It's been awesome having time off. From school at least, if not the barn!
Shane's hair is beyond shaggy. I'd love to cut it, but he wants to grow a 'man-bun.' There's a cartoon character who's a volleyball player with one and Carrie joked about me getting one, but it stuck with him!
Not that I can throw stones. My own pandemic hair is probably the longest it's ever been. Carrie attacked my hair one morning and then told me not to move for a picture.
I've trimmed the beard since then. I got tired of my mustache curling into my mouth!
No school takes some of the urgency out of barn chores. There's no planning or class lurking if we take too long. Carrie's been feeling better, so we've been going out as a family. That's let us tackle some of the odd jobs that can be overlooked for a while, but elevate the operation when done.
Like poopbusting.
I don't remember the last time we dragged the dry lots. Shane got a kick out of riding around with Mom.
Maddy has been her usual itchy self. Carrie tried switching to a different allergy medicine to see if it helped to no avail.
Maddy will walk over and ask for scratches when we're around. She's got her favorites and we've learned a number of them.
She's very expressive!
The barn is a source of community and we hope a blessing to everyone who's part of it. Laura had a bit of heartache when she was walking Ernie. He spooked and stepped on her ankle. I found out when Carrie bolted inside to get ice. Laura found out she had a fracture on Sunday.
Barbara showed up while Amy and Carrie tended to Laura.
There was a riding party in the works. Carrie was on Eowyn.
Barbara was on Maddie.
And Gay was on a mule for the first time in her life!
"The ears are a hoot!"
Pockets hadn't been worked in a while and was reluctant to earn his keep, but Gay got him moving!
It was Carrie's chance to introduce Gay to Eowyn, too. The point of buying Eowyn was to ride, so I'm glad that Carrie's been active!
Barbara tried out Maddy's new saddle and declared it a success. Maddy's been feeling good lately. A couple rides back, Barbara asked for a canter on the trail and Maddy offered to gallop....and gallop she did! We hadn't realized she was a speed demon and Eowyn couldn't keep up!
I took a few pictures to chronicle the fun before going inside to be with Shane.
The windows were up to get fresh air and I heard my name on the wind later. Abby was beside herself. All of her girl buddies were saddled up and she was all alone! The anxiety made her make a fool of herself.
Carrie asked me to stall here and close the curtain door.
I brought in Eddy to give her a buddy. He happily went to eating the remains of Pockets' hay while she marginally chilled out.
I went back to playing Legos with Shane. I was thrilled he showed an interest, so we made a concourse for his airport, a bridge, some mansions, and a bank, etc.
I went outside again when I heard horses squabbling through the window.
The ladies stabled Pockets on the boy's side since Eddy was in his stall. They hadn't closed the curtain door and Magic and Pockets were acquainting themselves with each other!
Horses were a big part of the break, but we finally had board game time! Carrie and I finished Pandemic Legacy Season 0! It was worth the preorder. We played 5 Minute Marvel as a family several times, and Shane and I played a round of Horrified.
Shane spent a couple of hours looking at some of my Battletech stuff and asking questions, so we ended up playing a mission. One of my sourcebooks was for the animated series (that's canon as an animated series in the universe!). Shane was curious, so we looked it up on Youtube and watched some episodes. It's no masterpiece, but it was a shared moment.
The days blurred together, but Sunday rolled around. We saw highs of 70s early in the week and ticks became active again. The prediction for Sunday morning was mid to upper 30s, but it dropped into the 20s instead.
Laura was shambling around, so we did the majority of the barn chores. Carrie gave her 'das boot' to help and walked Ernie for her. Shane helped by playing announcer with Amy.
The sun warmed the air and it turned into a pleasant day with a high just over 60° F. Scott, Mark, and Hazel came over to grill and hang out!
We opened up a bunch of windows and the adults played 5-Minute Dungeon and The Crew while the kids curled up with tablets on the couch.
And I didn't take any pictures. Can you believe that?
The one picture I have is from when we played The Crew. Carrie had a crazy hand and wanted to show us after the round.
I realized I didn't have any good kid pics as we were saying goodbye, but it was too late!
Landie came over an hour later. Shane 'babysat' her. They played hide-and-seek, Legos, and Shane read part of a Dogman book to her. There was a My Little Pony break in the middle, but Landie isn't the type to stay zoned out forever.
Carrie got jumped on by both kids multiple times!
It would've been nice if we could've had another playdate somewhere in the break, but double visits on Sunday was a strong finale.
Have I mentioned I've enjoyed the break? Cause I did. I was productive, too. I wrote 22 blog posts over the span of 5 days! I didn't do any grading, but my students didn't do much over the break either. I'm as ready as I'll ever by for Virtual School on Monday and I hope they're in the same boat. There are three weeks to go until winter break. We've got to cover polygons, quadrilaterals, and basic circles before taking a couple of weeks off to forget it all!
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