Can we just pretend that it is 50 degrees and cloudy outside? July/August Recap

It's long. I'm sorry. I tried to make it short, but two months = a lot of stuff.

Well. Some depressing stuff happened and some happy stuff happened. I'm still not sure how I feel about everything. In any case, I am resolved to get this out on time-ish.


stuff that happened

We had lots of people from church out on July 1st for an Independence Day celebration. Everyone seemed to have a fantastic time playing in the pool and chatting inside. Nobody stayed long enough to see if anyone was doing fireworks down the hill, but that was okay.

People still set off fireworks down the hill, even though it was a bit dry. Some of them sounded like cannons.

Mia, during a family discussion: "There is no victory in self pity."

A friend went with me to go see Incredibles 2, and we both agreed that we liked it better than the first one.

Christian and I went to see Ant Man and the Wasp; it was good, but we liked the first one a little bit better.

I passed someone on the highway on the way to work with all their windows open and they waved at me. Weird.

Lydia got a new job at another coffee shop.

Lydia: "Yeah, someone came in and ordered two cookies and then gave me one of them. A guy. In his sixties."
Mia: "Well he's not dead!"
*everyone busts out laughing*

I got registered for fall classes! I'm taking another full load this semester so I can stay on the judging team, and I'll still be working as much as I can, so I'll not be going to Maui with everyone else this time.

Classes start back up on August the 27th.

Coal disappeared. And it seemed that several other cats from the neighborhood left as well. Ginger is still hanging around though, so we are grateful for that. But we all miss him terribly.

*stuck in traffic* *clucks at car in front of me as if it were a horse* *mentally facepalms*

*contemplating the lyrics to Jessie's Girl (idk, ok) // I look in the mirror all the time // Wondering what she don't see in me // Obviously a future, bub.

We had ridiculously hot weather for about ten days straight. Talking 100+ degrees. Every. Single. Day. Some days got up to 109, with the heat index being about 112. It was a dry heat, so that helped a little bit. But there were no clouds, no rain (not even hail), no wind worth mentioning, and most days it didn't get below 100 until 9 at night. Gatorade was my best friend at work. I was easily downing 100 oz of liquid (and that was while telling myself to ration it) between getting there around 7:30-8 and leaving around 2-3ish.

Our horse-owning neighbors went out of town again during that hot week, so I looked after everything while they were gone. My days started at 4:30 in the morning so I could get everything done over there and make it to work a little bit earlier so we could be done a little bit earlier. I was about dead by Thursday and averaged about 9.5 miles on my feet every day.

I went down to the barn one evening to feed the birds and put them up for the night, and I discovered one of the ducks, dead and lying on her back with foam coming out of her beak. I found Bingley on his back and barely alive. And one of the chicks was missing. Bingley was dead by the next morning, despite all my efforts to get him to drink. Everyone had plenty of shade and water, Bingley was right by the water. No signs of any struggle or injuries. I'm guessing a snake.

We had a lot of birds not make it because of the heat. We eventually had to set up a fan down there, keep the coop floor soaked, and run ice cubes down there every so often. Ava was a trooper taking care of everything while I was looking after the horses. I think the flock is down by half, and that was even after buying a few more right before the heat. Needless to say, nobody was laying, though we only have two that would even be old enough. The oldest rooster had me worried because he went through almost two weeks of not crowing and not wanting to eat or drink very much.

The middle of August the two remaining hens that were old enough to earn their keep started laying again. It's good, I think we only had to buy a few dozen eggs in the between time. It's sad though, we only have five hens now, three of which are still a month or two out from being old enough to do anything, and four roosters. We only lost ONE rooster (the youngest) and like, nine hens (four of which were not full-grown), and four ducks (only one of which was a girl, but she was valuable, since we had only two girls to six boys *cough*). Bad summer to be a chicken.

We did finally get some rain and cooler weather, so that was very much appreciated. The ground is still very dry though.

Spent an afternoon sprawled out on the living room floor coloring with the kids and listening to music.

Christian and I introduced Ava to The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, and she liked it alright. She said it wasn't too scary for her, so that was good!

I named my car Bonnie.

I got a week off of work since a couple of them were going to a show, and the one that was staying didn't want anyone else around. So that was alright. I got to sleep a lot more, and get some things done that I was putting off. Like getting my eyes checked for the first time since getting glasses almost three years ago. *cough*

Christian and I roped Lydia into seeing Avengers 1 for the first time. She did good! She only asked a few questions.

