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Wentworth Hunter Pace - June 6, 2021

After Margaret and I had such a fun time at the fall hunter pace, we opted to go again this spring! This time, while I rode Rejoice again, Margaret rode her horse Jester and had a friend ride Ladyhawke. All Kennebec Morgans!! Jester and Rejoice have the same dam and Jester and Lady share the same sire. Unfortunately instead of a lovely late spring day, we had one of the first intensely hot and humid days of the year. It was definitely a bummer, but the ride was mostly in the shade of the woods and we had a great time!  most of the fences were 3' coops but we found a small log and this hay to jump haha Until we didn't. 😑 We brought along a third friend who rode Margaret's older mare, Ladyhawke. She's a good rider but hasn't known Ladyhawke for very long and didn't realize how much of a cranky boss mare she could be at times. She kicked Jester right in the front leg just about halfway through the ride, and while the cut itself ended up not being a big deal in the

Welcome Back

 Oh, hey! It's been a little while, huh? 


Haha understatement of the year. Could life have been more crazy over the last 14 months? When I last posted at the beginning of 2020 about recapping 2019, I lost a bit of interest in blogging. I just didn't have it in me to write posts about how boring a winter in Maine can be without an indoor, about how Ellie and I bobbled through deep sn*w in frigid temps just so neither of us went stir crazy haha.

Dreamy and my youngest on Christmas 2019

Ellie on the right, her momma Rejoice on the left

And then of course, March 13 arrived and everything changed. My own struggles pale in comparison to others, but it was an incredibly tough end of school year to say the least. 

I posted this to my Facebook on day two of quarantine, homeschooling, and teaching online. It was rainy, my two children were already cranky about our new schedule, my oldest had to do a chemistry lab in the kitchen which made the youngest REALLY JEALOUS, and it took me ten hours to edit seventeen essays because I had to also play referee, housekeeper, and snack bitch. I mean really, mandatory lunging for everyone at that point seemed prudent!

Then in April, my dad unexpectedly needed an emergency quadruple bypass open heart surgery, which of course was stressful enough on its own but was compounded by the fact we were in the beginning stages of the pandemic. Just when I thought I was at peak level of stress, you find out how much more you can handle. For a full week my day was framed by morning and evening calls from my dad's surgeons and nurses since I was not allowed to enter the hospital. I had to move in with my dad when he came home after his surgery, since he lives alone, and that was on top of trying to teach my two kids, teach my students, take care of the farm and all the animals. It was trying to say the least.

In hindsight, my family did OK last year. My dad made a full recovery, neither my husband or I lost our jobs, and none of us contracted COVID-19. (I was fully vaccinated a month ago on April 9!) However, even though others had it much harder than we did, everything was still stressful. I felt a terrible fear of the unknown and what was to come that I have never felt before, but I can acknowledge we made it through without too many scars.


Thankfully, I did make it to a few shows in 2020, but there was definitely
a time I thought the entire year was a wash!

I did earn my National Board teacher certification at the end of 2019, which was a career goal of mine. I also was accepted into a doctorate program for curriculum and instruction through the University of Louisiana Monroe in an online four year program. My first class started on March 9, 2020, just four days before we were told the school were I teach was shutting down.

I mean, I definitely needed to find ways to cope haha.

Being in lockdown was rough, but ultimately we developed a good routine and did our best to cope with all the new protocols. I felt lucky to have my horses at home, so I could still see them and ride.

Real talk, I love being home so after a while I kinda liked it haha.

My youngest started kindergarten this year, which was wild during a pandemic.
Peep his rubber barn boots he insisted on wearing to his screening in August 2020 haha.

We got the official word at the end of July that we were going back to school full time in September. I had such weird mixed feelings at the time. Looking back, this has been the most difficult year of teaching I have ever had since I began teaching in 2001. We have a combination of full time, hybrid, and fully remote students and different grade levels in our school have been quarantined multiple times over this school year. This is not a good way to teach, everyone is stressed, and we teachers are trying to do our best for our kids. We have 23 school days left, as our last day is June 11, and I honestly feel like I mentally and emotionally need this break more than I ever have. It is not surprising to me my district is struggling to find anyone who wants to stay on to teach summer school. 


I guess you have to laugh or you will just cry!

So yeah, being in front of a computer screen all last spring and then spending SO MUCH TIME reading and writing for my grad classes made me completely lose interest in blogging (and Instagram and other forms of social media tbh). But I have tried to keep up with reading what everyone is up to in order to stay connected. I am feeling small tugs to start blogging again, so welcome back! Stay tuned for lots of catch up posts about Ellie and Rejoice adventures!





Comments

  1. Oh my goodness, what a wild year you've had! I'm so glad to see you blogging again. Welcome back!

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  2. Glad to see you're back! I enjoyed the brief peeks of Ellie/Rejoice adventures on social media last year, so I'm looking forward to hearing even more about them :) I relate SO HARD to what you wrote about being relatively lucky and coming through without too many scars but experiencing such a terrible time with so much fear of the unknown. Hugs to you, especially knowing you had to deal with your dad's health stuff in the middle of that too, wow!

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  3. Replies
    1. Thank you! Nice to get back into the blogging groove!

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  4. i missed you!! SO MUCH!! i am glad you are doing okay but i need more horse updates too! :) Welcome back!!!

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    1. I have missed you all, too! Don't worry, I have scheduled a TON of horsey updates haha.

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  5. It’s been a crazy year. And motivation to blog is hard to come by. I’m glad all is ok. Congratulations on your academic achievements!

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  6. Welcome back!!! What a wild year - so glad your Dad was ok after his surgery. Can't wait to read more updates!

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    1. Thank you! What a tough road, but things are chugging along pretty well now! *fingers crossed*

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  7. Welcome back. It's good to hear from you, even if it *has* been a rough year.

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    1. Thank you! Crazy times but I feel like I also learned and grew a lot (whether I liked it or not haha)!

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