Kitchen Vixen

Rain, Rain, Please Stay.........

     Hello everyone. I am happy to say that it has rained all day. I just got David's gauges out of the garage after school, so I'm not certain how much has accumulated. We are all very grateful though. It had been terribly dry, so the rain came at a great time. Thank you, Lord.

     I have enjoyed my first week at home since my preschool job ended last Friday. I enjoyed the part-time work, but am relieved that I don't have to come up with any new ideas for awhile. And of course, there are many projects around home to attend to. I had intended to scrape and repaint our garage, but the weather isn't cooperating right now. It will still be there in the future though. In the meantime, I have accomplished some inside cleaning jobs that give me a good feeling of accomplishment.

     Maria will be home on Sunday, so she can attend our local high school graduation. It has only been a year since she has graduated, but somehow it seems longer.

     She is having a great time at Montana Wilderness School of the Bible. There are two middle aged couples who manage and caretake the place as well as a handful of early 20s summer staff and they enjoy each other's company.

     This summer they will be busy mostly with children's Bible camps, but until then, they are doing a variety of jobs. Maria has scraped and stained a deck, fertilized and trimmed the lawn among other things. She and her two roommates have emptied out a room in their cabin so they can set up their paints and sewing equipment. That will be great to have during the winter months.

     Better get ready to open the library. Bless you all.                 Denise (prairiemom)

Out of the Dungeon

     Greetings from Northcentral Montana.

      My daughter recently described the four seasons in Montana: Almost Winter, Winter, Still Winter and Road Construction. What an accurate description!

     Today the weather is lovely. Jonathan has a baseball game and David is at the ball field to watch him. Tonight is my night at the library, so I will be eager to hear of the outcome. Jonathan has such a great group of coaches. They are four dads who are very patient and encouraging with their group of 6 to 8 year old boys. Jonathan has  learned a lot already. I hope he will want to play again next year.

     David turned 50 today, so of course his co-workers had fun teasing him. He was able to buy a hunting blind with some birthday money. It arrived yesterday and we tried it out. We need practice. We are not as accurate as we would like to be as we sit in the blind and shoot our bows.

     Have you ever had a month where it seems like every organization you belong to needs food of some sort? This is the month for us. I made 8 dozen cookies for church. We will need treats for Jon's kindergarten class and for baseball next week. David's bank is having a retirement party for one of the tellers, so I made three kinds of dip for that. I'm not complaining, mind you, just commenting that I don't think I have ever made so many treats in one month. But that means I will be done for awhile!

     Maria moved to Montana Wilderness School of the Bible on Tuesday and she is very pleased with her situation. She still misses Dan terribly and I continue to encourage her and to pray that the Lord will give her beauty for ashes.

     Does anyone else find obtaining the prescription medications their family needs to be difficult?

     David recently got a prescription for a medication called Singulair, which is very similar to an antihistamine. He finds that it helps him very much. However the price is high, our insurance only pays for generic meds and there is no generic form of Singulair - in the United States - that is.

     He went on-line and found a company in Ontario that sells generic Singulair for 1/3 the price of the brand name medication.  It turns out that the drug is manufactured in India, outside of FDA approval. Guess what? My pharmacist told me that many of the generic medications he provides are manufactured in India as well. The companies send him the Indian meds and he has no choice in the matter. That's an eye opener. He did mention that he hasn't heard of any problems in the chemistry of the meds at this point.

     Isn't it discouraging though that it is getting so difficult to obtain the medications we need from reliable sources?

     Tomorrow is my last day of preschool. We are having a Hawaiian Luau party for the children. Out of 21 children, we have 18 who will be going to kindergarten. The class list for next year is beginning to fill up. Conrad Christian School's preschoolers did very well at their kindergarten screening in April.

     There were three of us who team taught the children and our giftings were very different, but we blended well.

     Linda had a flare for music and drama and was spontaneous. Mary, a homeschool mom, was excellent with academics. My forte is art and with an older group, we could do many really fun projects.

