Weekly Mileage #58

the boys checking out the tanks and jumping in front of a helicopter

Last week was a crazy busy, stressful week, and I'm glad it's over. (fair warning: this is a long post)

Sunday after church the kids and I hopped in the RV (which of course takes prep work- clothes, food, etc, so it's not just a matter of hopping in and going) and drove down to NC. Mr M had to work, so he stayed home. I've driven the RV the hour and a half to the dealership, so this 5 hour trip was a stretch for me. This was a good thing though, as it gave me the opportunity to really get comfortable and build my confidence in driving the RV.

We went to NC to help my sister load up her U-Haul and clean her apartment as she prepared to move to IN. She'd worked hard and had a lot of the work done already, so everything went very smooth Monday and she was even able to check out of her apartment several hours earlier than originally planned. No last-minute, down-to-the-wire-shove-everything-in-the-truck-and-call-it-good rushing around, which was nice. Driving the RV down meant Sunshine could keep an eye on the boys in the RV, out of our way, as we moved furniture and cleaned. They watched movies and played with LEGOs and didn't get underfoot, so it was definitely a good choice.

Another sister flew in Monday evening to help drive the truck, and Tuesday morning we all hit the road, trying to out-run the storm that had been dumping rain on us all night and was moving north. We weren't successful, and it rained most of the trip home, which made it a lot more stressful. That, and we were on a timeline to get home so we could get Sunshine to her Irish music class, but we had to stop and empty the black and gray tanks along the way.

We don't have a convenient, close location for cleaning out the tanks and they needed to be emptied before the renters picked up the RV the next day, so I had to find a truck stop kind of along our way (there weren't any actually on the way) that had a dump station. Only they'd stuck a pipe in the ground for your sewer hose to connect to, and it was elevated about a foot, which meant gravity couldn't empty the hose. Such a frustrating, time-consuming process that I got to do in the rain. I'm so glad we have a box of disposable gloves just for such occasions. Lots of fun. But in the end, I did get the tanks emptied, I didn't make a mess, and I had dry clothes in the RV to change into.

We made it home with half an hour to move car seats around and start bringing things inside, then we loaded up again and took Sunshine to class. When we got home, I really wanted to just lay down and rest, but I had to clean all our stuff out of the RV and pull the bedding off the beds so I could wash them and get everything ready for the renters.

300+ year old white oak- too huge to fit in the picture

Tuesday night as I was getting into bed I checked my calendar and remembered that we'd rescheduled Sunshine's piano lesson for Wednesday morning (we'd missed it while we were gone). On our way home from that we stopped by Walmart to get a couple things for the RV. When we arrived home I couldn't find one of the items I knew I'd put in the shopping cart, and it wasn't on the receipt. I really needed it (clear Gorilla tape to protect the very thin veneer on the edge of the dinette table), so we went back to Walmart, where we found the roll of tape on the paper plate shelf, right where Ocean had put it while I was deciding on a package of paper plates to purchase. He'd tried to tell me something was there, but I didn't understand what he was saying. Next time I'll pay more attention to what he's saying.

Oh yeah, and on the way home from Walmart the first time we almost got T-boned by a lawn care truck that wasn't paying attention and crossed the highway that we were driving down, missing our rear bumper by inches. I'd seen him start to move forward, so I'd sped up a bit, which was good, since he didn't stop like I thought he would. He totally didn't see us, and when I looked in my rearview mirror I could see him staring at us with an "oh crap" expression on his face as he realized how close he came to hitting us. That got my heart rate up, that's for sure.

In the end, the RV was ready, but I didn't quite finish my "how to use our RV without breaking it" book before our first renters picked up the RV Wednesday afternoon. Luckily they had a full time RVer with them and they were just taking the RV to a local farm and sleeping in it, so they didn't have any problems.

River playing a ball game- you set the ball on the little foot pedal, step on it, then hit it with the bat when it pops up

Thursday we had a field trip to Ash Lawn-Highland, James Monroe's house just down the road from Monticello. We've been there before, but it's been years. Maybe before the boys were born? Our tour guide was very good at keeping the kids engaged, which was no mean feat, since they ranged from 4.5 (River) to 12 or 13. I'm not counting Ocean since he was on my back in the carrier and couldn't have cared less. He did enjoy the games at the end though.

