Sometimes I fall off the face of the earth for awhile, I think it means that life is what happens when you are busy making plans I guess. We have been busy, not busy enough to make my blogging take a back seat so more for myself than anyone else I apologize for letting it go.
For some reason though, I felt the urge to write in it again. I think it is because in Iowa we are on the middle of my favorite time of the year. Fall. It.is.beautiful. There really isn't much more to say than that. It is the time of year where the air gets crisp, the leaves skitter across the driveway and the combines are seen rolling in the fields full steam. I LOVE it. It is absolutely my favorite time of the year. THIS year though, life has gotten in the way. As much as I love to sit and watch my son's play football, when there are 4 games a week in various towns and in various stadiums and in various places the landscape begins to blur together. In our house it sounds something like this....."Were we in Adel last week? No Clarinda.... were we there for Tyler? No, Nate. We are there next week for Tyler, remember? and for JV we are at Clarinda, and then for freshmen we are in Denison..." in other words, the towns and the players and the places blend together. But that is to be expected when you are going to freshmen games, JV games and middle school games.
But I think the thing I really like about fall is that it reminds me alot of my grandparents. I come from a long line of hardworking people. Farmers, business owners and house wives who fed their farmers and raised their babies. I am proud that my heritage has such hard working people. I think of my grandparents a great deal, especially since they are now all gone, but mostly this time of the year. THIS is the time of the year where I can sit and imagine and see my grandpa on his tractor bringing in a load of beans and where I can still see my grandma Shirbroun sliding her just baked pan of brownies into an old feed sack to run them out to my grandpa and the guys in the field. I can see them, and especially now I miss them..........
Both sets of my Grandparents farmed at some point in their lives, one set of my grandparents took over the farm my great grandpa farmed and now my father farms. When I think of the history on those fields, the generations before my dad and how they would farm and how my dad now farms, it makes me smile. How things have changed and how they have gotten better, and worse. Things were once simpler, now so advanced. Things were so much smaller for my grandpa and now for my dad, so much larger... more expensive.... more complex. I miss some of the simplicity, but I love the technology. Bittersweet. This is the time of year where I think alot about how I was raised. I can remember sitting on the bench behind my grandpa "shirb" on his tractor watching the combines roll in to empty his harvest, and when I see the farmers start to roll in the field I smile....
I try to teach my children to repsect this landscape and it's beauty. I try to tell them stories of their grandparents ands great grandparents so they understand just how hard they worked and how hard they had it. I think the kids appreciate it and that makes me happy too. I am proud to be from Iowa and from generations that worked hard to get agriculture where it is today. They were the pioneers, my grandparents, and my great grandparents and generations before them. How lucky we are to have been able to be a part of such a proud history!
So until next time, I will sit back, enjoy the view and relish the memories of my generations past. How I miss those wonderful, hard working people.... but in a way they are here with us today and especially this time of year reminding me of where I came from and what I represent. Happy harvest!
