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!
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 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. 

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. 

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. 

Murphy's Law

So have you ever heard of Murphy's Law.

"Anything that can happen, will."  Usually  what happens is bad, never good.

Well Murphy & I are good friends. Maybe I shouldn't say good friends. I don't really care when he stops by. He does stop by though,  regularly.

Maybe I should say: We are well known acquaintances.

Well Murphy decided to pay a visit yesterday. Apparently, I was due for another visit.

 Frankly, who knew.

 I thought we have seen enough of each other, lately.

It all started Monday night with a text from my hubby. (Yes, I do realize a trend that is starting to occur, with it all beginning with a text from my hubby.)

Once again, I reminded myself  I am the grownup.

So the day starts out pretty good. I get up at 5:30 a.m. get the cooler packed, eventually wake up my boys, feed them breakfast, & drive out to where we will be the sheep herders for the day.

 We arrive on time about 8 in the morning & I am feeling pretty good about things.

I kiss the hubby goodbye. He is headed to a different area, to load other sheep.

  "The semi-truck should arrive at 10, I will load, leave & be back here to take over by 12. Maybe 1 p.m. the latest."

And away he goes.

So we check the sheep & hang out. I have loaded up the car with all sorts of books, food, movies. ect.

The first hour passes quickly. While it was cool we mostly hung out outside, played, explored the area, & just had fun.

The second hour, we worked on a little school work & played some more.

It started getting hot outside so we loaded in the car, turned on the AC, watched a movie.

The next 2 hours, were a little slower, but still passed.

I called my hubby to check on things. The truck still hadn't arrived yet, so it will be a little longer than planned, but should hopefully arrive soon.  I wasn't thrilled, but no big deal.

I started making sandwiches & my little boy asked if he could turn on a CD to listen to. Sure, I said, turn on the car & put it in. And he did.

We eat, play more, its getting warmer, & try to pass the time.

 We finish a book we have been reading. We play  more. I notice the CD sounds funny, must be scratched I thought. Then I hear the awful sound of my car dying.

Yep. Died. We ran the battery dead. That is lovely.  My darling son turned on the car, but never started it & I never noticed.

 I was feeling pretty smart about now.

Great. Murphy strikes, again. Oh well. We will manage. I am sure my hubby will be here soon.

So I call him. "He quickly tells me  that I am free of my sheep herding duties. So go home."

To which I break my bad news. I can't. I am now stranded. The battery died. You coming soon?

"Nope, the semi-truck is now 3 hours late & I am are still waiting for it. So it will be at least another 3 hours before it I can get it you & that is only if the semi-truck miraculously arrives soon."

Oh, Murphy, striking again, on a late semi-truck. Lovely.

So now I am going to be here a while & I am silently crying on the inside. It is hot, I am just off a dirt road, that goes for miles, there is nothing but desert & a few large farms. It could be hours before I see someone. Did I mention I have 4 kids & it's hot?

I am getting stuff out of the trunk, when my oldest suggests a prayer. Good idea. We pray. I start walking to see if I can see anyone. Nope.

I go back to the car & try my car again, maybe just maybe it will start.

 No, again.

My son suggest saying a family prayer. I am silently praying as well.  Time passes, &  I see a cloud of dust down the road. I inform my kids I will be back, hang tight, stay in the shade, play with the youngest.  I will be back in a few. I begin walking/jogging towards a cloud of dust. Praying it is a vehicle. Waving my arms like a frantic woman. A half a mile or so down the road, I am still waving & trying to get to the vehicle before he turns off.

I am too late, he has turned down a road, & stopped. I keep running as fast as I can. Waving, yelling, looking like a crazy person I am sure.

Prayers answered the driver sees me & comes to my rescue. A short time later we have my car running, A/C back on. And I am almost in tears thanking the stranger for coming to our rescue.

Murphy's Law, had come & I had triumphed.

Then Murphy cocked his head & laughed.

We are headed home, & a few miles down the road we noticed some stray sheep. With our brand on them.

Not good. Sigh. Murphy 4, me 1.

 So being the sheepherders of the day, we begin to herd them back to the others.

A few miles & hours later. The lost sheep, have now joined the other sheep. How in the world we managed to lose them in the first place, who knows. But they are gathered up and in a corral.

 I call my hubby. He is now within an hour of joining us. Yea!!
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"So can you stick around & help me load?" He asks. Sure. My enthusiasm for our little adventure is waning.

So we do a quick drive around to make sure no more sheep are going to show up on us. Then venture to drive to the nearest little town, find a grocery store & pickup ice cream  & fried chicken for a quick early dinner.  Yes, fried chicken & ice cream. No wonder I need to lose some weight. :0) Oh well, when your hot, tired & hungry your thinking isn't clear.

So back to our  sheep post  we return. I fall asleep, my kids watch a movie & we wait for the arrival of our dear hubby.

He arrives.

We now have to load the trailer. Normally this should take us an hour or less. It around 6 by now, No problem. And once again Murphy cocks his head & laughed, over & over again.

I have never, worked with such difficult sheep in my life. Why oh why tonight? They were uncooperative, mean, ornery ladies to work with that night. If truth must be told, the rest of our temperaments were about the same.

Normally, if you get one sheep starting to load, the rest will follow. Not these ladies, we had to almost to hand load all 80 sheep that night. That still left more to load to in the morning. We have loaded bands of sheep faster than these girls. At one point in time, we are so frustrated, tired, hot, exhausted & did I mention trying to work in the dark. I made the comment that I am sure one day, this will be funny.

