What a day!

Yesterday was, um, interesting. I had gone to bed the night before, struggling to fall asleep, and I created a wonderful list of all that I would accomplish the next day. Finally, I fell asleep and awoke the next morning ready to have a productive day.

We all ate a good breakfast and the kids headed outside to play in the pool while I picked butter beans. I'd almost had a gallon picked when while checking a plant saw, to my horror, a cow pie!!! This of course could only mean one thing. THERE WAS A COW OUT!

That morning I had noticed the gate had been left open last night when I had moved the chickens. Yes, you got that I had left the gate open! But, I had figure that since it had happened late that night and I was outside canning that evening (more about that later) that they hadn't gone anywhere. Well obviously I was mistaken.

I quickly texted Jonathan and he quickly stopped me from hyperventaling....he's good for me that way. He called his cousin (who owns the cows) to get  a head count. 6 cows and 4 calves. So I loaded up the kids on the golf cart (more about that later too) and took off into the pasture.

I knew where they liked to hang around this time of day and there they were.... 4 calves and 4 COWS! Oh, no! We took off to the other side of the pasture and started to walk down to the creek. Learning moment: do not go bare footed or with flip flops into the pasture!!! So now we all have thorns in our feet.

After failing to find the two rouge heifers we headed to the pasture next door...nothing. I brought the hot kids back to cool of in the pool. But, after a series of events I realized Thomas had, um, well an accident in the pool. No swimming!

I ran the whole pasture route again during nap time with no luck again. I started some of the laundry I had hoped to finish (but didn't) and went out for another look see after nap time. I had walked into the woods (with correct foot wear) and in every creek access I could find.

During nap time I had prayed we would find them. I hated the idea that we had troubled Jonathan's cousin. He had been out of town for a while fighting some forest fires and had just returned home. It wasn't the welcome home I had intended for him. So we headed out into the pasture for another head count. I was hoping to track them down before the cousin got off work. We headed back to their favorite shady spot and saw the 4 calves laying down, 4 cows eating grass and 2 COWS HIDING IN THE WOODS!!

The kids and I were so excited!! I texted Jonathan and he mentioned something about Lauren teaching me how to count to six. Yeah, he's good for me like that too.

The big finale was a trip to the mexican restaurant and milkshakes at Chick-fil-a. Oh, and Jonathan made it home in time for our night time stories. The day was rough, I learned a lot, and ended wonderfully.