Category: Living life

Reflections, Smiles and Horsey Fun!

On By dprastkaIn Horse stories, Living life, weekly smile7 Comments
A view across the hills where I live in California!

I decided to label this post “Reflections” as I have been thinking a lot about how this year is almost half over. Next week will be June 1st and I know I can say for everyone, what the heck happened to this year 2020? I think it is a big WOW! and it almost feels like we are all in a movie and someone will come along and say “cut, that’s a take!” I think this because I am a big movie buff, to think we are living history when they look back and pick apart all the good and the bad ideas or things that happened during this pandemic. I think we are already seeing the looking back part within these last few months as we start pulling ourselves back into reality, or hopefully back to some normalcy. As I am writing this my hubby is saying let’s eat lunch out in a restaurant! Something that we truly miss even though its been great to eat more at home, something we should keep doing going forward. We lead very busy lives, so this all has been a real eye opener to slow down and reset, at least that is how it feels and hopefully we saved many lives in the process. ❤

I don’t think “normal” will be back. I think we will have a new normal, something akin to what it was but I believe there will be many changes that will stay with us for a very long time. Some of these changes I believe will benefit things like the normal flu season that always comes and goes, as one would think this last flu season got snuffed out a bit with all the social distancing and closing down. I pray we get the schools going again , sooner than later and I know this is a HUGE subject so I am only going to touch upon it by saying let’s all get back to work (carefully) and let’s get this country up and running again. I want to be able to look for a job in Arizona so that I can move my family there one day, sooner than later if possible. (I do believe it will be at least one more year, praying for next year to make this happen!)

As I reflect, I want to thank all my new followers and all my blogging friends who follow my blog. 😀 This has been a journey of sorts for me starting with what is blogging? I thought I would just write short stories, I suppose this can happen with wonderful photo prompts that I want to engage in someday from fellow bloggers. I feel like I have a yearning to mold my blog into what it’s titled My Life – And – Horse Stories. I stray sometimes from my model, and struggle with my brand sometimes. I am learning as I go and I have met some wonderful, beautiful, kind, amazing – really super fun people. I thank you for all your comments and I have grown as a person writing and sharing my thoughts with ya’ll. You make me humble, and very appreciative. Thank you for reading all about my reflections today, it makes me smile so much so I think I will use this as my smile post this week!

Zack and Chloe this last weekend. They are completely settled in to their new stables!
Enjoying the trails before the heat. Summer is here as we warm up into the 90’sF (32C)

Let’s switch gears to HORSES! YES! My passion, my muse they truly bring me such joy and happiness. I have recently moved them to another boarding facility in our horse town, it is across town and they have settled in nicely. It has been a month since I moved them, my how these weeks have flown by. We have been enjoying the trails, as I ride Chloe and pony Zack riding with my girlfriend on her horse Gracie. Chloe is 16 years old this year and doing GREAT! So happy with her as she has a bad back leg with an old stifle injury (this would be her knee). I can tell she has little to no pain in it any more which is wonderful. Zack is the white horse, he is 25 years old this year. He is starting to really show his age as gravity draws down on their top-line (this is where they sometimes start looking sway back) and they lose muscle tone. I am trying to keep him active and moving. Gracie turned 28 years old this year. She has been really showing her age, but is doing good.

After our ride they both got a bath! More horsey fun on a beautiful day!

I take so many photos of my horses. They look forward to my company as much as I look forward to theirs. They truly like getting out and about with me and since I have moved them I always take them out together. I want to start separating them a little bit more. They are herd animals and so it is very natural for them to be near each other and do things together. They do call to each other if you take one too far away, this is called herd bound and it is nice if you can take one off the property say with a friend without the other going nuts, as they wonder where their stable mate went too!! Chloe is not herd bound as much as Zack. Since they have each other and I do not go to horse shows, there isn’t a great need to break them up and make them be apart other than riding just Chloe without Zack is a bit easier… I’m getting really use to taking them together, so its all good.

