Welcome 2017!

Hi everyone!!
So it has been forever since I posted and now that the holidays are over I feel like I can reset my focus and look to 2017! Of course the lull won't last for long...just a couple months and hopefully spring will begin to show its face! I am very excited about this year and what it holds! Hopefully I will be able to announce the start of my new business, Lord willing and embark on new adventures in my life.

Now I know this time of year is popular for New Year's resolutions and if your like me you are not a huge fan of them and don't really make any. I mean how many people actually stick to them? Instead of making yearly resolutions that often get forgotten as the year goes on, I think ever day we should wake up with a resolve to improve our lives and the lives of others around us. It doesn't have to be specific unless you want it to be. Just simply choosing to be positive instead of negative in life. One of things I have decided to do is to take to heart two popular phrases. "Laughter is the best medicine", and "Don't take yourself too seriously". Anyone who knows me, knows that I can take myself waaay to seriously sometimes! :) I am a perfectionist and if I don't live up to my ridiculous expectations (that no mortal human being could live up to!) I can be extremely hard on myself. I even judge my own self whenever I make a silly mistake that's not a big deal or even when I laugh at something but am afraid others won't see the humor in it. So I have decided it is time to lighten up and give myself permission to have a little fun. Now of course this doesn't mean being careless, but to accept the fact that I am human and I will make mistakes but often it's not the end of the world. If I trip over my words (or actually trip over things) I can laugh it off. If I do something funny, I can laugh at myself instead of judging myself. I can go around my house belting 80s music like a rockstar, break out into dance in the barn aisle way, get visibly excited about the silliest of things like fresh cut, "beautiful" hay bales, a newly drug arena, and sweet smelling stall shavings, roll the windows and blast music, and laugh until the tears come. I need to accept God's gift of laughter more often and maybe one day when I'm old I can look at the wrinkles and know where they came from. No matter how young or old you are I think it's never a bad thing to think about how you want to be remembered someday. Life is short and everything can change in the blink of an eye, but our legacy and the impression we leave on people can last generations and many more New Year's to come. So how about we make a lasting day by day commitment in our lives to be the person who truly laughed, loved, and lived.

My "Hopefully" New Venture ;)

Hi!
So I have decided to let the cat out of the bag. My announcement is that I am wanting to try and start my own business. It has been one of my dreams to have my own business and become an entrepreneur. My hope is to this next year, start a pony party business with my three characters: Sam, April, and Merrylegs. I want to take them and do birthday parties for children complete with themes, games, trick performance, pony rides, and cart rides. It would also be fun to branch out into community and church events as well and maybe eventually schools, nursing homes etc. It is an idea I have tossed around for over a year now and it just has never seemed to be the right time. Now my situation seems to be opening a possibility for it and I am excited to give it a shot. I believe it will be a great way not only to gain new experience and exposure...but also a great ministry opportunity and a super fun way to bring joy to people's lives!
However that leads me to the most important part about this whole idea....it's going to require faith and trust on my part. It is going to be a long process getting everything figured out and even though I have many of the workings for this business already: animals, cart, and living in a prime location....I, as any entrepreneur want-a-be, am going to have some financial risk. It is going to cost me a decent chunk of money to start this business for I will need things such as a truck and trailer etc. This is the part that is really going to require trusting in God because I have no idea how it's going to happen or if it will even work out. All I can do is give it to Him and see what He has in mind if it's His will for this business to become a thing next year.
I please ask that you will be praying for me, that God will give me wisdom in what the next steps I should take in this journey. Also please pray that if it is meant to be, He will provide the funds necessary to make it happen. I want this to be a God thing, not a Kayleigh's thing. I have made my dreams too much about myself lately and I have seemed to have gotten nowhere. I want Him to be in control and to carry out His plan for me. I want Him to use me however he chooses whether it's bringing joy to children and other people along the way with my gang or something else entirely. Either way I am letting Him be in control and I am just going to go along as the doors open up. I know He will provide as He sees fit and it is my hope I will get to continue to share this venture with you in the upcoming months, Lord willing!

