November 10th, 2007 by Jennine

Last Thursday I had a few extra children in daycare since school was closed for parent/teacher conferences. It was a full house and I kept chanting in my head “Please God…help me keep everyone safe!” It was a juggling act between taking care of the baby and entertaining school aged children who are accustomed to going from one activity to the next.

Everything went fairly well until my son, Isaiah, ran into the house yelling ”KEVIN! There’s two deer in our yard!
There’s two deer IN OUR YARD!” Kevin lept off the couch and ran to his room to unlock the gun safe and gather his
ammunition. He ran upstairs and out the patio door into the back yard without even stopping to put on his shoes or coat.

By now there was a whole line up of children watching out the glass door as Kevin took aim. Thankfully these children come from a family of hunters and had even been out hunting with their dad the weekend before. Still I warned them “Okay guys…this is going to be gross. Look away if it’s going to make you vomit!” Of all the gross things I can think of, cleaning
up puddles of vomit from children who do not belong to me ranks up there with anything you’ll find on the television show “Dirty Jobs”.

Kevin took one shot and the deer instantly dropped. It was a clean kill and I was later assured that the deer never felt a thing. Still, I was providing care to little ones and torn between yelling at Kevin for not waiting for a better time and being proud of my son who was beside himself with excitement over shooting his first deer.

I told the children to stay inside and went to my bedroom to grab my camera, hoping to capture the look on Kevin’s face. By the time I returned to the kitchen, the disobedient half of the group was running down to see Kevin’s deer. I discovered that the Mom-Is-Serious voice is recognized by all children, not just my own, so they begrudingly made their way back to the house. Since Kait was home I put her in charge for five minutes and met up with my son, not more than 100 yards from the house.

“MOM! I got ‘em!”

Despite the small lot of blonde hairs growing on his chin, Kevin’s face reminded me of the time when he successfully climbed the slide on the playground all by himself at age two. He was so proud of himself! I didn’t have the heart to chew him out for shooting in eyesight of everyone. We live out in the country for many reasons and one of them is the ability to hunt on our own land.

Since Darren was at work, I called my dad to see if he could help Kevin field dress the deer. Thankfully he was happy to help and came up a few hours later.

For the sake of those who are sensitive, I’m posting a photo of my dad and Kevin without the lifeless deer. I want to remember this crazy busy, chaotic day because it’s not often I get to see my melancholy, hormone-driven teenage son be so utterly happy.