Prairie Scraps

Usually we associate deep cleaning your house with Spring Cleaning, but there's something about the New Year that makes me want to clean and organize my house.  Because of my and my children's allergies, and because of the cost, I've tried really hard to keep my cleaning as clean as possible.  I often make my own mixes for cleaning. You can see my laundry detergent recipe HERE.   In November, I started to switch my household over to Norwex Clothes, which for the most part can clean 90% of your house with only water!  This I love!  Water is free (mostly) and the clothes pick up 99% of the bacteria, as well as have a special BacLock feature that prevents the bacteria from spreading.   So, for the month of January, each day, I am going to feature one area of your house that can be deep cleaned.  I'm going to be giving time saving tips as well as how-to instructions for doing this deep cleaning the best and greenest.   This first we...

 Well, you don't have to ask me twice!  It might be right up there with Spice for me!!!  One of the things I love about losing weight with healthy meal replacement shakes is that this company literally shakes it up in flavors.  Each season, there's a new one added for a limited time! If that's not enough reason to join me in losing weight without exercise, then check out the breakdown!  It's not a comparison for me -  I actually crave the Complete meal on the right myself AND can make it in the comfort of my own home!  Love that!  Which do you choose?

After a beautiful and warmer spring (50's here in Idaho!) I was a little shocked to wake up this morning to snow!  Oh, and a strong, cold wind too!  This was one of those mornings where I wished that I was a coffee drinker, because this coffee sounds so warm and cozy and yummy, that I almost want it on hand!  In fact, I may just get it in for my 17 year old daughter to try!  Watch the video and tell me what you think!  If you'd like to get your own, go HERE to get it!   Even if I'm not a coffee drinker, I hope you enjoy and say "Hot Coffee, Please!" March 2, 2016 - In like a lion

So this made me laugh so hard!  My group of friends on Facebook has recently taken up weight loss, which is great!  I'm all for healthy weight loss! BUT, they aren't sharing their weight loss on Facebook because they are accomplishing anything, but instead, they are sharing because they are trying to sell me their weight loss goods.  One of my friends posted a video of herself, 9 months pregnant, doing heavy duty exercise with her belly sticking out below her tank and leggings on. Let me tell you, there are some things that one can not unsee in your mind!! Nothing about her belly flopping around looked healthy or appealing!  I'm not even saying that being pregnant makes you look fat, but this was not a great example of healthy looking pregnancy!   There was literally a roll of belly flab slapping around under her pregnant belly.  Gross!! Another friend recently posted a before and after picture of her supposed weight loss.  I've looked ...

Exercise doesn't work for me.  I know, everyone is supposed to work out and exercise regularly, but I'm living proof that it doesn't work!  I know so many people say it works for them, but honestly, after years of trying to work out consistently, I've given up! Here's my Top 10 Reasons that exercise doesn't work for me. I don't lose weight! My entire body hurts afterwards. I need a nap immediately after exercise. On top of needing a nap, I fall asleep early. Exercise never gets easier for me. Second winds never come for me, not even years later. I'm more hungry when I get regular exercise, which means I eat more calories, which leads to not losing weight. I don't lose inches where I want to - I lose inches in my chest and not my but, thighs or belly from exercise! The pain in my body never disappears for the entire time I work out. I know I said this before - but, I DON'T lose weight!  If I go through all of this trouble to work ou...

With five very active kids, I find myself doing about 20 loads of laundry a week, just in clothes.  That doesn't include towels, sheets, and other extras that come along.  As I verge on my 20th year of being a stay-at-home-mom, I thought I'd share some of my tips for getting laundry done quicker.  How to Get Laundry Done Quicker Pick one day a week to devote to laundry!  I shoot for Mondays for my laundry day, and I'll be honest, I can't usually get it all done that day, but I'm usually close at the end of the day.  If you work during the week, you might have to choose Saturdays. Everyone must submit their laundry to get it done and then pick it up after it's finished.  If you don't put your laundry in the laundry room, you don't get laundry services for the week.  (Sounds tough, but it works for the youngest to the oldest member of our family.) All stains should be removed by the person who makes the stain prior to going to the laundry r...

