We are creating lots of memories here at Ranch Shekinah with our cherry tree.  ~Go Here~ to read "Summer Memories" - a post from last summer.

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I’ve written a lot about how much I love the gift of the Sabbath.  But ceasing from work for one full day is easier said than done.  When I first started to attempt to set this day apart, I found it hard to do if I had any laundry still undone, or to see a cobweb hanging in the corner of a room.  For the most part, I would try to just leave the dirty laundry and the cobwebs and dust alone.   By disciplining myself in this way, it gave me the motivation I needed to plan better for the next week.

 In this I have found several hidden blessings in honoring the Sabbath.   I have found that I plan my days better, in order that by Friday evening (when the Hebrew Sabbath begins) I am able to sit down with my family in comfort, knowing that I have completed a full week worth of work. My house has been dusted, the floors swept and mopped, laundry caught up, and I have a generally neat and organized home.  It was never like this before my Sabbath days, as I almost always did home management chores from a crisis mode.  I was always busy “doing something”  - organizing a room, a drawer, a closet, – or scrubbing down something – a high chair, kitchen cabinets - or attempting to accomplish a myriad of projects,  always hanging over my head waiting to be done.  I didn’t have time to “enjoy” anything, there was always work to be done. The saying, “A Woman’s Work Is Never Done,” could have been my mantra, stitched in needle point, framed, and placed at the front door of my home.  But since seeking to honor the Sabbath, I have discovered the art of planning domestic management.

Yet, I have found that on the Sabbath, in all of my resting and enjoying, I can’t help but notice and think of things that need to be done around the house/ranch.  I have to restrain myself at times to not jump in and try to get these things done on this day.  But in this restraining and relaxing, comes another hidden blessing.  I have found that my batteries are being recharged on this day, and I start looking forward to being able to get back to the work. 

 A picture taken (on Monday) from inside the house through the front porch screen door.

One of the things I love about blogging is that it encourages me to record special days and moments, either by photography or writing.  This past Monday was one of those days that I knew I wanted to record in my memories.  It was a happy day at Ranch Shekinah.  But it was a full day of work, too, for everyone.  There was an aura of happy children everywhere, even if they were doing some unpleasant tasks.

This is a picture of Joshua and Jacob cleaning the chicken coop.  I know that they look like something out of a science fiction movie, but they’re really only obeying their mom by wearing those gas masks. Sure, it’s a little bit of an over kill, but I have heard of too many horror stories of people that have personally told me of physical sufferings they have today because of past cleanings of chicken coops.  My mother-in-law lost a lung because of a disease that is caused by inhaling the dust in a chicken coop, and a lady I met just this last year is going blind in one eye because of the same thing.  So I make my kids cover their ears, eyes, and mouth before going into the chicken coop to clean.

What I don’t have a picture of is Ruthie and Jacob scrubbing the porch down and hosing it.  We have chickens and turkeys that sometimes make a trek up to our porch and before I can chase them off, have done their dirty deeds.   And I don’t have a picture, either, of the two of them sweeping the basement together – another job that I deemed necessary today.

In the afternoon, Rachel, Ruthie, Miriam, and Mara went over to our cherry tree to glean the ripe cherries.  After several hours of picking, they came home and sat on the porch, listening to country music, and pitting the cherries. 

~Go Here~ to read about a cherry pie made from our Ranch cherries.

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Inside the house, I was busy in the kitchen.  I had this terrific dinner planned, and I was looking forward to cooking.  I washed a lot of dishes (our dishwasher broke L) and made BLT’s for all my busy workers outside.   From my kitchen window, I could see this:

This was a day of happy children – working – yet enjoying accomplishing things and being with their friends that accompanied them. Joshua had a friend named Cooper helping him, and Rachel had her two friends.  In all of the pictures of the sights that I captured on this day, I did not capture the sounds – the neighing of horses, the chirps of the birds in the trees, the chickens and turkeys in the back yard, and the sound of children talking and laughing.  And as I did not capture the sounds, neither could I the atmosphere of hard work being accomplished with the “background music” of contentment and joy.  It is truly a day that I want to store in the treasures of my mind for a long time to come.