Five- OH!

What a frickin' beautiful morning!  The air is crisp, the sun is shining and the snow is fluffy.  What a fantastic way to mark my return to the land of the project free.  The dogs were confused when I grabbed the leashes and herded them out for a walk around the sniffy block, given walks have been relegated to night time only over the last few weeks.

What is this chicanery?

Daytime walks????

The bonus was an impromptu Golden party during the walk.  A few of the Goldens of the Hood and a visiting Golden converged at the same intersection simultaneously and partying ensued. 

All in all a great way to get the creative juices flowing, hence another blog post hot on the heels of last nights post.

Book Em' Dano Year

I recently hit the milestone of the big 5-0.  Not quite middle aged yet, as the plan is to live to 113, but close enough that it made me start to contemplate what I can let go of and what I need to add to the next half of life to get me to the lofty 113 goal.  

Goal #1-  Adding Bend to my Bendy bits.

Ommm!

Since the ankle fracture resulted in the death of dance, I have noticed that my bendy bits have morphed into Tin-Man bits.  There is actual creaking, cracking and groaning coming from joints and me when I have to do full range of motion movements.  Bend to touch my toes with straight legs... a dream from the past... my knees are so bent that I am in the fetal position.   This coupled with lost balance and coordination (frickin' sprain and fracture) has led to a very unhappy body and Max.  

In an effort to correct this I started dabbling with yoga in the fall.  Yoga is something that I feel I should love but often get frustrated with and then give up.  Being  totally honest, if yoga was just lying in Savasana, I would be all over that like cows mowing down grass.  But NO!!!! They expect you to challenge yourself and hold unnatural positions and poses.  

MONSTERS! 

Well in the name of reclaiming my bendy bits I took a 30-day yoga challenge using "Yoga with Kassandra" on You Tube to help guide me.  I started with the 10-minute morning yoga and after a few days realized there was a 15-minute night time yoga option as well.  It took me longer than 30 days, but yesterday I completed both programs.  

Was it worth it?

It was.  I found that as the weeks passed my bendiness increased and now I can almost sit with my legs stretched out straight in front of me while sitting up with a straight back.  Hurrah!  Oh hamstrings the journey we have been on over the last 50 years- Scoring 0 inches in the sitting long reach in the Canadian fitness challenge in junior high, to the splits in high-school, then back to ultra-tight until discovering Highland Dance in my 20's and now back to seized.   

In fact, I loved the yoga program so much I am redoing the challenge for Jan with the plan to do both morning and evening yoga every day for the full 30.  I'll let you know how close I get to the Gumby ideal at the end of the month!

Goal #2- Creativity

I do enjoy finding humour in crap a$$ situations and composing stories about the humorous side of epic fails and knock 'em down "What the????" moments.  I often do this when walking the dogs but unfortunately they have not invented the cranial USB port that connects my brain to the computer, so these stories and humorous musing tend to be for my benefit only. 

I might live to regret this, but my goal is to produce 50 blog posts over the course of the next year.  Some might be very, very short but 50 for 50 is the ultimate challenge.  Feel free to heckle me if I start falling behind... because we know mocking and heckling are instant motivators for me to put the proverbial nose to the grind stone... just so I can say "Suck It!".

Who knows I might also live life large and find some time to continue to practice my painting skills.

I'm starting to think part of the problem is too many interests

Goal #3- Nature

Having had 50 years to get to know myself better, I know for an exact fact that being outdoors and with animals is my absolute calmness reviver.  Bad day... put on some shoes, grab a dog and go and walk in the bush or around the block.  Feeling overwhelmed??? Grab a tent and disappear into the bush for 5 days... BLISS!   

Ingrid

I recently rediscovered my love of barns and horses and must admit I am kinda addicted to both.  There is nothing more meditative than spending time with a horse.  You have to be present and focused on the here and now or you run the risk of being run over.  With this in mind I declare 2022 the year of the Horse and Hound.   

Luckily,  Golden Pride Kennels/Ranvik Fjords has generously supplied me with access to both.  If dog shows ever reopen the plan is to work toward Ferg's CKC Intermediate Rally Title and CARO Rally Novice Title.  We might even try for his Pre Novice Obedience title..... lofty goal I know!  Oaks will be working toward his CARO Rally Novice Title and if I can get both Oaks and Ferg on the same page maybe even a CARO Rally Brace title for each.  

What about Whisper?

She will be busy having puppies... which means Puppy Time for Max and perma-grin for the 8 weeks that I get to spend with them.  

Whisper's Summer Litter-  My Heart!

As to the horses, the plan is to continue to learn about starting foals so I can help Ingrid progress her skills and to stay on Sola... no more impromptu dirt parties for me!!!!

Goal #4- The Dining Room

What madness has taken over me????  Yes I hope to finish off the dining room update project that I have been piddling with over the last 9 years.  I have been working on plaster repair in this room while working on the office, as I had to do something with the left over plaster on the trowel.  This means I am closer to the finish versus the start of the summer, but the dread of having to strip more woodwork and sand plaster is still too fresh to get super excited about starting this project quite yet.  But don't let me rest on my laurels.  Feel free to ask me about how this project is going and to heckle if you notice I haven't been mentioning how the dining room is progressing, as heckling is my fuel to finish.  

The next project.... I can do this!

So there you have it.  My Big Hairy Audacious Goals for 2022.  Notice that not one of the things that are important to me right now are work related.  I find it interesting, but figure I am at the point where focusing on myself and home outweighs growth at work.  Sure I will still end up growing my skills at work, but it will not be my sole focus anymore.  

Look at that!  Only forty-nine more posts to go! 

CHEERS TO 2022!