Tired

Photo by Gretchen Haskett

     The winter is upon us, even if it's not actually winter yet. I am exhausted and barely functioning a lot of the time. Things are hard. The other day is was cold, I think the high temp reached a whopping 31 degrees. Today it was almost 60. Friday is going to be 20 I think. I wonder why we are always sick or exhausted? I don't really, I know why. 

     I have been having an issue with a student that really has me stumped. I can't really go into details about it because of privacy laws but it was really messing with my brain. I know that undesirable behaviors have a root cause; all behaviors have a root cause. And sometimes getting rid of the undesirable behavior is as simple as replacing it with an appropriate behavior. And for anyone who is getting ready to get up in arms about me saying "undesirable behavior" I do not mean stimming. I don't care if people stim. EVERYONE stims at some point or another (ever tapped a pen? Jiggled your leg? Twirled your hair? That's stimming). By undesirable I mean a behavior that gets in the way of someone's learning (or existing in the world) or is overly disruptive to others. Anyway, there is a very undesirable behavior which has permeated the entire day of this student. It is not in any one particular classroom/location or at any particular time of day. It is all day, and everywhere. Which means it does not have a simple root cause. Which makes it harder to figure out. But I may have cracked it. Or at least a way to work on it. 

       I was randomly doom scrolling on Facebook and happened to watch a short video from a woman who said 3 year olds literally do not understand the words "no" or "not" when you use them in a sentence. And I was like, what? But she demonstrated. She showed her young child an apple and a lime and said which one is not an apple. And the child pointed to the apple. The child knows what both the items are, but she does not understand the concept of a negative sentence yet. Now I do not work with 3 year olds but, from experience, I know that many of the kids I work with do not understand a negative sentence. So this child may not understand what I mean when I say "We don't ____________" They may be only hearing the "we" and the end of the sentence. It was a lightbulb moment. I still have to try this out, but I think I may be able to curb the behaviors that are negatively impacting this student and their learning. It's going to really take some thinking about, but I think this might be the key. 

     In other news, I have been working on a batch of hunt seat dolls for a bit now. I started last week and we are now almost to Wednesday and I still have not started dressing a single doll. I do finally have so many pieces prepped and ready that I may be able to finish a doll in about an hour. Which would be nice. So I am working, even though it is a super struggle, and everything is slow. Because I am tired. 

      We have 3 more days until the holiday break and I am very excited. I am excited to not have to get up at 5:30. I am excited to maybe get to stay up a bit later. I am excited by how many dance events I plan to go to over vacation. All of that excitement is also tinged by exhaustion. I really am very tired these days. Basically all the time. I need to dance more. That is about the only time I'm not tired. But it's almost Friday, which is dance night and the first night of vacation! I can't wait!

     The lovely photo above was sent to me by Gretchen Haskett after my Black Friday sale. And I have been too lazy to share it until now. Enjoy!

Black Friday Schedule

     Here is the schedule for my Black Friday sale, tomorrow, November 29, 2024. The items will post, on my Facebook studio page, at the times listed. If you want more details about the sale they are in this post. The pertinent information for each item, and how to claim, will be listed on each photo as it posts. You do not need to be at the live portion of the sale to claim. That's just to hang out with me :)

There is some special pricing for the sale! Most of the dolls are just $200, a handful are $210 and the tall cowboy is just $220! Most micros are only $25! All prices will be listed on the claim photos. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

2024 Breyerfest surprise decorator 2:05

2024 Breyerfest surprise silver bay 2:05

2022 Breyer Premier club Constantia 2:05

2024 Breyer wild animals series Mangoky 2:05

2022 stablemates club Phineas 2:05

2024 Breyerfest stablemate Lilac sky 2:10

2018 mystery horse gold filigree chase 2:10

2017 Breyerfest store special Navya 2:15

Curio Ranch mare 2:15

Pixel resin 2:15

Moxie resin 2:15

Mini Barnaby 2:15

Mini Mira 2:15

Mini Brio 2:15

Micro Sixjay 2:20

Micro Tennytoo with wings 2:20

2021 Maggies subscriber exclusive Alpheratz and Matar micros 2:20

Weatherwax micro 2:20

Rhino micro 2:20

Rhedyn micro 2:20

Escape foot Callie 2:25

Poppyseed micro 2:25

Chaos mode micro 2:25

Armstrong micro 2:25

Soldadito de Plomo micro 2:25

Castenia (no card) 2:25

Clearware medallion 2:30

Rose jump 2:30

set of pink props 2:30

blue plaid dog bed 2:30

black and white dog bed 2:30

red plaid dog bed 2:30

cross country kits 2:40

cutting chaps 2:40

backpacks 2:45

helmets 2:50

doll blankets 2:50

judge's kits 2:55

pink horse blanket 3:00

pink fly sheet and mask 3:00

apples 3:00

carrots 3:00

mystery boxes 3:00

deluxe pony sized set from Boo Saddlery 3:05

small traditional tack, broken bridle strap 3:05

Studio Maire pads 3:05

casual western black shirt 3:10

teal western pleasure 3:11

tall cowboy 3:12

hoodie doll 3:13

purple western pleasure doll 3:14

red western pleasure doll 3:15

pink western pleasure doll 3:16

small casual english purple 3:17

casual english pink breeches 3:18

navy coat hunt seat 3:19

navy coat hunt seat Lenna body 3:20

black coat hunt seat 3:21

rose western pleasure doll 3:22

small dirty cowboy 3:23

casual western red shirt 3:24

driving doll in blue 3:25

 

