A Lovely Day

Phil got up and milked the cow with no difficulty at all. I got up and did some general clean up while listening to a few CDs that were not damaged at all (a relief after yesterday's damage: among others, my Four Seasons, the piece of music that first made me fall in love with classical; Corelli's Concerto Grossi, such an orderly work; Haydn's Creation).

Phil was looking at Charity a bit later, as she looked longingly downslope at the other cows. "I wish we had another cow calving soon," he said. "I think she's lonely."

The boys were eating French toast when Phil looked out to see a large bird flying around. Unsure what the bird was, he looked for his binoculars. Then he noticed Shadow eating what appeared to be afterbirth.

Heading out, he saw that Bianca had an enormous bull calf dried off and standing there.

This calf is so far and away larger than any previous calf, Phil didn't at first think it was newborn. Only when he saw the bloody placenta did he realize this was a new addition.

So God answered Phil's prayer even before he made it, as we expect that calf was several hours old already, based on its mostly dry coat.

Filled with the joy of the calf and the warmish weather, we headed up to church and fellowship.

From there, we opted to go to lunch with some 20-somethings. We are thrilled that our sons are so well behaved that they finished eating and then sat in the car reading and listening to Car Talk while we enjoyed an extended conversation with about a dozen people from church for almost two hours.

I then got to go to a surprise birthday tea for a friend (I made it just in time!), which was lovely and delicate and beautiful. Phil picked up our spelt from the co-op, treated the boys to hot cocoa at a coffee shop, picked up a friend from church so we could go to our friend's house for Bible study, picked me up from the tea party, and then we went to Bible study.

We were there for probably four hours, talking and laughing; studying the Word and having good connection. Loved it.

I appreciate any day where I can have a good connection. A day where I enjoyed not only an answered prayer but four times of good connection feels like an extra special day of grace and love. Indeed.