Future Board Gamers!?

Two girls in my Freshman Seminar like Horrified! I taught them how to play one "old fashioned Friday" and narrated some of their choices out. 

"Do you risk your life and try to rescue the old man?" I asked. "Or do you leave him to Dracula as you attempt to save others?" 

As they left the girls were friendly arguing over decisions they'd made.

I was thrilled when they came in next week and wanted to play again. We had things to do on Monday, but on Wednesday I was babysitting another seminar (two for the price of one teacher!). I gave the kids some free time at the end to bond and the girls asked for the game!

"Do you need me to help?" I asked.

"No, we've got it!"

They played with a pair of girls from the other class and I was a proud educator. I sent Carrie a pic right away.

Hawk eye view

There are a pair of hawks that like to hang around our property. I spotted this one sitting on the powerlines over our driveway as I was heading out for work.

I tried to keep creeping forward for better pictures, but she flew off before I could get a great one.

Life with Smartphones: Shopping via camera

It had been the night of the district wrestling meet, but it was cancelled. Western wanted to run a tournament that was called off and somehow had the pull to make the ADs agree to move the district meet....to the same week as the regional meet.

Which is a bit crazy.

The team would wrestle Wednesday night for districts and then anyone who survived would wrestle in the regional Saturday morning.

Our regional tournament was scheduled a week ahead of the other regions in the state for some reason, too. 

But that's not the story for tonight.

Tonight, I went to Costco after work. I went with Carrie....sort of.

I knew all of the usual things to get, but I asked Carrie for a supplemental list. Then I took pictures and had her make final selections based on what she'd cook!

The marinara sauce was too expensive for her liking.

I went a little overboard in one area: Salsa.

I had a craving. There was a tasting station for the Sunbelt organic and it was amazing. I didn't care that it cost as much as the Kirkland pair. I bought both.

UPDATE: And I went through it. Both the Sunbelt which was refreshing and the Kirkland which had a slight kick. I bought a second bag of chips when I ran out. Delicious!

Grilled Cheese, Please

As a modern man, I sometimes cook dinner when I get home from work. I decided to cook true grilled cheese sandwiches tonight.

Shane was a big fan! He likes to order grilled cheeses at restaurants.

I used to make Shane 'faux' grilled cheeses when he was younger. I'd toast some bread, throw a slice of cheese in the middle, and maybe microwave it. That was fine then, but it was time to up my game.

Plus, I made some for Carrie and I. It's an easy comfort food.

Have Your Moment, Kids

Some of my students taped a bunch of my markers together. I found it mildly annoying, but they were chortling with glee the whole time so I let it ride. I even tried to write with it and used it to point at problems on the board (much to their amusement).

They were amazed when they came back for class a couple of days later and it was still (mostly) intact.

So why did I let them do it if I found it annoying?

Two of the kids were already friends, but the third one who was excitedly involved with the building was a little more of an island. She stands out for reasons and usually tried to talk to me in class for her social outlet. I'm a safe person to talk to and like to talk, but kids need relationships with their peers.

I did the math and the sum of my annoyance was less than the potential product of the kids bonding and sharing a fun memory. People don't remember every day of their school experience, but people like to recall their "Remember that one time the teacher let us build a lightsaber from markers" type experiences.

Barn Stuff Sunday

Kitty and Annie continue to be a two-headed monster. The only time they separate is when stalled (and even then they're in stalls next to each other).

Carrie took a picture of Kitty's rain rot when she arrived.

She's been applying treatment to it and the open sores have closed.

The sores still hurt, though. Kitty's persnickety with blanketing. She flattens her ears and you have to watch her head. She swings it around threatening to bite. She backs down when I catch her, so I haven't been caught yet.

So why do we keep blanketing her? She's got barely any fat or winter coat. She was originally from Florida. Unfortunately, he winter coat is two parts. You put on the fuzzy blanket (which she hates), and then you put on the waterproof shell (which she hates).

I hope she gets less pissy about the process as her skin continues to heal. I tried to give her some pets and rubs on her neck to soothe her, but she doesn't like to be touched at all.

Mice are still a problem at the barn. I found one in the grain bin I had to dispose of. I can see tunnels in stalls.

The exterminator put poison around the house and we don't have any mice running through our kitchen now. The barn mice have other food sources and Happy the house cat hasn't killed a single one.

Weekend mornings are easier on barn chores, because it's a whole family affair. Carrie wanted to take a picture of me at work. I may have made a face.

