Weekly Mileage #100 and the Blue and Gold Banquet

I had headaches all week and a migraine on Thursday. My headache was lesser today, but still there. I'm not sure if it's part of the detoxing process I'm still going through, but it's at least partly related to the stiff neck I have when I wake up every morning.

Sunday Funny

We had these cute little campfire decorations at our Blue and Gold Banquet on Friday. There's a little tea light inside, though it's hard to see the light.

Arrow of Light Award made with the Glowforge

When I bought the Glowforge, one of the projects I had in mind was to use it to make Arrow of Light awards. I've been cutting them with a scroll saw, which is time consuming and fiddly, and prone to mistakes. You can see them in this post and this post.

After a lot of time (more than I really had available) experimenting, this is what I came up with. I'd intended to cut all the way through the wood, like the scroll sawed ones, but the wood is too thick for that to work efficiently. I like the cutout look, but I like this engraved look as well.

I've used pine in the past, but I used oak this time. I was working under a time crunch, so I didn't have time to try it with pine. I'll have to do that next time. I'm not convinced I like the oak on pine look, but it's not awful.

I only had a few minutes to photograph the award, and the light was fading fast, so the quality isn't quite what I'd like, but you can still get a good idea of how it turned out.

I do love the texture that resulted from the laser repeatedly passing over the grain of the wood.

Anyone in need of an Arrow of Light award?

Weekly Mileage

you can see the dry, cracked reservoir bed that we were able to walk out quite a ways on

Last week proved to be a busy, stressful one.

We moved our usual Thursday morning hike to Wednesday morning and did a group hike with some of our homeschool friends. We hiked at one of our usual spots and did a loop we haven’t done since sometime last spring, when the water was a lot higher. We haven’t gotten much rain lately, so the reservoir levels are super low. This allowed us to walk out a ways on the dried mud and do a bit of exploring, which the kids all enjoyed.

Sunshine was pleased to find these large freshwater clam shells- much bigger than what she's found other places

Thursday morning we went to Montpelier for a field trip with our history club. We’ve visited in the past, but it’s been a few years since our last visit, so it was fun to go back and do some more exploring. I'll do a post with some more pictures in a few days. I forgot my Garmin, but we did lots of walking, including a hike through the old growth forest that’s part of the estate.  I’m guessing we walked at least 2 miles total.

Friday evening we had pack meeting. Mr M's a bear den leader and I'm now the pack trainer/primary presidency member over Cub Scouts, so we're still very much involved with the pack. We talked about being thrifty and recycling, and then the boys (and everyone else there) had a blast taking apart old electronics. 

We brought my old clock radio with tape deck that I bought in junior high and have used ever since. I finally had to retire it last month because it couldn't keep accurate time anymore and the radio had stopped working. We also brought my dinosaur of a college laptop. The kids were amazed at how thick and heavy it was, and they totally didn't understand the little port that slid out to plug a phone cord into for internet access. Lots of fun was had by all.

that's my clock in pieces above, and my laptop below

Saturday Mr M and I had Cub Scout University, and I taught one of the classes, which was a bit nerve wracking. It went well and we had some good questions and discussions about what was working for different units. I don’t love getting up in front of people, but it’s good to get out of my comfort zone. I’ve already been asked to teach the same class next year, and I’ve been able to make some changes to my notes based on what was brought up in the discussion and questions, so it should be more informative (and better organized) next time.

And then Sunday was our ward's Primary program. We have a large Primary and had to squeeze in a bunch of extra chairs on the dais, but the kids did well and the Spirit was felt. It was a bit stressful, but it was a good learning experience and I'm glad it's over. Until next year, anyway.

Work tasks and illness (we all have colds again) are working against me and I always feel a few steps behind my to-do list. I'm more than a few steps behind on my exercise plans, and while I keep trying to increase my mileage, it's still not happening.

Weekly Mileage

Wed- 1.91miles

Thurs- 2.0 miles

     total miles- 3.91 miles

hikes #41 and 42 towards #52hikechallenge

460.59 miles towards #365milechallenge 

Weekly Mileage

Ocean powered up this hill 

Last week I managed to be much more active than I have been lately. I hit the treadmill three times and we went on two hikes. I even managed to do some running two of the times I was on the treadmill. I’m still having problems with my plantar fasciitis, so any running I do is a victory, though I pay for it later.