There was a five-alarm fire down the hill and out about a mile or two. Someone was trying to get his mowing done before the rain and accidentally set his fields on fire. He was the only one injured, and no buildings caught (only barely though, it got mighty close to his house), but several vehicles burned, and if it had gotten to the trees, or hopped the dry creek bed, or gotten to any of the oil/mineral wells it would have been so much worse. Good news is, after all the rain and a few days of sun, his fields will be the prettiest and most healthy.

I did a grownup thing and scheduled my own eye appointment and got that taken care of before classes started. It's been almost three years since I first got glasses, but I hadn't been in since then to get my eyes checked because they weren't bothering me until within the last month or two and I noticed that I wasn't able to see as well as I used to. Turns out my prescription hadn't changed all that much so yeah, no new glasses for me, at least for the moment.

Christian got a flat tire about 15 minutes out from home, so Dad went to go help him, but the screw securing the spare was rusted some, so they couldn't get it off with the tools they had there, and Christian had math tutoring, so they had to leave the car there. Later Dad and I went to get it taken care of. We were able to get the spare out, and all the bolts off of the flat, but the actual wheel was stuck. Not gonna lie, one of the first thoughts I had was "Alright, let's heat it up with the torch and try hitting it with a sledge hammer." Some things from Farm and Shop class will never leave. XD
We didn't have any of those tools with us, but an older gentleman was mowing and after a while he asked if we needed any help, and wouldn't you know? The solution was tapping it with a sledge hammer in a few spots and it popped right off.

I rearranged my room a bit. I swapped the placements of my bookshelf and my desk, and took out one of the chairs. I think it looks alright, and I like the change.

I had a weekend with my Aunt and Uncle in honor of my birthday that isn't until September. We did a Star Wars marathon per tradition, omitting the first two prequels.

Bought new work boots. I have unicorn feet apparently, since I wasn't able to find actual work boots in my size (granted, they do have my size in all of the nice boots, but the nice boots I bought and finally decided to make work boots lasted about a month and a half before the soles started to wear through, so I needed actual work boots), so I got to try out online shoe shopping for the first time. Luckily, I got the correct size right off and didn't have to mess with returning them and trying a different size. They are ugly and a little bit clunky, but they are waterproof (YAY) and have thick rubber soles with enough heel that I'll still be able to ride in them.


book stuff

I made a bookstagram: @always_a_shadow

I listened to and read a few books on Scribd, the app I told y'all about in THIS post.

Fawkes- Ah! This book! So good! 5 stars.

Cinder- *cough* Finally. It was good! I had read bits of it at the library before, but hadn't really ever had the chance to finish it. It ended kind of abruptly, but it was so very well written! 4 stars.

The Books of Bayern series- I read these as a younger teen, and wow. I'm catching so much more. Not all necessarily good stuff. I probably should've held off reading them back then until I was older. 2.5 stars.

The Night Circus- I'd heard good things about it, so I was pretty excited to find a copy at a used bookstore. It wasn't really my favorite- it was a lot darker than I thought it was going to be; definitely a winter/late fall read, not a dog-days-of-August read. I'll write a review soon.

Only seven books, but I'm building back up to how much I used to read. I miss it so much! But I just start getting sleepy when I try and read at home. Good thing I've got a long commute, because I have so many books I want to listen to!

I did a book review for A Thousand Perfect Notes by the one and only Paper Fury, so go check it out HERE!

work stuff

They were still all at the horse show until July 7th, so I still had a week left to hold down the fort when I went up to check on everything Sunday morning. Things were decidedly not okay. One of the mares in the pasture had gotten colic some time between the time I had left on Saturday and before I had gotten there Sunday morning. She was dead, and had been for at least several hours, when I went to see if they had any hay left. It was not a pretty sight. Some animal had gotten to her too. It was not the mare that had just had her baby, but this one did have a foal as well (about old enough to be weaned). It was one of the hardest phone calls I've ever had to make.

I clocked myself in the head when I stood up and didn't realize the horse had moved so that her head was over mine. Almost saw stars.

I almost got myself killed twice while turning out a three year old stud with extra energy, who had been sitting doing nothing for a few days. The first time it was on him, the other time was on me because I was mad at him for scaring me, but don't tell him that. He's been pretty good since then though.