His Plans

Hi everyone!
Well I have been having an interesting time lately trying to figure out where this blog is going and what it is I really need to write about. It is no surprise that my plans are not going like I thought they would and where I am at in my life is not exactly where I expected I'd be right now. And I don't think I truly have let go of those plans into God's hands yet. I am still on the train, gripping onto the railing, thinking I am getting ready to jump when I'm not yet fully committed to take the leap. I still keep on trying to force my way to my goals and in the end the rest of my life is suffering. My dreams have become baggage that is weighing my soul down. It has made me cut myself off from attachments because I hate the thought of saying goodbye, it has prevented me from starting projects that I'm not certain I can finish in a certain period of time, it's blinded me to opportunities, hindered my relationships, my ability to serve others, minister to others and truly enjoy life. I never expected my dreams to become castle walls that block me from everything else that is beautiful and special in my life right now. I have an amazing life with a wonderful job, wonderful people to work with who care about me, wonderful friends and family, and opportunities right outside my door. No plans should cut me off from these things. They are not my god but somehow I have made them into my idol. I have placed the whole hope of the success of my life upon them and worried too much that people will see me as a failure if they don't happen. But my dreams don't define my success. How I live my life every day, how I treat those around me, how I leave this world in my small corner of it, how I serve God; that is what rates my success. I will always have my hopes but they are not longer going to be my master. It's time for me to take the plunge and jump off the train.
So this leads me to a possibly exciting announcement for the near future, Lord willing. ;)
It is an idea I have been tossing around for about a year now, but I had to set is aside due to too many other changes in my life over the past year. But now my situation seems a little more conducive for it and I am excited. I am ready to live my life in the here and now instead of years ahead. So I am going to take it day by day and I will reveal more once I have a more concrete idea of the plan God has in store for me. I am going to let Him do the work as I just obediently follow through instead of barging through every little crack I see. Therefore my blog is going to still continue to be about trick training and dreams but it will take on the little bit of different course. A course not based on my expectations because they are too close-minded, but by someone who has the whole world at His fingertips. It sounds so much more exciting! So please be praying for me and this new project of mine and that I will be obedient to God's call wherever it leads. And I will share as soon as I can! :)

Fake it 'till You Make it?

"Fake it 'till you make it". You may have heard that saying before. I am not sure where exactly it came from but it's a phrase that I have heard before but have often disregarded. I mean who wants to be fake? But then yesterday I heard it again in a much different perspective than I have ever really thought about. At the barn where I work, we just had a clinician come for three days to work with my bosses with their horses. She was working with them on how to create more of a connection with their horses and how to fix different attitude issues. It was amazing to see what was accomplished in just three days time and how the horses responded to specific training styles. We saw their true colors in some ways and I have to say it wasn't always pretty. But is was fascinating on how quickly they caught on to what was being asked of them. They suddenly showed us what it meant to be truly in-tune to your body language and to give complete suppleness and willingness to perform a task. Just by simply looking at a horse's hindquarters you can teach him to move them away from you and by simple waving a finger you can get your horse to back up. Obviously for tricks. body language is key and for film, cues have to be so slight and barely noticeable.
Now as this clinician was explaining this process of training and working with your horse, she stressed about having confidence. Being confident while working with your horse is soooo important because you need to be a leader to your horse. You need to be someone he respects and wants to follow. Now does this mean you are always going to be right and never mess up? Of course not!
It is not about being right all the time. It's about being understanding and never giving up. It's about being consistent and committed no matter what comes up. It's about being humble, patient and flexible. And as the clinician explained, you need to be confident even in those times that you aren't completely sure of yourself. Your horse needs that leadership even if it isn't perfect all the time. It is better to get things by trial and error a hundred times than not to try at all. Now obviously you know with our horses we need to stay in the boundaries of what is safe and non-detrimental to them. Often though, the reason why we can not get the achieved results with them is because we aren't doing something quite clear enough for them to understand. Or we are asking too much or not enough. Or even, we give up just before we are about to make a breakthrough because we just can't see the end result.
So what did she suggest? "Fake it 'till you make it". Even if we're not sure if we are going to get the desired result we want, we are going to go forward with confidence. Rarely are we going to be a hundred percent sure about the outcome, but that is not a good enough reason not to try. You may not be sure if your horse is going to cross that creek or perform that trick or make that flying lead change but when you carry the confidence of: I will do my very best, in the best way I know how, for however long it takes...you will be surprised at your results over time. Suddenly things start to click and you learn exactly what your horse needs to walk calmly over that creek, to bow with flair, and to be a reining pro. You won't feel like you are faking it anymore, because you'll be there. And let's be honest, if you believe in yourself no matter what, you are never truly faking. You are just on your way to making it.
So no matter how many times you get it wrong remember, it took Thomas Edison over 10,000 tries to make the lightbulb shine. He insisted that his tries were never a loss but that he has just learned thousands of times on how not to make a lightbulb shine.
Therefore, no matter how uncertain we are, how many times we don't get our exact desire result, how afraid we are of failing or not being the perfect leader for our horses and people; we need to put on that confidence even if it feels fake at first.
We need to disregard the murmurs, the slip ups, and the obstacles. And pretty soon we'll won't feel like we are faking it anymore and we'll realize we've truly made it. :)

