Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies

The boys (big & little) have been asking for cookies again, so I grabbed out my stuff & decided to make some. This recipe is a family favorite. It is one from Jeremy's mom, and I think it is Jeremy favorite cookie. At least anytime I make a different recipe he usually bites into looks a little confused & says "This isn't my moms, is it?" So I thought I might as well share it with everyone else:  

My Favorite part of cookies, Cookie dough. 

Golden Deliciousness 

Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies

  2 1/2 c. White Sugar           2 1/2 c. Brown Sugar

 2 1/2 c.  Shortening              5 eggs

 2 Tbs.   Vanilla                     1/4 c. Milk

 Stir & Mix it in all together.  Then add:

  5 c. flour                            2 1/2 tsp. Baking Soda

 2 1/2 tsp. Salt                      2 1/2 tsp. Baking Powder

Beat until it is all mixed well. Then add:

  5 c. of oatmeal   &

  2 c. (or More) of Chocolate & Butterscotch  Chips.

Bake at 350 degrees for 11-13 minutes or until golden brown.

This recipe makes a lot (like 7 dozen or so) So I would cut it in half unless you want to have cookies galore. Usually I make a full batch & freeze most of . For some reason when I make them they are almost softer after  I freeze them & then thaw them. So I don't know what I am doing wrong, but either way they are delicious. So enjoy. 

They call the thing Rodeo

"It's the bulls and the blood. It's dust & mud.  . . .  And they call the thing rodeo."  You know that Garth Brooks song. "Rodeo". If not go listen to it. Up until now the thing they call rodeo was something that every year or so we would go watch at the local county fair. 

 That was until my brother-in-law talked to my husband & told him about a Jr. Rodeo Association in our area & how he thought our boys would love it & maybe we should look into it. 

And so he did.

And then we looked into it.

We have been debating for a long time what we could have our boys do, that wouldn't take a ton of time away from the family & chores.  You see I live in a small town & we have a great athletics program for kids around here. HOWEVER, even for the 5 year olds  have games twice a week & practice twice a week & some groups practice every day. I am sorry, but for me I feel like that is a little ridiculous to be taking your 5 year old to sports practice everyday in the week. It's at least too much for this family. I know others think it is great & if that is you. Good for you, but for us. That isn't what we want. Since rodeo is primarily individual sport, my boys could practice in the front yard if they wanted. That was an appeal.  

Then we asked my boys what they thought.

Then my hubby found out that only the #1 spot in each event actually got a belt buckle & 2nd & 3rd a gift certificate. There were no trophies for just participating or taking a up space in the arena. 

Then we joined. 

And so for the last few weekends over the last 2 months we have spent our Saturday watching our boys Rodeo. Now we know nothing about rodeo, but we have been trying to learn as much as we can as quickly as we can. And we have loved it.

My oldest son has been participating in Chute Dogging & Steer Riding. 

  Chute dogging is they start the boys ages 9-12 in the chute with the steer, open the gate. Once it passes a line 10 feet out there goal to to turn the steer so it down. It's quite the challenge for these boys.

                                                   Then of course there is steer riding . . .

         There is definitely a technique to staying on.We have eaten a lot of dirt this season, but we are definitely getting better. They are required to stay on the full 8 seconds.

                      My 2nd boys "the monkey" participated in Goat Tying & Calf Riding. 

       The last rodeo we went to, he finally rode the calf his entire 8 seconds & received a score. He was so proud of himself & it was so fun to watch.

 
When we started goat tying (this is an 0-8 year old category) We didn't even know how to tie a goat.

 By the last rodeo he had made a time. It has to be under 30 seconds in order to received a time.

                            

                               My little dude also participated in calf riding & goat tying as well.  

           

   Once the goat it tied, you have to wait 6 second to make sure it holds. This little boy finally got his first time at our last rodeo. He has been working hard to finally get it!
.

 Then of course the calf riding. For being the youngest in this event, he always got some of the biggest calves.

 

He came so close so many times of lasting the whole 8 seconds, but he never quite made it there. 

                      "Red" (my new baby) was usually quite good the whole time of the rodeos & this little mischief

  Well this mischief  LOVES to watch. He loves the animals & is constantly yelling & waving his arms at them trying to "herd" them back to the corrals.

 He spends the whole rodeo just like this: leaning against the bleacher in front of him. watching intently & occasionally I can get him to peel his eyes away & smile for the camera.

Overall our rodeo experience this summer has been great. The 5 rodeos we participated in were so fun to watch & the boys made some good friends. They had some great mentors helping teach them, since their mom & dad are still learning as well. The boys favorite part was one of the older boys, a bull rider, who helped them & coached them every rodeo. I loved to watch how even though they were all competing against each other there were plenty of pat on the backs & coaching along the way.