Sunshine and Ocean playing with the hoops

That evening, Sunshine skipped her last Activity Days meeting and went to Young Women to help set up for the fundraiser they were hosting Friday night. She turns 12 this week (eek!), so she'll be able to attend YW camp in June, which means she needed to help with the fundraiser. Afterwards, she had her interview to receive her Faith in God award and to move up to Young Women. After working on the Faith in God requirements for the last 4 years, she finished the last of them, just in time.

Friday morning we took Sunshine to her co-op, only to find that the power was out (they'd sent an email right after we left the house and I didn't see it) and they didn't know when it would be back on. I decided to hang out and see if it would come on quickly, which thankfully happened about half an hour later. I was able to leave Sunshine with the co-op coordinator and then the boys and I rushed home to meet the renters who were bringing the RV back. They beat us by a couple minutes, but it was close. The RV was in good condition, so we signed the return paperwork and I breathed a deep sigh.

But I only relaxed for a couple hours, before it was time to get ready for the Young Women spaghetti dinner. Sunshine returned home from co-op, changed into an 80's inspired outfit, grabbed the bowl of gluten free spaghetti I'd made, and headed out the door to go to the church with Mr M. The boys and I followed a few minutes later, since there was no need to have them running around longer than they needed to be.

after the dinner, with one of the table centerpieces
and yes, her pants are pegged, though it's hard to tell :)

Saturday morning Mr M took the boys on an outing so I'd have some uninterrupted time to work. They went to a super hero-themed carnival thing for military kids (April is Month of the Military Child) and the boys had a blast. They met super heroes, played games, ate cotton candy, got their faces painted (well, River did, Ocean wanted nothing to do with that), played with bubbles and nerf guns, and checked out the helicopters and tanks.

River grabbed the biggest Nerf gun he could find- it was almost as big as him!

I spent the morning finishing up my 75 page "how to use our RV and not break it" book (I need to come up with a better title 😊), then planned out themes and blog posts for 4 different blogs for the next year. With that much writing to do, I need to be organized so I can work ahead and stay on top of things. I only plan to post once a week on three of them, so that makes the work load easier to handle. This blog is the one that's hardest to work ahead on because I talk about what's going on in our life, but because I have a consistent pattern to my posts, I know what's coming and can think about them during the week.

River blowing bubbles at Spiderman, River showing off one painted cheek, and Ocean giving Spiderman a high five

In the afternoon, Sunshine and I went to her recital. We've missed the last couple recitals because of scheduling issues, so it was nice to finally make this one. Sunshine broke out her fiddle and played some of the numbers, which her teacher and I were really pleased with (did I mention that she switched to piano at the first of the year? so she hasn't done much with the fiddle the last couple months). The recitals run more like an Irish music session, where musicians join in on the songs they know and sit out the ones they don't know. Since the kids learn different songs at different times, there's always at least a couple kids not playing each song. I think it makes for a much less stressful performance situation than the standard recital.

waiting for cotton candy, blowing bubbles, playing in a tunnel

Ocean woke up Sunday with a fever and a cough, so I'm thinking he picked up some germs at the carnival Saturday, poor kiddo. Hopefully the rest of us don't get it since we're sick and tired of being sick.

With all the crazy busy-ness, I never managed to exercise last week, other than helping my sister load her moving truck. This week I'm looking forward to less craziness so I can fit in some exercise. Over the last week and a half I've been working on changing my sleep/work schedule, which should help with the exercise issue, but I'll talk about that more later in the week.

Still sitting at:

4 hikes towards #52hikechallenge

56.91 foot miles towards #365milechallenge

85.00 bike miles towards #365milechallenge

Sunday Funny

The other day Mr M noticed a hat with a "W" that a co-worker was wearing.

"You like Walgreens, huh?"

The co-worker looked confused, then shook his head. "That's the Washington Nationals."

"That's a sports team, right?"

Yeah, we don't follow sports much around here, and in Mr M's defense the W logos are quite similar. I would have made the same mistake :)

Weekly Mileage #57

now that it's a bit warmer, our neighbor got bees, and I helped her check them on Saturday

Last time I mentioned that the boys had both been sick and thrown up, and unfortunately, it didn't end there. Early Tuesday morning Sunshine was running for the bathroom, and Wednesday found Mr M and I running to the bathroom as well. Mr M and I weren't throwing up, but it was still unpleasant. Thankfully, the symptoms only lasted about 24 hours, and then it was on to recovery (repopulating the good bacteria in our guts and sleeping). So that was lots of fun.

