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SIMPLE PLEASURES

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ranchwife

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good morning,all!! i am sitting here, reflecting on a few of the simple pleasures in life while my 5 year old eats his waffles ("you're a good cook, mom!"....does not care they are frozen!!) and the cowboy gets ready for another day of calving, fence-mending, post-pounding and machine fixing. My 15 year old and 17 year olds are still asleep and will up and moving directly. Last night, they had a "surprise" get together for me (sorry, the 9 year old let the cat out of the bag :eek: ) and we entertained about 10 close friends and family members....got me to thinking about the simple things that happen day-to-day that make life so worth while...even in the hardest of times. My best friend had her 2 year old over and he is simply a joy!! I awoke at 2 to check cows, the air was cool, crisp, clean and the only things stirring were me and 50 heifers! at 3 this morning, the 5 year old decided that daddy and i were snuggling too close and climbed in between :lol: i was wide awake, so i watched the 2 of them sleep for awhile; their faces peaceful, relaxed with the occassional grin that tells you that they are dreaming something good. The "demolition derby" driver had my house spotless and had little notes all over the house when i got home yesterday...notes that told me how much she appreciated me and how much she missed me while i was gone...made me realize that even though i have made mistakes as a mom (hey, nobody is perfect), she is still turning out pretty damned good! gonna head out in a few minutes to check the cows again and then will awaken the rest of the crew. Yes, life is not perfect and the road to heaven is pretty rough in spots, but it is truly what we make it!! May you all have a wonderful day and make it one to remember!!! Give your children something to remember you by today...something they can tell their grandkids about!!

kris
 
Life is so wonderful if we only took more time to stop and smell the rose's each day, when our kids were little they would come and crawl into bed with us and it would have made a lovely picture to see them snuggled up next to mom. Have a great day everyone, just starting to get some calves on the ground here had to start a month early this year. :D
 
Great posts!

Yes, life is good and we all get down in our own little ruts and forget to look over the edge to see what's going on in the world.

My wife and I are leaving tomorrow morning to go see our brand new first Grand child, a boy. Can't hardly wait !

Thanks for an inspiring post.
 
These posts were a breath of fresh air. Cleared out the muddy places in my mind caused by reading some of the garbage on the other forums. Congratulations on the new grandbaby, Jinglebob. I like to tell everyone that if I knew grandkids were this much fun, I would have had them first.
 
Liberty Belle said:
These posts were a breath of fresh air. Cleared out the muddy places in my mind caused by reading some of the garbage on the other forums. Congratulations on the new grandbaby, Jinglebob. I like to tell everyone that if I knew grandkids were this much fun, I would have had them first.
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Another nice thing about Grandkids is that you wave goodbye to them on Sunday afternoon! :wink:
 
Great post ranchwife, I to have been taking a little more time to step back and enjoy the moment. I have been working with my two year old stud, who by the way will be a gelding monday. Anyway, He is so nice, and quite. He has a beautiful eye that looks at me with trust. He tries to do as I ask and seems very level headed.
Last night before supper the boys were doing homework. Our kindegardener is doing simple subtraction. He is suppost to use pennies or beads to count and subtract. He stubbornly refused to use the pennies, using his fingers instead. I corrected his paper and found several wrong, so he had to redo it. Which made him upset. After supper he went to bed, and when my husband checked on him he told his dad he was staying at school!!! He does love school....
 
katrina.....had to chuckle when you wrote about your kindergartener who wants to stay at school :lol: :lol: ya know, all i remember about kindergarten was fingerpainting, having the teacher read books, fire drills and RECESS!! the best part of the day was "nap time" :wink:
 
We had 4H public speaking last night and my 10 and 16 year old girls won but their 7 year old sister didn't-it was tough on her she dressed up in her hockey sweater and did a little speech about how she loves to play. Nice to see how her sister's and brother consoled her-lots of hugs from everybody and she was ready to soldier on. I love 4H public speaking_ I get a rehash of all the boys hunting and fishing from fall before-good to see the art of embellishing isn't dying lol. One time I suggested the parents have to write a speech and do them for the kids to judge but that got shot down lol. Is it the same in the U.S.-up here if you don't participate in public speaking you aren't allowed to show your calves.
 
