Amy Boucher Pye

Tag: farm

  • Watercolor Wednesday: The gift of daily habits

    A watercolor with pen painting of farm buildings - a barn and silos - and a farm house, set in green countryside.
    By Leo Boucher. Used with permission; all rights reserved.

    Watercolor Wednesday is back!

    Today I’m thinking about farms, especially those in Minnesota and Iowa, as my parents were both raised on them in these states. I appreciate their work ethic which developed over many years of doing daily chores – the cows simply had to be milked and fed every day.

    How does a daily discipline inform your life? Do you have daily habits that you embrace – not only brushing your teeth and bathing (I hope), but daily rhythms of delight, such as going for a walk or listening to music?

  • Watercolor Wednesday: The value of work

    By Leo Boucher. Used with permission; all rights reserved.

    My parents both grew up on farms in the Midwest of America. Both learned the value of work, that continual work wrought by cows that need to be milked every day and animals fed and watered. They instilled in me the satisfaction of a job well done, whether a clean carpet or a writing project. I sometimes fear I am too soft on my kids in comparison – will they too love to work?

    Yes, work has been affected by the fall of humanity, where now we will toil and labor with sweat and pain. But humanity was to subdue creation before the fall, so we can infer that work can be good and meaningful. We’ll always live in that tension of living in a world that is made for beauty and enjoyment but one affected by sin and disease, and our relationship with work reflects that tension.

    What’s your view of work?