joy in January

selfie with Annie

I went to the barn yesterday for a make up lesson.  Since it's winter there is a unpredictability to our riding dates.  If it's too icy it's too dangerous.  No one wants a 1500lb horse slipping and landing on them.  Today my regular lesson is rained out so I am happy I went yesterday.  We had a group lesson where I learned that my poor riding is actually remarkably poor.  Really I love to go and groom her and get all ready and then I am just as happy to plod along a trail at a walk.  Annie's an old lady like me, she likes the plodding as well. But we must do more and learn more.  I have really bad balance and because I have done such a stellar job taking care of my temple I am out of shape and weak.  I am working on it though.

Rob and I got fit bits, I got mine for Christmas, he got his a little before.  It's very interesting.  You wear a braclet on your wrist, it tracks you, how far you walked that day, how many flights of stairs you went up, how long you slept, if you had active minutes. You can also input your food and it counts calories burned and will tell you how much to eat depending on your inputed height and weight and goals.  Anyway, I had not worn it to a lesson yet and I was really curious what it would say.  I know it's a work out because I get hot and sweaty and feel like it is.   So to put it in perspective sometimes I walk the dogs and it will say I walked 1.5- 3.0 miles depending on the path we choose, but there might only be 5 active minutes in that time.  The most active minutes I've gotten on any day previous is 31. My goal is 30 a day but I have rarely made it.  One evening I was about 800 steps shy of my step goal & 5 active minutes shy so I stood in front of the TV and jogged in place.  I thought 5 minutes would catch me up.  Nope.  I jogged around for 15 minutes before I got 5 active minutes recorded.  I don't know what qualifies as an active minute.  So yesterday I checked my wrist before mounting.  When I got off an hour later I had 45 active minutes logged.  It's a lot of work up there :) But the time goes fast and I love it, when I am not scared.  

After school Grace and I went cookie selling.  She is now half way to her goal.  Yay! They aren't hard to sell because lots of people want them, but you still have to go knock doors.

Last night was Relief Society.  It was a nice meting. The theme was Joy in January!  Everyone brought a $5 or less item that brings them joy.  We had a basket with everyone's name in it.  So someone stood up and shared their item, then they drew a name and gifted the item to them.  That person then stood up and told about theirs and so on and so forth.  Alecia brought Frizzante from Wegmans, and I received it.  Yay, the children are very excited to try it.  I am excited to go to Wegman's some day. I brought bath and body hand soap, warm vanilla cream flavor or something like that.  Alissa got it.  It was fun to see what everyone brought.  Then we had a panel of "experts", which I question the term since I was on it.  Luckily we opened it up to group discussion.  People wrote down questions and we and the group answered them.  It was very nice, I always love to hear peoples perspectives and tips for living life and finding joy. 

Whenever I hear joy as a topic it always reminds me of my friend Marcia.  I was thinking about her last night and the different friends I have around the country, and the different wonderful women I have known and have been my friends and have learned from and loved.  It's been a wonderful gift in my life to have the association of the Relief Society.