I really have nothing special to post about today. It's a regular winter day with feeding chores and meals to prepare and cleaning up and keeping warm. I went feeding with my newest DIL this morning. I'm going to have to start putting special love-names on my DILs because now I have two of them and I hope that someday down the road, I'll have two more. Anyway, we girls fed the cows and the sheep together and it was refreshing to me to see my new-to-ranching daughter-in-love learn to appreciate this place in all of its truth. Ranching is not something you learn over night. It's not something a person may even like at first. There are a lot of stinky smells. There are beautiful births and untimely deaths. There are biting-cold winter days and sweltering-hot summers and drought. There is springtime beauty and tragic fall fires. I've always said that this is a country of extremes. If a person can accept it for what it is in its simplicity, in its life-and-deathness, in its harshness and in its gentleness, you grow to love it. All of it. It's good for me to see it again through new eyes as I once did as a new bride coming to the country, fresh to ranch life.
Day by day, day by day,
Oh, dear Lord, three things I pray:
To see Thee more clearly,
Love Thee more dearly,
Follow Thee more nearly day by day.
Your writing is so elegant, Jody. I think I see Him most in the people I love. Day by day. Good stuff.
ReplyDeleteYou are most kind. I agree with you too, God shines through to me in the people I love. I feel so blessed to be close by family and to work with family...day by day.
ReplyDeleteYour new daughter-in-love is quite blessed to have you for a mother-in-love! :) Contentment in the place we are is a wonderful thing.
ReplyDeleteI'm the blessed one.
DeleteWow….amazing view….
ReplyDeleteI know. I'm always taken aback by the views....still.
DeleteYep...and now I'm singing that song in my head! Blessings on you and your DIL's!
ReplyDeleteGood. It's a good song to stick in your head.
DeleteBeautiful post, Jody! It's lovely that your newest DIL is interested in the ranch and spending time with you. I'm curious now--were you not always a country girl?
ReplyDeletexofrances
I love both of my DILs and love sharing lots of good things with them. No, I was not always a country girl. I was a small town girl. I loved the country, but I didn't know a thing when I came to the ranch. Couldn't even open a gate.
DeleteFamily is Everything. How wonderful that you love yours and they love you back. That is a treasured thing. Your photos or your place are lovely in their simplicity.
ReplyDeleteIt's fun to be loved back, isn't it?
DeleteI showed the top photo to my hubby, and we both shivered. It truly is a landscape extreme and beautiful, but I think only some people can tolerate it. It looks so very cold! Keep warm, keep safe, keep finding God in every little thing. Glad you have good female company :)
ReplyDeleteIt was very cold today. Started out at -10 this morning and went clear up to 25 (above!). The wind has been horrid this past week or more. Tolerate it, yes. You learn or you brace yourself or something. I braced up and took a 2 mile walk to the mailbox. Probably stupid, but I did it anyway.
DeleteWhat a blessing for you both! Your 'coming alongside' dear D-I-L and sharing from your own experience (you've been there too!) is such a gift to her.
ReplyDeleteDay by Day....I'm singing along with you this morning, even adding oooo...ooooo's in between the 'day by day' parts!
Joyce
Someday I too will have four DILs I am so thankful for that.
ReplyDeleteI love reading about your life of extremes. I think living with the natural rhythm of the elements, the weather, the joy and the happiness are so unexpected but it is a simplicity that cannot be matched. As my grand mother would say, it gives you starch!
I used to sing that song as a prayer to myself when I was young. Reading the verses over still makes me happy. I did love that song.
Have a very lovely day.
An interesting post. Good luck to you. Glad you have Jesus in your life.
ReplyDeleteThank you. Love love, Andrew. Bye.
Your writing always encourages me to put my thoughts back in a good place. I don't live out in the country, but the natural world draws my mind and spirit to the Lord, too. My husband is the same way, so we have tried to impart that to our kids in one way and another.
ReplyDeleteI've always been drawn to that prayer which is an old one and the song is based on it. It says everything in a few words about what we hope for in our relationship and journey with God. What a blessing to have DiLs who are learning to love the land and the farming way of life as you do.
ReplyDeleteLoved reading this, Jody.. Your DIL is cute and I love that she wants to learn the ins and outs of what you do. Love inspires many passions. :) And that cow tongue is something else as we say here in Texas.
ReplyDeleteYes, what a lovely post Jody. I had forgotten about that song, thank you for the reminder, I need to remember day by day on this specific journey of mine. I enjoyed the photos of DIL feeding the cattle, what amazing tongues they have ;) Beautiful landscape shot too!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful Jody! And how lucky to have both of your DILs so nearby. Stay warm out there!
ReplyDeletelove that old song, Jody, but didn't recall it was from Godspell. I love my life on the farm; it suits me although I sound like such a whiner at times. I said on a post recently, "I've spent my entire life getting to this point and I don't want to miss a second." God blesses me, daily, and gives me a grateful heart. Such an enormous God!
ReplyDeleteI look at these pictures and I know this cold, I know the smells, I know what that cow's tongue feels like, I know the color of that winter sky, I know the presence of the Lord that you feel when you are surrounded by His good creation. I didn't grow up on a ranch, but I spent days with my grandparents on their ranch. I live in a 'big' town now, by Montana standards, but this rugged country of extremes is never far away, both literally and in my memory. Thanks for sharing your corner of the world with us.
ReplyDeletethis is a beautiful place that you live - love seeing your photos of farm life and countryside
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