Thankful

     Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and it's the time of year when people think more about what they are thankful for. I am thankful for quite a lot of things. Life is a challenge a lot of the time, and things are rarely easy for me, but this year especially I feel I have a lot to be thankful for. I have always been thankful for my family, my model horse family, and my work family, but this year I get to add to that my dance family. I have a lot of really amazing people in my life.
     I am grateful I am managing to balance all of the things I need to do to make sure Travis has what he needs. Sometimes doing all the paperwork to make sure he can stay in his program, keep his insurance, etc., feels like another almost full time job. I don't imagine that will ever be easy, but it has gotten to a point where it is a lot easier. 

     I am grateful for travel. That wasn't something I was able to do for years but this year I made two trips. Travis and I went out to Kentucky for horsefest and at the beginning of this month we went out to Colorado for Candyland Live. All of the traveling I have done so far has been for model horse things, but it gives me a time and a place to go to, which is a good start. Now I want to go more places. And maybe not just places that have to do with model horses. I know I want to go to New Orleans. Maybe that one will come soon. And I am still open to going to more places to judge horse shows. I have not had interest in showing in several years now, but I have been enjoying judging again. 

      Dance has been the most amazing thing to come into my life in a very long time. I have met some truly wonderful people. Plus I found a way to get in a good workout without feeling like I am forcing myself to work out. And I never make the excuse that I don't have time to dance. There is always time for dance. And while there has occasionally been a bit of drama during a dance I have never had a bad time dancing. 

      Last Saturday I was at a friendsgiving dance party. I properly met my friend's daughter, who I have met before, but this time we played Uno, were on the same team, so now we are real friends. Before she left she asked what my favorite color is, I told her pink, and she pulled a piece of pink construction paper out of her backpack. Now this little girl is an artist and every time I have seen her she is doing some kind of art. I love that. So she gave me a piece of her paper and I promised her I would make something beautiful with it. Which is where the rose in the photo comes in. I could keep it but I think I will give it to my friend to give to his daughter when he gets home. I promised to make something beautiful, and you should always keep your promises. Especially to children. I hope she likes it. 

Black Friday Sale Preview

       I am trying to keep up with all the things I need to do, but it's a struggle. I figured I would give a quick preview of at least some of the offerings I will have at my Black Friday semi-live sale. Some things are from my personal collection since I have decided to downsize, again. I don't have as many accessories as I sometimes have, I just have not had as much time this year to work on those types of things. 

      I do have some other items I might add if I find the energy to get photos. I am still struggling with Chrome not allowing me to load photos into blogger, I can't seem to connect my phone to my computer (or my car. Apparently it's too new and they are too old) so I had to download Firefox to my phone as a work-around. Nothing is easy these days and everything takes more time than it should. 

    So a quick rundown of the semi-live sale. It is going to run a little bit differently than the last couple/few. I just don't have to energy to make groups of thing. So if the thing is alone in the photo, you can claim the thing. No waiting. I am planning on listing single photo things about one a minute, and then every 10 or so items taking a break from the posts for maybe 5 minutes so I can catch up on the claims. To claim an item all you have to do is be the first to say "mine" under the photo when it posts on Friday. There will be no preview photos on the Facebook studio page, just a link to this blog post. 

    If there is more than one item in the photo I will put a number or a letter on them. Then to claim you just say mine and the number or letter. That's it. I also don't mind if you claim more than one item in a group photo. I do not have time or energy to police this. I have tried a number of different ways to be as fair as I possibly can and I have still had people complaining at me that it's not fair. Well, I'm tired and doing the best I can. All I can say is try your best. Use your fastest device. I know my computer has a delay compared to my phone, for example. All I can say is I hope you get what you are after. If you don't, and it's a doll, ask me if I'll make one like it. I might say yes. 

    I will be putting a more detailed schedule of when the items will post probably on Thursday. Maybe even tomorrow (Wednesday) if I manage to get it together so I can post it. I can say that the order of things in this post is very likely to be the order of the sale. Just to make things slightly easier on myself. Some items, like judge's kits, blankets, apples and carrots, I have more than one of. I will try to list this pertinent info on the claim photo. You are allowed to claim more than one if you want more than one. 

    I think that's all I have for right now. The semi-live sale will be this Friday, November 29, 2024 at 2:00 eastern time. You do not have to come to the live portion at all to claim items. I will maybe have trivia, but right now I have nothing ready. I do have the prize wheel that I brought to Breyerfest so I may just have a great time giving prizes for whatever random thing I think of. So if you want to join me to watch me dance around and sing the alphabet, check out the live portion of my live sale on Facebook on Friday. "See" you then!