Life's Lessons

Well, I missed posting about week seventeen and now I am almost to week eighteen. It has been a very busy week.


This past Thursday was a very trying day. I (like every other day) woke up with my mental (and some on paper too) list of things I wanted to accomplish that day. The day was already not starting great because the night before my husband brought home two seven week old baby boy goats. We were supposed to get girl goats. (That is a whole different story!) The fencing for the goats was not complete so they were put temporarily in the dog pen. The dog (a very high strung yellow lab) was tied out on a chain. I was busy trying to get my agenda done for the day: cleaning, laundry, homeschooling, phone calls, and keeping up with my two year old. It was after lunch and time to lay him down for his nap. I normally lay him down and while he sleeps I go for a run. He has always slept in our walk in closet in his play pen. (It does have an air vent!) He has never been a great sleeper, which is why he has never spent one night in his crib upstairs. It has always been easier just to keep him in his dark little closet with his fan running. It was perfect until he learned how to climb out. This particular day when I had a million things to do, I really needed him to get to sleep. He probably got up at least twenty times! I spanked him and talked to him until I thought I was going to cry. Saying he is going through a strong-willed time is an understatement! My oldest daughter said she thought I was going to cry. I was close. By the time he finally went to sleep I didn't have a lot of time. I had a hair appointment for one of my daughters, so I needed to hurry and get home to shower and get her to town. When the run was over and I was ready to take her to town I remembered that my husband had taken my van to work and I didn't have a set of keys to his car! After a frantic five minutes and almost calling to cancel (which would have messed up her picture appointment scheduled for the next day), I remembered we had a spare key in a drawer. As I was going out to make sure that key fit his car the dog came bounding towards me and I spilled tea all over my legs and she jumped up and scratched me. She somehow had gotten off her chain. With chickens roaming the property, we cannot leave her to run loose so I spent the next few minutes getting her tied back up. I did finally get to the hair appointment and we were only five minutes late! (Oh, and one more thing that happened was the chickens ate all the seeds out of the garden that I had planted!)


Later that night as I was laying in the bed reading my Bible I came across this verse from Proverbs. "A man's heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps." Proverbs 16:9 I wish that I could say that I handled the frustrations graciously, but the dog kind of sent me over the edge! I am trying to learn to be more flexible and realize that I am not in control of my day. Kind of funny, I was just talking to my teenage daughter a few days before about being flexible and dying to self and I find I still need to be reminded too!

The perpetrators


One of the other perpetrators!


And the cutest little perpetrator!