Visiting the Parkers

Quill, the goat, feeling very excited about things.

Last night, we went on a walk to the library. Both of us were exhausted from a long (but good!) weekend and not enough sleep the night before. After a long day at work (and at the mechanic's and working from a coffee shop all day for me), we got home to tackle the housework we didn't get to over the weekend. (Looking at houses + baking all day for the Girls' Camp fundraiser + Father's Day with all the dads = not enough time for chores at home.) Stephen was AMAZING and fixed our bathroom sink. I washed ALL the baking dishes and made dinner, and just as we were getting ready to settle down, we realized our microwave was broken. After poor Stephen's frustration with the sink (did I mention how AWESOME he is for figuring it out??), we were ready for a break and decided to go on a walk to our local library instead of staying home. Fresh air and a change of pace is good for our grumpy souls, it turns out.

I checked out two new books (this one to help us plan our one-year anniversary trip later this year, and this one, just for fun). I'm super excited for both! AND I've felt a renewed appreciation lately for my local library. I have so many books I want to read this summer, and it's nice that I can do it for free through our county library. Thanks, Ben, for the books!

On our walk home, we passed by our friends, the Parkers. We go to church with them, and they live really close to us. They also have a lot of land, where they have.... chickens! horses! cats! a bunny! and BABY GOATS!! I heard bleating as we walked past their fence, and lo and behold, baby goats were approaching us through the gate!

We had to stop and play with them, of course.

The Parkers were finishing dinner, so hung out with the kids (Get it? Ha.) on our own for a while. The goats' names are Quill, Gamora, and Rocket. :) The grumps melted away almost instantly once we were playing with these little guys. :)

A few minutes later, the Parkers came out, and we met everyone else! (Except the second cat, which is fine by me, on account of I recently found out from one of those poke-you-in-the-back allergy tests that I am a 5/5 allergic to cats, 5 being the highest possible. But good news: I am NOT allergic to horses.)

It turns out that playing with animals is also therapeutic for our grumpy souls. I even got to RIDE A HORSE FOR THE FIRST TIME, and it was really fun!

I'm grateful that we went on a walk last night, that it is *basically* summertime and stays light out much later, that we have such nice neighbors/church friends, and that they let us play with their animals (and also sent us home with a dozen fresh eggs + freshly picked cherries).

The moral of the story is: when the grumps have you down, go outside and/or visit some friendly animals!