Weekly Mileage #149 and the Work Getaway

Monday I ran errands then went on a hike. I'd wanted to try running, but I was feeling very low energy, so I ran my errands first in an effort to feel better. I wore my trail running shoes which are much more flexible than my hiking shoes. It only took a couple steps on the trail to realize my foot is not ready for running yet. It didn't appreciate the hike too much, thankfully it was less rocky than last week's hike. I'd probably have done better to wear my hiking shoes, but I was holding out hope that I'd be able to run. I miss my trail runs!

Tuesday we went to the VA for Jeremy's back appointment after music lessons. I had to park forever far away from the hospital. People were parking in fire lanes, up on the grass, wherever they thought they could get a spot. It's just ridiculous that there's such a shortage. Picking up patients is an issue as well. Valet parking has taken over the main entrance, which I didn't realize. We got blocked in when it was time to pick up Jeremy. He has to leave in a wheelchair and isn't supposed to drive for 24 hours. Next time if I can't find parking close by, we're using valet parking. Which is free. So weird.

Wednesday was a busy morning. I dropped off the CRV for an oil change and tire rotation and 190k maintenance check. Thank goodness for shuttles. I got back in time to eat breakfast then head to the salon with Sunshine. We both got our hair thinned and ends trimmed. So far it hasn't helped with my current round of headaches, but in general it will. I then ran some errands on the way home. Jeremy was home with the boys and letting the heating/ac tech in for a belated fall/winter checkup.

I spent some time with the Glowforge and etched some leather labels for notebooks. Working on some ideas.

Thursday I rode my bike, did laundry, and got stuff ready for my work getaway. I did a bit more etching of label ideas as well as a cover for an order. Then I dropped some stuff off at the AirBnB I'd reserved for my work getaway. After YW that night, I took Sunshine home, gathered a few more things, then went to the AirBnB.

Friday I worked on my membership site, then took a break for a quick trail run to get my blood flowing and try to get rid of the omnipresent headache. Then it was back to work. There were just a couple twinges in my foot while I was running, but it wasn't super happy when I stopped running. Feels like good progress though.

Saturday I finally finished my membership site, and then I moved on to email automations and sequences, which made my brain hurt, but I finally have a much better grasp of them. I didn't quite finish my automations and sequences, but I got close.

Wondering why there's so many pics of me? I needed some pics to include when updating my branding. Gotta say, there's nothing like staring at photos of yourself, trying to pic the best one, to make you focus on your flaws (perceived or otherwise). The water bottle pic is to show off my stickers that people can request when they work through the products on my membership site.

Sunday morning I headed home and arrived home in plenty of time to get ready for church.

I'm frustrated about the continuing headaches. I wake up with them, they last all day, sometimes they taper off by evening. Painkillers don't help. Stretching helps some. I'm starting to think it's got to do with how I'm sleeping, but I'm not sure what to change. I sleep with my contour pillow and a mouth guard (my old tray retainers). Maybe my whole body is tensing up? I've got a chiro appoinment on Wednesday. If that doesn't help I'm going to have to go to the doc and see if there's something else going on.

My toe is still stiff and sore, but it's making progress.

Weekly Mileage
Monday- 2.70 mile hike
Thursday- 10.00 mile bike ride
Friday- 1.85 mile trail run
total- 14.55 miles

2020 totals

5 hikes towards #52hikechallenge
0 kayak miles towards #365milechallenge

22.62 outdoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
1.50 indoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
20.0 bike miles towards #365milechallenge
44.12 miles total

Blog Layout Update

I fell down a rabbit hole over the weekend and spent more time than I should have messing around with the layout and look of my blog. I like parts of its new layout, but there's other parts I don't like.

Just as a reminder, here's what it used to look like:

Here's some thoughts I've had on the new template/look. I've done some customization, but not all the code I've used works like the author claims, so I need to find some other ways of customizing the things I don't like. I won't have time until next week at the earliest to mess with the blog again, so maybe it will grow on me in the meantime.

Like:
The post layout on the front page- a picture and the first paragraph of each post, which makes it easy to see the previous posts at a glance

Dislike:
The sidebar on the right has disappeared- it had my picture, contact info, etc. There's a streamlined sidebar, but you have to click on it to see the parts (my picture, contact info, etc). So it gives a cleaner look, I suppose.

Dislike:
I can't get the header bar to do what I want it to yet- I added the code to make the title hide behind the picture (the title is in gray), but it's not hiding. So I'll need to do some more research to figure out the proper code.

Dislike:
The header doesn't re-size with the window, so the title of my blog disappears when the window becomes smaller. I might be able to change this since I've already customized the header. If I can change one thing, I should be able to change more. I think. I'll have to research this one some more as well.