     I told Jonathan that I am ready to spend the summer as his mom and Dad's wife. I may tutor a little boy, who's dad, a single father, wants him to have some instruction over the summer. I have purchased a very nice summer homeschool program for Jonathan, so the two boys could work and play together. It would just be for two mornings a week.

     I should explain my "out of the dungeon" comment. This week I moved my sewing machine and serger from the basement to Maria's sunny bedroom. I figured having the machines upstairs would be conducive to my spending a little more time sewing. It is too soon to tell!

     Well, enough rambling. I hope your weather is as pleasant as ours. Blessings to you from.............prairiemom (Denise)

Lessons from Dan's Life

     Thanks so much for your kind comments concerning my daughter's loss of a young man who was very dear to her.

     I am thankful to say that she is doing much better this week than last. She took her last final at Montana Bible College on Wednesday and feels a great sense of relief in being done. She intends to spend time with friends, pack and clean and then she will move from Bozeman to Montana Wilderness School of the Bible on the Rocky Mountain Front. She will be employed as a cook for a year. It will give her time to heal and to seek God's next step for her life.

     I wanted to take a few minutes to mention some features of her friend, Dan's life that have been a big blessing and encouragement to me.

     Dan lived life to the fullest and gave everything he had to whatever he attempted. He was a good building contractor, who was well-known in the Gallatin Valley for his plaster work. He led a weekly Bible study and was a greeter in his church. Dan displayed a remarkable ability to forgive and to accept others as they were. I admire those two traits very much and pray that I will be able to show them more and more in my life as well.

     May is an exciting month in our area. The lawns have greened up and the trees have buds on them. The weather is often cool and windy, but we know summer is coming.

     Bless you all.

                                                                 Denise (prairiemom)

Grieving

     I am in Bozeman this morning in my daughter's apartment at Montana Bible College.

     Last Friday evening, the man she loved was killed in a motorcycle accident. He was 22.

     Maria met Dan in one of her classes in September. She was a full-time student and he was a building contractor who loved the study the Word.

     After they became aquainted, Dan hired Maria to help him paint the trim in one of the houses he was building. She was only interested in friendship, but Dan was persistent and they began spending more and more time together.

     Maria is quiet and introverted, while Dan was outgoing and made everything fun. They had talked of marriage and she hoped that after her year at Montana Wilderness School of the Bible they would head that direction.

     Dan had only been a believer for 4 years, but he witnessed all the time. His father and step-mother are now believers, because Dan persisted in telling them about a relationship with Jesus Christ.

     My 19 year old daughter feels the grief very heavily. It is a lot to process at that age. I remind her that it won't always hurt this much and that God will comfort her anytime she asks. Her friends have been and continue to be wonderful in supporting her.

     I told her about the steps I take in overcoming difficulty.

     Healing will come as she focuses on other's needs. This experience will give her a degree of maturity that she can't comprehend at this time. She needs to focus on obeying God in each task He brings her way.

     Creative projects can be healing as well. Often learning a new skill is quite encouraging too.

     I have always found the verse Hebrews 11:10 to be very encouraging: " No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful, later on, however, it brings a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it."

     When we allow God to use hard times to train us, He will bring out righteousness and peace in our lives that will draw hurt and broken people to us. Then we are able to witness the love of our Lord.  The other choice is an unfruitful life of bitterness.

     Have a blessed day......................Denise (prairiemom)

Springtime in the Rockies

     Hello everyone. It is time for my weekly hello to you and for an update on life in Northcentral Montana.

     We received about 7 inches of snow on Saturday and a couple more yesterday. It is almost all melted and the grass is a delicious shade of green. It is likely that our lilacs froze, but that happens from time to time. It is worth it to get moisture.

     I signed Jonathan up for baseball and he had his first practice tonight. He is on a team with 6, 7 and 8 year olds. Our chiropractor is the head coach and he is well familiar with the minor muscle problems from Jon's premature birth. He said that baseball will help sharpen Jon's reflexes. The social aspect will be good too. He is a quiet boy, but he enjoys being with his friends, so with practice or games four evenings a week, he will get lots of social time.

