Clearing the Schedule

Where do the days go? In this family, Fall seems to be our busiest season. We're like little woodland creatures scurrying around at a frenzied pace to gather and store nuts for the long hard winter.  Only we don't gather nuts.  We cut firewood, store hay and grain, and fill our freezer with our garden harvest.

We're working cattle, and feeding out a load of steers for butchering before the snow flies.  On top of this, we have church,  the kids have school, my husband has a full load of business classes online, and he helps to coach my son's football team.  We have soccer, and co-op, and 4-H....Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

This weekend started out like any other, with too many chores and activities on the schedule.  Saturday morning, we loaded up the trucks and split ways to divide and conquer the tasks at hand.  By night time, we were exhausted and still had to irrigate at 11pm.

This year we haven't had time to cut a single stick of firewood, and it's already October.  That puts my husband into panic mode.  After church on Sunday, we had plans to start working on expanding the wood pile.  We were going to load up the saw, and cut two truckloads of rounds.

God had another idea.

We woke up to the sounds of heavy rain on the roof, Sunday morning.  We looked out the window.  It wasn't just a little passing storm.  We were socked in with clouds.  My husband was disappointed, to say the least. After church let out, it was still ominous outside.  By now, even if the rain stopped, the dirt roads leading to our "honey hole" would be thick with mud, and we didn't want to put ruts in the road. So woodcutting was completely out of the question.

With terrible weather, we had no choice but to rest.  Imagine that! Actually resting on "the day of rest"! The whole house took a nap.  As an added bonus, I was able to make all of my lesson plans for the school week, which really makes the days go smoothly. Having a day off was like a breath of fresh air.

Today, we're off and running again; work, school, an orthodontist appointment, a trip to the vet, a meeting with the brand inspector, and football practice.  We still don't have our firewood gathered, or our fall chores completed, but we're not going to sweat the small stuff. We'll get it done in God's perfect timing.

The good news is that we are well rested, and ready to tackle the week ahead! God gave us a wonderful break from the hustle and bustle of the season, and we got some much needed rain in the process.

God is so good.