Sunday Funny

The boys got these dino tracks from their grandparents for Christmas. But since our kids have vivid imaginations, they didn't just use them as roads for vehicles. They also found that they made great headgear and neckwear. 

Weekly Mileage #200 and Ziplining over the Zoo

Monday morning Sunshine and I participated in a service project so she could get service hours for rank advancement. We deepened a drainage ditch and hauled and spread gravel in a pedestrian tunnel that floods when it rains hard.

It was hard physical work, but it was only two and a half hours, so it didn't completely wear me out. 

I continued to think about my branding over the weekend. I was looking at logo templates on a site I buy fonts and stuff from, and found a logo that I liked that also spurred the decision to completely change my business name.

Oak Hollow Cottage is now True North Leatherworks

I picked Oak Hollow Cottage five years ago, when I really didn't know where I was going with the business and I wanted the flexibility of a non-specific name. Five years on, I know where I'm going with it and I need a more specific name. I haven't been loving the Oak Hollow Cottage name for awhile and had already started thinking about whether I'd rebrand when we move to Idaho (because I overthink things like that). 

I realized that if I ever want to change my name, now is the time to do it. I don't have a huge following and customer base and I haven't launched my course yet. If I quickly rebrand now, it will eliminate confusion and problems later on. It does add stress now, but that's nothing new. 

A good part of the week was spent finalizing my logos (variations for different uses), designing stickers for my course (a sticker pack is one of the bonuses I'll be including), buying domains, making sure everything forwards/points in the right direction, and building a new shopify site. I briefly looked up how to move a site from one domain to another, but didn't find a good answer. I ultimately decided to just use the existing one as a template to build the new one. I like the layout, so all I changed was tweaking the colors a bit. 

Oh, and I also had an order come in for a waxed canvas bag that needed to be sewn (I have some on hand, but not that particular color) and shipped. Things have been quiet on the order front, which has been nice as I've taken advantage of that to focus on my course.

Tuesday after taking Max for a run (dearly needed after missing it three days in a row) and music lessons and speech therapy, I did the grocery shopping. Moving the grocery shopping from Monday to Tuesday afternoon is making a much better use of my time. I'm able to be productive on Monday, and since Tuesday is always questionable as to how productive I am, I just don't worry about trying to work after I get home (and am really too exhausted to think about being productive).

Wednesday I went for a trail run then took Sunshine to the orthodontist. If all goes as planned, Sunshine is about half way through.

Thursday I went for a trail run, then did speech therapy with Ocean. We had our weekly play date at our house so I could get some work done, though I wasn't quite as productive as I'd hoped. 

I did work on a canvas bucket order before YW. River had his first Activity Days meeting while Sunshine and I had YW. Since he turns 8 this year, he gets to join in. He was super excited!

Friday I went for a trail run with Max. When I returned, I finished the handle on the canvas bucket, then prepped it to ship.

I had my physical/med checkin. I needed my Scout physical forms filled out. I also needed a pap smear since my last one was when Ocean was born, five and a half years ago. The hysterosalpingogram I had back in 2003ish was such a traumatic experience that I really don't like anyone messing around down there. I always hated the exam parts of being pregnant/going into labor. The doc would sit there and say "relax, relax", and I'm laying there, breathing slowly and deeply, willing myself to relax, with minimal success.  The doc who delivered River had really thick, rough fingers, which is a terrible physical characteristic for an obgyn to have. I still remember him checking to see how dilated I was (only a tiny bit, since I go from not dilated to fully dilated in about 20-30 minutes) with his fat fingers. Shudder. Did not help ease the PTSD. Thankfully, my current doc is a woman and understands how trauma can impact these experiences. She did a great job- gentle, didn't hurt, talked me through it. Logically, I know I shouldn't worry about it, but my body doesn't agree.

I took a little break from rebranding tasks to start a waxed canvas and leather pack. We have a Scout hike next weekend that I think would be a great photo op for a waxed canvas and leather pack. I sketched out a design a while ago, but haven't made the time to make one. 

Saturday I went for a trail run with Max and my friend C. Then Sunshine and I drove to the Richmond zoo and went ziplining with her Scout troop. It was a lot of fun and much better than the ropes course we did a couple months ago, which didn't have any ziplining at all. This one had a good ratio of zips and challenges, and some of the zips were nice and long! It was really cool to zip over parts of the zoo.

