Weekly Mileage and Virtual YW Camp

found this lovely critter on the wall in the basement. ick!

Monday I ran errands, including getting Ocean's birthday presents while Jeremy did the in-town shopping. Divide and conquer for the win.

After that I made Ocean's birthday cake (a roll cake, per his request) and then had a camp staff meeting. After that was the camp kickoff meeting.

While sitting through those camp meetings, I finally figured out why I don't like zoom calls. You have to look at the screen and look interested, which makes it hard to do anything else with your hands. The problem is that if I'm just sitting there, not doing anything with my hands, I'm zoning out and trying not to fall asleep. Years of experience have shown me that just sitting = falling asleep. Keeping my hands busy = much less likely I'll fall asleep. And as an adult leader, I have to stay on top of what's going on so I can offer an opinion or advice if needed or asked.

the Rescue Bots he got as presents had to help blow out the candles :)

I also had this thought: Ocean was born early in the morning, around 4:30ish I think. I gotta wonder if that has anything to do with him being an early riser. He wakes up early, then wakes his brother up and they go scavenging through the kitchen, leaving the wreckage behind them. We finally bought a get out of bed clock for the boys, which I'd been meaning to do for months, and so far it's actually working. It's red when Ocean wakes up, turns yellow when they have 20 minutes to go (we've told them to make their beds, get dressed, and clean up their room during this time), then it turns green and they can leave their room. They're still awake and making noise, but at least they're not loose in the house. Though I do need to break Ocean of his habit of barging in to tell me that "the light turned green so we can leave our room!" Which I know, because there's an alarm that goes with it as well.

Tuesday started with a staff meeting followed by two small group meetings. I had some time off after that, so I worked on my logo update and ordered some new business cards, designed some stickers, and worked on the color scheme for my logo and site. It's been predominantly black and white in the past, but now I have some more options. I also ordered more waxed canvas so I have the materials on hand when I'm ready to make waxed canvas totes.

I then bounced between afternoon group meetings (the starts were staggered, but the first ended up overlapping the second). There was an evening fireside that Sunshine attended, but I skipped because I just couldn't handle any more zoom.

During the day, between the morning and afternoon group meetings, the girls had a class where they learned a new skill. Sunshine took self defense, macaron making, and cake decorating. There was also sketching, watercolors, something with photography and filters, American Ninja Warrior, shelter building, cooking, and more. They also had time to work on group challenges and other goals, some of which got them outside, away from their computer screens.

a teal macaron

Wednesday started with a staff meeting followed by one group meeting. We shuffled things around so those of us helping with two groups weren't bouncing back and forth.

Afterwards I finalized my sticker designs and okayed the order, then worked some more on my logo colors. Once those were done, I started working on my website updates. The colors, the logo, and the header. I also realized I never transferred the blog posts from my old WordPress website to this Shopify site, so I started that. However that was slow going since most of the early pics were 2 years old or so and I had to figure out where they were on my computer.

Sunshine with her wacky outfit challenge 

Wednesday evening was an adult leaders meeting where we talked about the leadership skills the girls were learning.

Thursday started again with a staff meeting, group meetings (back to bouncing between the two) in the morning and afternoon, and then we had an evening ward meeting. I got to lead out on that one, which was stressful. For all the leadership positions I've been in and the leadership training I've taken, I don't actually enjoy leading group discussions and activities. Doing it over zoom added to that stress. Despite that, I think it went reasonably well.

Sunshine's cake decorating class. We used fondant instead of frosting to cover the outside, which was a good learning experience for both of us (I helped because she wouldn't have had time to do that and prep the frosting).

Sitting in the small group meetings and watching the youth camp advisors (some of the older girls) teach leadership and communication activities to the younger girls in their groups, I realized that they were some of the same ones we used in Wood Badge. I'm willing to bed the guy who put them together (they were used by both the YM and the YW) has gone to Wood Badge at least once. Such a great opportunity for our youth to learn these things now rather than when they're a lot older.

The leather I ordered for handles and straps and more tote bags arrived. But I need to get the site updates done first so that as soon as products are done I can post them to a professional looking website.

Ocean wanted to take Hedwig and Scabbers outside to play, but it had started raining, so I convinced him to leave them inside with me. I set them on a box so they could look out the window and watch him. He thought it was hilarious!

And then later I looked outside and saw this:

And this:

Yes, Ocean is laying in a mud puddle in our driveway.

We took Sunshine's cake outside for some better pictures. You can see the fondant seams better, but like I said, it was a good learning experience.

