One of Those Days

I'm still thankful for my life, even after yesterday afternoon. It would be at least mildly entertaining for someone else to read about so I thought I'd post.
Keep in mind as you read that I'm trying to prepare for company on Friday evening. I've invited all the home educating families in my area to a picnic and "farmish day" at our house.
The day started out pretty well. I felt good about how much time I had to finish all of my tasks for the day. I need all the time I can get (which is why I'm sitting at this computer for the second time today. I'm an excellent procrastinator. It's a real gift of mine.) Things went really well until about noon. I went out as usual to do the animal chores. I got to thinking that it hasn't rained in quite a while so I decided to turn on the sprinkler in the kitchen garden. I checked on the chicks and all seemed well. After that I went to the barn, opened up the chickens and threw them some scratch. (Molly comes along a bit later in the AM and gives them fresh H2O and gathers eggs.) Then it was off to the goats, who insist on being next. They get a flake of alfalfa and fresh water in the morning. Of course, I have to sit and talk to them for a while. I use that time to look closely at them and make sure all seems well.
Finally it's the rabbit's turn. They get fresh water, the does and bunnies get their feeders filled with pellets and they all get their hay racks filled with timothy hay. Sometimes if I feel particularly nice and the goats want to share their "candy" I give the rabbits some alfalfa.
Yesterday I had to also clean the goat barn so our company wouldn't object to the smell too much. That took quite a while, but I was still mildly on schedule. The kids pretty much equally helped and hindered the process of doing all these chores. They did a little work and also a lot of begging to hold bunnies (requiring some supervision on my part).
After finishing up in the barn I came to the house to get the kids rolling on their chores and posted about my thankfulness for this life. OK, this is where things began to go south...
I checked on the chicks again only to find one dying and many others getting pasty back sides. This meant I had to become nurse and gourmet cook for chicks. I got out my grain mill and coarsely ground corn and oats in equal measure, and mixed that 50/50 with chick starter. Then I grabbed the mineral oil and q-tips to clean the little chick bottoms of the dried poop. I think I've dealt with the last chick butt this morning. I hope. This took too much time, and in my mind I was thinking, "This wasn't supposed to happen today!" I dealt with that all afternoon, off and on.
Of course, nothing in the house got done (by me) except two loads of laundry. Sometime in the process I'd decided to clean and re-fill the hummingbird feeders. I accidentally spilled on the floor (yep - big sticky mess). By now I (even procrastinator extraordinaire) was beginning to feel a bit panicky. I was putting the hummer feeder back when I looked up to see...a wolf in my yard! Only it wasn't. It was about a 120 lbd. Alaskan Malamute/wolf mix wearing a collar. First thought was the chickens. Where are they? Oh no, I think we have a problem! The kids and I yell at the dog to "get out of here!" Dog does the opposite, coming right to us.
Panic panic...
my, you are sweet!...
what am I going to do with you?...
Tie dog to picnic table...
Ponder...
Ignore dog...
pet dog...
Finally, I left the dog tied to the picnic table and got ready to get daughter from riding lesson. As I was getting in the car I saw the neighbor driving slowly past and hoped he was looking for the dog. I put the super cute, friendly schedule breaker in my van and drove to the neighbors with him. Sure enough, the neighbor had been dog sitting. SO happy that I'm done with that problem, but tears behind my eyes as I have gotten nothing done that I needed to do, because there were too many things I NEEDED TO DO!
Then I found out it was only Tuesday when I'd thought it was Wednesday (I'd known that in the morning, but I lost a day sometime in the chaos). I was in the yard jumping up and down and shouting "hallelujah!" And here I am...
Still thankful for this life, and pleased to have gained a whole day that I'm going now to keep using wisely, I hope! :)
OK, that was very long, like my day yesterday. I apologize, and hope someone out there liked reading it. Have a beautiful afternoon!