Weekly Mileage #213 and 2nd Hour Church

she firmly believes the front passenger seat is her rightful domain, and she will fight Sunshine for it

Monday I worked on the videos and photos for next week's lesson, then went to Scouts with Sunshine.

Tuesday I went on a walk with Max, then did music lessons and speech therapy with the kiddos. After that I did some photo editing and recorded more videos and photos.

Wednesday I went for a trail run/hike with Max. After my accountability call I made a bucket for an order and took it to the post office. After that I did some more photo editing.

I also paid for my booth at a homeschool conference in Cincinnati in August. While I'm signed up for two branches of a small homeschool conference as a non-attending vendor (and working on signing up as a virtual vendor for the online version of that conference), this will be my first in-person event, and it should be a good size.

My friend C and her daughter are going to come with Sunshine and I. She's finishing her first year of homeschooling and has had a lot of concerns about it (she wants to do it, but isn't sure she can be successful). They'll attend some of the talks while Sunshine and I stay in the vendor hall, and my friend will help out in between the talks she attends. I'd thought about just Sunshine and I doing it, but realistically, having another adult along will make things a lot easier in several respects. An extra driver, an extra adult for the booth (I'm not sure I want to leave shy Sunshine manning the booth by herself while I eat lunch or run to the bathroom).

The primary purpose of attending the conference is to build my email list, get the word out about my course, and sign up people for the fall session. But I also want to build up my shop, so I'm going to bring buckets and pockets to sell as well. Which means that in between all the other stuff I have going on, I need to drastically step up production of both. Which means it's time to hire somebody to cut all my waxed canvas pieces and leather pieces. (I don't mind doing the sewing, and most people don't have an industrial machine to do the sewing at their house, but cutting waxed canvas and leather is a bit fiddly and time consuming. My time is better used elsewhere) I need to figure out how much I can afford to pay before I start putting the word out, though. It needs to be enough to be worth their while, while not breaking my bank account.

It will be a lot of work, but the timing is really good. This particular conference session (it's part of a group of conferences held around the country) was originally supposed to be held in March, but was moved to August because of meeting restrictions. The August dates put it right before I open enrollment for the fall session of my course. And since it's not till August, I have time to prepare (products to sell, freebies to hand out, signage, etc). Homeschool conferences are usually held in the spring, so catching this one in August puts me in a good position for hopefully maxing out my registration for my fall session.

Thursday I went for a hike with Max, but it was rough. I hate being period tired. It's such a drag. After that I ran some errands and went to the chiropractor, getting home just in time for speech therapy. Then I edited photos and videos and worked on lesson slides.

Thursday evening we had YW in person. Sunshine had a brownie bakeoff (they brought brownies they'd made and taste tested them all) with her class while mine did an embroidery thing where we worked on kits (that we took to the various houses over the weekend) in person and via zoom. It worked out pretty well. I think I've finally found my mindless activity to keep me awake during times when I have to sit still and it's not socially acceptable to be playing solitaire on my phone (which I totally do during zoom meetings, but can't do during church). There's no counting, like crochet or cross stitch, which makes it so much easier to listen to what's being said while keeping my hands busy.

3 sizes of pockets: S, M, and L

Friday was a blech day. Late night + period + narcolepsy = super tired, crampy, dragging me. 

I didn't think to drink an energy drink till after 4, but I couldn't at that point because it would keep me up at night. At dinner I remembered that I'd gotten some Bubly Bounce, which is flavored seltzer water with a bit of caffeine- 35 mg. My usual sugar free energy drink has 80mg. I drank some of it, then passed the rest on to Jeremy. It was enough to perk me up a bit, but not enough to keep me up at night. An added bonus- no sugar. I did finally get some more editing done and the last of the videos I needed for next week's lesson.

Saturday I went on a trail run with Max, then waited in line for more than an hour to get my first covid vax. All told, was in there for an hour and a half, between waiting beforehand and waiting afterwards to make sure I didn't have any adverse reactions (nope) just a slightly sore arm by bedtime. The shot itself took all of 5 minutes, including double checking identify and stuff.

I had made arrangements to hand off some paperwork for the homeschool co-op because I'm teaching a leatherworking class for the co-op in May, but I ended up having to have her meet me as I waited in line since it took so long.

Then I went home and alternated between working on my lesson for YW on Sunday and voice overs for my videos and final edits. This week's videos were shorter than last week's, but they still take a lot of time to move around on my computer and to upload.

I caught River looking a little emo while practicing his banjo (and holding it incorrectly 🙄)

a minute later he'd pulled the hood off and was looking entirely too grownup. why does he look so much older here?

