Prairie Scraps

I've always loved learning a new instrument.  Of course in college, I had to study my major and minor instruments for hours and hours, but my favorite classes were learning new instruments!  Prior to attending college, besides piano and trumpet, I had studied drums and guitar, but college really opened so many more doors for me.  I always have a "bug" to learn a new instrument. In the last few years, my "bucket list" instrument has been the Ukulele.  I've literally studied everything I can about it; from which to purchase, how to teach it, how to play it, etc.  I finally took the dip and bought this beauty! It took me several months to settle on which one to get and since I don't live near a music store, it was hard to choose, but this Luna Mahogany Mo'o ended up being the one!  I ordered from another seller on Amazon and waited impatiently for two weeks for it to come, to discover that the company cancelled my order and didn't notify me. ...

I have read one of the Nick Vujcic’s other books and always find myself sitting at the edge of my seat, so to speak to learn about Nick’s life without out arms and legs.  As before, Nick did not disappoint me in providing a wonderful and inspirational book!  “Be the Hands and Feet” is about God’s call to Christians to go out and share His love and word. Not only does Nick share his own advice and stories from his life and walk with God, but he shares many stories from every day people and the unique ways they share God’s love with others.  For the new Christian or even the seasoned Christian, this is a refreshing well planned and thought out guide for how to get out there and do God’s bidding.   There is so much information packed in this book that it’s a definite candidate for another read thru (which is saying a lot, because I rarely read books twice!) Even more meaningful, is Nick and his father’s heart wrenching experiences with illness and death, and how th...

Before the driveway was covered Mr. Right and I have been discussing the fact that we have some major potholes in our driveway, partially because we did some work on the part next to the house in order to pour cement and then because we have a lot of vehicles in and out of it.  When my older kids are home, they bring their cars with them, so we have four vehicles in and out, and then I have piano students in and out for two days each week, so we've worn the driveway down quickly (and part of our lawn.   We had fair weather today, and we decided to call and see if we could schedule a truckload of gravel to be dropped on the driveway.  They came in an hour!  That's service!  We actually widened the driveway, so we can park cars two wide.  Eventually, we plan to wide it more and also put in a load up near the house as well.  This truck driver, knew exactly how to lay the gravel flat in the driveway, and even put extras into the holes at the e...

  I love gifts!  Both giving and recieving gifts makes me the most fulfilled.  I know, there are many that don’t enjoy or value gifts like I do, but hey, I don’t enjoy hugs at all!  Gifts are my form of hugs!  That being said, it doesn’t need to be expensive at all to give my joy! I have two children in college, so I love to find creative things to send in the mail to them.  Several years ago, I discovered Happy Mail!  The idea is, to find items that are non-traditional to send in the mail.  So, 1-2 times a month, my college kids, get a fun package in the mail, that is unexpected.   Of course, Valentine’s Day affords a great gift in the mail - a tin of chocolates! For the Star Wars tin, I put: “Join the HEART side!” For the Minnie Mouse tin: “There are so MINNIE things we love about you!” I just put address labels on the back side and they go through the mail, just like that!  No box or anything!  I did choose these ...

 This the entry to our front door.  There is white carpet, so thick that the door doesn't even open without some major use of muscles.  I can't put a carpet here, to prevent the entry getting dirty, because the door would never open.  With 23 piano students coming through this door every week (and they walk across the muddy lawn to get there, because there are no sidewalks!), this area is getting dirty beyond repair!  To at least keep the entryway clean for now, while I talked Mr. Right into cutting out this section of carpet and replacing it with some laminate.  We actually found two boxes of brand new laminate at the Habitat for Humanity for $12 each.  The expensive part was the trim between the laminate and the carpet. It ended up close to $20 each and we needed three pieces, one for each side. If there was some way to do the transition trim cheaper, I would be all over that!  Here's the carpet and pad cut out.  We found red fir und...

As a young girl I was a huge fan of all the Laura Ingalls’ Books!  I read every single book in the series and even tried some of the extra books written by Laura’s daughter, Rose.  You can imagine how excited I was as an adult to find this lovely book, “A Prairie Girl’s Faith” by Stephen W. Hines which is an exploration into “The Spiritual Legacy of Laurie Ingall’s Wilder.” This book had many interesting thoughts and research on Laurie’s and Rose’s Spirituality, but it also included many findings on music, recipes and writings of the pioneer’s of this time period.  After reading this book, I yearn for more from Laura, herself on her own spiritual beliefs and growth.  Many findings seem to be supposition and the remainder of the book seems to be snippets of the rest of the Ingalls lives found through reading her newspaper articles. Overall, I enjoyed this book, but found it to be somewhat disjointed from the actual idea that it was on Laura’s spiritual legacy and...

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...