Work
-
moreThe Best Way to do Christmas Cleaning
On Friday, December 07 th, 2012Why it happened right then, when she turned toward the stack of dishes on the counters, the ...
-
moreHow Your Work Today Can Last Forever
On Friday, January 20 th, 2012remembering this, this week… When the Farmer slumps against the door frame, slides to the floor, mumbles that he needs me to take him to Emergency, I nod mute. I haven’t the faintest idea how I’m going to get him there. In that exact moment, four of our six children wage desperate tummy revolts. I shuttle to each squirmish with cold cloths, courage words, a pr...
-
moreThe Farm Report: {Work Days}
On Thursday, July 07 th, 2011‘Thank God every morning when you get up, that you have something to do that day which must be done… ~Charles Kingsley ‘We lived here by our work. Our life and our work were not the same thing maybe, but they were close…” ~Wendell Ber...
-
moreWhen the Grind of it all Makes it Hard to Keep Going
On Thursday, March 10 th, 2011:: ‘I walk in our back door to candlelight still flickering, hang the keys on the hook, and look around at the steep mountain of laundry there in the mudroom, the shoes scattered, a coat dropped. The mudroom sink is grime ringed. Fingerprints smear across the mirror. And I laugh the happiest wonder. In an afternoon’s drizzle, I give happy thanks for t...
-
moreWhat Housework is Really About
On Thursday, January 20 th, 2011They are two at the sink, in mama-stitched aprons, with the next basket of potatoes brought in from the garage, brought in from the garden, brought in from the long ago summer. And I laugh at the counter, laugh happy at this brother and sister scrubbing up spuds like long ago Brother Lawrence. Like thatBrot...
-
moreWhat We Inherit from Eden: Photos of a Day in the Life of a Farm Family
On Thursday, June 03 rd, 2010Tomorrow morning comes early, that’s what The Farmer says every night by nine o’clock, every night like clock work. The Farmer feeds animals to feed the world and he works the earth to feed the earth. And I’ve lived all my life on gravel roads with working men in pick-up trucks, men with grease-lined hands and broad shoulders and steel-toed boots and it’...
-
moreWhat Must Not Be Forgotten Every Spring…
On Tuesday, April 20 th, 2010A man goes to his field. It’s spring. Clay opens up the clay. And if I forgot, The Farmer’s country mile wide smile reminds me: we are meant for this, this knowing from whence we’ve come. The nostrils inhale it deep when I hang clothes on the line, loamy air, the dark, hidden promise, and after the winter, we’re anxious keen to remember. Remember that t...
-
moreWhat To Always Remember when You’re Working
On Friday, March 12 th, 2010All work is good work. The work of our hands is always making the world a better place. And work is my liturgy, motions of worship to Him, who from, and to, and through, are all things. All once was perfect, ordered, pristine, back there, In the Beginning. In That Garden. But not now. Not in this house, not in this garden. Science may call it entropy, the se...
-
more“Six days shall work…
On Saturday, October 31 st, 2009Six days shall work be done …. but on the seventh day there shall be to you an holy day, a sabbath of rest to the LORD.” ~Ex. 35:2 Come Sabbath, come rest. Till then… this season, we’ll quietly toil, stewards. May your Saturday hold good, soul-nourishing, God-glorifying work and may Christ be all you...
-
moreWhat Time and Grace Gives
On Friday, October 30 th, 2009I walk fields. Sun has dried the soybeans of summer rains and green life. Pods near split, spiral springs wound. Children laugh when the golden beans pop from their skins. Combines collect the gold pearls and I watch the great golden globe sink. “It will be late.” Farmer Husband unwraps the sau...
-
moreOur Best Bread Recipe: Foolproof Bread
On Friday, October 23 rd, 2009You were asking about our bread? It begins in field, bread basket under sun, then wheat in bread basket in kitchen… to bread basket on table … Foolproof Bread by Phyllis & Shirley Preheat oven to 375 Place in mixer: 5 ...
-
more
Priorities: Things Unseen
On Wednesday, September 30 th, 2009He comes to the back door, Opa Voskamp, like they all do. Never up the cobblestone walk to the front door, there off the porch, with its wreath and welcome mat, but to the back door off the garage, the one which purposely has no walkway at all from the laneway to the doorknob, and walk into the tossed shoes, the dropped bats and balls and shovels and gloves, in through the mud...
