Lindsie's Beginner's Glossary of Horse Riding Terms

I got an email today from a woman involved with a children's project. One of her charges, Lindsie, found my skjennagard.ca website about our horses and used that as one of her resources for creating an amazing web page with lots of information that people, (not just kids), would find informative. I was thrilled to hear that she enjoyed our ponies :-)  I'd love to add a link to her page on my website, but gosh, it's been over 10 years since the last time I made updates and will really have to put on my thinking cap to do so. In the meantime, I thought I'd link to it here so maybe it will get some views. 

Lindsie's Beginner's Glossary of Horse Riding Terms

Please check out her page.

inferno

We must be setting some sort of record this summer… it's been another stretch of blistering hot weather! Today looks like another scorcher… Carm golfed yesterday afternoon - it was 34C - but used a cart so he managed the heat well.., meanwhile, I relaxed on the back deck with occasional dips into the rapidly warming (again) water!

I say I was relaxing… but I felt like a damp wash rag wrung out until nothing remained. I had a really good run of energy and mood but yesterday I crashed in both. We had guests both days on the weekend (more about that later) and had a great time. Lunch both days was easy and mostly made ahead of time so it wasn't stressful, in fact I felt great… until Sunday morning after I got through my exercise… I don't know why but I was totally drained of energy - usually I feel tired but energized after I'm done (I know that doesn't make sense but trust me!)...

Yesterday morning I felt so weak that I couldn't even get through 5 minutes downstairs and forced myself to do a slow walk on the treadmill - if I hadn't been talking to Kirsten I'm not sure if I would have made it! Thanks Kirsten 😀 I wanted to do it as it's a big mood booster and I always feel like I've done something really good for myself… but perhaps yesterday I should have skipped it as it turns out that an injury that I have started to get infected and was spreading quickly, triggering a fever in the afternoon. 

I'm not sure what I did, but by bedtime the fever was going down and the spread of the infection seemed to slow. This morning much of the swelling is down and I have no fever so I'll hold off on going to the doctor. My immune system is working well for me!

I don't know if it was the infection but my mood also crashed, triggering a cascade of unwelcome thoughts… If I'd had more energy I would have made some black bean brownies or some such treat but there's the crux of the problem… no strength to do the things that would get my brain behaving again. Luckily this morning my brain is back to behaving itself! I'll take a day off from exercise but will get some things done instead of just being a lump on the sofa (outdoors this morning!).

Oh, so back to the last few days… we had lots of lazy afternoons doing nothing much last week (hummm - Carm played golf 3 times so he wasn't that lazy!)... the forecast for the weekend showed two more hot days with no storms on the horizon for the afternoon so we sent out a few invites.

Saturday Julie and Peter came for lunch. Carm worked with Pete 'back in the day' - they were married on the same day as we were so we have met for dinner to celebrate our anniversaries a few times and they've been here for parties, but I think this was the first time we had them here with just the four of us. It was a perfect (if a bit hot) afternoon for getting to know them better. 

Sunday it was Tina and Bruce's turn for lunch. As usually happens, they visit on the hottest day of the summer! In previous years they've come only once, and always around the beginning of August, often in hopes of seeing some meteors. This year they came in June as well - also a scorcher! I love having people over on these hot days - as long as they are swimmers! No hanging out in the AC for me on these hot days - they'll be over soon enough…

Awesome!

"picking food from the garden"

"eating food that we've grown"

quietly content

Carm was off golfing yesterday afternoon so I blasted the music blasting while I twirled around the house from distraction to distraction, leaving a trail of destruction and half worn clothes behind me. Half worn clothes? I've been trying on everything that I've purchased this summer for our trip! And since I really have no where to store them, they end up draped over chairs and beds! The spare room is a disaster, but only needs 30 minutes to be guest ready :-)

Today his golf game was early in the day so I slept in and then after a long leisurely cup of coffee, got walking… I felt good with barely a twinge in my back - hurrah!

I know that I go on about plant-based eating and trying to keep up with healthy eating but it's such a big part of my life that it's hard not to talk about it! I'm not trying to be superior or holier than thou… I don't feel that way at all, in fact I feel very much the opposite… but it's a daily struggle for me… and not a one and done thing! 