Annie helped out on the second picture.

And I made another face.

I was probably making a face when Annie blocked the view, too, but there's no proof!

I smiled after I was done being difficult.

Achoo.

Carrie's online friend Theresa visited the barn with her triplets. 

Nibs wasn't around, but they got to meet all the other four-legged furries.

Heidi came while they were looking around and let the kids brush Eddy while she was getting him ready to ride.

The family and Carrie were still out talking while Heidi rode. Shane and I had gone inside by that point.

Shane was excited we had visitors. He was underfoot at the beginning, but horses were old news to him. He wanted to run around. He was a little bummed the older kids all wanted to look at the horses, but Loki kept him company. The boys ran around the arena before Heidi and Eddy came to use it.

Shane collected rocks, too. Lots and lots of rocks which he stuffed into his shirt.

Did I mention he ran around with Loki? There was more of that.

My parenting coup was I arranged a play date with the neighbors. I told Shane to run over and he did!

I watched from the window. The kid met up and bounced on the trampoline for over an hour! Shane said Shelby said she was "Half-vampire" and he was howling and running around as a werewolf (wolves are cooler than vampires!).

It was a little odd watching Shane run off into the distance, but he's got to learn to be independent. I'd look at the window every now and then and see everyone bouncing. I'm hoping there will be many more trampoline meet ups as the weather gets warmer!

Working Saturday

There was a layer of fog as Loki and I went outside for some morning relief. I saw something out in the fields and went to investigate.

Somehow, Kitty managed to ditch her blanket. I picked it up and dropped it in the barn for examination.

Carrie had the pole barn guys spread gravel dust out in all the dry lots during the week. It survived it's first test with all the rain we had. The dry lots are not a giant mess of mud. It looks nicer and helps with drainage.

The downside is we now have to scoop poop wherever this is gravel dust. That adds ground to cover.

Shane's done a good job of helping out. He hasn't complained too much since I assigned him as my helper following the cat pee incident (Carrie sprayed a bunch of air freshener and now the laundry room smells like peppermint piss). He doesn't do an A+ job and it makes everything take longer, but he's learning to be useful. He's not doing a bad job either.

I have Shane scoop poop for the most part. It's a crappy job, but someone has to do it!

Kitty and Annie are getting along famously. I have limited experience with horses, but I know enough to laugh at their lack of personal space. I've started to think of them as a "two-headed monster."

When Shane and I were done with horse chores, I had him suit up for TKD. That he protested. There was no wrestling tournament, though, and I wanted him to do something around other kids. His protests were ignored.

In typical Shane fashion, he told me he had a ton of fun when class was over. We had the same talk about "choosing our attitudes" I feel like we always do when he throws a fit about doing something and ends up not wanting to stop.

Maybe this time it will stick (but I'm not holding my breath).

It felt like spring, so I wanted to do a dump run when we got home. Carrie and I team lifted old stall doors while I assigned Shane tasks that fit his stature.

He provided some imagination.

Shane helping stresses Carrie out sometimes. She'd rather do things herself, so they're done to her standard and in her time. I'm a stickler for making Shane participate. I figure it's work and time for me now, but I hope it will grow him and help him to be more useful later. Mistakes will happen, but I'll deal with them and blog about anything funny enough to repeat!

We spent over half an hour cleaning out the barn and the garage of broken pallets, doors, cardboard, and trash.

It normally costs $7 to dump our trash, but we had to pay $17 today because we went over 600 lbs! That's a lot of trash! We dropped off the cardboard at the recycling center before hopping on the scales, so all 630 lbs of trash was true trash.

It was the afternoon by the time we got home. There was some cleaning and some rest before Shane and I went out for evening horse chores. It was a productive day.

Charterstone!

Shane pulled out Charterstone and really wanted to play. It's not a game I thought he'd like, but the box cover sold it ("A city-building legacy game? Can we play?"). I thought he would be too young. I had bought it hoping to play with Carrie!

Shane asked Carrie if she'd play a game like 5 Minute Marvel instead and she said she would in 30 minutes. However, she started a dungeon run in WoW. When Shane checked back in she wasn't done and promised to play "anything he wanted."

"Anything?" Shane asked.

"Anything!"

So Shane picked Charterstone! I wasn't sure it was a good match, but I wanted to get Carrie to try it myself!

