Weekly Mileage #143 and All the Notebooks

Monday it was raining again so no trail run or hike. Instead I squeezed in work sessions where I could throughout the day. I got some notebooks finished and hit the post office two minutes before closing to ship them off.

We had freezing rain a couple days and most of the week was below freezing. Despite that, I'm finally over most of my cold (just a bit of phlegm left), so I would have done more hikes, except I had to focus on getting notebooks made and shipped as quickly as possible.

Even though my listing clearly states 6-8 days to ship, plus the actual shipping time, people placed orders as late as Tuesday, hoping (or just plain expecting, in some cases) to still receive their order in time for Christmas. In the interest of keeping happy customers, I did get all the orders in the mail by Thursday, so they should arrive in time, but I'll need to be more specific next year so I'm not doing so much work right before Christmas.

Monday night was the winter Court of Honor, where Sunshine received her Second Class rank. She earned it a month or so ago, but she didn't receive the patch till now.

Tuesday morning was our last music lessons of the year. Afterwards we picked up my second batch of paper. When I placed my order last week, I'd actually placed two orders. One that I could pick up quickly, and a larger order with adjusted lines. Sunshine didn't like how thick and dark the lines were in the original order, so I had the print shop adjust the lines (1 pixel wide instead of 2). That took a couple days, which is why I placed an order for the original paper as well, since I needed some paper right away. I do like the thinner lines, so it was worth waiting a little extra time. While I was at it, I doubled the order so I wouldn't run out quite so quickly. The paper in the first order was spoken for before I even picked it up, and I needed some of the paper in the second order for notebooks.

That night Sunshine and I had our second stint at the Scout Christmas tree lot. Once again we sold one tree. Definitely not the best location or time.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I worked on notebooks whenever I had time and I got the last of them shipped out Thursday morning. I made and shipped 13 notebooks this week plus 6 more in the past month, for a total of 19 music notebooks. I wasn't expecting to get that many orders, but I will plan for this next year and have some on hand already made, with leather and paper ready to go, so I'm not ordering more of both while trying to get orders out like I did this year. Apparently people think my music notebooks make great gifts :)

The success of this season has given me ideas for the future. I'll be building more of a stockpile of all my notebooks so I'm ready for any orders that come in. I'll also contact some local antique and gift stores to see if I can rent some space. I'd like to see how sales go when people can touch and hold the notebooks before they buy them.

One good thing about making so many notebooks in such a short time is that I have my systems down and have cut down on the time to do each step. Working in an assembly line fashion also speeds things up as I do the same step over and over for multiple books. A big time saver has been the acrylic template I made for tracing the covers. What used to take 15 minutes as I measured and re-measured and checked for square, now takes 3 minutes tops, and I can mark the stitch holes in the spine at the same time. So far I've only done the template for the music book cover, but now that my orders are up to date, I'll have the time to do the templates for the other covers.

My order of acrylic sheets for the templates came wrapped in bubble wrap. Those big bubbles are so satisfying to pop, regardless of how old you are :)

Thursday morning after a post office run with the last of the notebooks, our Christmas cards, and ornaments for the grandparents, I went on a short hike with the boys.

ice on a shallow part of the river

That afternoon Ocean had his hearing test finally. We'd had to reschedule in October when he had that nasty staph infection in his ear. I was worried that the infection might have done some damage, but that was not the case. His tubes are clear and functioning, and his hearing is great. He can hear all registers and there's no problems. It's very reassuring to know that his hearing wasn't impacted by the infection. And it's good to know that he can hear just fine. So if he's ignoring us now, it's because he's a strong-willed 4 year old, not because he can't hear what we're saying :)

Thursday night we went caroling with the YM and YW. It was cold but fun.

Friday after speech therapy Ocean and I went for a short hike. I wasn't able to do as many hikes as I'd hoped this week because I've been working on notebooks, but I should still be able to get my 52 hikes for the year.

We found a random deer leg in a clearing with no sign of the rest of the deer. Also no idea who was munching on it.

We found some cool ice crystals.

the white wormy looking crystals is water that freezes as it gets pushed out of the ground

After our hike I started painting the kitchen walls. It's so nice to get away from the grubby yellow. It was supposed to be a cheerful color, but somehow it just ended up looking grubby. I also started caulking and painting the crown molding that I hung years ago but never did anything with. I'm not done with that part yet, but I'll finish it as I do the second coat of paint on the walls.

first coat on the walls. the second coat will be a little lighter.
don't the cupboards look so much better? of course, now the counters and floor look truly awful.
we'll do the counters and floors (and the sink) when we rip everything out. this is just a stop-gap measure.

Saturday I went for a short trail run and hike. Definitely feeling out of shape after being sick, but it was good to get out again. That afternoon Jeremy and I went to a local running shop that specializes in trail running and I got my first pair of trail running shoes! I can't wait to try them out on the trails. Merry early Christmas to me :)

Sunday just as we were leaving for church the internet tech stopped by to figure out why we've been having problems with our internet. He was scheduled to come Monday, but we got a text 15 minutes before it was time to leave and he was there 5 minutes later. Needless to say, the kids and I were a bit late to church. Jeremy had left as the tech arrived because he had a meeting with a high councilor (he's now an assistant ward clerk). The internet outside the house is fine, the modem is fine, it's the wiring. Blech. The tech gave us a couple ideas to try first, but if it doesn't work, we'll have to replace the wiring. Adding to our internet issues is that we have no choice when it comes to internet providers. We have DSL, but fiber optic or high speed is not an option. We could do satellite internet, but that's even worse than DSL. Lots of fun.

Weekly Mileage
Thursday- 1.30 mile hike
Friday- 1.08 mile hike
Saturday- 1.10 mile trail run
Saturday- 1.35 mile hike
total- 4.83 miles

46 hikes towards #52hikechallenge
2.56 kayak miles towards #365milechallenge

162.40 outdoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
41.16 indoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
130.0 bike miles towards #365milechallenge
336.12 miles total