Journal - Working Out

So with our latest trip to Omaha over and our tire problems taken care of, we began a new week with a few days to rest up and relax before doing it all over again.

I decided to begin the week by working out. No, not exercising exactly, I haven’t been doing very much of that since my surgery. I’m talking about working outside! Monday turned out to be an absolutely gorgeous day, temps in the upper sixties and a light breeze instead of the gale force winds that we have so often. This spring I have been out in the yard a time or two just doing little things like picking up limbs or raking or edging the sidewalk. It’s been a long time since I could do anything like that. I was blind during our first two-and-a-half years in Nebraska, and before that we lived in city apartments with no yard to work in anyway.

My first project for Monday was the wishing well. In our back yard, out toward the road, someone had put a wooden wishing well. It was just an ornamental one, although I couldn’t tell if someone had bought it or actually built it. It was about 5 feet tall and perhaps 3 feet across the middle. Sometime during the last winter it had blown over in a windstorm and when Adam tried to set it back up we discovered it was completely rotted and just wouldn’t stand anymore. So Joni pulled the truck out there and I picked up all the pieces into a 50-gallon bucket and set it in the back. Then Joni drove it around to the incinerator and I tossed it on top of some trash that I had already set to burning. It was so dry and rotten I knew it would burn up good and it sure did.

Onto that I started throwing some limbs and branches that had blown down. We have four different piles of limbs sitting around of all the blow down from the last three years and I’ve been working at getting them burned up. Each time I burn trash or leaves or something I throw on some branches from one of the piles. On Monday I finished up the first pile and got a pretty good start on the second. Most of the branches are small enough to just throw in but a few had to be cut up, which I did with my handsaw, the only saw I have.

After I had decided I had done enough burning for the day there was nothing left to do but wait for the fire to go down. The wind was light but I didn’t want to go in the house and forget about it. While I was keeping on eye on it I decided to get out the lawn mower and do a little mowing. The week before, I had gotten the mower out and done the little bit in front of the house, but hadn’t gotten to the much larger back yard yet. So I started in and got about half of that done before I was just plum tired out. Gone are the days when I could just mow and mow for two or three hours. It’s kind of fun to mow again although I have a little trouble with it. As I mow, I can’t really see the lines very well and it’s hard to tell where I’ve already been exactly. I end up missing patches or mowing over patches that I’ve already done. I don’t really mind very much, it’s just so good to be doing something again.

So with half the back yard done, I put the mower away. The fire was mostly out by then so I raked at it a bit and then took the hose and sprayed all around the incinerator just to make sure nothing caught and my workout was finished. I was out for about three hours all together and had a good amount of color on my skin, mostly red. That’s something else I haven’t done for a long time and I loved it! It wasn’t a bad burn, a little itchy and hot but not really painful at all. Four days later it’s mostly turned brown and hasn’t begun to peel yet so maybe I’ll get to keep it.

So that was my workout. It was such a beautiful day in so many ways that I felt truly blessed. This farm has been a really wonderful thing for us. I can’t imagine a better place to have spent my period of blindness, or my current period of recovery. The peace and quiet, the closeness to God and nature, and the feel of the sun on my back as I work in the yard. Do you suppose God planned it that way right from the start? Of course He did! He knew what would be best for us even if we had our doubts, something He has proven to me time and time again. I just can’t wait to see what else He has in store for us! Oops, patience…patience…

Romans 8:28 we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. ESV

Luke 12:22-23 And he said to his disciples, "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. ESV