Friday was our last day of camp. One last staff meeting, one last round of morning group meetings, then a close of camp meeting. Overall, I thought camp went well and was a good experience for the girls, even if a lot of it was on zoom.

Honestly, this week was exhausting for me. I had to get up at a consistent time every morning, regardless of when I actually went to sleep the night before (I actually do try to get up at a consistent time, but I normally have the option of laying in bed for a bit longer if I'm feeling particularly crummy).

I think the real exhaustion comes from an HSP perspective. I had to be "on" for 6+ hours a day on zoom, which is a LOT of interaction after months of very little interaction. It was overstimulating in all senses of the word. Added to that was there was lots of second-guessing myself in what I said and did because my anxiety levels were already higher than normal. I can usually keep the second-guessing to a minimum, but I had a much harder time this week.

One thing our stake focused on was having the YCAs model the leadership roles that should be occurring within our classes. The YCAs led the discussions, taught the communications exercises, delegated daily devotional responsibilities, met with those responsible for the daily devotionals to go over what was expected, and so on. It's actually unfortunate that more of our girls didn't attend and see this in action.

Saturday I finally ordered photo backgrounds and a lighting setup for product photography. I've been putting it off for far too long and realized I needed to get it done ASAP. I continued working on reconstructing the old blog posts. It's taken a lot longer than planned and isn't quite done yet. I can only upload one photo at a time in Shopify (unlike Blogger and Wordpress, where you can do bulk uploads), but I'm getting closer to being done.

Sunday was an in-person church day. Jeremy had virtual drill, so he stayed home with Ocean while I took the older two kiddos to church.

In the afternoon I had a YW presidency meeting via zoom and it was definitely too soon to be back on zoom. So done with it right now. I'm still working on getting my anxiety and stress levels back down, so another zoom meeting didn't help.

Some thoughts on getting up every day for a week straight at a set time: it's exhausting. Combined with all the time on zoom and in front of the computer, it was even more so. I didn't do any leather work this week because I like to work in as long of stints as possible and I needed to get the site updates done. I also had to coordinate stuff with people at the last minute, which is stressful, and thus exhausting in its own way. This has me wondering if I can do actual week long camps and still be functional by the end. I think it will be better without the computer aspect thrown in, but I don't know. My introvert game is super strong right now.

Since I started focusing on my leather work I have drastically decreased my time on my computer, which has been nice. However, it's time to sit down and write more blog posts again.

Weekly Mileage
total- 0 miles

2020 totals

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

164.19 outdoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
18.00 indoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
200.0 bike miles towards #365milechallenge
382.19 miles total

Sunday Funny

When I was finishing my 50k back in June, Jeremy brought the kiddos to meet me at the finish line. Afterwards, the boys were climbing on these benches at the trailhead. "Take a picture mom!"

Love River and his pose and Ocean and his progression closer to the camera.

Weekly Mileage #173 and the 10K Treadmill Race

Monday I power washed the basement patio area: the siding, the cushions, the chairs, etc. I only lightly did the decking- that will need to be done in more detail when we have time to re-stain it as well. It's too hot to do that right now though.

I also uploaded all the pics to the posts for the last few weeks. It was a lot of pictures, so it took awhile.

I started my third try at the waxed canvas and leather bucket, but ran out of time to finish it before Sunshine and I headed out to a socially-distant Scout meeting.

Tuesday we had online music lessons then I finished the third version of bucket. It's still not quite what I want, but it's just about there. I also spent some time figuring out the costs of materials for the bucket so I can decide on a price. I still need to see how long it takes to make each one before I finalize the price.

Wednesday I did some tidying around my desk. It was becoming a disaster area since I'm not using it much right now- I'm downstairs at my work table more often.

I ran a 10k on the treadmill: the Wonder Woman virtual race I signed up for awhile ago. I don't love running on the treadmill, but we're at a point in the summer where if I want to do any running and still be functional afterwards, it has to be inside. I was still pretty tired, but not as wiped out as I would have been if I'd run outside. Of course, my tired might be because I ran 5.7 out of the 6.2 miles of the race :)

Jeremy and I replaced two led lights on the RV. They weren't working well and caused us to fail the annual safety inspection. Nobody carries them and while the shop that fixed our broken window was willing to order them from the manufacturer, that would have taken way too long to arrive. We're supposed to fix the issue within 15 days of failing- we're a bit past that now. I finally found the white oval backup light on a random website that sells auto/trailer lights. Amazon only had red oval lights. I did find some orange lights for the front cap on Amazon, though they're not an exact match. They're high enough up that you really can't see them though. The white light was quick and easy to replace, but the orange one was a pain. Jeremy had to dig out a bunch of silicone in order to get the wires out, then had to re-silicone afterwards to make sure there's no leaks in the overcab area.

