Thankful Thursday ~ Family

Happy Thursday! The work week is almost over!

This week's Thankful Thursday post is a bit more serious because I've had a lot on my mind.  It has been a bit of a whirlwind for me for the past week or ten days or so, mostly pertaining to school. I think I'm suffering from a bit of compassion fatigue relating to a family that I work with and some things that have been going on with them. I can't seem to get this one student and her family out of my head. Typically, I have really excellent detachment-- I can leave my work at work-- but for some reason, I'm really being bothered by this case right now.

The situation with this kid has really got me thinking a lot about my family and how thankful and lucky I am to be family with some pretty amazing people. People who have helped shape the person I am today, and the person I continually strive to be. I am so thankful to have grown up in a good home with family I can trust and who are supportive, to this day, of everything I do. I am humbled by the acceptance and embrace my new, married family has shown me over the years I've been in the picture here. Lastly, I'm undeniably, lastingly grateful to have such a fantastic husband in Jeff, to whom I can go to when emotional stress from my job mounts to higher-than-preferred levels, and who helps me to not take life or myself too seriously.

Family is everything.

Nephew Brandon. :)

Me, Jeff, and Carol, from a bike ride last summer. 

And really, in thinking about the struggles that my job provides, it's still really always about finding and highlighting the virtues that each kid we work with presents. Even though some days are hard and some kids can be challenging, I truly believe that each of them has something great to offer, whether they've realized it yet or not. That's what I need to be better at latching on to when it is a rough week or a rough day.

Image Source: The Virtues Project.

Thanks to everyone who continues to read my blog, and reads my Thankful Thursday posts. Christy from My Dirt Road Anthem is the winner of a sheet of Be Grateful stickers from last week's giveaway. Christy, I'll get you your stickers at the Chico conference in a few weeks! Readers, if you have a moment to check out Christy's blog, do so! She writes mostly about running and fitness and doing so in rural Montana. Pretty good stuff!

This weekend, Jeff and I are headed to Bozeman to see his sister and her husband and our new nephew, Brandon! Yes, I'm extremely grateful and thankful for these three people, too! Can't wait to see how the little guy has grown and changed! We also plan to get in a little bit more skiing, hitting up Showdown on the way to Bozeman and then Bridger Bowl on Saturday. Sooooo looking forward to an amazing weekend!

To leave everyone with a quote for the week, I'm going to be using this quote as my mantra while shredding the freshies on the mountain this weekend (because I actually do need to work on my assertiveness on skis!)---

"I am deliberate and afraid of nothing." - Audre Lorde

Why Did The Cow Cross The Road?

To get to the other side, of course!

This time of year, the cows cross the road into a section of land we call Harry's. This is actually a field we crop, and also has some grass rows and tree rows. It provides excellent fall grazing on grasses and crop stubble. The only problem is that this field does not have any running water. So, this means that the cows feed during the day on Harry's, then at night they come back home where they have access to the watering fountains in the corral. In the morning, they are lined up at the gate, ready to go across to Harry's, and in the evening, they're lined up at the gate on Harry's ready to come back across to home. Back and forth, every day, they do this routine. This morning, it fell upon me to go to Tom and Carol's house to let the cows across the road into Harry's.

I got to the house about 8:00 a.m. By this time, a group of cows were already lined up at the gate ready to go feed.

Cows dot the feeding pasture, and some were already lined up at the gate to go to Harry's.

 I had no difficulty opening the gate to let them out. Sometimes the gates are really tight and hard to open, but either the gate wasn't as tough as Jeff told me it could be, or I'm getting stronger.  I'll go with the latter. Thank you, November Plank Challenge!

At first when I opened the gate, the cows just stood there and looked at me for a bit. I'm not the person who normally lets them out-- perhaps they noticed this? Then, they started walking single file across the road.

Sweetgrass Hills in the background. Such a lovely view from this spot.

 The never made a sound, and they knew exactly where they were supposed to go. For the most part, we had no issues getting across.

You lookin' at me?