God Will Provide the Blessing

So I write this post as I am dozing off from being up since 5:00 in the morning for deer hunting. As I was sitting in the hunting blind this morning I was having my own little church service. I mean how can it get any better than sitting out in nature, hearing God's Creation come to life as the sun rises? As I was trying to focus those lazy eyes and wiggle warmth back into my toes and fingers, I asked God to provide the reward of the day if He would. Now after sitting for about 5 hours with nothing but a short glimpse of a handsome buck that continued to move on too quickly and just out of grasping range, I returned with no prize. Now why would I bore you with such an uninteresting story? Because I believe no matter where we are: talking to God from a church pew, in the car, or a hunting blind; He answers back. Perhaps not in the way we wish or expect but He does. Today, I believe He told me to be patient. Not everything is going to come right when I want it to. I may even get a glimpse of the blessing or the goal I'm after but that doesn't mean the time is right or maybe it's not what I need at all. I believe He used the opportunity this morning to teach me a valuable lesson. Sometimes I feel as if my dreams and aspirations have come to a screeching halt. They flickered by quickly and were swiftly gone. I ask God to provide and to make a way, but maybe I'm missing something. Perhaps He has a greater plan at work and He needs me to simply pause and stop waiting for Him to just give me what I want when I want it. I need to stop waiting for my goals to be achieved and ask Him to achieve His goals for me. He will bring me the real prize that I need at the exact time I need it. I think sometimes we place so much weight on what we want to get out of life that we forget to ask God what He wants us to get out of life. He calls us to do things and gives us aspirations but they are not to become more important than Him. They are His blessing and He will provide when He knows we are ready for it. It may not be in the way we dreamt or planned but it will be even better because when we let Him fill our desires, it will satisfy us like no other. So let's take every day as a day to hear Him speak to us, even if it's just the silence of being still and knowing He's got a plan always and He will provide for His children.

Professional Organizer

Hi everyone!
Sooo, I kinda have to make this post about priorities because mine have been a little askew lately. Do you know those times when it seems like everything in your life is trying to get your attention? Work, family, pets, friends, goals, God... those dishes lying on the counter for the past two days.....
It can get to the point where you feel like you are getting absolutely nowhere and you feel like you are getting little accomplished but are constantly on the run.
These past two weeks have been a blur for me to be honest but I have learned a couple of things: I need to be busy, but I need to prioritize my busyness. When I am busy I tend to me more alert and actually seem to get more accomplished if I have a plan. When I am not busy, I tend to fudge here and there until it seems like I get nothing accomplished whatsoever.
However my busyness can become quite useless without that plan and with everything in order. So how do I order it all? What is most important?
Well, obviously God should be top priority in my life and I feel that He has been give me some taps on the shoulder lately reminding me that we should be spending more time together and He should not just be getting the leftovers of my day. He should be first and foremost because He will help me set the precedent for my whole day. Also these past couple of weeks, I have been reminded of how crucial it is to spend time with family and friends. God gave you these people for a reason and they are pretty cool! :) They deserve your time and effort and it will often give you much needed encouragement. Go out and do something with them even if it's just simply having a nice long chat together. It will make you feel energized and relieved to know that your not the only one who has lots going on! ;)
Also I think it is important to take care of what God has entrusted us with. The job, coworkers, the house, the pets...it all has it's place. Obviously there are more pressing needs at different times but I think the main question we have to ask ourselves is: what or who is what I am doing right now benefiting? What am I accomplishing really? Am I just getting through another day or am I truly living and learning from it?
I have spent many days where I could have been doing something productive but I chose to do something that was more or less letting me be entertained. Oh I was busy, just not in a way that was truly beneficial. Now I am not saying by any means, that we can never take time to relax or watch a movie or surf the internet. We do need down-time here and there as so not fry our minds; however we cannot let it take precedent over God, and the things He has given us to take care of. It can be easy to sit down from a busy week and decide that we will let things slide for just one day, but then (at least for me) that one day turns into another, and another, until tasks are all piled up and you are feeling completely overwhelmed and feel like you have to put a halt to everything because you not longer know what to do anymore.
So, I am taking some time to restore my priorities. God needs to be the driver, not the backseat passenger along for the ride. How am I going to do that exactly? Well, I am going to start by making a list of all the things in my life and that need my attention and care. Then, I am going to pray and ask God to show me what needs to be most important and maybe what needs to be knocked down a few notches. Then I am going to make my new list and map out a schedule for my week. If it's one thing I like it's structure. It makes me feel like I have something to follow on those days when I just need a little bit of stability in a chaotic world. Of course it's going to change and not be followed perfectly all the time, but at least it is a guide. And the biggest step I am going to take is I am going to DO IT!
It is so easy to get caught up in making lists and then never actually accomplishing anything on them. No matter if I come home in the less than ideal mood or if my horse isn't behaving like I think he should, or dinner turned out a little less than desirable; I have to stay the course if I want to truly accomplish anything significant in life. I have to keep on and when all else fails I need to turn to the One who should get the very beginning and end of my day and all the moments in between. He is my Professional Organizer. Will you let Him be yours?

Blog Update

Hi everyone,
So I haven't posted for a week now and I apologize. It has been a busy time for me lately and I haven't had the chance (or should I say, made the time) to post. I believe there are some areas of my life that God has been convicting me to get refocused on and back on track. I hope to share these things with you soon! So I will be getting back to my regular posting schedule on Thursday so please bear with me.
Thank you to all of you who have been following me so far! I greatly appreciate it!
-Kayleigh