Weekly Mileage #226 and the Photoshoot

This is the first of two weeks with Sunshine at camp. I have to adjust my schedule a bit: no taking Max for a hike after Jeremy has left for work, I'll have to get up early enough to do it before he leaves.

Monday I stopped by Lowes for a few more pieces for my display stand, then dropped off an order at the post office.

When I got home, I worked on my display stand. My first version was too narrow to be stable, so I widened the base. Then I cut and attached leather straps to hold the planks. After I detached the planks from the straps, I sanded the wood, cut the trim for my signs, and spray painted the metal bars.

I also worked on a custom bucket order (larger than I usually make) and worked on the handles I had cut earlier.

Tuesday the boys had music lessons. Since Sunshine was at camp, the boys had the whole hour to themselves and they even played together for a bit. 

When we got home, I stained the wood for the display stand. I managed to do it during the half hour or so of direct sunlight that the basement patio gets. Poor timing on my part.

Then I worked on finishing the designs for shirts, stickers, and my booth banner for the convention. And I worked a little on the talk I'll be giving on Sunday.

That afternoon I stopped by the post office to mail the custom order, then we went to karate class.

I struggled with my narcolepsy on Tuesday. I had a hard time staying awake all day, so I stayed in bed late on Wednesday to make sure I was as well rested as possible. I felt better when I did finally get up and moving.

During my accountability call I folded hems on pockets to prepare them for sewing. I'm starting to run low on time and need to multitask as much as possible. After the call, I worked on my display stand a bit more.

Thursday I took the boys to the local park to do a photo shoot with of the buckets and pockets in use. This was long overdue and sorely needed for my marketing materials.

Something I'm eating is giving me problems- like mild glutened problems, though I'm not eating anything with gluten. I've narrowed it down to a keto granola and a keto cracker that are bothering me, now I need to compare ingredients and figure out which one is the issue. This is frustrating since I need to be able to eat low carb foods, but not if they make my stomach hurt.

Friday I had a slow start to the day, but I finally placed the order for my banner and t-shirts for the homeschool convention.

We had karate class and I worked on convention and camp prep. I'm running out of time for both.

Saturday I took apart the display stand to paint the backs of the planks since they could be seen (my OCD at work) and to drill holes for the hooks.

Sunshine returned from Scout camp, where she had a fun time, despite a slightly rocky start (she was ready to come home after the first couple days, but we convinced her to stay and stick it out).

I gathered and sorted tools for the projects for YW camp and worked on the instructions and my packing list to make sure I wouldn't forget anything.

Sunday I had ward council, then I spoke in sacrament meeting. I received some gratifying compliments on both my talk and my speaking ability. After church we had a youth planning meeting for activities for the next 5 or 6 months, now that we can actually plan combined activities again.

We celebrated Ocean's birthday on Saturday, once Sunshine got home. Like last year, he requested a roll cake with berries (strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries). Yum!

Weekly Mileage 

Tuesday-                                                        1.0  hours outside

Thursday-   2.13 miles hiked                        1.5  hours outside

       total- 2.13 miles             2.5 hours

2021 totals

157.0 outside hours

195.30 miles

Sunday Funny

that side eye....

Last month the kids and I were listening to Anne of Green Gables as our car audiobook. The first few chapters where we learn about Anne's personality really struck me this time around. 

Young Anne is basically Ocean.

Lots of very enthusiastic talking, some of which only makes sense to them.

Particular about how they're introduced ("Anne with an E!", "My name is Ocean and I'm 5 years old")

Always getting into unintentional scrapes.

Wild swings of emotions (depths of despair to super happy for Anne,  'I love you Mommy' to 'I'm so angry right now!')

Weekly Mileage #225 and Our First Karate Graduation

the blackberries are ripening

Monday I was still fighting the crud. It almost feels like its trying to be bronchitis- my lungs don't feel quite right. I'm doing enough that it hasn't gotten bad yet, but it's still there, below the surface.

