Sunday Funny

Handsome fellow modeling the thumb guard we're using to help him stop sucking his thumb. He used to wear it throughout the day, but we've broken those habits and now he only wears it at night. We actually got a second one for the other hand because he decided to be an ambidextrous thumb sucker at night.

River: "This music makes my bum dance!" 

The occasional song will also make his feet and head dance :)

Weekly Mileage #104 and the Drive-In Theater

cool frost I found at the end of my run

Tuesday morning I went for a trail run. It was below freezing again, which isn't necessarily bad, except all the layers make it hard to be flexible and my neck gaiter (which keeps my lungs happy) fogs up my sunglasses, making it really hard to see. I almost ran into the one other person in the park that morning because I could barely see where I was going.

I'd hoped to do another trail run Thursday, but it was raining most of the night before and all day, making the trails too muddy for running. I ended up just taking the car in for its annual inspection, without a run beforehand like I'd planned. And we had our water heater looked at again. The electrician came just as I was leaving in the shuttle to go pick the car back up- figures- but he was nice enough to wait the 12 minutes it took me to get there and get back home. We thought maybe the other heating element had died, but he thought it was more likely that one or both of the thermostats was damaged when the first heating element died. He replaced both of them, and hopefully we won't have any other problems with it.

I'd planned on riding my bike Wednesday and hitting the treadmill Thursday since I couldn't run outside, but both days I didn't have time until the afternoon, and I wasn't feeling it by then. I'm on week 10 of my detoxing, and I've retraced a lot of old symptoms from various illnesses and such, but I'm on one of the worst ones yet, and I'm not sure how long it will last. The others haven't lasted too long, though I'm now thinking all the headaches I've been having lately are retracing the injury from my accident when I was 14 and all the headaches and migraines I've had since then (27+ years at this point). The headaches are mostly gone now, but it took about a month to work through them.

The stomach pain and nausea were only part of my life for about 10 years, so hopefully it won't take longer than the week I've been dealing with it so far (the nausea and pain has definitely been a lot better the last couple days, so I'm hopeful I'm almost through it). It hasn't been fun, but it was a good reminder of how far I've come from the constant stomach pains and nausea that I experienced for so long. I don't miss them at all.

Despite the stomach pain and nausea, I finally finished my email automations and all the codes are on my second website and I'm ready to turn things over to my Pinterest VA to start driving traffic to it! Super exciting. It's taken a lot of hard work and frustration and learning new things to get to this point. I have a few small things to do this week for both websites, but once those are done I'll be spending my extra work time (after my weekly writing allotments) on some furniture projects that need to be taken care of. We also have some projects in the yard that need to be taken care of once the chainsawing is all done.

Speaking of chainsawing, Saturday I did some more, but I only ran the chainsaw until the tank of gas was empty (I did 3 or 4 tanks' worth last Saturday). The smaller branches are just about done and the bigger branches/logs are stacked in one spot to make it quicker to get them all cut up. I do still have a couple cuts to do on the main trunk pieces, but we need to get a new chain before I do that. The one I've been using can't be sharpened anymore and needs to be trashed.

snuggled up, waiting for the movie to start

Saturday evening we went to opening night at the drive-in theater. They were showing Captain Marvel, which might not have been the best choice for opening night. They were pretty full (almost to capacity) and the lines to get in and at the concession stand were really long. They'll get things running smoother as the season goes on. It was a bit chilly by the time the sun set (mid-40s) so we snuggled together in the back of the car. Ocean didn't fall asleep until the last 15 minutes of the movie, so he was fun to deal with on Sunday, but other than that, we had a good time. If you haven't seen it yet, you should! Sunshine says her new favorite female super hero is Captain Marvel, supplanting Wonder Woman :)

Weekly Mileage
Tuesday- 1.44 mile trail run
total- 1.44  miles

7 hikes towards #52hikechallenge
0 kayak miles towards #365milechallenge

31.01 outdoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
11.15 indoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
60.0 bike miles towards #365milechallenge
102.16 miles total

Sunday Funny

Another instance of Ocean falling asleep in a random location because he was too tired to fight it anymore. This one occurred around 5pm, but I didn't wake him up because he needed the nap so. badly.

