Weekly update - November 18, 2022

The date says November, but it is most definitely winter outside. We're supposed to warm back up a bit in a few days and I certainly hope that is correct.

• My treadmill experiment continues to be successful. I've used it regularly for five days each week since it arrived. One day off is the day I have my riding lesson, so that's a different sort of work out. The other is our co-op day where it is about all I can do to get everyone out the door on time.
• I had no idea that when you get off a treadmill you can feel all wobbly, like a sailor hitting shore for the first time in months. I'm sure I was pretty amusing to watch after my first few sessions. It's gotten better now and I can actually walk across the room afterwards without having to grab onto something.
• It's cold enough that I had to put blankets on the horses. Three (Bristol, Java, and Vienna) of them have brand new blankets that I bought a couple of months ago. They were wearing second hand blankets that were in varying states of disrepair or didn't fit quite right. I'll save Bristol and Emmy's old ones for extra, but Vienna's I had to throw away because it was past its time. It is so easy to fasten the new blankets! My fingers and hands are happy to be able to do it with gloves on.
• Vienna is not a large pony length-wise. She actually fits in a horse blanket made for a one year old horse. The trouble is she is... wider than a one year old horse. Much wider. Some of my children have nicknames her Vienna Sausage to give you a sense of her shape. I could just barely fasten the belly straps of her blanket even with them let out as much as they would go. I will be buying strap extenders for her to give her a little bit more ease around her middle.
• Here is the first snow of the season.

• J. and Y. are in the middle of Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie. I anticipate another movie night (or nights) where we watch all the different versions we can find to compare them to the book.
• These mums were a gift to me last spring at the end of the school year. I stuck them in one of the pots near the barn and watched them get bigger and bigger, but never any blossoms. Then, about two weeks ago, they suddenly burst into bloom. 

• If you are a flowering plant, you should probably not procrastinate about blooming.

• Can I kvetch for a moment? I had thought about making this an entire post, but that would probably be too much. So in short... I am so tired of reading queries of new homeschooling parents looking for an online math curriculum for their elementary age child because "they can't teach math." Um, it's arithmetic, it seems like something every adult should know. And if you don't, then teaching yourself in order to teach your child could do both of you a world of good. I mean, how does one know a program is any good or if it is effective if you don't understand what is being taught? See? I could go on and on, but I'll leave it at that. Purposeful ignorance is so irritating.
• In the creative writing class I'm teaching, we are working on creative non-fiction. That's not being creative with facts, but telling those facts in a creative and engaging way. Everyone picked some really unique and interesting topics to write about. L. chose to write about the first woman computer programmer, Ada Lovelace. Did you know she was Lord Byron's daughter (the Romantic poet) and did her work in the first half of the 19th century? I had no idea. One reason I love teaching is what I learn from my students.
• My piano is getting tuned this coming week and it is a very good thing. I am now cringing whenever someone decides to play because there are a couple of notes which are painful.
• TM left today to drive to Ohio to pick up D. They will get here sometime tomorrow. It will be good to see D. again.
• Several children are counting down to this coming Thursday, not for the holiday but because it marks the start of Christmas music season. I firmly believe that anticipation doubles the enjoyment.
• The dishwasher saga continues. J. had narrowed down the needed part to two different options. We went with the more inexpensive option in the hopes that it would be what we needed. It wasn't. So now we have ordered the more expensive part. I really, really hope it arrives soon and is what we need because the dishes are never ending. 
• I also need to mention how helpful everyone has been about doing dishes. Every child (minus R.) has done multiple turns at the sink 99% of the time without being asked. They are a good crew.
• We began the fifth Thursday Next book, One of our Thursdays is Missing, this afternoon. There is only one more in the series and I need to start thinking about what we are going to read next. I am a little tempted to read one of the classics which makes a frequent appearance. That could be Pride and Prejudice or Sense and Sensibility or Great Expectations or Wuthering Heights (though I don't think anyone wants to read that one since Fforde does such a fantastic job of skewering it). Maybe I'll ask my children which they would prefer.
• The chicken's egg production is definitely starting to slow down.

And when I start mentioning chickens, I know I have come to the end of anything of importance to share. Stay warm everyone!