I hope you all have a wonderful week. I always welcome your thoughts and I just had to share mine as I like to reflect now and again.

Reflecting Grandma Cowgirl,

~Diana ❤

Weekend Coffee Share; Mother’s day weekend!

On By dprastkaIn Family is important, Living life, weekend coffee share15 Comments
Happy Mother’s Day to all you Mother’s out there! A rose from my garden!

Weekend Coffee share is a time for us to take a break out of our busy lives and enjoy some time catching up with friends (old and new). Please grab a cup of coffee or tea and share with us!

I am so excited about this weekend as I am sitting here with my coffee and some cinnamon rolls ready to tell you why. I didn’t realize when I made these secret plans (shhh, don’t tell anyone but my son and I drove up to see my daughter this weekend) it is Mother’s day weekend. I had no idea and it was just a coincidence but a super, cool, wonderful, fantastic coincidence! We have been very good about keeping social distancing, and please, no judging as there was just the three of us at her apartment as we enjoyed visiting, helping her with some projects in her apartment and breaking bread together!

While we are here we only went out one day to see if we could find a dryer which she needs for her apartment. She already has a washing machine and really needs a dryer and so we went to Lowe’s and found the right model and it turns out she can buy it online. (She was hoping to get a military discount. But the dryer is on sale so they won’t apply another discount so she decided to just order it online). While out we went by our favorite ice cream store and we figured it would be closed, but it was open!! YAY, we had to eat it in the car and there was no tasting of the flavors, but we were very grateful it was open! A super good day.

We rearranged the family room area, and her two guinea pigs taking a nap! Adorable!

I so needed this break as my work has been very stressful lately. We have actually gotten very busy at work and I think it will stay this way for awhile. I think it is great, for many reasons including job security. We are there helping pets and animals from across the country, and so I guess everyone that needs to see the vet are heading there which is good for everyone! Anyways, it has been so wonderful to spend these few days with my daughter and son. We video chatted with my other son in Arizona!! I’ll share a few photos I took.

My grand kids! My grand daughter is 4 1/2 and the baby is just 2 months old! ❤ ❤ ❤

It was GREAT FUN to video chat with them. We were going to do zoom, but decided to just do video chat instead. It worked out great and my son in Arizona put us on their TV and my grand daughter was just jumping up and down, so excited to see us practically larger than life! Haha, when he showed us on the TV it was a crack up. At least I thought it was. I’m old remember, so seeing all that technology does always amaze me and it was great fun. What a WONDERFUL way to spend Mother’s day weekend. I am in Mom Heaven!!

I have been reading this book my daughter has near the bed I am sleeping in, Lagom – Not too little and not too much. The Swedish Art of Living a Balanced Happy Life!

The Swedish people have it right and I am half Swedish! If I can find that balance of loving life, loving my family and loving myself no matter how silly, foolish, or crazy I can be sometimes than I will be one happy person. I am truly blessed to have such a wonderful family. To my Loving husband who puts up with all my animals and my horsey lifestyle, bless him as I probably spend too much money each month on those giant beasts. To my children, all grown up with family and busy lives of their own. I am one lucky lady, Mother and Grandmother. I hope each and everyone of you have a wonderful weekend, and for all the Mother’s out there, a Happy Mother’s Day!

Love, Diana ❤

Weekend Coffee Share; My Tiny Garden and Thinking of Family!

On By dprastkaIn Living life, weekend coffee share17 Comments
Weekend Coffee share is a time for us to take a break out of our busy lives and enjoy some time catching up with friends (old and new). Please grab a cup of coffee or tea and share with us!