Like:
The search function and results display is easy to use and I like how the results displays on top of the window instead of taking you to a new window.

Like (I think):
When you click on a post title, it opens the post in a pop-up type window that allows you to navigate to posts that came before and after it. When you close out of the post window, the blog is still where you left it.

Not sure:
I'm not sure of the brown in the header bar. Maybe change it to blue like this? I didn't apply the changes to the template, so I only have a small portion of the page to compare. I think I like the all white background, and blue has always been one of my favorite colors. I think the blue and white is a cleaner look than the brown and cream.

So tell me: what do you like or dislike? Is there anything that bugs you that you'd change if it was up to you?

Thanks!

Fried Laptops Aren't the Same as Fried Eggs

fyi: if your computer shows this screen, then shuts off before actually doing anything, 

that's not a good thing

Last night I got my laptop back after it being out of commission for a week. Somehow my hard drive got fried and had to be replaced. A word to the wise: back up your computer on a regular basis! I'd just started running my backups again about a month and a half ago after my computer first started acting glitchy. It'd been about 10 days since the last backup, so I lost a few documents, but nothing too important or irreplaceable, and our photos are all linked via the cloud, so they weren't lost.

Being laptop-less hasn't been a complete disaster since I've been outside working on projects, but it did keep me from getting any posts up. I found that while I can write posts on the iPad, I cannot add pictures to them. Well, I can add one picture, but then I can't format it or change anything else in the post because the iPad freezes up. I thought about back dating last week's posts, but I don't have time for that, so everything will just get shifted back a week. It's actually kind of disgusting, since I've finally gotten to the point where I can plan out posts for most of the coming month, adding posts to the lineup as I think of them. So I have all these ideas of things to write about, and I'd assigned them to certain days/dates, and now my whole schedule is off.

Awhile ago I realized that I can divide most of my posts into certain categories, which I can then assign to certain days of the week.
Sunday: Sunday Funny
Monday: House projects (remodeling, etc), woodworking projects
Tuesday: Family life
Wednesday: Running, health/nutrition, Cub Scouts
Thursday: Stash buster projects, sewing projects
Friday: Homeschool

I've been blogging for more than 6 years and it's taken me that long to finally figure out a schedule. Of course, the focus of my blog has shifted a bit over the years, so it's been one long evolution.  In any case, I'll start posting regularly again now that I can edit my photos and finish up posts.

Changing Nicknames

Since I started this blog 6 years ago (wow, has it really been that long?), I've always used nicknames for my husband and daughter. When I was pregnant with our son, he got a nickname too.

I've decided the time has come to change up the nicknames a bit. I want to simplify them and do away with the acronyms. They're convenient when typing, but I think they end up just being confusing.

Little Miss Sunshine (LMS) isn't as little as she used to be (she was 2 when I started out), so from here on out I'll just be calling her Sunshine.

The Little Mister (TLM) was a useful name when he was first born, but his personality is showing now, so River will be his new nickname. Rivers keep moving and never stop, just like him :)

I was going to change Mr Mellow's (Mr M) nickname since I am getting rid of initials for the kiddos, but I think I'll keep it. It's convenient and makes it fairly obvious that he's my husband as opposed to one of the kiddos.

And then there's me. I'm still Jen.

On a side note, I posted my 1000th post last week and I missed it. If I were on top of things I'd celebrate, but it's summer vacation and that's not going to happen :)

How about a picture of the cake our Primary President made Sunshine for turning 8/getting baptized? Two layer, gluten free chocolate cake with chocolate icing. It was delicious! Though it didn't survive our bumpy driveway unscathed...

Feedly versus Bloglovin

As we all know, Google Reader died recently. I was sad, since I really liked how Reader was organized and the convenience of the Next button.

After doing some reading and googling, I decided to sign up for Feedly and Bloglovin so I could see which I preferred.

Feedly
Feedly shows in a "magazine" format- title, first paragraph and first photo for each blog post.
         This makes it easy to skim through posts and see if you want to read more in depth.
         But if you do want to read more, you have to click on each one, which isn't very efficient in my opinion.

Bloglovin
Bloglovin also shows in a magazine format, but if you click on the title (not the blog name) of the top post, it'll take you to that blog post and there will be a Bloglovin bar across the top that lets you move backward and forward through your unread posts.

yes, I took a picture of my screen. 

I have no idea how to do a screen capture, and no time to figure it out right now :)

     
           I like being able to move back and forth between read and unread posts, and since it takes you to the site, it's easier to see changes that are made to that blog's format
           However, some sites don't work well with Bloglovin- random blogs plus craigslist (I'd saved several craigslist searches in Reader and new posts with related items would show up in Reader) have a hard time loading properly. This could be because of my connection, but since it seems to be the same blogs over and over, I don't think that's the case.
           Bloglovin also has an iphone app that I've used quite a bit. I think it's more functional than the old Google Reader app was, so I like it.