It's like if you got a new car… you'd talk about it for a bit then forget about it… unless you were having to deal with issues all the time in which case it would be a regular topic of conversation 🤣 pretty lame analogy!!! It's getting late 🫩 

I find it easy at times to just say to heck with it but then I remind myself that this is for long term health and vitality and get back to it. I've got lots of motivational videos saved to inspire me! Of course it helps that I feel great so it's hard to defend sitting on the sofa all day!

I read something about passion and discipline yesterday that really hit a chord - it's discipline that gets me to show up for myself everyday, even when I really don't feel like it. Oh sure, there are days when I can't get it together for much at all or maybe even manage just a walk, but I really want to try to limit those days. The last 2.5 weeks have been a setback but I'll pick up where I left off and get going again… soon.

"Discipline is what gets you out of bed when motivation is gone.

Discipline is what makes you practice when you don't feel inspired.

Discipline is what turns an amateur's dream into a professional's reality." unknown 

A few days ago I was feeling really great mentally and more like myself than I have for ages… it was wonderful but I didn't fully trust it which makes me a bit sad… it lasted for a few days then faded back to normal but I've had a few glimmers since… 

But what is normal? I've been medicated for over two decades and don't remember what it was like before. I do know that the meds flatten me out so that sometimes I barely feel anything but it's better than feeling like death! Hmmm, I'm going to rephrase that… I sometimes feel nothing but when I'm in a good space I feel quietly content which is actually pretty awesome and I'm grateful for that.

The weather has still been dry but has been a bit cooler. I'm sad to say that I didn't get myself outside at all today, it was breezy and a bit cool for sitting around outside… so other than a few trips out with the dogs I didn't venture out… oh, that's wrong! I did dunk myself into the 70F water this morning after my walk and other exercise.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm running out of zucchini! Yesterday I made 3 lemon zucchini loafs, today I roasted a bunch that I'll freeze to add to pastas in the winter, which has left me with just two small ones left! I might roast them tomorrow and hope that there are a few hidden out in the garden.

A few weeks ago I started following this fitness guy on FB - he's pretty fit and has some amazing fitness routines set to music which is all fine… however, the women that drool over him on his page are disgusting! Like have some self respect for goodness sake! And don't say gross things like 'he cured my menopause'... ugh… If he was a young woman that older men were gushing over everyone would be up in arms, but for some reason there's a double standard going on here!

Awesome!

"a full on walk"

"sunny summer days"

"freezing swim"

"a few days of feeling good"

"being happy with my life"

getting more mobile

Today I managed a full intensity hour long walk! The first in over 2 weeks. I even managed some extra weight bearing exercises as well! I feel like I'm almost back to normal… hurrah and finally, although I do have to protect my back a certain amount still. I just have to watch that I don't overdo it as I can push myself too hard at times… I don't know exactly what I did, but it sure put me on my back foot for days and days…

Yesterday I managed some time in the kitchen and came up with a few new 'recipes'... Pat was coming for supper and I wanted to zoosh up the black-eyed pea burgers that I already had in the freezer. I'd seen some things on FB that were basically a bit of grated cheese, some thin ribbons of zucchini, topped with a bit more cheese and then baked in the oven till crisp. That worked well so I stepped it up a notch and added some thinly sliced tofu that had been marinated in teriyaki sauce and then roasted with a bit of garam marsala sprinkled on (I'd skip this and use a different spice instead - maybe smoked paprika). I spread some chopped sun-dried tomato, red onion, garlic, la bomba spicy sauce, with a tiny bit of zucchini just to thin it out. The spread was pretty spicy so I didn't use much of it - next time I'll slather it on as the heat got lost in all the other ingredients.

Carm picked up some brioche hamburger buns which fit the burgers perfectly. All layered together, with a bit of ketchup, they were awesome! And much less work than the sandwiches that I made for Pat a few weeks ago… although the black-eyed pea burgers were already made, but I sometimes make a huge batch of them to have handy in the freezer…

Some zucchini salad with a lemon dressing and roasted radishes rounded out the meal. It was a good one and even better cause we could eat outside! Yesterday was a beautiful day, not too hot with low humidity. Unfortunately there was a smoky haze that blocked out some of the glorious sun.

We've had the sun shade up for a few days now!

Awesome!

"even more summer days!"

"black-eyed pea burgers"

"slowly getting more mobile"