Our first hike we went to the nature park we’ve been to several times since January. Last time we went, back in May, the water level was quite high and some of the trails were flooded. 

under that water was the boards the kids are walking on in the picture below

This time we were hoping to be able to play in the stream, but it was barely a trickle- the lowest we’ve seen it yet. The reservoir was also much lower than we’ve seen it, which Sunshine and I thought was interesting since we’ve gotten a good amount of rain this summer. I think the problem is that the rain comes down so hard and fast that most of it stays on the surface, rather than soaking in.

high, rushing water back in May

disappointed by the trickle

We went on a second hike with our Cub Scout pack. We’d planned on camping with them, but it was pouring rain that day, so we canceled the campout and just held our pack meeting at the pavilion at the campground location. It was pouring rain at our house as we left, but 20 minutes up the road it was dry and sunny. Some things are just not meant to happen: that was the third attempt this summer to hold that campout.

Because it was actually quite a nice evening, we went for a short hike on the trails that surround the campground before heading home. I'd left the Boba carrier in the car, so I let Ocean walk most of the hike. He did really well, other than being quite slow. I carried him on a few occasions to speed things up a bit, but he enjoyed being able to walk so much of the hike.

I forgot my Garmin for both hikes this week, so we'll have to repeat these hikes so I can get an accurate measure of the distance we traveled.

Weekly Mileage

Monday: walked 3.61 miles on the treadmill

Wednesday: ran and walked 4.5 miles on the treadmill

Thursday: hiked about 1.5 miles with the kiddos

Friday: ran and walked 4.65 miles on the treadmill

Friday: hiked about a mile with the Cub Scouts

        total mileage: 15.26ish miles

hikes #31 and 32 towards my #52hikechallenge

390.29ish miles towards my #365milechallenge

Rocket Roundup

 baking soda and vinegar rocket

A couple weeks we held our third annual Cub Scout Rocket Roundup. This has proved to be a popular activity that the boys, and their families, really enjoy. The downside of holding it in July is that we are always missing some of the boys since they're out of town. We had a small, but enthusiastic turn out.

water rocket

double water rockets

This year we had a great variety of creative rockets. The pool noodle rocket below has great potential for our kiddos to play with (homemade nerf guns, anyone?). I could also see them being a hit at family reunions.

match stick rockets- tiny, but cool

We don't do any rockets with engines, but stick to chemical reactions and pressure- water or air. I think they're even more fun than the standard model rocket, and they're usually easier to set off multiple times.

store bought baking soda and citric acid rocket. it was a bit wimpy, but hilarious in its wimpiness. the pic below is about as high as it got before falling to the ground. The weak reaction was similar to the alka-seltzer and mini m&m tube rockets we tried our first year. The flops are just as much fun as the ones that perform as expected.

We ended with the stomp rockets we've used the last couple years. These are always a hit with the kiddos since they can all make their own paper rockets to send flying. One of the girls put petal fins on her rocket that slowed its fall and looked seriously cool.

I love that I caught River jumping up to land on the pop bottle :)

doesn't Ocean look like he really wants to jump on the bottle? he did jump, but he just doesn't weigh enough to make the paper rocket go very far

Weekly Mileage Recap & Tapping Our Trees

This past week my mileage was a little lower than the week before, but I didn't do too badly.

Wednesday we were in town for some car maintenance and the weather was gorgeous, so we took the opportunity to hike one of the trails on that end of town. We got a bit of a late start because of the car maintenance so we only went about 1.3 miles up the trail rather than the full 2 miles. We stopped to play in a section of an giant old poplar and I got some good photos.

I knelt on the ground and looked up through a hole in the tree to get this shot- isn't it cool?

I pushed Ocean up the hill in the stroller while Sunshine walked and River ran back and forth. He wore himself out and hopped on for a ride back down the hill. I didn't want to move Ocean, so he River got to squeeze into the lower seat. He actually fit pretty well. The main concern is weight distribution- the heavier weight needs to be up in the front seat, so it's not something I'll do on a regular basis.