I took Max on a hot and humid walk. She has not been getting enough exercise lately and it shows in her behavior. There were a bunch of mountain bikers on the trails for a mountain biking clinic and she was not impressed. She really does not like bicycles.

I finished up the computer and paperwork tidying that I didn't get done Sunday since I was trying really hard to not let my anxiety take over (because of the mask snafu in YW). For the most part I succeeded in keeping my anxiety at bay, but I wasn't as productive as I'd hoped (case in point, I haven't caught up on my posts again like I'd intended).

 I scanned and uploaded forms for YW camp then <finally>  cleared off my desk.

At Scouts I worked on stitching handles to buckets. I realized I need to bring extra needles and a pair of pliers when I'm working on buckets. I forget to, and broke my one needle wiggling it through the stitching holes since I didn't have pliers with me to pull the needle through smoothly.

an inchworm dropped in to say hi

Tuesday the kids had music lessons and the boys and I went for a hike while Sunshine had her lesson. After we returned home, I did the grocery shopping.

At karate, River got his final stripe, but Ocean still needed a little more practice. 

take a picture of me like this, mommy!

Wednesday I had my accountability call, then I cut and oiled more bucket handles, made a prototype bag for a possible custom order, and cut the strips for names to be stamped on for the YW camp projects. The materials for camp are all ready, now I just need to gather the tools to bring.

Thursday I finished making the handles and stitched them to the buckets. I started the waist straps for the pockets. Figuring out the lengths I need, then sewing the buckles on.

We were supposed to have our YW/YM rocket launch, but it was raining, so the activity was postponed. 

Friday I worked on the waist straps for the pockets again, then we went to karate. Ocean got his last stripe, just in time for graduation.

Saturday we had our first karate graduation. It was about two hours since we had 21 black belts also graduating and they each do a demonstration and thank you. We did our grabs and combatives and Universal 3 as a group, then sat down. The intermediate group did Universal 7, I think, then sat, and then the advanced class did all 10 universals, in succession, which was pretty cool to watch. It's overwhelming if you're just starting out, but if we learn one at a time and keep practicing the ones we've previously learned, we'll have them down by the time we reach the advanced class.

We advanced from our white belts to our yellow belts.

We had a long downpour not long after we returned home. Those kind of deluges are usually pretty short, but this one was unusually long. After it finally ended, I ran to wallyworld for some black polyester thread (I've run through all I had and only had black cotton thread, which doesn't melt) for sewing belts for pockets and to grab some last minute camp stuff for Sunshine.

After that, I worked on my display stand for the convention, then I cut a bunch of straps for buckets so I could start oiling them (they need to dry before I can use them).

Sunday I took Sunshine to Scout camp, then spent the rest of the day fighting off a migraine and didn't get anything done (once again, I've fallen behind on my posting here).

Maxie will protect us!

Weekly Mileage 

Monday-     1.02 miles hiked                       .5  hours outside

Tuesday-   1.60 miles hiked                         .5  hours outside

Sunday-                                                        1.0 hours outside

       total- 2.62 miles             2.0 hours

2021 totals

154.5 outside hours

193.17 miles

Sunday Funny

Max on the alert. She's always keeping an eye on the birds, the squirrels, the stray cats, and any other critters in or near our yard. Her hunting dog heritage is especially strong at these times.

Weekly Mileage #224 and YW Camp Prep

It rained Sunday night, so I wasn't able to go for a run Monday morning. I spent most of the day sewing. Since we were coming off the Fourth of July weekend, there was no Scouts or music lessons this week. 

Tuesday it was dry enough for me to take Max for a hike. It was too hot to run. Then I worked on pockets most of the rest of the day. We skipped karate since the kids picked up some crud last week and were snotting and coughing all weekend.

I attended a zoom meeting for those teaching classes at camp. It should be fun, but I realized just how much I need to get done still this summer and how quickly time is speeding by.

