A Product of Grace

Happy Sunday!
I cannot even begin to tell you how happy I was to sleep in yesterday...ugh.  I slept until 9:21...9:21!
My beastie...and I do mean beastie...Rachael J and I were to be at the gym by 9:30 to workout together, so sleeping until 9:21 was not the best plan...
Oh well, we got our workout in anyway!

BTW this is Rachael J and I last night at my little sister Beenie's bridal shower...

Rachael and I have been friends since 9th grade.
She was the "new kid" so I was all like, "Her name is Rachael so she must be awesome" and the rest is history.

Plus she is good with numbers and can do stuff like count, and add them together flawlessly, so she comes in handy most of the time since I can do neither very efficiently.

She makes sure we do 3 sets of 10 at the gym, if it were up to me we would probably do 6 sets of 8, or 9 sets of 12, depending on what I was rambling about at the time.
She completes me.

I also have a great, super, fantastic picture of The Heat and I....

She's my rock.
If I could pick anyone to grow up to be just like, it would be her.

Okay, so here's the cake I made for the shower...are you ready?

 

Hands-down the darned prettiest cake I have ever made.

Period.

With monogramming!

It was eight layers of moist, dark chocolate cake, with alternating marshmallow and malted chocolate butter cream between the layers, and ombre' iced with vanilla bean Italian meringue.
Masterpiece.

I have a box of leftovers if you want some.

This week on the farm has been good...actually it kind of flew by, but not at the time.
We got quite a bit accomplished.
Fields chisel-plowed and planted before the rain.
I rotated the cattle to a new set of pastures, AND introduced my man Curly to the ladies.

I totally prepared them for his appearance, "He's not tall...but definitely not short.  You know what they say girls, 'dynamite comes in small packages"'.
They were looking pretty darn sleek and shiny themselves.

We should have some Curly babies next year:).

By now you know me pretty well, I think.
Well enough to know that I tend to look at things as "learning experiences".  At the time I might freak, or get mad, but in the end...maybe after I have slept on it...I have learned something and I appreciate that.

Throughout everything I have done in life, I have learned, grown and gained appreciation for every bad experience as well as good.

I truly believe I was meant to manage cattle, but most often a few people get thrown in with that.
It's how the operation works.

I will be the first to tell you I am not the best people manager.
I am not that friendly, or understanding, and I tend to expect everyone else to have the same work-drive as I do.
Heh.  Most people aren't crazy like me.
I can appreciate this.

When you have someone working for you, whom you don't have any experience with, there is a lot of compromising that takes place...more so on the manager's side.
That's hard.
But then you get to know the persons' work-style and things can get rolling.
....most of the time.

For me, there are two big hurdles to managing:
1.  My gender.
2.  My age.

I would love to say we live in a society where neither of these things matter, and maybe in some occupations it doesn't.  In farming it is very much still alive.
I understand this, especially when I hire someone who is older than me.

In my last job I tended to let my employees get away with more...buttheydidn'tspeakENGLISH!
It was a hurdle, and looking back I shoulda, coulda, woulda done it differently.
The past, you learn, you remember.

Luckily, maybe not for my new employee, I throw every punch I've got.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not a tyrant, I just want there to be no question as to who they are working for.
I want to get the job done, and if they aren't going to do it then either I will find someone who can, or I will.

To me, it's an absolute blessing to be outside each day, enjoying this wonderful creation.
The land and the cattle are constantly changing, evolving, and I get to be a part of that.
It's a passion.

To genuinely want to take care of these things is a task, and not for someone lacking spirit.

Through love and experience I have learned to watch and wait patiently for changes to take place.
This business is not very cause-and-effect.  It's a patience, and a lot of prayer, kind of thing.

On the flip side, through experience I have also learned grace.
The ability to understand what people are going through and why they might act a certain way, and to "sleep on it" before I  react is grace.

Right there in that tiny space before judgement is grace.

I am proud to say I am a product of grace.

Don't get me wrong, I certainly have a lot of learning left to do, but when I realize new things about myself, I take it as a nod that I'm going in the right direction:). 

Have a wonderful day:).

Love,
CowLady