What a Week

And none of it had a thing to do with horses. My life has three legs: home, horses, and work. Home is everything that has to do with my husband, the dogs, or the house. Horses is everything equine related: care, riding, showing, seminars, and so on. Work is ... well, work. When those things collide, I get stuff done, but not necessarily stuff that I wanted to do.

Yellow Dog, Tobias and me last year?

This week, all three of those things ramped up. On Tuesday, I had my husband leave work early to pick up the dogs so that he could meet me at the vet for vaccinations and exams. We unloaded the dogs, he left, and I wrangled both dogs in the door. The receptionist gave me a smile but there was a big question mark on her face. My appointment was on a Tuesday, just not THAT Tuesday. Sheesh! What a wasted afternoon.

My classroom

Beginning on Wednesday, I've been administering California's version of state testing. My students work virtually, but for testing, half of them have come in the person. The other half meet on Zoom with a different staff member. Even though she's proctoring the test, I am still responsible for keeping things organized. It's challenging to keep kids quiet and focused while also keeping them excited about school. For my in person kiddos, after testing, we've been playing Hues and Cues and spending some time outside having the first P.E. time they've had in three years. We have another week of testing to  go. It's exhausting, but I still enjoy it.

My husband checking out the Kern River.

On Thursday, which was only yesterday but feels like last week, I met my husband at a doctor's appointment during my music prep. Normally, we're not allowed to leave campus during a prep period, but as a favor, my principal let me leave for a bit rather than getting a sub for a half day. I also take care of in-school suspensions which means I had a detainee? yesterday that I supervised and tutored. So in all, I tested all morning, supervised my new friend, left school during my prep period, came back and finished the last part of the day with my kids, and then helped my detainee catch up on the work she missed while being suspended. To say I wore a lot of different hats at work yesterday would be an understatement.

Photo from a week or two ago.

I did make it out to the barn yesterday, but not to ride. I was too tired. Instead, I turned dIzzy out into the yard to let him visit with his gal pals and talk shop with the stallion. Speedy got to come out for a bit as well so that I could evaluate his level of lameness after his weekend abscess. He looked sound at the walk and about 90% sound at the trot. He should be good to go in another few days. Today I should finally have an afternoon to myself so that I can ride. I have a lesson tomorrow. I need to look like I've been doing something all week.

And now I am off to the donut shop to get my students some motivation. TGIF.