Weekly Mileage

Monday- 2.00 miles walked           2.5 hours outside

Tuesday- 2.09 miles run and hiked    .5 hours outside

Wednesday- 2.05 miles run and hiked    .5 hours outside

Thursday- 2.27 miles run and hiked           .5 hours outside

Friday- 1.82 miles run and hiked        .5 hours outside

Saturday- 1.95 mild run and hiked    .5 hours outside

       total- 12.18 miles              9.5 hours

2021 totals

20.5 outside hours

40.13 miles

Sunday Funny

The other night I was putting the boys to bed (ie, laying on Ocean's bed so he'll calm down and go to sleep). Ocean finally went to sleep, so I looked over to see if River was asleep. What I saw was the picture above: a foot and a hand poking out of a mound of blankets.

I changed positions to get a better view because I couldn't figure out what was going on.

He was all curled up in a blanket cave. Maybe his <dirty> foot was a periscope? and his hand was keeping it steady? 

Weekly Mileage #199 and Leatherwork Merit Badge Workshop

Monday I was still feeling worn down from Saturday. I did take Max for a trail run in the morning, but ended up taking it easy the rest of the day in an effort to recover sooner. I'm not sure if that worked, but it was a nice thought.

Sunshine had her first day of seminary.

River's tooth fell out!

Tuesday I was still tired and I didn't sleep well. I woke up at 6 because Ocean was creeping down the stairs to get on the computer. I told him to get back in bed and stay in bed till his alarm went off at 8, but disrupted sleep always makes me feel worse. I didn't take Max for a run.

how many little boys can you find?

While I was tired, I managed to finish clearing up the basement: 3 more bags of trash, boxes for recycling, etc. We still have a (smaller) pile of bins in the bedroom to finish going through, but the pile of stuff that Jeremy couldn't face sorting has shrunk at least.

I also cleaned out my desk upstairs- mail, receipts, etc that I shove in a drawer until I have time to sort them. Some will be shredded, some to will be saved, some filed away for tax purposes. 

That pile of bins in the bedroom, plus the bedroom closet and my craft cupboard are all that's left to sort, but I will get to them later. For now it's time to re-focus on my sales page. My original timeline had me launching my early bird registration today, but I've decided against doing an early bird registration. If I had a larger audience, it would make sense, but I don't, so it doesn't. 

I still need to finish my sales page so it's ready to go, as well as my other tasks: webinar prep, email funnels, pdfs for the course, videoing the course. Lots to do.

the elusive teenager is sighted!

Wednesday I went for a trail run with Max. I didn't have an accountability call this week, which worked out well. I ran a couple errands then went to my cardiology appointment. It's probably just tachycardia, but at the end of the month I go in for an ultrasound of my heart to make sure there's no structural issues and to get a monitor put on. I'll wear the monitor for two weeks, then go back in to talk about the results. 

Thursday after speech therapy we went for a hike with friends. We found a good play spot in the woods for the boys when we don't want to go down to the river and get wet. We took Max with us and she was very disappointed that she wasn't able to run on the trails.

we found an unmarked geocache- pretty sure it got moved from somewhere else in the park, just not sure which one

Friday I went for a trail run with Max. Then I started prepping for the leatherwork MB workshop. I wrote out instructions, converted a paper pattern to a pattern on my laptop (needs some tweaking, but it's close), and prepped the leather and tools.

I also started working on tweaking my branding. My shop name doesn't include "leather" in the name, and I recently realized that it really needs to. I also realized that if I'm going to tweak my branding, it needs to happen right now, while I'm still working on my course, so I can have everything ready for when my cart opens (and so I can order stickers and tape with my new logo on it). 

he lost another tooth!

Saturday I held two sessions of the leatherwork MB workshop. I had two girls in the morning and three in the afternoon. Each session was three hours, but I think I'll do one four session in the future, with three Scouts max. I did get some good notes on things to check before I finalize projects for my course, as well as notes on things to emphasize.

And yes, we met in our basement, which was part of the reason I was pushing so hard to get the basement decluttered. We needed room to walk around and work, and it wasn't possible with all the stuff we had done there before.

my morning session Scouts with their projects- the bracelets and the wallets

I also worked on my branding. I'm thinking of changing it from Oak Hollow Cottage to Oak Hollow Leatherworks. But maybe I should just change the name entirely? I'm trying to decide if it's worth the hassle. How big a deal is it to change the name of my company with the state?

