We said goodbye to our hens today. They’re now living in Austin, with Julie’s brother and his wife, in a good home. This got to me more than I thought it would, mostly because it upset Julie and the kids so much. I’ve seen how hard Julie worked to tend to those birds, raising them up from biddies, overseeing construction of their housing, and taking good care of them day in and day out. Today, that came to an end. Our kids also loved the chickens, and helped her with them — especially Matthew, who was particularly hard hit by saying goodbye.

Tonight Matthew went to bed weeping over the chickens. As I was trying to comfort him, little Nora, who’s three, walked in and said sweetly, “Don’t worry, Matt, after we move to Philadelphia, we’ll move right back to Dallas and get our chickens back.” Her voice cracked ever so slightly when she said that. Man, that busted me up. I hate this. If I weren’t certain that it was the right thing to do, I’d put a stop to it right now.