goals and the upcoming year

Since it is January and I don't feel like folding clothes I thought I would post about goals. I am not the type of person who likes making New Year resolutions, I think if you are going to make a change it needs to come from within and be attainable, so I guess a resolution like "I am going to my body healthier" is more my style then the infamous "I am going to lose ten pounds" type resolution.

Looking back at this post I did in the summer (before I knew I was pregnant) I think my goals were pretty reasonable, taking lessons, trying to get to another show and improving my fitness and Joy's dressage. Of course shortly after that post I found out I was preggers, we had some financial restraints and our infamous "move in while looking for a house and stay for fucking ever" house guests happened. In short life happened and while I am not disappointed in myself I do wish finances were not an issue, I still rode and worked on Joy's fitness and training and feel we got a lot accomplished even if it wasn't quite how I pictured it.

So basically my goals for 2012
-I want the remainder of my pregnancy and labor to be uneventful
-I want to have a healthy and happy baby
-Get myself and Joy fit
-improve Baby horse's ground manners (not human Baby that would be silly)
-get Poppy started under saddle and make preparations to sell her
-improve Joy's dressage (biggies are balance and relaxation)
-Have some lessons to get experience and feedback on our training
-Make it to at least two horse trials
-continue improving pasture and fencing (love my husband)
-set up better arena space (see above)
-have fun!

On a poneh health front everyone is doing great, weight is good for all three. The weather has been freakish and we are back to mud mud mud so I haven't taken any recent pictures. I can't get them to touch the GroStrong minerals that I was trying to feed free choice, so have been mixing the appropriate amount in with the morning feed of beet pulp and rice bran. I don't think I will buy them again since the primary component is salt (which they already get free choice, they especially enjoy the Himalayan rock salt) and they have no interest in eating the stuff free choice and if they won't touch it then it defeats the purpose of offering it. Planning on putting Joy on some Glanzen Complete since she did well on it last year and looking into joint supplements, at least will try some msm.

On the Me health front Baby and I are doing good, still having a surprising amount of sleepiness, I feel kinda lame because I get so tired, I feel like all I do is eat and sleep right now. I think giving myself permission to be tired helped, I don't feel as guilty for "not getting as much done" and I am doing something, I'm growing a person! I found making a big list of the things that have to be done and doing one thing off the list everyday helps, makes me feel more accomplished and less overwhelmed.

I'm also doing a lot of research on hospital births and procedures although I am going with the nurse midwives at a birth center it is different then doing it at home and I want to be educated. My midwife says everything looks great and is really supportive which is so nice since I had to take a "parent education class" through the health center and it was all "of course you want an epidural, they are totally wonderful and safe!" Out of the 15 women there only three of us were going with midwives, I guess I didn't realize how pervasive the modern birth attitudes are, I really don't believe giving birth should be like an illness or trauma that has to be interfered with. I have time but I think it is best to figure out what I want now.

baby needs tasty noms and so do ponehs so I better go feed myself and critters :)

I need a nap.

Joy says "hello?"

sideways but you can tell there is cuteness

One of the best things about being preggers is I don't feel lazy for staying in jammies all day since jammie pants are the one thing that is really comfy on my tum. Getting dressed does have it's advantages though since it makes it easier to  pretend I am not lazy and have done more then sleep in, eat breakfast, drink tea with a friend, feed ponehs and eat some pretzels. But I haven't so why pretend? I'm not lazy, I'm growing a person.

Got woken up at 7am by the hay guy who needed to get into the fields he is renting to spread some manure, apparently told Joe he would be out there but who knows. I am not my best after being woken up by someone banging on the door like the barn was on fire, but managed to not be a total  bitch (maybe?). He has some convoluted idea on rigging the pasture gate from two strands of electric with gate handles to something involving moving a fiberglass post to open up the whole line, I don't think he understands I need to divide pasture in half and be able to contain them in the whole thing so can't have just one gate. Still not quite sure why he can't open a gate handle attached to some electric wire but apparently it is a big fuckin deal. I told him Joe would help me this weekend to work something out since Joe is sensible.

Went to the doctors today, everything looks good, never thought I would be such a fan of "normal" but I love hearing that everything is where it is supposed to be.  Then I had to stop at the store since baby needs both ice cream and cookies. I feel huge but everyone keeps saying my bump is cute and tiny, to be truthful I am mostly worried about how fast I can get in shape for riding post baby, don't want to miss all the fun next summer.