It turned out Shane and I really liked it. Carrie was not a fan. Part of it was the game. Part of it was Shane taking forever to take his turns, adding a soundtrack, and knocking things around because he couldn't sit still! It didn't bother me, but I'm paid to be patient for a living.

We tried a second game a second day, but it too failed. Carrie started to show some interest when decided to try a hoarding strategy. I liked her creative take on things and was thinking of counters, but Shane took offense. He pouted and dragged his feet on his turns and you can guess how that all ended.

It was fun while it lasted, but Charterstone is dead in our house. I was hoping it'd be a good introduction to worker placement for Carrie. I think Shane will enjoy more games of the same type, but he needs to be a little older so that he can focus and show some more people skills at the table.

Meet Kitty

Monday, a new truck parked a new trailer at our property. Why?

Because we've got a new boarder. Meet Kitty!

Kitty is a retired, thoroughbred race horse. She's going to be with us for the spring. Her owner is a senior at UVA with two horses. Her training horse is at a big training barn and there was no room for her project horse, Kitty. The barn manager recommended she take a look at us over the weekend. She liked what she saw and now Kitty's here.

Kitty bonded to Annie immediately. I think they were both looking for a cuddle buddy and now they're attached at the hip.

Neither girl has much concept of personal space. It got Annie in trouble with Nibs, but Kitty snuggles right back up to her.

Kitty is a work in progress. She came covered in rain rot and without much fat on her. Her metabolism is nuts. She puts Nibs to shame! She eats almost as much as all of the other horses combined.

The timing of her arrival was real convenient for us. Nibs shipped out for training and Kitty shipped in not long after. Her monthly boarding bill will mostly offset Nib's training bill.

Carrie sent me a picture of the girls running around. Maddy joins in at first, but then stop to watch the idiots run around without participating further.

BONUS: Carrie also got a video of Annie trying to climb a gravel dust pile. She must have thought it was chasing after her, because she starts bucking as she beats a retreat!

Ewww

It was a long day. I was tired when I came home with Shane, but Carrie was stressed and I wanted to help out. I walked some stuff out to the garage to clean and then stopped by the cat litter. I could smell pee, so I decided to be conscientious and change out the litter pad.

There are three things you need to know about this.

1) We have a litter system that reuses pellets and collects pee underneath. We've had the system for years. Normally, a pee pad lasts about a week.

2) It's Shane's job to clean out the litter and keep an eye on things. Frequently, I do the pee pad, but I've shown him how.

3) The cats knock the litter pellets everywhere, so Carrie put the litter bin into a box from Costco. It's a tight fit and the bin has to be tilted to fit in and out.

Back to the scene of the crime.

It occurred to me as I bent down to get the litter box I didn't remember changing a pee pad over break. I'd been too busy doing other stuff, but Shane was supposed to come in daily. The smell was awful, but I reached in, tilted the litter box up. It was heavier than I expected and the edge got a little stuck as pee poured out.

That wasn't right.

I stood there like an idiot in total shock. I felt what had to be a month's worth of cat pee sloshing around and pouring out onto my hand, coast sleeve, into the box, and onto the floor. A golden puddle was forming and my eyes were watering up when I finally yelled for help.

Carrie came running and you can imagine her reaction. My brain was still reeling, but I eventually got the idea to carry the bin into the garage.I was able to rip the litter bin out of the box (which seemed far flimsier as the pee ate at it). Then I tried to remove the pee pad.

The pee pad was so swollen that it had outgrown the tray. It squished and more piss wrung out of it as I tried to extract it while my senses were assaulted.

The scene of the crime looked like this.

Carrie was going to work on the ammonia scented lake inside. She drilled Shane. "How could you not notice the smell whenever you scooped the litter!?"

"I always held my breath!"

Shouldn't that have been a sign something was wrong?

By the time we got things cleaned up (though the smell may never leave) it was time for horse chores. I made Shane come with me part as a punishment and part to get him out of the house (Carrie was fuming and the fumes in the laundry room weren't roses either).

But that's not all.

After horse chores, dinner, and putting Shane to bed, I took Loki out for his bedtime bathroom break. It started off normal. Loki peed and then we went around back so he could poop.

If you have a dog, you know what a dog pooping looks like.

Loki dropped into a squat, but he didn't come back up.

If you have a dog, and your dog has a lot of hair, you may now where this is going.

Loki hobbled around the yard a bit without leaving poop position. He hobbled up to me and I already knew what to expect.