Monday I rode my bike, but it wasn't until Saturday that I felt well enough to get back on and get my mileage to a nice round number (my OCD was strong last week). I even felt well enough to finally spend some time on the treadmill, and even managed to run for 3/4 of a mile. My plantar fasciitis wasn't happy about the running (I've been neglecting my stretches, so it acted up again), and I wasn't able to do more, but it's the first running I've been able to do in awhile, so I'm not complaining.

We had a reservation come in for this week for our RV, so I've been trying to get everything ready for that. We have other reservations booked, but this is the first one to actually go out. At this point, I'm trying to finish up the "how to use our RV without breaking anything" book (currently 66 pages long) so renters will have something to reference when setting things up, taking things down, or just have questions about how to use something. Editing the pictures and making sure everything is clearly explained is taking longer than I'd hoped.

Weekly Mileage
Monday- 6.50 miles on the bike
Saturday-  3.50 miles on the bike
Saturday- 3.00 miles on the treadmill
    total- 13.00 miles

4 hikes towards #52hikechallenge

56.91 foot miles towards #365milechallenge

85.00 bike miles towards #365milechallenge

Sunday Funny

Sunshine regularly measures herself against me to see if she's as tall as I am.

Recently she noticed some progress and was very excited about it.

I asked her if her goal was to be taller than me.

"Of course!"

"What happens when you're taller than me?"

"Then my goal is to be as tall as daddy."

Mr M is 6'3", so that's a much more lofty goal than growing taller than me, who is 5'1" on a really good day.

Weekly Mileage #56

sunset over the mountains, but trees got in the way :) I pulled over too late- a hundred feet back was a much better view

I managed a total of 15 miles on the bike Monday and Wednesday. These days I don't sleep well (the boys have been taking turns waking up in the middle of night for random reasons), so anytime I'm up and functioning by 9 is a win for me. Monday I managed to get up, ride my bike, get ready, and get us out the door and on our way to the leather store by 11. I don't usually manage to exercise before we head out on errands, so this was a big win.

We didn't go for a hike Thursday because Sunshine was under the weather (we've been passing a cold around and it was her turn). I intended to hit the treadmill instead, but the heating and air conditioning guy came in the morning rather than the afternoon to check our AC (just the annual maintenance check), and it threw me off. By the time he was done, I was too deep into other projects to stop, change my clothes, and get on the treadmill. Gotta work on that.

Friday was the same as the last few Fridays- I ran errands after dropping Sunshine off at class and didn't have energy for a hike when we were done with them. I've got to just do the hike first, then run errands. Or move the errands to another day entirely, since I don't want to take tired boys to the store- they get too cranky.

Saturday we went to a pick and pull place looking for a set of roof racks for our CRV so we can strap Sunshine's kayak to the roof (didn't find one, but we're still looking) and then picked up the RV from the dealership, where it had been getting some maintenance work done. We got home with half an hour to spare before we took off again to a friend's house for a birthday party. By the time we got home, I was exhausted and ready for bed, so no running for me.

This weekend I'd hoped to get to bed earlier and catch up on sleep, but the boys conspired against me again. Late Saturday night, just as I was falling asleep, I heard the boys' door open, then a gagging sound and the unmistakable sound of vomit hitting the wood floor. As one does, I was up in a flash and hurrying to help River. Clean up was unpleasant, but at least he hadn't puked in his bed or on the rug in his room. He was up for a couple hours after that, running to the toilet, and then hesitant to go to sleep for fear of a repeat. Thankfully, no repeat and he was fine on Sunday.

Sunday evening after dinner, Ocean decided to get in on the puking action and threw up twice in the library. Mostly on the wood floor, but once was partly on the rug and once was partly on a stack of books and the boxes with our inflatable kayaks (our family Christmas present that I finally got around to ordering, and that arrived Saturday). Much more difficult to clean up than River's mess, but he managed not to puke in his bed, either, so it could have been worse.

