I Like Mental Health Days!

Phil picked up our three cows at 8am this morning. He called to say, "It was very exciting."

I was hoping that meant emotionally, but apparently it was exciting corporeally, too. I didn't realize this, but they're not broke to the halter. Translation: "skittish." One escaped and Phil and Doug Flack had to catch it. "We might need more fence," said Phil.

I think I keep expecting the animals we get to be lovey-dovey, like overgrown puppies, or maybe like a friendly horse. These animals that prefer to stay far away—I still don't know what to think about them. Am I really supposed to stay away? Or will affection grow?

Little Benny shies away from me. But he started making little lamb leaps today. So sweet!

I had a mental health day. Which means I played catch up on housekeeping, mostly. Going through papers, filing for the last month or two. I found summer clothes for the boys (out of the back of the office trailer. I was pleased I could find anything in that large structure).

Better yet, I found the meat grinder that goes with the KitchenAid, so I thawed all the buck meat I could find and Isaiah and I ground it up. We ended up with 20 pounds of burger meat in the freezer, and enough left over for the boys to have dinner tonight. (It was extremely lean meat, so I fried the burgers in lard. Jadon's comment: "I think it's more savory than usual." What 7-year-old uses the word "savory"?!)



One of the children accidentally slammed Abraham's right thumb in the door. It is quite sore and swollen, but he can bend it, and he didn't throw up (which I have heard is the sign of a broken bone). He tried valiantly to use a fork to eat his burger, but I think he finally ended up using his left hand and ignoring the fork altogether.

I took a little time to walk down to our bottom land (the land near the creek, or the "bottom" of our property, elevation-wise. Bottom land is usually the most fertile part of a farm, as all the topsoil erodes down). The bottom land is leafing out. There are a lot of nasty thorny plants (maybe wild rose), but I can close my eyes and picture it as pasture. Phil's had vision for a long time, but I am slower to see the unseen.

The barely seen includes the buds on the trees. Our view is not really green yet, but I can tell it's approaching.



And the heeled in trees are leafing out.



While Abigail took a late afternoon nap, I bathed the boys and put them in their Easter clothes. I used to do photo shoots with my blondies, but haven't for some time. They are handsome little men. (And Isaiah was thrilled to hold Benny for some of the early photos.)



Jadon has never been keen on physical affection. The book titled How Do You Hug a Porcupine? seems specially written for him. But yesterday as he climbed up to bed, he snaked his lanky arm around my neck and gave me a hug. That was one of the beautiful moments in parenting. I think he's happy.



As are we all.