I'm new to elderberries.  I don't ever remember seeing them in the Midwest.  I've heard quite a bit about them since moving to the West, but have been really intimidated by the.  The house that we moved to last year has the bushes (or shall I say trees) everywhere on the property.  Several people told me how poisonous they are and how they can cause stomach problems if you don't handle them right.  Last year, I thought about harvesting my many bushes of them all season, but chickened out!     This year, I decided that I wasn't going to use them again, but at least I would try to let people in my friends circle come pick them. So I put up a post on a local Facebook group.  I got a couple of takers.  Of course, the one evening that we could pick together, it was pouring rain and really cold!  While I was helping my friend pick a 5 gallon bucket of elderberries, I got to thinking that maybe it was tim...

I'm not really sure about you, but I'm a creature of habit and struggle to change my internal clock to a different time overnight.  On Monday morning after daylight savings, I have to say, I'm going with God sitting up there trying to figure us out and wondering why we've messed with his clock!!  I feel like I have a hangover from Daylight Savings Time. I think it's going to be a long week in recovery around here. I plan to use my two favorite energy helpers today: Ionix Supreme  AND my favorite energy shot, e+ !  What about you?

This last week, I actually had to take time off of homeschooling to get my canning done.  Don't worry, the kids worked on their handwriting, math and grammar workbooks in the kitchen (if you can see all the clutter in the background - that's it!) while I canned away, but I couldn't do our history, bible and read-alouds or my tomatoes would go to waste.    You might wonder where I got so many tomatoes.  I'd love to say I grew them, but that's just not the case!  It is so dry here in the summer, that it's difficult to get tomatoes to grow nicely.  BUT, we have a guy down in Lucille, ID area who's know as Tomato Tom!!! He has tomato growing perfected, and you can pick your own tomatoes for only $.50 a pound!  Why grow your own, when it's so cheap and fresh down the road?  Each year, we run down there on a weekend and pick with the kids about 100 pounds of tomatoes for the winter months.   I like to have enough salsa and ca...

I ran across this quote on Facebook this last week and just had to share.  It's so powerful, and a great reminder to parents everywhere.  In the technological age we are in now, it's very easy to not be present in our children's lives!  With my first child leaving for college this year and my second headed that way next year, I've spent the last few years, really enjoying my kids and the time we have together.  Even that running to and from all the different games and events they have, I try to be present with them.   Here are some ideas for being present with your kids: Talk with your kids in the car when you're taking them places. Ask them questions. Attend as many of your kids events as you can!  Even if you each have to sacrifice other things, or tag team with your spouse. Make eye contact with your kids when they talk to you.  Even if my kids are interrupting a TV show, I pause it and look at them, no matter the subject for the int...

Do you have an overload of zucchini right now?  I have to say, I don't.  For whatever reason, my plants just didn't produce anything this year.  Of course, I really love baked goods with zucchini in them, so I picked up some at a local farm for $.25 each this week, to be sure that I have plenty for the winter.     I shred all of my zucchini, yellow and green with my Kitchen Aid  and my shredder attachment  into my big bowl.   I especially like to shred up those huge, overgrown zucchini's!  Those big seeds get mixed right in.  If the seeds are too big, I'll just take them out and use the flesh only. Then I measure out the shredded zucchini into freezer bags two cups at a time.  I like make all my freezer bags flat for my freezer, so I can stack them neatly and in less room.   I've found that most of my favorite recipes use two cups of shredded zucchini, so I...

It's so easy to feel disappointed when a dream you have doesn't happen.  Whether you are working your own business, trying to lose weight, or really anything in life that you are trying to do!  I found this quote this morning, and thought it fit into what I've been working on myself: a Dream Journal. This last week, I've started a Dream Journal.  I'm trying to be more positive and focused on achieving my dreams.  I've just opened a Word Document on my computer, where I spend most of my time while I'm working, and titled it Dreams and Goals.  Then I put bullets into a list form, and started to add.  Some dreams are very specific, like "Earn $_____ a month."  Others are more vague, but I know I would love to do them, like "Give sports teams food when I want to."  This one came from sitting all day at my daughter's tournament and I enjoyed giving the girls granola bars between matches.  I would just love to be able to do that whenev...

As the fall harvest begins, I was finding several different bags of fruit in the freezer from last year that we hadn't used yet.  On top of that, we had an obnoxious amount of rhubarb this spring already!  What started to be a batch of Huckleberry jam, turned into an afternoon of making jam and sauces!    The jams I used from last year's berries were huckleberry, raspberry, strawberry rhubarb and cherry. My favorite recipe book is The Ball Complete Book of Canning, which if you don't have, you should get!  It has every recipe that you could possibly use and more. Only one recipe have we not likde and that was the Cherry Jam, where the optional ingredients we didn't like.  We leave them out and we love it!    I still had over 30 bags of rhubarb in my freezer (what can I say we love rhubarb coffee cake all winter long, but this was a little much!) so was checking out the recipes in my canning book.  I've made...

