Chaos, Stamps, and Doggo the Bunny Hunter

What I’m working on this week: This is the chaos week, folks! School’s kicking off again, and schedules are shifting like I’m sitting on hot butter, and everything’s slip-sliding around as we try to ID new life patterns. For now, I’m keeping expectations light. I’ve got a short story I’m plunking away on bit by bit, and I’m building up inertia on the novel project so I can jump right back into it once school is officially in full-swing. I’m excited, and terrified, and my head’s a static-y mess as I try to wrap my head around new time requirements. Phew!

What’s inspiring me this week: Gosh, I’m not even sure. We’ve been traveling a bit to see friends, which has been great, but I’m totally brain-dead now. I’ve cracked open my new bullet journal, and in combination with the time management app (I’m trying Motion for a year), I’m finding it delightfully more journal/notes-centric, which I actually adore. We’ll see how that goes. (I am a bit obsessed with STAMPS at the moment–clear acrylic stamps for notation. It’s a bit cumbersome to do during the day, so we’ll see if that sticks around, or if I switch over to a more sticker-based system or something. We’ll just have to see!)

We’re plugging away on doggo training, too–for those of you not in the know, our puppers Mando is…a bit reactive. And by a bit, I mean A LOT. He’s quite good out and about in any place that isn’t “his space,” but around the house–while he’s great with us and the boys and my folks–he’s incredibly antsy and territorial. We’ve been embarrassed more than a few times with our lovely neighbors, so we’re really determined to see what we can do to rehabilitate his behavior. I may start keeping a weekly log here, just to document our process and keep myself accountable, but we’ll see. We’re working loosely with a behaviorist in Concord, but it’s a long drive, so we’re also trying some online training programs. Right now, we’re kicking off with Trail and Bone, though we’ve learned a lot from the SpiritDog training courses, too, and he has improved in some important areas using that methodology. We’re very pro-positive reenforcement, and he’s by far the smartest dog I’ve ever owned, so he’s surprisingly easy to train on your general obedience things. But I suspect his intelligence also makes him nervous as *shite* because he’s so aware of everything in his environment, especially being a mix of a variety of guarding breeds (and a whole lot of “supermutt”-who-the-heck-even-knows). We’ve already learned a lot about being good dog owners, but there’s more yet to learn, and we’re doing our best. (He’s also obsessed with rabbits–he has several stuffed bunnies he likes to carry around the house.)

What’s challenging me this week: Schedule changes! Everything’s up in the air. All our normal routines are changing dramatically, and our summer schedule is going out the window. I’d be lying if I said these changes don’t heavily affect my productivity, so I’m just trying to be kind to myself this week, and lean into the uncertainty.