We got a little bit of snow Saturday afternoon!

Recovering from overdoing it last Saturday took longer than I'd hoped. But I did have an epiphany. Feeling crummy after spending the day cleaning is why I don't clean the house more. The side effects aren't worth the effort. The kids have their chores, but they don't keep the house as clean as I'd like. I can't wait till we're in a position to pay a cleaner to come in on a regular basis.

Weekly Mileage

Monday- 2.51 miles run and hiked        .5 hours outside

Wednesday- 2.08 miles run and hiked    .5 hours outside

Thursday- 1.89 miles hiked           2 hours outside

Friday- 2.25 miles run and hiked    .5 hours outside

       total- 8.73 miles              3.5 hours

2021 totals

11 outside hours

27.95 miles

Sunday Funny

Remember the sand man Ocean built awhile ago?

He also built a rock man.

Weekly Mileage #198 and Super Early Spring Cleaning

Monday I skipped getting groceries to focus on working on my course sales page, domain forwarding, etc. Each task takes time, so switching back and forth between tasks is effective, but I do have a hard time remembering to check on the task that's running in the background. 

Sunshine had her sleep appointment via telehealth. The doc is not concerned about her insomnia and wants her to get on a schedule of lights out at 11, up at 7:30. We can revisit in a month if it's not helping. This doctor is the main guy at the sleep clinic I go to- I see the NP. I'm glad I see her, rather than him. He's much more abrasive and not nearly as good at listening. But I think hearing what he had to say was good for Sunshine, which reinforced a lot of what we've been telling her. Sometimes you just need to hear it from someone else.

Tuesday morning I went for a trail run with Max, then we had music lessons and speech therapy, then I went grocery shopping. Over the holidays we had two weeks off of most commitments and it was so nice. It's kinda hard to go back to all the commitments.

Switching my grocery shopping day from Monday to Tuesday will be a good thing for my work schedule. When I did it on Mondays, I never had much energy left to get anything done. Tuesday is a more disjointed day (and therefore less productive) and much better for getting the grocery shopping done.

Wednesday I went for another trail run, had my accountability call, then did more sales page work. It's slow going. Writing sales copy is not my strong suit, but it's getting there.

We also met friends for a hike at a park in town we haven't been to since before the shutdown. Most people had masks, but we didn't. Oops. I'm so used to not worrying about it because there's fewer people at the park closer to home. It was nice to just let the kids dawdle, play, and explore. Taking the mileage goal out of the equation is much more conducive to quality time outdoors. 

In the evening, Sunshine and I went to her first official youth dive club meeting. So far, most members are boys, but there is another girl Sunshine's age, and the daughter/sister of one of the other adult volunteers/youth will be joining soon, and she's also Sunshine's age. 

Thursday I went for a trail run, did speech therapy with Ocean, and worked some more on my sales page. We had YW class activities in the evening and I worked on the leatherwork merit badge projects the girls will be doing. I tried some tooling, since it's one of the techniques they can demonstrate, but it's still not my favorite.

Friday after my trail run I finished the leatherwork MB projects, then took photos and and made an info sheet to send out to the troop.

That afternoon I had my follow up appointment with my doc about the meds I'm on. Most of the side effects have disappeared (the remaining ones are nausea, if I take it on an empty stomach; and flushing of the skin on my shins, which also used to be in the upper left quadrant of my face. It's weird, but not troublesome). I am feeling a lot less stressed out than usual, which has been nice. It's not something I would have gone to the doctor and requested medication for, but it is a nice side effect, especially right now, when I've got a lot going on with getting my course launched. She renewed my prescription and we'll check everything again when I have my annual physical with her in a couple weeks. She'd asked if I'd noticed any difference in fatigue or with my hormones, and I said no. But thinking about it later that day and the next, I realized that it has helped with fatigue. I was awake at 7:30 every morning this week and went for a trail run or hike every day. Last time I did something similar, I was exhausted and stressed out the last half of the week.

We bought a safe last week and at 10pm I decided to clean out the basement closet to make room for it. Then I had to figure out what to put back in, and how to fit it all in, which led to me pulling everything out so I could sort it all.

Saturday after a trail run with Max and my friend C (first time in forever, our schedules just don't match up well these days), I continued decluttering. I ended up decluttering most of the basement: the laundry room, shelves at the bottom of the staircase, main room, and closet under the stairs. I still have to do the bathroom, bedroom and bedroom closet.

