Prairie Scraps

We are converting our carport into another living room/piano studio, bathroom and much needed laundry room.  It’s all very exciting, but a lot of work.  Funny, we were talking to some friends who made it seem that they were doing some remodeling of their own in their own new home, and the look on their face when they realized that we were actually doing our own labor was priceless.  I guess when I say we’re remodeling, I actually mean we are doing the work.  When other’s say it, they mean they are paying someone else to do the work! Needless to say, one of the reasons that we are doing the work ourselves, is that it saves us money.  So, I’ve been frequenting the clearance aisle of Home Depot, just planning what is yet to come!  One time I was there, I found these tiles for the new bathroom!  I was worried a little about making the purchase too far in advance, so I took pictures and sent the to Mr. Right.  He actually was in Home Depot a few...

Last year, I gave my piano students a Christmas ornament that I found that had music around it.  This year, I noticed that some of my beginner students are learning to play their pieces with their left hand holding their book open.  They are always relieved when I clip their music open with my clothespin.  I decided to make some cute clothespins for my students to hold their books open for at home! Speaking of which, wondering what some good ideas are for gifts for your piano teacher this Christmas?  Here’s my top 5 ideas for your favorite piano teacher: Gift card to a favorite coffee shop, restaurant, or store. Amazon Gift Card. Gift Certificate to a favorite online music store (mine is www.pianopronto.com, btw!) Purchase something off of the studio/piano teacher’s online wish list.  Ask if they have one. Food item - chocolates, hot cocoa, wine, etc. These are just some of the things I like.  I’m currently building a new studio space in my ...

It seems hard to believe in today's day, that someone would give up everything and move to Uganda to run a non-profit and personally house African children, but that's exactly what Katie Davis Majors did.  Although this seems like an act of faith that not everyone has, "Daring to Hope" humanizes the struggles that Katie goes through personally, to continue on to love and care for people in desperate need of help. Katie has personally adopted 13 girls, but after having her own personal tragedy, is painfully afraid to open herself to loving another person. Life goes on for Katie, more people in need of love and care, even on their deathbeds are sent to her.  Can she open herself to love again?  Does she dare to hope that God will provide and give her the strength to love over and over, even knowing that person may die? Uganda and Katie's organization seem so far away from my own, busy life in America, but Katie brings her story of pain and suffering into an e...

Every renovation project has it’s setbacks, but it’s felt like our new-to-us home has had more than our share.  We had originally planned to enclose our carport area between our house and the carriage house.  It seems straight forward enough, but of course, our city government is involved, so we were at a standstill for several weeks, just waiting to get a building permit. As it stands, we are being required to add a sidewalk to the front of our house, to the tune of more than $25,000 for the entire thing!  There’s a telephone pole, a grade, a drainage ditch, the utility post for the entire neighborhood and our water meter in the way on one end.  Fortunately, it seems like the Public Works guy is on our side and is going to try to put an end to it, at least for now. Meanwhile, we bit the bullet, paid the deposit plus the building permit and were overjoyed to begin this additional living room project.  HALT!!!  Of course, that is if the local rental ...

We finally bought a house after our move across country from the Midwest five and a half years ago.  It's taken us all month to get into the house and start to get things put away.  Moving seven people while two are headed back to college was not an easy feat.  While this house is not super fancy, one of the things we loved about the house was the very large yard.  We have seven city lots in fact.  One of the things that we loved the most about home ownership was being able to garden. I'm not a fan of those really tall arborvitae trees on the left of this picture.  We have several of them around the property, mostly right up on the foundation and causing trouble with the house.  I personally don't like them and call them funeral trees, because they are what every cemetery has.  I'd like to just reserve them for funerals for now.  This one, isn't coming down just yet.  That big, pickery evergreen bush that takes up the side of th...

I was so excited to see a brand new book by Cindy Woodsmall available, when I was choosing books to review!  I always love a great Amish romance, and the fact that it's by Cindy Woodsmall just made my day! This is the third book in the "Amish of Summer Grove" series and definitely delivers a phenomenal story line. Arianna Brenneman returns to her Old Order Amish family, that raised her after several months of staying with her biological family.  After the shock of finding out that she was switched at birth with Skylar Nash, both are forced to swap places for a year, and get to know their biological families.  After only three months, Arianna has been able to convince her biological Dad that she needs to return to the family and lifestyle that she can relate to.  But, after gaining knowledge from the English world, can Arianna find her place back with her family?  Will her Amish family accept her new take on life, or will they try to force their wishes...

I've been wanting to add a Technology/Theory Lab to my piano lessons for awhile now.  Instead of coming for a 30 minute private lesson, students would come for an hour session back-to-back with another student.  While pondering how to do all of this, I ran across a few other piano teachers discussing a 20/20/20 Rotating format that really caught my interest.  Instead of two students an hour, three students come for the one hour slot and rotate between three different 20 minute stations. This seemed like a great fit for my students, so I decided to launch this with my studio this summer.   I was personally worried about my students working for 30 minutes independently when the other student had a private lesson.  With the 20 minute sessions, though, most of my students are able to stay on task for 20 minutes by themselves.  Some of my youngest students need a little more direction during the individual time, but most are actually thriving in this type ...

