Cowboy Cookies

Ingredients1/2 c. butter, softened1 egg1 tsp. vanilla1 c. all purpose flour1 c. uncooked old fashioned oats3/4 c. chocolate chips1/2 c. brown sugar1/2 c. chopped nuts (I usually use pecans but sometimes use walnuts)1/2 c. raisins1/4 c. granulated sugar2 T unsweetened cocoa powder1/2 tsp. baking powder1/4 tsp. sodaDirectionsPreheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease cookie sheets.Beat butter, egg and vanilla in a bowl until blended (mixture may appear...

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Marking Puzzles

Our family enjoys jigsaw puzzles. If you have puzzles and small children, then you know how easy it is for pieces to disappear only to be found months later under a table leg!My simple solution to the obvious question of "Which puzzle is this from???" is this: I mark each puzzle with a number or letter (I used numbers for children's puzzles and letters for grown up puzzles) and then I mark each piece of that puzzle with that letter or number. So,...

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"Babies Don't Keep"

"The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow,for children grow up as I've learned to my sorrow.So quiet down cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.I'm rocking my baby, and babies don't keep."- Ruth Hubert HamiltonA friend had shared this little poem the other day and I felt quite challenged by it! How easy it is to forget such a simple truth.Mothers are busy. This is another simple truth. There's laundry and housework and child training and cooking and...

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Notes on Contentment

Make a list of positives and negatives of your life, Which list do you dwell on?We have a choice about how we view life, we can choose to look down and see the mud, or raise our eyes to the heavens and see the stars.God wants us to learn to be content in our circumstances, not when they improve.There are 2 parts to contentment, ours and Gods.1. Our part- pray rather than be anxious. Paul commands us to have nothing to do with anxiety and everything...

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The Role of a Homemaker

I wrote this sometime ago on the Yahoo homemaking group that I run. A friend resent it the other day and I was encouraged by it. I thought I'd share it again. I would love to others' thoughts. :)I was thinking earlier about the many different aspects of being a homemaker, and the many different pictures of what a homemaker is. I know that for me personally, my picture of what a homemaker is has changed over the years, and so has my perspective...

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Contentment- My Thoughts

Contentment is an issue that I have been greatly struggling with over the last few months. I began a devotional study on this subject yesterday and it really hit home for me. I thought perhaps I would share my notes with you because I know contentment is something that many women struggle with. The first was on having an eternal perspective. An eternal perspective in God's way of seeing things. When we have an eternal perspective we view our lives...

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Cleaning Schedule

I have gone about many different ways to take care of the housekeeping in our home over the years, and have had various degrees of success with different methods. We seem to change methods based on where our priorities are at the time. Right now we are needing to put a little more focus on having structured time with the little ones, and also since we are doing many of the tasks without modern conveniences we had to allow for more time for...

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Butchering Chickens

I spent the forenoon over at my friend Hannah's house helping to butcher chickens. Evelyn and Esther had also brought over their chickens to butcher. This was my first time butchering chickens! Hannah was so patient with my many questions, and I learned so much!They have a nifty machine that plucks the chickens. It was so interesting to watch the whole process. Joshua was very interested in how it all worked! The children all had such a nice time...

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Ducks!

Several weeks ago we were at the farm supply store and these adorable ducks caught our attention. Jamie just loved them! He enjoyed them so much that we decided to take two home with us, and so we have added "Chuck" and "Quackers" to our little homestead. :)I had no idea that ducks were so fully of personality! They are just adorable and ever so humorous! We have been keeping them in a little cage in the living room, although I think they are nearly...

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Planting Garden

My friend Sharon and most of her children came over to help with planting our garden. Their help was such a blessing! They arrived in the forenoon and were there till about four in the afternoon. It was hot (the high reached 93 degrees!) and hard work but we got the garden in!Sharon and I sorted through seeds and made plans while Leon went over the garden spot with the tractor and tiller once more. Karen cut the last ten pounds of seed potatoes....

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Busy with Being Busy!

It seems that lately my little blog has been sadly neglected. I suppose it has been rather busy and I dealt with another round of bronchitis. There's been lots of interesting happenings around our homestead, so hopefully I will have find time to catch up soon!This morning the boys slept in, so I decided to get caught upon a few things. I washed a load of laundry, started two loaves of bread to rise, and even did a little sewing. I got most of the...

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