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2022 flew by for me. Unfortunately all the progress I made in the beginning of the year was undone and I’m my new heaviest weight I’ve ever been. The tail end left me tired, exhausted, and out of spoons. But it wasn’t all bad; it was a big year. A few notable mentions for 2022 were: - made some good soup, bread, jam and other canned goodies - got some big house tasks accomplished - got Daisy ❤️🐴 - learnt how to trim Daisy’s feet - made raised planters and grew tomatoes, raspberries and strawberries - car is finally paid off - tried fly fishing - went cross country jumping with Daisy - did fall camping - got Winnie ❤️🐾 - took my first dressage lesson - I finished 5 paintings I’m really proud of and have 2 in progress I had a bit of a mental decline near the end of this year and I still don’t feel 100%. I’m happy to say there have been some improvements. My feet are also still not great but they are a lot better and I’ve been doing small walks with Winnie as part of her training. 2023 Goals - Get work skills up to date - Lose 50lbs - Improve stamina, core, flexibility and balance - Plan wedding - Try agility with Winnie - Continue Winnie’s barn dog training - Continue on improving my look - Paint 1 painting for myself - Keep working on improving Daisy’s feet - Read the Hobbit (started) , Paper Girls, Walking Dead, Gwenpool - Continue making my house a home That’s all I can think of for now. Some of these aren’t very SMART goals. I will try to figure out what I want my 1 year of progress to look like and how to accomplish it. Challenge goals: - Daily Winnie training - Lose 5lbs - Drink 2L water - Practice 12:12 IF - Floss and brush every night - Take pill every night - Cook dinner 5 times a week Other goals: - decide about/arrange Rooks lump removal surgery - finish Dani painting - beat God of War - sign Winnie up for Agility - attend at least 2 social obedience walks with Winnie

Hello! It's been almost 2 years since I was last around, and I've thought about you guys often. I was thinking about the forums again this morning, and how maybe I'd look at jumping back in. And then in my inbox is a "rebellion digest" with the "new content from your followed items for the past day".... from 2 years ago. My word for the year is congruity, so I'm taking it as a sign that I needed to be back here. I wasn't going to do a theme, but the Stargate gifs are calling me, so expect plenty of that. ~Goal things~ Movement: Current plan Dance (more on that later) on Sundays and Wednesdays Yoga at the studio on Tuesdays and/or Thursdays Train the pony on Sundays after dance AND either/both Tuesdays and Wednesdays before classes Would like to add home yoga (headstand progressions or neck tension flow)... just a few minutes, any day that I don't have yoga class push up progressions... my progress with fancy yoga poses is restricted by lack of tricep strength. Let's make this happen! maybe (that's a BIG maybe) add a lifting day, even just a bodyweight workout, but I'm not sure Nutrition: Current plan: eat food, often without mindfully enjoying it, no tracking Would like to change: drink more water, eat mindfully, track my calories for just a bit (can't let the perfectionist gremlin get in the way) Life Big picture: chipping away at these Little picture: Get reading (have 2 books that I'd like to finish by the end of March) Get meatball making (need to make 2 by the end of March) Get crafty Get back to my meditation practice Go to National Park #6 the first week in April Points: none for following the basic plotline plus 1 for minor new-planet-of-the-week tasks plus 5 for taking down a big baddie Point Totals: Week 1: 33 Week 2: 27 Week 3: 16 < ufda Week 4: 13 from vacation + TBD rest of week

Any other riders? It's Spring here (not that you would know it with the SNOW) which of course means 2 things - shedding season and Spring training! What are your goals for riding or your horse this Spring?