our 4-h has gotten so politically correct that we cannot even require the kids to finish project books and record books, attend meetings or just about anything. We try very hard to get the kids to do more than take an animal to the sale for the big bucks, but it is getting harder all of the time. We did now make it mandatory to do a poster, illustrated talk, etc., in order to bring a market animal to the fair. We will see how it goes.
Great posts ladies, if everyone would start everyday thinking about all of the good things they have instead of what they have not, the world would be a better place and we would all be alot happier :D
 
Ohhh up here you have to do your speech and have a completed record book or you don't get to show at all-also only project leaders in the barn -no parents fitting the calves. It is 'Learn to do-by doing' isn't it.
 
We don't do 4H. There is so much politics and the ones with the money wins. We ust don't want our kids exposed to that yet. The school makes the 5-8th grades compete in a Modern Woodman speech and writing. My oldest came home yesterday with the topic. A GREAT TIME IN AMERICAN HISTORY. He is thinking about writing about the signing of the Declaration of Independence.. Do you suppose we will get threw out of school??? Didn't a teacher get suspended for bringing the Declaration into the school? I think we will be okay, we still sing religouse songs for solo contest. My son is playing IN THE MOOD for his sax contest piece. Will see how that goes... Yep sw we all take things for granted don't we...I read purposely driven life and that has made me slow down and not take life for granted. To stop and praise the good Lord for all of his accomplishments.
 
Katrina my parents kept me out of 4H for those exact same reasons you stated and it was a big mistake-god rest their souls. My 4 kids all love it-it's not about winning but about learning,the friends you make and the experiences you share. We've won some Grand Championships but we've stood dead last just as many times and my kids had fun both ways.
 
Rancher, I'm glad your family likes it. I found it hard to explaine the purple winning speech winner with gum in her mouth. The blue ribbon dog that was not groomed, the dad that bought the professionally trained horse that all you had to do was sit on. Oh ya my favorite, the judge that told, he simply didn't like the demonstration, based on only that reason... Do you want me to go on?? I got a good one about pigs... We have better ways to spend time together.
 
I can agree with you on the sour grapes. If you got a good thing enjoy it. Our family time is preciouse and with farming and ranching very little time, so we go fishing, best times are around the table after school. I value my friends more than ever do to the fact we don't get to see them.
 
katrina said:
Rancher, I'm glad your family likes it. I found it hard to explaine the purple winning speech winner with gum in her mouth. The blue ribbon dog that was not groomed, the dad that bought the professionally trained horse that all you had to do was sit on. Oh ya my favorite, the judge that told, he simply didn't like the demonstration, based on only that reason... Do you want me to go on?? I got a good one about pigs... We have better ways to spend time together.
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I remember when I was a kid and showing steers. I had one calf to work with. The neighbor down the road would have 20-25 and enough help to work them all and pick the best one's for her 2 kids to show. I remember beating them one year. It was a day I'll never forget!
 
I rode a 1/2 belgium,1/2 arabian mare no one wanted,so my dad took her.And there was big money horses I competed with and I won.... But in saying that, If there is any question in the judges mind, the better horse will win. I've helped judges score and seen it a million times. I remember a dad taking a girls horse out back and beating the hell out of it. Simply because I had beat it in pole bending.. I would of gave my right arm for a horse like that... It's name was Lady Spark.... As a parent we decided that you can't teach your kids honesty and interagaty and except flat out cheating in 4H. We went to the state 4H horse show in Huron one year and there was kids from our district there competing in the same classes as us, who never even won a purple ribbon at the district horse show. How? There parents corrorised the agent into letting them compete. What's the old saying You can't be an eagle and fly with turkeys.
 
There is a lot of things wrong with 4H, but there is alot of things RIGHT with it as well.

