Shed Happens! 😂

Happy Saturday friends!

We are sooooo close to Christmas vacation! I work on Monday and then I’m off for the next six days—and in honor of the holidays, the end of one year and the beginning of another, I’m lowering my coaching prices for the rest of December and all of January (maybe longer, maybe not—who knows 😊). Join me for an hour of equine partnered coaching with the herd for just $100 (instead of $125). And of course, you’re always welcome to do a session without the herd too—in my office with my little Border Collie, I Love Lucy (or not), who is very devoted to “her” clients.

This is a beautiful time to give a coaching session as a last-minute stocking stuffer for someone you love—or to gift one to yourself. We’re wrapping up 2025, the Year of the Wood Snake, which in Chinese astrology is all about growth, flexibility, and personal development—basically one long, drawn-out invitation to shed old skins and grow new ones. (As my friend Mary likes to say, dryly: “Oh yay, another fucking growth opportunity.”) The wood element adds themes of creativity and building stronger roots and relationships—but even good growth can be exhausting.

At the same time, we’re quietly preparing for the Year of the Fire Horse, which begins in February 2026. The Fire Horse brings energy, momentum, and passion—but it asks us to run lighter, not drag everything along with us. December and January are the perfect natural threshold for letting go of what 2025 has layered on—old patterns, nervous system overload, and stories that no longer serve us—so we can step into 2026 feeling more regulated and more alive. And honestly, what better way to do that than with a herd of little ponies and mini donkeys reminding you how to breathe—and how to be in your body again? If you'd like to learn more, click here. If you want to talk with me about it, click here. If you're all in and don't need anything further, just text me for an appointment or to get a gift certificate :-) 720-635-7015

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Oh my God. It happened!

Kindergarten orientation, 2013:

ManChild has been working hard to finish and now, 6 months early, he is officially a high school graduate! Whoohoo! He'll be starting community college in January and will transfer to a university after the first 2 years are done. I don't understand how this has happened so quickly, it was just yesterday that he was my baby! Let's take a little walk down memory lane:

At dinner at the Hilton, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, I finally had him in my arms 💜, I was 38 and he was 7 months. I can still feel his warm little body, smell his baby skin. I wanted him attached to me 24/7:

He was an animal whisperer from the beginning, this is soon after he came home. Onya in the background, Shadow next to him. I love Shadow's soft eyes in this one, like he's saying, "Oh my God Mom, you brought home the most magical gift.":

We called him Magic Baby because he was so happy :-)

Breakfast at Le Peep in Longmont:

He was just 4 here, look how tall he was! He was always 2 years ahead in his clothes, he was wearing a size 6 at this age. I remember him climbing up on this rock and me telling him, "Someday it will be just like this, you'll be taller than me!" And he is almost exactly this much taller than me now at 18 :-)

The day we brought Rayn home, they were both 5 here, born just 3 weeks apart:

I remember taking this picture at Twin Peaks Charter Academy in Colorado when we went to kindergarten orientation and thinking, "2026, that's a million years away." 

Wynter giving ManChild a tuneup:

Heading off for the first day of school:

Communing with Splash, one of the herd of 14 at Blue Cloud Farms where we boarded Rayn before we bought our ranch in Colorado:

Baby I Love Lucy having a nap with her boy, 2017:

Wearing B-Rad's coat, looking too cool for school, 10 years old:

From our trip to Colorado in 2024:

Proud mommy :-)

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Life on a farm...sigh. Mostly I try to show you the pretty stuff, but this is really not pretty:

Took a million pics all around the pond:

Checked in with ChatGPT (of course) and sent it like 20 photos of the recent pond issues and found, time to spend some more money! Of course it is. Our pond is in the beginning stages of dying (no fish death yet so Chat thinks we are at the beginning and can reverse it) but we have to hop to it. First steps, buy a solar pump and aerate the top layer of water slowly and also buy some beneficial bacteria. I'm scared of how big a solar pump we need but B-Rad seems to think it will be only a few hundred dollars as opposed to a few thousand. I hope he's right! 

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Let's go back to pretty now!

Lucy decided she needed a bath this week and walked into the shower with Brad and sat next to him with water pouring over her! Haaa! What in the world? She's never done that before! So, of course he had to soap her up. I love how fuzzy and fluffy she gets after a bath:

We had a single digit windchill earlier this week, chilly willy for North Carolina! The babies got blankets that night:

When you live on a farm and it freezes, you need to empty all your hoses before it does. If you don't, you will be carrying buckets of water from your spigot (ours is at the house) to the water tanks in the pasture, no fun. If you don't remember and have a garage:

Yep, I hauled 200 feet of hose full of ice into the garage to thaw overnight, making sure to leave the ends higher than the rest so it didn't flood the garage with gallons of water. The next day we made sure to drain them after using them!