I'm not sure I would ever have bought a FitBit on my own, but when I received one from my Mom for a Birthday/Weight Loss Reward, I find myself quite obsessed with it!  I consider myself pretty active, and even run on the treadmill 3-4 days a week for 2 miles.  Well, in the last week and a half of wearing this little band, I have found that I'm definitely not active enough.  This FitBit has certainly been a reality check for me. The American Heart Association recommends that you take 10,000 steps a day to keep your heart healthy.  Most "normal" days, I've found that I don't get anywhere near 10,000 steps, BUT it has challenged me to make sure that I do.  As a result, I'm feel much better, and have even taken a half mile run up and down my driveway (unheard of, because I've always been too embarrassed to run in public) with my kids.  Maybe this Fitbit is onto something!  It sure is getting me to move!  What about you?  What keeps you moving...

Just wanted to share what our meat chickens are starting to look like.  They sure do grow fast!  My kids and husband primarily take care of the chickens, so I was shocked at how big they are when I went down there to see them last night.  Just three or so weeks away from butchering time!  It's going to take us four days to butcher all 300 chickens, so it will be a big ordeal!  Stay tuned for that!

Well, moving West to the prairie, has not converted me to be a coffee drinker at all!  It seems to not be an enjoyment to drink coffee, but a way of life here.  One of the things that was recommended in my 30 Day Healthy Cleansing and Fat Burning System was to go off all coffees and sodas.  Here I will admit - Diet Coke was my hurdle.  Well, now there is new research out about coffee being ok!  Even though I still don't drink coffee, nor will I, I am really excited for my friends and family who do.  Here's the article: Hydration: How much water do you need?   It also talks a lot about what you should drink each day, too!

Last year, we raised a mix of laying hens and meat hens.  We ordered 25 as chicks in a random mix and ended up with 7 meats.  Well, that wasn't quite enough for our family of 7, but it definitely got us wanting more this year.  We decided on getting 50 this year of the fast growing, Cornish Cross.    We actually kept them in a second room off our chicken coop with our laying hens, and anxiously awaited their Big Move to the Chicken tractor in the yard, so they weren't making such a mess in the hen house!  Tonight was the move!   With the move to the tractor, also came a new water system.  We found chicken nipples in the farm store and drilled holes in PVC pipe attached to a hose and then a 5 gallon bucket.  The bucket is placed on the top of the pen full of water, and the gravity makes the water run to the nipples.  This is far less messy than the traditional waterers!  We had to watch the chi...

The sunsets on the prairie are always a reminder to us that we truly made the right decision to move our family of 7 across the United States to the West.  Some days are tough here, it's hard to fit in with the locals, difficult to get used to everything new and seems unreal that we are 70 miles from the nearest Wal-Mart or McDonald's.  And then, God sends this for us to enjoy at the end of most days!  

Fresh Rhubarb!  There's just something exciting about having rhubarb freshly cut and bagged up in the freezer.  I freeze it in 2 cup measures because that's what my rhubarb coffee cake calls for.  All winter long, my family gets fresh rhubarb coffee cake for breakfast.  I also noticed that as soon as I can get some fresh strawberries this spring, the strawberry rhubarb jam recipe calls for 2 cups of rhubarb, too.  Rhubarb is my favorite spring harvest from the garden.  What is yours? Oh, I wanted to share my Rhubarb Coffee Cake Recipe .  It is from my favorite farm Old Oak Family Farm in Wisconsin.  You can look up recipes from any of the fruits and veggies that the grow there on their farm!  I love them all!

Although, these raspberries aren't really found "wild" in nature, at least not here, I do love it when you find unexpected bounty in the wild or at home.  We are moving to a new place in the woods and the garden is very overgrown.  I got totally distracted with the kids yesterday when we spotted these in the weeds!  Sometimes though, when you are finding food in nature, you have to have the ability to drop everything and focus on picking when you find it ripe!  These were so close to being overripe that it couldn't wait for one more day.  So, instead of packing or house, the kids and I spent a couple of hours picking these beauties and then freezing them (because I don't have time to can right now). Two days ago, we spend a couple of hours of picking illusive huckleberries!  This is truly a  test of your patience, though, because you can walk through most plants and find nothing and then, Bingo!  tons!  The unique character of...