I Needed To Be Spoonfed

I was tired this morning. Lil Buckaroo kept us up most of the night, and then spent most of the morning demanding to be held. Cowboy was able to occupy him for a bit before going to work and I slept then (which I SO appreciate! ) but I was still tired. With that tiredness came frustration. I have piles of laundry and counters of dishes that need doing, and its hard to do those when you're holding a complaining infant!

At some point this morning I posted this in my mommy group on Facebook :

I got some really good replies that I'll share in a bit, but of course those replies weren't instantaneous. I scrolled my newsfeed for a bit to see if I'd get replies and saw this:

from Smithspirations (by the way, if you're on Facebook I highly recommend that you follow her, I've been blessed many times by her daily scripture passage and old hymn!) There were some really good comments there.

I was still needing a boost so I headed for Google.
I'm sure you've noticed I didn't head straight for my Bible. I thought of it, but didn't know where to start, I wanted a list of encouraging passages, and my Bible doesn't have a book entitled "Encouragement for tired mothers" LOL
So I went to Google. I typed in "Scriptures for tired mothers, kjv" and came up with a list of blogs. One of the first in the list was MY JOY FILLED LIFE where I found this post

(I received all 20 cards, along with others, as a thankyou for subscribing to their email list)

I read through these passages, drinking them in, and then my favorite scripture started running through my head:
Isaiah 40:31
"But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."

I needed to be spoonfed this morning. I didn't have the mental energy to go searching the Scriptures for encouragement but I knew Scripture was what I needed. I needed to be spoonfed and My Father supplied my needs.

Scriptures from my mommy group:

What's YOUR favorite passage when you're feeling tired and need encouragement?

Fluff In The Field

I'm excited to announce that a post I submitted was chosen to be published on The Cloth Diaper Whisperer! check it out here!

I Am My Cowboy's Sweetheart!

I almost didn't post this. While I was writing I quit editing for public consumption and just let my heart spill onto the page. It became a love letter to my Cowboy.
I spent the last week trying to figure out if I should edit it (and what parts get cut?) Or write something completely different for a V-day post. But then I got thinking, when Cowboy and I were courting I said so many times how I wanted to shout from the rooftops how much I loved him! Well, here's my chance, I'm taking it!
Cowboy, I LOVE YOU!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAYwYscqXJQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player

I AM My Cowboy's Sweetheart
Ever hear the song I WANNA BE A COWBOY'S SWEETHEART? Its a song that I've loved since I first heard it and you know something? In a lot of ways it (and many other daydreams) has come true for me!

First off, I have my Cowboy!
I haven't learned to rope yet. I keep telling Cowboy that he has to teach me before Bubba learns to walk
I do ride, and Cowboy is teaching me to be a better rider (when we have time to play with the horses)
I've ridden through the plains of Saskatchewan, but I have yet to see a desert.
I love hearing the coyotes and watching the sunset, GOD is an amazing artist!
I AM My Cowboy's sweetheart and it's the life I love the best!

There's nothing like the feeling of flying on a horse's back! Camping out under the stars....
Mmm yeah definitely my kind of good time!

And yknow, there's more than the song lyrics. There's my dream of living on a ranch (check) raising my children (one so far) but most importantly having a GODly man as my husband.
Its hard to believe how many things that were on my "wishlist" that GOD supplied and surpassed!
I wanted a Christian first and foremost (check)
A man who was both strong and gentle (check)
A man who loved children (check)
A man who loved animals (and could he please be a Cowboy? (Surpassed!)
A man strong enough to be the leader of our home, while still allowing me to be his partner (check)
Boy it'd be nice if he played guitar... (wish fulfilled!)
...and maybe sing? (Yup!)
YOU wouldn't let him be tall and good looking ...would you? (Yes again!)

I LOVE YOU COWBOY!!!

Things To Thrill A Mother's Heart

-seeing my son reach out to hold his Daddy's hand
- how Bubba's face lights up when Cowboy walks in the door
- hearing laughter of Daddy and son while I fix dinner.
- watching Bubba do everything he can to get to his Dad, because after all, unless he's hungry Daddy is his favorite person!
- seeing the look on my husband's face as he watches his firstborn child. It makes me so grateful that GOD allowed me to be a part of giving Cowboy this gift! I love being a mother, and someday I hope we have a daughter but there's something special about a man having a son. Maybe its old fashioned, but we're an old fashioned kind of couple.

Don't Throw Out That Pot Of Rice!

So the other night I was making rice to go with some stirfried veggies I was making. I got distracted and let the rice go dry and burn. You shoulda seen Cowboy's face when I took that pot of rice and dropped it in a sink of cold water!
You see when I was young I listened multiple times to my mom pass on a trick SHE learned from a veteran missionary wife! Drop that entire pot of rice into cold water and it stops the rice that hasn't burnt yet from cooking (burning) further and rescues the rice (and the cook!)

Since I hate waiting for rice to cook, and I tend to get distracted easily, I'm VERY glad for this trick! I hope it helps you!

Cooking Radishes?

They say you learn something new every day, well I learned something new today!
I bought radishes to use in salads. Well I used the other salad ingredients and still had several radishes left. I didn't know what to do with them as I'm not fond of radishes on their own. Cowboy suggested stirfrying them, I'd never heard of cooking radishes but Cowboy generally has good advice wherever he gives it!
So I did some googling for recipes and found this blog : http://www.cleancuisineandmore.com/how-to-cook-radishes/
Now I can't say I exactly FOLLOWED her recipe... more used it as a suggestion.
I sliced the radishes and threw them in the pan with peanut oil. I added some minced garlic, chopped an onion and fried it all up. Once the radishes and onions were soft I added the rice and corn that I had cooked separately. (I find the rice tastes better if I cook veggies with it)

If I do this again I probably would pepper it a bit, maybe use Olive oil rather than peanut maybe play with spices a bit as the radishes cook down to more of a sweet taste than anything.

Dirty Cast Iron Pans + Eggshells = ....

For some reason I have extra energy this afternoon and Bubba is content to sit in his chair and watch so I'm taking advantage of it! I've got bread baking, beans cooking, my dishes are (almost) caught up and I'm gonna spend some time shining my cast iron pans!
Those of you who follow me on Facebook might remember me posting this photo a few years back but I thought I'd share it again with complete instructions. This is one of my favorite LifeHacks, I do most of my cooking with Cast Iron and if you know many people who use cast iron you'll know we don't like to use soap unless absolutely necessary, as soap would remove the "cure" on the pan.
So that means we need to get creative with our cleaning! This is the easiest way I've found to clean my pans.

I save my eggshells; first I wash the eggwhite off under the tap, sometimes I strip the membrane from the inside of the shell sometimes I don't, the only difference it makes is that the shell is more fragile without it. If you're going to store the shells for future use make sure they're completely dry (I may or may not have had to throw away moldy egg shells that weren't dried properly) if you're using them right away just dry them for an hour or so, until they're not sticky.

Scrape as much gunk out of the pan as possible, just like you would for normal washing. Put enough hot water in the pan to cover the bottom. Take 1 to 2 complete shells and crush them in the pan. Take your wet rag or sponge, capture some of the shell and use it to scrub the pan.
Once the pan is satisfactorily cleaned, toss the shells, rinse and dry the pan and give it a light coating of oil and you're done!

What's your favorite kitchen cleaning tip?