Thank God for the Break!

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! 

Shane got in a little trouble after his shoulder nailed her in the chest! "You're not that small anymore!"

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!

Thanksgiving 2020

Cole started it.

Shane was happy to send a goofy picture back!

I texted many people a "Happy Thanksgiving" and that picture!

Our day was a quiet one. Shane wanted to build a city out of Legos to get hit by natural disasters. Whether he was trying to play survival or destroy it is anyone's guess!

He had a radio tower to start, so I started building some townhouses, quads, apartment buildings, and a gas station as seen from an airplane. That led to Shane building an airport and some airplanes to fly overhead.

Carrie joined us after a shower.

Shane's radio tower became an air traffic control tower and Carrie built a radio tower that Shane later souped up to be a power plant.

With all the  natural disasters Shane was ready to inflict (including a blanket sized tsunami) it seemed prudent to give the town a hospital.

We managed to play without electronics for the entire first half of the day!

Carrie went non-traditional for our Thanksgiving meal. She mean a soup involving bacon, potatoes, and pumpkin. 

For our evening entertainment: American Ninja Warrior! We watched some The Floor is Lava the other night, so we were on an obstacle course kick. 

Shane was willing to bounce on the couches, but he had no interest in building our own course and getting some exercise!

It was a much quieter Thanksgiving than years prior. Grandma and Grandpa opted to go to NOVA rather than host, because Rachel and Chris had some concerns about Shane coming back from SC without much time in between. Sophia was just in the hospital from a ruptured appendix, so germs and health were in the forefront of their minds.

On one hand, we would have liked to have seen them. On the other, it was really nice to have a day with no expectations. I've been enjoying the break from work and time with family immensely. 

Thanksgiving 2020 was the holiday we needed. We can have a busier Thanksgiving with more people next year. 

One Last Trip to See Family.....

We drove by to see Kim and Ryan! It was our last planned stop to see family for the break. 

Kim and Ryan outdid themselves again with getting Shane Christmas presents. I never expect anything when we arrive and the next thing I know Shane is two Lego sets richer (plus a coding set, a Lego Technic set...). 

Gifts and wrapping seem to be a talent on Carrie's side of the tree. They got themselves some presents, as well. I haven't seen Deadpool, but the marketing for the character is hilarious.

I was just trading Office Space quotes the other week!

I know what Ryan's going to be doing if he gets any more snow days. Kim? She'll be working (the joys and pains of working from home).

Kim had to work the day we visited, so it was our job to keep Ryan entertained. He showed Shane his holiday train set in his 'office.'

Kim would pop by and chat whenever she was waiting for something to compile or in between calls.

It's funny how kids develop certain routines and expectations for different homes/people. Shane insisted we play Here, Kitty, Kitty!. I brought Stuffed Fables and some other games of ours to show, but Shane wanted none of it. We went out with Ryan for lunch, walked around a few stores, and then Shane came back to hunt the cats.

There was a Lego break at some point which let the adults talk.

When Shane had too much energy, Ryan asked Shane to run back the recycling. The yard was soup from all the rain, but a few laps up and down the driveway seemed to help.

It was good catching up. We might have ended up living closer to them if we hadn't closed on land around here! Kim's a team lead programmer/consultant and looking at switching companies. Ryan will be going into his fifth year as a band director which should forgive some of his student loans. Overall, things seem to be going well for them (minus the leak in the ceiling they had to fix! Home ownership, right?).

Ryan had an evening doctor's appointment and Shane had wrestling, so we said our goodbyes around dinner.

Christmas Cooldown

Cat update: They're getting braver. The kittens mainly stay in their sanctuary room until Indy beds down for the night. However, they are venturing out more and more. Bucket surprised us. She's the brave one. She started by bolting to the top of the stairs outside our room. Now, she samples Indy's water bowl whenever she's on walkabout. 

Kathleen and Cru came to visit as expected.

There were plenty of rides for everyone.

Evelyn likes to chase after the boys.

Carrie spent the whole morning and afternoon in research and phone acquisition mode. Jama has trouble with her phone, so Carrie took it upon herself to 'fix it.'

She managed to get a new, double-the-size android phone for only $2.60 more a month on Jama's plan! Carrie changed the phone into easy mode, jacked up the size of all the icons, and then worked to teach Jama what she'd need to know.

The project kept Carrie busy all day. I was amazed at what she accomplished!

I don't know if I've mentioned it yet, but Nana has had a thing for puzzles this week. She and Shane worked on a bunch of smaller ones earlier in the week. Then she set up a big 300 piece Cinderella puzzle she hoped would become a 'community project.'

The kids worked on it off and on over several days as Nana or I would coax them into it.

I decided to do the dress today, because it looked like it would be too difficult for the boys. I wanted them to finish and momentum is motivational.

There was a 'vent incident,' but the boys recovered (with help) and finished the puzzle! I may have mentioned there would be a reward at the end.......and the boys may have assumed that reward was Nana's phone and Pokemon Go (I didn't correct them either).

Suddenly, a two-headed monster appeared! Nana played a game at the women's retreat and wanted to recreate the magic.

Which we didn't. However, Kathleen wasn't the first person to find herself playing Siamese twin. Nana had roped me into it the day before.

It was worth a few laughs both times. It never took off from there. 

Tenley impressed me with her ability to walk around.

It was a smaller, less raucous gather than yesterday. Evelyn wasn't feeling well, so she stayed home after she disappeared for nap. It was Jama's last night with everyone before she headed back for Virginia, as well.

We had stew for dinner. Jama had made a comment about sweet potatoes not belonging in stew and Carrie said, "Challenge accepted!"