Ocean has this phrase he says when he doesn’t want to do something.

Me: Put your dishes in the sink, please.
Him: I'm too busy.

Me: Put your underwear back on, please.
Him: I’m too busy.

Him: I need a deempt of water.
Me: You know how to get a drink of water.
Him: I'm too busy.

"I'm too busy" can be used in place of "I'm too tired", "I don't want to", or whatever else you want to use it for! I wonder if it works for grownups?

And a backed-out view to show that day's cushion fort

Weekly Mileage #103 and a New Microwave

early morning trail run

I missed Tuesday's bike ride because Sunshine had an early orthodontist appointment. Except she forgot her retainer, so we had to reschedule and we get to do it all over again in two more weeks. Grrr.

I also missed Wednesday's trail run. I woke up and just felt too tired, so I rolled over and went back to sleep. The effects of the time change and the sugar from last weekend were still hanging around. It was brutal.

I did manage to go for a trail run on Thursday, though, and it was good. It wasn't below freezing, which made running a lot easier on my lungs.

sunny race morning

Saturday I ran a 5k race. I ran the 10k last year and the 5k the year before. This is a fast course, but I'm still working on getting in shape, so it was not my fastest time ever. I ran 36:49, but I feel good about my effort and how it went. I actually ran most of the race, only walking .4 total. I need to build my endurance a bit more, and then I can start working on improving my speed. It was a beautifully sunny day, but cold. It was also windy, which I hadn't anticipated. Not as windy as last year, but it did make it colder.

We replaced our microwave Saturday. We were very blessed to find one in the scratch and dent section for a fraction of its original price. There's good sized dents on the top and side, but only the tiny one on the top edge of the door is visible (and that just barely). It was actually pretty easy to replace, but did take some manhandling to get into place. It's nice to have a working microwave again. Did I mention that our old one was 21 years old?!

I was trying to get a picture of the new microwave, but it was too shiny, so we have a reflection selfie instead

That afternoon I was still feeling energetic, so I started chainsawing the branches from the tree we had taken down a year ago. I have one cut left to finish on the main tree to get it ready for the mobile sawmill (it's so large that the chain goes dull before the cut can be completed), but I was able to get a lot of the branches cut to more manageable sizes. Mr M supervised the kiddos loading the branches on the lawn tractor trailer and transferring them to the brush pile down by the chicken run.

I was super stiff that night from using the chainsaw- it's murder on back muscles even when you try to use good body mechanics- but I wasn't as sore as I was afraid I'd be the next day. We're not done with the brush, but we're making good progress.

I've also made good progress on my big projects for my businesses. I have my vaults set up for people to go to for free and paid content and I have the email sequences and automations done finally. I do have to finish putting codes for forms into one of my sites, and then I need to double check that they work as they should. I'm soo close to being at the maintenance phase with my websites (ie, just writing a weekly post or two for each).

Weekly Mileage
Thursday- 2.15 mile trail run
Saturday- 3.12+.35 miles run during race, plus cool down
total- 4.54  miles

7 hikes towards #52hikechallenge
0 kayak miles towards #365milechallenge

29.57 outdoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
11.15 indoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
60.0 bike miles towards #365milechallenge
100.72 miles total

Sunday Funny

Above is a Venn diagram I put together based on a conversation River and I had a while ago. 

According to him, Ocean is cute, Daddy is handsome, only River is cute AND handsome :)

Some More Narcolepsy Thoughts

Friday's snow was cleared from the roads, but still on the trees- such a pretty on the way to the maple festival

As I said Monday, I've been feeling pretty good the last couple weeks.

I've moved up my bedtime to a more manageable time (though I still want to move it up a bit further) and I'm fairly consistently able to wake up at 6:30. It's been quite a while since I've been able to do that. I credit the frankincense for these improvements. I'm sleeping better and not feeling nearly as exhausted when I get up (though that is all relative...).

I have more energy and less mental fog during the day, which is super nice. This is mainly because of the TRS Advanced, but also the other supplements I take.

I'm exercising more regularly because I'm getting up earlier and because I have more energy.

But for all that, I've realized I'm still not as functional as I need to be.