I was pretty ruthless with the decluttering and ended up with lots of cardboard, some plastic containers, 14 bags of trash, plus 4 more from the aftermath of the toolkits. And I still have more decluttering to do. For the first time in a long while, there's open space on shelves!

I did get a bit manic with the decluttering, but it's nice to have made so much progress. It's a big, exhausting job, which is why I haven't done it sooner. I definitely over extended myself, but foam rolling and laying on the Biomat helped me feel less crummy than I would have otherwise on Sunday. I still didn't feel great, but I did feel better than I expected. I did feel very tired, and I haven't had daytime sleepiness this bad in quite some time.

For all the decluttering I got done, I still have the worst to do. We've been storing boxes and bins in the basement bedroom that need to be gone through. Some of it is Jeremy's papers, some is papers that need to be shredded, there's some old electronics need to be recycled, etc. If I have the time and energy, I need to tackle that pile this coming week. If I can work my way through it, we can finally call a document shredding company and get rid of the boxes of papers that need to be shredded that have been sitting in the garden shed for way too long.

River is super excited to have another loose tooth!

Last semester Sunshine was in a seminary class that was mostly online, with 1 live (zoom) class a week (well, twice a week because of scheduling issues). She liked the zoom classes, but hated the online lessons. In the interest of helping her have a more positive seminary experience, we switched her to a zoom only class this semester. Her old class started on Monday, but we hadn't heard anything from her new teachers. I made her get up every morning anyway, to start getting in the habit, and we finally heard from one of her teachers Sunday- they start Monday. 

We've been teaching Max to shut the door when she comes back inside after being on the back deck. She quickly decided she could ring the bell to go out, we'd open the door so she could go out, she'd close it without going out, and she'd get a treat. It worked once, then we told her she had to actually go outside in order to get a treat for shutting the door.

Weekly Mileage

Monday- 1.8 miles hiked                  .5 hours outside

Tuesday- 2.47 miles run and hiked    .5 hours outside

Wednesday- 1.78 miles run and hiked    .5 hours outside

Wednesday- 1.67 miles hiked            1.5 hours outside

Thursday- 1.91 miles hiked            .5 hours outside

Friday- 2.23 miles run and hiked    .5 hours outside

Saturday- 1.82 miles run and hiked    .5 hour outside + 1.5 hours

        2021 total- 13.68 miles                6 hours

2021 totals

7.5 outside hours

19.22 miles

Sunday Funny

Max enjoys cushy seating- notice that she's knocked the softer back cushion forward and is laying on that, rather than the harder seat cushion.

But then we have this instance, where she's laying on River's banjo case. At least the case is a soft case instead of a hard case.

2021 Goals

You can find my 2020 goals here, my 2020 mileage totals here, my 2019 mileage totals in this post, and my 2019 goals in this post, back in January 2019.

I set a lot of goals because they help me accomplish things. In the past I've set some unrealistic goals, but I'm getting better at pinpointing things that are both important to me and achievable. Having something to work towards motivates me to keep moving and not turn into a vegetable on the couch, even when it's really tempting because I'm so dang tired all the time.

Thoughts about how things went in 2020

2020 was a tough year in many ways, but it also was a good year in many other ways. After everything shut down in the middle of March, I realized that I used to spend a lot of time driving the kids to different activities, and the time I saved not doing that gave me a little more leeway in my schedule. Time that I used for exercising and focusing on my leatherwork. As an introvert, I didn't mind staying home.

Jeremy got to work from home most days, which was nice. But he ended up doing a lot of his work at night after the kids were in bed, which wasn't so great for our schedule in general.

My mileage totals were almost twice what they were in 2019, and I hit my goals of 52 hikes and 365 miles.

I narrowed my focus on my businesses and I feel like I finally hit the sweet spot of inspiration, ideas, and focus. I did struggle a bit to balance family, church, scout, and business obligations while also getting enough exercise and sleep, but I am making progress.

Mileage
I'd hoped to hit 365 foot miles and 365 bike miles, and I came close with 300 foot miles and 310 bike miles. I feel really good about the mileage I was able to get in, and I'm really enjoying trail running, whether it's by myself or with Max.

Hiking
I more than hit my hiking goal, but it was only because I was counting my trail runs as hikes. I did hike during my runs, but I don't know that that's really the point of the 52 hike goal. The kiddos only did a handful of hikes, since the majority of my hikes were when I was running, which they aren't interested in/able to do.