Several times River flopped on the ground and asked me to take a picture. He stopped doing that when he flopped down right in front of the stroller and I couldn't swerve entirely away in time and ran over a finger. At that point he decided it wasn't that much fun after all.

Friday I hopped on the treadmill while getting some work done. The babysitter couldn't come because she hurt her ankle, so I hit the treadmill while the boys were napping.

Sunshine in the sunshine

I had hoped to get on the treadmill again on Saturday, but the nursery crud got me. Last Sunday was Ocean's first official day in nursery and like River last year, he brought home a bunch of germs. Within a day or two he had a snotty nose and was sounding a bit hoarse. Friday evening I felt a sore throat coming on and it was worse Saturday morning.

River looking almost angelic- he was looking up and I was looking down through a hole in the tree

We had our pinewood derby Saturday morning though, so I got up and powered through it (I was running the computer again), but afterwards we came home, ate lunch, and took naps. I totally dozed off, which rarely happens. We had made arrangements earlier to have some friends come and help us tap our trees, so after our naps, we got up and got our supplies ready.

Ocean and his sticks. Seriously, if his feet are touching the ground, he's looking for sticks to pick up and carry around.

Yeah, I don't know why he's sticking a dirty finger in his ear either :)

We hiked around the property and tapped our three walnut trees and six maples. I was tired by the time we were done, but it was good to be out in the fresh air. Our winter hasn't been super cooperative (i.e., not very cold for most of the last couple months) While we had one cold snap when we got snow, it was too cold to tap the trees then, and when it warmed up it warmed up too much to tap the trees. It's been on the warmish side lately, but it's finally gotten below freezing at night and above freezing during the day, which is optimal tapping weather. We just haven't had the cold weather we need before that.

we got a little snow last night!

When we tapped the trees we noticed that the black walnut sap was flowing, but the maple sap was not. We're really curious to see how this pans out- do we only get black walnut sap? Will the maple sap start flowing now that it's colder at night? Will we get enough sap to do anything at all with? Only time will tell.

Weekly Mileage
Wednesday: 2.66 miles hike with the kiddos
Friday: 3.52 miles walked on the treadmill
Saturday: about .5 miles hiked around our property
      total mileage: 6.68 miles

hike #4 for the 52 hike challenge
20.51 total miles towards the 365 mile challenge- almost caught up!

More DIY Arrow of Light Plaques

Back in March I wrote about the Arrow of Light plaques I made for some of our boys. I wasn't happy with the quality of some of the pictures, so when I made some more plaques this fall I took more pictures. 

Sunday Funny

Ocean found a dry mop in a corner during a recent pack meeting and decided the floor needed to be cleaned. Our Cubmaster stepped in to make sure Ocean didn't whack anybody or anything in the process.

I took a couple pictures because it was cute, and in the last one it totally looks like his hand is up as if to say "no more pictures please."

July Mileage

River and a friend from nursery at church. her brother on their mom's back is Ocean's age

My mileage in July was much lower than it has been in the past, but I compensated with more work days than in previous months. And all that building is great cross-training!

So I completed 13.72 miles over 7 workouts and had 17 days that I worked on the chicken coop. With the coop project finally coming to an end (mostly) my work days will start decreasing and my mileage should start increasing again.

The pics above and below are from a hike our Cub Scout pack went on recently.

Sunshine wore pink shoes, shirt, and skirt to go on a hike. because why not?

July's mileage:

2 treadmill walks + 3 hikes + 1 race (5k) = 13.72 miles total

June's mileage:

4 treadmill walks + 3 hikes + 3 races (June 5k, 1 mile glow, 5k)= 21.46 miles total

May's mileage:

7 treadmill walks + 1 hike + 2 races (May 5k, evening 5k) = 23.87 miles total

April's mileage:

6 treadmill walks + 1 hike + 1 outdoor run + 3 races (glow 5k, April 5k, 5k) = 27.17 miles total

March's mileage:

4 treadmill workouts + 3 hikes w/stroller + 4 races (4k, 5k, 5k, 5k obstacle) = 25.7 miles total

February's mileage:

9 treadmill workouts + 2 races (5k + 4.8 mile mud) = 26.15 miles total

January's mileage:

8 treadmill workouts + 1 race (5k) = 16.17 miles