 My little dude responded, " No it won't, this is my worst day ever."

 Trying to be positive, I assured him that he has had a lot of days worse than this.

"Name one." was his response. I couldn't, but I am sure there has been.

(On a bright note, my eldest son saw his first falling star. He was quite excited. We decided that & a reminder of the power of prayer were the best 2 parts of our day so far.)

We had been kicked, pushed into a barbed wire fence, run over & more before my husband & I could tell the boys we were done for the night.  It was dark, by the time we left.  So we left the sheep until morning &  loaded all together in my car  to drive the distance home.

We were about 2 miles away from home, when we saw flashing lights in our mirrors.




We got pulled over. Of course, why shouldn't we be pulled over tonight. At this point it felt like: Murphy 100 me 1. We thankfully left, ticket-less, as it was just a broken taillight & finished our journey home.

We carried boys to bed, kissed them  goodnight, & eventually were able to crawl into our own beds. I glanced at the clock. 12:30 a.m. Not quite the day I had planned.

Oh Murphy's Law can be a brutal one. At least the day is over.

And as I laid in my bed, the smell of a skunk came filtering through my open window.

A skunk. Really?

 All I can do now is laugh.

 Well played Murphy. Well played.

To Everything there is a Season . . .

   The other day  I was feeling on kind of sorry for myself. I don't know if you ever have those days, but I did.   I haven't had much time to post on the blog the last few days & that kind of had me down. I was supposed to go to a quilt group, but was in the middle of working sheep & had to miss it.  

Have you ever missed something, because you were heavily involved in something else?

Like having a house stay clean for more than 10 minutes because your science experiment exploded a little too much?

 You know or all those moms that get together for a girls lunch because all their kids are in public school & you can't even go to the bathroom by yourself without a kid knocking on the door.

Or not being able to get a post on your blog, because your kids have decided to wake up randomly throughout the night, just to throw off your game. And by the time they are all asleep, your exhausted & say bag it.

Or miss a picnic in the park, because it decides to rain. 

Or you miss quilt group, for 3rd month in a row, because your lambing.

So any ways, do you get what I am getting at? Now let me say I truly love what we do for a living, I do. 

So back to my story . . . the other day I was feeling kind of sorry for myself. We are going on 60+ days of lambing & to be truthful, there was a few days last week when I was ready to be done, But it isn't done & so we keep going. So I was tired, & it had been a long couple of days, & I was feeling kind of down. Not really feeling sorry for myself, but just one of those moments, when sometimes is just hard to be responsible. I had missed quilt group for the 3rd month in a row because we were working sheep & I couldn't get gone. (Now quilt group is like the highlight of my "Me" time for the month. I love it, it is inspiring, fun & completely refreshing). I then talked to my friends, they were vacationing on a warm summer beach, I was reading my favorite quilt designer blogs & they had just come out with new patterns. (One day I plan on designing & selling quilt patterns.) I haven't made a trip back home to see my parents for almost 5 months now. Anyways you get the idea. 

So I was feeling a little down about all the things I "couldn't do" right then, because I am heavily involved in something else. (Ie. Homeschooling & Ranching).

So as I was going through my down day, I had the thought & scripture come to to me. Ecclesiates 3:1-8. 

"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace."

I realized how crazy it was for me to be in a down mood. Just because I am not currently not doing some of those things I wanted to be doing, doesn't mean I can't ever do them. It just means it is not the right season for me.

My season right now, is baby lambs & baby boys. And that is wonderful. My season is to be working along side my husband every day. To stand back & admire him from a distance as he provides for our family & I get to be next to him. 

My season is cooking meals, & changing a million dirty diapers. It is my season to be snuggling with babies, teaching math & washing muddy clothes from little boys. 

My season right now is reading bedtime stories, playing soccer as a family & eating lunch with my boys, not my girlfriends.  One day I may not be able to read bedtime stories, & snuggle. I may not have any more dirty diapers to change, or spelling to practice.  There will come a time (& I pray not for 75 more years!) That I won't get to stand next to my handsome hubby & work.

One day this season will end & then I will have plenty of time to make quilt patterns, & sit on a beach,  eat lunch with my friends, or have my house stay clean.  But sometimes we just have to remember, to everything there is a season. And how lucky we are to be in the season of life we are in.  And I am sure when that day comes I will dearly miss this season I am in. 

So since that day, I have been keeping that in my head, to everything there is a season, & I have tried to enjoy it more. Snuggling a little longer, loving the curly locks of my baby, letting them stay up a little longer, trying to say yes instead of no more, admiring my ruggedly handsome hubby more,  reading another chapter because they asked, slowing down & being grateful. Just grateful that I have been so blessed in this wonderful season of my life. And you know what, once I changed perspective I feel so much more at peace & I found time to sew! 

What is your season of life right now? 

Happy 2013!

I can't believe another year has come & gone. 2012 was great!! I think 2013 will be amazing as well. We have been at the "ranch" since Monday. I can currently hear my boys screaming with delight as they get pulled on sleds on the way to do more chores.
My baby is in my arms nursing & getting ready for a nap. It's precious & these moments make me happy. We spent New a years here & then made a quick trip to Utah to pick things up for work & had the chance to stay with my sister overnight. She home schools as well & I always leave her home inspired with new ideas & my excitement renewed about homeschooling. I will post ideas later, since things I can post from my phone are limited.

Here are a few pictures from these past few days: