Harvest notebook

This week marks the third full week of harvest. The farmers are going hot and heavy in the fields and are keeping my husband pretty busy. DR leaves before 6 o'clock in the morning and doesn't get home until after 10 o'clock at night. Not only does he work really long days but he usually works 13 days in a row. Which makes harvest hard not only on DR but pretty hard on his kids when they haven't gotten to see their dad for over a week. 

If we were a farm family Servite being harvest wouldn't be nearly as hard. If DR were a former then the kids could spend time with him while riding in the combine or a semi. Or the kids could spend time with him every evening eating dinner in the field. But a grain elevator isn't the best place for kids to hang out and spend time with their dad. It's crowded it's busy and really if we went to the elevator we would just be in the way. 

Yep and Yap are 10 years old and they are pretty close to their dad. Which makes harvest even harder for them to endure. So this harvest we have started a harvest notebook. Every day after school the kids sit down and write a message or dictate a message to me for DR. There Messages me explain how their day at school went or how their spelling test was. Sometimes they ask their dad how work is going or random questions they wanted the answer to. A lot of times the kids will ask their dad to do things with them after harvest. Sometimes the notes were funny and sometimes they are serious but they always end with a message to their dad of how much he is missed.

 Then every evening when DR gets home from work and as he's changing clothes and falling tiredly into bed I read him the notes from his children. He answers each no patiently while I write down his answers. He always ask plenty of questions of his own to keep the conversation going. In this little way the kids and DR keep a connection that sometimes it's hard to nourish during harvest. 

The harvest notebook has been good for everyone. This harvest isn't going to last forever. DR anticipates only a couple more weeks before life gets back to normal. It could be worse. I remember a harvest in Illinois that lasted three months. Whatever the length of harvest though when you don't get to see your dad it always makes the time feel a lot longer. So the harvest notebook has helped us be patient during harvest waiting for dad to get home and gives us things to anticipate when harvest is finally over.