Wednesday I took a hike with Max, then had my accountability call and worked on more pockets. 

Thursday I finally finished sewing this batch of pockets, other than sewing the buckles onto the waist straps.

The kids were feeling better, though I've got a sore throat now, so we went to karate that evening. We all wore masks to try to minimize any germ sharing and made sure to use hand sanitizer after class. We neglected to last week, which must be why we were able to bring home germs from the mats at karate.

Friday I Glowforged two signs for my display stand I'll take to the convention next month. They need to be framed out, but I'm happy with how they turned out.

it still has the protective paper on it, so it doesn't look  super impressive here

I used my hydraulic press and clicker dies to cut out 140 little pouches. I won't need them all for YW camp, but better too many than too few, and I can use leftovers for other things. I started cutting out bracelets from the scraps for camp and convention. It's much quicker than cutting by hand, but slower than using a clicker press, which i'm hoping to buy later this year.

I also started making the examples I'll show the girls. And we went to karate that afternoon, in between all the work I put in.

Saturday I bought the materials to build my display stand for convention and started building it.

I also finished cutting out the bracelets.

I just need to cut some tags for stamping names on and order a few more items that it turns out I don't have enough of. 

From there, I need to gather the tools I need and find a quote or two and write out some instructions. 

OK, so there's still a lot to do, but honestly, cutting out all the leather pieces really was the time consuming part of this particular project.

I laid on the bio mat for a couple hours before going to sleep. I felt better (between the kids' crud and standing for hours on a cement floor I wasn't feeling wonderful), but it messed up my sleep cycle a bit and I had a hard time going to sleep. That hasn't happened before, and I'm not sure why it did this time.

Sunday we had a snafu with masks during YW. It reminded me that in-person church is just as stressful as virtual church. On the other hand, I was discussing things with our new bishop (called a month or so ago) about things before church (and its attendant stress). I'm past the two year mark in this calling but barring something unforeseen, the earliest I'll be released is early spring next year or fall next year (better times for a hand off than end of year/beginning of year or summer).

I sat on the bio mat while I sewed the sides of the examples for camp, and it didn't mess up my sleep this time.

Weekly Mileage 

Tuesday-     1.52 miles hiked                       .5  hours outside

Wednesday-   1.60 miles hiked                    .5  hours outside

       total- 3.12 miles             1.0 hours

2021 totals

152.5 outside hours

190.55 miles

Sunday Funny

Max: sleeping...

Max, realizing she's being photographed: leave me alone...

Max, trying to go back to sleep: I'm ignoring you...

2nd Quarter Goals Update

Miles

I've been running since the beginning of April and my hip is feeling a lot better, though it occasionally still gives me pains. Nothing as bad as it used to be, and not bad enough to keep me from running.

Hours outside

I'm doing ok. I spent a lot of time in front of the computer and the worktable again during the second quarter of the month, but warmer weather brought more outdoor activities. It also brought more heat and humidity, which drain my energy and make me want to stay inside.

Business progress

My course started right at the beginning of the quarter and while the weekly video production of lessons was a lot more all-consuming than I'd anticipated, it went well. I also advertised at two small homeschool conferences and registered to exhibit as a vendor at a much larger homeschool conference in August. To prepare for the conference, I started my first huge batch of buckets and pockets (I'd only made very small batches previously).

Health progress

I'm doing ok. The meds are still working, though I did seriously think about talking to my doc about getting off them. While they help with some things, they also amplify any anxiety issues I have, which leaves me obsessing about whatever triggered my anxiety for at least two days straight. Very disruptive and unpleasant.

I'm still eating too many carbs and sugars, but I'm in a pretty good groove with my sleep, which is definitely worth noting.

I've gotten both of my covid shots, as have Jeremy and Sunshine. Now we're waiting for when the boys can get theirs...

