Y’all, we’ve finally made it through winter. We’ve already had a few days over 70 degrees, and the trees in my yard are starting to bloom. I AM READY.

It’s kinda ironic that I did a supersized post for my last Friday Favs, then missed two weeks. Oops! (I missed this month’s Show Us Your Books link-up, too! I’ve basically been the very worst blogger lately. I’ve actually been so busy that I’ve kinda been the worst everything. Working on it.)

Here’s what I’ve been digging lately!

 

1. SPRING IS HAPPENING! I mentioned it in the intro to this post, but warmer temperatures and budding trees make me SO HAPPY. I actually got a sunburn on the back of my neck while horseback riding last week, even though I was only out for an hour and it was like 70 degrees. That said, it was like 38 degrees when I got to the barn yesterday morning (more about that in a bit), so spring kinda needs to get it together.

 

2. This is kinda embarrassing, but a family friend gave me a fancy kitty litter box over a year ago and I immediately stuck it in the garage and forgot about it. Not really *forgot*, but just never got around to using. I finally brought it in last week and OMG YOU GUYS.

I’ve been using this for less than a week and it’s basically life-changing since I have multiple cats and spend like 452 hours a week cleaning litter boxes. The funky design means that all you have to do is roll it over so it’s upside down and then roll it the opposite direction, and all of the dirty litter winds up in that little slide-out tray with a handle that you can see on the right, while the clean litter goes back where it belongs. It takes like 30 seconds and then I can just dump the little tray. I looked them up on Amazon because I NEED another one, and found that the “large” size I have is about $32 (available here) but there’s also a “regular” sized one for under $20 here. My little cats are weird and two of them will happily use the one I have at the same time (PARTY IN THE LITTER BOX WOOT WOOT ) but I will probably get the regular-sized one for the other end of the house.

I’ve found that I do have to grab the litter scoop to get clumps that stick to the bottom, but that’s maybe twice a week. I can deal with that!

 

 

Literally me lately.

3. Spring is definitely the season when I HIKE ALL THE THINGS, so I decided to search the app store for something that would tell me how many miles I do over the next few months. I went with UnderArmour’s “Map My Hike” and I LOVE IT. I can glance at it while I’m walking to see how far I’ve gone, how long I’ve been on the trail, and how fast (aka how slow) I’m going. After I’m finished, I also get cool stats like changes in elevation and a satellite map of my path:

 

 

I hadn’t yet entered my height & weight so it could estimate calories when I took this screenshot, but this is what you see while you’re walking.

 

Fancy satellite map of where you’ve been.

 

I love that you can tell when I stopped to take photos (tiny downward spikes in pace) and when I paused at the lookout and observation tower. The grey line (elevation) sums up hiking in the Ozarks and why my pace is so slow!

 

 

4. I can sum up the main reasons I like the Sacred Mind & Body pain relief cream and balm I’ve been using in six
words:
*No animal testing
*All natural ingredients

Cold weather makes me more achy than usual (probably because I spend so much time huddled beneath my electric blanket trying not to freeze to death?) but I never take pain medication and I’ve found that I have to be really careful if I do buy a pain relief cream because most say not to use them if you’re allergic to aspirin, which I am. (I could never figure out why I always felt icky after using a popular brand until I actually looked at the aspirin warning on the packaging and saw I was basically poisoning myself. Oops.)

I’ve been keeping the sample packets that the company sent me next to my bed and in my car, which comes in super handy for when post-riding or post-hiking owwies set in. I’m not sure if there’s much of a difference between the lotion and balm other than (obviously) the form its in, but I like both.

 

5. Totally random, but this seahorse shower curtain at Target makes me really happy. I know it’s intended for kids, but it might seriously be my next purchase.

 

A bonus that doesn’t really count as a favorite, but I wanted to throw in…

A local preschool scheduled a field trip to my barn, so I was asked to come help out. They had FIFTY small children that were divided between two days, but still, 25-ish tiny people is A LOT. We divided them into stations and rotated – ie one group did pony rides while another made a craft and another learned how to groom a pony. (I was mostly in charge of grooming, but ended up doing some pony rides, too.) It was really cool to give some kids their first horseback riding experience (I remember mine when I was three!), and some of them were hilarious. That said, the 90-ish minutes we had with them each day was MORE THAN ENOUGH THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

My last two lessons on Folklore have been 💩💩💩. We were doing SO WELL for awhile, but there are some new students so he’s been ridden a lot more than he’s used to and it’s making him grumpy. I feel ya, boo, but I also don’t want to spend half of my lesson fighting with you.

I asked if  could take him out on a not-quite trail ride today (just along the driveway and over in the yard – not far away but areas he doesn’t usually get to go in.) He perked up SO much and was instantly so engaged. Poor guy is bored of lesson stuff so I need to figure out how to make things fun for him!

I let him graze for a few minutes afterwards, and then as I was leading him back into his stall, I heard this huge THUNK of metal and felt him trip behind me. My instant thought was “OMG he’s going to fall and pin me against the wall. This is how I die.” but thankfully he stayed on his feet. After making sure he was okay I went to see if I could figure out what he tripped on.

My bazillion dollar super jumping horse got his foot stuck on the rail on the ground at the entrance to his stall and PULLED HIS OWN SHOE OFF.

Sometimes you just want to kick off your shoes as soon as you get home.

Jumping 3 foot fences? No prob! Stepping over the pole that he walks over every day of his life? RECIPE FOR DISASTER. You can’t tell from the pic since the shoe is blurry, but he even twisted it into a weird angle, so I’m REALLY thankful his hoof seems to be fine. Thankfully the farrier (horseshoer) is coming in Monday so he can get fixed up pretty quickly.

Never a boring day.

Have a great weekend, all! I’m mostly working but hopefully attending a fun event on Sunday and even more hopefully managing to fit in an actual day off next week!

 

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