This is Queenie. This horse has been the bane of my life since the day I got her. At first, I had a grudge against her since I had to swap to her from Tommy. Tommy was amazing and we could do anything tgether. Then I didn't like her because she fights every decision you make whether you're on her or at her side. Then we started getting on. Then there was a large string of injuries, one of which took 6 months of daily bandaging, cleaning, trying not to get kicked, failing to not get kicked, STOP-IT-QUEENIE-YOU'RE-JUST-BEING-STUPID-NOW kinda happenings. But during the healing was bonding, and now she neighs when I come to get her in the field, even walks over to me. She lets me cuddle her face, and no one else is allowed to do that. I do love my stupid, stubborn, naughty mare. Tantrums and scars and all. In December I could bring her back to work. She shoved her head in a bush and almost poked her eye out. That pretty much healed. She then got the worst case of lice I've ever seen, warrenting the need to be clipped. Yard Owner tells me Queenie can't be clipped. Last time it was attempted, she was sedated, had her bridle on, had three seperate twitches designed to numb and calm a horse... She reared on the yard, shook everyone off her and ran off the yard and down the lane. 'You can try Pixie because she needs it, but it's not gonna happen. You may be able to see that in the above picture, Queenie has had a (almost) full clip. She would have let me do the rest of her head but as I'd never clipped before, I didn't want to risk her moving at the wrong time and me clipping her ear off or something. Would kind of ruin the 4 weeks of clipping desensitisation I'd just put her through. ANYWAY. Her leg's healed, her eye's healed, the lump on her leg hasn't really gone away but it's not bothering her so whatever. She's clipped, she's on her third dose of louse powder, and she's back into work. I bought her all new tack(except the saddle because her's is perfectly fine), we've done walk, trot, canter, and two days ago I even managed to hack her for 5 minutes on the roads without a whisper of a fuss. She's underweight, undermuscled, she's got a terrible clip (but come on, I wasn't exactly sure what I was doing and just wanted it done), and it's time to sort her out. As horse riding is exercise (and my horse riding muscles have decidedly gotten flabby after not riding for so long), and every assassin should know not just how to ride, but how to ride a 'problem' horse (because when you're making a speedy getaway and you jump on a horse you don't know, you need to be confident with whatever it could throw at you!), THIS IS MY CHALLENGE!! Mane(haha)Quest: Be able to see a positive difference in a before and after comparison of Queenie (18XP, CHA+2) Anything. Better muscle tone, posture, hooves, whatever. Just as long as we both look better at the end of the challenge than she did at the start. Have a written out lesson plan for 5 days a week (18XP, WIS+2) Structure is important to record progress and plan for improvement! Work on in hand manners and voice commands (16XP CHA+1) Because she needs to listen to me when I'm on the ground, not just when I'm on her back. Don't fall off Queenie! (16XP, STA+2) Practice hanging off her in (OMG-IM-FALLING-OFF) positions while cooling down. Lie sideways on the saddle, sit in front of the saddle clinging to her neck, practice getting back in the saddle from there.Falling off any other horses(or ponies) doesn't count. [if I ride my friend's pony Bilbo again I can guarentee I'll be on my ass... Again.) Make sure she eats enough (16XP, DEX+2) No gains without enough food! Queenie needs at least 1 haynet a day plus her feed with her supplements. Maybe two feeds if I can get the time in. Side Quest: Be able to tick off 2 thing's from Queenie's Epic Quest list (16XP, CON+1) My Epic Quests can be found by clicking the CHARACTERYAY link in my siggy. I think I'll aim to start jumping, and execute a turn on the forehand. We'll see how this goes. I've just joing the Academy so I've gotta go take my before photos and measurements, so I'll do that and then go get Queenie's before photo, and start training!

I believe in naming my challenges! It feels like a chapter in a book, making it seem much more significant to the book that is my life 1. Improve my leg strength on a horse (riding and weight training) 2. Learn how to mediate and center 3. Give up all soda 4. Balance my finances better What does that break down to? BUILD: (STR, DEX) Increase leg strength while riding -Ride at least 4 times a week. Finishing each session up to eventually go without a bridle on my horse, steering and balancing with leg strength alone. RENEW: (STA) Learn Meditation -Spend at least ten minutes a day learning and practicing meditation. ELIMINATE: (CON) Remove all carbonated beverages from diet -Quit soda cold turkey. No exceptions. Not even mixed with alcohol. Nope. Nada. Zilch! DISCOVER: (WIS) Improve Financial steering -Taking a class on budgeting at the end of the week. Look ahead at least two weeks and plan out finances! Think I can do it? My goal is to combine my love of archery with riding, like a Katniss Everdeen on a horse.. but centered and calm, like a true elf. And of course resourceful in the midst of limited resources - like any good Ranger should be!