Book Review

My Dearest Naomi

Jerry and Tina Eicher

When Eugene Mast leaves his Amish community in Worthington, Indiana, to teach in faraway Kalona, Iowa, he also must leave the love of his life, Naomi Miller.

For the next nine months of the school term, Eugene and Naomi keep their romance alive through love letters from his heart to hers, and from hers back to his.

Eugene writes of his concern that in his absence Naomi may find the attractions of another suitor to her liking. Naomi worries that Eugene may fall prey to the “liberal” Mennonite beliefs in the community where he now lives. Both can hardly wait until the school year is up and they’re finally reunited.

The format of this book is unlike any other that I have read. The majority of the book is in letter format from Eugene and Naomi. It is like reading a diary in letter form. The beginning of the book is a little slow but if you stick with it not only do you follow the lives of Eugene and Naomi but also the family of John and Millie Yoder, they are having marital difficulties and John begins attending an English church, there is talk of excommunication. Darrel Hooley is a englishman who is trying to join the Amish and of course you course you follow the families of Eugene and Naomi.

This is a touching book of  what it is like to have a long distance relationship and your only form of communication is through letter writing. I found it to be very descriptive and I encourage you all to  hang in until the end to find out what happens to John and Millie Yoder, Darrel, and Eugene and Naomi.

Pinterest Review

Homemade Ranch Dressing

Homemade Ranch Dressing Seasoning Mix

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp dried parsley
• 1 tsp dried dill
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp dried basil
• 1/2 tsp pepper

Directions

• Add each of the dried spices to a bowl and gently stir.
• Store in a resealable plastic baggie or small ball canning jar with tight fitting lid in your spice cabinet.
• To make the ranch dressing, whisk together 1/3 cup mayonaisse with 1/4 cup milk (more or less depending on the consistency you want) with 1 Tbsp of the homemade ranch dressing seasoning mix. Season with salt, to taste. Use immediately and can refrigerate for up to 3 days.
• Makes about 4 Tbsp worth of mix. Or use the ratios above and mix up however much you’ll need!

I just made this.....I can't tell you how good this was.......absolutely will not buy bottled Ranch dressing again.....so simple....took me about 5 min. ........this gets a big

Pinterest Review

Orange Vinegar

My first project was to spice up my cleaning solution. Angela suggests infusing the white vinegar with orange peels to make it smell better but also to harness the cleaning properties that citrus fruit oils contain. We already had oranges on hand (as we have started juicing them each morning) so all I had to do was collect the peels and soak them for a few weeks...super easy!!

I just used my first batch of orange infused vinegar......it smelled pretty good.....I used in in my own dusting rag (next review) it gets a

Pinterest review

DIY Dust Cloths

Materials
Water
White distilled vinegar
Olive Oil
Rags
Lemons
Airtight glass container

Instructions

1. Mix equal parts water and vinegar. Add a couple drops of olive oil.
2. Soak rags in the solution until fully saturated. I used old dishcloths that I cut into fourths with pinking shears.
3. Wring out the rags leaving them just damp.
4. Lay the rags, and place a couple lemon rinds on each cloth.
5. Roll or fold the rinds into each cloth, and place into your glass container. Add an extra lemon peel, and make sure lid is tight. Store until needed.
Additional notes: Once used, wash or boil the dust cloths and repeat the steps above for a new batch!

I've done this twice now.....I've taken pics to show how well this works.....

This is my computer table....and yes it was disgustingly dirty......look at this next pic....

As you can see....it worked great....really so happy with this recipe for making my own dusting solution.....I use it all the time now.....great big

Quick Hitter

Pinterest Review

The next time you have green onions, don't throw away the white ends. Simply submerge them in a glass of water and place them in a sunny window. Your onions will begin to grow almost immediately and can be harvested almost indefinitely. We just use kitchen scissors to cut what we need for meals. I periodically empty out the water, rinse the roots off and give them fresh water.

This totally works ......here is a pic of my onions growing in my kitchen window.......