 After the initial string of single file animals, a few larger groups came all at once. A few of the cows paused to take a glance at me or rip a mouthful of ditch grass along the way, but they all made their way across the road in their own time.

The last stragglers.

 As there were fewer and fewer left in the pasture, I hollered at them to come along. Eventually, they all made their way.

Oops!

Only one cow decided she wanted to be different. Notice, if you can, that she is on the wrong side of the fence! I had Tom's pickup with me, so I drove down the road and got ahead of her, got her turned around, and walked her back down to the gate. No big deal. Thankfully, she had a pretty good idea of where she wanted to be, and didn't make a run for it in any other direction.

 Once she got back down to the gate, she saw the opening, and in she went.

The final step was closing the gate to Harry's. I had never actually closed this gate before, or any gate with a crank closure, in fact. But, with a little over-the-phone help from Tom, I figured out the mechanics of securing the gate. Morning mission accomplished!  The whole event took about 40 minutes.

As I was handling the herd on my own this morning, I couldn't help thinking about my job. Specifically, working with my group of Eighth Graders. These are the kids who continually have behavior issues in school, low grades, oppositional behaviors, etc. It's my job to help them raise their self esteem, teach them social skills, and generally how to be better citizens. We have a weekly group session-- me and five of these kids. I get asked sometimes how I can handle them on my own, how it is that they don't drive me crazy or run all over me. Things like that. "How do you do it?!"

See, working with cows, I have learned that you have to give them some space. You have to be gentle, calm, and above all, respect their movements, preferences, and tendencies. Cows are big, big animals, and they can't be controlled with fear or violence. If you're confident and respectful toward them, they'll likely do as you'd like. The best thing to do is to encourage them on the path they'd like to take anyway, and be positive. If I can handle 100+ large cows, then a group of five Eight Graders should be a breeze. Above all, treat them with respect.

Getting back to why I was doing this all on my own this morning anyway. Jeff and his buddy Jeremy and his wife Jacynta were out hunting for deer this morning, so Jeff asked if I'd be comfortable doing this cow chore. This was totally fine with me, in fact. And where were Tom and Carol? Well, they had a pretty good reason for being gone...

Our nephew, Brandon William, was born in the wee small hours of the morning on Wednesday, November 19. Tom and Carol were down in Bozeman spending quality time with the little Nugget and Katie and Josh. Welcome to the family, Brandon! Can't wait to meet you!

And, just for fun, I present you with these punny images:







Have a great weekend, everybody!

Running

Just got back in from a 3+ mile run.  Running in the country has its perks. No traffic to watch out for, no people at all to speak of, really. My running buddy is my dog and we are entertained by pronghorn, partridge and cows at pasture.

As with nearly everything about living out here, I have had to make a few adjustments to my running routine as well.  In the warmer months, we have to be on the lookout for rattlesnakes in the roadways.  While I never used to run or walk without my trusty iPod, I have become accustomed to running without it, so I could hear a warning rattle.  Now, I find that I actually prefer to run without music as distraction. Now, I hear the sounds of the environment around me. Birds chirping and breeze through the grass or wheat fields that line the gravel roadways. I am also more in-tune with how my body feels as I am running, which can't be a bad thing. Perhaps the music was so necessary in the city to drown out all those non-nature noises...

Seems like my life has been all about running lately.  I was fortunate enough to snag an opening on the North Star High School Track and Field coaching staff, as an Assistant Coach to the high school team, the Knights, as they are known. Track and Field in Montana Class C schools is generally not a sport of great tradition, but it is at North Star.  They have had many successful teams over the past several years, and this year is no exception. 

Our team is made of 11 girls and 9 boys. They practice together, and compete at the same meets. Besides the fact that there are many talented athletes on the team, what impresses me most is the quality of their character.  They genuinely seem to like each other, to want to be at track practice, and to want to work as hard as it takes.  They understand the currency of toil when it comes to self-improvement. As a first year coach, I couldn't ask for a better group of kids to work with.

All that being said, time to get myself cleaned up after my morning run and get ready to head to town to catch the bus for this afternoon's track meet in Malta.  Go Knights!