This is the bull rider the boys have become friends with. 

I must admit. I love watching the bulls, but I know that these boys are only 13-16 on these bulls & it honestly makes my heart stop every time one of them gets on & rides, and I am not even their mother. I can only imagine what is going to happen as my boys grow up & want to hop on & ride bulls. 

Until then we will savor every moment we can with what we are doing. They are already asking about next year & what events they can do. They are counting down days until we can find some calves & practice in our own yard. So we are learning & will continue to learn & practice & watch events. And keep working at this new sport. because there is something rather addicting about this thing they call rodeo. 

Our Newest Addition . . .

   Today I wanted to finally introduce you to our newest addition.  Meet our little boy "RED". (This is not his actual name, just a nickname for the blog)

  He was actually born over a month ago weighing 7 lbs. 11 oz & 21 inches long.
He was healthy happy & besides our normal bout with jaundice perfect. So we spent the first 10 days on a billi-light getting it under control.

  I don't have cool birth story to go with him either. It was my 5th c-section, so it's pretty normal for us. I did have a month where my incision wouldn't heal, so we spent the first month at the doctor 3 times a week getting special care for it. But we are now all cleared & healed & feeling great. Just trying to get a new normal around here, but that may never happen.

 But we just wanted to share him with you. He is loved & admired by all the other boys as well & it has been wonderful.

 Here is is now just over a month old & he has already joined us on 2 fishing excursions, 3 rodeo's & a multiple road trips.  We are so blessed to have him join us! And I am so happy to no longer be pregnant & feeling great everyday. Hopefully, I will be showing up on here a little more often as well. I have lot I want to share with you.

Life

I have been MIA for months. Literally months. I didn't mean for it to happen.  I was trying to have LESS time on the internet  &  it happened. Then things just snuck in & time slowly crept by. For those that are still checking out this little blog, I thank you. Here is a quick glance at what I have been up to.

As usual life has been kept busy with these ladies. More for my husband, than for I. Shearing came & went.

All the sheep were moved off the fields & back into the lambing sheds.

And then lambing began. The first lamb dropped on the ground Jan 1st. 3 weeks earlier than we planned.  We are down to our last few waiting to lamb, but it has been a long 3 months. My poor husband just keeps going & going, but I don't know after 90 plus days. He is superman.

I have been trying to get a few minutes in of sewing here & there as I can. And to have LESS unfinished projects lying around my home.

We discovered the boy number 5 will still be in blue. This has been the main reason for my absence. I only have 8 or so weeks left, but am lucky to enjoy morning sickness for the entire 10 months. So with everyday feeling awful. or at least throwing up in the morning, things don't always happen as I would like.

We have tried home school experiments that haven't worked & some that have. If anyone discovered the secret to building your own hot air balloon, please let me know. We have tried multiple you tube videos & tutorials all of wish never even get off the ground.

 So I am hoping to get back on here, once or twice a week again, but no absolute promises yet. At least not for 8 more weeks. I will try, but for now we  have been just spending our days trying to get by & make the most of what we have. Trying to enjoy more of the simple things: like watching a boy & his dog. 

Last Weeks Frugal Accomplishment's

                   

  If you read my last post, you would know that my one goal for 2014 is Less.  Included in this goal is spending less. This is hard for me, but something I really want to become better at in 2014. 
           One blog I read to get more ideas on how to be more frugal is The Prudent Homemaker.  This woman is AMAZING!!  She feeds her family of 8 on just a 100 a month. A month. 8 people.  I think she does have a  slight advantage is she can garden almost year round, but none the less she is amazing.  I love to read her blog.  It inspires me to do more, try harder. If you have a few minutes, go check it out!  Now, I have LONG way to go before I am even close to being that frugal, but she definitely gives me something to strive for. Almost every week she does a post about her latest Frugal Accomplishments.   I enjoy reading them & seeing what she is doing. I also like how some things she does, I didn't even think about it being frugal & I can go "Hey, I did that too!."  I have tried to write down frugal things I have done in the past week & I realized the more I write down, the more I want to do just so I can add it to my list. (I am kind of a dork like that.) 

          So in effort to share some of the ways I am trying to spend less this year, I thought I would join in with her. Now I don't know it will be weekly or just randomly. It will depend on our crazy life. So for now you can just take it as it comes. 

  Last Weeks Frugal Accomplishments:

• I cleaned out my freezer & saved the ice from the ice maker into a gallon ziplock added it into my freezer downstairs. I am starting to do this, so when we need massive quantities of ice for gatherings or other reasons, I don't have to buy it from the store.
  