Welcome to my coffee share, can I get you a cup of Joe? or are you in the mood for some herbal tea? or Ice tea? It’s been very hot this last week, but I must say today and this weekend the weather is very nice and so this makes me very happy when I am out riding my horses! I am going to enjoy this weekend with the warm weather before it heats up again next week. We are close enough to the ocean to where it will cool off at night and we get coastal fog that pushes inland and cools things off. Thankful for this cooling affect as it makes these Spring days beautiful! 😀

I am really happy I started my tiny garden. So far I haven’t killed anything and so far no animal or varmint has eaten anything! I am doing good, this is week one. I am getting some new growth on my veggies as they settle into their new home. And the perennials are super happy and are blooming again! They were blooming when I bought them, then got very sad when I transplanted them, then decided they liked their new home and began to bloom again!! YAY! I am SMILING from ear to ear! Thank you tiny container garden! ❤

This is my veggie container. I am seeing some new growth! I am so EXCITED!
I am SUPER HAPPY with my perennials! Look at all the pretty flowers! Makes me smile!
My roses are blooming! I need to trim them up and buy some rose food!

I enjoy my gardening and need to get out there and do some weeding. Lucky I am doing container gardening so I just need to remove weeds around the containers. Since I am watering more often it is making the ground soft so the weeds come out pretty easily. I also need to trim my rose bushes. Some are blooming nicely and I know it will help the plant if I trim some of the older blooms. Maybe I will do this tomorrow as the weather should be nice and not too hot. High tomorrow 82 F (28 C) which is so much cooler than this next week it will be 102 F (39 C) YIKES!

On to my family – I MISS MY FAMILY! There, I said it and it is the truth! I know I will be able to see them hopefully sooner than later but I am thinking about them every day. I am actually messaging my daughter while I am writing this post. I just toggle back and forth from WordPress to Facebook messenger and I am finding it really FUN! I miss her so much! AND I miss my grand babies! ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤

Oh My, Teddy is growing! I have not met him in person yet! Darn it all!! SOON I hope!
This is my home screen on my phone! ADORABLE! My sweet grand children!!

I’ll say it for you, AWW, I love them so very much and I cannot wait til the day where I am heading to their house in Arizona! I think its time for another video chat with them so I will contact my son and see how they are doing and if we can chat this weekend. Baby Teddy had his 2 months shots this last Wednesday and he was upset and grumpy that first day but was much better the next day so he should be feeling good this weekend. I’m excited. I really am so thankful for all of our technology.

I hope you enjoyed my coffee share today. I so enjoy sharing with you all and I hope this coffee share finds you well and doing good. I have to thank Eclectic Alli for hosting our meeting place for our coffee shares. I am not very good at creating a link, it should be here and if it works there will be other coffee shares to read. I well end with my other pretty rose photo!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Happy Gardening Grandma,

~Diana ❤

My Weekly Smile; April 29, 2020

On By dprastkaIn Living life, weekly smile12 Comments
Welcome to my weekly smile!

I have a lot to smile about as this week is half over and last week I was so busy I was not able to write my weekly smile. So this weeks smile will include what I was working on last week. It has been a whirlwind of events as my girlfriend and I have moved our horses to a new stable in our horse town in Norco, CA. While we were preparing the stalls at the new stables we needed some shade cloth that we put up in front of the stalls to help shade and keep our shavings from blowing away when it gets windy. While at Lowe’s I decided to buy some plants/veggie starts to plant in my containers. I am so happy I finally was able to get my tiny garden planted, so I have two things to SMILE about this week! YAY! 😀 😀 😀

My veggies if they survive and the bunnies don’t jump in and eat them!
Pretty flowering perennial’s in another container!
My third container I put a Calla lily and Iris. I will split them up as I have a fourth container if it gets too crowded for them.
My tea rose, so beautiful!

I Love to garden partly because I am outdoors and I am a neophyte learning as I go with gardening and just try the best I can and sometimes I have a green thumb, and sometimes not so much. I try to fit so much into my busy schedule – working full-time – owning two horses and dogs, cats a house to clean – oh my, I am getting tired thinking about it all! Then I add gardening which takes care and some love or it will not do well. It so makes me smile when I go out and see the flowers bloom and/or the tomatoes grow! I will keep you posted now and again on how my tiny garden grows!