Sunday was our first Sunday with 2nd hour in person in more than a year. The ward council had planned on Primary in the chapel with a parent, then individual YM and YW classes strategically placed in the larger rooms while RS met in half the gym and EQ met in the other half. But the stake wanted us to hold off on that much movement, so Primary will still be in the chapel with a parent, but all YM and YW will be in one half of the gym and the rest of the adults will be in the other half. 

I'd already planned on teaching my class (it was my turn) and the bishopric assigned the YW to teach this Sunday (they'll take the next YM/YW Sunday), so I'm teaching all the youth. Yay. With a zoom link. I'd planned on doing a powerpoint presentation and showing a video or two, but that won't work in a large room with a zoom link and questionable AV equipment availability. I don't know that I'll have time to set anything up, and we only have 25 minutes for class anyway since we have to exit the building before the next ward starts arriving. So I had to totally change up my lesson plan.

Jeremy threw out his back Saturday afternoon, putting the floor mats back in the car after cleaning them. It's always a stupid thing- bending over to do something lightweight or bending over to pick something up, but not actually picking it up yet. So weird. So it was just me and kids and no one to sit with the boys second hour. We knew this would be an issue- I brought it up in ward council, but there's a few kids that this could happen to because of their parents' callings, so the Primary presidency said they'd keep an eye on those kids. In the end, one of my counselors, who also needed to be in Primary with her littles while her husband was in EQ, sat near our boys and kept an eye on them. 

We had to go early to make sure everyone was on board with the gluten free crackers. Last time we went in person at the end of December the elders were blessing the sacrament and had no idea what they were doing. We were just moving to meeting in a larger group at that point, I think, but it stressed me out really badly. I just can't afford to get sick from taking the sacrament. I don't have to worry about that at home, so we just stayed home. Honestly, that's probably the only time they ended up blessing the sacrament (in hindsight), but it added a lot of stress that I just didn't need at the time.

But with everything starting to go back to normal, it's time to face the issue head on and make sure we're all on the same page.

All in all, the day went well, and there were fewer mishaps and potential issues than there could have been.

Weekly Mileage 

Monday-                                            1.5 hours outside

Tuesday- 1.38 miles hiked                  .5 hours outside

Wednesday- 1.60 miles run                 .5 hours outside

Thursday- 1.07 miles hiked                 .5 hours outside 

Saturday- 2.03 miles run                   .5 hours outside

       total- 6.08 miles             3.5 hours

2021 totals

78.5 outside hours

142.30 miles

Sunday Funny

I was trying to get a picture of River in all his gap-toothed glory

Jeremy: "River, you need your hair trimmed."

River: "Noooo."

Jeremy: "I think I have a coupon for Great Clips."

River: "Ok. Anything for Great Clips."

Jeremy and I: "Huh?"

River: "They give me lollipops."

Me: "So if I give you a lollipop after cutting your hair, you'd be happy?"

River: "Yep!"

The one above looks decent, but this one looks like he's crying or in pain. He wasn't though, I promise!

Weekly Mileage #212 and More Zip Lining

the trees are leafing out

Monday I spent the morning in bed resting. My sleep schedule is off from too many late nights working. The afternoon was maker time. I made a bucket for an order, then worked some more on my gathering pockets. They're getting closer, but still not quite right. I also worked on a simple bracelet design, but I need to get more beads before I do more with them.

I went to Scouts with Sunshine, then went to bed early, though I went down a rabbit hole just as I was going to sleep and missed my sleep window, further perpetuating my sleep problems.

The rabbit hole- I'd done some research earlier into another homeschool conference I might attend as a vendor and found that the one in Ohio (it's a series of large homeschool conferences held in several locations around the country) got rescheduled from March to August because of gathering restrictions still in place. The other conferences are all in the spring/early summer, which is too soon for me to be ready for a large scale conference. But August I can do. The rabbit hole part was searching on Instagram to find photos of other booths so I can start thinking about signage, handouts, displays, etc. I found good info, but should have just held the thought for later and gone to sleep. 

Tuesday I went for a short walk with Max. Short is better than not going at all. I struggled to get moving because of another crappy night of sleep. After that was music lessons and speech therapy. I had planned on going grocery shopping, but the CRV battery was dead. I tried to use the charging bank, but it was dead and even when plugged in, it never charged enough to jump the car. I thought about using the RV, but when I called Jeremy at work, he said it was dead too. And we can't jump a vehicle with the Camry, since it's a hybrid(though he's since figured out how to use the Camry to jump the CRV- it is possible). Jeremy rushed off to pick up the groceries, then called a friend to give us a jump. He went to an auto supply store to get the battery checked, and it looks like the alternator died. Yay.

the pocket on the left is the improved version, the one on the right is the design that was lacking

Since I missed the shopping window (I wasn't about to go in the late afternoon and deal with traffic on the roads and in the stores), I headed down to the basement to finish off some projects. I tried something new for the pocket, and finally got it to work how I wanted it to. I also made a leather bag for my sister to use to hold lead pellets for high school physics experiments. 

