Thank you EVERYONE for the hugs and well wishes. It was a really rough night for everyone in our family. That little featherhead managed to claim a really big spot in our hearts. We all keep looking out the back window expecting to see her...
I guess I was surprised at the strength of my own emotions with all this. I've suspected for a while that my medications needed adjusting because I've been in a serious funk you might say for the past three weeks and lately it seemed to be worsening. My emotional fragility really hit home last night. After adding a 1/2 tablet of my antidepressant, I feel like a new person today. I'm still sad about losing Herbert, but I'm functioning much better than I have in a long time.
easy child did not want to go to school today and neither did difficult child 1, but I felt it would be in everyone's best interest to soldier on in our normal routine. easy child wants to get another chicken right away, and although I'm hesitant, the other kids want this too and it may help them get over this quicker. Our local feed store sells chicks in three's, so I'll call today to see if they even have any. I reminded the kids that if any of them turn out to be males we'll have to find another home for them.
Something that concerned me about difficult child 1's reaction -- he took off on his bike for about two hours, and came back just as it was dark. I had driven off after an hour to look for him, but no luck. I found out he rode down to our shopping center and went to get a burger, and then he went to the Big 5 sporting goods and looked at guns. He was that mad about the hawk. He told me about the gun shopping on the way to school this morning, and I told him that his strong feelings are understandable, but that we cannot ever, EVER act on impulses like that because it would only make things worse... more worse than he could possibly imagine. I worry about him when he does things like this...
difficult child 2 took a 1/2 hour nap and then tried to just carry on last night and got his homework done. When husband and I started talking about Herbert again, difficult child 2 asked if we could not talk about it because he was finally feeling good and trying to think of her in a better place now, and our talking was ruining that. Interesting response, I think.
easy child hates all hawks now and said none of us is ever allowed to eat chicken again (of course, what was in the oven cooking when all this happened: Chicken Parmesan). She is full of so much venom -- it's going to take some time to help her work through this. Hopefully the new chick(s) will help with that.
Thanks again so much for the outpouring of support for our little bird friend. It means so much!