Boarding up the Windows

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I pause at the doorway of my little vacation house, my satchel over my shoulder and my suitcase wheeling behind me on the wood floor.  My eyes scan the dim interior, checking to make sure that the windows are properly boarded and the filmy curtains drawn.  It looks like a different place - sad and lonely.

But vacation is over, and it's time to move on.  As I slowly close the door and turn my key in the lock, Indy whinnies from his horse trailer.  I glance one last time at my temporary home.  The ferns by the log walls will curl up for winter and the leaves on the trees will fly, without me there to watch and marvel.  Grass will grow up over the gate, and no one will mow it down.

But when I come back, I'll rediscover what I've missed and won't be any worse for it.

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I'm boarding up the windows.

I'm leaving this blog.

I owe you a lot more explanation than that, though, so here are my reasons....  

1. The long and short of it is, I need to start living more of my life off the computer.  I need to do more, rather than doing a little and then documenting it all.  

2. I need to get my writing on track.  It suffered this summer, and I'm afraid that if I don't force myself back into it, I'll lose it.

3. I want to fully concentrate on school and stay ahead in my classes, while still making time for Indy and my other responsibilities.

4.  I'm dissatisfied with my blog, wishing it had more of a purpose.  I'm at a loss for what posts I should write, since I cover almost everything under the sun on one web page: horses, fashion, weather, family, small town life, health, books....  If / when I start up again, I want to narrow down my blog subject.  I've recently discovered that I'm very interested in interior design, and always have been, so I may start a blog with that subject sometime.

I love you, followers! (And I can't believe I got up to 92 - you're the greatest!) You can stop following now, if you wish.  Or you can keep following so that in half a year, or a year, if / when I come back, you'll be able to see if I've changed much.

You'll still be able to find me commenting and reading other people's blogs.  Especially Gwyn's, Carlotta's, and Margaret Free's, and I'll also keep participating in Stephanie Morrill's writing prompt contests.  I may be on Cleiti, if that starts up again.

And of course, if you're brave, you can always visit me on Pinterest.

If you'd like to keep in touch, shoot me an email and I'll do my best to talk to you regularly :) I'll stay tuned on LBaaG to get any last comments / questions, and then, I will take my leave.

It hurts to say goodbye.

But nevertheless, goodbye.

- Ellyn

Changes

There have been a few changes around here.

Thanks to Olivia's tutorial at Robin Blogs, I now have a drop down toggle menu! I moved all my stats (Current mood, Currently Reading, etc.) to "Check Up On Me".

You can get my button from"Grab My Button" - Wow, really?

And for a taste of posts coming in the future, click on "Watch For..."

Also, my pages are now at the top of the blog.

Have a merry Christmas! I'm off to look at our shoveling situation...

Indy wishes you all a happy holiday season too! Yeah, he's covered in hay...I gave him a good brushing, don't worry.

My Button!

Note: My button on the sidebar is ready for the taking, so if you please... :D

By the way, we have to order another proof of Torn Heart, so it will be longer than I thought.  :)

Have a great day!

- Ellyn

New Theme!

Hello, everyone. I hope you appreciate the new theme on my blog…my dad and I stayed up until about 11:30 working on it! Then I discovered blinkies and went a little blinky crazy… but, I think I’ve calmed down now.
Yesterday was a pretty full day. We didn’t have church, so I got up late, because the night before was Dad and my blog night. After lunch, I went to see Indy. I brought him inside and he was full of energy. And I mean brimming full. I saddled up, despite the cold, and attempted to warm up his bit before I put it in his mouth. You know how they always say to never put a cold bit in a horse’s mouth? Well, I tried, I really did. But hey, it’s cold out there! Even after I squeezed the bit in my hands for five minutes it was still cold. By this time, I was starting to feel kind of sick…my eyes and back were hurting, but I was not going to go home without a ride. After making many circles with my horse, I finally got on his back and he was eager to go.
Indy’s favorite gait is a trot. It’s difficult to make him walk and difficult to make him canter, but he’ll trot with just a loosen of the reins. He can also trot at the speed of a fast lope, so I tend to hold him back all the time. But yesterday I decided to try and relax and just let him go. Whew, it was a fast trot, but it felt amazing! We both could have kept going, but it was getting late. I dismounted and untacked. Despite the cold weather, Indy was actually sweating. I brought him back outside and opened his gate. Before that, though, he rolled in the snow and rubbed himself all over with it. He looked pretty good – that fire-red color against snow white is really striking. He got up and looked at me with the cutest look on his face!
Well, when I got home from the barn, I felt terrible. I had some toast and went to bed. The toast was a mistake…
But today I’m feeling better. I decided to put up some old pictures of Indy. As old as they can be, as I’ve only had him one year!
“Never grow a wishbone where your backbone should be.” ~ Jenny Paddleford


February 1, 2010

Last spring

Check out the cool close-up.

Switching!

I'm switching my Wordpress blog to a Blogger one because...well, because. All the entries that follow will say they were all written in June/July 2010, but they actually were started in December/ January 09/10. :) Please follow! :)