Thursday after I wen to the chiropractor I started cutting tote bag straps and realized the leather I intended to use for them is way too thick. I bought some skirting leather that's 10-12 oz and quite stiff. I ordered some 8-9 oz leather that should be a better fit. For comparison, the leather I use on the body of the totes is about 5 oz.

Since I'd already cut them, I did install a set of straps on my largest tote, but that further solidified that I don't want to use that leather for the straps. I also worked on pricing out the materials for the totes. I need to track my time making these as well before I decide on a final price.

After I installed the straps I rubbed in some leather protectant (should have done it before I attached the straps), then ended up doing the whole bag. You can see the difference above, but the darker color faded a bit as the protectant soaked in.

socially distant tree picture

Friday morning we went on a short hike to the river with some friends. We tried out the canvas buckets and I got some good pics for social media posts. In the picture below, the lighter colored strap is made from that thick saddle skirting. Too thick for what I want, but more sturdy than the other leather.

Heading home with wet buckets after a fun morning.

I had planned on working on more totes or my first "official" tote from nicer leather in the large size, but I wasn't feeling well enough. Maybe I was in the heat too long that morning?

Saturday I went to YW camp kit pickup. Those in charge of organizing the YM and YW camps this year put together materials packets for the classes each youth signed up for. After that I had a bit of a wait before it was time to pickup some pork we bought.

I thought about going in to Whole Foods to get the shopping done (so it wouldn't need to be done on Monday), but the line was outside and moving very slowly. Which reminded me why I don't like shopping on Saturdays.

Since that wasn't happening, I found a reasonably shady parking spot in a nearby shopping center and worked on my logo and care tags (for leather and waxed canvas) for a little while. Then I went back to Whole Foods to meet our local dairy farmer that we get our raw milk from to pick up the milk-fed pork we bought from them.

After I got home, I worked some more on my logo and care tags and new business cards. I need to get this all figured out so I can update my site and social media branding before I start listing new products and driving traffic to my site.

Sunday was a home church day. Jeremy got to go help someone in our ward with a burst pipe in their basement.

Earlier in the year I volunteered to be the medical form person for our Scout troops (the boys and the girls troops share adult leadership). We're in the process of updating everyones health forms now that we're starting to meet in person again. So I spent a couple hours updating the spreadsheet we use to track everything.

Then I had a Stake YW camp meeting. I wasn't feeling stressed before that, but afterwards I was. It's going to take a bit more time than I thought and more involvement on my part than I expected.

Between the spreadsheet updates and the zoom call I ended up with a massive headache that started to turn into a migraine (I could feel the nausea coming on) so I went to bed early.

Weekly Mileage
Monday- 1.0 miles walked outside
Wednesday- 7.0 miles run and walked on the treadmill (6.2 mile race + .8 cool down)
Friday- 1.2 miles hiked
total- 9.2 miles

2020 totals

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

164.19 outdoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
18.00 indoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
200.0 bike miles towards #365milechallenge
382.19 miles total

Sunday Funny

The other day Ocean was helping his stuffed pig OinkOink play the piano.

A bit awkward, but he had fun :)

Then River joined in the fun with his bear Johnny.

Weekly Mileage #172 and All the Leather Projects

Monday I went grocery shopping, which tired me out. I'm going back to pickup/delivery as much as possible, then I'll only have to go into Costco and pickup at Kroger. Whole Foods and Target will deliver.

I did manage to do some work on the chicken coop so we could integrate the chicks in with the chickens. It would be better if they were a bit bigger, but they were getting pretty cramped in their little brooder area. I hauled a couple loads of mulch to the pen for them to scratch around in and it did me in. The combined heat of 91* and high humidity felt like 100* 😥

Tuesday I made two notebook orders made and shipped them out. The alcohol ink supplies I ordered forever ago finally arrived so I can do some more experimentation when I've got a minute.

The boys talked their sister into setting up the slip-n-slide for them and they had lots of fun.

Sunshine made a <late> Fourth of July cake. The colors didn't quite work, but she had some nice smooth fondant on the top (she skipped it on the sides, though). It was a good learning experience for her.

Wednesday I had planned to do a 10k on the treadmill (to knock out the last virtual race I signed up for), but I woke up with a migraine that got worse throughout the day. I was pretty useless and didn't get anything done- too nauseous and headachy.

Sunshine had a board of review and is now a First Class Scout!

