Being happy!

We had such a great time at Dave and Deb's amazing corner of forest/creek/field/hill/loghouse under construction. I'm so glad we could get there for a visit, even if it was way too fast. And muddy. I'm pretty grateful for the sand we live on here - the clay is still drying off our boots and we are slowly vacuuming it up as it falls off.

This week is pretty quiet and I am celebrating the time and fantastic weather by working with Jetta so that hopefully I can be trail riding her in the next month. She is now walk/trotting with me on her back in the round pen and giving to the bit and the reins much better. I started at this point last spring right with the trail rides and quickly realized that while she didn't mind me riding her, she also didn't notice me riding her, so we have been focusing quite a bit on her noticing me - from the ground and now on her back. I don't know what I would do without John Lyons' approaches. It is so neat to see her "get it" and begin to do what I want her to without any need to terrorize her, lose my temper, or be unsafe. It just takes more time and patience. Thankfully I now have little blocks of time.

And, I am running again. Last year was almost a total write-off because of all of us being so sick all summer and I fervently hope we don't have a repeat. As long as I run 4 minutes and walk one I can go for half an hour. I am hoping to work up to about an hour straight but I'll take what I can get. My knees are not getting any younger. If I have to bike I will, and maybe I will anyway to change things up now and then but it's nice to have options.

The one thing I would like to get back to and haven't yet is writing. If I could run, ride, write, and work with kids that would be a perfect week. The cooking, cleaning and laundry would magically do themselves. And now I am looking at the muddy mess our garden is and starting to think about that expensive hobby as well . . . There's never enough hours in the day. But at least with this sunlight I feel a bit more like doing things in the hours there are. Hooray spring!!

I think, although I feel a bit guilty about it, I will continue to fill up the days this week with fun stuff. On Friday the kids are home for the ten day Easter break and I will probably be back to swimming to keep my head from going under. No mosquitos, no horseflies yet, and the ground is almost dry. What a great March.