liminal_space | mornin'

mister/kid are down the hill and i'm drinking coffee in virtual silence. it's weird! it's strange! it's sort of good! usually the dogs are making a ruckus with their pup nonsense, but they're outside being very quiet.

which makes me suspicious.

*

tomorrow most likely is the big day for dakota's move. he'll be in an area with at least one other horse, so that will be good, especially since the other horse is a real pip -- and utterly cute. there's a lovely draft mare in the area next to him, so he'll be falling in love within the week and my guess? we'll switch things around so he can be with multiple buddies.

we are opting to move him to our friends' property. these friends also run a horse rescue -- which will be BAD for me, because seeing any animal that needs rescue breaks my heart: i like to think of them in abstract terms -- so some of the rescues will be there, but it's mostly friends' personal horses that are, for the most part, old farts.

they have been wanting to fix the property up so we're helping do that (we help the rescue anyway). the ultimate goal is to have the property set up so additional boarders can come in and have a nice set up...the money from the board will go toward the rescue, so that's a great thing.

there are so many nice things about this arrangement and they really outweigh the negatives, so it just seemed like it's the right thing to do. because we're going there, mister and husbandfriend have prioritized the "upgrade" list so that leveling and grading the arena (and eventually adding lights and seating), putting stall mats in, and adding a fan to one of the stalls he has access to are happening really soon. of course the arena will be what takes the longest, but even as it is, there is a really nice place to work him.

the thing i'm super excited about is the back pasture -- night before last, we all talked about turning it into a cross country/obstacle course! o.O and they're helping us set up a vaulting practice area for the kid so she can spend a little time each day working on...vaulting stuff.

i'm getting a nice chunk of the tack room, i love the way the feed room is going to be set up, and over the course of the next few months lots of "stuff" is getting organized and tidied up so that it will be good. better than good even.

there's still some ambivalence, but the pros outweigh the cons by a lot and the potential is there. if it's realized, i'll look back and say WOW, RIGHT DECISION MADE! if it's not? well, even then things won't be bad, they just won't be perfect. and really, what is ever perfect?

*

we were able to get kid in the classes she more or less wanted. it's such a good thing we dove into this early, because there was a problem on her transcripts from last year that we had to wade through. plus, the scheduling conflicts created quite a bit of discussion. she sadly doesn't get to do the volleyball PE class nor the STEM english class she wanted, but she'll live. she's jazzed about her elective (ceramics) so it took the sting out of not getting the volleyball class. and i'm going to be honest, it took all i had to not steer her toward a college prep elective, but based on a million different observations, i think this is the best thing for her.

she's got AP world history and advanced english (no AP until jr year), so there's going to be some heavy reading and writing -- it's going to take a bit to get used to. i hope she'll be OK...i hope i will make it ok on my end and not put too much pressure on her, which is difficult.

there's a fine line between support and pressure, and my natural inclination -- especially since i know what she's capable of -- is to lean into pressure, which really doesn't help anyone in the long run.

school is difficult even in normal times, and now? batshit crazy. mister and i think she's going to want to go back to distance learning mid year, but she may surprise us. if she wants to, we'll do it -- there are only so many months of backward thinking science deniers/'merica types anyone can take without wanting to punch someone in the face. i told her about one of my ex-students who made it through her sophomore year of HS and ended up taking the GED to "graduate" early, then spent what would be her junior/senior year doing community college to get her gen ed classes out of the way. so when her peers were graduating, she entered her 4 year college as a junior and had her BA by the time she was 20. she had her master's by the time she was 23.

kid was all "woah, you can do that?" and i nodded.

me? i would never have followed that path. by my senior year, i had most of my required classes out of the way and took like 4 electives and dicked off the majority of the year. it was a blast. :)

but one size doesn't fit all, right?

right.

what's beautiful is that we live in a time when educating our children has expanded to fit what kids need rather than trying to hammer them into traditional modes. that expansion and change is a lovely thing.

*

i finished watching "shorsey" the other night and wow...i didn't think i would like it and DARE I SAY i love it more than letterkenny. o.O

now...go give your balls a tug.