All My Dependents Are Irritating As All Get-Out

Every single one of my children, both human and animal, were difficult today. I'll go through them individually.

Nutmeg

Today, Nutmeg nearly burned the house down. In the early afternoon, I went upstairs to check on her and noticed that the window fan was whirring in a strange, sporadic way. I turned it off and then on again; no change. I switched it on and off again, this time looking at the outlet where the fan was plugged in, and saw a SPARK. I unplugged it and saw that Nutmeg had chewed through the cord all the way to the copper wiring. She could have electrocuted herself. I don't know how she didn't. She also could have started a fire--these are old, old, old outlets and the walls of the house are insulated with horsehair. Not okay, Nutmeg. Not okay. I'm ordering pet-resistant cord covers tonight so we can wrap all the cords in Greta's room when we get home.

Farrah

The girls and I took Farrah down to the swimming hole / lagoon portion of the creek this morning, which she loves. We took a long walk down the creek, Farrah splashing along and exploring. No need to hold onto her leash; she just traipsed along beside us. Then, on the way back, Farrah just took off running. She ran up the steep embankment, at top speed, and was making a beeline for the road. We were running after her, scrambling up the hill and screaming her name. She didn't stop. She ran into the road and began running toward home, sometimes doubling back to taunt us before dashing away again--insane zoomies. Her leash was on, but she was running too fast for us to catch her. Eventually I was able to grab the leash. We took her home and she did NOT return to the creek with us.

The Children

We had a nice trip to the lagoon before lunch, and Greta had the good idea to bring floats down, which looked incredibly peaceful and idyllic. That was the nice part of the day. In the afternoon, both girls began whining about going on a run; so I, tired of the whining and unwilling to argue, set off on a run by myself. This enraged them. They could not handle my leaving them and doing the run myself, even though they'd done nothing but whine and complain about doing it. They went on the run, not meeting my eye when they passed me on the road. They were FURIOUS. Absolutely furious. So furious, that when we set out later to go for a swim at our cousin's, they secretly wrote on the dusty back window, MOTHER IS A WEENIE. 

So! A great day being the parent to this circus. Good times. Might be time to start winding down our stay in the middle of nowhere.