Weekly Mileage #223 and Day Camp

Monday I woke up tired, but not exhausted, which was good. I really think that avoiding dehydration and overexposure to the sun helped a lot.

Sunshine and I worked on her Cyber chip for Scouts. She finally has her 4 months in a leadership position, so finishing off her Cyber chip and her Board of Review are all that keep her from Star rank.

I worked on more buckets.

Sunshine had Scouts at the park in the evening. She had her BOR and is now Star rank <finally>.

I happened to check the website of one of my waxed canvas sources and while last time I checked they were saying they'd be back in stock the end of July, they actually had some in stock now, but won't be restocked again till December. I bought a number of yards in various colors in hopes of not running out again.

Tuesday after the boys' music lessons we did a short hike. We had to be noisy because a bear had been sighted the day before, but honestly, that's not a problem when Ocean is around. Our music teacher is impressed with Ocean's hand-eye coordination and ability to play the first part of his first song (Twinkle Twinkle Little Star).

the matching crossed legs! 🤣

I worked some more on my buckets. There's a number of steps involved, and even doing them assembly line style takes awhile.

This week is testing week at karate. We all passed our side kick/ridge hand combos. Now we need to practice our Universal 3, which was taught a couple weeks before we started. If we practice and can do it satisfactorily, we can still pass it off, which puts us in a good position for our next belt (we're a couple weeks out from that).

Wednesday River and I spent the day at the lake for our Stake's 8-11 year old day camp. I went as an adult to help supervise, which was needed. We had a large group of 17 kids, with 4 adults to keep track of them. It was easy in the morning when they were hiking and after lunch, when they were rotating stations. The challenging part was when we hit the lake for swimming. There were several kids from new families, plus once they're wet or you're looking at the back of their heads, it was hard to keep track of them. We suggested brightly colored shirts with numbers on them for next year, which will make it much easier to keep track of them.

After our group went swimming, they got to do some kayaking as their final activity. River went out in a weird kayak and was having trouble with it. Since it was the last round, there was room for a couple adults to hop in kayaks, so I went out for a paddle. We did a mid-lake switch and he hopped in mine and I got in his. He had a much better time from there on out. I struggled even more than he had. It was very unstable and kept tipping from side to side. It ended up tipping me out, which is the first time I've ended up in the water in a really long time (since my kayaking class in college when we purposely tipped over so we could right ourselves again). I ended up getting towed back to shore by one of the other leaders, but she had a rough time of it. I had to swim the whole way while hanging onto the kayak. I couldn't walk because the muck on the bottom was so deep (and stinky). We finally made it to shore and  tried to move the kayak, but it was super heavy. We found a drain hole at one end, and tipped it on end to drain. It drained water for close to 10 minutes. Water just kept coming out. The interior of that kayak had to have been completely filled with water, which was why it was so heavy and so unstable. While a bit frustrating at the time, it does make for a good story to share. I rinsed off in the shower house, but still had crap stuck to me when I hopped in the shower when we got home.

Thursday I had my accountability call, then I worked on pockets before we went to karate (we went an extra session this week so we could work on our Universal 3 and get extra practice).

Friday I worked on pockets again before we went to karate. Sunshine and I got our stripes, Jeremy and the boys needed a bit more practice before they qualified for their stripes. Then it was back to working on pockets.

the boys like climbing the trees at our music teacher's house: they're much more climbable than our trees

Saturday was a sewing day. I finished 14 sets of small pockets, started 14 sets of large pockets as well as a couple more buckets. I cut the leather for the pockets, then folded the hems and pleats- all ready to start sewing on Monday.

Weekly Mileage 

Monday-                                                    1.5 hours outside

Tuesday-     .44 miles hiked                       1.0 hours outside

Wednesday-   3.50 miles hiked/walked     7.5 hours outside

       total- 3.94 miles             10.0 hours

2021 totals

151.5 outside hours

187.43 miles