Jeremy and I had our stake presidency temple recommend interviews via zoom. It was nice to catch up with him- he was the bishop of the first ward we were in when we moved here and were renting for a year.

Thursday I was still a bit headachy, but not nauseous, so I was much more productive.

My tote bag patterns are good to go, now I need to figure out how much materials I used so I can calculate costs and what I will charge for each one.

The medal for my 50k finally arrived.

I re-did the notebook cover- third times the charm, and I'm finally happy with it. The unfortunate thing is I used this cool brand on my first try, when I should have saved it for when I had a better idea of how it would turn out.

First try on bottom, second in the middle, third on top.

And the inside:

I started to mess around with the gather basket handle (I was going to double up the leather), but decided it didn't look good that way, so single layer handle it is.

I also did a sewn cover for music notebook, and machine sewed the papers. The edges aren't quite as neat as when I hand sew them (all in one group versus split into 5 groups), but I may start doing it this way- it allows me to sew a cardstock cover to the papers, which then allows it work in this style of cover (this has been a hangup all along). I realized this style cover should also work for spiral bound music notebooks, but we don't have one in decent shape in the house, so I'll need to go buy one to make sure.

I didn't quite get the dimensions of the cover right, so I'll re-do it, but so far I like it, and I can do a larger one for 12 stave notebooks or guitar tab notebooks, which I have received requests for.

Good timing on all this since those last two notebook orders I filled used the last big pieces of my good, expensive leather. All I have left now is smaller pieces that will work for smaller notebooks. I do have another roll of the good, expensive leather, but it's a lighter weight and doesn't work as well with the original notebook design. It works really well when two pieces are sewn together, though it definitely increases the materials cost of each one.

I'm not sure if I want to order more of the expensive leather or not. On the one hand, the notebooks are easy to make and I have a lot of 6 stave paper (I re-ordered a whole bunch right at the beginning of lockdown). On the other hand, I'm kind of bored making them and I'm not really satisfied with how I sew the pages to the covers, and the leather is about twice as expensive as the other leathers I've purchased.

Friday morning I took the kids on a hike, which was hot and humid, since it's always hot and humid now. We found two geocaches, tried to find another,  and then played in the river a bit before heading home.

Being brave and trying to cross the log:

And he's off:

Stop!                     (I'm not sure why)

The first geocache required me lifting River since none of us were tall enough to reach it.

The boys had fun jumping in the river.

The elusive teenager (she wasn't feeling great).

Cannonball into the shallow area

Great view!

We found more wild blackberries on the way out.

Reading Ocean's favorite book: Alexander the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

I ran a couple errands with my medium tote bag.

Saturday I power washed the small shed by the cars. It's oddly soothing for ocd. We recently bought a new power washer and I wanted to make sure I knew how to use it- Jeremy doesn't have time and can only use it in short stints even when he does have time.

Then I made some waxed canvas and leather buckets. They're not quite right, but they're close, and overall I really like them. First time using waxed canvas and I'm liking it.

The left one has a double layer of canvas on the bottom, the right has just a leather bottom. The issue is sewing the bottom to the sides without leaving a lot of red under that lower leather strip. The leather strip needs to stay as it helps provide a bit of rigidity and shape and I like how it looks. On my next try I'll extend the lower leather strip all the way to the bottom of the side so I'm sewing two layers of leather together instead of a layer of canvas to a layer of leather. That will bring its own issues, so we'll see how it goes.

Why is red so hard to photograph? This one's a bit closer to the actual color- it's not nearly as bright as the other pictures might imply.

And here's the tote lineup. I will use a different, more rigid leather for the straps and I'll also experiment with different leathers, but I like the pattern.

I used cheap utility leather for the totes, gather basket, and notebooks since it made it a lot cheaper to try things out without worrying overly much about messing up. Now that I have some patterns I like, it's time to start using the nicer leathers. The leather I used on the canvas and leather bucket is a more pliable leather that I've used on a couple notebooks. The flexibility allows the bucket to squish almost flat for packing while still providing shape and structure.

Sunday Jeremy took Sunshine and River went to church for the first time, Ocean and I stayed home. Things went pretty well there, though whoever prepared the sacrament didn't put the gluten free crackers on a separate tray. The bread and crackers were placed in cups on the same tray, which might have been ok, except that the cups kept tipping over and everything got mixed together. Part of the learning process....

Weekly Mileage
Monday- 0.8 miles walked outside
Friday- 2.07 miles hiked
total- 2.87 miles

2020 totals

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

161.99 outdoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
11.00 indoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
200.0 bike miles towards #365milechallenge
372.99 miles total