• Sewed a button back on my 2nd son shirt.
  
•  I used leftover chicken from the Saturday before, to use on Sunday for chicken sandwiches & again for White Chicken Chili for dinner on Wednesday.
  
• Sewed  buttons back on 2 of my little dudes shirts as well.

•  I canned 14 quarts of pinto beans.
  
• Checked out books & DVD's from the library..
  
• I was able to become an affiliate for Craftsy. In getting accepted I also received a free class for up to a $50 dollar value. I choose the Beginning Serging class that was $50 dollars. I have been wanting to take this class for a long time, but never justified the expense. I was thrilled when I could now take it for free!
  
   
• Because of this class, I was finally able to figure out how to thread & actually use my serger. I have had it for almost 3 years, but barely used it because I didn't know how to thread it properly.
  
• I then used my fixed serger to fix a pair of pants. I have a long list of things I want to sew with my serger now. I am so excited.
  
• I made 10 loaves of bread & 9 hamburger buns. The bread gets cut up in slices & put in the freezer. We pull out a loaf at a time & use it. The hamburger buns were put in the freezer &  I will use them later this week for a meal.

• When I sliced up the bread, I took the ends & sliced them in small pieces. I dried them out for bread crumbs & will use them to make croutons & homemade stuffing. None of my kids or hubby will eat the ends so they would go to waste if they just were in the bag. I finally realized that cutting them up in advance was a way of using them so they are not wasted.
  
• I made homemade Granola without all the ingredients, just the ones I had on hand, instead of buying cereal. I normally don't buy cereal, but when I am pregnant I CRAVE cheerios. I buy it quite a bit when pregnant, because some days it is the only thing I can keep down. I resisted this week & made the granola instead. The granola isn't quite the same for me, but it still has been good. My kids love it & it makes a simple breakfast on the mornings I am not feeling well. 

• We worked at the ranch this week. Our trailer we slept in last year is now the cook shack, so all 6 of us camped out in this sheep camp. It was cozy & a complete adventure.
  
  
• While working  & traveling to the ranch we did eat out for a meal or two, but when we did we made it as affordable as possible. One meal was at Pizza Hut & my kids used their book-its for their personal pan pizza. So we only needed to order enough to feed my husband & I. The other time we ate at Subway & just got a couple of  their $5 dollar foot longs & split them between two people.
  
• I watched shows on CBS & Hulu.
  
• My furnace quit working while we were home & my hubby at the ranch. So he called a friend to come check it out & they were able to get it up & running. It only cost me his gas money, instead of a couple of hundred dollars for a service call.
  
• When I did go to to the store, I put items back just so I could stay in the budget I set for myself. I tried to only buy the items that were absolute necessity.

So there you have it last weeks frugal accomplishments. I have already to begin to write down this weeks & see what I can do to spend Less. What did you do this week to be frugal?

LESS

     I am sure if you have browsed around the internet for more than a minute or two you would see the trend of choosing one word as a type of New Years Resolution or statement. This year there was something about the idea  that seems to appeal to me. Maybe it was the possibility of making it simpler to actually remember my new years resolutions.

    I  remember growing up, we would almost always have a Family Home Evening about goals in January. My mom would make a cute handout for us to write our resolutions on. Most of the time they would be divided into 4 or more categories: Spiritual, Physical, Mental & Emotional. I used to love those lessons & the excitement of setting new goals, but after several months these great goals would fall by the wayside. Maybe it is my inability to focus on something very long, or that I am slightly blonde or just get easily distracted. Either way many resolutions were set, few were actually accomplished. 

   So for the sake of simplicity & hoping it will "stick" better I am chose One Word for my Goal. 

This year I want LESS.

• LESS stuff cluttering my home, so I have More time to do what we enjoy.
• LESS spending, MORE Saving.
• LESS self doubt, MORE Self belief.
• LESS discouraging words, MORE encouraging ones.
• LESS fear of failure, MORE trying new things.
• LESS time with technology, MORE time with my family
• LESS reasons why I can't, MORE  . . "I will . . ."
• LESS poor habits, MORE good ones.
• LESS time partially distracted, MORE time focused.

You get the idea. I do realize it is kind of a two worded goal, for every "less" I also have a "more" but you get the idea.  I loved this system that I read about last year ( I couldn't find here original post about it, so you get this one). So every month for the next year I am just focusing on one aspect of my less goal. One thing in my life for that month  I want less of & at the end of  the month I will share what is was & how it went. So here is a to a new year with a whole lot  LESS!

Do you have a new years resolution or goal? I would love to hear what it is.