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| doesn't it look like she's giving me the side eye? |
Monday I did a 1.5 mile run with Max- she wasn't impressed with how short it was, but I had a busy morning and didn't have time for more. Plus, changing things up keeps things interesting for both of us.
After our short run, I went to a local outdoor gear consignment shop to drop off some things to consign, then asked about their local artisans section. I talked to the manager and showed her my waxed canvas and leather bags, which I'd brought, but left in the car. I now have some buckets in the store! Check off that goal from the beginning of the year! It was definitely a bit scary, but I'm glad I did it, and she even recommended another consignment store in town that might be willing to sell my hand sewn leather totes (the outdoor gear crowd is not the right market for that). I need to follow up on that soon... Super exciting and a big step forward!
Grocery shopping in 2020 looks like this:
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| rows and rows and rows of hand sanitizer |
The branded tape for my course arrived. It turned out great!
Last week I participated in a narcolepsy research study, which culminated in a phone call interview, which was Monday afternoon. All the questions they asked brought up a lot of things I hadn't thought about for years.
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| the boys playing chess |
Tuesday we did a 3.5 mile run, which made Max much happier, but I was just tired. I didn't intend to go that far, but couldn't remember exactly how far the loop was that we ended up on. It wouldn't have been as bad if we'd gone the other direction, but we ran it in the mostly uphill direction, which wore me out.
I got caught up on a bunch of YW emails (I think I've said it before, but I'll say it again, I find being YW president much more stressful than being a RS president was). Then I moved on to some catch up work on my course. well, really the course work for the how to write a course. I've gotten a little behind on the assignments as I've been pulled in different directions.
I also started drafting the pattern for the next item I want to add to my shop, which will be a good companion to my waxed canvas buckets. They're waxed canvas foraging pockets. I'm still deciding on the waist: leather with a buckle, webbing with a buckle, waxed canvas tie, or some other type of tie? The pockets will be waxed canvas, I know that much. The foraging pockets I've seen have been cotton, but I think the waxed canvas will be easier to keep clean/not allow what's in them to bleed onto clothes, stronger, etc.
Wednesday after my trail run with Max, I made a leather business card holder to drop off at the consignment store. I was going to drop it off Thursday, but then I checked their open times and realized they're only open Friday-Monday. oops.
Thursday I wasn't feeling up to a run (it's that time of the month), so I just road my bike. Max wasn't super happy about missing her run, but there will be days where she doesn't get her exercise.
I went to the chiropractor and ran some errands. I stopped by Harbor Freight for a heat gun and foot switch for shrink wrapping small bottles of glue and gum tragacanth for the tool kits for my course. I wasn't completely sure the foot switch would work with the heat gun, but it was less than $15 and I could return it if it didn't work. It does though, which is super cool. Now I just need to build a stand for the heat gun and I'll be able to shrink wrap bottles quickly and without having to switch the heat gun on and off with my hands.
Friday we went for a quick trail run before the kids and I went back to the park for playtime at the river with friends.
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| the bags make great dry bags. we put wet towels and clothes in them for the walk back to the car. |
The weather was great and rain is in the forecast for the coming week, so we spent some time working outside. Sunshine worked on the post holes while I worked on finishing building the compost bin (the base is out of cinder blocks- I still need to build wood slats, and add a few more cinder blocks, but I'll need to buy more blocks and I can build the slats later). Then I moved the compost pile- the newer part of the pile into the bin, the rest into the raised beds, which needed topping off after a year or so of settling. Now we have a pile of old pallets that need to go to the dump. Moving the heavy compost wasn't the greatest idea I've ever had. It definitely tired me out more than I'd prepared myself for.
Saturday I got a late start because of feeling crummy after working outside Friday afternoon. I didn't take Max for a run because I knew she'd be on the leash while we worked outside and I hoped that would be enough exercise for her. Spoiler alert: it wasn't.
Jeremy and Sunshine worked on the post holes while I cut the wood for my new worktable (I can put it together in the house, so I just focused on getting everything cut to length and ready to assemble), and then worked on the treehouse.
I used wood from our stack from the tree we had sawmilled and sheathed the frame I'd built a while ago, which makes both a table and a barrier across one portion of the lower platform (it's the highest off the ground and I either needed to block it off or build a ladder or steps. I chose to block it off). While I was at it, I also added wood below the platform to fill in all the irregular spaces and hopefully keep critters from setting up house under the platform. I still have more to do there, but I made good progress.
Jeremy and Sunshine got the holes dug to the right depth, but it took a lot longer than we'd thought/hoped. We still need to set them in concrete, which will hopefully happen on Monday.
After dinner we were playing a game with the kiddos and I was having the worst time staying awake. I was just completely exhausted. Early night to bed for me.
This week has been rough. Trying to get up earlier on a daily basis takes extra energy. Exercising on an almost daily basis takes extra energy. That time of the month sucks up massive amounts of energy. Working outside and bending and lifting sucks up massive amounts of energy. Needless to say, I was not feeling great Sunday. If you're familiar with spoon theory (everything you do takes spoons (energy), and you only have so many spoons per day, and that number of spoons can vary from day to day, etc), my spoons were most definitely depleted/empty/used up.
I spent some time on the heating pad Saturday night and Sunday morning, which helped, but I still felt a little buzzy. When I overdo it, my whole body feels buzzy, like it's vibrating at a super fast/high speed. It's hard to describe, and I'm not sure why it happens or what's really going on.
It's frustrating. Aside from the brain fog and physical exhaustion I'm experiencing, there's the questions about how am I ever going to be able to handle daily chores on our future farm? I follow enough small farms on IG (and know from experience having goats, chickens, rabbits, sheep, and pigs when we were growing up) to know that there's a lot of work that goes into taking care of animals on a daily basis. So do we hire out all the chores to the boys (until they leave home) and hired hands? Do we keep things small, and hopefully manageable, and just do the bare minimum to produce food for ourselves? We'd talked about producing our own meat for Jeremy's food truck, but I don't know if that will be an option. I can see that we'll need to plan things out to be as energy efficient as possible, even if it costs a bit more to get them up and running. Energy efficient as in uses as little human energy as possible. Jeremy can do stuff, but if it involves bending and twisting, it's very likely to end with him flat on his back, in massive amounts of pain for several days.
Living life with narcolepsy can be very limiting. I haven't had a full-time job in 15 years since I've been home taking care of kiddos, but I don't see how I could work a full-time job outside the home. When the bad days strike because I used too many spoons in the days or weeks leading up to that point, I'd have to stay home, even if I didn't have any sick days left. Getting up every day at a specific time is also very stressful, which makes me feel worse.
This has me thinking about stuff to look into: farmers and ranchers who thrive despite narcolepsy. Hopefully I can get some ideas to figure out ways to make it work for us, then we can share those ideas with others.
Monday- 1.50 miles run and hiked
2020 totals
0 kayak miles towards #365milechallenge
22.50 indoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
310.0 bike miles towards #365milechallenge
540.75 miles total
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