     I recently finished crocheting a baby afghan for the young woman who was Maria's roommate during the fall semester of Bible college. She and her husband were married and are expecting a little boy in September. They are very excited.

     I guess that is all for now. I hope you're doing well and enjoying the signs of spring in your area.

                                                           Denise (prairiemom)

Gardening and Archery

     .....have been on my mind lately. On Saturday David rototilled both gardens. I won't be planting till Mother's Day weekend, which will give him time to till again before the planting.

     Last week I took a 12 hour bow hunter's safety course. There were about a dozen students and four of us were women. I could tell that our four instructors were being careful about the language they used and I appreciated it. I learned a lot of very useful information and passed the course, a requirement in the state of Montana in order to be able to buy tags for bow hunting.

     David says he will take me elk hunting on the Rocky Mountain Front in September with our bows. I will be practicing a lot from now till then with my bow and with his 8 mm Mouser rifle to be ready for rifle season, which follows bow season.

     I should explain for those who live in other areas where hunting isn't as popular that we really aren't ruthless animal killers, we hunt ethically and like to put some nice, lean wild game in our freezer.

     To answer Joann's comment: We are an hour north and west of Great Falls on Interstate 15. Great Falls is seeing some growth, but not nearly as much as Billings, Bozeman, Missoula, Helena and the Kalispell area. Great Falls is somewhat off the "beaten path", but people who like Montana and who can't afford the previously mentioned cities are being drawn to Great Falls. You might not find that it has changed a lot since you were there last at this point.

Cold and Windy

      In northcentral Montana, cold and windy describes many spring days. When we do have nice weather, everyone gets excited and finds something to do outside before the cold and wind returns.

     Our short Easter trip was a lot of fun. We drove to Bozeman, where Maria goes to school, on Friday.

     David and I met at Montana State in Bozeman nearly 30 years ago. Wow, how the area has changed. There are new shopping areas and housing developments all over. Sadly, our house in Conrad would be about 4 times as expensive in Bozeman, so it is difficult for most Montana natives to even dream about living in such a beautiful area. Now, for people from out of state, who sell their homes at unimaginable prices, real estate in Bozeman seems rather inexpensive.

     We attended the home church of a friend of Maria's and enjoyed the service very much. Do you enjoy visiting other churches from time to time? I find it to be a treat to meet believers in other areas.

     Maria baked both ham and turkey and made a fantastic pretzel salad. David took his Dutch oven with us and made a corn pudding, a staple at any holiday dinner.

     We enjoyed our time together as well as the spectacular mountain view from Maria's apartment window. Afterward Jonathan got to hunt for Easter eggs in snowbanks.

     Maria is home this weekend. She brought home a carload of her belongings. Currently she is attending Montana Bible College, but she has committed to a year long job as a cook at Montana Wilderness School of the Bible located in the Rocky Mountain front near the small town of Augusta. That will bring her just 1.5 hours from home.

     Her job begins in May soon after school ends for her. She will be at MWSB through the summer cooking for the C-N Bible Camps, so she will be very busy and will meet a wide variety of people. What a treat for a young, single woman!

     David is currently in Bozeman for some bankers' meetings. He will be home tomorrow night, much to Jonathan's relief. He doesn't like it when Dad is gone and I can't say that I blame him.

     Have a wonderfully blessed week everyone.

                                                      Denise (prairiemom)

Spring Begins

     Ah, the long awaited first day of spring has arrived. Welcome, welcome.

     To top it off, my favorite holiday is this weekend.

     Don't you just love Easter? How lovely to savor and give thanks for all that our Lord has done for us.

     Aren't you glad that Easter isn't as commercialized as Christmas?

     I fill Easter baskets for our children and we enjoy decorating eggs and of course the Sunday dinner with family is always very much enjoyed. But it's all fairly simple and not very stressful.

     In northwest Montana, Easter is almost always cool and windy, but then, of course, it's only March or April when it occurs. Those are pretty volitile months in our area.