I got to longe a horse that made me work harder than he did. He reminds me so much of one of the horses at the last place, looks and everything. I even tried putting him on the long line to see if he would do any better. He didn't. I've decided that he's just too smart to longe. He'd rather you made him think. So I made him think. Backing up. Turning. Following me. Moving his feet and pivoting. If I was braver and he was my horse, by the end of it I would have tried hopping on bareback and riding him.

Oh, and at the end of July, another horse had to be put down because she somehow broke her leg at the knee while she was turned out. Nobody knows how she did it. She wasn't really running around or bucking. She'd been with us for less than a week. Nobody was happy about it. And it was the beginning of the day too, so everyone was kind of downcast for the rest of the day.

At the beginning of August there was another horse show up in Oklahoma, so I got to hold down the fort for a few days. I like the fact that everything quiets and slows down while people are away, but it's much easier to go "you know what? I'd rather not do very much today," unless there's a list.

*after using all my willpower and throwing out my back getting a huge bale of alfalfa (which is heavier than hay, btw) loaded on to the back of the four wheeler by myself* "Are alfalfa round bales a thing? Because I feel like that should be a thing. It'd be way more efficient."

Once classes started they decided to keep me on, but only for three days a week, and not for all day, but that's okay. It'll be enough to pay the few bills I have and for gas money, and it'll be something to do between classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays (the third being Saturdays). With the way my schedule works out, I have Friday completely empty, so I can work on homework. Of course, on Mondays and Wednesdays, I'll still have a pretty sizable gap between my classes, but I figure I'll just get to spend a lot of time at the campus library studying or reading or practicing for the judging team. I am very much at peace with the way everything turned out- I had been extremely stressed because of the unknowns, and now it feels like a huge weight has been thrown off my back.

They gave me a new hat with the trainers' logo on it. I really like it a lot!

A girl from Sweden is going to start work in September, and they've brought in a girl that had worked for them before to help out a bit, so everything should balance out work-wise.

Oh yeah, and someone asked if I was married. No. Nothing on my left hand. Sorry? This person also thought the assistant trainer and I were sisters.

*arrives at work* *gets tackled by dogs as soon as I open the car door*


music things

July was pretty good for music. Most of it went pretty well together. August not so much. It was kind of a mixture of July and a hodge-podge of random other songs, so I just added them to the July soundtrack.

How were y'all's summers?

Favorite summer song?

What is something new you learned?

Excited for Fall?

A Thousand Perfect Notes, by C. G. Drews - Review

"Whaaaat? Chloe has decided to make time for book reviews?"

*cough*

Well. Midway through a week off of work I decided to try and stockpile a few posts, so know that even though this is releasing probably smack-dab in the middle of the first week of classes starting back up, I wrote this two weeks ago at least. That's right, a scheduled post that'll go up as soon as I've forgotten about it.

(also, I started a bookstagram: @always_a_shadow)

*** I was not given a copy in exchange for an honest review, I just thought it was super fantastic and decided to review it without any kind of motivation.

Blurb:

"An emotionally charged story about the power of dreams, and how passion can turn to obsession. Beck hates his life. He hates his violent mother. He hates his home. Most of all, he hates the piano that his mother forces him to play hour after hour, day after day. He will never play as she did before illness ended her career and left her bitter and broken. But Beck is too scared to stand up to his mother, and tell her his true passion, which is composing his own music - because the least suggestion of rebellion on his part ends in violence. When Beck meets August, a girl full of life, energy and laughter, love begins to awaken within him and he glimpses a way to escape his painful existence. But dare he reach for it? Thrilling and powerfully written, this is an explosive debut for YA readers which tackles the dark topic of domestic abuse in an ultimately hopeful tale."

My Thoughts:

Oh my goodness.

Ok. 

It's really sad. But there's also cake and dogs and music and sunshine. 

Of all the books I've read, ATPN is the only one to really pull off crippling depression smushed together with a character dead set on dragging out said depression by forcefully adopting the depressed person and feeding him cake; but in a very real and heartfelt way.

One of my favorite character tropes is dark and moody person A drawn out by sunshine and glitter person B, so this perfectly captured that.

It is best enjoyed with classical music, chocolate, and a few sobs thrown in here and there.

A caution to younger readers/parents of younger readers: 

Umm. This is a book that addresses abuse. 