Trying to figure out horse supplements stuff,  I'm going to try the free choice mineral thing and going to try the Grostrong minerals , I called a local(ish) feed store and for whatever reason they only had 50# bags and the price was double what is was from the manufacturer including shipping. Since I decided not to go with conventional grain and stick with beet pulp and rice bran, because the only one who does well on grain is Poppy and I don't like having to separate the three every feeding time, I am just not set up for it plus I like forage based feeding. I'll have to see if they eat the minerals free choice.

We are heading north next week to visit family, sooo excited! it does mean I have some work to do here this week though, to prepare. Being gone for a couple days doesn't seem like a big deal until you have critters, then you have to do a lot more planning.

what a boring post

I need to get caught up on posting since I seem to be writing a little and then putting it aside and having to catch up later.

Yesterday was fun, I went clothes shopping with my friend Melissa, at this weird thrift store without changing rooms.There was lots of stuff and I managed to score some maternity type clothes that are cute (and mostly resisted the urge to buy cute stuff that will fit after baby) We also looked around an antiques mall at all the really cool things, and didn't buy anything because it was expensive. Then Melissa's car exploded and now she is sad. So since we are selling White Jeep to Melissa anyway it just hastened things, Joe has to fix alternator in the next three days and I have to clean jeep out.

I am so tired lately, I know it is totally normal since I am growing a person but I still feel overwhelmed by the amount of things I *should* do. I am trying to break it down to manageable pieces but I still feel like I am constantly getting behind. It's just all the little shit piling up too, makes me frustrated.

So I am going to go and try to do some stuff.

Exciting update, or not.

Last week was busy, But overall good.

I got my ultrasound done, Joe got to come with, everything looks good and it was completely amazing to see my baby.

Hi Baby

we also got our first egg! and we are now getting one or two a day, yesterday I made breakfast with eggs from our chickens, it tasted great!

Yes, it is green.

we got our house back, don't have a picture for it but imagine a cleaner house with a really smiley Me. Everyone is much more relaxed, including the critters, and we spent a lot of time this weekend tidying up and making things feel like home again.

I'm feeling much more excited about cooking, actually made cookies on Saturday and I have a yen to make lemon poppyseed muffins, must be the rainy day. I have been more hungry lately and trying hard to eat sufficient amounts of good food, which is harder then it sounds since I have several food allergies (wheat, dairy) and tend to forget to eat regularly. Totally craving sugar lately but that seems to be assuaged by large amounts of fruit.

Poor Sadie is freaking out over the thunder that has decided to accompany the rain, good thing I got my outdoor chores done earlier today. Ponehs are going to be covered in mud again, I guess it is the season. Not feeling motivated today, but rather sleepy and lazy. I do need to go to the grocery store and library though, I suppose I have had enough slacking off.

zoooooooooooooomy time

I rode Joy last night, took her out for a good fast ride.She is such a firecracker, like she gets her canter button stuck and is like "this is so much fun! can never stop! wheeeeeeeeee! stop leaning back and pulling on my mouth or I will buck! wheeeeeeeeeeee! I like zoomy time!"

in between the excited zooming we worked on walking instead of jigging when excited and stopping. She is listening nicely but I would like to see her relaxing her neck more, she get such a giraffe neck when excited. So definitely lots of ring work to continue correctly muscling is in the plan.

In other horsey news, I chopped all Baby Horses mane off, She had a bad burr problem and it made me sad. I am struggling with energy issues lately and every time I looked at her mane I had to go take a nap so instead of spending a million years detangling I figured she wasn't going anywhere anyway so I roached it, looks very sporty if I do say so myself.

Poppy (red mare) is gaining weight nicely, I have her on Triple crown Growth and some vitamins (since she is getting less then 5# a day) I need to put her on a hoof supplement since her feet still look like poo but I guess less like poo then they used to, I did put her on some extra copper since she was thrushy during the drought we had this summer. I have been ground driving her and hope to get on her a couple times this fall, she is fairly calm and really sweet. Ground driving is so great for teaching a nice whoa and turning.

Chicken people suck, so far I have sold one chicken to a really strange lady with the most annoying children in the world. I have had a couple calls from really excited people who fail to show up, I think chicken people might be flakier then horse people which is hard to believe, and scary.

Off to deal with clothes mountain and try not to take a nap
xo