I'm still having a hard time if I'm sitting still and not doing anything else. There's only two times that this usually happens: church and while driving the car.

Hauling Ocean out of the chapel in the middle of sacrament meeting will keep me awake, but he's getting better at sitting and not being so loud, so I don't have to take him out as often. The last couple weeks have made me realize I need to be that person who knits at church. Ok, crochets, because for the life of me I can't remember how to knit from one day to the next. Crocheting is slightly better. I could do cross-stitch, though that's too fiddly for church I think. It's crocheting or playing solitaire on my phone, and I'd rather not do that during sacrament meeting.

I'm ok driving for half an hour or so, but longer distances are harder. I'd hoped that everything I'm doing would help with this, but our 2.5 hour trip to the maple festival showed me I've still got work to do. I drove because Mr M was up late working (he has the rare opportunity to work over time right now, and we're taking advantage of it while we can). It was the longest I've driven since my diagnosis, and while it wasn't as bad as it has been, I still had to work to stay alert and not close my eyes.

We've been too busy for road trips lately, but as the weather warms, we'll be hitting the road more, and this summer I'll be driving the RV from Idaho to Virginia. Now is the time to figure out what I need to do so we can all stay safe.

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If there's one thing I've learned after nearly 20 years of dealing with autoimmune issues, it's that you never know when things will get better or worse. I spent the last half of 2018 progressively feeling worse, but over the last couple weeks have been feeling significantly better I've been able to get up and exercise first thing in the morning again. I haven't been able to do that since last spring. Summer we were busy with camps and trips, and then in August things got worse and it was downhill from there.

I started the keto diet at the beginning of December, but haven't managed to stay strictly keto. I have a long-standing self-medicating-with-chocolate habit that I've mostly kicked, but every once in a while it still rears its head, especially when I'm really stressed. On the plus side, I've realized that candy, even my previous favorites, just don't taste as good anymore. I've had the occasional bites of potatoes or rice, and they don't sit well and make me feel bloated almost immediately. At this point, candy is easier to stay away from than potatoes- those are my current nemesis, despite them not sitting well (I've dealt with food issues for so long that a mildly upset stomach is not enough by itself to keep me away from it).

Reactions like these do make it easier to stay low carb (and eventually make it back to ketosis), but it's a work in progress. I do have to remind myself "remember those just don't taste that good- the carbs aren't worth it". That said, I did eat maple candy when we went to the maple festival last Saturday. Partly to taste something I hadn't had before, but also partly to help me stay awake as I drove. Eating sugar while driving has long been my preferred method of staying alert while driving. No RedBulls or Monster drinks for me, thankyouverymuch. Give me peanut m&ms, peanut butter m&ms, or Jelly Belly jellybeans instead.

This week I've seen the effects of eating that sugar though. Between that and the time change, I haven't been doing as well this week. The EDS (extreme daytime sleepiness) has been raising its head again, even while working on the computer. This has reinforced just why I have to stay away from sugar.

On the docket now: find sugar free, low carb snacks I can eat while driving. and I think it's time to fill that prescription from my sleep doc and see if it helps.

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So why do I bother messing with food issues and supplements? Because I do feel better. My body has a much easier time digesting low carb/low starch foods, which I've known for years, but not had the willpower to stick to. Low carb is one of the few things you can do to treat PCOS, has been shown to help with narcolepsy, and is helping with my celiac and the fuzzy brain I've had for so long.

But for all that I'm feeling better, I know it's not permanent, as this week has shown. Something could change at any time and I could back slide 3, 4, or 5 steps. It could be something I eat, increased stress levels, or something I'm never able to pin down. When, not if, that happens, I'll pick myself back up, find what works then, and start making progress again.

Weekly Mileage #102 and the Maple Sugar Festival

Snow on Friday!

One of Sunshine's co-op classes this term was the puzzles used in escape rooms and how to design one of your own. Monday Mr M and I went to Sunshine's escape room, which wasn't super involved (we had 20 minutes, rather than an hour or whatever most escape rooms allow), but it was harder than we expected. Hidden objects, black light clues, lasers, codes...it was fun!