I wouldn't say that it is necessarily excessively graphic, but there is enough that I would not recommend ATPN to a reader under the age of 14-15ish, just to be on the safer side.

As for language; I believe there was only one four-letter adult word that started with an 's'.

Add on Goodreads and get a copy on Amazon! (the kindle version was $0.99 at the time this post was written)

Also, go follow Cait on her blog: Paper Fury

4 Stars.
Who has read ATPN? 

Come, we shall sob together!

How I spent my summer

Ohey there, this is the part of Chloe that really wishes that she would sit down and blog more often.

(also, new fall blog look! actually, that's the same blog look I had before I changed it earlier this year, I just wanted it back)

It took me a few weeks to get it down to a time schedule (where I'd be able to look at my watch and see what should have been done by a certain time), but here it is.

Before Work:

5:30 am- Alarms go off. I have two of them. One I hit snooze once, the other I hit snooze twice.

5:40 am- Actually up and out of bed. Rinse face, brush teeth, do hair.

5:55 am- Reading a daily email that a pastor sends out every morning. Perusing Facebook/Instagram for a few minutes.

6:08 am- Realize what time it it. Make bed, get dressed.

6:12 am- Downstairs. Get coffee started. Begin packing lunch.
(a favorite is: turkey sandwich with mashed avocado spread in, an apple and a pear, and a bottle of gatorade frozen to a slush)

6:30 am- Lunch packed, or almost. Lunch bag set on mudroom bench, grab keys from laundry room and set on lunch bag. Start making breakfast.

6:40 am- Breakfast made, or almost. Start eating. Drink coffee.

6:50 am- Finish breakfast, or almost. Dash up stairs to put on socks, grab hat, and bring down work bag to refill water bottles.

7:00 am- Out taking care of birds. Let them out and give fresh water.

7:12 am- Leave. Preferably before that time, but that is about the latest I can leave and still make it on time.

At Work:

8:00 am- Arrive at work. Greet dogs. Shove lunch bag in the fridge. Take out a water bottle and set it in the freezer so it's cold whenever I want it.

Start grooming horses as soon as possible until they have horses for me to rinse off and we can begin the cycle of: groom, saddle, unsaddle, rinse, repeat. Always grooming other horses when I have a stopping place between all that.

If only one person is riding, there will be a string of five or six horses to put on the walker and/or maybe a horse to turn out for a bit.

Sometimes owners will come out to ride mid to late morning, so it's thrown off just a little bit.

Somewhere between 10 and 11 am- Put my bottle of gatorade in the freezer so that by the time lunch rolls around it is partially frozen.

Noon-ish- I try to eat as close to 12 pm as I can. Usually I'll be at a stopping place anyway. Sometimes I'll eat it in the car if the flies are being especially bothersome.

By the afternoon I'll have groomed all or or most of the horses, so it's just saddling and unsaddling and rinsing. Things slow down a little bit, and I'll be able to guess who wants which horse next, usually. At least once during the week I dust cobwebs off of the stall fronts, so I'll usually do that in the afternoon when it's slow and the guys aren't cleaning stalls.

5-ish pm- Done for the day. If it's been particularly hot or if I'm feeling especially run-down, I'll stop by Sonic for a powerade slush on the way home.

Exit music:



50 minutes after leaving- Arrive home:

Drop stuff in the mudroom and go down to put the birds up for the night (food, water, check for eggs).

Eat dinner.

Get cleaned up.

Become a sloth for the rest of the evening.

9:30-11:00 pm- Anywhere in there, fall asleep. Usually hitting about 10 or 10:30 these days, but I have been known to go to bed before 9:30 too.

Rinse and repeat, Monday through Friday.

Saturday and Sunday- hibernate.

How was your summer?

What new is something new that you experienced?

I need to tell y'all about a thing

(Note that has nothing much to do about the actual post: I've had a week off of work so I have a couple posts stockpiled and this is one of them)


Not a bad thing, or a scary thing, I promise. It's actually really cool.

I found the book version of Spotify.

And it is really, really, super fantastically cool!

It's an app called Scribd, and though it is a monthly subscription (about $9 or something), it is so totally worth it if you drive a lot or don't have much to do during the weekends. I've been using it for about two months now, because I wanted to make absolutely sure that is was worth the money and that it actually worked before I shared about it.

