Today I am grateful it’s Friday! And that I have Dr. Paul working for me today so that I can spend time with my volunteers and horses. That was one of my goals at the beginning of this year, was to make Fridays a training day. And I achieved my goal, hooray! I am grateful for Dr. Paul, Dr. Hamman, and Dr. Joci for taking great care of our clients and allowing me the time to be out of the clinic and working with volunteers at the ranch.

Would you like to join our ‘get fit with horses’ program? Because that is really what each of our training sessions is usually about. Yesterday we worked with several of the animals using a Tabata timer (you fitness buffs probably know what that is), in order to help set the rhythm of the trainer and the animal. This was pretty difficult for Mr. Donkey to keep up the pace, but, Pet Pictures with Santa will be here in a month, from today, (yikes!) and I would like for him to have an increased level of fitness before that event. Maybe he will even be strong enough to have little kids sit on his back for the picture, wouldn't that be great? And if you are interested in coming to either one of our events, whether at the Ranch with Donkey and Santa in Evergreen on Sunday, or in Conifer on Saturday with Mr. and Mrs. Claus at the hospital, you can sign up here https://www.resqranch.org/pet-pics-with-santa-signup

We will also have homemade holiday gifts for sale, ResqRanch merchandise, as well as some AMAZING gift baskets for our silent auction. So get some great pictures just in time for your holiday cards, and support a great cause!

I am also grateful for this gorgeous fall weather we are having, just amazing! I hope you are getting the chance to get out there and enjoy it. We are sure trying to make the most of it.

I am grateful I made a batch of ‘dog food’ yesterday. I have not had time, it seems , recently, so I made the time to prepare and cook a huge batch of lentil vegetable soup. Really pretty easy. I just softened half a bag of celery that I chopped in the pot with some vegetable broth, added a clove of finely chopped garlic, then added about 15 chopped up big carrots, along with 2 huge organic sweet potatoes that I peeled and cut up, and then a couple of regular potatoes too. While I was prepping all that, I soaked 2 ½ cups of basmati rice and 2 ½ cups of red lentils in some water. Once the veggies were mostly cooked through, I added more broth into the pot, rinsed the rice and lentils and then added them to the pot, boiled it all for about 10 more minutes, and then, voila, a fresh pot of healthy, vegetable soup, that we all can eat. Not only do we eat it, but also the dogs (we add it to their kibble), the cats, the rats, and even Treasure the bearded dragon will get some. It’s easy, less expensive than purchasing processed food, everyone loves it and it makes the house smell great! For more recipes like this, you can contact Aspen Park Vet Hospital 303-838-3771 and we will email you some guidelines so you too can make ‘dog food’ that you will want to eat, ha!

​So much to be grateful for! Beautiful weather, volunteers, a great team, a healthy family, and my ankle doesn’t hurt today. What are you grateful for? And, have you been remembering to be kind to yourself? Have you picked a nice thing to say about yourself, and then took the time to actually speak it out loud to your own face in a mirror? Do you find it hard to look at yourself in a mirror and just say something nice? I will admit it first, it’s hard for me. I always want to think, wow look at those dark circles under my eyes and things like that, instead of just hey girl, you got this and you are doing great, there’s nothing to worry about, you are enough, you are getting enough done each day, and you are being kind to those around you. It’s easy to type it out on a page, not the easiest to actually get up and say it in the mirror. But I am going to try. And I encourage you to do the same. Because that’s all we can do, works towards being a little better and better, in every way, every day.

Thanks for reading, wishing you the very best Friday of your entire life today (so far)! God bless!

​Check out my YouTube channel for a daily "Good Morning!" from the rescues and lots of free tips and training resources. https://www.youtube.com/@the1drq​