Merry Timsmas

So I didn't know we'd be spending Christmas with Tim. Tim's the worker that is helping fix the back side of our guesthouse. He lives by the beach, so the only way to get him here to work on time has been I guess to have him live over there, sleeping in the backless guest house, covered in plastic, in I hope a thermal sleeping bag.

It's weird enough to have a dude sleeping in an open air house, but then on Christmas?? So of course Tim got some slippers and then we invited him in for turkey and then somehow he was doing bike jumps with Nathan and Bruce in the backyard and going on the family walk and then playing a ripping game of Monopoly with all the kids. Nandy said Tim seems like a satyr, which I just like because it has a "y" in a weird place and it sounds like he'd have pointy ears and hide in secret dells in grassy knolls in Ireland.

He is actually a nice guy, just didn't know I was going to be having a Timsmas this year. I'm guessing that when the house is finished he'll just be living there. On Christmas day he did make some huge additions to the treehouse Nathan's building. It was actually the best day of Nathan's life, to have a builder be his friend. They nail gunned things and later rode bikes.

A Merry Christmas for all.

Maggie the Bolter

I don't know what I wrote about Maggie last, but I've figured out that she's in training, and I'm the one training her, so everything has to be taken with a grain of salt. Yesterday we rode over to Katie's house with Nathan way ahead of us on the bike, and aside from bolting forward once from a terrifying dog behind a fence, she did okay.

Getting her used to neighborhood dogs is the same as getting her used to the bridle, which she's now excellent at. It's just scarier cause I'm on her back and have to bolt along with her and pray I don't fall off. She'll get better at it, I just have to hang on. Literally.

I rode with spurs for the first time yesterday and she does listen a bit better, barely had to use them. She's doing better in general, listening - not wanting to go forward all the time, but still doing it. I figure what's right past that is resignation, the OKAY, I'll GO your way with no thinking of turning around. She's halfway there, and I only wanted to quit on her EVERY TIME. For some reason she's still here.

My Brain is An Empty Vessel

Too much going on and I don't think I'm actually doing that much that is visible to the naked eye. Just trying to maintain. Make a happy Christmas for kids at school, take care of kids, and the horse in the backyard. My friend Julie might take this horse, if she's not right for me.

The lady I used to ride for wants to give me her stallion. The sweetest horse if you can ride in an arena, he's nutty on the trail. And of course all I have is trail here, I don't have an arena. Maybe I should demolish the garage, instant arena.

I don't know, I'm not doing anything. I'm going to go recover from being out late with kids last night. Kids past 9 pm, never a good thing. I need to see the end of a night, without voices, to know that the day went well, and to feel satisfied. I'm only good for a limited number of hours, then my brain fries.

So I'll go sit in the sun and ruminate.

Big Fat Asshole

Yeah, so maybe it's the big crazy wind, but when I take the horse out she acts like an asshole. My friend Katie says not to give up, but I say you know what, life is too short. I just want to get on and ride on the trail, come back, and feel refreshed. I've been doing all the training, but I don't like when the horse turns at me and looks like she wants to stomp my brains out. She gets this look when I ask her to trot and she definitely wants to squelch that request from me. Like, by crushing my skull. So she can then eat grass around my body.

I decided if I become a big reality tv star on NickMoms, I'll have a little extra money so I can send this horse to someone else and then get a decent horse that is already trained.

As soon as I decided this, I took Maggie back inside and pulled all the trash cans in around her. She didn't mind all the clattering at all. In fact, I had to go back to get more trash cans (my life is trash) and I left her in the driveway and she just stood there like an excellent carriage horse. Damn her. Waiting while I pulled all the trash cans around her, she waited til I said Walk On, and then she just walked on like she was in the Rose Parade. I'll work more on ground driving her, she seems to like that. Katie says to wait til after the holidays to do anything. Stupid Katie.