I had my day all planned out - a bit of cleaning at home then errands at five different stores, whip together a casserole for dinner before heading off to work later. A few phone calls to make, a brief list...but as long as I stayed on track I should be fine.
I haven't had much time to read the classics lately, but I believe it was Steinbeck who wrote, "The best laid plans of mice and moms...often forget to take the goats into account." (Well, something like that...)
Emily forgot to set her alarm last night, so with only minutes before the school bus arrived, I was faced with a dilemma - do I send her outside to care for her cloven-hooved pets and then drive her to school later, or do I commit myself to the goats today and whisk her out the door now? Not wanting to be seen in public in my grungy clothes, I handed her a granola bar in exchange for a promise to clean the bathrooms after school and sent her to the bus just in time. Little did I know that in a short while I would be driving to the high school anyway, after a call from the principal's office. (You know those obscure rules about what clothing violates the school dress code? Apparently they really mean it!) A stricter mom might have left her wayward daughter sitting in the office all day, but compassion won out (plus the thought of what extra chores I could now pawn off on this one!) I grabbed Megan's favorite Batman T-shirt from her closet but then realized I had a complication - I had just brought the goats up to the deck (where they spend two happy and loosely-supervised hours each morning and night.) The deck railings are well within their leaping range and even our cats can open the gates, but strangely the goats have never tried to escape the deck. It would take an entire bag of animal crackers to entice them back to the yard, so I just spoke to them sternly before I left, threatening that any misbehavior would have them scooping their own poop for a week. (Actually then I was kind of hoping for some mischief...) They were angels.
After that I don't know where the time went - I ate some oatmeal then took them down for bottles and weeds, got them into the fence and started cleaning up the overnight messes. I do not like to climb on the roof of the shed as Emily does, so I just reached what nannyberries I could and swept the rest down with a broom. I also swept up the driveway, upper and lower decks and sliding board. It had rained last night so the shed was a mess inside, and I decided to put fresh wood shavings in the plastic tray where they "potty" when it's too wet to go outside. Unfortunately I forgot how much they love fresh wood shavings, as they quickly swarmed onto the tray and wolfed down most of it, scattering the rest all over the floor. Enough is enough. I went inside to get ready for my errands (now woefully late), and before I left I peeked out the window for a last check on the goats. Golden opportunity!! They were now both sprawled on the shed roof, completely passed out. (Remember the man floating in the river a few weeks ago? Like that.) I have been trying to trim hooves all week but they are always too wild - no way could I pass up this chance. So I cautiously crawled up on the roof with the trimmers and actually got five of the eight hooves done before a passing breeze blew down some leftover raindrops from the tree above us. Thinking it must be a hurricane, my aquaphobic goats instantly sprang to full alertness, leaped off the roof and dashed for the cover of the shed. I reattached my severed finger (just kidding) just in time to see them both in the plastic tray (mostly devoid of wood shavings) letting loose two hours worth of waste products...Since there is not really room for both of them at once most of Emerson's poop went elsewhere...and so the cleaning begins anew.
What I am mostly wondering is this...does anyone think it's too late to start homeschooling?
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