When we moved to W. Mt. in June of 1975, our daughter couldn't show a 4H horse because we moved too late in the year and there was no open show. So we observed and this is what we saw. The kids brought the yearlings in for showmanship and they were a dirty, ragtag bunch. The horses ate grass while being judged. They had something wrong with their hair--I would say it was lice. Very obvious that something was terribly wrong and as I recall, all the colts had this skin problem. They were all awarded a blue ribbon. I approached the judge after the show and asked why they were all given a blue ribbon as there was not a blue ribbon colt in the bunch. He replied that he didn't want to have to put up with the parents griping if he had given them all whites. So he took the easy way out and gave all blue ribbons.

Fast foreward to 1976. Showmanship. Yearlings. Ragtag, sorry coats. Same thing as 1975. Why not? They got away with it once. Different judge, and this one gave all WHITE ribbons. Man alive, the fair was almost turned upside down over the judges decision. He had to explain his reasons, big time. Everyone lived through it and guess what? 1977, nice colts, nice hair, shown well. And it progressed from there. I thought there was a real lesson here. But it took courage for the second judge to do the right thing. Maybe the first judge was being 'politically correct' way back then.

My husband had a broken leg one year at the fair and he took in the beef judging. He remarked that the parents faces went from WAY wide to WAY long depending on what the kids did in the ring. He said some parents were wringing their hands and in dismay if their kids didn't do everything right. The kids? They were just having fun.

My point in this is- 4H is to be a learning experience for the kids and basically it is. It is the PARENTS that ruin it. Why can't they just let it be, let the kids learn how to win and how to lose? Why is competition so great that the fun gets left out.

I started a Junior Horse Show there that is still being held today. I like to think we did it right. We had help whose kids were not involved in showing horses so there was no slanted judging, timeing etc. We kept everything on the up and up. No beating, jerking, running your horses all over the place, no poor sportsmanship allowed. Those young horsemen BLOOMED. The horses BLOOMED. We had FUN. We had great support. It didn't cost much to enter, but the prizes weren't great either. The kids didn't care. It started out as an afternoon deal but got so big we had to go to a full day. We had judged classes, we had timed events, we had things for kids who couldn't do either of these. Boot races and fun events--something for everyone. If anyone thought things weren't right, we never heard it. We had offers of help from so many people. Maybe today, that couldn't be accomplished with the way things are, but I like to think kids are kids. Too much emphasis is put on WINNING--it makes me sad. Everyone likes to win, but everyone should learn to lose. That's the way life is--you aren't going to win at everything you try.

Well, I really got on a rant here. Please forgive me, but the effort put forth for youth is important to me. It takes a lot of people behind the scenes to put something on and sometimes those people are bad-mouthed and not given credit for what they do. Their best reward to have their event grow and have more kids enjoy the learning process. They don't do it to make people mad, but that seems to be what happens too many times.
 
Yes, life is good and we all get down in our own little ruts and forget to look over the edge to see what's going on in the world.

My wife and I are leaving tomorrow morning to go see our brand new first Grand child, a boy. Can't hardly wait !

Congratulations Jinglebob, when our daughter had our grandson she asked me what I wanted him to call me, Poppa, Grampa etc, I told her have him call me uncle as I wasn't "old enough" to be a grampa, well one look and at him and Grampa was just perfect. Enjoy him all you can.
 
Speaking on behalf of the younger 4-Hers I would never trade in the experience and all of the relationships that I met through out my 13 year 4-H career. I stood at the bottom so many times and will always remember my first few years. I used to go to my grandmas and talk about how I placed last. She used to say that it would make me stronger, the same way it worked for my aunt who always had to compete with my dad. I never believed her and she said my aunt was so happy when she won the first time but knew the next minute she could be right back down at the bottom.

I finally was at the top and was glad when it happened but always tried to help out those below me whether it was in showmanship, grooming or public speaking. I think in this world of wonder as to what is going to go on with the cattle industry I can look back to 4-H and see that there are so many wonderful people in this world that things will work out!

I encourage anyone with kids to let their children go in 4-H, I know it has made my life so much easier once coming to my university and knowing half the people i went to school with and not to mention job opportunities!
 

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