Now we're waiting to see if any of the rest of us get this bug or whatever it is. At least it ran its course quickly in both boys.

Weekly Mileage
Monday- 6.50 miles on the bike
Wednesday-  8.50 miles on the bike
    total- 15.00 miles

4 hikes towards #52hikechallenge

53.91 foot miles towards #365milechallenge

75.00 bike miles towards #365milechallenge

Sunday Funny

Ocean is the only one of our kiddos who has colored on the walls (see this post for why), and the latest round was... thorough.

He tagged two pieces of furniture, two walls, a window, the floor, even one of the couch cushions.

A bit aggravating, but great use of color.

In his defense, he was more than willing to help clean up the mess. Mr M and I think it might be time to buy stock in magic erasers, which made short work of cleaning crayon off surfaces.

In other news, River has lost his unsupervised crayon privileges for a while. He left his crayons out where Ocean could reach them, and reach them he did.

Homemade Butter from Grass-fed Cows

my first pat of butter

A few months ago we started buying our milk from a local grass-fed dairy farm. It’s illegal in our state to sell raw milk, but it’s not illegal to drink raw milk from cows you own. Herdshares allow you to buy into a herd of cows, thereby giving you ownership. We pay a monthly fee towards the feed and board of our cow and receive a gallon of milk each week in return.

Since starting the herdshare I’ve experimented with making raw yogurt and have now experimented with making butter. When we lived in NY when I was in first grade we got milk straight from the tank at the dairy down the road. I remember mom had a butter churn paddle setup in a large jar (something like this, if I remember correctly, though I think mom's was larger). This one and this one look interesting, as well.

I thought about getting a butter churn, then I found this tutorial that uses a food processor. Since we have a food processor, I opted to give this method a try before investing in a butter churn. 

cream at the top, waiting to be made into fresh butter

a quart of cream poured off, with some still in the jug

Using the food processor is super easy and only takes a few minutes. I’ve been pouring off a quart of cream from each gallon and churning it in two batches in the food processor.

after churning, butter floating in the buttermilk  

buttermilk poured off into the jar, butter waiting to be washed

Washing all the buttermilk from the butter is the hardest part, but this last batch I used the food processor to wash the butter. After pouring off the buttermilk, I added cold water to the food processor, whizzed it around a bit, then poured off the water. I added cold water and repeated the process several times until the water was clear after whizzing the butter around. Easier than doing it by hand with a wooden spoon, but still the most time-consuming part of the process.

In any case, it’s easy to make butter when you're not churning it by hand for hours and hours :) And it’s fun to do something we’ve read about in the Little House books, just like maple sugaring and making maple candy, both of which are in mentioned in Little House in the Big Woods and which we’ve done as well.

my most recent pat of butter

Weekly Mileage #55

they still love their backpacks

Last week I managed a decent number of workouts- two days on my bike, a hike, and a walk around a local farm we visited. We went with our homeschool group, and the kiddos had a great time. River got to feed the goats.

Sunshine and I have agreed that we don't want to have a mama pig on the property (or a daddy pig, for that matter) when we have more acreage. We'll buy feeder pigs, fatten them up, then butcher them. Mama pigs are just too volatile. And they're huge. River (red hood) is standing next to the female pig below, and it was almost as tall as him. This pig doesn't currently have babies, but we got to see one that did, and she was very touchy.

We went on a walk around the farm and the small lake, and at one point we stopped and the farmer asked the kids to close their eyes, twirl around, and then point in the direction the wind was coming from. River was right on.

Isn't this the best treehouse tree ever?

We fed goats, said hi to the cute baby pigs, went for a walk, fed the chickens and turkeys, collected eggs, said hi to the baby chicks, and held the fuzzy bunnies. The kiddos also planted some seeds. It was a lot of fun! Ocean decided he'd rather steer the chair than plant seeds.

My Garmin only logged just over a mile because at some point it turned off. Just one of the things I don't like about this particular model: you can't lock the buttons to keep them from being accidentally pushed.

