You will find future blog posts here: http://discoveringranchlife.com!

Discovering Ranch Life is the second blog I've been writing on blogger. I've been using blogger mostly to make it easy for myself. I think blogger is very easy to work with. It's also free. I am aware of the question of ownership of the content. It does bug me. I even tried to recreate my blog on Wordpress a few months ago. I thought I’ll give it a try. I kind of like the design of my blog on Blogspot. I custom made it the way I wanted it to be. When I started to do the same thing on Wordpress I got a little frustrated, they wanted money for every little thing I choose to add. When it become around $150 and I still was in the starting process I gave up.

However, now when I'm getting more serious with my photography I don’t feel comfortable having so little control over my content, on Blogspot. Therefor I decided to give Wordpress another try. 

http://discoveringranchlife.com

While you're there you should visit my brand new "about page",

http://discoveringranchlife.com/about/. 

This is a working progress and the site is far from finished…I guess a blog is never finished..really. One different is that I don't have all the pictures in the sidebars anymore. Instead I'm making a separate gallery with my best pictures. The gallery is coming soon.

If you want to read more about Blogger v/s Wordpress this is a brilliant post http://www.aroyaldaughter.com/2013/01/04/blogger-vs-wordpress-content-ownership/. 

Ps. You can read all my old posts on my new blog http://discoveringranchlife.com.   See you soon!

Spring is here!

Inspiration For Writers

Trinity National Forest, a magical place. I'm dying to explore more of it from horseback.

Two weeks ago I walked in to a Barnes& Nobles in Sacramento buying Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bird-by-bird-anne-lamott/1018999644. The cashier, a girl with a very serious look on her face, went through a complete transformation when she saw the book in my hand. Her face started to shine, she smiled and started to talk fast about how much she loved that book. In fact how much she loved all Ann Lamott's books. She told me that she took a writing class, and that one of her class mates suggested that she read Bird by Bird. She took the advice and find herself reading all Anne's books within a few weeks. It was now one of her favorite authors. 

When my writing class Writing in the digital age, came towards the end, we decided to create a book club reading books that would help us in our writing. The first book we picked was Bird by Bird. We're going to read one chapter each week and discuss them on Fridays. It's only been two weeks yet. It certainly is very challenging to only read one chapter/week! The book is so good! Anne's writing is brilliant. She encourage me to work on the details. It's Saturday today and I thought that I should take a little sneak peak on next weeks chapter…of course I ended up reading the whole chapter. I'll have to start reading another book on the side to pace myself :)

Tomorrow I'll start reading Mark Rashid's newest book, Nature in Horsemanship - Discovering Harmony Through Principles of Aikido http://www.markrashid.com/forsale_books.php . Or maybe I'll start tonight..

Small children and their colds

Hayley has a cold

Hayley have not been herself for a couple of days. She has a bad cold, coughing and sneezing all the time. Yesterday she had fever, but not today. She's tired most of the time, wants to nurse and be close. I'm a little surprised that she could catch such a bad cold when Phil and I aren't sick at all. The only reason I can think of is those times when I'm not fast enough and her admirer (read: everyone we meet) grabs her hands..(.and of course she puts them in her mouth.) I know that small children have plenty of colds, but my experience is that they usually not get them this bad until they start some kind of daycare/preschool.

A cold doesn't kill babies nowadays, I know. It's just not fun seeing them struggle, those precious little things. If she doesn't breath easier tomorrow I will take her to a doctor. Just to make sure.

A Home

Pictures from my last place in Sweden

The most important ingredients in a home is the people living in it. There's no doubt about that. There's a few things that, if you ask me, that helps to make my home a happy place. Without harmony there is no home. I found harmony in simplicity. Having less things, but things that I have for a reason (may it be beauty or that I really need a certain item every day, if possible both!) That makes it easier to avoid clutter around the home. It makes my home easier to keep clean and I know where I have my things. More time to enjoy doing what I really want to spend my time doing - spend time with my family, friends, ride my horses and take pictures. Harmony and peace of mind doesn't come automatically, it's a decision. A decision to be made every day, just like eating healthy food and exercise. 

For me staying organized frees up time. Time gives me freedom. Time also sparks my creativity. Being disorganized on the other hand have the opposite effect. It kills my creativity, takes my energy away and leaves the harmony outside the door. A happy home doesn't cost a lot of money, just the commitment to make one.

My grandfather made this beautiful wooden coach that I had in my kitchen.

How much things do I really need? I want my home to be a warm welcoming place
 with beautiful things, BUT is it possible that I have things that I don't need?
Things that makes it time consuming to manage my house?

         What brings you harmony? What's the key ingredient that makes your house a home?