adventures in baby- and chicken-sitting

first, i'd like to wish a very happy 22nd birthday to rachel.

i spent the past two days babysitting. i know this sounds strange, because everyone seems to be laboring under the assumption that i am not very nurturing, per se, but i do actually like kids. i watched the 4 year old son and 12 year old daughter of some family friends from sunday afternoon to monday evening while their parents took their other daughter to visit colleges. those of you that are aware of my lack of domestic ability would be proud. i made four meals, nobody died, and nothing got set on fire. the chickens did escape, but that was not my fault in the least. more on this subject later. i enjoyed myself for the most part. nathan is quite possibly the cutest child alive, even if he did severely trounce me in monopoly junior twice. i didn't even have to cheat to lose. trust me, that can be a real blow to your ego. it did make me feel better, though, when i found out that his 20 year old brother had to check out books from the library to keep from losing to him in chess. (peter - you're never living that one down.)

about the chickens. abby, the 12 year old, has gotten onto this kick where she's raising chickens. they live in this huge coop in the backyard. she loves these things - they've all got names, she says they have different personalities, etc. so, she wanted me to come see them while she gathered eggs. you know me, i'm not really the farmer type. i'm not really an animal person. visiting chickens was not high on my list of things to do. but, being the nice babysitter that i am, i bundled up nathan and the three of us went to visit the chickens. we come up to that section of the yard, and i see two chickens wandering around. i said, 'oh, there's the chickens'. apparently this was a bad thing. they were not supposed to be wandering around. abby had accidentally left the door open, and all of them were out, four had disappeared. so here i am, standing in the yard with a four year old swinging an egg basket into my leg and jabbering about how the chickens probably got caught by a groundhog and are dead, and an extremely distraught 12 year old who is now missing her beloved pets and thinks they are dead and who is rushing around frantically trying to find them. they live on the edge of the woods. abby was convinced they had run off to find the roosters that live at the neighbors. i suddenly had visions of having to tromp through the woods, chasing chickens, and getting poison ivy. what exactly are you supposed to do in this situation? escaped farm animals is not a topic covered in the red cross babysitting course. fortunately, the missing fowl were discovered next to the house, scratching at the ground, and eating bugs. crisis averted. she wanted to me carry some of them back to the coop. i picked one up and it immediately started squawking, flapping, and tumbled gracelessly to the ground. i think it's a good thing i didn't live in the 1800s. how do i get into these situations? normal people do babysitting jobs without disappearing livestock. just another example about how my life is not normal.

a side note concerning chickens: they are absurd looking animals. the more i saw them, the more i laughed. all the cackling, strutting, waddling, and bobbing just made me laugh. i now understand why chicken characters in cartoons are always portrayed as little old women in bonnets.

the rest of the week should be relaxing. i'm going to spend some time helping bryan get ready for the march for life. if i can't go, i'm glad i'm getting to do some stuff for it ahead of time.