Running
I did a lot of running in 2020. Most of it was trail running, and I was even able to achieve some significant goals. Only one race was run in person before everything shut down for the year, the rest of my races were virtual races. I liked the flexibility of running them on my own time, but I missed running different courses and meeting new people. 

I found a new paved path fairly close to home that I can run when the trails are muddy, which has been super helpful in making sure Max gets enough exercise. It's also cemented the idea that I enjoy trail running a lot more than road running. Which is actually funny, since my first efforts at trail running were not great and even a bit traumatizing.

Running in the summer was an issue, as I really struggled with how the heat affected me. I'm currently seeing a doctor and trying to figure things out, hopefully before this coming summer.

Business
I had a lot of successes on the business side of things, and I made some long overdue decisions regarding what I'm focusing my time and energy on. I made some pretty drastic changes and I'm feeling confident about where I'm going with my businesses.

Goals for the coming year

Yearly Mileage

I've tracked my mileage using the 365 mile program for the last four years. It's been super helpful in helping me be more consistent over all, especially as I started exercising again after I broke my foot in 2018. 

But now it's time to change up my goals.

This fall I came across the 1000 Hours Outside initiative, and knew that this was what I wanted to focus on in 2021. (check out the site- they have free trackers you can download and use to track your hours!)

The idea is to work towards spending 1000 hours outside in a year, which averages out to 2.75 hours a day. I have no idea if we'll hit it, but it will most certainly help us be more intentional about spending time outside.

I feel like this will be a good program for us on several levels. We can work on it just by going out to our back yard- no travel needed. This will make it so much easier for the kids to work on it, which hasn't been the case with the hiking goals. The boys are pretty good about getting outside and playing but Sunshine and I don't just go outside and play. But there's lots that we can do outside, we just need to get in the habit.

I think I will still track my miles, just because old habits die hard, but I'm not setting a specific goal for 2021. Max will make sure I get regular exercise :)

Hiking 
Over the last four years, the 52 Hike Challenge has been instrumental in helping me get outside on a regular basis. But I've had to leave the kids behind in my quest to actually hit 52 hikes a year, which was not the goal. Taking away mileage and number goals and focusing on the amount of time we spend outside should turn that around.

Races
I had planned on doing a half marathon the first weekend in June 2020 and maybe a Ragnar trail run, but like so many things, those didn't happen.

Despite the pandemic craziness, I was able to run 11 races, one of them a 50k. I never would have attempted a 50k at a regular race venue, but because I knew the trails and planned my route and had what I needed in the car, it worked. Running an ultra marathon was a stretch goal that I thought I might do, someday in the future. Actually achieving it felt really good.

While I did run a 50k, I didn't train properly for it. This was partially because the weather was warming up and it was impacting my energy levels and partially because the long training runs were starting to wear me down.

I'm curious to see if I can train for an April or May half marathon without having those same issues.  There are two local half marathons in April, and I'll probably go for the one later in the month. I actually signed up for it 5 years ago, but that was the spring Jeremy left on his last deployment, and I wasn't able to train for it and didn't end up running it. There's also two half marathons to choose from in December, which I should be able to train for even if I have to take most of the summer off again. I'm thinking I'll do better this spring since it will be after building up my mileage base since fall. It'll be interesting to see how it all works out.

This year's race calendar will be flexible, by necessity. My main goal for the year is to build up my base mileage and hill work so that I can improve my race times in 2022.

Business
2020 was a year of growth for one of my businesses. The others, not so much, and that's completely ok.

1. I officially closed my Amazon business with the state in November 2020, when the renewal came up, though I think I still have a couple random toys in a warehouse that need to sell. In 2019 I somehow got credited with a box of toys I didn't send in. I let customer service know and they removed it from my account, but some time in 2020 it showed up again in my account. 

2. I will be officially closing a second business in January, when it comes up for renewal. I had my personal finance blog under that business, but neither really went anywhere and it's time to simplify and streamline my life.

3. In the summer I decided to switch my focus from my travel blog to my leatherwork. I stopped writing posts for my travel blog and it is currently on hiatus. I will write more when we start traveling again, but I was running out of material with how little we were able to travel in 2020. It took a pandemic to make me realize what I really wanted to focus on, and it was a difficult decision, but it's a relief to finally focus my energies on just one business. In the meantime, I am thinking in the back of my mind about what I want to do with it long term. I have ideas, but no firm decisions will be made till we have a better idea of our timeline.

