A visit to a farm

In between filling out online job applications and scheduling information interviews, I've been trying to volunteer at Rachel's school as much as possible, since the day will come when I won't have time to do that because I'll be working full-time.

So I volunteered to chaperone a bunch of her classmates to a farm this morning. The weather was pretty unpromising -- cloudy and rain had fallen overnight, everything felt damp -- but by the time we got to Frying Park Farm, everything was clear and brilliantly sunny and crisp.

I had signed up for a virtual "career fair" sponsored by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education that started at noon, so I could only stay for two events -- the talk about cows (Rachel got to "milk" a cow, which was a wooden cutout of a cow with water in her udders instead of milk) and a scavenger hunt to find as many animals as we could within the allotted half-hour. I was responsible for Rachel and her buddy, Matthew, who turned out to be an incredibly nice kid. We actually had a lot of fun running around and seeing all the animals including an adorable newly born calf whose legs were still wobbly, and some piglets. Rachel really got into everything, she is so enthusiastic!

She sobbed and had a little temper tantrum when I had to leave, though, and I felt horribly guilty for the first few minutes...until one of her classmate's moms, Kelly, thoughtfully texted me a picture of Rachel hugging her classmate, Libby. "Rachel is doing great!" Kelly said. I was beyond grateful; it was such a nice gesture and made me feel less guilty for leaving.