They have audiobooks, regular ebooks, sheet music, magazines, and news (though I only use the audiobooks and ebooks).

They actually have cool authors on there, it's not just all this obscure mumbo-jumbo (I mean, you are paying them, so they do try and make it worth your while), and the layout is really nice, clean, and straightforward.

They have Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Lori Wick, Melanie Dickerson, Heather Dixon, Marissa Meyer, Rick Riordan, Chuck Black, C. S. Lewis, Wayne Thomas Batson, Tolkien, and more! I've been able to find most of the books I've searched for, except for a few of the bigger new releases of 2018.

And GUYS. They have the Fawkes audiobook!

*** This is not a sponsored post or anything (*cough* I'm not that big of a blogger), I just thought it was really cool and y'all might be interested in knowing about it ***

The Get to Know Me Tag: Writer's Edition

Rules:

~ Link back to the person who created the tag, Savannah from Inspiring Writes

~ Thank the person who tagged you- Thanks, Marrok! You've saved my Mother from worrying that I have nothing to do, being off of work for the week.

~ Share the tag graphic (optional)

~ Tag eleven bloggers

Mary
Abi
Jonathan 
Julia
Sare
Anika
Hanne

(I'm sorry, that's all I can think of)


Vital Stats and Appearance:

Name:
Chloe Linn. Nothing long or super fancy.

Nicknames:
Umm. Well. The only way to shorten 'Chloe' is 'Clo,' as far as I know, but my Mom used to call me 'Clo-mo-marie-me' when I was probably about four.

Birthday:
2 years, 364 days before 9/11. I turn 20 this year.

Hair Color and Length:
Mousy-brown, hits the middle of my back if it's braided. At the stage of not straight or curly enough to leave it down without slapping a hat on it or putting it in a ponytail if I need to leave the house.

Eye Color:
Blue-ish green, sometimes almost grey. Depends on what color shirt I'm wearing. I love them though.

Braces/ Piercings:
I had braces for a year when I was between 9 and 10, but am lucky enough to not have needed them twice. My ears are pierced, but I don't typically wear earrings because they were done lopsided.

Righty or Lefty?
Right-handed.

Ethnicity:
White. I don't really remember where all we come from.


First:

First novel ever written:
The Songbird, meant to be a retelling smash-up of Sleeping Beauty and Robin Hood. I don't remember when I last wrote in it, but it is definitely not done.

First Novel Completed:
Non-existent. Sorry?

Award for Writing:
Also non-existent.

First Publication:
Unless you count blogposts, also not something I have in my writing repertoire.

Conference:
Money is a thing, so also none. Not going to deny that Realm Makers does look pretty fantastic though!

Query/Pitch:
I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.


Favorites:

Novel (That you wrote):
Making me dig back into my dusty story folder- I'll be back after I've read everything over again.

*an hour later, seriously*

Still The Songbird. It's the one I've written in the most, and is the most polished.

Genre:
Fantasy, Historical Fiction, a few Contemporary.

Author:
Ok now, I have too many favorites to name just one here. C. S. Lewis, Tolkien, Janette Oke, Chuck Black, Jaye L. Knight, C. G. Drews, Hope Ann, Melanie Dickerson, Lori Wick, and Anne Elisabeth Stengl.

Writing Music:
Soundtracks from LOTR and POTC, or from Two Steps From Hell (I promise the name is misleading, they do a ton of instrumental music).

Time To Write:
Mostly at night. If I'm going to, that'd be the time.

Movie:
Star Wars, Lotr, Potc, Marvel.

Writing Memory:
The time I wrote 5000 words in one day. It was a long day.

Childhood book:
Hands down the Misty Treasury book that was actually given to Lydia, but I ended up having the 'horse-girl' spark and so commandeered it.


Currently:

Reading:
Nothing at the moment, though I just finished Fawkes, by Nadine Brandes, and lemme say it was fabulous!

Writing:
Just treading water and trying to keep up with blogging.

Listening to:

Learning:
Not so much learning at this immediate moment, but I am preparing for my classes starting in two weeks.


Future:

Want to be Published:
Wouldn't be opposed to the idea.

Wildest Goal:
It doesn't really have anything to do with writing, but I'd love to own my own cattle ranch and train horses for ranch work/performance (as in western pleasure, reining, etc).


Well, that's that! Thanks again for the tag, Marrok!

What is your favorite music to write to?