Weekly Mileage #88 and First Wood Badge Ticket Item Completed

Monday we went hiking on an urban trail, but ended up hemmed in by a busy road I didn't want to cross with the boys on one end and a culvert on the other. We had the jogging stroller and couldn't fit on the raised area used to traverse the culvert. Bikes could manage it, as well as people on foot, but the jogger was too wide. So we wandered back and forth on the trails that crisscrossed the disc golf course in the pocket park. The location is convenient to where we do a lot of things, so we'll go back when Ocean doesn't need the jogger anymore.

Tuesday I rode my bike without the boot tied to the pedal. My foot was able to flex a lot more, which wasn't completely comfortable, but didn't hurt. Twisting out of the shoe clip still didn't feel great, but it was better than the last time I tried it.

Wednesday Ocean had his ENT appointment. He's now scheduled to get tubes in on December 31. The doc mentioned that they're really busy this time of year as everyone tries to get everything done before their deductibles re-set. I hadn't really thought of it that way, but sure.

Towards the end of the appointment, he said reassuringly "you're doing the right thing". "Yep, I know- my sister's kids got tubes put in and their speech and hearing issues drastically improved."

I guess some people are a lot more on the fence about getting tubes in? Like a lot of things, there is risk involved, and we know it, but the benefits outweigh the risks in this case.

We were hoping the doc would recommend putting tubes in, so this wasn't the first time we thought about it.

I would love to know the story behind those staircases. I feel like there were some houses there that were torn down so the road could go through (just above that graffitied wall), but I don't know for sure.

Thursday I met with the people who've been evaluating Ocean for his first IEP meeting. We had him evaluated for speech delays after his third birthday, and I think there's been three different evaluations done now? The first to see if there was enough of a delay to warrant more in-depth evaluation, and the last two were to evaluate different aspects of his speech capabilities. He talks a mile a minute and is on track for most things except his articulation and understandability. Because his articulation isn't great (and he has some unusual sound substitutions), it can be difficult to understand him sometimes.

So he will be receiving speech therapy, but we're waiting to see how often he'll be doing that.

Friday I got to go to the dentist to get a loose filling fixed. It came loose Wednesday evening while I was flossing, but I was able to push it back in place. I called Thursday morning as soon as they opened, but they couldn't get me in until Friday morning. They cleaned out the loose filling and put in a new one. Thankfully there was no decay under it, so they didn't have to do any more drilling, which I was afraid would be the case.

Friday afternoon I hiked around the yard, pacing out the distance between our walnut and maple trees. I want to run tubing this year, but I had no idea how much to buy. Yesterday I fell down a rabbit hole while researching how exactly to install the tubing. I've got a good idea now, and just need to round up the materials.

The great thing about the tubing is that I can do a lot of the work now, while the weather is nice, than go through and quickly tap the trees once the weather is optimal. Collection will also be a lot easier, since I will have it running to just one or two collection points (still deciding on that one). We'll still have one maple tree that's far away from everything that will still have the old fashioned bucket, but everything will be much simpler.

Saturday I took the Trainer's Edge course. This is a course that trains BSA leaders to better train other leaders and youth. I needed to take the class for my position as pack trainer, but it was also my first ticket item for Wood Badge. One down, four more to go.

While I was off doing that, Mr M took the kiddos to his work Christmas party, where they all had lots of fun.

Weekly Mileage
Monday- 1.38 miles hiked
Tuesday- 10.0 miles on the bike
Friday- 1.61 miles hiked around yard
total- 12.99 miles

34 hikes towards #52hikechallenge
2.14 kayak miles towards #365milechallenge

349.46 foot miles towards #365milechallenge
335.00 bike miles towards #365milechallenge
686.60 miles total