I put interior flaps on either end of the zipper to  make sure no pellets squeezed out the zipper ends

At almost 6 years old, Ocean is older than Sunshine when she started the violin (5) or River when he started the banjo (not quite 5). But he is a unique child and he definitely wasn't ready to start earlier. We've been talking to him to see what instrument he wanted to learn, and his first choice was drums. That was quickly vetoed by me and I narrowed his choices to instruments our music teacher teaches. He picked the guitar. After discussing it with her and doing some research, she recommended this guitar for him. It's a child size guitar that's supposed to sound decent, and the neck is also child size, not just the body. It's still a bit large for him, but he'll grow into it, just as River is growing into his travel size banjo.

He doesn't start lessons for a couple weeks, but he is excited!

Wednesday I took the car in to get the alternator replaced. Afterwords I worked on course materials (videos and outlines for next lesson). I also took a few minutes and worked on another set of pockets. Such a pretty teal canvas!

Thursday I quickly finished the grocery shopping that had gotten interrupted on Tuesday, then picked up the car just before speech therapy. After that was more course work.

That evening I had a virtual ward council meeting where we reviewed the plan for resuming the 2nd hour of church, which will happen in a week and a half.

Maxi playing with a bug she found. She likes to play with her food before she eats it or gets bored with it when it stops moving.

Friday I went for a quick walk with Max, then did more coursework. I ended up with four videos that needed to be edited together for next week's lesson.

I also had my first mammogram. My doc requested it at my checkup in January but I'd been putting it off. I finally decided to do it, since if I wait till after I get my covid vaccine, I'll have to wait 6 weeks after the second shot before getting the mammogram. Better to get it done and over with and not have it hanging over my head. I'm not sure what the big deal about mammograms is. It was a little uncomfortable as it pulled on the skin above my breasts, but I never felt squished to the point of pain. Hopefully that will be my experience in the future as well. (my results were normal, no issues detected)

Saturday Sunshine and I went zip lining with her Scout troop. This was the same place we went two years ago, but with a much smaller group. This time it was just a few girls from her troop, not full contingents from both troops. This was a good thing though, as we were able to move faster and do more routes. We had a good time!

I was there too!

When we got home, I worked some more on course materials (basically my life these days).

Sunday was our last day of church at home. We've stayed home since the beginning of the year because it was just too stressful for me to worry about whether the sacrament would make me sick. It was poorly handled the last time we went at the beginning of the year and it really stressed me out. With everything going on, it was just easier to eliminate that stressor when I knew I could have the sacrament at home without any issues. I'll go in a few minutes early next week to make sure the young men know what to do. As things get back to normal, they'll get back in the groove.

Weekly Mileage 

Monday-                                            1.5 hours outside

Tuesday-  .79 mile walk                    .25 hours outside

Friday- 1.00 miles run                      .25 hours outside

Saturday-                                          3.5 hours outside

       total- 1.79 miles             5.5 hours

2021 totals

75.0 outside hours

136.22 miles

Sunday Funny

Time for more funny sleeping pictures. 

Above: River decided to fall asleep in the chair with a stack of pillows next to him. It did not look comfy.

Below: He decided to sleep sitting up, but was in bed this time, at least. Still doesn't look comfy.

Weekly Mileage #211 and My Course Has Begun!

Monday morning my first lesson went live! I had to get up and publish the lesson (I haven't found a way to have it automatically happen at a certain time/date) and send out the email saying it was ready, but there were no problems with either event.

We went for a hike with friends and it was a beautiful day for it.

It's spring break, so no speech therapy or Scouts this week.

she's smiling with her tongue out in these pictures because she's so happy she got to run again!

I ran with Max Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, then walked with her on the bike path on Saturday. Overall, the running is going well. There's a touch of pain in my hip still, but nothing like what it was before, and it doesn't seem to have been aggravated by running. Good progress!

All week I worked on lesson presentations (a good use of a little extra time during spring break). The outlines are done (and have been for awhile), but they need to be reformatted for printing and increased legibility, then turned into the powerpoint presentations I then turn into videos. While I'm doing that, I decide on which photos I want to use where and what videos I want where within the powerpoint presentations. I then make the videos and take the pics.