There was a full moon as I had the dog trapped and struggling between my legs as I tried to hold his tail up with one hand and help extract a turd from his fur with the other. There, I had a thought. My neighbors may have thought I was insane if they heard my laugh.

"The night started off piss-poor and ended on a shitty note."

Grading Day

Today was a grading day and it left a sour taste in my mouth. I have a lot of kids failing and it bothers me.

I don't feel like I'm doing a bad job. I feel like I've set a bar and it's probably too low, but kids either don't care or don't realize that I'm going to hold them accountable to it. I assigned a mid-term review packet in lieu of doing a test this quarter. I wanted to motivate kids to help themselves by making it a serious grade and simultaneously avoid giving them a test right before the midterm. A lot of it was sheer participation and I even gave class time. I figured if anyone was motivated they wouldn't have to do anything at home.

And yet, nearly half the kids didn't turn it in.

A zero on a test that's largely participation when tests are 40% of your grade?

Ouch.

A lot of kids have a "2nd quarter" slump, but I was really disappointed. 

However, I plan on holding them accountable. The ones who turned it in did okay on the midterm and have good quarter grades to match. A few latecomers have near panicked and signed up to come in for help finishing nearly a month after the midterm (if you include the holidays). Others seem not to care or not to think that it will really matter.

I feel like most students have learned a lot of math in my class, but I'm hoping they ALL learn some real world skills.....like show up and turn work in if you want it to count for anything.

I think a lot about how I teach. I'm not going to do another review packet this year, but I may still do one next year to teach the kids a lesson in "JUST TURN IT IN!"

Typing in the failing grades made me wonder about how kids were doing in other classes.

One of my top class skippers had an A in a class 1st quarter and an F 2nd. I was curious, so I clicked and noticed the teacher had typed in 8 out of 15 assignments as missing. However, they never typed in a grade, so the student had a 98% in their class.

A 98%. That was with 53.3% of their grades not turned in and somehow the teacher either never noticed or never bothered to fix it.

By that teacher's standard, I could take off 3rd of the school year, keep my job, and even qualify for a professional honor society.

That bothered me. It could be an honest mistake (I make enough of those). Still, I was already feeling a bit lousy about how low my grades were and seeing mistakes I found in other gradebooks made me think the bar for teachers was too low.

Maybe their math teachers in high school never held them accountable enough....

It's hard to really know how you're doing in teaching until it's all said and done. It's easy to see your own daily mistakes, but hard to see how some intangible gains play out. That kid who has a rough home life, but you try to greet every day? The score on their tests may not improve, but if they don't drop out because an English teacher actually reads their journals and writes back?

The little victories every day matter. The big victories are often a culmination of being faithful with all the little things. God's got a plan and I figure it's always in motion.

Church Friends!

No school! Hooray for MLKJ!

My day started with horse chores and a trip to the orthopedist. Shane came to look at my x-rays and give Carrie some space. 

Nothing was broken! We celebrated with haircuts. 

The second half of our hay for the year was being delivered when we got back home.

At least I hope it's for the rest of the year. Carrie's talked about ways to cut costs for next winter already.

The real fun for Shane didn't start until after lunch. We took Loki to the park.

We met Shane's friends from Sunday school there for a play day!

Half the time, Shane's the only kid at our church. The other half the time, the Cartwrights show up. It turns out two of the kids go to Shane's school, too.

Logan and Shane ran around with Nerf guns. Claire tried to skateboard. Julia and the baby dragged Loki around by his leash!

Loki was a really good boy. His neck was probably sore by the end of it.

Julia went back and forth from Loki to trying to mess with the boys. There were lots of shenanigans and some conflicts, but nothing that wasn't resolved easily enough.

I was surprised to find out how much I had in common with the parents. The mom was from NOVA and went to Thomas Jefferson HS until her family moved to the middle of WV (culture shock!). She was a twin and they'd lived in Houston for a while and actually knew where Beaumont was. To top it off, there kids went to Venable at one point and she used to walk them past my old school! She knew Mr. Brown from him walking out to say hello!

The dad wasn't there, but he'd gone to Charlottesville high school and wrestled for Coach Romanac. Coach Romanac's wife, Connie, was my good friend the secretary at LMA! Go figure!

If the oddly warm winter holds up, we'll have to have another playground meetup. All the kids are too wild to have around the horses. Especially with the nervous wreck that showed up today.....but that's another post!