Prairie Scraps

I've always believed and have even used some the the "normal" Christian sayings like, something good will come of anything bad, but I'm not sure I really thought through every aspect of that thought.  Ron Carpenter, Jr. brings new light to this cliche in Christianity and even takes it one step further, with the thought that not only will something good come from an enemy attack, but it is a necessity to have the enemy attack in order for God to do great things in our life. This book really made me think about how really bad moments and even people in my life were necessary to bring me to a better person and develop my own witness to others.  It was a hard thought to swallow, the thought that an attack by the enemy was necessary to grow.  I like to think as a Christian that God won't allow the bad to come in, but the truth is, when the bad happens, we are often, just a step or moment away from a huge breakthrough or moment in my life. After reading this book, I

Call me sick, but I love everything about the first day of school!  Even as an adult and homeschooling parent, I still love that first day of school.  When the first school supplies start to arrive in the stores, I just to go through the aisle and smell all the supplies and check them out!  So, here we are again, at the beginning of the school year!  After I come down from the high of smelling all the supplies and new books, I have the business of getting that first day started.  Of course, I didn't get ready until the night before (by waiting until the night before, it prolongs the fact that summer is over already). I have to say, as my oldest two children worked away at their computers and I was helping my two middle children with experiments for science class (pictured above), and the baby is running around trying to get everyone to play, it was a great moment in life!  I love to homeschool, mostly, because I love to be with my kids all day as they learn new things, and I

I am so surprised at the amount of people who don't take advantage of local farmers and produce!  We heard about a place called "Tomato Toms" and just had to check it out. (Especially since it seems nearly impossible to grow tomatoes in our town.  I think it's something about the elevation)  We took a Sunday afternoon to drive to explore local produce and find Tomato Tom. This drive, I thought for sure that no one could be possibly growing anything on such dry land (see the background to the first picture, below).  Then we drove up a scary driveway and look what we found: Tomato Toms was a fantastic sizable garden of u-pick heaven!  We picked 60 pounds of tomatoes in 10 minutes.  Then took about twenty more minutes to figure out just what onions and peppers we needed to go with our tomatoes. The tomatoes weren't store perfect, as in no blemishes or anything, but they were beautiful and tasted wonderful off the vine!  I don't normally  care for tomatoes

Let’s send summer out in style with a sensational sale! Nearly everything in our Creative Memories catalog is on sale now through 10 p.m. CST on Aug. 27 – at savings up to 40 percent off. Go Here to Order Right Away!   I would greatly appreciate your support and orders! Here's the list of what's on sale: 40% off • Album Refills (all sizes of Pages, Page Protectors and Side-Loading Sleeves) • 12x12 Paper, Cardstock Packs, and Stack Packs • StoryBook Creator 4.0 and StoryBook Creator 4.0 upgrade (includes DVD and download versions) • Wall Print Posters (including product credits) 30% off • Albums (including 12x12, 8x8, and Album Sets) • Custom Albums (including product credits) • Digital Artwork Downloads and CDs 20% off • Power Palette Systems and Sets • Specialty Paper and Embellishments (12x12 Additions, Specialty Paper Packs, Scrapbook Kits, Album Accents and Storyboxes, Paper Embellishments, Embellishment Packs, Decorative Stickers, Title and ABC

I love the fact we have so much National Forest here in Northern Idaho.  It's been wonderful to find and harvest wild morel mushrooms, and now we have finally found the huckleberries!  It seems that everyone here is picking them, but most don't know exactly where they are.  We finally found them, thanks to our new friends!  After 45 minutes of picking with eight of us picking, this is what we got, about a third of an ice cream pail full of huckleberries!  Yummy!  Keep in mind that everyone also did some eating, too. Better yet, we now have 7 very precious jars of Huckleberry jam!  We gave one jar as a gift to our exchange student to take back to her family and will probably part with one more jar for a gift for someone special (can't mention who!).  The best part, this was free and full of memories for everyone! Do you have local finds in the woods that you hunt down?  We will definitely be checking this spot out first thing next year for huckleberry season!

Do you spend countless hours on Pinterest looking at all the great ideas?  Well, I do and have heard so many comment on how much there is to try, but never get around to it.  Of course, I can't do it all, but hey, I had to try this one.  Cooking hash browns in my waffle iron - what a concept?  I thought it was a brilliant use for a waffle iron.  You see, I have a few issues with my waffle iron.   First, I like crispy waffles, not rubbery, and I can't find a recipe in my waffle iron that doesn't turn out rubbery.  Second, once I have rubber waffles, I can't eat them again for about 6 months!  So my third issue with my waffle iron is that since it takes me 6 months to recover, it doesn't ever get used, and I wonder if I should get rid of it. So this Pinterest idea, I thought I would try.  Genius!   My hash browns were crispy and cooked through in no time in my waffle iron.  My poor waffle iron will not have to wait for six months for another use, either!  M

I found a queen size bed ruffle with  a ticking ruffle on it.  Immediately, I picked it up (for only $1!) at our local thrift store.  I knew that I would combine it with my find of burlap bags.  ( I picked up 200 of them for only $10!  Yes, that's right, they were only $.05 each! I overindulged in them, and could take no less than 200 because of the price.)  One of the problems with my new bags is that they are a little smaller than the printed ones that I have.  I personally like really long table runners because I have a really big table, but I decided to get over my own feelings and make this runner as long as I could (the ruffle really helped, too).  So here is the runner.  I think the ticking and the burlap really look great together.  I know how to make ruffles and have ticking, but for $1 I thought that this really was worth using from a different source! You could have it in the middle of a big table like above, or you could have the ruffle hang down the edge of the