They are enjoying a turn out at the new ranch!
My girlfriends horse Gracie and behind her Miss Chloe walking around and checking things out!
Zack enjoying his new digs!

We were able to spend as many days as we needed to fix up the new stalls at the new ranch. We moved some railroad ties to the front of the stall with some shade cloth to help keep the shavings on the ground from blowing through the pipes and out into the aisle or another stall. We will still lose some shavings probably but this will help keep a lot in our stalls. We get winds here that are very strong called the Santa Ana Winds! So it was worth all the work we put in and am grateful the stalls were empty so we could work on them. We moved a week early after putting in our 30 day notice where we were, mostly because my girlfriend and I were able to take extra days off of work. (We are essential workers in the medical field).

We moved because my girlfriend really needed more shade for her horse as she has aged, she has some sun sensitivities and with my two horses I should be able to save a few dollars. I wanted to help her out and this place is a nice place and sometimes it is just nice to change it up! I Love the stables I was at, there are always pros and cons at any facility and I will not go into all of that here. I think sometimes a change is needed, enough said on that subject! We now need to give the horses time to settle in and they are doing just that! ❤

Miss Chloe is such a good girl and I am so blessed to have her, love her so much!

Thank you for visiting my smile and I hope you are all doing well. I am so enjoying my tiny garden and my horses as they get acclimated. I like how they can look out over their stalls at this new place! The old place is nice but the pens have a link fencing that they can’t look out over the doors or fencing. It’s just a nice change and they can even scratch each others back if they wanted too. I hope you all have a great rest of your week!

Happy Gardening Cowgirl!

~Diana ❤

Weekend Coffee Share; Keeping Busy!

On By dprastkaIn Barn stories, Living life, weekend coffee share15 Comments
Weekend Coffee share is a time for us to take a break out of our busy lives and enjoy some time catching up with friends (old and new). Please grab a cup of coffee or tea and share with us!

This last weekend came and went like a whirlwind for me and I so wanted to participate in the Weekend Coffee Share and decided to call this the weekend wrap up. At this point it may be a little late to offer you coffee and for me it is lunch here. Can I get you some Ice Tea? or maybe some lemonade? I am a tea drinker and prefer tea over lemonade, or maybe we can mix it and make it an Arnold Palmer!! I ate breakfast so it will have to be lunch, sandwich with potato salad for me, can I make you the same? Sounds yummy. 😀

I wanted to share some photos as I always do and I also am going to just go through my weekend and the fun I had as you know I am always mixing it up with my crafting and horse back riding. The first photo is of a project I am working on for my sister. I am thinking of making a bunch of these as gifts as they stitch together easily and I am so happy I finished one! On to the second one, after I tie up and stitch in the ends! They come in a pair! SO FUN! 😀

Finger-less mittens. I know it’s Spring now, but they will come in handy this next winter!

I also finished another baby blanket for my nephew and his wife. Their baby is due in May. Here is a photo, look familiar? I made the same one for my grandson, only I chose a different blue so no two are alike, that’s how I roll! I have to personalize them. This baby blanket stitches up fast. So fast I may make more in different colors and sell them at the local craft fair!

I used a baby blue for baby Teddy (my grandson). I Love this too! Lots of boys this year adding to the family tree!

I stitch at home in the afternoons before I have to sleep. Since I work night shift I need to have some down time so I crochet while I watch some TV. Usually I am watching recorded cooking shows, I am really into them and like the competition shows the best. I feel like an old lady saying that, but oh well, I’m probably an old lady! HAHA! I watch other shows too…. some news but that gets old after awhile and there’s other recorded drama shows my hubby and I watch together. Holy smokes, how did I get on that subject! So silly. On to my weekend, and I really wanted to share a few photos from my trail ride. 😀

My best friend on Gracie, the chestnut and I am riding Miss Chloe and ponying Zack!

