Getting Ready to Go Back

I swear, it looked like the horses were having a morning meeting when I went out.

"The humans don't give us enough hay."

"And they're slow! We need food earlier in the morning!"

"And lunch!"

"More grain!" "More grain!" "More grain!"

They're a spoiled lot. Maddy pooped in her stall and again outside it after I'd clean. "Scoop it. I have more."

I made a small list of goals at the beginning of break:

1. Rest from school work
2. ....but somehow get a ton of grading done and don't be behind.
3. Make Carrie rest
4. Have the house in order before I go back
5. Have the barn in order before I go back
6. Make fun memories for Shane
7. See a bunch of people.

I've done a lot of work on #4 and #5 which I hoped helped #3. I've done morning and evening barn chores solo for two weeks straight save a couple exceptions. Carrie's been "running on empty" in her own words for a while now. She's really enjoyed having us home.

I avoided school for the rest of the calendar year (success), but today I had to hop back on the grading wagon. There was a ton to do and I spent hours at it. My goal was to finish everything by Saturday, so that I wouldn't do any of it on Sunday.

Shane sensed I was focused on something other than him and was constantly underfoot. The table jolted while I was at the computer and he came up with a nice bruise. He whacked himself messing with the dog!

I think he's had the chance to have fun over break. Sure, he's played video games and watched TV, but we've seen a ton of people and gone on a bunch of day trips. I wish we'd been able to see more friends in the area, but he reunited with cousins on both sides of the family.

Today, I made him go with me to wrestling practice again. He was still doing his old man schtick when we got there.

Then he jumped on some wrestlers and got roughed up for a while. 

I kept him off the phone. That meant he was obnoxious at times. He tried jumping on me while Coach Rick was talking to me and tried to bounce the ball past people drilling and got himself in trouble several times.

I let him wander around the back gym some and peeked at what he was up to from time to time.

The end of practice was where it got interesting. There were six kids and three coaches which was enough for three groups of three for live wrestling. Shane got to use his watch and play timer! He did a decent job, too.

I gave him the phone as a reward on the drive to TKD. The Thursday class was later in the day, so we were able to stay the whole practice (I normally leave early).

It was an older group. There were some kids younger and older than Shane, but he was the only nine year old. The bar was set higher and Shane rose to it.

He was still giggling, laughing, and being Shane (that hasn't changed), but he definitely got more of a work out than usual! Instructor Papa had everyone do a minute of front kicks non-stop.

Shane thought it was easy until it was his turn.

They did 30 seconds and 15 seconds afterward. I enjoyed the show! I'd love to make this Shane's normal class, but I don't see that happening logistically. Maybe after wrestling season.

I spent the whole class grading, by the way. No cell phone games or Netflix for me. Then we got home in time for....wait for it.....horse chores!

Unrelated, but related: I've caught up on my blog a bunch! I won't be starting the new year with a terrible backlog!