Love's a marathon, people.
For Valentines Day this year, my husband did give me some beautiful roses and he and I took a refreshing walk through the snow on a gorgeous sunny day...
...this walk was unprompted and unplanned, however, and it comes with a good story...
Schultz V-day 2016.
We returned home after church with visions of a wonderfully relaxing day at home, but as we all know, the best laid plans...
Mitch usually checks in the barn when we return home from anywhere. He loves his cows, too. ;) Of course when you're hoping for a quick routine check, something like the manure scraper cable breaks. What's that, you ask? Well, when you care for many large animals, you produce a whole lot of caca. A thing such as a scraper that hauls manure away automatically is worth it's weight in gold, I assure you.
Any-hoo, such a repair means that my dear farmer hubby will spend most of the day in the barn. :(
He did come in the house while waiting for a service guy to bring a new cable out to the farm, which gave me a window of opportunity to take Jett to his friend Shayda's birthday party without having to bring Lena and wake a napping Zav, to bring them along. Shayda lives in the country, not far from us; especially if you can travel down a summer road which connects our homes almost directly. We did receive a fair amount of snow over the weekend, but Mitch and I both agreed that as long as I took the truck, the summer road should be fine to travel.
Famous last words of country folk...
We got more than half way down the summer road before the snow was deeper than I expected and I'm sure it was glare ice underneath it. And...........stuck.
Jett and I had been talking as we drove and I'm pretty sure right before we got stuck, I said something like, "I sure hope we don't get stuck; dad has enough on his plate today in the barn." Arghhhhhhh!
Jett and I got out of the truck and decided to hike the remainder of the way to the party. This is the type of scenario where I'm thankful to have large, athletically built children because Jett was a trooper as we hoofed it through fresh snow for a a couple kms. As we walked, I texted Mitch who said he'd come get us.
Jett and I decided that it would be faster to go through the farmer's field so we could cut the corner and make our way directly to their yard, but the snow was deeper there and J's stamina began to wane. So, I picked my boy up and piggy-backed him a great deal of the way. We watched as other vehicles arrived (not by way of the summer road) and I'm sure we looked a little crazy coming across the field. My competitive-minded son joked that the others were "cheating" by getting to the party in their vehicles. ;) He and I were much more hardcore.
By the time we reached their driveway, I was feeling ALL of Jett's 60 lbs on my back and of course Mitch arrived there at the same time. Jett was relieved that we made it to the party, and we left him there to play with his friends while we went to go pull the truck out.
Mitch was driving his dad's truck (my in-laws are currently enjoying some sun in the south). We drove through a section of the field to get into a position where we could pull our truck out, BUT... as luck would have it, we got a second truck good and stuck in the snow.
I'm sure you can imagine the frustration/tension that permeated the air around me and my valentine, but thankfully(?) we had a 40 minute walk home to relieve that tension. I truly am SO thankful that it was a beautiful day with temps above zero because if it had been -30, I would not have been able to see as much humour in this story!
A brisk walk outside, breathing in the fresh air, the sun shining gloriously on our cheeks... sounds down right romantic, right?
Well, with Kalena on my back and the knowledge that crap was piling up in the barn (quite literally) romance may not have been on our minds.
I will admit, though, that the walk wasn't all bad. :) Kalena enjoyed the ride and I decided that I would allow myself to skip my treadmill run for the day. Mitch and I were even joking around which trust me, is likely an act of God considering all that was going wrong with the day.
I think we talked ourselves into a good attitude. We probably don't go for enough walks together.
Mitch and I tried to remember Valentines Day's past (we've had 13 together) and the ONLY one that we could think of was the year (pre-kids) that we got a jacuzzi suite at the Days Inn in Saskatoon. Other than that, nothing stands out! It could mean that maybe we need to make more of an effort to make Valentines' Day special, or I can't help but reflect on how it really is only one day a year. We have a responsibility to "maintain" our relationships by showing love and affection many more days than that! (Dare I say, EVERY day?)
We have many cherished memories, just not ones that fall on Valentines' Day.
We are thankful for my brother in law and his dad who came out and used our tractor (we're thankful to have tractors, too!) to pull out both trucks while Mitch worked with the service guy to fix the manure scraper cable. The trucks were just fine. (I added that just in case my in-laws read this) ;)
I drove the long way around to pick J up from the birthday party. He was the only boy who attended this party and on our way home, I asked him if he had a good time. "Oh ya!" He said. "I never knew girl parties were so fun!" I asked him what they had done. "Oh, you know. We played tag, decorated picture frames and danced..." - I love my sweet boy.
Mitch was in the barn fixing the alley scraper for most of the day, so the kids' and I played outside for a while and cleared the snow off of our rink. I then worked on strengthening the callous on my nintendo thumb with Jett while Lena and Zav watched Paw Patrol.
Mitch had mentioned earlier in the day how great it would be to get Chinese food for supper. So, we ordered Chinese food for supper, but it was a 1 hour 20 min wait until it was ready and I got stuck behind a train while bringing it home.
At the end of the day, we all ate, the trucks were all safely home, manure was effectively being scraped out of the cows' alley, the kids went to sleep in their warm beds and Mitch and I could watch our current show on Netflix before calling it a night.
Call it a wrap.
Valentines Day 2016.
Seeing as it was a Sunday, we did go to church in the morning, too, and it was the Sunday for the worship team that I'm on to lead in the service. It's my responsibility to choose our song set and set the tone for the morning with scripture that accompanies the songs to help people to focus on Christ.
I love this job.
I love when I sit down to choose songs, and a certain theme naturally flows together. Often, without consulting our Pastor, the set aligns well with the sermon for the morning, and I can only attribute that to God's leading. Love it. (In this season of life with young children, this God time is a life line for me as daily devotions just don't often happen.)
This past Sunday, we sang a few songs thanking God for His love for us. He is love. We can love because He first loved us.
I'll end this Valentines (schmalentines) post by pointing back to the truest love.
1 John 4:7-11(NIV)
Dear
friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.
Everyone who
loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
This is how God showed his love among
us:
He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live
through
him.
This is love: not that we loved God,
but that he loved us
and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Dear friends, since God so loved us,
we also ought to love one another.
Romans 5:8 (NIV)
But God demonstrates his own love for us in
this:
While we were still sinners,
Christ died for us.
