Prairie Scraps

For years, I made my own liquid laundry detergent every couple of months.  That being said, I always put of making the detergent until I absolutely had to, because it was messy and needed my undivided attention to make (something I don't have much of).  Overall, I loved this laundry soap, but really wanted an easier one to make.  Then I ran across a recipe for dry laundry soap that could also be used in HE Washers.  This recipe is so fast and easy, it's unbelievable!  The other part I like about this recipe is that it includes OxyClean, which I find really cleans my clothes better than find the pool supplies.  Here is where you can get my number #1 laundry recipe:  Laundry Detergent Recipe .  I've copied and pasted the Liquid Recipe I used below for your reference. Here is my recipe for that detergent that I first posted on my first blog, www.spartasavings.blogspot.com : One of the things that has saved me a ton of money over the last year or two is making my own

Our unit study on the United States continues. We studied the 2nd state, Pennsylvania as a review 2 weeks ago, but didn't do any of the recipes. We studied it last fall and made pretzels, so we skipped that part of it this time around. This week we are working on New Jersey.  Last night for dinner we had Italian Submarine Sandwiches.  These are also known as hoagies in Pennsylvania. Instead of making our own version of sandwiches, I followed the recipe, onions and all. Since a couple of people in my family don't like onions I knew it was taking a chance, but all but one ate it so I think we faired well.

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  huckleberries makes for a long

I have been offline for quite some time because my laptop has crashed and my internet connection is spotty at best.  So rather than go through the frustration of getting shut down all the time, I've been avoiding.  Sorry, about that, but I'm going to give it a try on a new laptop.  Besides that, we have a very exciting unit study that we are working on right now.   We are working on a unit study of all the states in the United States, one-by-one. I've gathered books and information from all over and then to add to that, I've been on Facebook asking people from different states to send a postcard to my kids.   I got a blank template to use for each state.  I just copied 50 for each of my kids. I got a lot of ideas off of several websites.  The main place I got ideas from were from the 50 States Notebook Website. And then just gathered what I wanted to use. We will use this same template for every state. We are doing the states in order of joining the Union, so t

We have been busy making more cards.  Our last set we sold at the library to raise funds for my daughter's 4-H trip to Japan.  It's starting to feel like everything we are doing is fundraising for her trip, but what an opportunity.  Most of the cards have a watercolor technique.  I've been meaning to try this on my own (I go to a card class where we do it often), but I've never gotten around to it.  I think they turned out great! The final cards with the moose, is done with masking tape.  I really love how they turned out.   What do you think? Do you make your own cards?

One of the great things about living on the Prairie, is that we also are very close to the rivers and the mountains. We often forget to take advantage of the great outdoors in our busy lives.  It's important to us to remember why we moved here, and that is to enjoy the great outdoors and the beauty that mountains provide. We hit the 50's yesterday, so we decided to take on one of the local hiking trails. We too a hike on McAllister Trail just off the Southfork River.  We loaded each of the kids with their own snack bag, as well as an emergency kit.  We've had a lot to learn about hiking in the great outdoors here.  You can easily find yourself in a dangerous situation, so it is important to bring emergency supplies with, just in case.  One of our first hikes, we put it all in one backpack, but then found that person was exhausted by the end.  Now we have learned, and each person takes their own drink and snacks, and then a little extra supplies for emergencies. 

 We decided to use a health theme for this week's MOPS topic.  I've been wanting to make First Aid Kits in MOPS for awhile, but never found the right topic or could figure out how to keep it under budget.  We did it! I read a lot of posts about how to make First Aid kits on Pinterest.  I even considered using Ziplock bags to keep the costs down, but I wanted to do something more permanent.  I found pencil cases in the Clearance Aisle for $.75 each and decided to commit to it.  I got 12, which cost me about $10. I asked a couple of the ladies in my MOPS group to help me out (we were doing a fundraiser the same week) by asking some of our local businesses to donate First Aid Kit supplies.  I was so pleasantly surprised by their generosity!  Here's what we got: Asker's Harvest Foods (a local grocery store) - 12 rolls gauze bandages, 12 full-size Anti-bacterial Ointments, 40 Gauze pads, and 12 - 4" Elastic Bandages Primeland (Farm Co-op)  - 10 Co-Flex Flexible B

I am busy getting ready for our MOPS meeting tomorrow.  I coordinate, but I love to do the creative activities for our group.  Our theme tomorrow is of course Loving our Husbands, so we have planned to write our husbands love notes.  Well, I just can't leave it at plain scrapbook paper for the notes!  I was looking on Pinterest and found a lovely post and video on how to make Origami Hearts HERE.   It's a great idea and well put together blog post, but the video moves so fast and the girl left out some of the steps in her editing, so I watched that video several times, before I figured it out.  Then I called in my son, who went on exchange to Japan to help me figure it out too.  He had to watch it several times too. Since it took me so many times to watch the video, I thought I'd do my own step-by-step picture tutorial so you can do it before Valentine's Day!  Once you get the hang of it, you will enjoy giving little notes around the house for those you love!

We are in full swing of fundraising for my daughter's exchange trip to Japan this summer.  Our local library has offered to allow my daughter to put a small basket of things to sell at the desk of the library.  We've been wracking our brains trying to figure out what to sell and how to make it small, since the high school is already selling candy bars there, so we can't do any food items.  We finally decided to put a small basket of homemade cards for sale for $2 each. We spent Saturday making cards together (thanks to Stampin' Up consultant for sharing some of her stamps and her Big Shot!) and here are the results.  Sorry the last ones are sideways.  I can't figure out why they won't rotate.  I've never had a problem, but my internet is going really slow right now, so I think that's the problem.  Sorry!  Hope you enjoy!  If you live in the area of Grangeville, ID, stop in the library to buy some!