     We are leaving for Bozeman tomorrow evening after David gets off work. Gas is selling for $3.23 a gallon in our little town, so we are going to wait till we get to Great Falls to fill the car.

     Maria and I will prepare an Easter dinner on Saturday and enjoy the company of some of her college friends after church on Sunday. She will hide some eggs for Jonathan as she has every year.

     I hope your Easter will be blessed and fun and relaxing!

                                                               Denise (prairiemom)

Beautiful Spring Day

     We are seeing signs of spring in our area. It always seems like such a miracle every year. I have tulips and crocuses poking through the soil and on close inspection, I can see green blades of grass in our lawn.

     I give thanks and praise to God for our mountain snowpack, which is currently at 110 percent in our area. We haven't even seen it at 100 percent for many, many years.

     Today I got outside in the afternoon and squeegeed windows and began some yard clean up. Our mornings are still quite cool, but some of the afternoons are good for being outside with a coat on.

     My daughter, Maria, is on her spring break from Montana Bible College. She came home to our house for a few days. Thanks to some frequent flyer miles from my brother, she is now in Cedarville, Ohio, staying with her cousin Kate, who is a nursing student at Cedarville Christian College.

     My brother and sister-in-law are driving from Michigan to Cedarville on Friday, so they can take the girls to the creation museum in Cincinnatti on Saturday. What a treat that will be.

     Speaking of Ohio, birthday greetings to Kim Wolf!

     More next week. Bless you all.

                                                                Denise (prairiemom)

Oh, Those Grocery Prices

     I have been reading about an upcoming rise in the price of groceries in the Great Falls Tribune lately. Fuel prices combined with better commodity prices will soon be reflected in the grocery stores.

     My ag banker husband told me last summer that farmers are getting much better prices for their grain. Much of the corn grown in our country is used to produce ethanol, so corn prices have gone up. Farmers are getting better prices for other grains as well. Wheat prices are so much better for the farmer than they have been in decades.

     While I am grateful to see our farmers get a break, I knew it was a matter of time before the consumer felt the pinch.

     We have already seen sharp increases in milk and eggs prices and there will be more to come. With an increase in corn prices, processed foods, which contain the dreaded high fructose corn syrup, with go up. Our newspaper predicted that prices will rise quickly like they did in the 1970s.

     We avoid processed foods as much as we can simply because we want to avoid the unnecessary and unhealthy corn syrup as well as its frequent partner, excess sodium.

     I began baking my own bread about a year ago. Fortunately the price of hard red spring wheat won't go up as much as the price of a loaf of chemically laden bread.

     Another item that is full of chemicals as well as the corn syrup is bottled salad dressing. I have mixed oil, organic cider vinegar and a little parsley for quite awhile and it makes a great, healthy and cheap salad dressing.

     I'm thankful that we have space for a garden and that after taking hunter's safety in April, I will be able to bow hunt with David in the early fall.

     I'm including a new recipe my family likes to use up extra bananas that I peel and freeze. What about you. Do you have some good ideas for helping with the grocery price situation?

     A special greeting to Theresa. It is always a pleasure to hear from you!

Banana Muffins

1/4 lb. butter or 1/2 cup shortening

3/4 cup (or less) honey or sugar

1 cup mashed bananas

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup unbleached flour

1 tsp soda

1/4 tsp Kosher or sea salt

1/2 cup sour milk or sour cream

     Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix ingredients and fill greased muffin cups about 2/3 full. Bake in muffin pan for about 25 min. or until golden brown.

     I have already modified this recipe. It called for 1-1/2 cups honey or sugar, which was way too much. Even 3/4 cup seems excessive to me due to the bananas'  natural sweet taste. The next time I make them, I will try 1/4 cup honey or sugar. They might not rise as high while baking, but they will be much more nutritious.

     I found the following website listed in our paper: http://recipefinder.nal.usda.gov

     It was made to assist people on food stamps use their resources wisely. It never hurts to take a look and hopefully find some good recipes.

     Blessings to all of you.

                                                Denise (prairiemom)