Author Archives: ~~Rhonda

Living in a small town, I share my life with my husband Russell (married in 1977), five children (one still at home), and six cats (one indoors, the others outside).

I teach an online class called “The Christmas Notebook” which is about all things holiday prep. The many facets of celebrating Christmas comprises one of my favorite hobbies. Other favorite things include gardening, reading, cooking, and scrapbooking.

cookie cutter ornaments

A few years ago, I made these cookie cutter ornaments for the Christmas Notebook ornament exchange. They were pretty easy to make. I found a cookie cutter collection at Wal-Mart that had twenty cookie cutters for only $5. What you’ll need: Metal cookie cutters Mod Podge decoupage medium Scissors Background paper Paint brush X-Acto knife […]

menu plan monday ~ august 11, 2014

Last week was our presbytery’s youth camp. DH is the director, so was busy with camp all week. He came home on Friday, tired but happy with camp. Great staff, great campers, and a great place to have camp. They added a climbing wall this year which the campers really enjoyed. The surprise lilies are […]

the putz tree

Those who know me well, know that we put up more than twenty Christmas trees to celebrate the holiday season. A new one for us this past Christmas was the putz tree in our bedroom. Putz houses, also known as little glitter houses, were popular from the 1920s through the 1950s. There were small cardboard […]

menu plan monday ~ august 4, 2014

Time is ticking along. The past few weeks flew by and I am having a hard time remembering what the current day is. This week I am working on a yearbook for our presbytery’s summer youth camp. That takes a lot of time, so the menu is very simple this week. Several sandwich meals and […]

“i spy” tree

In 2005, I was perusing the book Mary Engelbreit’s Christmas Companion and saw a picture on page 68 of a little tree that the author called a “collage tree.” I knew right then that I was going to make one. The hardest part of this project is assembling the bits and pieces to cover the […]

twin time

The grands have been here quite a bit lately. When their Great-Ma passed away, they and their daddy stayed here for four days. Our son from Seattle was here, as well, and our daughter who spends her summers in New York came home for the funeral. Our youngest daughter still lives at home and the […]

chalkboard Christmas tree #2

One Christmas project I failed to post about when it was finished last season was our chalkboard Christmas tree. You may remember that we made our first chalkboard tree in 2012. It was a Scandanavian style tree, using the one pictured on the blog A Legg Up as a guide. That blogger found the tree […]

menu plan monday ~ july 28, 2014

We’re looking at a pretty quiet week, which is nice. The past few have been very busy. The twins are staying overnight with us while their daddy is at work and their mama is in Iowa with her job. It’s always fun to have the girls here. I am sure that once they get into […]

a lifetime of love

Last week, just a few days before her 97th birthday, my mother-in-law was called home to Heaven. She will be missed by her family, friends, church and community. Beulah was born in Kansas in 1917 where she lived on the family farm with her parents and three brothers. In 1948, she married Kenneth and moved […]

Mitchell vintage photos

I was loaned an envelope of photos from my Grandma Ruth’s side of the family. I’ve been working on scanning them and uploading them. I’ll post some here for the benefit of my extended family. Here is a photo of John and Etna [Northern] Mitchell and three of their four children. I wonder where Glenn […]