Some pics and videos still end up having to be re-done, but I'm finding my groove. This week was a bit more hectic than last week, though. Lesson 1 only had one presentation/video, Lesson 2 (and all the others) have 3 video presentations. I was trying to do do Lesson 2 and Lesson 3 materials at the same time, batching the work, which is a good use of time, but it also slowed me down when it came to finishing the Lesson 2 materials on time. I need to pay closer attention to my time management.

Jeremy had drill Thursday through Sunday, but at least it was still virtual. There's no drill in May, but then they want June drill to be in person. Yay. There are definitely some things that I will miss when everything goes back to "normal". Like more time to do stuff since I'm not driving everywhere and Jeremy being home the majority of the time, which has really been helpful with me increasing my work hours. We take turns keeping an eye on the kids, making dinner, putting the boys to bed, etc, based on who has less work to do/no deadline for something that day.

I also worked on my marketing plan. I realized that if I do an early bird registration period shortly after the homeschool conventions I'm advertising at, I can take advantage of those who plan their curriculum at the beginning of summer. This will have the added benefit of bringing in a chunk of money, potentially enough to cover all my materials costs up front. This would be much more preferred over the alternative of putting it all on my credit card, paying interest, then paying off the credit card in September after regular registration closes. I'll be setting aside money from that registration period to cover materials for the next session (March 2022), so I won't have to worry about this in the future, once I have a good, positive cash flow. 

I also realized I can do the same thing in the winter- have an early bird registration period for the March class hit the Black Friday/Cyber weekend sales into the first two weeks of December and target parents/grandparents looking for a unique gift for the teen in their life. I tried to figure out how to make it work this past winter but I couldn't since I wasn't far enough into the whole process. However, as things have solidified, I've found ways to overcome the things I thought were obstacles. I do still need to come up with something that I can send my early bird registrants as an acknowledgment of their early commitment and/or for gift-giving purposes (if I was a teen, I'd be at least a little disappointed to receive just a certificate saying I was registered for a class.) It needs to be smallish and quick and easy for me to make (or to hire out to a teenager) while still being nice enough for them to feel like they're getting added value for it. I have thoughts, but still need to think about my options a bit more.

It's super exciting to see things coming together after all the time and effort I've put into this. It's also helpful/encouraging to hear the nice things said by those who've already received their materials and tools. Several of my students are local to me and received their boxes the day after I shipped them. I could have saved money by delivering them myself, but the shipping process has its own learning curve that I didn't want to skimp on.

Totally off topic, and part of why I struggled with time management this week, I found (and bought) a program that helps authors track their plots, characters, locations, all the background details, to make it easier to write an actual book. (plottr for those wondering)

I started a novel 13 or so years ago, but had a hard time keeping track of everything and figuring out where I wanted the plot to go. I've worked on it a bit here and there in the years since, and now have the skeleton of a trilogy, but I like to plan things out. I can't just start writing and see what comes out. so I've never gotten farther than jotting down ideas about characters and plots, and trying to keep track of them.

I've recently come up with another, completely unrelated, series I want to write, and have started jotting down ideas for that one. Putting everything into this program I bought will allow me to keep everything better organized and it will be easier to move plot points around, check for consistency, etc. I don't anticipate having time to really work on either series anytime soon, but I like to have them in the back of my head, noodling around. As I read other books, ideas are often triggered either for characters or plot points, and now I'll be able to keep a better hold on all this. The more I get on paper computer screen now, the easier it will be to sit down and actually write my books when I have a bit more time. First things first though, I need to find, and transfer, all my old notes into the program. Which I will do when I have time...

Weekly Mileage 

Monday-  2.09 miles hiked               1.5 hours outside

Tuesday-  2.29 miles run                   2.0 hours outside

Wednesday- 1.90 miles run                .5 hours outside

Thursday- 2.20 miles run                   .5 hours outside

Saturday- 1.00 miles walked              .5 hours outside

       total- 9.48 miles             5.0 hours

2021 totals

69.5 outside hours

134.43 miles

Sunday Funny

Ocean was playing with a lightbulb near his daddy.

Jeremy: "Don't play with that, it's not a toy."

Ocean looked at it, then raised it up above his head and said "Idea bulb!" before putting it down.

Such a funny kiddo.

1st Quarter Goals Update

Max: can we run yet??

Miles

I signed up for a reminder for the half marathon I was thinking of doing at the end of May and email came through my inbox a few weeks ago. It's just not happening this year, though. I'm too busy with the course and I'm gearing up to focus on advertising as soon as all the course materials are finished. 

