Happy Saturday friends!
This week I was supposed to be in Pittsburgh with my brother but instead I'm still here darn it! I have a chronic illness that I can mostly keep kind of at bay but every so often it rears it's head, I have a flare up, and I end up having to scale back my life for a while. Ugh. It all began back when my daughter with Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) was home and the six years of high stress caused my health to change. If you're new here, you can read a bit about what RAD is and our lives during that time by clicking here.
It wasn't until I wrote that ๐๐ฝ sentence that I realized that the stress of those years is probably partially what brought this flare up on—because on December 9th, 2015 she left our home. That was Monday this past week—9 years since she's been gone. This is actually the first year that I didn't remember but I think that's because that was the day Wynter left for Katie's house in California (more about that below!)
Sometimes I'm a little slow on the uptake ๐ but jeez, it's been nine years since she left us! You'd think I might be over that trauma๐ Do you know the book The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk? That title says it all and I think my body is still keeping the score.
Dammiiiiiiiiit.
I will work with the ponies, donkeys, and goats this weekend and next week and see if I can clear more of this ick out. I don't want to hold onto it anymore! I've always thought of our mental health like an infinite onion, you can peel away the trauma and think, "Ok, that's it. I'm better. I've cleared it." But it seems there is always another layer to peel. A piece that you just aren't ready to let go of for some reason. Well, I'm ready to clear this!
ON TO THE RANCH!:
Watch the video of the week, including Wynter's arrival in California!
Wynter is officially in his new home! He left Monday on a fancy 50+ foot semi:
Me saying my last goodbyes:
He loaded up like he'd been traveling his whole life (he has not.) Katie and I took that as a sign that he knew what was happening and was ready to go. It took 3.5 days for the guy to drive across and the last day and a half he had 2 stalls to himself instead of the smaller single box stall. They weren't able to get the semi into Katie's place so he was dropped off at a nearby friend's farm. They had to load him onto a smaller trailer and he was not having it until Katie called in Raynie's heaven energy and then he loaded right up! Whew!
Wynter is talking nonstop to Katie and that is one of the many reasons that he is supposed to be with her. I had a much closer bond to Wynter when we lived in Colorado but something about the move to North Carolina changed that. I'm so glad he's where he should be now and with someone who can hear him clearly. He has a lot of love to give. I can't wait to hear the stories of the work he does with Katie and her mares Celita and Phoenix.
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The way she was looking at me made me think that she thought she was hiding:
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Tori and I were discussing her middle name this week. We considered June which is a common middle name for most of my girls—it was my maternal Grandma's middle name. It wasn't quite right...Then we talked about Ann, Mom's middle name. Hmmm...that was good but still not quite it. And then the idea popped into my head that we needed to start with the beginning (or at least who I knew as the beginning) my maternal Great Grandma Eva. She was the beginning of the line of women who had a gift of being able to talk to the other side. But no one could remember what her middle name was darn it! I headed to the internet and ta-da! Eva May! Tori and I both liked it, so she is officially Tori May :-)
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We had a few days of wet here. Jaffee took advantage of it, rolled and became one with the earth:
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Turns out we cannot be trusted with the reverse osmosis water filter faucet at our sink. This is the third time in a month that it's been left dripping causing a gallon and a half of water to sit on our hardwood floor overnight! OMG! This fan seems to permanently live with us now:
Good news, B-Rad found a new faucet that won't allow this to happen again. The only way it stays on is to stand there with your hand on the handle. If you take your hand off, a spring pops it back into the off position. Now...how to fix the cupping of the wood floor...
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Not only do the donkeys carry empty hay bags for us, now they carry full ones too! How sweet is Jaffee to do this for us:
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B-Rad is forever fiddling. I love being married to an electrical engineer! The past few weeks in his spare time he has removed the roof of our electric golf cart (that he already replaced the batteries in) and installed a solar panel instead. Now this thing will just run forever and ever on sunshine! How cool is that?
ONE SWEET LITTLE MEMORY:
Ike was the first dog that would stand with his foot on mine. Duke (The Polar Bear's friend) was the second. It's the sweetest thing!
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MEMES:
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