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December 31, 2016 The Home Life: Preparing for the New Year

This is the last day of the old year. Tomorrow will be the first day of the new year. I have not done a yearly recap. I’ve been too busy dealing with more momentous things. This means that  I’ve been in the moment, at least momentarily.

Today I might finish my Centered Riding article. I put off working on it yesterday morning. Then last night, after being outside for some time, I sat down at the computer with the sole intention of reading my email. Before signing off, I forced myself to look at that article. I read it in its entirety; and after, I decided not to go


Preparing for the last ride of the year

with my secondary plan, which was to write about one of Sally Swift’s basics in relation to anatomy, but instead, to go with my original idea and write about all six. The article was just too far along for that.

No time was wasted in mulling this over. In my head, I began seeing the possibilities inherent in each of the six basics – there is a book in the making here. The lungs and breath alone will make for a very good chapter. My Centered Riding article, the one I will finish in the next few days (it really won’t get done today) will serve as a book outline.

I should now be writing about how well Raudi and I did this month’s agility competition. Alas, the video did not go through. I’m not sure that it would have been scored anyways because it was too dark. I sulked for a bit about this, then printed up the January courses. (Starter Level for Tyra and Tinni, First Level for Hrimmi, and Advanced Level for Raudi.) In the process, I came up with an idea – I’m going to be organized about their training. I’m going to have Pete assist me in making up a chart, one that has the obstacles listed and as well, the dates of the month and the names of the horses. Five minutes per horse per session, this will be at the most twenty minutes per day.

Speaking of organization – tonight I am beginning what I’m calling the house purge. I’m going to take a room at a time and clean and organize said room. I am going to begin with the bathroom. I am going to go through the bathroom shelves and drawers and I am going to clean the bookcase area. I am going to discard all that we do not, and will not, ever use. I am also going to go in the drawers beneath the bookcase area and clean them out. I obviously have big plans. Key to this is, prior to doing this, to keep to a time frame (oh brother) rather than just set aside several days for this ongoing project.

This will be a good thing to do in that things that are missing will surface. This will in the long run make us far better consumers.

This end-of-the year dispatch is the most mundane thing that I’ve ever written. It did help me figure out what my immediate plans are, so it did serve its purpose.

Next: 1. 1/1/17 The Reading Life: The New Year Resolutions, Part I

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