I started the week with a trail run with Max. She really enjoys these runs. She knows when I come downstairs dressed to run and she gets super excited.
After I did the grocery shopping, I drove to the county seat and voted. Some large cities have had long waiting lines, but that was not the case in our mostly rural county. No lines, no waiting, and only one other person was voting when I was there.
Tuesday I rode my bike, then we did music lessons and speech therapy and school work. Then I worked on the project prototypes for my course.
Wednesday I went for a trail run with Max, but it was a slow start to the day. I woke up with my eye a bit swollen. I'm fairly sure that it's poison ivy, and thankfully the swelling decreased as the morning went on.
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| Max curled up on one of the dining chairs while we were doing schoolwork at the kitchen table |
Thursday my eye was a lot more swollen and it's definitely poison ivy. The swelling decreased, but it took longer than it did Wednesday morning. I also have patches around my mouth and on my cheek. It must have gotten transferred from Max when she jumped up and licked me. Sunshine also has poison ivy on her face.
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| Ocean has been doing some more coloring on the walls, so he's also been doing some cleaning with the magic eraser. I really think impulse control is the issue here, so we're working on teaching him to think about the consequences of his actions, but it's not an easy task. I spent some time getting stuff for our YW activity. For our Unbirthday party, I put cupcakes in little boxes and we had individual ice cream cups. Easy and less sharing of germs.  Friday my eye was a lot more swollen. I had wanted to go running, but my eye wouldn't open enough early enough. I don't need to trip and break my ankle because I have no depth perception. It eventually opened, but it took quite awhile. I delivered treat bags to some of the girls that weren't able to attend the Unbirthday party the night before.  I felt crummy overall that day. I've had too many carbs lately and the poison ivy is proving exhausting. Or maybe it's struggling to see out of a slit of an eye that's exhausting?  We had wanted to go to Shenandoah for a final campout, but the only spots left were first come, first serve and the online scheduling tool wasn't showing any openings left. We ran into this problem last year, too, so you'd think I'd have planned better, but really the issue was that to get a first come, first serve spot we needed to go up Wednesday or Thursday, but we couldn't because Jeremy had to work.  some outtakes from me taking photos of River with a canvas bucket So we decided to camp in our driveway and then drive up Saturday to Shenandoah to clean the tanks so we could winterize the RV. This would still give us a chance to see how Max would do in the RV. Friday evening Max managed to unclip the leash she was on while we were building the fire and took off to explore the neighborhood. We need to get a locking carabiner or something for that leash if she's going to become an escape artist. On the way back, we found this cool tree:  From this angle, it almost looks like the profile of a person with a large nose, folding their arms. Can you see it?  I did not sleep well on the RV mattress. I woke up Saturday morning with a headache that didn't go away till about 3 pm. I'm already looking forward to the 5th wheel we're eyeing, which will have room for our regular mattress- no more crappy folding mattresses.  Max slept in her crate in the RV without problems. On the drive up, we'd originally planned on letting her sit on the sofa next to Sunshine, but it was too distracting and she kept hopping from spot to spot, checking everything out. So she got to ride in her crate, which was sitting behind my seat in the dinette area.  I'll spare you the photo of me with a fully swollen closed eye, but this is what it looked like Saturday after lunch. The swelling had decreased, but I was definitely looking scaley and rashy.  We had to wait 45-60 minutes to actually get into Shenandoah. The line was backed up halfway down the mountain and moving very slowly. Max was complaining, so at one point I hopped out with her on the leash so she could pee, but there were too many distractions and she wouldn't pee. We walked alongside the RV for a few feet before hopping back in. At the gate I finally got my Access pass. It was rather anticlimactic. I just showed them my id and my doctor's note and they gave me my pass. Maybe it was perfunctory because of how crowded things were and they were trying to keep things moving? I didn't have to leave them the photocopy of my id and doctors note, which I'm glad about. I wasn't super thrilled with the idea of that info being on file somewhere.  I'm still a little conflicted over it, but they do say that acceptance is part of the grief cycle. Accepting that my life has changed and never will be the same is a bit discouraging, frustrating, and leaves me with a small sense of defeat. Mind over matter (which I'm really good at) only goes so far when you're up against very real physical limitations. We emptied the tanks, then headed back home. After the crowds last year and this year, we decided we'll do this at the beginning of October next year, and I'll make our reservations as soon as they become available. I think they open them up 6 months out? the boys "helped" daddy When we got home, we cleaned the RV, set out mouse traps (we saw some evidence of a small mouse, boo!), and started winterizing the pipes. There's still a little more water to be blown out, and I want to buy a few more mouse traps, but we're almost set for the winter.  Sunday it was nearly 30 degrees colder (and raining) than on Saturday! Much more like late October.... ~~~~~ After talking with a friend who's a fellow homeschooling mom (the one who triggered the whole idea for my leatherworking class for teens, actually), I've decided to push back my course launch. I really wanted to launch before the end of the year to try to have a profit this year (pretty sure it won't happen otherwise, given all the expenses I've incurred as I've ramped up production for my shop and my course), but she made some good points and I'm holding off until the middle or end of January. Realistically, this is a great decision as it takes a lot of stress off me. I was supposed to be opening my course to early-bird registration this week! I'm still nailing down the prototypes, I didn't get the draft of my liability waiver till Friday, and I'm still making the arrangements for a larger order of tool kits to be shipped. Once they arrive, I'll need to find shipping cartons that each kit will fit in, I need to finish outlining the course, and I need to start videotaping the course lessons. Pushing things back will allow me to get all those things done with less stress, and I'll have some time for some outdoor projects that need to be started before the ground freezes. I'll also have time for some teens to run through the course for trouble shooting and quality control purposes ~~~~~ As I've been working on being more intentional with my Instagram posting for my shop and looking for hashtags to attract my ideal audience, I came across a group called 1000hoursoutside. Basically, the idea is to spend 1000 hours outside in a year, which is about 3 hours a day. The boys are pretty good about this when averaged out over a week, but Sunshine and I aren't as good about it. I've decided that this coming year, instead of doing the 365 mile challenge and the 52 hike challenge, we're going to start working towards 1000 hours outside. I don't know that we'll hit that the first year, but I feel like we can do it by the second year. It'll help us be more intentional with how we spend our days. Weekly Mileage Monday- 2.08 miles run and hiked Tuesday- 5.00 miles biked Wednesday- 2.30 miles run and hiked Thursday- 5.00 miles biked total- 14.38 miles 2020 totals 37 hikes towards #52hikechallenge 0 kayak miles towards #365milechallenge 185.58 outdoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge 22.50 indoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge 295.0 bike miles towards #365milechallenge 503.08 miles total |
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