In case you couldn't tell, Bloglovin is the winner so far. What are you using these days? What are the advantages and disadvantages you've found?

Clipix

I recently had a discussion with a friend regarding the pros and cons of Pinterest. After the discussion, she did some research and found Clipix (thanks Kristy!), which is similar to Pinterest, but has privacy settings, so you don't have to share your "clips". Since that was a big downside to Pinterest in my eyes, I gave it a try. I'm slightly paranoid in not wanting anyone to have more info about me than they need, and feel that what I choose to bookmark is my business. If you want to share with others, though, you can change your privacy settings from "only me" to "only Clipix friends" or "everyone". Even better, you can do it for each clipboard, so some can be private, some can be shared with friends, and some can be shared with everyone.

I spent a few days transferring all my zillions of bookmarks into Clipix, and for the most part, I love it! I love being able to keep things organized with a visual reminder of what I want to do/buy/make. I'm a visual person, which is why Pinterest appealed to me in the first place: being able to see a thumbnail of something is a great reminder/helps me find things quicker.

It's easy to add new items to your clipboards- you just add a "Clip" button to your toolbar that you click when you want to clip something. You pick a picture, type a title, and choose which clipboard you want it in (or make a new clipboard). Easy peasy!

After playing around with it, I've come up with some tips.

-- when naming your clipboards, be more specific rather than less specific. If you decide to move half the contents of one clipboard to another one, it can be a bit tricky since the view where you can move things between clipboards only shows the first 9 clips. If you have more than that you have to spend extra time moving them to the top so you can access them. This was my biggest gripe- I would like a scroll bar on each clipboard on the homepage, so I can see what's in each one without actually having to open that clipboard in a new window.

-- you can have an unlimited number of clips and clipboards, and you can organize the clipboards into multiboards. I started out with a couple multiboards, but ended up separating them into individual clipboards because I find it's easier to access the clips that way. Just be precise in your titles, and you'll still be able to find everything.

-- I have about 60 clipboards and close to 1000 clips (embarrassing, I know! and I got rid of a lot when I was moving bookmarks), in a variety of topics ranging from various homeschool subjects to recipes to races I want to run to things I want to make and build. I'm not sure if it's the site in general or if it's because I have so many clipboards, but it does take a minute for all my clipboards to load on the homepage. Or it could be my slow internet.... Just something to be aware of.

So far, I'm really liking Clipix and I find it very easy to use as I go through posts on my Google Reader.

Have you tried Clipix?

Fun with Photoshop

Like my new blog design? I did it all myself, using photoshop. The only thing that I didn't come up with is the font (2peas scrapbook), which I got from twopeasinabucket.com. I think it's a really cute font!

I figured out how to do the polka dots, which I used for the background, and I finally figured out how to use drop shadows effectively. It only took me about two weeks of searching on the internet and reading tutorials and trying different things, but I think I was fairly successful. My brain seems to be working better these days, now that I'm not eating gluten (yay!).

The only problem is that I'm not real happy with how blurry my polka dots are on the side. They weren't that way originally- I think it happened in the uploading/making it fit process. They're supposed to be clean and clear like the ones in the header. I need to do some experimenting to see if I can figure out what happened and how to keep it from happening again. I also need to see what I can do about changing the font on my headers. I don't think it'll be too hard, but it's late and I'm not going to mess with it tonight.

The next thing I want to figure out how to do is make embellishments to add to my blog header and background. That will take some more research and experimentation, though.

Ok, I admit I have this morbid fascination with the bruise on my arm. It's so big and ugly! Here's what it looked like last night. I went to the chiropractor today and she saw my bruise and told me to put arnica on it to help the bruise heal. Apparently with a bruise this size, scar tissue can form in the really yellow parts. Sure don't want that happening...

Now that I've got the blog stuff mostly figured out, I need to finish it up and then get back to sewing. I need to sew the dress for LMS still, and I want to sew some drawstring bags to store our bike helmets and my bike shoes. They're all tossed into the back of the bike trailer right now, and my inner OCD is cringing at the disorderliness. Also need to get thank you's for bday presents done and pictures hung on the wall. And when I'm done with that, I need to dig out our cooler (from the very back of our 24' storage container) and sort the things I've put aside to sell (an ebay pile and a garage sale pile). So much to do...

Oh yes, I almost forgot! I weighed myself yesterday morning and I've lost another 3 pounds, for a total of 10 pounds so far. Yay!!