This fall, my cowboy and I went to the Oregon Coast for the first time. Since his family is from Georgia and Tennessee, we’d driven to see the Atlantic Coast once or twice. Yet we’d never experienced the ruggedness of the Oregon Coast.

I’ve always felt inferior to my hubby’s sense of direction. He can be dropped into any pasture, in any state, and know exactly where he is and how to get out. I understand that the sun is our guiding light, but when I say he has an uncanny ability, I mean it. His natural intuition is phenomenal. 

When the kids were little and we needed a babysitter to go on a date, it took effort. After we finally found a night that worked for someone to come, inevitably something happened. An irrigation ditch flooded. We got snowed in. The kids got sick. The dog got hurt. Usually, though, the cows got out.

Have you ever noticed in ranching that there’s “flow” and “no flow”? The days things click into place are great. Items on the to-do list get crossed off, and people and animals are happy.

Have you seen those quizzes that are supposed to prepare you for parenthood? The idea is to get people thinking about how their lives will change once they have a child. These quizzes make me laugh because there really isn’t anything that can prepare you for it.