I'm on a role with reading books this year!  I set a goal to read 50 books this year and this book makes my 31st this year so far.  I might be able to reach my goal!  I've been tracking my goal and stats on Goodreads.   It's fun to see how many books I've read, on there.  I've even had some of the authors comment on my reviews! My own love of the National Parks and as an avid visitor with our vintage Airstream, I intrigued by "The Road to Paradise, (Shadows of the Wilderness #1)  To my joy, this book did not disappoint my high expectations of being able to learn more about Mt. Rainier, and come to appreciate it's splendor as well! In 1927, Margaret (Margie) Lane, a wealthy senator's daughter, escapes to Mt. Rainier, much to her mother's disapproval to study God's creation and learn from a real Park Ranger.  Ford Brayden, the ranger charged with making sure that Margie's stay is both enjoyable and profitable for the National Forest Servi...

Trey Walker Stafford, a country music star takes a break from his exciting and star struck music life to return home to face his past.  Although he struggles with his relationship with his rich uncle Sam Stafford, Trey knows he owes his life to Sam for rescuing him as an young orphan after his parents passed away. Cowboy and rancher, Sam Stafford didn't approve of Trey's country music career when he left the family home, the Double S Ranch to pursue his dreams as a singer. This rift didn't stop Trey from striking out on his own to follow his passion, but left the two at odds for years.  After achieving country music fame and fortune, Trey is now returning to the home ranch, to save Sam's life and return the favor.  As the only match for a liver transplant for Sam, Trey is needs to face his past and give his liver for the man he owes his life too. While waiting for the transplant to take place, Sam assigns Trey to make amends for the Stafford family to a nei...

  This is our second year of raising pigs for the fair.  We've had some bumps along the way, one of them was our homemade feeder of last year.  I tend to have ideas, and then Mr. Right gets the pleasure of trying to execute my ideas.  Most of the time it works out, but last year, our feeder was a fail.   This year, we need a feeder that can go a long period of time, since our pigs are not on our property where we live.  Our neighbor made a complaint about the smell of the pigs last year to our landlord, so the landlord told us no more pigs. (Keep in mind, there are only 2 pigs on 6 acres and they are only here for 5 months and then go to the 4-H fair and livestock auction) Thankfully, another neighbor graciously allowed us to pen up a corner of her horse pen, to put our pigs in.    This year, I wanted to be sure that Mr. Right did a quality version of the pig feeder that would make it through the entire five months, and hopefully...

Summer piano (or any instrument) lessons are important.  I have a pretty strong opinion on this and spend the month of May urging my piano student parents that they should try to continue their child's lessons over the summer.  Here are my reasons: Summer is 1/4th of the year!  That's a lot of the year to miss. Lessons are a huge investment, why lose the momentum? Students digress, a lot!  Most students will take at least 3 months to return to where they left off in the spring - so now, you've really lost 6 months or 1/2 of the year! Because of number 3, you don't save money by taking the lessons off.  You will pay for 9 months and only get 6 months of progress. Often, children that take the summer off, lose their enthusiasm in the fall, and struggle to stay with it.  In my experience, these students don't come back, or they try and get frustrated with their backward movement, and end up quitting in the middle of the semeste...

  I had the pleasure of reading this third book in "The Quilted Heart" series by Mona Hodgson.  Generally, I don't care for reading books in a series without first reading the books before (what can I say, I like things in order!), but this book captivated me right from the start!  I definitely want to catch up and read the first two, but I was hooked right from the first few paragraphs!   "Ripples Along the Shore" was a finely knit fictional novel about not only the sorrow and recovery of just one Civil War widow, Caroline  Milburn, but of a whole community of Americans, set on rebuilding their lives following the divide of a country in war.  Destined to return to Saint Charles, Missouri after her spinster aunt passes away, to stay with her sister and bitter brother-in-law and family, Caroline struggles with the grief she feels with the loss of her husband to the war.   Will she find peace and purpose in what she should do now t...

Most days seem like there's little to no progress, but hey, at least there's progress, right?  I promise you that I am making some progress on the 31 Days of Green Deep Cleaning.  I thought I'd be able to get it done in one month, but posting every day has proven to be more difficult than I thought possible.  Thanks so much for hanging with me!  What are you making slow progress on right now?  Keep chugging along!

I'm curious - did you get piano lessons as a child?  Do you have your kids take lessons?  This statistic should incite every parent of every child to seek out piano lessons. 

