Jolyn Young

Summer was cruising right along, then it sped up and zoomed past me, and now I’m taking a nap right after breakfast because I was up at 1:30 a.m. bottle feeding puppies.

Wait, what?

Grab a cup of coffee and I’ll explain. Just not the cup of coffee in my hands, because I will fistfight for that. I might not win, because I’m smaller than most adults and many middle schoolers, but sheer exhaustion gives me a whole new level of IDGAF.

So, I spent July getting up at 5 a.m. to feed horses and kids, then get my three offspring horseback before the heat of the day made the arena feel like a pizza oven.

Halfway through July, an opportunity to gather wild horses and burros in southern Nevada came up, so I bid on the job and wouldn’t you know it – we won the contract! My husband, Jim, was the last one to know, because he was in a wilderness area catching wild cattle at the time. Luckily, he rode his horse to cell phone service so I could tell him to roll his bed and come home, pronto.

The gather was an exhausting but satisfying 2 1/2 weeks. It was so hot that I sweated through my shirt before I even got dressed, but achieving a four-year goal and working together as a family was worth every drop of sweat. We returned home to learn one of our dogs had given birth but voted “no” on motherhood as a personal endeavor. So instead of back-to-school shopping, the kids and I bottle fed three newborn puppies. The kids are now in school (minus brand-new backpacks; that will have to wait until we can leave the puppies for more than three hours to drive to the mall) and I’m taking the night shift with the little darlings.

I mean, at least they’re cute, right? I’m grasping onto any positive aspects of this situation I can, because again, the sheer exhaustion thing.

But check out this fun article I wrote about my amazing friend, Millie McCleary. Here she is with her husband, Miles, and their two daughters, Maisie and Macklee.

Before we left for southern Nevada craziness and around-the-clock puppy feedings, I took five minutes out of a family riding session to make this fun video with my son, Milo.

As for book news…my publishers told me they recently hit “print” on that sucker! And now I’m going to go hyperventilate into a paper bag because there’s no turning back now. I’m told that preorders ship soon (likely the first week of September) and that the book will be available from Amazon and other retailers September 26. But you can receive one sooner by ordering directly from my publisher’s website. Join the wait list here (no credit card info necessary – just enter your email address to receive a notification when the book is officially available for purchase).

That’s all for now. I hope everyone has a wonderful last month of summer and sleeps through the night. That’s a major goal for me right now. Wish me luck!