A lot of schools were on spring break last week, and the drive-in theater had a special Thursday night showing of Ready Player One and Lara Croft. They had different movies scheduled for Friday and Saturday, so we went Thursday. It was a late night, but we had fun. Though we realized that Ocean is in that awkward stage where theaters, even drive-ins, just aren't a great idea. River did pretty well, but Ocean struggled. We won't be taking him again to a theater of any sort for a year or two.

they play old commercials before the movie starts

Thursday was cool, 40s-50s, then Friday it was in the 70s. And then we had wet snow all afternoon on Saturday. Gotta love the schizophrenic spring we're having this year.

I'd planned on going for a run Saturday morning, but got distracted working on some projects, and it didn't happen. But my mileage total for the week is so much better than the week before that I'm not complaining. Now to have another good mileage week.

Weekly Mileage
Monday- 7.00 miles on the bike
Wednesday-  8.00 miles on the bike
Wednesday- 1.10 miles walked on the farm
Thursday- 1.21 miles hiked
    total- 17.31 miles

4 hikes towards #52hikechallenge

53.91 foot miles towards #365milechallenge

60.00 bike miles towards #365milechallenge

Sunday Funny

Ocean is our fearless little dude who is great at problem solving. Check out the video above and pay attention to how he positions his toes.

March Mileage

this little dude thinks he's so grown up, wearing his own backpack on our hikes

After no time on the bike in February, I managed to log 20 miles in March, which really helped bring up my total mileage for the month. Illness, recovery, and work tasks conspired to push exercise to the back burner. I don't feel like I did nearly enough exercising, and that needs to change.

I've said it before, but I'll say it again: I really need to figure out how to get my mileage in and still get all my work tasks completed. Some of it comes down to better time management (I do waste more time than I should), but some of it requires more organization (better defined micro-goals and a hierarchy of which tasks need to be done first) on my part. I've made some progress on that aspect this past month, but still have a ways to go.

I also have the goal of staying healthy this month, since getting sick (and recovering) really interferes with my ability to manage my time effectively and efficiently. Now if I can just get the boys on board and get them to stop ingesting every germ they come across when they suck their thumbs, and then sharing them with me. I blame my little petri dishes for me getting sick so frequently.

March's mileage:

1 treadmill workout + 2 hikes + 1 outside walk + 1 race + 4 bike workouts = 33.43 miles

52 hike challenge: 3 hikes

365 mile challenge: 45.0 bike miles + 51.60 foot miles

February's mileage:

0 treadmill workouts + 1 hike + 3 outside run/walk + 1 race + 0 bike workouts = 15.56 miles

52 hike challenge: 1 hike

365 mile challenge: 25.0 bike miles + 38.17 foot miles

January's mileage: 

2 treadmill workouts + 0 hikes + 4 outside run/walk + 1 race + 3 bike workouts = 47.61 miles

52 hike challenge: 0 hikes

365 mile challenge: 25.0 bike miles + 22.61 foot miles

Weekly Mileage #54

Don't they look a bit uncomfortable? I've caught them like this several times in recent weeks.

River wakes up super early, so he still needs a nap most days. Ocean wants to skip his naps, but he's just not ready to yet: he turns into a puddle of screaming toddler right as I'm trying to make dinner.

Last week was another low mileage week, though I did manage to walk a couple miles on the treadmill. I'd planned on doing more, but I came down with a cold. Yep, I'm sick once again. On the plus side, each time I've gotten sick, it's been less severe.

influenza A > strep throat > cold

In between being sick, I'm still having a hard time balancing work time and exercise time. It seems I can manage one or the other, but not both. This is, of course, a problem, since I need to be exercising and making progress on my businesses. The last couple weeks I've been buckling down to finish some tasks that I've been avoiding, and I've made good progress on the social media aspects of my businesses. Not so much mileage progress, but as I said, one or the other, not both.

The weather continues to be interesting. A week and a half ago we had snow, a week later, we had temps in the high 70s/low 80s. Yesterday we were back down in the 50s. Gotta love spring.

Weekly Mileage
Friday- 2.00 miles walked on the treadmill
    total- 2.00 miles

3 hikes towards #52hikechallenge

51.60 foot miles towards #365milechallenge

45.00 bike miles towards #365milechallenge

Sunday Funny

Back at the beginning-ish of March we got a dusting of snow, so the kiddos got all bundled up to go out and play in it.

Once they got outside, they were underwhelmed. They played a bit, but there really wasn't much to do anything with. They ended up playing on the back porch because that's where the most snow was.