4. I've come full circle, back to the first business I started, back in March 2016. My leatherwork took the front seat in 2020. I expanded the lineup of products I make, I bought a leather sewing machine, and I bought a variety of leather sides and rolls of waxed canvas to work with. I reorganized the basement room to better accommodate my supplies and built a larger work table.

As planned, I added products to my Etsy shop and I built out my Shopify site. I had wanted to get my notebooks into 1 or 2 local shops, and when a lot of shops shut down for awhile, I thought this wouldn't be a goal that I'd achieve. But shops re-opened and I was able to get my canvas buckets (which weren't even thought up at the beginning of the year) and a leather tote into a local shop. I have a line on another shop to take some totes to, but don't have the time to focus on that aspect of things right now. I'm working on being more diligent with social media, but that's a work in progress.

Aside from coming up with new products, the big thing I accomplished was finally coming up with an idea for a course, doing all the research for the products, and getting started on it. I signed up for a course to help me learn how to design and launch and market my own course. One of the things we did at the beginning was find accountability partners. I connected with a lady who lives about half an hour away, and she has been super helpful in helping me stay on track and motivated, as well as giving me marketing advice (she has a boutique marketing agency).

In 2021, there will be a lot more growth in my business.

1.  I'm launching my course in February (with a planned re-launch in September). I'm also teaching leatherwork classes to various local groups (as long as restrictions allow): leatherwork merit badge for our Scout troop in January, leatherwork basics at our homeschool co-op in March, and leatherwork projects at YW camp in July. If there's interest after my online course ends, I will also launch a project of the month subscription box for people who have completed my course.

2. If restrictions allow, I'll attend at least one, hopefully two, homeschool conferences in the spring to drum up business for my course.

3. I'll add content to the blog on my Shopify site so that I can take advantage of search engine optimization to drive traffic to my site.

4. I'll continue to add products to my Etsy shop and my Shopify shop. These products will be both current designs as well as new designs. I want to add more waxed canvas items, which I've sketched the designs for, but haven't yet had time to make the patterns and prototypes. I'd like to reach the point where I need to hire a seamstress to help me sew products to keep up with demand. 

Scouts BSA
Sunshine is in Scouts BSA, currently at first class rank. We'd like her to earn her Eagle by the time she turns 16, so we're focusing on merit badges and rank advancement. I'm registered as a merit badge counselor and am helping the troops (we have a boys troop and a girls troop) as the health form coordinator. At some point I might take a larger role, but I don't have the time right now. I do go on as many campouts as possible, since they are usually looking for a trained female leader so the girls can attend.

Campouts and service projects have been a challenge with all the restrictions, but we're still confident that Sunshine can finish everything she needs to.

Health
In 2020, I continued to struggle to stay low carb. I feel a lot better when I eat low carb, but it is a challenge when there's so much that's food-oriented around the holidays and other events, and I have a terrible sweet tooth.

I've tried a variety of supplements and other things and have a fairly good routine going. LCM amino acids in the AM, don't sleep in, eat as close to keto as possible (the higher fat content makes it much easier than just low carb), judicious use of low doses of caffeine as needed, Plexus supplements, 7 hours of sleep, Frankincense essential oil sublingually (not topically like I used to), a weighted blanket, regular moderate exercise, and glycine (another amino acid) before bed. I also use the Biomat and an infrared light to help with energy and the blahs. I'm much more functional than I used to be, though there's still room for improvement. 

From a mental health perspective, I've struggled to balance all my commitments, which has been stressful, especially when I've been sleeping worse than usual and am not feeling well physically. If I'm feeling better physically and mentally because I'm rested (for me; I will never truly feel not tired), I am much better at handling whatever I'm trying to juggle. The current medication I'm on (see next paragraph) has helped reduce my feelings of being stressed out, which is nice, but kind of weird. I still know that I have all these commitments and responsibilities and deadlines, I'm just not super stressed about it all.

I'm also seeing a doctor to see if we can't figure out why I struggled so badly with the heat this past summer. We think it's my PCOS, but it's only a working theory at this point. I've ignored my PCOS for far too long and it's past time for me to be more proactive about it.