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Who's the prettiest pony in her new coat?? She kept looking over her shoulder at her coat when I was putting it on, she thought it was pretty too :-)

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Still working on the pumpkins:

Or asking for more pumpkins:

Or getting fiesty because they are all in heat:

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On this day I was moving the herd to the upper pasture and took Jaffee first. For some reason he really wanted to check out his human's "barn":

"But, how do you get fresh air in there? Where are the open doors?" Or maybe he was wanting to join us inside?

COME PLAY WITH ME:

On January 5th, 2026 you can join me in creating Vision Cards for the New Year, Year of the Fire Horse! We will be playing with easy mixed media techniques including collage, watercolor, pencil, acrylic inks and more to make a set of unique-to-you Vision Cards for you to write the highlights of the life you'd like to create in 2026! No experience necessary! This is a once a week class, running for four weeks (7:30-9:00pm ET every Monday night starting January 5th) and the total is $140.

This is what they looked like before the writing my vision on them at the beginning of this year:

This is what they looked like done and in a pretty bag (which I'll mail to you):

I know, I know, I keep talking about this so I thought I’d actually tell you why. Every year, since 2013 I’ve created a written vision. I’ve always been kind of “meh” feeling about vision boards, probably because I can never find what I want in magazines. But I can write a vision more easily. So, I write what I want my life to look like in 1-3 years, some of it is loosely intended for the next year, some a couple more years out. I don’t fuss with figuring out the timing of it, that’s too specific. I write it as if I am living 1-3 years out, with all the things already manifested and I’m just basking in the joy of it all. I imagine the feel of it all and I write about all the feelings. It's a really fun twist to the typical "create a vision" statements.

And the why? Because the life I currently live is because of my Vision work. I have a farm and ponies and mini donkeys and the work I do because I put the ideas out there and then focused on how exciting it would be when it came true. My business is finally back to where it was pre-pandemic and pre-move across the country to North Carolina. Writing a vision works! Having pretty Vision Cards to keep with you in your purse or on your desk to look through occasionally, keeps them in the forefront of your mind, reminding you how excited you'll be when these things do actually come true!

Click here to learn more or to sign up!

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In 2026 I'll be offering FREE Monthly Art Playdates!

January 10, 2026, 7:30-9:00pm ET you can meet me live on my FREE monthly art Playdate, no experience necessary! We'll be painting this funny little Tufted Titmouse, one of my favorite birds! We'll use simple shapes that we then refine and lots of dots and swirls for fun. You can click here to join this live freebie!

February 9, 2026, 7:30-9:00pm ET come join me on my live FREE monthly Playdate to paint Poppies! No experience necessary! You can click here to join this live freebie!

My Wednesday Women's Circles continue to be full, please contact me if you'd like to be added to the waiting list. It's possible I will open another evening circle in the new year.

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I got the happiest text about a new client's first neurofeedback session this week:

"I must say that when I left my first session, I found that I was smiling and felt joyful, at peace and happy. I haven't felt that in forever. My smiles have been tense. But I really felt like I was really smiling for the first time in forever. I'll be back as soon as I know my schedule!"

If you'd like to learn more about neurofeedback, click here, or give me a call to chat and/or set up an appointment.

THE MEMES:

I'm not quite there yet but I aspire to be this woman:

Did you love Friends? It's the Holiday Armadillo!

I started sheep herding lessons with my 2nd Border Collie Onya in the early 2000s. Then I got Border Collie #3 in 2011 who was a novice herding dog named Midgie, and then finally I stole away "Ike" a retired working dog from my friend Laura :-) With herding dogs, the command to come back is, "That'll do! Here!" I miss that! 

Border Collie #2 was Shadow, (if you ever come to my house, you'll see a lot of artwork of both him and Onya,) and he had zero recall. He would come back because Onya came back and he loved her. Lucy is Shadow incarnate, no more fucks to give (👈🏽it's a funny song, watch that!), so to find her I would call her (using her name or not, wouldn't matter) and watch for the dog that ran in the opposite direction 🙄

Oil painting of Onya: 

A watercolor of Ike:

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This is an AI-free newsletter! While I love to use AI to help me figure out a piece of software I don't understand, my intention is to use it to help me with the drudgery, never with writing, art, creation. All em dashes are intentional and mine, I was using them way before ChatGPT was a twinkle in Sam Altman's eye :-)

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Thank you for reading :-)

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