Weekly update - January 5, 2024

Here we are at the first weekly update of 2024 which just seems a little unreal.
  • I did a very brave thing this afternoon and sat down to pay the bills. I didn't want to. We had been hit with some big car repairs and some dental bills, so that combined with even a very modest Christmas felt... well, terrifying, frankly. So I avoided all things money. The trouble with the avoidance technique is that as I'm avoiding things, my brain is making them bigger and bigger. All of this combined to make me very reluctant to sort it all out. But I did. And it wasn't as horrible as my brain had built it up to be. It helps that the car repair place and my hay guy are flexible. 
  • Last week D. decided to go around the house and count every book. I forget the actual number, but I think he came up with slightly more than two thousand. Of course that also didn't include any picture books or books in his siblings' bedrooms. Probably the more accurate number is closer to 2500. (We have a lot of picture books.)
  • If that number seems high to you, just consider for a moment that it is probably half what we had in the Big Ugly House. When we turned the schoolroom into a bedroom I downsized our school books and children's book by half and when we moved I purged all of our books by half. There just wouldn't have been room for them in this house.
  • L. continues to work with her pottery wheel. Here are her two most recent attempts. 

Even better, look at the bottoms.



I know I keep showing you pictures, but I'm so blown away by what she has done using essentially a toy. 
  • Y. received a kit for crocheting Pokemon for Christmas so has taught herself to crochet. She is getting close to finishing her first one.

The head is finished and she is now working on the body.
  • With J. having gone back to work, we are back to teatime. The first two days we needed to finish some reading that we didn't get to in December. But we needed a new book. Finding good books to read has its challenges. Everyone is very adept at listening to books and all have large vocabularies and can handle complex syntax. Sadly, most books aimed at fourteen year olds feel a little simplistic much of the time. I've taken to reading adult books as a result. But they are still younger people so not all content is appropriate. As I said, it's a challenge. There are several people here who are deeply involved in a western themed video game. L. has even broken out her cowboy hat a couple of times. With that in mind, I decided we would tackle the Pulitzer Prize winning Lonesome Dove. I did a quick rating search on it and it came up a solid PG-13. So that's what we began today. So far, so good.
  • Personally I've been happily reading through the Thursday Murder Club series. The author has a unique writing style that I find a bit off-putting for about the first page when I start reading, but then I get caught up in the story and I don't notice. This is a very character driven series and following the adventures of the four members of the Thursday Murder Club is what keeps me reading. 
  • Every so often I get emails to my business email with someone asking if they can volunteer. More often than not this "volunteering" is really just wanting to come "help" me with my horses in the form of riding or grooming them for me. Will you be surprised to learn that when I suggest that if they want to help I'd be happy for them to come muck my pastures or scrub my water buckets, they don't jump on the opportunity? If I didn't have my filter firmly in place when replying I would be tempted to tell them that I am unwilling to underwrite their horse experiences and if they want to come groom my horse, they can pay my hourly rate just like everyone else. Because really, this isn't about volunteering to help me, but volunteering me to give them free horse time. 
  • I am so happy to report that we did not spent January 1 and 2 in the hospital this year as we did last year. There wasn't even a single moment where we even thought about it. That is a wonderful beginning to a new year. 
  • I had Major work with a child client for the first time today. He did great. 
  • Finally, if any of you do want to help and don't feel inclined to scoop poop out of pastures, passing along the Bittersweet Farm LLC information and website is the absolute best thing you can do. I can do parent coaching remotely... in fact that is how I work with nearly all of my parent coaching clients. And I rarely toot my own horn, but I am very good at helping parents reframe their children's behavior, find personal sticking points, and increase their parenting skills. I'm also pretty unshockable and you will get no shame from me because that's not even remotely helpful. Bittersweet Farm LLC 

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