My hip has been a problem since Max chewed on my orthotic at the beginning of the year, though it has improved a lot and I'm just about ready to start running again, much to Max's relief. She really, really wants to do more running. I am still walking and hiking on a regular basis, so I am still logging miles.

Hours outside

I'm doing ok. Spending so much time in front of the computer or at my work table does make it difficult to log hours outside, but I am logging time most days. I haven't completely retreated indoors, though it does feel like it sometimes.

Business progress

I pushed back the start of my course a couple times, but I finally opened it for registration, cart closed on the 30th and the first lesson went live on the 5th (Monday!) After months of slogging through all the behind-the-scenes details, I'm finally making good, visible progress!

Health progress

I'm doing ok. The meds are helping with my overall energy and focus, but I've been eating too many carbs and sugars and I'm back to the tipping point where I have to get back to the low carb end of things. Despite those issues, I'm in a pretty good groove with my sleep, which is definitely worth noting.

Weekly Mileage #210 and the Easter Egg Hunt

Monday we started making the videos for the course lessons. Sunshine's getting school credit for all the time she's spending on this with me. There's definitely been some trial and error in figuring out the shots I want and how to get them.

That evening was a Court of Honor and Sunshine sworn in (is that what they call it?) as patrol leader.

two new patrol leaders

Tuesday I went for a hike with Max before music lessons.

Max was not enthused about taking a selfie

That evening River lost another tooth. He lays in bed and wiggles them when he's supposed to be going to sleep. I think he's lost three after lights out now. Such a toothless wonder!

Tuesday night the cart closed for course registration. I ended up with 9 students: 3 were paid registrations, 4 were comped in exchange for testimonials and feedback. There are 2 sibling add-ons and 1 adult, which gives me a good range and the opportunity to make sure all the bugs are worked out with the different registration forms. 

I would have liked a few more paid students (20 total was my stretch goal), but honestly, this is a good size for making sure everything works, so I'm happy. And since I really didn't do any advertising to speak of, I'm even more happy with the results. Advertising is definitely a priority this summer for the fall session.

Wednesday I took a hike with Max before the rain came, then took the CRV in for its annual inspection. I waited a bit long on it this year; I need to get better at doing it at the beginning of the month, rather than the end.

After I returned home, I prepped boxes of materials and tools to ship.

Thursday I walked with Max on the bike path since the trails were wet.

Then we all went to the dentist. River had two cavities (boo!), but everyone else looked good.

That afternoon I shipped off my packages. There was few enough that I just hauled them in to the UPS Store. I definitely will be getting them picked up in the future, though. I thought about it for this time, but ran out of time to get it set up and it was easier just to drop them off myself.

That evening we had YW and Primary Activity Days. River couldn't get on because the iPad wouldn't charge properly. I managed to charge it enough to log in, then it died again. He was so disappointed.

Saturday I hiked with Max first thing. Then I digitized my patterns for my course I need to make sure they work, but the worst of the time and effort is done. For once something didn't take as long as I thought it would take.

During the General Conference sessions I folded and marked pages for music notebooks. It's a good mindless activity to keep my hands busy while listening to the talks.

apparently River thought it was cold, but Ocean didn't 

In between Saturday sessions we had our Easter egg hunt. Jeremy and I hid the kids' eggs, they hid ours (the boys did mine, Sunshine did Jeremy's). I bought new eggs this year (Sunshine was grossed out by how grubby they got last year, thanks to the boys, but I'm cheap and hate wasting money on pieces of plastic so hadn't bought new ones in several years), and I got enough that we each had a dozen eggs of the same color, with a different color for each person. This made it a lot easier to know right away if an egg was yours or not, and there was no guessing as to how many eggs had been hidden vs found. The boys remembered to take pictures of all the places they hid my eggs (they forgot where some of them were last year, and I think there were a couple that never got found), but I managed to find them all without consulting the pictures.

Weekly Mileage

Monday-                                            1.5 hours outside

Tuesday-  1.76 miles hiked                 .5 hours outside

Wednesday- 2.05 miles walked          .5 hours outside

Thursday- 1.15 miles walked             .5 hours outside

Friday- 1.84 miles hiked                     .5 hours outside 

Saturday- 2.16 miles hiked               1.5 hours outside

       total- 8.96 miles             5.0 hours

2021 totals

64.5 outside hours

124.95 miles

Sunday Funny

I was trying to kiss Ocean.

Ocean: Don't kiss me!

Me: Why not?

Ocean: Cause then you'll marry me!

Me: Um, that's not how you get married. I'm allowed to kiss you because you're my son, and sons don't marry their mommies.

Ocean wasn't convinced.

He'll hug trees, though.