Friday bullets, Feb. 28, 2020

Let's lighten things up around a bit. It's feels as though it's been a fairly heavy week.

• D. got hired for his first job this week. He is going to be working at our local library as a page (which seems to be a fancy name for shelver of books). He had originally thought is was a volunteer position, but it turns out to be a paid one.
• This could be my in at the library. Maybe I will finally be remembered... if only as D.'s mother. I'll take what I can get.
• Poor Y. has been feeling crummy for most of the week. It is very sad to see her feeling so rotten.
• In math this week I not only had to teach a child how to multiply two, two-digit numbers, but I also had to teach another child how to do long division. I think they both have the basic idea of both, but there were some unhappy moments.
• I did not do a load of laundry today, mainly because I am out of laundry detergent. So coming home from the stable today, I picked up the makings for a new batch. Yes, I make my own. Maybe I'll make a post about it tomorrow.
• I seem to have done a lot of reading these past two months, because according to my reading record that I keep, I'm averaging seven books a month. That's fairly high for me. I'm also pretty darn sure that I won't be able to keep it up for the entire year.
• We realized this week that Kenzie has been part of our family for four years now. If his age was correctly guessed at the shelter, he is now about eight, though he could be older. It would explain why he has been looking a little grey to me these days.
• I have been slowly working my way through L.'s latest novel, correcting the spelling. I decided that it was just easier if she read to me what she had written and I wrote a clean and corrected copy. Her writing was so dense on the page that there was no room to correct the spelling on the original. I have to say, I'm pretty impressed so far. (I've done six chapters out of 14.) Each chapter is told by a one of four characters in the story, with the point of view changing each chapter. I'm a little tempted to type it out and share it with you. Would anyone be interested in reading The Swooping Eagle? (Remember, the New York Times calls it 'stunning'.) And I was correct about it taking hours. I think I've worked two hours so far with L., and we still have half the book. Thankfully, she has taken a writing break for a while so I can catch up.
• I'm seeing friends and family sharing pictures of the new little chicks which have arrived. They are so cute! I am so glad they are not ours! I'm really enjoying having a spring off from brooding chicks or ducklings. Plus, I'm not sure how we would manage even more eggs than we have now.
• I got to try something new in my driving lesson yesterday. My trainer had set up pairs of cones in various places in the arena, and my job was to steer the horse and cart through them without knocking any of them over. It was pretty fun, even if it did involve some tight turns and fast steering. No, no cones were knocked over.
• I also managed to harness the horse in under ten minutes without forgetting a single buckle or strap.
• We were doing a science project for our school's science fair this last week. Well, we started it at least. We were supposed to be looking at the mold rates between store bought and homemade bread. Well, except I left starting it until too late. I didn't factor in the colder, dryer temperatures of winter. The bread is still sitting there... not molding. It's probably just as well, because I'm not sure when we would have made the presentation board. Lesson learned. Do the science fair project a good month or two in advance.
• H. is learning to draw faces in her art class. She is doing some truly impressive work. I'll have to remember to take a picture so I can show you.
• After I pay the bills this week, I'm hoping there is enough left over to get what we need to tap our maple trees for syrup. We wanted to do this last year, but time escaped us. I really want to try it this year.
• Finally, an R. update. She slept all night last night on the floor of our bedroom, so no ER trip, thankfully. Today, though, she was just off. Not terribly verbal, grouchy, unhappy. I didn't get much done as I spent a good chunk of the day just sitting with her, reminding her she was safe and trying to help her find words to express what she was feeling. (Not sure how successful that last bit was.) At dinner, she grudgingly ate, but not her usual amount nor with her usual relish. She got ready for bed, and then, it was like a switch flipped. She was able to talk again, was fairly pleasant, and got into her bed and allowed us to tuck her in without a fuss. I. Don't. Get. It.