I have trimmed this already once and you can see I need to do it again.........I don't think I will ever have to buy green onions again and that gives this a  big

Adventures in Couponing

This week there are some great sales around the Mid-Missouri area (where I live).  At Schnucks, they have Fritos/Cheetos 3/$5 but there is a coupon in the P/G circular for $1.50 off any 3 bags of the same so you can get them for 3/$3.50 which is a great deal!!  $1.17 a bag is a good way to stock up especially for any St. Patty's Day parties you might be going to. 


Also, at Gerbes with the store card, they are having a buy 10 of the selected items, you get $5 back so that is like a 50 cent coupon on everything and then you can stack a manufactures coupon on as well for even better savings.  They also have Powerades on sale for 59 cents each!!  We go through alot of Powerades during the sports season( track now), so I will be stocking up!! Their milk is also reduced to $2.89/2.99 depending on the fat percent.  This is the cheapest I have seen it.  Just use the store card for the deal. 


Hy-Vee has their yellow corn and green beans on sale for 39 cents and there is NO limit in the ad or on the shelf.  This is a great deal too.  Last time they had this sale, there was a limit of 4 cans, so we are very excited that there is no limit this time.   I put corn in most of our casseroles and soups since I don't like it by itself unless it is on the cob!  This is a good way for me to eat my corn and get it into our meals.  You can also get the no salt variety and the french cut variety.  Since I used 4 cans of green beans each time I make green bean casserole (it's not just for the holiday season), we go through alot of them.  Last time it was on sale, there was a 4 can limit, so no limit this time is GREAT!!!!!  Stock up now!


Hope this helps with the family shopping and budgeting!!  Keep on the look out for great deals near you!!

Quick Hitter

Daily Shower Spray

• 2 cups white vinegar
• water
• 2 tablespoons generic dishwasher rinse agent

Directions:

1.  
   In a 32 oz bottle add the white vinegar and the generic dishwasher rinse agent. Fill the rest of the bottle with water. use after every shower.

This recipe is from www.food.com.....     I really love this .....all the work I put into cleaning my shower doors and I want to keep it all clean....so far this is working great....a big

Aromatherapy

Oh how I need aromatherapy today.......

Pinterest Review:

 from pleasantandhome.files.wordpress.com

This is my version:

French Vanilla Coffee Beans with a tea light candle.........this worked really well......the smell was present hours after I blew out the candle......this gets a

Next I had slept on my neck wrong........not very good range of motion in neck and can't get to chiropractor till Monday.........so I googled home remedy muscle relaxers and this is what I found:

Lavender

Lavender has been used for centuries as an important, essential oil to assist in relaxing muscles. It has properties which can help calm the body and reduce stress, thereby reducing muscular tension. Try rubbing lavender oil directly on the temples and then completely relaxing for a few minutes; the sense of peace that is felt will help to alleviate the pain. You can also add lavender oil to a warm bath. The warm water will heat the muscles, increasing blood flow; the lavender will help ease the tension, helping the warm water do its work

I did the rub on temples and idea and it really did work.........a big

 from ekwetzel.com

Use your favorite scent of essential oils dropped onto the toilet paper roll to freshen up the air after each use.

I have done this for a couple of weeks now........I highly recommend this........it is easy and your bathroom always smells clean...........a big

and

 I'm trying this from littlebrickranch.com

My first project was to spice up my cleaning solution. Angela suggests infusing the white vinegar with orange peels to make it smell better but also to harness the cleaning properties that citrus fruit oils contain. We already had oranges on hand (as we have started juicing them each morning) so all I had to do was collect the peels and soak them for a few weeks...super easy!! Since we weren't peeling our oranges before juicing them I simply juiced them and then scraped out the gook leftover to come up with just the peels. I was afraid if I left the gook then the sugars from the juice would make the solution sticky...no beuno for cleaning!!

 

I have to wait a couple of weeks for official ranking but I already know from other things I have tried (that you will see in another blog) that infusing citrus peeling with anything does work.......so I'm confident in giving this a