A Day in the Life of Ree's Best Friend, Cyndi Kane

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Welcome to ‘A Day in the Life,’ a monthly series here on ThePioneerWoman.com where we peek into the wonderful, busy lives of some of Ree’s closest friends, family members, and fellow Pawhuska residents. First up, we’re stepping into the shoes of Cyndi Kane—also known among Pioneer Woman fans as Hyacinth! Cyndi is a longtime Pawhuska resident and Ree’s very best friend (yep, she’s the one featured in Little Ree: Best Friends Forever!). In fact, Cyndi and Ree’s families are “fifth-generation friends”—meaning that their parents, grandparents, and even great grandparents-in-law were best buds, too. Like Ree, Cyndi homeschooled her four children for nearly twenty years while leading a very active life in their small town: She’s a radio talk show host, an entrepreneur, and a cookbook author (her first title, Save-It-Forward Suppers: A Simple Strategy to Save Time, Money, and Sanity, debuted last month).

Hi all! For those of you who don't know me, I'm Cyndi Kane (aka "Hyacinth"), and Ree and I have been BFFs for over two decades. We've shared plenty of laughs and tears as we've raised our kids together (in fact, our kids mark the fifth generation of Kane and Drummond friends!). My life in our small town of Pawhuska is a little different from Ree's ranch life, but I thought I'd share a glimpse of it with you.

Truthfully, there's no such thing as a "typical" day for me. What can I say? I’m more of a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants type of person. But if there's one day of the week that's more structured and by-the-book than any other, it's Monday. That's when I try to put some big rocks in the jar so I can fill in the pebbles later. Let's jump right in...

5 a.m.

First things first, my husband, John, heads out to work—he's a Supreme Court Justice for the Oklahoma Supreme Court, and we live about two-and-a-half hours from our state capital and the judicial center so he leaves very, very early from Pawhuska. Sometimes, he'll even go the night before. This leaves just two of us at home: me and my son Phillip (my remaining homeschooler and high school senior!). Let's not talk about the fact that I'm almost an empty-nester...

7 a.m.

Okay, true confession... Though John might have headed out in the dark of the morning, I'm not a heroic ranch wife who bustles around in the kitchen to send him off with a big breakfast. Fortunately, John and Phillip are not breakfast-eaters! So, around 7 a.m., I'll have my coffee and toast, taking a moment to settle in and start my day with scripture and Wordle (one of these is more life-changing than the other!).

8:30 a.m.

After breakfast, my son heads off to take a college class. (Fun fact: It's in Ree's hometown, Bartlesville!). He'll be back later in the afternoon to work on his Senior Thesis for his homeschool program, and fortunately for me, he's mostly autonomous at this point. As for me, I really do use the methods that I wrote about in my cookbook, Save-It-Forward Suppers. So, I use both Sunday and Monday as my ultimate "Save it Forward" days—I like to spend a bit of time chopping vegetables, grating cheese, and so on—just some general sanity-saving tasks.

1:30 p.m.

Time to pop into town! I own the online store House of Hyacinth and act as the mom-and-pop shipper behind it—so there are always a few errands to run. After processing a few new orders and packing them up at home, I head to the Pawhuska Post Office to drop off some fun kitchen items to customers.

My daughter-in-law, Mallorie, is actually a buyer for The Pioneer Woman, and her office is right near the Post Office. Since The Mercantile bakery is right around the corner, I can hop over to her office with a Spicy Cowgirl in my hand. Since she has a 2-year-old and a newborn, an infusion of caffeine is always welcome!

3 p.m.

The late afternoon has always been my creative time—I think it's a remnant of my intense homeschooling days when the school day was over, and I could have a moment to myself. For me, creativity revolves around either cooking or my entrepreneurial endeavors. So, on a typical day, you might find me tinkering around with a recipe. Often, a Save It Forward Facebook group member will send me their family's favorite meal and ask me to "save it forward" into another meal—a creative challenge that I love!

My other favorite creative endeavor revolves around developing products for my House of Hyacinth website. Sandy from Reluctant Entertainer and I have teamed up to create a line of wooden charcuterie boards that are so unique and functional, and we're constanting dreaming up new ideas. Our latest is a travel board so you can have a party anywhere, any time—woop, woop!

5 p.m.

Time to fix dinner! Tonight, it's just me, my two middle boys, and Patrick's girlfriend Reagan. I decide to whip up the Chicken Salad Board from Week 3 of Save-It-Forward Suppers—I just love using a Reluctant Entertainer Big Board because it makes even a simple meal look magical. Even though it's sort of a laid-back dinner, I still want it to be a little special (for Reagan!) and substantial (for the boys!), so tossing some things on a big board solves both my problems.

6:30 p.m.

I can't believe I haven't mentioned the dogs yet! We've got a golden retriever, Riley, and a little rescue mutt, Missy. Riley always needs an after-dinner brushing because she is a fur-creating monster, so that's where I find myself on this Monday evening—brushing my cares away and doing my best to keep her fur looking somewhat tamed. Missy, on the other hand, requires very little maintenance—nothing like our Golden diva!—so she just trots happily around us.

Here's a photo of Ree with the pups—shhh, don't tell Riley, but Missy is her favorite.

9 p.m.

I learned how to binge Netflix during the pandemic—actually, I pretty much learned how to watch TV in general during the pandemic. This leaves me with a long laundry list of shows to watch at the day's end. It's hard work keeping up with all the shows my friends have been talking about for, oh, five or ten years. Yellowstone is my show of the moment—without, you know, the mafia aspects, it really does a good job of capturing some of the realities of ranching life.

And Kevin Costner's character makes a really good Ladd Drummond, I should add. Except Ladd is actually a nice person.

That's about it! I stretch a bit, head to bed, and get ready for another early spring day here in Pawhuska.

You can keep up with Cyndi on Instagram (@therealcyndikane!) or over on her Facebook community, Save It Forward Suppers, where she'll cook along with you and answer all of your questions.