Monday afternoon we had to stay home and wait for a repair on our water pressure tank. We replaced the pressure tank a year and a half ago when our well pump went out, and the spigot started leaking a week or so ago. The tech said the spigots that came with the pressure tanks have been nothing but trouble and they've had to replace a lot of them. It was a quick and easy fix covered by the warranty (thankfully).

Tuesday morning I rode my bike and managed to break my computer screen as it slid off the deep window sill next to my bike. So frustrating. I called around, and it will be cheaper to repair the screen, replace the battery (it's been having problems for awhile now) and debug to improve the RAM (it's been running super slow and we can't expand the RAM on my computer), than to buy a brand new laptop with more RAM. As much as I wanted to take it in right away, I had to wait until I took the car in on Thursday to see how much it cost to fix some issues it was having. For now, my laptop is still useable, just a pain since screen visibility is reduced by 1/3 and there's horizontal lines through the remaining 2/3.

Wednesday morning I got up and went for a trail run! I've been wanting to do this for awhile now, but have never managed to for one reason or another. Last week I realized I could finally manage it, so I checked my schedule and the forecast and decided on Wednesday morning. I laid out all my clothes and stuff the night before so I wouldn't have any excuses, and then went for a run in 21* weather. Besides being really cold, it was a beautiful morning. Trail running is definitely harder than running on the road or the treadmill, but it felt good and I'll be doing it again.

Wednesday afternoon we went to nature group at a local park. The weather had warmed up a bit, but it was still cold. That didn't deter Ocean from ignoring me and playing in the stream anyway. After awhile he sat down and tried to take his shoes and socks off. I stopped him, and he played for a bit longer, but we were the first to leave when he decided he was done. That'll teach me to put hiking shoes on him instead of boots.

Thursday I took the CRV in for new brake pads, rotors, and calipers ($ouch) we thought/hoped it was just a cheap tire balance issue, but no such luck. We've had this car for more than 13 years and it's been a great, very reliable vehicle, but it's got almost 180k miles and it's starting to show its age 😥Hondas do have longevity, but they still develop issues as they age.

Since the house is reaching the age where everything starts dying (heating/air conditioning and well pump died a year and a half ago), or threatening to die (our water heater), here's another to add to the list that : our microwave died this week. This is a pain, but at least we can survive without it. For awhile, anyway.

Friday morning I did my long run on the treadmill. I'm up to 4 miles total and I ran 2.5 miles of that in .5 mile chunks. It's still feeling pretty good to run, though my left knee is a bit stiff. I've been using my foam roller after running, and it's definitely helping hold aches and pains at bay.

Ocean doesn't take regular naps anymore, but he really needs them, so he'll end up taking random naps once or twice a week when he can't fight the exhaustion anymore. On this occasion I was trying to snuggle him on my lap because I knew he needed a nap, but he didn't want to have anything to do with that. Instead, he dragged the blanket a few feet away and laid on the floor. After a minute or two, I realized he was being very quiet, and when I checked, he was fast asleep, surrounded by couch cushions since the boys do not believe in using couches as they're intended. Couches + cushions = fort building materials.

Saturday we drove to the mountains on the border of West Virginia for the annual Maple Festival. It's been on our calendar for the last few years, but we've never managed to make it. The timing wasn't optimal this year either, but we did it anyway. Sometimes that's just what you have to do. It was fun to see much larger outfits and see that they do things pretty close to how we do (though their boiling setups are much better). We also played in the snow (we got several inches the day before and the mountains got 8+ inches) and tasted some maple flavored goodies. Yummy, but I definitely ate way too much sugar.

If you look closely, you can see the tubing running between their trees.
They had a really nice slope for getting the natural suction going.

We had a busy week, but I've felt pretty good. I've got some thoughts on that that I'll share later in the week.

There were some vendors in one of the small towns that the festival is centered around, and this one caught our eye.
A foot-powered lathe! He let the boys try it out, and they thought it was super cool (check out River's smile).

Weekly Mileage
Tuesday- 10.0 miles biked
Wednesday- 1.45 mile trail run
Wednesday- .5 miles walked at nature group
Friday- 4.00 miles run on the treadmill (2.5 miles total run)
Saturday- .5 miles hiked at sugar camp
total- 16.45 miles

7 hikes towards #52hikechallenge
0 kayak miles towards #365milechallenge

23.95 outdoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
11.15 indoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
60.0 bike miles towards #365milechallenge
95.10 miles total

Sunday Funny

Ocean held up this stick and declared "5 pinecones!". I tried to tell him there were only 4, but he kept insisting there was 5.

