Friday bullets - September 10, 2021

I am so glad it is Friday. 

• I have felt swamped all week with very little down time. The start of school was supposed to be the beginning of a calm and orderly schedule with a little room to breathe. So far, that hasn't been the case. I'm trying to figure out why because I cannot keep this up. As I write about the week, it might give me a clue as to what is going on.
• We all enjoyed our trip to the Shedd Aquarium. It was the most engaged I've ever seen R. on a field trip. so that was a plus. But being gone all day does make me feel a little behind because I haven't done all the little things I usually do as I go about my day.
• I am also incredibly happy to have gotten through so much fruit on Monday. My next project is to make a big batch of apple butter and can it. This is fairly easy as it cooks in the crockpot. I just have to plan two consecutive days to do it. One to get the apples ready to go into the crockpot, then the next, twenty-four hours later, to process all the jars. Only doing fruit on Monday meant that the usual things didn't happen, either. That makes two days in a row of our not-normal happening.
• Our first day of school on Wednesday was easy. The best thing I ever did was to lose the notion that we had to jump right into everything all on the first day. It was too much for everyone. The slow start is definitely friendlier.
• My Equine Facilitated Learning diploma program also started back this week after a summer break to allow us time to get all of our supervised client hours in. I love the group and I love meeting with everyone, but it is nearly three hours once a week. So with school in the morning and my class in the afternoon, that makes three days in a row of not-normal happening.
• Our co-op also started back this week. Since I am the volunteer coordinator, there is a lot of organizing on the front end to be sure all the places we need volunteers are filled. That took up a good chunk of Wednesday night so I could be ready for Thursday morning.
• Thursday afternoon was my day where I knew I was going to have the afternoon free... and I was looking forward to it! I needed it!! Instead, I unproductively dealt with the emotional fall-out of a less then pleasant email from the entity which helps us cover medical costs. After such a busy front part of the week, I had no margin left to manage it, so spent far too much time scrolling on my phone. 
• Because of our museum trip, I had cancelled my riding lesson. This was on top of having to cancel my riding lesson because I needed to take K. to an orthodontist appointment in the city last week, and the only appointment was over my lesson. I was already starting the week with a deficit.
• This morning I came in from the barn to discover all the children sitting at the table diligently drawing their daily map and doing their math. Everyone claims I told them we were doing math today, but I have no recollection of doing so. I wasn't going to add that in until Monday. But, they did their math and there were no tears. Monday should be easy!
• This afternoon was spent doing more co-op volunteer business and teaching two riding lessons. 
• I think I'm starting to see why I'm so done in. There was little down time and not much in regular tasks got done. Next week has got to be better. The volunteer piece should be pretty much sorted out. I will get to go to my riding lesson. And my planned afternoon that I keep free will actually be free. I am very glad I put all those hours in preparing my classes, because all I have to do on Thursday is check what I'm doing in each class and then do that. 

Now I'm going to go read the really good book I started and try to recover from the week.