Accepting the limitations I now have has been a challenge. Despite popular mantras, there are limits, and pushing past them can hurt you---. This year it's hit home that this the case for both Jeremy and I. Applying for the NP Access Pass forced me to have an internal dialogue/ face what I've been ignoring for too long. This is my life, and while I can push, I will most definitely pay the price if I push too hard. Jeremy received his initial VA disability rating (he still has some evaluations to do, which will probably increase his rating), and I, at least, realized that this isn't going away. When we move, we need to factor in how far away the nearest VA medical center (not just clinic, they won't be able to care for his back) is from the property we want to buy. We've know for awhile that if he pushed too hard or did too much he'd be flat on his back for at least a day or two and in pain for several more days. I think the combination of everything really hit home this year.

A recent realization/thought I had: it's good that I started my first business five years ago, rather than right now. It took me that long to figure out what I really wanted to focus on, as well as learn the skills I need. If I were to have started just this past year, trying to build a business that would allow Jeremy to quit his job, I would be much further behind, and the stress level (the need to succeed, and soon) would be a lot higher.

Family
In 2020, we still struggled to use the Come, Follow Me curriculum to its fullest. I've realized we're still in survival mode, and have been for far too long (as in, years). Limited time, low energy levels, stressed out parents, high energy children, irregular schedules; they've all combined to make it difficult to get everything done that we want to and to establish consistent habits (consistency is the key here- we really, really struggle to be consistent).

Church at home was good, as is church via Zoom. We made the decision to keep Ocean at home since he touches everything and sticks his hands in his mouth all the time, so even when church started meeting in person again, Jeremy and I took turns taking the older two kids to church while one stayed with Ocean. I do worry about how he's going to adjust to sitting still for church (it doesn't happen at home, despite our efforts), but every time I think about taking him to church, I remember the few times we have taken him places and he's touched everything, despite our warnings.

Adding Max to our family was a big step, at least for me, but it's been less stressful and less work than I thought it would be. While she does have some quirks (chewing on everything), she has settled in and has even learned how to play with the boys without hurting them. It took her awhile to learn that using her teeth on them was not a good thing, even if it was fine with other dogs. While I've taken on the exercise duties, Jeremy usually bathes her and we take turns feeding her. We do have to be aware of what she's doing (to make sure she's not chewing on something she shouldn't be), but she's doing better than she was.

River turns 8 this year and will be old enough to be baptized. He and I have started reading the Book of Mormon (well, I read it to him) with the goal of finishing it before he turns 8.

We've been able to pay off some of our debt and plan on paying off more in 2021. We had hoped to start our adoption paperwork in 2020, but it's just as well we didn't. I'm sure we wouldn't have made much progress with the paperwork, with so many things being shut down, and even if we'd been matched, we wouldn't have been able to travel. We still hope to start the paperwork in 2021, though.

what are some goals you've set for yourself for 2021?

December Mileage + 2020 Mileage

2020 Mileage

This is just the numbers for the year; I've got another post planned in a couple days with my thoughts on those numbers and my goals for 2021. (2019 mileage can be found here, 2018 mileage can be found here)

Total hikes: 72
Total miles hiked: 202.76
Average length of each hike: 2.82 miles

Total bike workouts: 37

Total miles biked: 310

Average length of each bike workout: 8.38 miles

Number of races completed: 11, totaling 77.08 miles

7- 5ks (22.07 miles)
1- relay (4.41 miles)

1- 10k (6.2 miles)
1- half marathon (13.40 miles)
1- 50k (31.0 miles)

1- in person race

10- virtual races

1- treadmill race

2- road races

8- trail races

Total kayaking trips: 0
Total miles kayaked: 0
Average length of each kayak trip: 0 miles

Highest mileage month: 77.08 miles (June)
Lowest mileage month: 32.96 miles (September)

Total mileage for the year: 300 foot miles + 310 bike miles + 0 kayak miles = 610 miles
2019 total mileage: 218.44 foot miles + 145.0 bike miles + 2.56 kayak miles = 366.0 miles
2018 total mileage: 387.86 foot miles + 365.0 bike miles + 2.14 kayak miles = 755.00 miles
2017 total mileage: 500.30 foot miles + 20.0 bike miles = 520.30 miles
2016 total mileage: 310.42 foot miles

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In December mileage I started feeling better about balancing Max's exercise runs and my energy levels. We don't run every day, but we do run at least three times a week, more if the weather is cooperating. Her behavior is better, even on the days she doesn't get exercise, which I think is because she's maturing and settling down a smidge. Though she still chews on everything, so she's not all grown up yet.