Ocean has been going to speech therapy for almost two months now. He's making good progress, but there's still progress to be made.

He's been working on using the proper sounds at the beginning, but there's still a disconnect, so he'll say the proper beginning sound, pause, and then say the word how he's always said it.

For example:

Puh puh puh puh huppy = puppy

sssss nail =  snail

tuh tuh tuh hurn = turn
sssss pider = spider
puh puh puh henguin = penguin

February Mileage

last Saturday's run was cold and overcast.
an hour or so after I returned home the sun peeked out for a bit before retreating behind storm clouds again.

I've finally been doing some actual running. Not much, but more than I have been. This is due to several factors: all my supplements and eating low carb are helping my energy levels so I'm able to be more efficient with my computer time, which leaves me more time and energy to exercise, and I'm sleeping better because of the Frankincense essential oil.

In general, I've been feeling less stressed about all the things I need to do and more upbeat about my ability to get everything done. Amazing what a non-fuzzy brain and not feeling sleepy all the time will do for motivation and mindset. I still have good days and bad days, but overall, I am feeling so much more functional.

February mileage:

1 treadmill workout + 3 hikes +1 outdoor runs + 1 snowshoe walk + 3 bike workouts + 0 kayak outings = 42.40 miles

52 hike challenge: 7 hikes

365 mile challenge:  50.0 bike miles + 18.00 outdoor foot miles + 7.15 indoor foot miles + 0 kayak miles

total miles: 75.15 miles

January mileage:
2 treadmill workouts + 4 hikes + 1 outside walk + 2 bike workouts + 0 kayak outings = 32.75 miles

52 hike challenge: 4 hikes

365 mile challenge:  20.0 bike miles + 8.3 outdoor foot miles + 4.45 indoor foot miles + 0 kayak miles

total miles: 32.75 miles

Weekly Mileage #101 and a Good Hike

this little cutie just had to climb the tree. notice the handful of sticks :)

This week was a bit calmer than the previous week, which was nice. I made some good progress on the project for one of my websites, but still have more to do. I did end up spending more time than I'd have liked messing around with the theme (what the website looks like) because it wouldn't do what I wanted (layout and color changes). This resulted in two days spent trying different themes, messing with CSS code (I had to google around for the snippets and instructions on where to put them since I don't really understand how to use it), and a migraine. I finally found a theme that allowed me to easily tweak colors and layout, and didn't require any CSS coding, so at least that's done.

The weather finally cooperated for us to go on a hike on Thursday, though at the beginning we were all grumpy and two out of three kiddos didn't want to go on a hike. As I knew would happen, things improved once we got started. We even had a bit of a scavenger hunt, searching for the trail crew with the chainsaw that we could hear sporadically. We found the trees they'd just cut, only to hear them off in the distance again, cutting more downed trees off the trail (we had a windstorm earlier in the week). We did eventually find the trail crew, but it was fun chasing them down and finding the right trails to turn on to.

Saturday I went for a run (River has decided not to do the race with me in a couple weeks, but I fully expect him to have a meltdown that morning when I leave for the race without him) and upped my distance. It still felt good, though I can tell I'm out of shape and need to be putting more time and effort into getting back into shape. I'd hoped I'd be fully ready for this race, but that will not be the case. It'll be a good benchmark though, and I can start looking for another race to train for.

Weekly Mileage
Wednesday- 10.00 miles biked
Thursday- 2.10 miles hiked with kiddos
Saturday- 3.50 miles run (2 miles total run)
total- 15.65  miles

7 hikes towards #52hikechallenge
0 kayak miles towards #365milechallenge

21.50 outdoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
7.15 indoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
50.0 bike miles towards #365milechallenge
78.65 miles total

Sunday Funny

A month or so ago when we had a good snow that stuck around for a couple days, we went to a park to go sledding. While we were there, Sunshine made this little snowman, who she dubbed "Mini Man".