make. 

One of my personal favorite activity to make for my kids are the I Spy bottles.  What you need for this project are:

• Empty Water Bottles
• Small Items to put into the bottle (See the picture below for ideas)
• Photo of items
• Hole punch
• Yarn
• Rice
• Funnel
• Hot Glue Gun and Glue

To make these:

1. Find all the small items, and lay them out on a piece of white paper.  Write the name of each below and take a photo.  Send photo in to develop.  Just a side note: I prefer to use a developed photo from store, because the photo paper is more sturdy.  If you were printing this at home, I would print it on cardstock and then laminate it for durability.
2. Fold the picture in half with the photo on the outside.
3. Punch hole in corner.
4. Run yarn through the hole.
5. Use funnel to put about 1 inch of rice in the bottom of bottle. (This prevents the items from being stuck in the bottom)
6. Put items into the bottle.  
7.  Fill with rice, leaving about 1/2 inch of space at the top.
8. Hot glue the cap on.
9. Tie picture to the bottle with yarn.

You could do themes in the bottles. Some ideas would be:

• Each letter of the alphabet: A= toy apple, Letter A, acorn, etc.  B= button, bean, bead, blue, etc.
• Colors 
• Outdoors
• Numbers
• Seasons

Really the ideas are endless!

Here is the picture I took and the things I included.

 The next activity we made were sewing cards.  Again, these were very easy to make.  All you need are:

• Foam shapes (I even found a pack of these at the Dollar Store)
• Hole punch
• Yarn
• Scotch tape
• Scissors

This activity could challenge your strength in your hands, because it's a little tough to punch the holes in the foam, but worth it!  My two year old loves this one!  There's no right or wrong way to punch, just make sure it's not close to the edges.  Cut a piece of yarn to go through.  I used the Scotch tape to wrap around each end, so the yarn didn't unravel and it worked as a "needle", too.

This activity took us about 30 minutes to make, but we had a great time visiting while we did it.  Not to mention how excited our kids were when they saw the bags we brought home.

I pin a lot of ideas about making Busy Bags under my Homeschooling: Busy Bags board on Pinterest and any ideas for Creative Activities for MOPS under my MOPS board.  You can follow me here on Pinterest:

Prairie Scraps

I will be sharing this post at the blogs that I love in the right hand column of my blog.  Be sure to leave me your feedback, too!

A Kingsbury Collection - A Book Review

My daughter has been reading Three Novels in Ones lately, and when "A Kingsbury Collection" by Karen Kinsbury came available to order, I jumped on it.  My daughter's books have been around 200 pages each, so, when this one arrived with well over 700 pages of three complete novels, I was a little shocked!  This book really is a great value, because it is three complete stand-alone novels, not shortened versions or just short stories.

The topics that Kingsbury covers in these novels are sometimes not covered, or even well represented in the Christian community, but Kingsbury truly gives the reader a genuine look into many modern day issues.  Each of the characters in this trio of novels seem very real and authentic.

In the first novel, "Where Yesterday Lives", Ellen Barrett, a successful journalist, struggles with her marriage and is called to her hometown when her father passes away.  While at home, she wrestles with making peace with her lost faith, her four grown siblings, a high school heart-throb, and of course the loss of  her beloved father.

"When Joy Came to Stay" addresses the high expectations of living a "perfect" Christian life.  Maggie Stovall on the outside is a successful columnist married to a godly, successful attorney, Ben Stovall.  Ben has no idea of the dark secret that Maggie has kept from him their entire married life.  In a twist, this story also follows an abused, foster child, Amanda Joy who has an unwavering faith.  Can Maggie overcome her deep depression, make peace with her husband and find the child that she loved, but gave up before her marriage?

"On Every Side" takes place in small, town America that ensues in a battle over a one hundred year, much loved Jesus statue in the city park.  Big town attorney, Jordan Riley has come to town to fight for human rights and once and for all, get back at God for his own boyhood losses in that town.  Faith Evans, the town's sweetheart newscaster must face her own demons and take a stand for her town and her God.

All three books are fantastic, and will give you many hours of reading pleasure.  These novels don't pussy foot around the issues of our society and will have you sitting on the edge of your seat in anticipation of the  outcome and rooting for it's characters.  I received a copy of this book in exchange for this review from Waterbrook Multnomah.

You can rate this review HERE and help me out too!  Thanks!

Easter Dress Sneak Peak

 I was not sure what I was going to do for Easter dresses this year.  Last year I made These Pillowcase Dresses from my Scrap Stash, but this year, I just had no ideas.  I knew I didn't really have any large pieces of fabric, so I wasn't sure what I would do until I found this Tutorial at Sew Much Ado on Pinterest.   I have a ton of old t-shirts around that I can't bare to get rid of, but wasn't sure what I was going to do with them.  I grabbed two different ones and used the bottoms to make the skirts and the rest to make the ruffles.

The girls are so excited to wear these, it was hard to convince them to wait until Easter!  I was so surprise to find the aqua shirt in my daughter's drawer that is a gift from Grandma from last year!  It matches perfectly. The best thing about these dresses, they were FREE!

 We like to have coordinating outfits, so we can take a family picture together.  Everyone else is wearing tan, chocolate brown and white with a touch of aqua.  I made a scarf from the white and blue t-shirt for my older daughter, plus matching hair flowers!  I'll share soon.

Have a Happy Resurrection Day!

Fishing Fun

One of the best thing about living here on the Camas Prairie, is that we are 15 minutes from the best fishing in the country on the South Fork and Clearwater Rivers!  Of course, best of all is the Steelhead and Salmon run that occurs twice a year.  One of these days, we will hook one of them but in the meantime, we will have a fun time trying to get one of those elusive Stealhead!Oh, by the way, all those guys in the background were concerned that if one of our little ones hooked a stealhead, they will end up in the river, which looks peaceful, but has a roaring rapids in the background and is 15 feet deep in front of us.  Next time, my smaller children will for sure have life jackets, but two of us stayed with the two younger fishers at all times and watched like a hawk.  Of course, those guys don't understand that we have yet to hook one either!

I had the kids packed up and ready in the car, the moment that Mr. Right got off of work and we got over an hour and a half of fishing time in last night.  It is usually at least 10 degrees warmer there, too, so it makes it even better to be out on the river.

I knew that the little kids wouldn't tolerate that long fishing, so we brought some logs, a lighter, marshmallows, and some roasting sticks to sugar up and have some warmth as the sun sets!  Please note, Peeps are pretty wonderful roasted over the fire!  Buy them up when the go on clearance after Easter, because they don't seem to spoil either.  Even if they are a little hard, they roast up great!