Watch Out and Guard Your Riches!

     When you live on a horse ranch, there is a long list of things that you need and you needed them yesterday. If only we had a second tractor, if only we had a bigger barn, if only we had a covered arena, then we would what? Be able to keep the horses healthier or safer. We'd be able to have more rideable hours, more convenient feeding schedules, or expend less effort catching the horses. Maybe if we had a new tractor, bigger barn, and a covered arena we'd be as nice a barn as the barn up the street.
     One lesson I have learned living on the ranch is that

FACEBOOK DEPRESSION

   There are so many things on my list to do that I don't know where to start. Let me just say, Facebook is not the best  place to start. If you ever felt overwhelmed by your to-do list, then checking the news reel on facebook and seeing what all your facebook friends are doing is not the best place to get motivation to get down your list.  This is especially true if your list includes chores and your friends are out having fun without you.
    In a given week I actually talk to a lot of people face to face. I have recently been having some candid conversations about the affect of facebook on people. On one hand, facebook

God Loves Me and Wants Me To Be Happy!

My Jazz and Me

    Three years ago I started on this journey. The day began as any other day began with my son in the car with me heading to the bus stop. Just short of the bus stop, I saw a sight that would change the course of my life in an instant. My horse, Jazz, who came into my life 7 years prior and changed the course of my life back then, was acting strangely in the pasture. One leg was raised in the air, flailing around. At first I thought she was having a seizure but then I realized that her hoof was caught in a barb wire fence that she had pulled off several posts and tried to run from. She had been trying to literally saw off her foot to get loose from the monster that had trapped her. I stopped the car, ran between the strands of barbed wire left on the posts and ran near her. Close enough to not get kicked I tried to free her from the wire with my bare hands.

    Since she was in a panic,

Making Time Count

       In a crazy week like this week; jam packed with get-togethers, consoling friends, kid's field trips, and losing a horse on the ranch; when you finally get a chance to stop and access the damage it looks like a tornado hit. Luckily, that storm just missed us but trying to relax seemed impossible in the mess this hectic schedule left in it's wake. Tackling the mess seems overwhelming so where do you start? How do you start? Do you start or just give up?

Set to 10 Minutes and Go!!! 

      Only one tool in my box of tools could help, the egg timer.
      I decided to work on one surface at a time beginning in the kitchen and work my way toward the bedrooms. 10 minutes clearing counters, 10 minutes clearing coffee and dining room tables; 10 minutes clearing the family room and kitchen floors, and a 10 minute workout on my dance floor. Then 10 minutes clearing off my bed and my bedroom chair so I could sit down and take a well deserved 10 minute break.
      The trick is to allocate 10 minutes to a task and quit whether you finish or not. Evenutally

Time to Dance!

The Corner Dance Studio is ready to dance. This is one great place to workout for under $140.
     --The Barre- an unfinished handrail-- $2/foot. (Stain we had on hand)
     --Hand rail brackets- $4 each
     --A gallon of paint- $22
     --The floor- 100 sq ft - interlocking floor mats - $84

Optional Features: Mirrors; DVD player, CD/MP3 Player, Dance Portraits.

     We chose the corner of the basement just at the bottom of stairs for convenience and to encourage the open space to draw you in. My son can't walk by it without hopping on the floor mats and doing a few Karate chops. I even caught him doing a few revele's at the barre. That barre just draws you to it. Located just in front of the laundry room door, I put in a load and this inviting space lures me in. Click the remote on the TV/DVD player we set up on a small entertainment center and stocked with workout dvd's. All set to move our bodies and accelerate our fitness.

The Master Plan

    My grandfather was a professional wall paperer. When he retired, he and my grandmother bought a ranch style house that he promptly wall papered. Every room had a different color, print, and even texture of wall paper. It was like a house collage. The living room had an open wall to the dining room so basically it was a great room. And yet, the living room and dining room had different wall paper patterns and colors as if they would never be viewed together. The kitchen had a bar that opened into the dining room and you guessed it, the kitchen had it's own flavor of wall paper.
    This spontaneous, use what you have on hand, style of decorating creates a unique, although hodge podge, look for your home. If you want a more polished look

Ballet Conditioning: No Tutu's Required

   Ballet is defined by Dictionary.com as "a classical dance form demanding grace and precision and employing formalized steps and gestures set in intricate, flowing patterns to create expression through movement." All the girls on my street lined up on a barre or two in their  youth and participated in the formalized steps and gestures with varying degrees of grace and expression. We all thought we were ballerinas but none of us went on to make a career out of it.
   Ballet conditioning is actually all that work we did at the barre to prepare our bodies for the rigors of the ballet dance and to earn our toe shoes. Toe shoes, the coveted acheivement of all aspiring ballerinas. Ballet conditioning, done without toe shoes,