The Pioneer Woman is my hero

The boys don't generally love cooking shows, but they really like The Pioneer Woman.  So much so that we watch it together.  They like the parts where she cooks, but they love seeing life on her ranch.  She has 4 kids and a neat husband.  They actually act out "Mrs Ree" outside sometimes.  J pretends to be Josh, her youngest son, W is Lad, her husband, and D is just happy to be there.  I think he's the dog sometimes.

At dinner, sometimes D will just decide he's Mrs Ree and he'll pretend like he's her--the host of a cooking show.  Cute in theory, but he makes a mess of whatever's on his plate as he creates his recipe.

Yesterday we made monster cookies which we watched her make one day.  I'm not a bake from scratch kind of girl.  Just not.  I was super motivated and tried to let the boys help me.  I just don't have the patience for much of that. 

I had them all sit at the table and they could help pour stuff into the stand mixer.  They did OK.  I actually let the big guys break eggs.  J did surprising well.  W tried, but when I told him to firmly bang it, boy did he.  Egg flew all over the table.  I have to brag on myself here--I didn't get mad at him.  He did his best.  We cleaned it up together and kept going.  Soon after that I told them I would finish up from there and they got to watch Bob the Builder while I did.

The cookies were amazing!  They were an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe with rice crispies.  I threw in some chopped up butterfinger just because I had some from Halloween.  Wow.  These are my boys' responses:
W:  20 times scrumptious!
J:  Crazy yummy delicious
D:  Even better than cottage cheese and turnips

I plan to write Mrs Ree a note telling her the high praise her cookies received from my brood.

When I like even more about Mrs Ree is that her attitude is wonderful.  She embraces her country life and thrives there.  I'm working on that.  We recently got 5 sheep (to sell for meat eventually) and 2 pigs (to prepare the soil for a garden and eventually our own table).  I find myself complaining about the smell of the pigs (yuck), the grass burrs (really painful but somehow my boys aren't all that bothered by them) and the amount of time all this takes from my husband. 

But he loves it.  It's his dream.  And my boys get to be a part of it.  That's really, really cool.

I doubt the Food Network will ever give me a cooking show nor is that an aspiration of mine.  However, I like the thought of being more like Mrs Ree, a beautiful woman that is at peace with where the Lord has her.  She blesses her family and many others.  That's just a cool thing.