We were heading back to the barn when another best friend was heading out and saw us and stopped and took a couple of photos of us coming in and I am so thankful for these photos as I am terrible about asking someone to take them of me riding! AND we have our masks on too, so it will be our photos to look back on during a pandemic! CRAZY DAYS! Our friends at the stables call each other pony sister’s, so Thank You Jane, my pony sister for these wonderful photos. ❤

Zack looks like he’s thinking, are we done now? We went for a longer ride so I think he is tired!
I gave Chloe a bath after my ride this weekend! She is SO SWEET!!

After our ride I cleaned up Zack and put him away and then gave Miss Chloe a bath. I really need to give Zack a bath and am waiting until it warms up this week. By Thursday it will be in the 90’s (32 Celsius) so I will give him a bath then as he takes longer to dry. His coat isn’t as short as Chloe’s and I would like it to be nice and warm for him since he is a bit older.

As I wrap this up I have all these thoughts running through my head. I usually try hard to write my blog with a theme, whether it be my horses, or my family or sometimes just my crafting. I think I’ve mixed my crafting and horses often as I do take the most photos of these two things. I am finding that my mind is kind of all over the place, probably because our every day lives are a bit tenuous, and that is probably an understatement. I want to stay positive and keep this post about the weekend, I think you all won’t mind. 😀

Aren’t they just ADORABLE! ❤ ❤ ❤

These two brothers are just amazing to me. How can you not say – AWWW! Sending my hugs like these two kitties, from my house to yours!

Happy thoughts, Happy Loving Cowgirl,

~Diana

My Weekly Smile; April 15, 2020

On By dprastkaIn Family is important, Living life, Love being Grandma, weekly smile14 Comments
THE SUN! Makes me SMILE 😀

What a difference a week makes! I had to look back at last weeks smile partly because when I looked at my stats, last weeks smile was viewed and read by many, and so I thank you all for the reads. I also am grateful and thankful for all who comment. It was so wet last week, so much rain. This week is sunny and bright! The sun has finally decided to stay for awhile and I can’t tell you how happy the sun makes me feel. I think this is true for us all, we all need the sun!! I have a lot to SMILE about this week!

My smile this week also goes to my family. Sunday was a fabulous day as I was able to video chat with my family in Arizona. Oh my, it was THE BEST MEDICINE in these times. I laughed so much as my grand daughter was so entertaining! She watches her mama put on makeup and she gave her some so now she has her own. Her mama also watches makeup videos and so Alice was explaining how to put the makeup on! She did a great job considering, but had me in stitches as she applied eye makeup to only one eye, and blush to one cheek and lip gloss. I suppose you had to be there, makes me giggle just thinking about it!

I am really blurry, so much so I took myself out of one photo. I think I like seeing both of us though as you can see how much fun we have together!

She is so adorable, I can’t say enough about being able to spend time with family even remotely! Baby Teddy was very sleepy. He opened his eyes literally for a minute before dosing back into mama’s arms. I didn’t get a good photo of him this time, such a little guy but just as adorable as ever. Of course I am prejudice as ever, loving my grand babies, I’m in grandma heaven! ❤ ❤ ❤

The next day, Monday April 13th was my hubby’s birthday! We ordered an early dinner from a nice restaurant and he bought a pie too. We are continuing the celebration of birthday week as I made a chocolate cake today which I will frost after it cools. The next day April 14th was my daughter’s birthday! We video chatted and she was able to celebrate with her best friend who she also works with so they see each other every day. I am so thankful her friend was able to make her birthday a special day, and these birthday’s will be longed remembered – Birthday’s – during a pandemic.

Happy Birthday, Love You! I can’t wait until I can come and visit, hopefully soon!

I want to continue my smile post with more things I found to smile at which includes the flowers I like to share that I found on my walk this morning. The sun hitting them as it rose in the sky. I am trying to motivate myself to get to Home Depot to buy some starters for my container garden. At one point some weeks ago there was long lines to get in and I totally understand why as they were only letting in so many at a time. I will have to set aside half of my day just to buy or shop for what I’d like to plant, my how things have changed. Praying for a return to normal, for us all.

