Tractor Time - A Time for Reflection

My tractor and grain cart - where I have "tractor time"

One of my favorite parts of helping with harvest is having "tractor time."  What is tractor time you may ask?  Tractor time is a time to reflect, to pray, to dream.  I'm so thankful that I have this time of reflection daily.  Before I started to be at home full-time, my reflection time happened during my long car rides with my job.  And in college, my reflection time came during my walks to and around campus.  I've always found time to reflect, pray and even dream.  For me, this is an important element to a healthy life, a way to learn, and a part of the process to grow and move forward to the next step.  Do you make time to reflect during the busyness of life?  Here are a couple ways to incorporate your own version of "tractor time" in your life:

• Schedule a time to reflect during your day.  Like I mentioned earlier, I have always found a time during my day to reflect.  Maybe for you it will be while driving home from work, or while you're on a walk, or laying in your bed before you go to sleep.  Whenever and wherever it is, find a time, schedule it even if you need to, that way you can start developing the habit of reserving this time to stop, slow down and review.
• Remove any distractions.  If you think finding a time to reflect is hard, then watch out for this step.  As a Mom of two kids, two and under, I find this challenging, but you really can't have a good deep, heart-provoking reflection time with interruptions in your way.  Turn off your computer, put your phone on silent and find a quiet spot where you won't be disturbed.  Now, I will admit, in a tractor I can't zone out and be unaware of my surroundings and my duties, but at the same time, I do find my time in the tractor to be somewhat quiet.  It's a place where I can't worry about what's next on my to-do list or what needs to be done at the house, because I'm not at the house and I'm gone for so long during the day I don't really have time to work on my to-do list (like blog...).
• Pray and Dream.  After you have made your time to reflect, free from distractions, it is time to pray and then dream.  No matter if you're reflecting about work, about family or about life in general, taking the time to pray and talk to God about your deliberations, your desires, and your praises is important to do daily as well.  And then dreaming is the fun thing you can do to round-out and finish your "tractor time".  I have always enjoyed thinking about and even trying to plan the future.  Now I say that while reminding you about the old saying, "If you want to hear God laugh, tell Him your plans."

I hope you all find time to reflect during your day.  What other steps would you add to encourage others to take the time to reflect?  Where do you have "tractor time"?

To conclude, I have to share this quote that I found when I got home today from the field.  I think it goes so well with this post, as well as encompasses harvest time in general.

What I've Learned About the iPad Since Christmas

Did anyone get an iPad for Christmas this year?  Well, my family did, in a way.  One of the seed companies we bought corn from gave customers a new iPad 4 - 32 GB, as a thank you gift.  I say thank you loosely because in the end, we really paid for it, but it was a nice perk from buying from them this year!  Anyways, My Farmer and I have always been PC people and have stayed far away from any Apple/Mac products.  But we are happy with our new iPad and have enjoyed using it.

LP might just enjoy the iPad the most out of the whole family

I figured I'd share a few tricks to the iPad we've learned by "playing around" on it and by going to an iPad class offered through an area Verizon dealer store, Cell Tech in Hampton and the Greater Franklin County Chamber of Commerce, along with some of our family's favorite apps.

iPad Tips and Tricks:

• To move an app to a different location or different page, hold down on the app till it starts shaking, at this point you can move it to where you'd like.
• To make folders of apps, for example - we have all of my son's apps in one folder, make the apps shake, then drag apps you'd like grouped together on top of each other.  This will create a folder that you can then give a name.
• To multi-task, double-click the home button and it will bring up all your apps as a bottom scroll bar, you can then bring up another program while saving your spot on another app.

Favorite iPad apps:

• My Farmer's favorite apps:  
• AgPhDMain - farming programs and tools from the Hefty brothers
• AgPhD Fert. Removal - you select a crop such as corn and it tells you the fertilizer removal information for it
• Angry Birds - My Farmer use to have this game on his phone but deleted it because it was so addicting - he says it is even better on a bigger screne! (we might need to delete it in the future... and not just because of him, we all play it!)
• LP's favorite apps:  
• PBS Kids - if you're traveling this is great because it has full episodes of all the PBS Kids television programs - LP loves "Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood"
• Farmyard - this is wear you build your own farm by adding animals, farmers, tractors, etc. - everytime you add something to your farm scene it says what it is and makes the sound
• I Hear Ewe - it has a variety of farm and jungle animals, as well as different forms of transportation on it and as you click on something it will say the name along with the sound it makes
• My favorite apps:  
• Evernote - if you're a note taker this is a great program that sinks your To Do list between your phone, iPad, computer, internet, etc.
• Bible - a nice tool to easily search for a bible verse, bible chapter, etc. or just to read the Bible from
• Ant Smasher - this is another addicting game that the whole family enjoys playing where you smash ants, but watch out for the bees!

Do you have any iPad tips or tricks that you can share?  What are your favorite iPad apps?