This is Harvest

It truly is the most magical season here on the farm. It’s a crisp autumn morning with a chill in the air. It’s the wind rustling through the corn and the crunch of leaves under your feet. Yes, it’s the best time of the year, but the change of the winds remind me that it’s also the hardest. And I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.

This is Harvest.

It’s waking up early to take in a load that you harvested at midnight the night before. It’s a cup of coffee and a kiss as he puts on his old ball cap before he walks out the door, the kids running down the hallways after him for one last hug. They can’t get enough of him during this season, and neither can you, so you hold onto him just a little tighter this morning.

This is Harvest.

It’s making meals and filling stomachs. It’s making his favorite chicken and making sure the gravy is just right, because it’s the only romantic thing that you can do for him during this season. It’s a hungry man that climbs out of his combine and into your seat for a taste of home and a break from the constant grind. It’s a joy to serve him like this, your farmer. Because you just couldn’t be prouder of him and how hard he works.

This is Harvest.

It’s doing it all; all by yourself, all the time, for all the little people. It’s soccer games and school pick ups, tantrums and bedtimes, homework and baths. It’s constantly being needed and constantly in prayer; for your own weary heart and for your men in the fields. It’s the most exhausting, lonely season, but you know that you have been chosen for this; to be the piece that holds your family together and the peace in the chaos of the season.

This is Harvest.

It’s standing on the front porch and listening for the hum of the combine and the rattle of the grain leg. It’s having to catch your breath when you see the headlights of his truck come up over the hill and you hear the crunch of the gravel underneath his tires. It’s the comfort you get when he climbs into bed and you feel whole again. There is nothing like laying in the arms of your farmer and knowing he is home and safe.

This is Harvest.

It’s waiting on the weather and watching the skies; praying that it stays dry, yet thanking God when He sends the rain. Rain means he gets to come home, rain days are God’s gift to us. And rain days mean a much needed break, a day to rest and a day to breathe. God always knows when we need a break during this season.

This is Harvest.

It’s a season of sacrifice, a time of great bounty and of great heartbreak. But it is in this season that we stay true and that we lean into the One who has entrusted us with this land and the responsibility to love and serve our families well. There is a quiet fierceness in us, fellow farm wives and mamas. Fierceness that changes our families, one farmhouse at a time.

We are the farm women of Harvest. This is us.