On my walk this morning! That’s the morning sun making flowers bright and beautiful!
Same flowers from above but really close up! This is my phones “live focus” feature. ❤

I will end with the last photo my son sent to me of the brothers. For those of you who follow my blog, these kitties were split up (in my family, different houses) and then reunited. I have the sister kitties which I share often and are doing great! I hope this week finds you well. What makes you smile? There must be one thing or some things? I am staring out my front window of snow peaked mountains, as the snow has not melted away yet from last weeks storms. The world is a beautiful place, the plants blooming from spring rain, and we all need to stay strong as we can get through this and we can do it with a smile! 😀

Brothers 😀

Smiling, happy, grandma!

~Diana

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Weekend Coffee Share; Hope and Dreams

On By dprastkaIn blogging, Living life, weekend coffee share21 Comments
Weekend Coffee share is a time for us to take a break out of our busy lives and enjoy some time catching up with friends (old and new). Please grab a cup of coffee or tea and share with us!

As I wrapped my scarf around my neck with my Fitbit on and my phone in my pocket I headed out the door this morning for my first walk in a week. It has been raining so much this week that it was difficult to get in my walking. I did some morning stretches and then did some stride walking stretches to help my self loosen up as I headed up the hill listening to the peacocks scream, or cry! Their piercing screams reverberate through the silent morning as the sun tries to break through the soft clouds.

As I walk down the hill I see the huge water puddle that the storm drain just can’t handle. We live in a hilly area so this valley between the hills always floods and floods the small park that is closed. I took some photos of the flooded area and am enamored with water and its amazing mirror qualities! I forgot to offer you coffee, but I am not home yet from my walk so am hoping you can wait for my return?

This is the flooded street! The storm drain is near that fence post along the trail.
My beautiful mirrored photo! This park always floods, the lighting is perfect this morning!

As I walk by this park after I took some photos I could here so many birds singing. And then I heard the morning doves cooing as they softly do but definitely loud enough that I could hear their beauty. The crispness in the air was so refreshing as my creaky bones are moving more smoothly as I rise up the next hill and then turn the corner I spy all the soft clouds in the sky. They looked like cotton candy this morning. I could not believe how soft they appear as if someone was trying to paint the morning view and got frustrated and took their fingers and just smeared all the clouds together! Completely different clouds than the big giant white cotton like clouds that we often see.

View of our Norco hills and the soft, cotton candy clouds!
The sun trying to burst through, blueish cotton candy, yes!

On my walk I felt the hope that what we are doing is working. I have read some reports that scientists are doing studies especially concerning the interesting developments in our state, California. There is a belief and hopefully studies will show that there is already some herd immunity that started way back in November of last year. Thousands upon thousands of people from China visit California every month, and they brought with them this virus that has made its way to many people here. I can count at least 5 people that believe has had this virus in Nov and/or Dec of last year. Same symptoms, and even though not tested if I know 5 people and you do the math there may be thousands if not more that have been exposed.

This could explain the nature of how things are panning out in our area. I am seeing some hope and pray that things will return to normal, whatever normal will be in our future. As I walk I am feeling better and pray for those souls lost and pray for all affected. I am home now, can I get you that cup of coffee or tea? I wanted to share a flower, I saw some blooms on my walk. I know we will have tons of blooms with all this rain!!

Happy Easter! Looks like a little bird ready to take off at the top of the flower!

Thank you for visiting my coffee share. I dream for our country to get back to where it was and I dream that all that are unemployed get employment back soon, very soon as I worry about what is happening to this country and to those affected by no work. I pray for hope and happiness, that those suffering with anything and everything, disease, money, survival. I hope we can look forward to a wonderful future, that we can all get together for Love and happy gatherings. Someday…. This will happen again!

Dreaming, Hoping, Staying Strong,

~Diana ❤