Today, we are going to clean the carpets in the living room.  If you own your own carpet cleaner, you can just focus on the living room today.  If you have to rent a carpet cleaner and you are anything like me, this will create a frenzy of 24 hours of cleaning all the carpets in the entire house!  Either way, you may want to save this job for when you can work on this for an entire day.   What you will need: Vacuum cleaner Carpet Cleaner - after getting a new puppy at Christmas, this is the one I ordered online and LOVE!!!  It is worth every penny!!  I've cleaned a lot of carpets, in my own home and commercially, and this is by far the best machine I have used! Ultra Power Plus Laundry Detergent Carpet Stain Buster Envirocloth What to do: Remove as much of the furniture from the room as you can. Vacuum the entire room, taking special care to get the edges around the room. Spray the Carpet Stain Buster on all visable stains ...

  If you haven't noticed, in each room, we've been trying to move from top to bottom with our cleaning.  So in the living room, we've cleaned the Chairs & Couches , the Woodwork , the Walls , and Organized the shelves and Drawers .  Be sure to check out those articles if you haven't already. Today, we are going to do a clean-up of all the electronics in the living room. You will need: Optic Cloth Dust Mitt Container to coral all of those chords - I like this one: Double Duty Caddy Zip ties What to clean today: Start off by cleaning all of the screens in the living room with the Optic Cloth .  Using a cloth that is not approved for this job can scratch you screens!  The Optic Cloth is approved and works great at not only cleaning, but repelling future dust. Here's a list that I came up with: Computers Television IPads & Tablets Smart Phones Small Gaming devices Once the screen is cleaned, you'll want to go all the way around yo...

Happy Valentine's Day! Here's a happy mail that I sent out to the customer on my Facebook VIP page that won a drawing for the Superbowl.  The winner happened to be my mom, so it made it extra fun to send some Happy Mail.   I bought a Valentine's Candy Heart box and put my message on the front with an address sticker, and then put an address label on the back with the addresses.  I took the whole thing down to the post office to mail.  It cost around $3 to ship!  Not bad!    It's so fun to get odd items in the mail!  You could do this for a college student (which I also did) or for a past hostess to tell them how much you love them or their business.   Here's my message: "Mom - I LOVE that you played along for my Superbowl party!  Customers are the HEART of my business!  Thanks!"     Even though today is Valentine's Day, you could still do this for past hostesses or special customers!  G...

Today is your chance to clean out any drawers or shelves in the Living Room! There's nothing really complicated about this day, but if you are like me, it's a much needed day!   Wipe off/out drawers with the EnviroCloth and apply that Oil/Vinegar mix as mentioned before to any wood that you are cleaning.   I love everyone else's shelves!  I love to peruse Pinterest for all kinds of ideas on how to make my living room shelves look like a magazine.  What am drawn to?  Well, simplified shelves!     Here's what I like for my shelves: Simple, small collections, grouped together Books in order of size, tallest to shortest, or visa versa. If function is needed (i.e. videos, or remotes, etc.), use baskets or bins to organize clutter Pick a 3-4 items of interest to "decorate" (this could be a globe, a vase, an antique camera, whatever) I love how this shelving unit, although it's for ...

Today's chore for Green Deep Cleaning the Living Room is to wash all of the walls.  I know!  Frankly, this is not something I think about doing very often, but once you start, you realize how dirty the walls really are.  My warning for this is that after inspecting and cleaning the walls really closely, you may decide you want to put a new coat of paint on them.  At least, this is what happens to me! What you will need to wash the walls: EnviroCloth Superior Mop System How to clean the walls: I start on one wall, and then methodically work my way around the room. For each section of wall, take the pictures off the wall. Wipe them down. Lock the Mop head into position and attach the dust pad (the yellow pad) to the mop. Wipe down the wall with the Mop (yes you saw that right!  This Mop works so well on the walls, I actually get excited to wash the walls!) Next, replace the dust pad with a wet (with water only) mop pad.  The wet pad i...

Today's Deep Cleaning is going to be all of the woodwork and furniture in the Living Room. The product I love the most to rejuvenate my woodwork is my Vinegar/Oil Combination. To see more details on how this process works, go to my posting this day.   Are you sticking with me on this far in your deep cleaning?  For me, focusing on just one area at a time, or even just one chore each day, makes the entire process of Deep Cleaning seem doable. 

Now that we've Green Deep Cleaned the Kitchen and the Laundry Room, let's move on to the living room.  Today, we will be cleaning the chairs and couches that have cushions. What you will need to clean your Living Room Chairs & Couches: Envirocloth Leather Shine Vacuum Cleaner Spray Bottle with 1/4 teaspoon of Ultra Power Plus Laundry Detergent and water Ultra Power Plus Laundry Detergent Mattress Cleaner (optional) What to do:  If you have any covers on your couches or chairs, before removing the cover, spray the UPP /water spray bottle on any stains, to pre-treat them. Throw the covers into the washing machine with a scoop of UPP.   They'll be all ready and clean after you're done cleaning everything up! Next, determine what kind of fabric your couch is made of.  Here is what the tags may mean: W: OK to use water for cleaning. S: Only use a solvent-based cleaner on fabric. SW: Either water or a solvent cleaner is safe to...