December mileage:

0 treadmill workouts +16 hikes + 3 runs + 0 races + 0 bike workouts + 0 kayak outings = 39.25 miles

52 hike challenge: 72 hikes

365 mile challenge:  310.0 bike miles + 277.50 outdoor foot miles + 22.50 indoor foot miles + 0 kayak miles

total miles: 610.00 miles

November mileage:

0 treadmill workouts +17 hikes + 2 races + 1 bike workouts + 0 kayak outings = 49.17 miles

52 hike challenge: 56 hikes

365 mile challenge:  310.0 bike miles + 238.25 outdoor foot miles + 22.50 indoor foot miles + 0 kayak miles

total miles: 570.75 miles

October mileage:

0 treadmill workouts + 8 hikes + 1 race + 6 bike workouts + 0 kayak outings = 49.33 miles

52 hike challenge: 39 hikes

365 mile challenge:  305.0 bike miles + 194.08 outdoor foot miles + 22.50 indoor foot miles + 0 kayak miles

total miles: 521.58 miles

September mileage:
0 treadmill workouts + 2 hikes + 1 race + 5 bike workouts + 0 kayak outings = 32.96 miles

52 hike challenge: 31 hikes

365 mile challenge:  275.0 bike miles + 174.75 outdoor foot miles + 22.50 indoor foot miles + 0 kayak miles

total miles: 472.25 miles

August mileage:
2 treadmill workouts + 2 hikes + 6 bike workouts + 0 kayak outings = 47.10 miles

52 hike challenge: 29 hikes

365 mile challenge:  250.0 bike miles + 166.79 outdoor foot miles + 22.50 indoor foot miles + 0 kayak miles

total miles: 439.29 miles

July mileage: 
0 treadmill workout + 3 hike/trail runs + 1 race + 2 outside walks + 2 bike workouts + 0 kayak outings = 38.70 miles

52 hike challenge: 27 hikes

365 mile challenge:  210.0 bike miles + 164.19 outdoor foot miles + 18.00 indoor foot miles + 0 kayak miles

total miles: 392.19 miles

June mileage:
0 treadmill workout + 1 hike/trail run + 2 trail races + 1 outside walk + 3 bike workouts + 0 kayak outings = 77.08 miles

52 hike challenge: 24 hikes

365 mile challenge:  185.0 bike miles + 157.49 outdoor foot miles + 11.00 indoor foot miles + 0 kayak miles

total miles: 353.49 miles

May mileage:
1 treadmill workout + 4 hikes/trail runs + 1 trail race + 3 outside walks + 3 bike workouts + 0 kayak outings = 50.10 miles

52 hike challenge: 21 hikes

365 mile challenge:  150.0 bike miles + 115.41 outdoor foot miles + 11.00 indoor foot miles + 0 kayak miles

total miles: 276.41 miles

April mileage:
0 treadmill workout + 3 hikes + 2 races + 2 trail runs + 1 outside walk + 3 bike workouts + 0 kayak outings = 50.10 miles

52 hike challenge: 16 hikes

365 mile challenge:  120.0 bike miles + 78.68 outdoor foot miles + 8.00 indoor foot miles + 0 kayak miles

total miles: 206.68 miles

March mileage:
1 treadmill workout + 4 hikes + 0 races + 4 trail runs + 4 outside walks + 3 bike workouts + 0 kayak outings = 53.38 miles

52 hike challenge: 13 hikes

365 mile challenge:  90.0 bike miles + 58.58 outdoor foot miles + 8.00 indoor foot miles + 0 kayak miles

total miles: 156.58 miles

February mileage:
2 treadmill workouts + 4 hikes + 0 races + 3 trail runs + 0 outside walks + 3 bike workouts + 0 kayak outings = 59.08 miles

52 hike challenge: 9 hikes

365 mile challenge:  60.0 bike miles + 37.20 outdoor foot miles + 6.00 indoor foot miles + 0 kayak miles

total miles: 103.20 miles

January mileage:
1 treadmill workout + 5 hikes + 1 race + 3 trail runs + 2 outside walks + 2 bike workouts + 0 kayak outings = 44.12 miles

52 hike challenge: 5 hikes

365 mile challenge:  20.0 bike miles + 22.62 outdoor foot miles + 1.50 indoor foot miles + 0 kayak miles

total miles: 44.12 miles